GULL-BILLED TERN. 



GA VI ^. 



531 

 LA RID. K. 



Sterna anglica, Montagu.* 



THE GULL-BILLED TERN. 



Sterna anglica. 



Sterna, Brisson\. — Bill longer than the head; nearly straight, compressed, 

 often slender and tapering, with the edges sharp, and the end pointed ; the 

 mandibles of equal length, the upper one slightly decurved. Nostrils near the 

 middle of the beak, pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs slender, naked for a 

 short space above the tarsal joint ; tarsi short. Toes four : the three in front 

 united by intervening membranes concave in front, or semi-palmated ; the hind 

 toe free; claws curved. Wings long, pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. 

 Tail distinctly forked in varying degrees. 



This species was first made known by Colonel Montagu, 

 wlio gave a figure and description of it in the Supplement to 

 his Ornithological Dictionary; one specimen was shot by 

 himself in Sussex, and he saw two others that had been 

 killed at Rye. The birds obtained were at first confounded 

 with the Sandwich Tern, but the different form and length 

 of the bill soon led Montagu to a just appreciation of the 

 specific distinctions, and he called the j^resent bird S. anglica, 

 because it was not kuown to him as existing elsewhere. 



* Supp. Ornith. Diet. (181M). 



t Ornithologie, vi. p. 202 (1760). 



