AVES—NODDY...GULL. 655 
Among the foreign birds of the tern genus, there are some found of a 
snowy white; but the most singular bird of this kind is the striated tern, 
which is found at New Zealand. It is thirteen incnes in length. The hill 
is black, and the body in general mottled, or rather striped with black and 
white. . 
THE NODDY® 
Is about fifteen inches long. The bill is black, and two inches Jong, and the 
whole plumage a sooty brown, except the top of the head, which is white. 
It is a very common bird in the tropical seas, where it is known frequently 
to fly on board ships, and is taken with the hand. But though it be thus 
stupid, it bites the fingers severely, so as to make it unsafe to hold it. It is 
said to breed in the Bahama Islands. 
THE GULL? 
Anp all its varieties, is well known to most readers. It is seen with slow 
sailing flight hovering over rivers, to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish ; 
it is seen following the ploughman in fallow fields to pick up insects; and 
1 Sterna stolida, Lat. 
*The genus Larus, which comprises most of the gulls has the bill Jong, or middle 
sized, strong, hard, compressed, edged, bent toward the tip; lower mandible angulated 
near the point; nostrils lateral! in the middle of the bill, longitudinaily cleft, straight, and 
pervious ; legs slender, naked above the knee; tarsus long; three fore toes quite webbed, 
the hinder free, short, placed high on the tarsus; tail feathers of equal length; wings .ong. 
