646 ROSEATE. TERN. 
who used to shoot all kinds of Terns for sport, or for plumes for 
ladies’ hats, may have affected the Roseate to a slight degree. It 
must, however, be remembered that this species arrives only at the 
very end of April, and leaves, with its young, as soon as ever 
these can fly ; and I have seen very few immature examples from 
our seas. 
The Roseate Tern is an oceanic and southern species, and is not 
known northward of lat. 57°, being merely a straggler to the eastern 
coasts of the North Sea. On migration it visits Lake Léman in 
Switzerland ; it has several colonies on the west side of France; 
and in the Mediterranean it breeds on the coast of Tunisia; while 
it ranges to Madeira and the Azores, and across the Atlantic—by 
way of the Bermudas—to America. There it is found breeding 
along the east coast, from New England to the West Indies and 
Venezuela, though it has not yet been obtained in the Pacific. It 
has been recorded in error from the south-west of Africa, but I have 
received specimens in breeding-plumage from Cape Colony ; while 
by way of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands it can be traced 
through the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, the Andaman Islands and 
South China, in all of which it nests, as it does in tropical Australia ; 
it has also been obtained in South Japan. 
The eggs, 2-3 in number, are laid on the ground, and vary from 
creamy-white to buff-colour, blotched and clouded with bluish-grey 
and rich brown; they are asa rule more elongated than those of 
the Arctic Tern, and measure about 1°7 by 1'15 in. The food con- 
sists of fish obtained from the sea, which this species almost 
exclusively affects, seldom visiting even a salt lagoon. In flight, 
except when the bird is turning or hovering, the two long tai!-feathers 
are carried close together. The alarm-note is a rather peculiar and 
harsh crake. 
The Roseate Tern owes its name to the beautiful, though evanes- 
cent, pink tinge on its under-parts ; the mantle is of a paler grey 
than in the Arctic or Common Terns, and, except in mature birds, 
this grey extends to the tail-feathers ; in the primaries the white 
inner margins are well defined to the very tips and even a little way 
up the outer webs (more so than in the much larger Sandwich 
Tern), and this distinction holds good for young as well as old 
birds. Another characteristic is the shortness of the wing as com- 
pared with the length of the bird. Early in the breeding-season 
the bill is orange at the base, but soon becomes chiefly or wholly 
black ; the legs and feet are red. In winter the forehead is nearly 
white. Length 15:5 in. (bill ro, tail 7°5 to 8), wing 9°25 in. 
