on 



LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GTHXS AND TERNS. 295 



,„ the throat.neck, and sides, shading off to " pale drab gray " on the 

 belly and cheeks; the upper parts are rich "cinnamon," heavily 

 blotched with " fuscous black." When very young the sides of the 

 head, including the orbital region, the cheeks, the lores, and some- 

 times a narrow frontal strip, are pure white. This feature becomes 

 less conspicuous as the bird grows older. As the bird attains its full 

 size the down is gradually replaced with feathers, beginning on the 

 wings, scapulars, and the sides of the breast; but much of the cin- 

 namon down remains on the head, neck, and crissum until the Juve- 

 nal plumage replaces it at the flight stage in July. 



By the time that the young bird has attained its full growth the 

 juvenal plumage has been fully acquired and the flight stage reached. 

 This plumage is worn through August and September, and perhaps 

 later. The upper parts are decidedly brown and often the under parts 

 are extensively washed with brownish, dusky, or drab on the sides 

 of the neck and chest, on the flanks and sometimes on the entire 

 belly. The feathers of the back and scapulars are broadly mar- 

 gined with " clove brown " and narrowly tipped with whitish. The 

 forehead is dirty white, the crown and occiput are mainly black, and 

 the auriculars, as well as a ring around the eye, are pure black. 

 The browns gradually fade and the light edgings wear away during 

 the fall, but there is probably also a partial pbstjuvenal molt of 

 the contour feathers. The first winter plumage is then much like the 

 adult, but young birds can be recognized by having smaller bills, 

 more or less signs of light edgings in the wing-coverts and back, and 

 tails which are much less deeply forked, the lateral ' rectrices being 

 broader and more rounded at the tips. I have not been able to trace 

 very clearly the first prenuptial molt, but apparently a majority of 

 the young birds acquire at this molt a plumage which is exactly or 

 nearly like the adult nuptial, with more or less white in the black 

 areas. Many birds, however, seem io wear the first winter plumage 

 or a new one closely resembling it, until the first postnuptial molt, 

 which occurs in June and July. This molt produces the adult winter 

 plumage. 



Adults have two complete molts — the prenuptial early in the 

 spring and the postnuptial in July, August, and September. The 

 seasonal change is very striking. In the winter plumage the fore- 

 head, a nuchal collar > and the entire under parts are white" the 

 auriculars and a narrow orbital space are black; the crown and 

 occiput are mottled With gray and black; and the mantle, wings, 

 and tail are much lighter gray than in the spring — " light neutral 

 gray " or paler. 



Food.-^ The black tern is credited with eating minnows or other 

 small fry, but I believe that it rarely does so except when associated 

 174785—21 20 



