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LARIDyE — THE GULLS AND TERNS — STERNA. 



295 



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(luring the breeding-season, though by no means so common as the smaller Black 

 Tern. It breeds in the same places with the common kiruiido, several nests being 

 often placed in a small space. Some of their nests are very bulky. They breed in 

 the latter part of June, chiefly in the large muddy reedy marshes of Blackhawk 

 Island, in Lake Koskonong. When his son Ludwi- ^'"st discovered their breeding- 

 pliice, their young were generally hatched, and as he approached, the old birds gave 

 tlie alarm, and all the young birds deserted their nests and hid among the r''''ds. 



Eggs of this species in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution are from 

 Minnesota, Illinois, Cobb's Island, and from Shoal Lake in British America. The 

 ground-color is a pale buffy drab, varying to a pale grayish green. The markings 

 are of blackish brown, mingling with fainter markings of lilac-gray. They vary in 

 length from 1.55 to 1.80 inches, and in breadth from 1.20 to 1.15 inches. 



Sterna hirundo. 



THE COMMON TEBN. 



Slcma himndn,^ Linn. .S. N. cd. 10, I. 1758, 137 ; cd. 12, 1. 1766, 227. — Wils. Am. Om. VIL 1813, 



76, pi. 60, lig. 1. — NUTT. Man. IL 1834, 271. —Aun. Oin. Biog. IV. 1838, 74, pi. 309 ; Sjiiop. 



1839, 318 ; 1$. Am. VII. 1844, 97, pi. 433. — CouES, Key, 1872, 320 ; Check List, 1873, no. 565 ; 



2a c(l. 1882, no. 797 ; 15. N. W. 1874, 680. 

 Stcr/M JIuviatilis, Naum. Isis, 1819, p. 1847-48. — SiiAUi'E & Duesser, B. Eur. Pt. XL (1872).— 



Saundeks, p. Z. S. 1876, 649. 

 Skma ncncgaknsis, Swains. B. W. Afr. II. 1837, 250. 

 Sterna Wihmii, Bdxap. Comp. List, 1838, 61. — Lawr. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 861. — Baikd, 



Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 689. 



S. hirundo. 



Hab. Palccarctic Region am} Eastern North America, chiefly near the coast. Winters north 

 to uboiit 37° ; breeds irregularly nearly throughout its range. Arizona (ITenshaw) ; Bermudas 

 (siiiunier resident). 



Sp. Char. Adult, in summer : Pileum and nape, including upper half of the lores, uniform 

 iltHp black. Upper parts deep pearl-gray (much the same shade as in imradisaa), the border of the 



' We cannot at all share in Mr. Saunders's doubts ("Proceedings" of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don for 1876, pp. 650, 651) as to the general, or even exclusive, pertinence of Linnieus's descriptions of 

 bis Slcma hirundo to the present species. 



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