ROSEATE TERN. 
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it reached the ground. The Roseate Tern breeds 
also on the Isle of May in considerable abundance, 
where our specimens were obtained. There is an- 
other colony on the Cumbrae Islands in the Firth 
of Clyde, and there may he many others around the 
Scottish coast which have not yet been noticed, 
when parties are met with at sea, there is a length- 
ened slightness of form that betrays them to the 
ornithologist, or they are at once distinguished by 
their call being different from that of the arctic or 
common terns. We have a specimen very closely 
allied, if not identical, from the island of Tobago. 
Mr. Audubon found the Roseate Tem breeding in 
abundance on the Florida Keys, in company with 
the Sandwich tern. 
Specimens of this graceful species, shot on the 
Isle of May, Firth of Forth, during the breeding 
season, are distinguished by the delicate form, the 
pale tint of the mantle, the rosy hue of the un- 
der parts when newly killed, and by the bill being 
black as far as the nostrils, the base of it only 
vermilion-red. The forehead and crown passing 
narrowdy below the eyes, and terminating in a peak 
on the back of the neck, deep black ; the mantle 
and wings very pale grey; the quills having the 
outer webs and shaft half of the inner darker, the 
outer webs of the first blackish grey, the shafts of 
all strong and white ; rump and lower back white ; 
tail long, the outer feathers narrow, much lengthened, 
forming a deep fork, entirely pure white. The cheeks, 
sides of the neck, and all the under parts, white, 
