218 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM. 



squawking cry, audible for a long distance, like the syllables, " quak," 

 " kak," or " kowk." Another note on a lower key sounds like the 

 bleating cry of a sheep. It also has a very musical, rolling call, a 

 soft liquid whistle, " tourrrreee," suggestive of the melodious rolling 

 whistle of the upland plover. 



This highly gregarious species is a sociable and harmless neighbor 

 on its breeding grounds, where it is intimately associated with 

 Cabot's terns, black skimmers, and laughing gulls, which it ap- 

 parently never molests. Its nests are preyed upon to some extent by 

 the latughing gulls, though I believe that the royal tern is more than 

 a match for the gull, as a rule. The royal tern is frequently seen 

 fishing in company with the brown pelican, which it is said to rob 

 occasionally by seizing the fish from its capacious pouch. The robber 

 often pays the penalty for his crime by giving up his ill-gotten booty 

 to the man-of-war bird, that arch robber of the southern seas, ever 

 ready to pounce upon any bird weaker than itself and make it drop 

 its catch. 



Fall. — In September the short migration flight begins, which is 

 hardly more than a withdrawal from the northern portions of its 

 breeding range, though its winter wanderings carry it to the 

 Bahamas and the West Indies. The southward movement is de- 

 liberate. It leaves the coast of Virginia about the middle of Sep- 

 tember and lingers on the coasts of the Carolinas until the end of 

 November. In its winter quarters, from Florida and the Gulf States 

 southward, it prefers to frequent the harbors, estuaries, mouths of 

 rivers, and the vicinity of sand shoals, where it may be seen fishing in 

 company with brown pelicans, man-o-war birds, laughing gulls, and 

 other terns, or perched on convenient spar buoys, or resting and doz- 

 ing on the warm bare sand bars. It also roams inland to some extent 

 in winter, visiting fresh water lakes and ponds. It is common along 

 the Pacific coast in winter from Monterey Bay southward, in the 

 harbors and about the islands, as well as in some of the lakes near 

 the coast. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range.— South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Virginia 

 (Northampton County) to southern Texas (Cameron County). Some 

 of the Bahamas (Berry and Ragged Islands, etc.) ; and many of the 

 West Indies (Isle of Pines, Porto Rico, Dominica, Grenada, Carria- 

 cou, etc.). Pacific coast of Lower California (Natividad Island) and 

 Mexico (Isabella Island). 



Breeding grounds protected in the following national reservations : 

 In Louisiana, Breton Island, Shell Keys, and Tern Islands. 



Winter range. — From central Florida (Micco) and from the coast 

 of Louisiana southward, including the Bahamas and West Indies, 



