STERNA.] AVES NATATORES. 269 



these parts are often found mottled with black upon a white ground. 

 (Young of the year.) " Forehead, space between the eye and the bill, 

 sides and front of the neck, as well as all the under parts, pure white : 

 on the sides of the breast a large patch of dusky ash : before the eyes 

 a crescent-shaped spot of the same colour: crown, occiput and nape, 

 black: back and scapulars brown, the feathers edged and tipped with 

 reddish white: wings, rump and tail, ash-colour; the wing-coverts 

 tipped with reddish white : bill brown at the base : irides brown : legs 

 liyid brown." TEMM. (Egg.) Dark olive-brown, blotched and spotted 

 with black, principally at the larger end : long. diam. one inch five lines ; 

 trans, diam. one inch. 



A more inland species than any of the foregoing. Found principally 

 in marshes, and on the banks of rivers and lakes. First seen towards the 

 latter end of April : departs in October. Common in Romney Marsh in 

 Kent, and also in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, where 

 they breed. Eggs two to four in number, deposited on the bare grass 

 in swampy and sedgy spots. Young hatched in the beginning of July. 

 Food, worms and aquatic insects. Obs. The S. ncevia of Gmelin is the 

 young of this species. 



288. S. Anglica, Mont. (Gull-billed Tern.) Bill 

 short and thick ; entirely black : legs long ; black : claws 

 nearly straight : tarsus one inch three or four lines : tail 

 not much forked, considerably shorter than the wings. 



S. Anglica, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 744. Gull-billed Tern, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. with fig. Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 480. 

 pi. 88. f. 1. 



DIMENS. Entire length thirteen inches six lines : length of the bill 

 (from the forehead) one inch six lines, (from the gape) one inch ten lines 

 and a half; of the tarsus one inch two lines and a half to four lines and 

 a half*. 



DESCRIPT. (Summer plumage.) Forehead, crown, occiput and nape, 

 deep black ; the feathers on this last part long and silky : all the rest of 

 the upper plumage pale bluish ash : quills dusky gray, having a hoary 

 appearance ; the tips of the first five black : under parts white : wings 

 extending three inches beyond the extremity of the tail : bill deep black ; 

 remarkably thick and strong ; gonys of the lower mandible ascending ; 

 mental angle very prominent, as in the genus Larus : irides brown : legs 

 long; black, with a reddish tinge: toes long; the claws unusually 

 straight; membranes deeply emarginated. (Winter plumage.) Forehead 

 and crown white ; anterior angle of the eye, and spot behind the ears, 

 grayish black : the rest as in summer, with the exception of the primary- 

 quills, which are not quite so deeply coloured at the tips. (Young of the 

 year.) "Crown white, with small longitudinal brownish streaks: back 

 and wings bluish ash, mixed with gray and yellowish brown: all the 

 under parts pure white : quills brownish ash : tail very little forked, ash- 

 colour, the tips of the feathers white : base of the bill yellowish ; the rest, 

 towards the tip, dusky brown : legs brown." TEMM. (Egg.) Dark olive- 

 brown, spotted with ash-colour and two shades of dark red-brown : long, 

 diam. one inch eleven lines ; trans, diam. one inch four lines. 



* A difference of two lines was found in the length of the tarsus in two British-killed specimens 

 in the British Museum. 



