X14 THE ROSEATE TERN. 



Tern, and wherever a shoal of small fish was found, there they would hover 

 and dash headlong at them for several minutes at a time. 



The wreckers informed me that this species returns regularly to these 

 islands each spring, about the 10th of April, and goes off southward early in 

 September. These birds, with their favourite companions the Sandwich 

 Terns, habitually resorted to the sand-bars each day, to rest for an hour or 

 two. I have never seen them on any part of our middle or eastern coast, 

 and am of opinion that they rarely proceed farther eastward than the Capes 

 of Florida, and that they are more attached to the immediate vicinity of the 

 shores than the larger species, which more generally fly out to some distance. 

 The delicate and beautiful rosy tint of the breast soon fades after death. 

 Those specimens which were not skinned immediately after being procured 

 did not retain it for a week, and in none of them was it perceptible, without 

 separating the feathers, at the end of a month. In winter it disappears, as 

 well as the glossy black of the head. The length of the outer tail-feathers 

 varies considerably; but I could perceive no decided difference of size or 

 colour in the sexes, although I thought the females somewhat smaller than 

 the males. 



Sterna Dodgallii, Mont. Temm. 



Roseate Tern, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 278. 



Roseate Tern, Sterna Dougallii, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 296. 



Male, 14||, 30. 



Florida Keys, where it is abundant, and breeds. Migratory. 



Adult Male. 



Bill longer than the head, slender, tapering, compressed, nearly straight, 

 very acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched, the ridge 

 rather broad and convex at the base, narrow towards the end, the sides 

 convex, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip acute. Nasal groove short, 

 extended to one-third of the length of the bill, deflected towards the edge; 

 nostrils basal, linear, direct, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle 

 extremely narrow, very acute, extending to a little beyond the middle, the 

 dorsal line straight, the sides convex, the sharp edges inflected, the tip 

 extremely acute. 



Head of moderate size, oblong; neck of moderate length; body very 

 slender; feet small; wings and tail very long. Tibia bare for a considerable 

 space; tarsus very short, slender, roundish, covered anteriorly with small 

 scutella, laterally and behind with reticular scales; toes small, slender, the 

 first very small, the third longest, the fourth nearly as long, the second much 

 shorter, all scutellate above, the anterior united by reticulated webs having a 



