GREAT TERN. 153 



248. STERtfJ. BIRUXDOy LINN.-EUS. GREAT TERN. 

 WILSON, PLATE LX. FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THIS bird belongs to a tribe very generally dispersed 

 over the shores of the ocean. Their generic characters 

 are these : Bill, straight, sharp pointed, a little com- 

 pressed and strong ; nostrils, linear ; tongue, slender, 

 pointed; legs, short; feet, webbed; hind toe 'and its 

 nail, straight; wings, long; tail, generally forked. 

 Turton enumerates twenty-live species of this genus, 

 scattered over various quarters of the world ; six of 

 which, at least, are natives of the United States. From 

 their long pointed wings, they are generally known to 

 seafaring people and others residing near the sea-shore 

 by the name of sea swallows ; though some few, from 

 their near resemblance, are confounded witli the gulls. 



The present species, or great tern, is common to the 

 shores of Europe, Asia, and America. It arrives on 

 the coast of New Jersey about the middle or 20th of 

 April, led, no doubt, by the multitudes of fish which at 

 that season visit our shallow bays and inlets. By many 

 it is called the sheep's-head gull, from arriving about 

 the same time with the fish of that name. 



About the middle or 20th of May this bird commences 

 laying. The preparation of a nest, which costs most 

 other birds so much time and ingenuity, is here 

 altogether dispensed with. The eggs, generally three 

 in number, are placed on the surface of the dry drift 

 grass, on the beach or salt marsh, and covered by the 

 female only during the night, or in wet, raw, or stormy 

 weather. At all other times the hatching of them is 

 left to the heat of the sun. These eggs measure an 

 inch and three-quarters in length, by about an inch and 

 two-tenths in width, and are of a yellowish dun colour, 

 sprinkled with dark brown and pale Indian ink. Not- 

 withstanding they seem thus negligently abandoned 

 during the day, it is very different in reality. One or 

 both of the parents are generally fishing within view of 



