LARIDJi — THE GULLS AND TERNS — STERNA. 



299 



structures, evidently so constructed as to protect the eggs from the water naturally to 

 be expected in a marshy site. Professor Kumlien writes me that this Vjird visits the 

 lake in varying numbers, according to the season, arriving about the end of April. 

 The prevalence of high winds, floods, and other adverse circumstances has a tendency 

 to make it less abundant in some years. 



The eggs in the Smithsonian Collection are from Great Slave Lake, in the extreme 

 north, and from Hog Island, Va., in the extreme southeast. How far north on our 

 Atlantic coast this species breeds I cannot say. I have never observed it breed- 

 ing farther north than Massachusetts ; but it probably ranges in the summer much 

 farther. The eggs vary in length from 1.50 to 1.75 inches, and in breadth from 1.15 

 to 1.30 ; but 1.20 is their average breadth. Their ground-color varies from a pale 

 greenish buff to a brownish drab. Their markings are chiefly of a dark clove-brown 

 color, intermingled with fewer shell-markings of an obscure lavender-gray. 



Sterna paradisaea. 



THE ARCTIC TERN. 



Sterna paradiscea, Brijnn. Om. Bor. 1764, 46 (not of Keys. & Blas. 1840,= .?. Dougnlli). 

 Sterna hirundo, Piiipps, Zool. Voy. N. Pole, 1774, 188. — Sharpe & Dkesser, Birds Eur. pt. xii. 



(1872). 

 Sterna macrura, Naum. Isis, 1819, p. 1847. — Lawr. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 862. — Baird, Cat. 



N. Am. B. 1859, no. 690. — Coues, Key, 1872, 321 ; Check List, 1873, no. 567 ; B. N. AV. 1874, 



68.5. —Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, 650. 

 Sterna arctica, Temm. Man. IL 1820, 742. — Sw. & Rich. F. B. A. H. 1831, 414. — Nftt. Man. IL 



1834, 275. — AuD. Oin. Biog. IIL 1835, 366, pL 250 ; Synop. 1839, 319 ; B. Am. VII. 1844, 107, 



pi. 424. 

 Sterna hrachytarsa, Graba, Reise. n. Faroe, 1830, 218. 

 Sterna brachypus, Swains. B. W. Afr. II. 1837, 252. 

 Sterna Pikei, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. VI. 1853, 3 ; in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 853, pi. 95. — Baird, 



Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 693. 

 Sterna portlandica, Eidgw. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 433. — Coues, B. N. W. 1874, 691. 

 Sterna longipennis, Coues, Check List, 1873, no. 568 (= S. Pikei, Lawr.) ; nee longipeimis, Nordm. ! 



Hab. Northern hemisphere in general ; in America, south to the Middle States and Cali- 

 fornia, breeding from the Northern States to about latitude 81° 50' (Smith's Sound ; Feilden, 

 ".Ibis," 1877, p. 408). No valid Central American, South American, or West Indian record. 



Sp. Char. Adult, in summer : Pileum and nape, including upper two thirds of the lores, deep 

 black. Prevailing color pearl-gray, paler on the lower surface, still paler on the throat and chin, 

 the side of the head, bordering the black of the hood, distinctly white. Tips of the secondaries 

 and tertials, upper and under tail-coverts, greater portion of the tail, and entire lining of the wing 



