Brewer. ] | 276 [May 7, ' 
or two among the thousands, with the back wing feathers, different 
from the Bonapartes. My bird is nearly in full plumage, and I was 
glad to get so good a skin to mount.” 
Sterna fuliginosa Gm. Another very interesting and un- 
looked for occurrence that has been brought to my notice, was the 
capture, in 1876, of two examples of the Sooty Tern in north- 
western Vermont. For the knowledg@of this erratic performance 
on the part of this intertropical bird I am indebted to Mr. Jenness 
Richardson, of Rutland, Vt., who also kindly sent me both examples 
to examine, and has consented to allow one of them to remain in the 
Society’s New England collection. The New England record of this 
wanderer, that breeds almost exclusively within the tropics, is some- 
what peculiar. It is first named by Mr. J. A. Allen on the authority 
of Mr. Samuels as breeding on Muskeget; but, satisfied that he had 
been grossly misinformed on this point, Mr. Samuels withheld it from 
his own work on New England birds. In a list of the birds of New 
England, published in 1868, the Sooty Tern again appears, but only 
on authority believed to be incorrect. In 1875, finding no single 
known instance on record of its occurrence, and Mr. Lawrence 
writing me that it was not known to occur even on the coast of New 
Jersey, I had no alternative but to give it in my lst of birds claimed 
as of New England without any tangible evidence. Since then, 
Sooty Terns have appeared in at least five of the New England 
States, and in interior regions as far from the seaboard as Cayuga 
County, N. Y. The two sent me from Vermont were taken at 
different periods of the same season. One was captured on Lake 
Champlain early in September. This one was in the full adult 
plumage. The other was shot in the streets of Rutland in the midst 
of a violent storm, and was in its immature dress. The latter has 
been obtained by exchange, and is now in the Society’s New Eng- 
land collection. . 
Hydrochelidon nigra Linn. Instances of the occurrence of 
the Black Tern on the New England coast are rare. On August 
8th, 1877, Mr. George H. Mackay procured an immature specimen 
at Hummock Pond, Nantucket, and subsequently Mr. William 
Brewster has obtained other specimens on the same island. We are 
indebted to each of these gentlemen for an examples So far as I am 
aware, specimens of this Tern taken in New England have been 
birds in immature plumage. 
Sula fiber Linn. All doubts as to the right of this species to 
