247 



CRESTED TERY. 



Sterna cristata, SWAINS. 

 PLATE XXX. 



Large ; bill orange ; head and nape black and subcrested ; 

 wines and tail of equal length, the latter entirely white ; 

 feet black ; tarsus one inch long. 



THE Terns, or Sea Swallows, although distributed 

 over all temperate and tropical shores, are much 

 more restricted in the geographic range of the 

 species than has heen generally supposed. The 

 great similarity of their plumage, and the little at- 

 tention which the foreign species have as yet re- 

 ceived from modern writers, renders it impossible to 

 determine which have, and which have not. been 

 described. We shall consequently regard the four 

 here enumerated as new : for they will not agree, 

 in all points, with any of those enumerated in the 

 works we have consulted. It has been well ob- 

 served, that a bad description is worse than useless, 

 inasmuch as it not only prevents the clear deter- 

 mination of the species intended by others, but em* 

 barrasses all succeeding investigations with doubts 

 and difficulties. Those we shall here notice may 

 possibly have been described long ago ; but if so, 



