THE ROSEATE TERN. 565 



with rosy-pink; bill black, reddening at base; feet and legs bright red. Adult in 

 winter: Similar, but cap retreating from forehead, leaving it white, and indis- 

 tinctly blending with grayish and white on fore-crown. Young: "Pileum and 

 nape pale bufiy grayish, finely mottled or sprinkled with darker, and streaked 

 especially on crown, with dusky; orbital and auricular regions dusky blackish; 

 remainder of head, and entire lower parts white, the nape and sometimes side of 

 breast finely mottled with buffy gray ; pale pearl-gray of back and scapulars over- 

 laid by pale buff, irregularly mottled with dusky, each feather with a submarginal 

 dusky V-shaped mark; bill brownish dusky; feet dusky (in dried skins)" (Ridg- 

 way). Length 14.00-17.00 (355.6-431-8) ; wing 9.40 (238.8) ; tail 7.50 (190.5), 

 forked for 4.50 (114.3) ; bill 1.40 (35.6) ; tarsus .80 (20.3). 



Recognition Marks.- — Size of Common Tern or slightly larger, and with 

 much the same appearance; tail longer and more deeply forked; bill principally 

 black; under parts dehcate rose pink in breeding season. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest and Eggs much as in pre- 

 ceding species. Av. size, 1.66 x 1.21 (42.2 x 30.8) (Ridgway). 



General Range. — Temperate and tropical regions ; north on the Atlantic Coast 

 of North America to Massachusetts, and casually to Maine and Nova Scotia. 



Range in Ohio, — Rare migrant or accidental visitor; two or three records. 



THIS exquisite of the ocean is represented in the interior by only a 

 few wandering individuals; and, altho nearly cosmopolitan in its range, it 

 is not believed to breed in North America except along the Atlantic and Gulf 

 Coasts. Like all species of Terns it has suffered fearfully of late from the 

 depredations of the plume hunters; but there are a few protected colonies 

 off the south coast of Massachusetts and one in Long Island Sound, where 

 their habits may still be studied. 



In this connection I venture to quote parts of several paragraphs from 

 Dr. Brewer,^ who observed the species in Massachusetts, not only for the 

 intrinsic value, but for the side light which they throw upon the habits of 

 somewhat similar and more familiar species : 



"There is a noticeable difference between this and both the hirundo 

 and the paradiscea (Arctic Tern), which, having been once carefully studied, 

 will not be lost sight of. The present species is easily distinguished in its 

 flight by its long and graceful tail-feathers, its more brilliant under parts, 

 and its more regular and even motions in flight. Its voice is different, less 

 sharp, more hoarse, and its cry of Creek is more prolonged and less frequently 

 enunciated, than is the case with the other species named. It is less clamorous 

 when its nest is approached, hovers overhead at a higher point, and rarely 

 makes a rush at one's head, as does the impetuous paradiscea. 



"It makes its appearance (at Faulkner's Island, L. I. Sound) about the 

 15th of May, seldom varying three days in this date. At first six or eight of 

 these birds are seen well up in the air. These hover over the island awhile 

 and then disappear. The next day the same individuals return with an 

 addition of twelve or more of their number ; but none of them alight on the 



1 "The Water Birds of North America," by S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer, and R. Ridgway, (Boston,— 

 Little, Brown, and Co., 1884.) Vol. II. pp. 306, 307. 



