SPECIES 3. STERNA 



MARSH TERN. 

 [Plate LXXIL Fig. 6.] 



PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 3521. 



THIS new species I first met with on the shores of Cape May, 

 particularly over the salt marshes, and darting down after a kind 

 of large black spider, plenty in such places. This spider can 

 travel under water as well as above, and, during summer at 

 least, seems to constitute the principal food of the present Tern. 

 In several which I opened, the stomach was crammed with a 

 mass of these spiders alone; these they frequently pick up from 

 the pools as well as from the grass, dashing down on them in 

 the manner of their tribe. Their voice is sharper and stronger 

 than that of the Common Tern; the bill is differently formed, 

 being shorter, more rounded above, and thicker; the tail is also 

 much shorter, and less forked. They do not associate with the 

 others; but keep in small parties by themselves. 



The Marsh Tern is fourteen inches in length, and thirty-four 

 in extent; bill thick, much rounded above, and of a glossy 

 blackness; whole upper part of the head and hind neck black; 

 whole upper part of the body hoary white; shafts of the quill 

 and tail feathers pure white; line from the nostril under the eye, 

 and whole lower parts pure white; tail forked, the outer feath- 

 ers about an inch and three-quarters longer than the middle ones, 

 the wings extend upwards of two inches beyond the tail; legs 

 and feet black, hind toe small, straight, and pointed. 



The female, as to plumage, differs in nothing from the male. 

 The yearling birds, several of which I met with, have the plu- 

 mage of the crown white at the surface, but dusky below; so 

 that the boundaries of the black; as it will be in the perfect bird, 



