BRITISH BIRDS. 183 



THE GULL-BILLED TERX. 



(Sterna Anglica, Mont. FTiroiidcllc <ic mcr hansel, 

 Temm.) 



THIS bird was first pointed out as a distinct 

 species by Montagu, it having before been con- 

 founded with the Sandwich Tern, from which, he 

 says, it differs in a variety of respects. The bill is 

 about an inch and a half long, thick, strong, and 

 angulated on the under mandible, like the bill of a 

 Gull, and wholly black; the upper part of the head, 

 taking in the eyes, is black, which extends down 

 part of the neck; the upper parts of the plumage, 

 including the tail and its upper coverts, are 

 cinereous, the outer feathers of the tail, on each 

 side, only being white. The quills are hoary, but 

 the tips of the first five are black, for an inch or 

 more, without the smallest margin of white on that 

 part; a part of the inner webs are white, but it 

 does not quite reach the margins, the very edges 

 being dusky for half the length of the feathers. 

 The legs rather exceed two inches in length from 

 the heel to the knee, their colour rufous black ; the 

 toes are longer than those of the Sandwich Tern, 

 especially the middle one, and the claws unusually 

 straight. 



We have been favoured with a specimen of a bird 

 said to be the Gull-billed Tern, but the characters 

 are so obscurely marked, that we do not feel 

 authorized in giving a figure of it. 



