The Royal Tern 



General Range. — Coasts and islands of warm temperate and tropical zones in 

 the Americas and west Africa. Breeds along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Vir- 

 ginia (Cobb's Island) to Brazil and Argentina (?). Not certainly recorded as a breeder 

 from the Pacific Coast, but probably does breed on islands in the Gulf of California. 

 Occurs on the Pacific Coast from Tomales Bay, California, to Peru. Found also in 

 winter along Atlantic Coast of Africa from Morocco to Angola. 



Occurrence in California. — Irregularly common coastwise at any season, but 

 chiefly in winter, north at least to Tomales Bay. 



Authorities. — Lawrence {Sterna regia), in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. 

 ix., 1858, p. 859 (Presidio; San Diego); Nordhoff, Auk, vol. xix., 1902, p. 213 (Elsinore 

 Lake, Riverside Co.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 24 (occurrence 

 in Calif.); Howell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 1917, p. 29 (s. Calif, ids.). 



WE KNOW the Royal Tern chiefly as a loiterer and dreamer about 

 our southern beaches and backwater bars. Its associations are rather 

 with the gulls than with the lesser terns, and any established loafing 

 place where gulls foregather is likely to harbor a group from ten to fifty 

 strong of these demure "strikers." In addition to their lower draft (if 

 one may apply the nautical term to birds ashore), their brilliant red beaks 

 are sure to attract attention in any mixed company. A distant approach 

 is regarded gravely — a black cap gives majesty a perpetual frown. There 

 is some shifting of position, with a rolling gait, some consultation with 

 friends, and then a desultory exodus sets in long before the stolid gulls 

 have taken alarm. On those rare occasions when royalty speaks, one 

 hears a high-pitched squeaking note, entirely out of keeping with the size 

 of the bird, such as, by comparison with a Common Tern, one might 

 rather expect from a Least. 



The occurrence of the Royal Tern along our coasts is another ex- 

 ample of reverse migration; i. e., of migration northward at the close of 

 the breeding season. The bird is common enough, though never abun- 

 dant, from September to May, as far north as San Francisco Bay; but it 

 is never common in summer; and the few examples to be seen at that 

 season may be confidently set down either as immatures or as sterile 

 senescents. 



This reverse migration of the Royal and Elegant Terns along the 

 coast of the Californias is the more remarkable in that it contradicts the 

 habit of eastern birds; for these breed north as far as the coast of Virginia 

 (formerly to New Jersey) in June and July, and retire to the southward 

 in middle September. Indeed, it is not impossible that the very birds 

 which are hatched on Cobb's Island in Virginia forsake the Atlantic sea- 

 board in the autumn, cross the Isthmus, and turn north to Monterey or 

 south to Lima, as the case may be, for the winter. At any rate, we have 

 no authentic account of the nesting of the Royal Tern in Pacific waters. 



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