Plate CCLXXX. Adult and Young.
Bill about the same length as the head, rather slender,
brownish-black; feet reddish-brown; wings two inches longer than the
tail, which is merely emarginate; head, neck, breast, sides, and
abdomen, greyish-black; lower tail-coverts white, lower wing-coverts
bluish-grey; upper parts dark bluish-grey, the outer web of the first
quill greyish-black; shafts of quills and tail-feathers white. Young
in second plumage with the upper parts greyish-blue, the feathers of
the fore part of the back, and especially the scapulars, brown towards
the end; the upper and hind part of the head greyish-black, of which
there is a darker mark behind and another before the eye; forehead
greyish-white, as are the sides of the head, the fore neck, breast,
and abdomen; sides dusky grey; lower wing-coverts greyish-white.
_Adult_, 9, 24. _Young_, in autumn, 7-3/4; wing, 9-8/12.
Arrives in Texas from the south early in spring, proceeds along the
coast to the Mississippi, then ascends that river and its tributaries,
breeding around ponds, or along the streams; and even advances to the
Fur Countries, where it also breeds. Abundant. Migratory. Occasionally
along the coasts of the Middle Atlantic Districts.
Sterna nigra, Bonap. Syn. p. 355.
Sterna nigra, Black Tern, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii.
p. 415.
Black Tern or Stern, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 282.
Black Tern, Sterna nigra, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 593; v.
v. p. 642.