508 CAYENNE TERN. 



but not close. The eggs, like those of the other species, afford good 

 eating. 



I never saw the young of this bird while small, and cannot speak of 

 the changes which they undergo from their first state until autumn. 

 Then, however, they greatly resemble the young of the Sandwich Tern, 

 their colour being on the upper parts of a dark greyish-brown, trans- 

 versely marked with umber, and on the lower dull white. While in this 

 plumage, they keep by themselves, in flocks of fifty or more individuals, 

 and remain separated from the old birds until spring, when they have 

 acquired the full beauty of their plumage, although they appear rather 

 inferior in size. 



My surprise at finding this species breeding in Labrador was increased 

 by the circumstance of its being of rare occurrence at any season along 

 the coasts of our Middle and Eastern Districts. Nor does it become 

 abundant until you reach the shores of North Carolina, beyond which it 

 increases the farther south you proceed. It winters in the Floridas, and 

 along the shores of the Mexican Gulf; but I never saw it far up the 

 IMississippi. While on the coast of Newfoundland, on the 14th of 

 August, I saw several individuals on their way southward, flying very 

 high, and keeping up their remarkable cries. 



The flesh of every species of Tern is oily, like that of the Gulls and 

 Jagers, and the smallest hole made by shot affords an exit to the grease, 

 which is apt to destroy the beauty of their elastic plumage, so that it is 

 very difficult to preserve them, both on account of this circumstance, and 

 of the quantity of oil that flows from their bill. In no species have I 

 found this to be more remarkably the case than in the Cayenne Tern. 



Sterna cayana, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 804 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds 



of the United States, p. 353. 

 Cayenne Tern, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 268. 



Adult Male in Spring. Plate CCLXXIII. 



Bill longer than the head, stout, nearly straight, compressed, very 

 acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched, the ridge 

 broad and convex at the base, narrowed towards the end, the sides con- 

 vex, the edges sharp and direct, the tip acute. Nasal groove short ; nos- 

 trils basal, lateral, linear, direct, pervious. Lower mandible with the 

 angle very narrow, acute, extending to the middle, the dorsal line straight. 



