654 AVES—TERN. 
The tail is short and forked. It inhabits all America; is common.y or the 
wing, and skims along the surface to catch the small fish on which it feeds. 
it is frequently known by the name of the razor-bill. 
‘ 
THE GREAT TERN! 
Is about fourteen inches long, and weighs four ounces and a quarter. The 
bill and feet area fine crimson; the former is tipped with black, and very 
slender. The back of the head is black; the upper part of the body a pale 
gray, and the under part white. These birds have been called sea swallows, 
as they appear to have all the same actions at sea that the swallow has at 
land, seizing every insect which appears on the surface, and darting down 
upon the smaller fishes, which they seize with incredible rapidity. 
THE LESSER TERN? 
WEIGHS only two ounces and five grains. The bill is yellow; and from the 
eyes to the bill is a black line. In other respects, it almost exactly resein- 
bles the preceding. 
1 Sterna hirundo, Lix. The genus Sterna has the bill as long as, or longer than the 
head, almost straight, compressed, slender, edged, and pointed ; mandibles of equai 
length, the upper slightly sloping towards the tip; nostrils in the middle of the bill longi- 
tudinally cleft and pervious; legs small, naked above the knee; tarsus very short, the 
three anterior toes connected by a membrane, the hinder detached; tail more or less 
forked ; wings very long, and pointed. 
2 Sterna nrinzta, Lin. 
