The Royal Tern 
General Range. —Coasts and islands of warm temperate and tropical zones in 
the Americas and west Africa. Breeds along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Vir¬ 
ginia (Cobb’s Island) to Brazil and Argentina (?). Not certainly recorded as a breeder 
from the Pacific Coast, but probably does breed on islands in the Gulf of California. 
Occurs on the Pacific Coast from Tomales Bay, California, to Peru. Found also in 
winter along Atlantic Coast of Africa from Morocco to Angola. 
Occurrence in California. —Irregularly common coastwise at any season, but 
chiefly in winter, north at least to Tomales Bay. 
Authorities.—Lawrence (Sterna regia), in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. 
ix., 1858, p. 859 (Presidio; San Diego); Nordhoff, Auk, vol. xix., 1902, p. 213 (Elsinore 
Lake, Riverside Co.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 24 (occurrence 
in Calif.); Iiowell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 1917, p. 29 (s. Calif, ids.). 
WE KNOW the Royal Tern chiefly as a loiterer and dreamer about 
our southern beaches and backwater bars. Its associations are rather 
with the gulls than with the lesser terns, and any established loafing 
place where gulls foregather is likely to harbor a group from ten to fifty 
strong of these demure “strikers.” In addition to their lower draft (if 
one may apply the nautical term to birds ashore), their brilliant red beaks 
are sure to attract attention in any mixed company. A distant approach 
is regarded gravely—a black cap gives majesty a perpetual frown. There 
is some shifting of position, with a rolling gait, some consultation with 
friends, and then a desultory exodus sets in long before the stolid gulls 
have taken alarm. On those rare occasions when royalty speaks, one 
hears a high-pitched squeaking note, entirely out of keeping with the size 
of the bird, such as, by comparison with a Common Tern, one might 
rather expect from a Least. 
The occurrence of the Royal Tern along our coasts is another ex¬ 
ample of reverse migration; i. e., of migration northward at the close of 
the breeding season. The bird is common enough, though never abun¬ 
dant, from September to May, as far north as San Francisco Bay; but it 
is never common in summer; and the few examples to be seen at that 
season may be confidently set down either as immatures or as sterile 
senescents. 
This reverse migration of the Royal and Elegant Terns along the 
coast of the Californias is the more remarkable in that it contradicts the 
habit of eastern birds; for these breed north as far as the coast of Virginia 
(formerly to New Jersey) in June and July, and retire to the southward 
in middle September. Indeed, it is not impossible that the very birds 
which are hatched on Cobb’s Island in Virginia forsake the Atlantic sea¬ 
board in the autumn, cross the Isthmus, and turn north to Monterey or 
south to Lima, as the case may be, for the winter. At any rate, we have 
no authentic account of the nesting of the Royal Tern in Pacific waters. 
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