THE GULL-BILLED, OR MARSH TERN. 403 



could find it out, as they all come in consequence of natural 

 causes, causes which are always intimately connected with 

 the state of the weather.* 



Terns are abundant upon the shores of most countries, 

 and the species also are numerous. There are about eight 

 which appear regularly or occasionally upon the British 

 shores. 



THE GULL-BILLED, OR MARSH TERN (Sterna anglica). 



This species has, rather inappropriately, got the name of 

 anglica, or English, because it has been met with as a very 

 rare straggler in that part of Britain. It is a bird both of 

 the continent of Europe and of Asia, though in the former, 

 from which the stragglers that have been seen in this country 

 have in all probability come, its native localities lie much out 

 of the direction of Engknd. It inhabits the marshes in 

 Hungary and along the valley of the Danube towards the 

 Black Sea, nearly the same localities as those of the little 

 gull. Length about fourteen inches, breadth thirty-four ; 

 bill strong and black, with a projecting angle at the middle 

 of the lower mandible like the gulls ; head and nape black ; 

 upper part greyish white, with white shafts to the quills and 

 tail feathers ; line from the gape to the eye, and all the 

 under part, white ; tail forked, wings extending more than 

 two inches beyond the tail, feet black ; young with the head 

 white, more and more dusky as they approach to maturity ; 

 nest in the dry grass, eggs three or four, greenish olive with 

 brown spots. In winter, the colour of the head fades nearly 

 to white. It is but justice to add, that though this is both 

 a continental and an Asiatic species, Colonel Montagu was 

 the first to make it known to naturalists from a straggler 



* The following species of tern are common to America and the Old 

 World : Sterna Mrundo, S. arctica, S. Dougalii, S. stolida, S. Boysii 

 (which is the S. cantiaca of Gmelin), and S. nigra. M. 



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