GREAT TERN. 37 



near the seashore, by the name of Sea Swallows ; though some few, 

 from their near resemblance, are confounded with the Gulls. 



The present species, or Great Tern, is common to the shores of 

 Europe, Asia and America. It arrives on the coast of New Jersey 

 about the middle or twentieth of April, led no doubt by the multitudes 

 of fish which at that season visit our shallow bays and inlets. By many 

 it is called the Sheep's-head Gull, from arriving about the same time 

 with the fish of that name. 



About the middle or twentieth of May this bird commences laying. 

 The preparation of a nest, which costs most other birds so much time 

 and ingenuity, is here altogether dispensed with. The eggs, generally 

 three in number, are placed on the surface of the dry. drift grass, on 

 the beach or salt marsh, and covered by the female only during the 

 night, or in wet, raw or stormy weather. At all other times the hatch- 

 ing of them is left to the heat of the sun. These eggs measure an 

 inch and three-quarters in length, by about an inch and two-tenths in 

 width, and are of a yellowish dun color, sprinkled with dark brown and 

 pale Indian ink. Notwithstanding they seem thus negligently aban- 

 doned during the day, it is very different in reality. One or both of 

 the parents are generally fishing within view of the place, and on the 

 near approach of any person, instantly make their appearance o\er 

 head; uttering a hoarse jarring kind of cry, and flying about with 

 evident symptoms of great anxiety and consternation. The young are 

 generally produced at intervals of a day or so from each other, and are 

 regularly and abundantly fed for several weeks, before, their wings are 

 sufficiently grown to enable them to fly. At first the parents alight 

 with the fish, which they have brought in their mouth, or in their bill, 

 and tearing it in pieces distribute it in such portions as their young are 

 able to swallow. Afterwards they frequently feed them without alight- 

 ing, as they skim over the spot ; and as the young become nearly ready 

 to fiy, they drop the fish among them, where the strongest and most 

 active has the best chance to gobble it up. In the meantime, the young 

 themselves frequently search about the marshes, generally not far 

 apart, for insects of various kinds ; but so well acquainted are they 

 with the peculiar language of their parents, that warn them of the 

 approach of an enemy, that on hearing their cries they instantly squat, 

 and remain motionless until the danger be over. 



The flight of the Great Tern, and indeed of the whole tribe, is not 

 in the sweeping shooting manner of the land Swallows, notwithstanding 

 their name ; the motions of their long wings are slower, and more in 

 the manner of the Gull. They have, however, great powers of wing 

 and strength in the muscles of the neck, which enable them to make 

 such sudden and violent plunges, and that from a considerable height, 

 too, headlong on their prey, which they never seize but with their bills. 



