fififi 



GELOCHELIDON ANGLICA. THE MARSH GULL- 

 BILLED TERN. 



Gull-billed Tern. Sterna Anglica. Mont. Ornith. Diet, and Supplt. 



Sterna Anglica. Flem. Brit. Anim. 143. 



flirondelle-de-mer Hansel. Sterna Anglica. Temm. Man. d'Ornith. II. 



744 ; IV. 462. 

 Gull-billed Tern. Sterna Anglica. Selby, lUustr. Brit. Ornitb. II. 480. 

 Sterna Anglica. Jenyns, Brit. Vert. Anim. 269. 

 Marsb or Gull-billed Tern. Sterna Anglica. Audub. Orn. Biogr. V. 127. 



Bill and feet black ; hind claiv straight. In summer, the 

 upper part of the head black, its sides, the fore-neck, and all 

 the lower -parts white ; the upper parts pale greyish-blue. In 

 winter, the forehead and top of the head white, a black 

 crescent before the eyes, and a spot of the same behind them. 



Male in Summer. — The Gull-billed Tern being of very- 

 rare occurrence in England, I am obliged to describe it from 

 American specimens supplied by Mr. Audubon. It is of the 

 ordinary form of the larger Terns, having the body slender, 

 the neck of moderate length, the head ovato-oblong. The 

 bill about the length of the head, rather stout, compressed, 

 acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight for 

 half its length, then arcuato-declinate, the ridge rather 

 broad and convex, gradually narrowed to the end, the sides 

 convex, the edges sharp and inflexed, the tip slender, but 

 slightly obtuse ; nasal groove nearly half the length of the 

 bill; lower mandible with the angle very narrow, the junc- 

 tion of the crura beyond the middle considerably prominent, 

 the dorsal line ascending, straight, the sides erect and 

 slightly convex, the edges sharp, the tip acute. 



Nostrils sub-basal, oblong, direct, pervious. Eyes of 

 moderate size. Feet small; tibia bare for nearly half an 



