36 GREAT TERN. 



twenty-fifth of May, before they had begun to breed. The female con- 

 tained a great number of eggs, the largest of which were about the size 

 of duck-shot ; the stomach, in both, was an oblong pouch, ending in a 

 remarkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered or plaited, containing the 

 half dissolved fragments of the small silver-sides, pieces of shrimps, 

 small crabs, and skippers, or sand fleas. 



On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia, these birds are 

 seen, on low sand-bars, in flocks of several hundreds together. There 

 more than twenty nests have been found within the space of a square 

 rod. The young are at first so exactly of a color with the sand on 

 which they sit, as to be with difiiculty discovered, unless after a close 

 search. 



The Shearwater leaves our shores soon after his young are fit for the 

 journey. He is found on various coasts of Asia, as well as America, 

 residing principally near the tropics ; and migrating into the temperat-e 

 regions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing his young. He is 

 rarely or never seen far out at sea ; and must not be mistaken for 

 another bird of the same name, a species of Petrel,* which is met with 

 on every part of the ocean, skimming with bended wings along the sum- 

 mits, declivities, and hollows of the waves. 



Genus XCIII. STERNA. TERN. 

 Species I. STERNA HIRUNDO. 



GREAT TERN. 



[Plate LX. Fig. 1.] 



Arct. Zool. p. 524. — No. 448. — Le pierre garin, ou grande Hirondelle de mer, Buff. 

 VIII., 331. PL Enl. 987.— Bewick, ii., ISl.f 



This bird belongs to a tribe very generally dispersed over the shores 

 of the ocean. Their generic characters are these : — Bill straight, sharp 

 pointed, a little compressed and strong ; nostrils linear ; tongue slender, 

 poinied ; legs short ; feet webbed ; hind toe and its nail straight ; wings 

 long ; tail generally forked. Turton enumerates twenty-five species of 

 this genus, scattered over various quarters of the world ; six of which, 

 at least, are natives of the United States. From their long pointed 

 wings they are generally known to seafaring people, and others residing 



* ProceUaria Puffinus, the Shearwater Petrel. 



t Sterna Hirundo, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 606. — Ind. Orn. p. 807, No. 15. — Briss. vi., 

 p. 203, pi. 19, &e,. 1.— Temm. Mm. d'Orn. p. 740. 



Il 



