BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 23; 
1882, and a specimen was also taken by Mr. Townsend af La Pazon March 14, 
1889. Mr. Bryant says nothing about its occurrence further to the northward 
along the Peninsula. It is “common at Puget Sound at all seasons of the 
year,” according to Dr. Cooper, but appears “about San Francisco only from 
September to May,” and does “ not seem to migrate as far south as San Diego, 
although Dr. Cooper met with some at San Pedro, late in May, in their imma- 
ture plumage.” 1 
Mr. Grinnell considers? it only an “ occasional winter visitant along the 
coast” of Los Angeles county, but at Monterey Mr. Loomis has found it in 
considerable numbers early in November and about the middle of May, al- 
though he has met with but a single individual in mid-winter. These facts 
point to the conclusion that the Cape Region lies somewhat to the southward 
of the usual winter range of this species on the Pacific coast. It breeds chiefly, 
if not exclusively, north of the northern boundary of the United States. 
Sterna caspia Patt. 
CasPIAN TERN. 
The only specimen obtained by Mr. Frazar is an adult female in winter plu- 
mage, shot at La Paz on January 25. It has the entire cap black, with all 
the feathers edged and tipped with white. The inner web of the first primary 
shows a broad space of white along its inner border much as in S. mazima, but 
the white is less pure, and the slaty next the shaft is paler and grayer, the con- 
trast between the two colors being less striking than in mazima, although their 
line of demarcation is clearly defined. The next two primaries also possess 
some white. 
S. caspia is described * as having the inner webs of the primaries “ uniform 
slate or dark hoary gray,” but this is by no means invariably the case, for in 
several of my specimens from the Atlantic coast of the United States the inner 
portion of the inner web of at least the first primary is appreciably lighter than 
the part next the shaft, although none of them show any close approach in 
this respect to the Lower California example. The latter measures : wing, 
16.75 ; tail, 5.60 ; tarsus, 1.65 ; length of bill from nostril, 1.74 ; depth of bill 
at nostril, 73. In addition to its other peculiarities this specimen has an 
unusually white mantle. 
This Tern, previously unknown from any part of Lower California, is noted 
by Mr. Frazar as “ rare at La Paz in January, and not seen during my trip up 
the coast in March.” The species has occurred in California, but is apparently 
rather rare everywhere on the Pacific coast of North America, where the 
southern limits of its winter range are not, as yet, definitely known. 
1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., IT. 1884, 262. 
2 Pub. II. Pasadena Acad. Sci., 1898, 7. 
8 Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., VI. 1896, 24,25; 8dser., II. 1900, 296, 297, 318, 
350, 358. 
4 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., II. 1884, 281. 
