LABIDM—STEBNIN^: TEBNS. 769 



ing, acute, gonys ascending, commissure not deeurved; nostrils rather far forward. Tail 

 deeply forked, as in Sterna ; feet stout ; toes short, with much incised webs. Plumage bicolor. 

 Bill and feet black ; iris red. On the forehead a white crescent, reaching over eyes, separated 

 from white of cheeks by a black bridle from eye obliquely downward and forward to biU. En- 

 tire upper parts black, deep and uniform, with slight greenish gloss. Entire under parts white, 

 reaching on sides of head to eyes, and more than half-way around neck. Primaries blackish, 

 lighter on inner webs, their shafts brown above, white below ; secondaries like primaries, but 

 most of their inner webs whitish ; lining of wings white. TaU like back, duller on under sur- 

 face, the long lateral feathers white, with white shafts, blackening toward end, especially on 

 inner webs. Young entirely different : BUI black above, dull reddish below ; eyes and feet 

 dull reddish. Whole plumage smoky-brown, darkest above, paler and grayish or whitish on 

 belly, almost black on primaries, upper wing-coverts and scapulars broadly tipped with white, 

 giving a peculiar spotty appearance ; feathers of back, rump, and upper tail-coverts margined 

 with dull rufous. Tail like wings in color, little forked, lateral feathers not elongated. 

 Length about 16.50; extent about 34.00; wing 12.00; tail 7.50, forked 3.00-3.50; bill along 

 culmen 1.80, gape 2.50; depth at base 0.50; tibia bare 0.70; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and 

 claw 1.20 ; outer do. 1.05 ; inner do. 0.75 ; hind do. 0.30. A well-known inhabitant of most 

 of the warmer parts of the globe. Tn N. Am. N. along Atlantic coast regularly to the Caro- 

 linas, casually to New England; breeding so numerously on our S. coast that the eggs are or 

 were an article of commerce. Eggs 3, dropped on the sand, 2.12 X 1.50, buff or creamy, 

 sparingly marked vnth spots and splashes of light brown and pale purplish. 

 805. S. anaesthe'tica. (Gr. dvaurdijTiKos, anaisthetiJcos, stolid, apathetic. Fig. 519.) Bridled 

 Tern. Form of S. fuliginosa, but webbing of the toes less extensive, being nearly as deeply 

 incised as in Hyd/rochelidon. Bill and feet black. Crown, and stripe through eye to nostril, 

 black. A white frontal lunula, narrower than in fuliginosa, extends some distance behind the 

 eye. The black pileum is, on the nape, sharply defined against ashy-white, which, as it pro- 

 ceeds backward, deepens into cinereous-brown, the prevailing color of the upper parts. Wings, 

 and especially the primaries, darker than the rest of the upper parts, and with scarcely a shade 

 of cinereous ; tail, with its coverts, much lighter and more ashy, approaching the nape in color. 

 The primaries have well-defined, pure white spaces running for a considerable distance from 

 their bases along the inner web, while in fuliginosa the inner webs are simply grayish-brown, 

 vidth no well-marked pictura. A large part of inner webs of secondaries and tertials white. 

 AU the under vring-coverts pure white. Central tail-feathers brownish-ashy, concolor with 

 their coverts. The lateral on6s have much white toward their bases, especially on the inner 

 webs, and this increases on each feather successively to such an extent that the next to the 

 outer one is wholly white except a small space at its tip, while the outermost is entirely white. 

 Shafts of primaries brownish-black above, white beneath ; of the rectrices, dark along the 

 cinereous, and white along other portions of the feathers. Below, the bird is entirely pure 

 white. Dimensions: length 14.00 to 15.00 inches; wing 10.50; tail 6.00 to 7.00 ; biU 1.04 

 to 1.60 ; height at base 0.85 to 0.40 ; width slightly less ; tarsus 0.85; middle toe the same, 

 with the claw 1.30; outer toe and claw 1.00; inner 0.75. Immature plumage: Black of 

 pileum imperfect, largely mixed with white on the vertex, so that it fades insensibly into the 

 white of the lunula, which latter is thus obscured. The black bridle is correspondingly imper- 

 fect. Upper parts paler and grayer, some of the feathers being margined with whitish. Lat- 

 eral rectrices not wholly white. Under paints pure white, as before. This is probably not the 

 youngest plumage (of which I have yet to see specimens ; described as being light-colored 

 below from the very first), but rather represents a plumage that closely resembles, if it be 

 not identical with, the ordinary winter plumage of the adult. This perfectly distinct species 

 inhabits warmer parts of the globe in both hemispheres; West Indies and Florida. (HalvphMa 

 discolor, Coues.) 



