THE SHORT-TAILED TERN. 551 
first four primaries grayish-black, with their shafts white; bend of the wing edged 
with white; tail same color as the back; bill brownish-black; iris brown; legs and 
feet reddish-brown. 
Young. — Back, wings, and tail, light-plumbeous, with the feathers of the back 
margined with brown; top of the head and around the eye brownish-black; front 
and under plumage white; tail short, and but slightly forked. 
Length, nine and a half inches; wing, eight and a half; tail, three and a half 
inches. 
Hab. — Texas to the New-England States, Mississippi River, and tributaries; fur 
countries. 
This species is included on the above authority. Wilson 
describes its habits as follows : — 
“T examined upwards of thirty individuals of this species by 
dissection, and found both sexes alike in color. Their stomachs 
contained grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, &c., but no fish. The 
people on the seacoast inform me, that this bird comes to them 
only in the fall, or towards the end of summer, and is more fre- 
quently seen about the mill-ponds and fresh-water marshes than 
in the bays; and add, that it feeds on grasshoppers and other 
insects, which it finds on the meadows and marshes, picking them 
from the grass, as well as from the surface of the water. “They 
have never known it to associate with the Lesser Tern, and 
consider it altogether a different bird. This opinion seems con- 
firmed by the above circumstances, and by the fact of its greater 
extent of wing, being full three inches wider than the Lesser 
Tern, and also making its appearance after the others have 
gone off.” 
Audubon describes the bird as placing its nest on the top 
of a broken tussock of the rankest grasses, of which the fabric 
is itself composed; it is of a flattish form, and about two 
inches thick. It is enlarged or renewed every year, some 
nests being found to be from four to six inches in height. 
The eggs, laid early in June, are four in number, 13 by 1 
inch in dimensions, and are of nearly an elliptical form, 
being but slightly pointed at one end: their ground-color is 
greenish-buff, spotted and dashed with reddish-umber and 
black, more abundantly towards the middle. 
