404 LAEIDtE. 



southwards in winter, at which season it may be looked for in Central America. The 

 nest is usually a depression in the sand, but is sometimes a rough structure of water- 

 plants. 



The eggs are two or three in number, varying much in form and colour, from pale 

 greenish-white or bluish-white to different shades of buff, with spots and blotches of 

 blackish-brown with underlying markings of grey or pale purple ^. 



3. Sterna dougalli. 



Sterna dougalli, Montagu, Orn. Diet. Suppl. cum fig.'; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 571^; 



Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 51 ^ ; Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. 



Amer. ii. p. 303 * ; A. O. U. Check-1. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 25 ' ; Saunders, Cat. Birds 



Brit. Mus. XXV. p. 70" ; Gates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus. i. p. 186 \ 

 Sterna paradisea (necBriinn.), Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 387"; 1886, p. 199"; Coues, Ibis, 1864, 



p. 389". 



Pt'd. (sstiv. prgecedentibus similis, sed rostro gracili nigro, pileo nigro cum plumis nuchalibus elongatis 

 cristam formantibus, et primariis intus ad apicem ipsam albo marginatis ; corpore subtus albo roseo 

 induto distinguenda : rostro nigro, basin versus aurantiaco-rubro ; pedibus aurantiaco-rubris ; iride 

 brunnea. Long, tota circa 15"5, alae 8-9, caudse 2-5, rectrice extima 74, cabn. l-5o, tarsi 0'75. 

 (Descr. maris aduiti ex Grassy Cay. Mus. nostr.) 



Ptil. Mem, ptilosi sesfcivae similis, sed fronte alba maculata et peetore albo baud roseo induto distinguenda. 



Hal. North America, Massachusetts, casually to Maine and Nova Scotia ^. — Mexico, 

 Ventosa Bay, Tehuantepec [Sumichrast ^) ; British Ho>'duras, Belize, Grassy 

 Cay {0. aS. ^8^^°). — South America, Venezuela^; "West Ixdies ^. — Seas op 

 Temperate Europe ksd Eastern Asia ^ ; India>' Oceax to Australia ^ ; Africa ^. 



The beautiful Eoseate Tern is distinguished by the pale grey, almost silvery-white, 

 colour of the upper surface, and especially by the white edging to the inner web of 

 the primaries, which is continued round the end of the quill. The bill is black, with 

 the base red or orange, decreasing in extent during the breeding-season. In old 

 birds the white breast is suffused with a rosy blush, which gradually vanishes after 

 death. 



8. dougalli, like S. fluviatilis, has a wide distribution in the Old World, and is 

 found breeding in many localities along the Atlantic coast of North America. It 

 probably nests in Central America also, as Salvin found it on Grassy Cay off the 

 coast of British Honduras, apparently preparing to breed *. 



As Mr. Howard Saunders remarks^, this is essentially a Sea-Tern, usually nesting 

 on low islands, though sometimes on sandy coasts. Audubon found the eggs in 

 Florida, ^Yhere the species occurred in small flocks ; the former were deposited on the 

 bare rocks or among the roots of grasses. The eggs are three in number, more 

 elongated, as a rule, than those of the Common Tern, but passing through the same 

 variations of colour ''. 



