LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 265 



STERNA ALEUTICA Baird. 

 ALEUTIAN TEEN. 



HABITS. 



The type specimen of this unique species was secured by Bischoff, 

 on Kodiak Island, on June 12, 1868, together with a single egg. It 

 has apparently not been found breeding there since and has not even 

 been seen there in recent years. The name Aleutian tern is a mis- 

 nomer, based on an erroneous theory that it would be found breeding 

 among those islands; but none of the various explorers who have 

 visited that region have succeeded in finding it. It was not heard of 

 again until Mr. L. M. Turner (1886) found it breeding near St. 

 Michael, Alaska, in 1875 and 1876. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) was 

 still more successful in adding to our knowledge of this rare species. 

 During his "residence at St. Michael he found these birds to be 

 regular and common summer residents in certain restricted localities 

 where they nested. They extend their range to the head of Norton 

 Bay, and also reach the Siberian coast of Bering Straits, as shown by 

 their presence in St. Lawrence Bay, where Mr. B. L. Newcomb, 

 naturalist of the Jeamiette, found them in 1879." Practically nothing 

 has been added since that time to our meager knowledge of the habits 

 and distribution of this rare species, which seemed to have such a 

 restricted habitat. Col. John E. Thayer has recently shown me 11 

 specimens of Aleutian terns collected on Sakhalin Island, on the east 

 coast of Siberia, on June 23 and 24, 1914, which were probably breed- 

 ing birds. This tends to confirm a theory which I have long held 

 that the Aleutian tern is an Asiatic species which has extended its 

 breeding range across Bering Straits, as several other species have 

 done, and become temporarily or permanently established at a few 

 isolated spots on the Alaskan coast. The Kodiak colony was evi- 

 dently unsuccessful, but the two colonies near St. Michael have per- 

 sisted up to the present day (1915) as permanent outposts, one con- 

 taining about 20 pairs and one about 40 pairs of breeding birds. 



Spring— According to Doctor Nelson (1887), the Aleutian terns 



reach St. Michael from May 20 to 30, rarely earlier than the first date, and are 

 found scattered along the coast, In company with the Arctic tern, for a short time, 

 but early in June they gather about the islands where they nest One of these 

 islands is about a mile from St. Michael, in the mouth of a tide channel known 

 as the " canal." This island is nearly half a mile across, rises about 30 feet 

 from the beach in a sharp incline, and has a rather level top, covered with a 

 thick mat of grass, moss, and other vegetation. The upland is dry, and here 

 the birds breed, laying their eggs directly upon the moss, with no attempt at 

 a lining, which would be entirely unnecessary there. Some 18 miles to the 

 eastward, along the coast, and less than a mile from the Eskimo village of 

 Kegikhtowik, is another island in a bay, presenting almost the same character- 



