Plate CCL. Male.
Bill about the same length as the head, slender, and with the mouth
and feet vermilion, tinged with carmine; wings about two inches
shorter than the tail, which is very deeply forked; upper part of
head and occiput greenish-black; sides of head and chin white; upper
parts pale greyish-blue, the rump bluish-white, the tail and its
coverts white, excepting the outer webs of the two lateral feathers,
which are dusky grey; primaries dusky towards the ends, the two outer
with their outer webs blackish, all with the greater part of the inner
web white, secondaries tipped with white; neck, breast, and sides,
pale greyish-blue, like the upper parts, but lighter; abdomen, lower
tail-coverts, and lower surfaces of wings and tail, white.
_Male_, 15-1/2, 32.
Along the coast of the Atlantic in autumn and winter, sometimes as far
as New Jersey. Common in Maine, Nova Scotia, and Labrador, where it
breeds in multitudes, as well as on the Magdalene Islands, and on the
shores of the Arctic Seas. Migratory.
Sterna arctica, Bonap. Syn. p. 354.
Sterna arctica, Arctic Tern, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v.
ii. p. 414.
Arctic Tern, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 275.
Arctic Tern, Sterna arctica, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 366.