2GG LARIDiE. 



RUPPELL'S TERN.^ 



Sterna velox, Ruppell. 

 Has been once obtained. 



In the 'Annals of Nat. Hist.' for September 1847 (vol. xs. 

 p. 170), I published the following notice of tliis species : — "In 

 March last I had the opportunity of examining, in Mr. R. Ball's 

 possession in Dublin, a specimen of a tern, the species of which I 

 did not know. It was left by a young taxidermist at my friend's 

 house early in the month of January, and apparently had been 

 but recently skinned. Mr. Watters, jun., to whom the specimen 

 now belongs, assured me, that he saw it in a fresh state, and that 

 it was killed near Sutton — a place on the road between Dubhn 

 and Howth — at the end of December 1846; two others of the 

 same species were stated by the shooter to have been in company 

 with it. As the bird was unknown to me, I noted down the fol- 

 lowing particulars of it, which are given here that others may have 

 an opportunity of forming their judgment upon the species : — 



Length, total (stiiffed), to the end of longest tail-feathers 



„ of bill above from forehead to point 

 „ „ from rictus to point 



„ of wing from carpus 



„ of tarsus about 



„ of middle toe to base of nail 



,, of nail itself measured iu a straight line about 



Wing and longest tail-feathers about of equal length ; outer or 

 longest tail-feathers exceed the middle by tlu-ee inches. Bill whoUy 

 yellowish horn- colour ; legs and toes wholly black. Colour of 

 entire plumage the same as that of the common tern [S. Idrundd), 

 but the back is rather of a darker shade than that of the latter 

 when adult. The black of the head does not reach withhi one- 



* I am happy to connect, in English, the name of its describer with the bird — not 

 as a matter of any honom* to one so eminently distinguished as a traveller and a 

 natiu'alist, but as a personal reminiscence of a gcutleuiau whom I highly esteem. 



in. 



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