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 : — 



" I 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, 1| by 1 

 inch in dimensions, and are of nearly an elliptical form, 

 being but slightly pointed at one end : their ground-color is 

 greenish-bufif, spotted and dashed with reddish-umber and 

 black, more abundantly towards the middle. 



