The Caspian Tern 



slightly tinged with dusky at tip; feet and legs black. Adult after breeding season 

 and in winter: Similar, but black of crown speckled or streaked with dull white. 

 Young: Black cap of adult represented by spotting on top of head (on grayish white 

 ground), increasing in densitj' until nearly uniform on hind head; above dull pearl- 

 gray, sparingly spotted or barred with brownish dusky; primaries darker than in adult; 

 tail pearl-gray with dusky subterminal spots, or indistinct barring; remaining plumage 

 white, bill orange-red; feet brownish black. Length 508-584.2 (20.00-23.00); wing 

 412 (16.25); tail 127-165. 1 (5.00-6.50); bill 69.85 (2.75); depth at base of bill 20.3-24.1 

 (.80-. 95); tarsus 45.7 (1.80). 



Recognition Marks. — Crow to gull size, largest of the terns; heavy bill and 

 general tern characters distinctive for size; frequents lakes and interior marshes rather 

 than seacoast; harsh guttural notes. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in California. Nest: A mere depression in 

 gravel or sand. Eggs: 2 or 3; pale olive-buff or olive-buff, finely and rather sparingly 

 round-spotted with sepia and buffy olive, brownish olive, and with violet-gray under- 

 shell markings. A v. size 62.2 x 43.2 (2.45 x 1.70). 



General Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan, but not recorded from Greenland, 

 Iceland, Japan, and Oceanica, nor from the continent of South America. In America 

 breeds very locally and in widely separated colonies, in part as follows: mouth of the 

 Mackenzie, Great Slave Lake, coast of southern Labrador and islands of Newfound- 

 land, Gravel and Gull Islands in northern Lake Michigan, Klamath Lake in southern 

 Oregon, Cobb's Island, Virginia, South Carolina and the Gulf States. Also breeds 

 in Albania, on islands in the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, the mouth of the Zam- 

 bezi River, and (in isolated pairs, fide Campbell) about the coasts and estuaries of 

 Australia and New Zealand. In America migrates (or wanders at the close of the 

 breeding season) to the lower Yukon Valley and James Bay. Winters south along the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and from California to western Mexico. 



Occurrence in California. — Not common migrant and rare winter resident 

 both coastwise and interiorly. Non-breeding birds linger about the northern lakes 

 in summer and records of former breeding are very probable. 



Authorities. — Ridgway (Sterna regia), Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. vi., 1881, 

 p. 124 (Stockton and San Francisco); Willelt, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 15 

 (occurrence in s. Calif.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 23 (occurrence 

 in Calif.). 



WE ARE doubtless slaves to nomenclature. Careers have been 

 made or marred by early choice of names, avian no less than human. 

 By no possibility could we think of this sturdy giant among Terns as a 

 "Native Son," even if it bred in California as plentifully as it does in 

 Oregon. For 150 years this species has borne the name Caspian, and 

 that for practical purposes is equivalent to alien. But also the distinc- 

 tion is not unjust. Caspia is a foreigner. The Caspian Tern is cosmo- 

 politan; and Cosmopolitan Tern would perhaps have been a better name 

 for it. A cosmopolitan species is necessarily a rigid, non-plastic species. 

 It has arrived. Its habits are established. If it is no longer character- 

 ized by aggressiveness, it has at least nothing to fear. It has made its 

 peace with varied conditions and has achieved a static goal. 



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