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Nov., 1919 THE ELEGANT TERN AS.A BII*.D OF CALIFORNIA 233 specimens of Elegant Tern listed in the accompa ?nying table show an average weight of 232 grams. F/ve specimens of Royal Tern shot at about the same time and place gave an average weight of 489 grams. One example of the Common Tern weighed 113 grams. ']?he other terns in the vicinity at the time the Elegant Terns were met with at Morro Bay were the Arctic and Forster, but unfortunately weights of these were not secured. The last two, however, show about the dimensions of the Common and may be inferred to weigh about the same. As to relative size, then, the Elegant Tern is about half the bulk of the Royal, and yet about twice that of the Common, Arctic or Forster. In other words, the Elegant is fairly midway in size between the Royal and the tern next smaller than itseft---obviously a good criterion for recognition when any of the species in question are about. As to behavior, ele#ans is a typical tern. One observer quoted above thinks that it is more "airy" or graceful in flight than its heavier associate maxima. But ! confess my own inability to note any decided difference in this respect. Relative size remains the best mark for field identification. Color notes on Sterna ele#ans were taken by l?Ir. H. G. White from fres]? specimens by direct comparison with the plates in a copy of Ridgway's Colo? Standards and Color Nomenclature, with results as follows: No. 29579: Bill chiefly coral red, becoming straw yellow towards tip, yellowest at extreme tip. Feet and legs sepia, save for spots of orange on hinder side of tarsus, and same color on soles of all toes. Iris hazel. No. 29580: Bill ochraceous-orange at base, becoming yellow ocher at tip. Feet and legs black; soles of toes spotted with yellow ocher. Iris hazel. No. 29581: Bill bittersweet orange at base, antimony yellow at tip. Feet and legs black; tarsus behind, toes? and webs, blotched with bittersweet orange. Iris hazel. No. 29582: Bill grenadine at base, becoming antimony yellow at tip. Feet and legs black, tarsus solidly so; soles of toes blotched with dull orange. Iris hazel. NO. 29583: Bill salmon color, becoming antimony yellow at tip. Feet and legs black, blotched all the way up, from soles of toes to tibia, with salmon color. Iris hazel. With drying, the above colors have changed intrinsically but little. Now, after one year has elapsed, there is a general dingy tone, and in the case of no. 29583, which had the bill palest of the five, the red tone, weak at b, est, has faded out so that the whole bill is dingy yellow ocher. Nos. 29577 and 29578, which were not color-matched when fresh, are also of this yellow-billed type, decidedly different from the reddish orange tone of bill in the other four spe- cimens. With this variation in color of bill in evidence it becomes impossible to use this feature as a field mark. As regards color of legs and feet, none of our birds has these members sol- idly black, but they are more or less spotted or blotched with approximately the color of the bill. Ridgway (Birds N. and l?Iid. Amer., viii, 1919, p. 472) saYs? "legs and feet black". Cones (Key, 5th ed., 1903, p. 1007) says: "Feet black; soles and under surfaces of claws slightly yellow/sh". This latter state- ment more nearly agrees with the condition of our birds. As to plumage, the Morro series agrees with R/dgway's description (loc. cit.) of what he terms the "post-nuptial (?) plumage". Note the question-. mark. Neither am ! able to decide definitely as to age. All seven of our birds are in the same stage, whatever it may be, and all seem to have completed a molt recently. The tail tips are but little, or not at all, worn. In all of the skins there is the eosine pink blush on the underparts, this involving not only