652 BIRDS — LAEID-a;. 



erable flocks ; in fall it is rather more regular, but in less numbers than 

 in spring, single birds or pairs often lingering for several days about 

 favorite feeding places. 



Audubon first saw this bird when crossing the Ohio from Cincinnati to 

 Newport, Kentucky, to view the nests of the Clifi' Swallows, in 1819. 



Genus XEMA. Leach. 

 Like sub-genus Chrceoocephalus. Tail forced. 



Xbma sabinei (Sab.) Leach. 



B^orli-tailed GruU. 



Xema aabiim, Whbaton, Ohio Agiio. Eep. for 1860, 371, 379 ; Bepiiut, 1861, 13, 21. 

 Xema sabinei, Wheaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 575 ; Beprint, 

 1675, 15.— KmoWAT, Ann. Lyo. N. Y., x, 1874, 393. 



Lotus sabinei, J. Sabine, Linn. Trans., xii, 1818, 523. 

 Xema sabinei. Leach, App. Ross. Voy., 1825. 



Adnlt: — White, including inner primaries, most of secondaries, and greater coverts; 

 head enveloped in a slate- colored hood, succeeded by a velvety-black collar ; mantle 

 slaty-blue, extending quite to the tips of the tertiaries ; whole edge of the wing, and 

 first five primaries black, their extreme tips, and the outer half of their inner webs to 

 near the end, white ; biU black, tipped with yellow ; feet black ; length, 13-14 ; wing, 

 10-11 ; bill, 1 1 tarsus, IJ ; tail, 5, forked an inch or more. The changes of plumage are 

 correspondent with those of L. Philadelphia; in the young the tail is often simply emar- 

 ginate. 



Habitat, Arctic regions of both hemispheres. Spitzbergen. In America, south in win- 

 ter to New York, and Great Salt Lake, Utah. 



Accidental in winter on Lake Erie. Mr. Wipslow informs me that he 

 took an immature bird of this species in Cleveland harbor many years 

 since. The specimen was preserved and mounted, and placed in the 

 museum of Cleveland Medical College. He has since informed me that 

 from lack of care it has been destroyed by vermin. Mr. Nelson killed a 

 specimen in full breeding dress on Lake Michigan, near Chicago, in 

 April, 1873, but unfortunately it was not secured. 



Sub-family STERNiNiE. Terns. 



Covering of bill continuous (no cere) hard and horny throughout ; bill paragimfhous, 

 relatively longer and slenderer than in the Gulls, very acute, the commissure straight or 

 nearly so to the end ; nostrils generally linear. Tail never square, almost invariably 

 forked (often deeply forfioate). Wings extremely long and pointed. Feet small and weak. 



Sub-genus Gelochelidon. Bill remarably short, stout and obtuse, hardly or not half as 

 long again as the tarsus. 



Sterna anglica Montague. 



GxiU-bUled Tern? Miarsli Tern. 



;St«ma oranea, KiRTLANB, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 166, 185. — Wheaton, Ohio Agrio. 

 Kep. for 1860, 371 ; Reprint, 1861, 13, 



