SOOTY TERN. 265 



abundant during the day as the other species, of which many were caught 

 at my desire by the sailors. 



The present species rarely alights on the water, where it seems in- 

 commoded by its long tail ; but the other, the Sterna stolida, which, in 

 the shape of its tail, and in some of its habits, shews an affinity to the 

 Petrels, not only frequently alights on the sea, but swims about on float- 

 ing patches of the Gulf Weed, seizing on the small fry and little crabs 

 that are found among the branches of that plant, or immediately beneath 

 them. 



I have often thought, since I became acquainted with the habits of 

 the bird which here occupies our attention, that it differs materially from 

 all the other species of the same genus that occur on our coasts. The 

 Sterna ful'tginosa never dives headlong and perpendicularly as the smaller 

 species are wont to do, such as St. Hirundo, St. arctica, St. minuta, St. 

 Dougallii, or St. nigra, but passes over its prey in a curved line, and 

 picks it up. Its action I cannot better compare to that of any other bird 

 than the Night Hawk, while plunging over its female. I have often ob- 

 served this Tern follow and hover in the wake of a porpoise, while the 

 latter was pursuing its prey, and at the instant when by a sudden dash 

 it frightens and drives toward the surface the fry around it, the Tern as 

 suddenly passes over the spot, and picks up a small fish or two. 



Nor is the flight of this Tern characterized by the buoyancy and un- 

 decidedness, if I may so speak, of the other species mentioned above, it 

 being as firm and steady as that of the Cayenne Tern, excepting during 

 the movements performed in procuring its food. Like some of the smaller 

 gulls, this bird not unfrequently hovers close to the water to pick up 

 floating objects, such as small bits of fat pork and greasy substances 

 thrown overboard purposely for making the experiment. It is not im- 

 probable that the habits peculiar to this species, the Noddy, and one or 

 two others, of which I shall have occasion to speak elsewhere, may tend 

 to induce systematic writers to place them in a new " subgenus." 



There is a circumstance connected with the habits of the two species 

 of which I now more particularly speak, which, although perhaps some- 

 what out of place, I cannot refrain from introducing here. It is that the 

 Sterna stolida always forms a nest mi trees or bushes, on which that bird 

 alights with as much ease as a Crow or Thrush ; whereas the Sterna fuli- 

 ginosa never forms a nest of any sort, but deposits its eggs in a sh'o-lit 



