22 NOTES ON THE 
the same date in the following month, or even a little later, 
when they are found to have disappeared entirely. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Forehead, crown, sides of head, and occiput black, glossed 
with green, which color extends below the eyes and under 
which is a narrow white line; back and wings light bluish-ash; 
the six outer primaries dark slate-gray on their inner webs; 
quill shafts white; tail and its upper coverts grayish-white; 
neck and entire under plumage pure white; bill and inside of 
mouth bright vermilion; legs and feet black; bill very stout; 
tail not deeply forked. In the young the back, wing coverts 
and tail are mottled and barred with blackish-brown. 
Length, 22; wing, 17; tail, 6; bill, 3. 
Habitat, North America generally. 
STERNA FORSTERI Nutra. (69.) 
FORSTER’S TERN. 
I was much gratified, after long waiting and fruitless en- 
deavor to find whether this species of Tern ever reared its 
young within our State, to have a clutch of the eggs sent to 
me from Douglas county. Poaching collectors had many 
times claimed to have obtained them, but their finds, with a 
few generous exceptions, have contributed very little to local 
natural history or a sense of personal obligations. Their ex- 
ceedingly brief appearance, beginning about the 25th of April 
and lasting but a few days, comparatively, led me to appre- 
hend that the instinct of incubation was indicating the proximity 
of their summer habitat, which ever kept me in expectation that 
it would ultimately be found near at hand. The nest was 
reported to have been located on a muskrat house entirely 
surrounded by water, and consisted of a moderate quantity of 
reeds and coarse grasses, very slightly hollowed, and con- 
tained three eggs, which were not pointed at the smaller end 
like some others of the same family but were decidedly ovate, 
light brown with a wash of palest green, blotched and spotted 
with dark brown, was more marked at the larger end. The 
average measure of the three was; 1.75 by 1.12. It was obtained 
June 7th, and the eggs were apparently fresh. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Upper part, sides of head to a line just below the eye, and 
hind neck, black; back and wings bluish-gray; primaries gray- 
ish-white on the outer webs and dusky-gray on the inner next 
the shaft, and over the entire web at the end; darker on inner 
