LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 227 



Fall migration. — Apparently in September, but data is very 

 scanty* 



Casual records. — Stragglers have wandered in summer as far north 

 as Massachusetts (Chatham, August, 1865) . Three specimens taken 

 in spring of 1882 in Lucknow, Ontario. A few remain in Brazil in 

 summer (Iguape, June, and Kio Janeiro, August). 



Egg dates. — Texas: Eighteen records, April 25 to June 14; nine 

 records, May 17 to 28. Bahamas : Twelve records, May 14 to June 

 20 ; six records, May 16 to 22. 



STERNA TBUDEAUI Audubon. 



TBUDEAU'S TEBN. 



HABITS. 



This unique and well-marked species belongs to the South Amer- 

 ican fauna and is a very rare straggler to North America. The 

 only record for North America is that of Audubon (1840), who 

 first described the species and says of it : 



This beautiful tern, which has not hitherto been described, was procured at 

 Great Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, by my much esteemed and talented friend, 

 J. Trudeau, Esq., of Louisiana, to whom I have great pleasure in dedicating it. 

 Nothing is known as to its range, or even the particular habits in which it 

 may differ from other species. The individual obtained was in company of a 

 few others of the same kind. I have received from Mr. Trudeau an intimation 

 of the occurrence of several individuals on Long Island. 



Nesting, — Mr. A. H. Holland (1890) has studied Trudeau's tern in 

 its native haunts in Argentina in the region of Estancia Espartilla. 

 He says: 



This tern is rare with us, excepting in the breeding season, when it appears 

 suddenly and in numbers, either single or in pairs. 



While hunting through a large gullery of Larus maculipermis early in No- 

 vember I came upon a corner of the lagoon entirely occupied by these pretty 

 terns. There was little shelter for the nests, a few scattered willow stumps, 

 but no rushes or flags, and the water was some 4 J feet deep. The nests were all 

 placed together, as the gulls' nests were, 30 or 40 of them, each a foot or two 

 from its neighbor, and so on. They were very shallow structures, composed 

 of green water grasses (very succulent ones and wet), with no lining, and 

 supported on the water by the thick growth of grass underneath. The eggs 

 were three to four in number, of the usual tern type, varying from the dark, 

 thickly spotted, and blotched varieties to the thinly spotted pale ones. In no 

 two nests were the eggs similar. As I approached the ternery (if there is such 

 an expression) the birds became very anxious, darting down close to my head 

 as I stood over a nest and uttering shrill cries. The sight was a beautiful one, 

 with thousands of gulls and these graceful terns as well, all showing 

 beautifully against a blue sky. 



Eggs. — There are three sets of eggs of this rare species in the 

 collection of Col. John E. Thayer, which were collected by Mr. Her- 



