No. 20.] THE BIRDS OF CONNECTICUT. 23 



On the mainland also this species occasionally breeds. L. B. 

 B. found about twenty-five pairs breeding on the salt marshes 

 at the mouth of the Hammonasset River, Clinton, June 23, 1904. 

 Another colony of a dozen pairs was found at Grove Beach, Clin- 

 ton, June 16, 1900, by Messrs. J. B. Canfield and C. H. Watrous. 



Nest. The eggs are either laid on the sand of the beach or in 

 hollows in the drift seaweed lying on the wet salt marsh. 



Eggs, 2 to 5 ; average set, 3. 



Nesting dates. Earliest record. May 25, 1900, three eggs 

 (Hill). Latest record, July 24, 1882, one egg (L. B. B.). 



In the fall migration this tern is occasionally common in the 

 western part of the Sound. Mr. Hoyt reported them abundant 

 at Stamford in August, 1894. L. B. B. saw them in West Haven 

 as late as Sept. 20, 1889, and Sept. 27, 1901. 



Sterna paradisaea Briinnich. Arctic Tern. 



In 1876 Merriam recorded the Arctic Tern as " a rare visitor 

 to our shores ". The only specific reference to its occurrence in 

 Connecticut is from J. N. C. of Saybrook, who wrote : " I have 

 an undoubted specimen in the fall plumage of the young, taken 

 here last season — never captured a mature bird."^ 



Sterna dougalli Montagu. Roseate Tern. 



Formerly an abundant summer resident. At present, very 

 rare. 



On Goose Island, about one mile from Faulkner's Island, a 

 colony of several hundreds of these birds was carefully protected 

 by Capt. O. N. Brooks, the keeper of the Faulkner Light, until 

 he resigned in 1883. It is of this colony that Merriam writes: 

 " They cover the rocks, almost hiding them from view. . . . The 

 eggs were now hatching and thousands of downy young covered 

 the island."^ This colony was visited by L. B. B. in the summer of 

 1881, 1882, and 1883, when many eggs were found and numerous 

 birds seen, but in 1884 not a bird was to be seen and the ground 

 was strewn with fresh or broken eggs. Practically the entire 

 colony had been killed by a taxidermist soon after the birds had 

 settled there for the summer. A few returned to the island the 

 following year, when L. B. B. found one nest with two eggs and 



> Merriam, Birds of Conn., p. 133. 

 2 Merriam, Birds of Conn., pp. 133-4. 



