ZOOLOGY. 433 
NOTICE or A SPECIES OF TERN NEW TO THE ATLANTIC COAST OF 
Norra America.— During the last summer Mr. Franklin Benner 
of New York, while a member of Prof. Baird’s Fish Commission 
party at Peak’s Island, Portland Harbor, Maine, obtained a fine 
specimen of a species of tern which approaches very near to the 
characters of the Sterna longipennis Nordmann, or Sterna Pikei 
Lawrence, although it differs in several particulars from the de- 
scriptions of this species. The specimen was presented by Mr. 
Benner to the National Museum, in which it is numbered 64,394. 
It may be described as follows :— 
Portland Harbor, Me., July; 1873. Adult, summer plumage? : 
head, neck, lower part of the rump, upper tail coverts, tail and 
entire lower parts snow white, the former with a black patch cov- 
ering the occipital region and surrounding the eye. Mantle, 
Wings, and outer webs of tail feathers pale pearly ash, deeper on 
the primaries, the outer web of the outer quill and that of the outer 
tail feathers, dark slate color. Bill and feet, uniform deep black. 
Wing, 9-60; tail, outer feather, 6-00, middle, 3°40; culmen, 1-15; 
depth of bill at the base, °30; tarsus, ‘55; middle toe, -60. 
Upon consulting the description of S. Pikei Lawr., in the ninth 
volume of the ‘*Pacific Railroad Reports” (page 863), it will be seen 
that that species, or at least the type, has a dark-red bill and 
orange-colored legs. The description of S. longipennis Nordmann 
(in Coues’ Key, p. 320), with which Dr. Coues considers S. Pikei 
to be identical, says the bill of that species is * black, or reddish- 
black, the point often whitish,” but makes no mention of the color 
of the feet. The bird obtained at Portland has both the bill and 
feet uniform deep black. In view of the fact that it seems to cor- 
respond in general dimensions and colors of the plumage with S. 
longipennis, I have concluded to refer it to that species. This 
bird is in adult summer dress, yet the whole forehead and lores 
back to the posterior portion of the crown is immaculate white. 
It is, however, possible that the autumnal plumage was put on pre- 
maturely. In the event this bird should prove distinct from S. 
longipennis, I propose for it the name Sterna Portlandica.—RoBERT 
Rmeway. 
Tue Ruppy Duck.— On the 10th Sept., 1873, I was greatly 
surprised at finding two immature specimens of Erismatura ru- 
: vida hanging up with a bunch of winter and summer yellow 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 28 
