384 



Ad. ptil. Mem. fronte et pileo antico albis vix nigro notatis : spatio parvo ad basin rostri sordide cinereo : 

 rostro pallidiore. 



Juv. adulto in ptil. hiem. similis, sed fronte alba: pileo et nucha, nigris, albo guttatis : tectricibus alarum 

 saturate cinereo notatis et corpore suprsl nigro guttato : cauda, versus apicem saturate cinerea et albido 

 apicata : rostro et pedibus sordide flavidis. 



Adult Male (S. Carolina, April). Crown and nape black, the feathers on the nape elongated and pointed ; 

 mantle pearl-grey; neck white, the edge of the wing from the carpus white; rump pale pearl-grey; 

 quills with the outer webs dark grey, the inner web with a broad line near the shaft and the terminal 

 portion blackish grey ; secondaries edged with white ; tail white, moderately forked; uuderparts white: 

 bill orange-red; tarsi black ; iris brown. Total length about 20 inches, culmeu 2 - 8, wing 14 - 3, tail 6 - 2 

 (the outermost rectrices extending 2 - beyond the middle ones), tarsus 1'35. 



Adult in winter (Chiapam, Guatemala). Differs in having the fore part of the crown and forehead white, 

 slightly mottled with black, a small space at the base of the bill dull grey : bill paler than in the summer. 



Young (Jamaica). Similar to the adult in winter, but the forehead is white, the crown and nape black, 

 mottled with white, the wing-coverts marked with dark grey, and the upper parts generally spotted 

 with blackish ; terminal portion of the tail dark grey, the feathers tipped with white : bill and legs 

 dull yellow. 



The present species inhabits North America from Long Island on the west coast down to 

 Southern Brazil, and possibly even to Parana in South America, and on the west coast from 

 California down to Peru, and in the winter season it is found on the west coast of Africa from 

 the Straits of Gibraltar to Angola. Col. Irby (Orn. Str. Gibr. p. 209) recorded it as having been 

 obtained at Tangier by M. Favier; and Mr. J. L. Dalgleish (Auk, 1884, p. 97) received two, 

 which were shot with thirteen others out of a flock of about thirty in the Bay of Tangier on the 

 10th December, 1883. Messrs. Shelley and Buckley (Ibis, 1S72, p. 293) say that it is the 

 commonest Tern at Accra and Cape Coast Castle. Hartlaub (I. c.) records it from Gambia and 

 Ashanti, Reichenow (J. f. O. 1877, p. 10) from the Loango coast, and Bocage from Loanda 

 and Angola. On the American continent, according to Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway 

 (Water-B. of N. America, ii. p. 285) : — " This handsome Tern, so far as we now know, has a 

 somewhat restricted residence. Breeding in small numbers on the Atlantic coast as far north 

 as Chesapeake Bay, it becomes more common in Florida, and is probably found more or less 

 abundant along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as on the Pacific coast of Central 



America, Mexico, and Southern California 



" According to Dr. Cooper, this Tern wanders in midsummer along the Pacific coast as fat- 

 north as the Columbia River. On the Atlantic it occasionally visits Long Island and, more 

 rarely, the islands of South-eastern Massachusetts, where a pair was obtained in the summer of 

 1874 by Mr. C. J. Maynard and Mr. William Brewster. A few breed as far north as Southern 

 Maryland, on its eastern shore. Late in July 1879, Messrs. Ridgway and Henshaw met with 

 this Tern in considerable numbers at Cobb's Island, on the eastern shore of Virginia. It was in 

 company with S. cassia ; and the two species were confounded by the residents of the island 

 under the common name of ' Gannet-strikers ' or ' Gannets.' This species appeared to be the 



