Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0072/00722.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 11KB | 170 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00722}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Roseate Tern}
$Subject{Larinae; Sterna; Dougallii; Roseate Tern}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume VII}
$Volume{Vol. 7:112-115}
$Family{Larinae}
$Genus{Sterna}
$Species{Dougallii}
$Common_Name{Roseate Tern}
$Log{
Plate CCCCXXXVII*00722P1.scf
Family*00710.txt
Genus*00713.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  VII.
                        --------------------------------


                               THE ROSEATE TERN.
                                [Roseate Tern.]


                            STERNA DOUGALLII, Mont.
                              [Sterna dougallii.]


                           PLATE CCCCXXXVII.--ADULT.


     On the 28th of April, 1832, it was my lot to be on the beautiful rocky
islet named Indian Key, where I spent a few hours of the night in unsuccessful
attempts to procure repose, which was effectually banished by the consciousness
of my being in a portion of the country not yet examined by any industrious
student of nature, and in which I expected to find much that would prove
interesting.  The rain fell in torrents, and the rattling of the large drops on
the shingles of the veranda in which my hammock had been slung, together with
the chilness of the air, contributed to keep me awake.  Finding it useless to
remain in bed, I roused my companions; it was just four o'clock, and in a few
minutes all the people in the house were up, and breakfast preparing.  Before
six the rain abated, and as I was determined not to lose a day, the guns were
mustered, we made our way to the boats, and pushed off through a gentle shower
in quest of unknown birds!  In about an hour the rain ceased, the sky gradually
cleared, and the sun soon dried our clothes.  About this time we observed a
great number of Terns on a sand bar, which we approached.  The birds were not
shy, so that we obtained an opportunity of firing two guns at them, when we
leaped out, and on wading to the shore picked up thirty-eight Roseate Terns and
several of another species.
     Beautiful, indeed, are Terns of every kind, but the Roseate excels the
rest, if not in form, yet in the lovely hue of its breast.  I had never seen a
bird of this species before, and as the unscathed hundreds arose and danced as
it were in the air, I thought them the Humming-birds of the sea, so light and
graceful were their movements.  Now they flocked together and hovered over us,
again with a sudden dash they plunged towards us in anger; even their cries of
wrath sounded musical, and although I had carried destruction among them, I felt
delighted.  As I have just said, I had not before seen a Roseate Tern, not even
the skin of one stuffed with tow; the species was not in the Synopsis of my
friend BONAPARTE, and now I had my cap filled to the brim with specimens.  You
may rest assured that I took precious care of those which I had procured, but
not another individual was robbed of life on that excursion.  The other Terns
were as new to me.  I observed the form of their black bill and feet, the yellow
tip of the former, and wrapped them up with care, while I tried to recollect the
name they bore in books.  To have found hundreds of the Roseate Tern in the
Floridas, while I had anxious but slender hopes of meeting it on the coast of
Labrador, was to me quite astonishing.  So it was, however, and I determined to
ransack every key and sand-beach, to try to find its breeding-ground.  Nor were
my desires ungratified,
     The Roseate Tern spends the breeding season along the southern shores of
the Floridas in considerable numbers.  At different times in the course of
nearly three months which I spent among the keys, I saw flocks of twenty,
thirty, or more pairs, breeding on small detached rocky islands, scantily
furnished with grass, and in the company of hundreds of Sandwich Terns.  The two
species appeared to agree well together, and their nests were intermingled.  The
full number of eggs of the present species is three.  They differ considerably
in size and markings; their average length, however, is an inch and three
quarters, their breadth an inch and one-eighth; they are of a longish oval
shape, rather narrowed at the small end, of a dull buff or clay colour,
sparingly sprinkled and spotted with different tints of umber and light purple.
They were deposited on the bare rocks, among the roots of the grasses, and left
in fair weather to the heat of the sun.  Like those of the Common Tern and other
species, they are delicious eating.  The eggs of the Sandwich Tern were more
attended to during the day, but toward night both species sat on their eggs.  I
did not see any of the young, but procured a good number of those of the
preceding year, which kept apart from the old birds, but had in all respects the
same habits.
     The Roseate Tern is at all times a noisy, restless bird; and on approaching
its breeding place, it incessantly emits its sharp shrill cries, resembling the
syllable crak.  Its flight is unsteady and flickering, like that of the Arctic
or Lesser Tern, but rather more buoyant and graceful.  They would dash at us and
be off again with astonishing quickness, making great use of their tail on such
occasions.  While in search of prey, they carry the bill in the manner of the
Common Tern, that is perpendicularly downward, plunge like a shot, with wings
nearly closed, so as to immerse part of the body, and immediately reascend.
They were seen 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. Temm.
     ROSEATE TERN, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 278.
     ROSEATE TERN, Sterna Dougallii, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 296.


     Male, 14 10/12, 30.
     Florida Keys, where it is abundant, and breeds.  Migratory.
     Adult Male.
     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,