MARSH TERN. 151 



the tail, which was white, shafted, and broadly centred 

 with black. 



The birds from which these descriptions were taken, 

 were shot on the 25th of May, before they had begun 

 to breed. The female contained a great number of eggs, 

 the largest of which were about the size of duck shot; 

 the stomach, in both, was an oblong pouch, ending in a 

 remarkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered or plaited, 

 containing the half dissolved fragments of the small 

 silver sides, pieces of shrimps, small crabs, and skippers, 

 or sand fleas. 



On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia these 

 birds are seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several 

 hundreds together. There more than twenty nests have 

 been found within the space of a square rod. The young 

 are, at first, so exactly of a colour with the sand on 

 which they sit, as to be with difficulty discovered, unless 

 after a close search. 



The sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his 

 young are fit for the journey. He is found on various 

 coasts of Asia, as well as America, residing principally 

 near the tropics, and migrating into the temperate 

 regions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing his 

 young. He is rarely or never seen far out at sea, and 

 must not be mistaken for another bird of the same 

 name, a species of petrel,* which is met with on every 

 part of the ocean, skimming, with bended wings, along 

 the summits, declivities, and hollows of the waves. 



GENUS LX1I.- STERNA, LINNJJUS. 



247. STERNA ARANEA, WILSON. MARSH TERN. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. VI. 



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 



* ProceUaria Pitffinus, the Sheerwater PetreL 



