148 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Sterna antillarum (Lesson) 

 Least Tern 



Plate 7 



Sternula antillarum Lesson. Descr. Mam. et Ois. 1847. 256 

 Sterna argentea DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 305, fig. 273 

 Sterna antillarum A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 74 



antilld'rum, of the Antilles 



Description. Breeding plumage: Crown and lores black; forehead 

 white, extending over the eye; upper parts pearl-gray, with a leaden shade; 

 under parts pure white; outer primaries black on the outer web and the 

 shaft portion of the inner; bill bright yellow with dusky tip; feet orange- 

 yellow. In winter: Bill dusky; back of head black; top of head spotted 

 with black. Immature: Similar to winter birds, but the upper plumage 

 more or less mottled with btiffy and blackish, often in V-shaped pattern. 



Length 9 inches; extent 20; wing 6.6; tail 3.5, forked 1.75; bill 1.2, 

 depth .28; tarsus .6; middle toe and claw .75. 



Distinctive marks. The adults of this species are easily recognized 

 but the young are sometimes confused with that of the Black tern. Besides 

 the general difference in structure, the size of the present species is consider- 

 ably less, the wing being only 6.25 inches in length, while that of the immature 

 Black tern is 7.75 inches or more. The upper parts of the Least tern are 

 much lighter and the under parts are pure white. 



The Least tern was formerly a common summer resident on Long 

 Island. Mr Worthington found it breeding at the eastern end of Long 

 Island as late as June 2, 1880, and Mr Dutcher noted it nesting in numbers 

 on South Oyster Bay on July 11, 1882. It may possibly be regained as a 

 breeding species by careful protection of the nesting sites. It has been 

 recorded from the interior of the State by DeKay, Rathbun, Ralph & Bagg, 

 Bergtold, and Eaton, but it is probable that the records on which these 

 reports were based are partly in error, as all the specimens from the interior 

 of this State, which I have had the privilege of examining, proved to be 

 juvenile specimens of the Black tern. On the coast it occurs now as a 

 rare migrant or summer visitant. It inhabits tropical and temperate 

 North America, and is closely related to the neotropical superciliaris 

 and the palearctic m i n u t a. 



