BIRDS OP NEW YORK I47 



Sterna dougalli Montagu 

 Roseate Tern 



Plate 7 



Sterna dougalli Montagu. Orn. Diet. Sup. 1813 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 304, fig. 280 

 A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 72 



dou'galli, in honor of Dr McDougall 



Description. Breeding plumage: Mantle pearl-gray extending to the 

 base of the tail; neck and tinder parts white tinted with delicate rose-pink; 

 tail white, the streamers very long and white on both webs, turning grayish 

 toward the tip of the inner; primaries similar to the Common tern, but 

 shorter and the white on the inner web covering more than half the space and 

 extending to the tip; bill black, reddish at the base; feet bright red. In 

 winter: Front of the cap mixed with white and the under parts without 

 the rosy tinge. Immature: Head white, marked on the top and back 

 with brownish gray; eye and ear regions blackish; under parts white; upper 

 parts pale pearl-gray, marked with buff and blackish ; the feathers with 

 submarginal dusky marks ; bill and feet dusky brownish; tail slightly forked. 



Distinctive marks. This species is easily distinguished in the breeding 

 season by its slender elegant form, pure white tail, and rosy under parts. 



Length 14-15 inches; extent 30; wing 9.25-9.75; tail 7-8, forked 3.5- 

 4.5; bill 1.5, depth .35; gonys i; tarsus .85; tibia bare .4; middle toe and 

 claw I. Young: Length 11; tail 4; bill 1.35. 



The Roseate, or McDougall tern, is an "uncommon but regular summer 

 resident on Long Island," arriving in May and departing in September or 

 early October. A few pairs of this species have been found by Dutcher 

 Chapman and Braislin nesting among the colonies of the Common tern on 

 Gardiner's, Fishers, and the neighboring islands. It is an accidental visitant 

 in the interior of the State ; one from Lake Keuka is reported in the Auburn 

 List ; one from Lake Erie in the Buffalo List ; one from the Niagara river, 

 May 31, 1886, in the Davison List. It is holarctic in range but confined to 

 warm latitudes, on our side of the Atlantic breeding from Florida to Maine. 



The habits of the Roseate tern resemble those of the commoner species 

 but it is a more wary bird and its voice is quite characteristic, the alaiTn 

 note being a harsh cack, very different from the call of the Common and 

 Arctic species. 



