Brewster on Terns of the New England Coast. 15 
they are always to be found during the fall migration. At Nan- 
tucket they were fairly numerous in August and September of 1878. 
I know of but one instance of the capture of this Tern in spring. 
Four species only out of the whole number accredited to New 
England are known to breed along its coast. They may be given 
in the order of their comparative abundance as follows : The Wil- 
son’s or Common Tern ( S . fluviatilis ) ; the Roseate Tera (S. dou- 
galli ) ; the Arctic Tern (S. macrura ) (the choice of precedence 
between the last two species will vary as different localities are 
considered) ; and the Least Tern (S. antillarum ). Of these the 
Roseate and Least Terns are for the most part confined to the 
waters south of Cape Cod, while the Arctic and Common Terns 
breed along the entire coast, and range northward to unknown 
latitudes. Formerly a small colony of Least Terns nested annually 
upon the Ipswich sand-hills, but they have been entirely driven away 
by persecution. This point was probably about the extreme limit 
of their northern range upon the Atlantic coast. I have also upon 
one occasion found the Roseate Tern as far north as Casco Bay, 
Maine, where a small flock was observed upon the Green Islands. 
They certainly were not nesting there, though the date, July 20, 
renders it not impossible that they had eggs or young on some of 
the neighboring islands. 
Spring comes over the sea later than upon the land, and fewer 
tokens are given of its presence. There is no freshening grass ; no 
budding foliage, nor springing up of green things in sheltered places. 
Summer may be close at hand, but as yet the sea gives no sign. 
When the wind is from the north, the waves in the bay have that 
steely glint that they have borne all winter. The sand drifts 
drearily over the wind-swept beach-ridges, and the marshes are 
bleak and brovm, while in the interior Robins may be hopping about 
upon green lawns, and violets blooming in every w r oodland nook. 
The Ducks and Geese, it is true, are marshalling their cohorts and 
stretching out in long lines northw T ard, but the breath of ocean is 
still chill and cold. Indeed, the season is commonly far advanced, 
and the apple-orchards in bloom inland, ere the wnnter Gulls are gone 
to their distant breeding-grounds. Scarcely has the rear-guard of 
their legions departed, w T hen the Terns begin to appear. And what 
a fitness is there in the change with the changing season ! The 
larger Gulls, that enliven our shores through the colder months, 
seem born to breast the fiercest gusts of winter and to wrest a living 
