The Long-tailed Jaeger 
birds. It is also very fond of eggs, and destroys great numbers of them 
in the course of a season, not only those of kittiwakes and murres, but of 
ducks and snipe as well. On cloudy days or in the Arctic twilight pre¬ 
ceding the time of departure for the South, these birds are said to utter 
doleful wailing cries, interspersed with harsh shrieks; and these are 
among the most characteristic sounds to be heard in the teeming, tragic 
North. 
No. 269 
Long-tailed Jaeger 
A. O. U. No. 38. Stercorarius longicaudus Vieillot. 
Synonyms.— Arctic Jaeger. Buffon’s Jaeger. Teaser. Boatswain. 
Marlinspike. Gull-chaser. 
Description. — Adult: Top of head, including eyes and lores, black, the fibrillae 
of occipital feathers parted; remainder of head, neck all around and breast white, tinged 
on sides of head and on neck all around with straw-yellow; remaining plumage slaty, 
shading on cervix, sides, and belly, blackening on exposed wing-quills and tail, definitely 
black on exposed tips ot greater wing-coverts; the shafts of the quills white or straw- 
yellow, as in other species; primaries and tail with some basal white on webs; central 
pair of tail-feathers normally greatly produced, 6 to 10 inches beyond lateral feathers. 
Bill dusky, blackening on tip; tarsi leaden blue; tibiae and feet black. There is also a 
melanotic phase wherein the entire plumage becomes slaty or sooty, as in other species 
of Jaegers, but this is very rare, almost negligible. Young birds differ materially from 
the adult, being smaller, darker, and more varied in plumage, and with the central 
pair of tail-feathers not at all, or only slightly, projecting. A typical example, male 
of the 2nd (?) year, has head and neck all around streaked dusky and dull buffy; cervix 
and remaining under-plumage throughout mottled and barred with same colors, 
clearing to white on breast centrally, buffy strengthening on under tail-coverts, where 
black-white-and-buff-banded, buffy wanting in black-and-white-barring of under wing- 
coverts and axillars; remaining upperparts sooty black, heavily margined with fulvous 
on back and wings; black-white-and-cinnamon-buffy-barred on upper tail-coverts; 
blackening on wing-quills and rectrices, as before. Length of adult 508-609.6 (20.00- 
24.00), of which the tail 254-406.4 (10.00-16.00), the lateral tail feathers about 158.75 
(6.25); wing 304.8-330.2 (12.00-13.00); bill 27.4 (1.08); tarsus 44 (1.73). 
Recognition Marks. —Small crow size; smaller in body than the Parasitic 
Jaeger; the greatly lengthened and tapering central pair of tail-feathers distinctive. 
Nesting. —Does not breed in California. Nest: A depression in moss or 
heather. Eggs: 2; dark olive-buff, marked with light brownish olive to black and 
dull violet-gray. Av. size 52.8 x 36,8 (2.08 x 1.45). Season: June. 
General Range. —Northern portions of Northern Hemisphere. Breeds in the 
highest latitudes south to the Arctic shore of the American Continent and Siberia. 
Sparingly and irregularly south in winter to coasts of California, Florida (one record), 
Italy, and Japan. 
Occurrence in California. —A rare migrant coastwise, so far recorded only in 
autumn. 
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