SPECIES 5. STERNA FULIGINOSA. 



SOOTY TERN. 

 [Plate LXXIL Fig. 7.] 



Le Hirondelle de Mer & grande enverguer, BUFF, vm, p. 345.- 

 E bird, FORST. Voy.p. 113. Noddy, DAMP. Voy. m,p. 142. 

 Jlrct. Zool. No. 447. LATH. Syn. in, p. 352. PEALE'S Mu- 

 seum, JVb. 3459.* 



THIS bird has been long known to navigators, as its appear- 

 ance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land; instances, how- 

 ever, have occurred in which they have been met with one 

 hundred leagues from shore, f The species is widely dispersed 

 over the various shores of the ocean. They were seen by Dam- 

 pier in New Holland; are in prodigious numbers in the island 

 of Ascension; and in Christmas Island are said to lay, in De- 

 cember, one egg on the ground j the egg is yellowish, with brown 

 and violet spots.:}: In passing along the northern shores of Cu- 

 ba and the coast of Florida and Georgia, in the month of July, 

 I observed this species very numerous and noisy, dashing down 

 headlong after small fish. I shot and dissected several, and 

 found their stomachs uniformly filled with fish. I could per- 

 ceive little or no difference between the colours of the male and 

 female. 



Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet 

 six inches; bill an inch and a half long, sharp pointed and round- 

 ed above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point; 

 nostril an oblong slit, colour of the bill glossy black; irides 

 dusky; forehead as far as the eyes white; whole lower parts and 



* Sterna fuUginosa, GMEL. Syst. r, p. 605. Ind. Orn. p. 804, No. 4. Gen. 

 Syn. in, p- 352, No. 4. 



t Cook, Voy. T, p. 275 \ Turton. 



