TERNS 31 



making a rather bulky nest in the marsh grass. Chapman 

 describes its notes as a "long-drawn, reedy cackle and a tweet- 

 tweet-tweet-tweet." * 



Food habits. — ^According to Bent, this species feeds less on 

 fish and has a more varied bill of fare than the other terns. 

 It sometimes dives for its food in the ordinary manner of 

 the terns, but more often catches insects on the wing or takes 

 them from the surface of the water. 



COMMON TERN : Sterna hirundo Linnaeus. 



(State records. — The common tern occurs on the coast of 

 Alabama as a moderately common migrant. Specimens were 

 taken at Bayou Labatre, May 16 and 23, 1911; on Dauphin 

 Island, August 24, 1911, July 31, 1913, and June 4, 1914; and 

 in Perdido Bay, September 11, 1911. 



General habits. — The common tern is similar to the other 

 small terns in habits and general appearance. It breeds in 

 the northern States in colonies on uninhabited, sandy islands. 

 In migration it is usually seen in small companies, coursing 

 over the waters of the sounds along the coast. 



Food habits. — Bent says of this species : 



The food of the common tern consists almost wholly of small fish, 

 not over 3 or 4 inches long, such as the sand launce (Ammodytes ameri- 

 eanua) and. the pipe fish (Siphonostoma fuscum), and probably the 

 young fry of larger species. Shrimp and aquatic insects are eaten to 

 some extent.f 



LEAST TERN : StermUa albifrons antiUarum (Lesson) .% 



State records. — The least tern is a moderately common sum- 

 mer resident on the coast, breeding on both Dauphin and Petit 

 Bois Islands. Outsell found it fairly common about Missis- 

 sippi Sound during the summer of 1911 and estimated the 

 number roosting on Petit Bois Island to be between 300 and 

 400. Apparently the birds all leave the State during the 

 winter, as several visits to the islands at that season failed 

 to reveal their presence. Doubtless the species occurred for- 



*ChBDman F. M., Handbook of birds of eastern North America, p. 167, 1912. 

 tBent, A. C, Bull. US, U. S. Nat. Mua., p. 245, 1921. ,^ . , , 



^Sterna antiUarum of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name see The Auk, vol. 

 U. p. 199, 1917. 



