146 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Sterna paradisaea Brunnich 

 Arctic Tern 



Plate 7 



Sterna paradisaea Brunnich. Ornith. Borealis. 1764. p. 46 

 Sterna arctica DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 302 

 Sterna paradisaea A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 71 



paradisae'a from paradisus, paradise 



Distinctive marks. The first four or five primaries are similar to those 

 of the Common tern, but the blackish on the inner web is less extensive, 

 leaving only a small line of grayish along the shaft ; tail white, streamers 

 very long, the outer webs of the outside feathers grayish black, the inner 

 webs sUghtly tinged with pearl-gray; bill is slighter and of a rich carmine 

 color; tarsi and feet are smaller, of an intense carmine; the breast is of a 

 deeper lavender gray than in the Common tern. Young: Scarcely distinguish - 

 able from those of the Common tern. Note the comparative dimensions 

 carefully: "forehead white; shoulders darker than inhirundo; upper parts 

 in general darker; the middle tail feathers grayish, bill, tarsi and feet shorter 

 than in h i r u n d o. 



Length 14-17 inches; extent 29-33; wing 10-10.75; tail 6.5-8.5, forked 

 4-5; bill 1. 2-1. 4; depth of bill .3; gonys .75; tarsus .55-65; tibia bai'e .45; 

 middle toe and claw .8-85. Young: bill i. 08-1. 15; tail 4.75-5. 



The Arctic tern is a rare bird in this State. It is barely mentioned 

 by Lawrence and DeKay, and Bergtold gives it as an accidental visitant 

 near Buffalo. Mr Dutcher has one specimen, a male taken on Ram island 

 shoals, July i, 1884. According to Brewster, [B. N. O. C, 4:15], the Arctic 

 tern bred along the entire New England coast in 1878. It is a bird of 

 holarctic distribution, breeding northward to unknown latitudes, and 

 migrating southward in winter as far at least as Virginia on the American 

 coast. It is remarkable that so few specimens have been taken on ovir 

 coast, and those in summer! 



