640 GULL-BILLED TERN. 



larger and paler race, which breeds in Australia and was distinguished 

 by Gould as S. macroiarsa. In America the Gull-billed Tern nests 

 along the east coast from New Jersey to Texas, as well as in the 

 Bahamas, Cuba &c., and probably on the back-waters near Santa 

 Catarina in Brazil ; while it ranges as far south as Patagonia. On 

 the Pacific side the late Mr. Salvin obtained it in Guatemala. 



A slight hollow scratched in the earth or sand, lined with a few 

 fragments of sea-weed or dried grass, serves as the receptacle for the 

 eggs, which are 2 or 3 in number ; their ground-colour is usually 

 pale buff — occasionally of a greenish tint which soon fades — 

 blotched and spotted with several shades of brown : measurements 

 2 by i'4 in. During the breeding-season the note resembles the 

 syllables c/ie-dh, but at other times the bird utters a laughing af, af, 

 af, like a Gull. In Ceylon Col. Legge found it feeding on frogs, 

 crabs and fish ; in Egypt Von Heuglin observed it darting into the 

 dense smoke of a prairie fire in pursuit of locusts ; and in Algeria 

 Salvin noticed it hovering over grass fields, and pouncing upon 

 grasshoppers and beetles ; it also captures many species of insects 

 on the wing. Its flight is graceful but not very rapid, the long wings 

 being plied with steady measured strokes. 



The adult in summer has the forehead, crown and nape jet black ; 

 upper parts pearl-grey, except where the frosting has been rubbed off 

 the primaries, which are then darker, especially on the edges of the 

 inner webs ; under-parts white ; bill black, very stout and strong ; 

 legs and feet black, with a tinge of red. Length 15 in. (bill i'q), 

 wing 1 2 "5 in. In winter the head is white, with ash-grey streaks, 

 some of which unite and form patches before and behind the eye 

 and on the ear-coverts. The young bird is mottled and striped with 

 brown, tinged with buff on the upper parts, while the bill and legs 

 are brown ; and even in the second year, when breeding begins, the 

 latter are still livid. 



This species occupies a position between the Marsh- and the 

 typical Terns. The toes are almost as fully webbed as in the true 

 Sea-Terns ; while the tail is short, and the lateral feathers are slightly 

 rounded, though more pointed than in the Marsh-Terns, The bill 

 is remarkably robust and obtuse; and the tarsus is proportionately 

 longer than in any other species. For these reasons the bird has 

 justifiably been made the type of the genus Gelochelidon, which I 

 have accepted (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv, p. 4 and p. 25); but, 

 inasmuch as genera are matters of convenience, I do not lay stress 

 upon its use in the present work. 



