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SWIFT TERN. 
ruppell’s tern. 
Sterna velox , Ruppell. 
Sterna —. ? Velox —Swift. 
This species has occurred in Europe, in Hungary; and in 
Africa is found from the Red Sea to the Cape of G-ood Hope. 
In Ireland one of these birds was shot, as recorded by the 
late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, in the ‘Annals and 
Magazine of Natural History,’ at Sutton, near Dublin, in the 
end of December, 1846, and two others were seen in company 
with it at the time. 
Like all the others of their class, they possess great powers 
of flight, and their rapid wheelings and turnings are performed 
with every variety of graceful attitude. It would seem almost 
paradoxical to attribute superior qualities in this respect to 
one of these birds over others, where all are so highly gifted, 
but the name assigned to this Tern would appear to imply 
that it is ‘kat exoken,’ the swift one—the swiftest of the 
swift, where all are swift—the lightest of the light-winged, 
where all are light-winged. 
Male; length, one foot eight inches; bill, yellowish horn- 
colour. Forehead, white; crown, neck on the back, and nape, 
black; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, rather dark 
bluish grey. The wings extend to the end of the longest 
feathers of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, rather 
dark bluish grey; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, grey; 
greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Legs and toes, 
black; webs, black. 
