THE TERNS, 533 



be rivaled by the most exquisite rose-tinted satin. The 

 newly shot specimen is simply charming, but the brightness 

 of the plumage is not retained after death. Indeed, all the 

 Terns seem to lose their highest beauty when cold, their 

 extreme delicacy of color being consistent only with the 

 warm glow of life. A bird is a highly specialized and 

 beautiful object, especially the more chastely colored birds 

 of the sea ; but what on the whole Atlantic can equal the 

 graceful form — bill and crown of ebony, back of burnished 

 silver, hoary dark-tipped wings, and breast of blushing rose 

 — of this Roseate Tern ? The more gorgeous birds of the 

 tropics compare with it, only as the dahlia and the peony 

 ■with the rose and the water-nymph. In motion it is no less 

 charming, its flight being peculiarly airy and dashing, the 

 slender pointed wings and long forked tail being the most 

 graceful possible. 



The note of this Tern always advised me of its presence. 

 _I could not make out the " hew-it, repeated at frequent in- 

 tervals," but only essentially the same ter-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r, 

 as given by the other Terns, only on a lower key and in a 

 rougher, hoarser tone, or occasionally in a much higher 

 tone, as if aspiring to a fine falsetto. Muskegat Island, near 

 Nantucket, seems to be the principal breeding place of this 

 species. 



I did not see Forster's Tern {Sterna forsteri) in Nova 

 Scotia. New England ornithologists testify to its rarity 

 on their coast. Its place of breeding is believed to be in 

 the upper regions of the Great Lakes. Only a few nest, 

 like Wilson's Terns, on the muskrat-houses of St. Clair Flats. 

 Mr. Maynard informs me that they have bred in large 

 numbers on Cobb's Island, off the coast of Virginia. About 

 the size and form of Wilson's Tern, this species seems to be 

 the counterpart of that, the under parts being pure white 



