MARSH OR GULL BILLED TERN. 129 



The Marsh Tern swims buoyantly but not swiftly, and when wounded 

 does not attempt to dive, but when taken in the hand bites rather 

 severely, though without uttering cries, in which latter respect it differs 

 from the other species. Whilst travelling or inspecting the pools of 

 the marshes, or the bayous intersecting them, it passes at a consider- 

 able height with quickly repeated movements of the wings, and when 

 looking for food, it darts through the air and slides toward the waters, 

 as if about to dive for fish. I have observed them coming over large mud- 

 flats and marshes to bayous, apparently for the latter purpose ; but I 

 believe that these birds never immerse themselves in the water, as 

 other Terns are wont to do ; nor do I think that they procvire fish, as, 

 on examining a number of individuals near the mouths of the Missis- 

 sippi, in the Texas, and at Great Egg Harbour, I never found any other 

 food in their stomachs than insects of various kinds, including coleop- 

 tera, which were unknown to me. In many instances, when near the 

 places first mentioned, my friend Edward Harris and myself saw them 

 catching insects on wing over a small pond of almost putrid water, the 

 surface of which was entirely covered with a thick green layer of water- 

 plants. The same manner of procuring food was observed over the 

 dry land at Barataria, where they seized insects by diving as it were 

 close to the ground and again rising to a considerable height. Their 

 plunges were performed with great velocity, generally by the males and 

 females alternately. In two or three instances, I have seen some of 

 these birds plunge towards the water at sea, but always close on the 

 shore, and have supposed that when insects are scarce on the land, par- 

 ticularly during their migration southward, they may be forced to feed 

 upon fish ; but this is merely a supposition, in support of which I have 

 no fact to offer. I look upon what has been said as to their feeding 

 along the sea^shores " almost exclusively on strand birds and their eggs," 

 as ridiculous and absm-d. 



On the 24th of May I observed this species mastered and driven 

 from its feeding grounds by the King-birds, Muscicapa Tyrannus, and 

 the Martins, Hirundo purpurea. I am inclined to believe that these 

 birds migrate in the same manner as many of our terrestrial species, 

 that is, the females first, by themselves, and afterwards the males. 



The Marsh Tern deposits its three eggs on the dried rushes found 

 in the salt marshes at a short distance from the water, and carefully 

 placed beyond reach of any ordinary encroachment of the tides ; for, as 

 Wilson has truly said, this species forms no nest. The eggs difffer con- 



VOL. v. I 



