654 



AVES— TERN. 



The tail is short and forked. It inhabits all America ; is commonly on the 

 wing, and skims along the surface to catch the small fish on which it ieeds. 

 it is frequently known by the name of the razor-bill. 



THE GREAT TERN* 



Is about fourteen inches long, and weighs four ounces and a quarter. The 

 bill and feet are a fine crimson ; the former is tipped with black, and very 

 slender. The back of the head is black ; the upper part of the body a pale 

 gray, and the under part white. These birds have been called sea swallows, 

 as they appear to have all the same actions at sea that the swallow has at 

 land, seizing every insect which appears on the surface, and darting down 

 upon the smaller fishes, which they seize with incredible rapidity. 



THE LESSER TERN 2 



Weighs only two ounces and five grains. The bill is yellow ; and from the 

 eyes to the bill is a black line. In other respects, it almost exactly resem- 

 bles the preceding. 



1 Sterna hirundo, Lin. The genus Sterna has the bill as long as, or longer than the 

 head, almost straight, compressed, slender, edged, and pointed ; mandibles of equai 

 length, the upper slightly sloping towards the tip; nostrils in the middle of the bill longi- 

 tudinally cleft and pervious; legs small, naked above the knee; tarsus very short, the 

 three anterior toes connected by a membrane, the hinder detached ; tail more or less 

 forked; wings very long, and pointed. 



2 Sterna minuta, Lin. 



