Py\LMlPEDES. 367 



tlie two middle quills of the tail are double the length of the others. 

 It is very rare in France. When young it is all brown, and is then 

 the Lar. crepidatus, Gni. ; Enl. 991, or better, Edw. 149*. 



The arctic regions produce a species of the size of a Goeland, 

 which is brown, with the base of the wing-quills white, Lar. cata- 

 ractes, Gm., Brit. Zool. pi. L, 0; and another the size of a Mouette, 

 brown above, white underneath, with a brown collar on the breast, 

 the Lestris pomarinus, Tern, -j- 



Sterna:}:, Lin. 



The Terns, or Sea-Swallows, derive this latter appellation from their 

 excessively long and pointed wings and from their forked tail, which ren- 

 der their flight and carriage analogous to those of Swallows. Their bill 

 is pointed, compressed, and straight, without curve or projection; the 

 nostrils, towards the base, are oblong and pierced quite through; the 

 membranes which unite their toes are deeply emarginate, consequently 

 they swim but seldom. They fly over the waves in every direction and 

 with great rapidity, uttering loud cries, and skilfully raising from the sur- 

 face of the water the moUusca and small fish on which they feed. They 

 also penetrate to the lakes and rivers of the interior. The most common 

 species that is found on the fresh waters of France in the spring is, 



St. hirundo, L, ; Pierre-Garin, or Hirondelle de mer a bee rouge, 

 &c., Enl. 987; Frisch, 219; Naum. 37, f. 52; Wils. VII, Ix, 1. 

 (The Common Tern). In the adult state white, with a light ash- 

 coloured mantle, black calotte, red feet, and red bill with a black 

 point. It is about one foot long, and two feet from the tip of one 

 wing to that of the other. 



St. minuta, L.; Petit Hir. de mer, Enl. 996; Wils. V, Ix, 2; 

 Naum. 38, f. 55. (The Small Tern). Only differs from the pre- 

 ceding by being a third smaller, and having a white forehead. 



St. cantiaca, Albin. II, Ixxxviii; Hir. de mer a bee noir, is larger 

 ' than aS'. hirundo ; the bill is black, with a yellow point: the St.' striata, 

 Gm., Lath. VI, pi. 98, is its young. 



St. caspia, Pall. Sparm., Mus. Carls., Ixii; Meyer, Ois. d'Al- 

 lem., II, vi; Sav., Egypt., Ois. pi. ix, F. 1. (The Caspian Tern). 

 The largest of the European species; white, with an ash-coloured 

 mantle ; occiput, black and white mixed ; red bill and black feet. 



St. niyra, fissipes and ncevia; Hir. de mer noire, Enl. 338 and 

 924; Frisch, 220. (The Black Tern). The tail less forked; 

 when 'yo"i^g> its mantle is spotted Avith black ; the adult is almost 

 entirely of a blackish ash-colour. 



Among the species foreign to Europe, we should notice the Hir. 



* The L. crepidatus, Brehm. is identical with the L. Buffonli, Boie, Enl. 762, — 

 Eng. Ed. 



f I cannot affirm the identity of the Lestris catarractes, Freycin. 38, and of the 

 Slercoreus pomarinus, Vieill. Gal. 288, with the above species. 



X Stern, or Tern, is their English name, latinized as above by Turner, and ad- 

 mitted by Gesner. 



