TERN. 



113 



19— ROSEATE TERN. 



Sterna Dougallii, Roseate Tern, Orn. Diet. Supp. pi. in ditto. Tern. Man. Ed. 2d. 

 p. 738. 



LENGTH fifteen inches. Bill one inch and five-eighths, slightly 

 curved, and black, the base bright orange; inside of the mouth 

 orange; irides black; tongue half the length of the bill, pale red, 

 and bifurcated; forehead brown; hind part and sides of the head, 

 taking in the eyes, except a small portion of the lower part, jet 

 black ; the feathers of the hindhead thinly diffused, and flowing 

 over the white, down the back of the neck ; sides of the head under 

 the eyes, sides of the neck, and all beneath, white ; but the fore parts 

 of the neck, breast, and belly, to beyond the vent, are tinged with a 

 most delicate ros\- blush colour ; back, scapulars, and wing coverts, 

 pale cinereous grey ; quills narrow, the first has the exterior web 

 black, with a hoary tinge ; the others hoary on that part, and part 

 of the inner web; next the shaft of the first three or four, hoary 

 black, paler by degrees in the succeeding feathers; all deeply mar- 

 gined with white, quite to the tip, shafts white ; tail greatly forked, 

 the outer feather seven inches long, the middle ones scarcely three, 

 and all of them white ; legs of the brightest orange ; claws black, 

 and hooked ; the wings shorter than the tail by about two inches. 

 Both sexes are much alike. 



Inhabits Scotland : several of them shot in the West Highlands ; 

 first discriminated by Dr. M'Dougall, of Glasgow, and one of them 

 added by that gentleman, to Colonel Montagu's collection. We are 

 informed, that the places of resort of this species are two, small 

 rocky Islands, in the Firth of Clyde, called Cumbrey Islands, in 

 Milford Bay. We recommend the perusal of Col. M.'s account of 

 this new species, in the Supp. to his Orn. Diet. Said also to be met 

 with in Norway, and probably on the shores of the Baltic Sea ; and 

 M. de Lamotte is said to have found a pair on the Coast of Picardy, 

 in France, in company with the Greater Tern. 



VOL. X. Q 



