298 ROSEATE TERN.
dipping in this manner eight or ten times in succession, and each time
generally secured a small fish. Their food consisted of fishes, and a kind
of small molluscous animal which floats near the surface, and bears the
name of " sailor's button." They usually kept in parties of from ten to
twenty, followed the shores of the sand-bars and keys, moving backwards
and forwards much in the manner of the Lesser Tern, and wherever a
shoal of small fish was found, there they would hover and dash headlong
at them for several minutes at a time.
The wreckers informed me that this species returns regularly to these
islands each spring, about the 10th of April, and goes off southward early
in September. These birds, with their favourite companions the Sandwich
Terns, habitually resorted to the sand-bars each day, to rest for an
hour or two. I have never seen them on any part of our middle or eastern
coast, and am of opinion that they rarely proceed farther eastward than
the Capes of Florida, and that they are more attached to the immediate
vicinity of the shores than the larger species, which more generally fly
out to some distance. The delicate and beautiful rosy tint of the breast
soon fades after death. Those specimens which were not skinned immediately
after being procured did not retain it for a week, and in none of
them was it perceptible, without separating the feathers, at the end of a
month. In winter it disappears, as well as the glossy black of the head.
The length of the outer tail-feathers varies considerably; but I could perceive
no decided difference of size or colour in the sexes, although I thought
the females somewhat smaller than the males.
STERNA DOUGALLII, Mont. Ornith. Diet.
HIRONDELLE-DE-MER DOUGALL, STERNA DOUGALEII, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. part ii.
p. 738.
ROSEATE TERN, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 278.
Adult Male. Plate CCXL.
Bill longer than the head, slender, tapering, compressed, nearly straight,
very acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched, the
ridge rather broad and convex at the base, narrow towards the end, the
sides convex, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip acute. Nasal groove
short, extended to one-third of the length of the bill, deflected towards
the edge; nostrils basal, linear, direct, pervious. Lower mandible with
the angle extremely narrow, very acute, extending to a little beyond the
ROSEATE TERN. 299
middle, the dorsal line straight, the sides convex, the sharp edges inflected,
the tip extremely acute.
Head of moderate size, oblong; neck of moderate length; body very
slender ; feet small; wings and tail very long. Tibia bare for a considerable
space; tarsus very short, slender, roundish, covered anteriorly
with small scutella, laterally and behind with reticular scales; toes small,
slender, the first very small, the third longest, the fourth nearly as long,
the second much shorter, all scutellate above, the anterior united by reticulated
webs having a concave margin; claws curved, compressed, acute,
that of hind toe smallest, of middle toe by much the largest, and having
the inner edge thin and dilated.
Plumage soft, close, blended, very short on the head; the feathers in
general broad and rounded. Wings very long, narrow, and pointed;
primary quills tapering, the first longest, the rest rapidly graduated; secondary
shoi-t, broad, incurved, rounded, the inner more tapering. Tail
long, very deeply forked, of twelve feathers, of which the outer are tapering,
the middle short and rounded.
Bill brownish-black, deep orange at the base. Iris brown. Feet vermilion
; claws blackish-brown, yellow at the base. The upper part of the
head and elongated occipital feathers greenish-black ; the hind neck white,
the rest of the upper parts pale bluish-grey, the tail lighter; the edges of
the wings, the tips and inner edges of the quills, and the shafts white;
The first primary is black on the outer web and part of the inner, the
next two are similarly marked, but with the black shaded over with pale
grey, the loose barbules being of that colour; the other primaries become
gradually lighter. The lower parts are of a beautiful light roseate hue,
which soon fades after death; the under surface of wings and tail white.
Length to end of tail 14^§ inches, to end of wings 12, to end of claws
9i42 ; extent of wings 30; wing from flexure 9g ; tail to end of shortest
feathers 4 | , to end of longest feathers 7^ ; bill along the ridge 1^, along
the edge of lower mandible 2 ^ ; tarsus middle toe its claw