SOME UNDESCRIBED PLUMAGES OF NORTH 
AMERICAN BIRDS. 
BY GEORGE B. SENNETT. 
Sterna fuliginosa. Sooty Tern. 
I have been able to find but one attempt at describing the young of this 
species while yet in the down, and that description must have applied to 
older specimens than those before me. In ‘The Ibis,’ 1868, p. 286, Cap¬ 
tain Sperling (whose description is referred to in B. B. & R. Water Birds, 
Vol. II, p. 314) describes the young as follows: “The young were of a 
very light sooty color, both above and beneath, the ends of most of 
the feathers having a white spot the size of a pea, which gives to them 
a speckled appearance.” Saunders, in P. Z. S., 1876, p. 667, says: “The 
young are dark on the underparts.” This indicates his reference to a 
more advanced stage of growth. 
Downy Stage :—Underparts white; throat and sides of neck speckled 
dark gray and white. The whole upper parts are covered thickly with 
sooty and white downy tufts, the former tipped with black points and the 
latter with reddish fulvous points, giving to the whole upper surface a 
mixed speckled appearance of black, white, and fulvous. In one speci¬ 
men the dark color predominates and in the other the fulvous. 
Auk, 4, Jan., 1887. p. , 
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