630 MARSH TERN 
MARSH TERN.—STERNA ARANEA. — Fic. 304. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 3521. 
STERNA ARANEA. — Wi.s0N.* 
Sterna aranea, Bonap. Synop. p. 354. 
Tus new spicies I first met with on the shores of Cape May, par- 
ticularly over tie salt marshes, and darting down after a kind of large 
> The Prince of Musignano writes the following observations in his Nomencla- 
ture: — 
«<A new species of Wilson, referred by Temminck to a bird which he calls Ster- 
na Angtica, thinking that it is no other than S. Anglica of Montagu. But,as Brehm 
‘proves, in his late work, the S. Anglica of Temminck is not the S. Anglica of 
Montagu. To the latter he gives the name of S. risoria, (which cannot be adopt- 
ed,) and he calls the former S. meridionalis. He does not decide to which of the 
two species the American S. aranea belongs, and expresses the possibility of Ats 
being an independent species ; but seems inclined to believe it identical with his S. 
meridionalis. Whether this bird is the S. Anglica, Mont., the S. meridionalis, 
Brehm, Anglica, Temm., or a distinct species peculiar to the north and south of this 
continent, it shall be the object of these observations to determine. The specimen 
deposited by Wilson in the Philadelphia Museum (a single glance at which would 
have enabled us to decide the question) being unfortunately destroyed, and Wilson’s 
figure and description being too unessential to justify any conclusion, we should 
have been obliged to hove lett the matter unsettled, had it not been for the success- 
ful zeal of Mr. Titian Peale, whose practical knowledge (the most important) of 
North American birds is equalled by none. Their favorite haunts, their note, their 
flight, are perfectly familiar to him. He succeeded in procuring a fine specimen at 
Long Beach, N. J., just as we were in want of one, and thus enabled us to give 
with more security the following opinion, which we had previously formed : — 
“ §. aranea, Wils., was a nondescript, different from S. Anglica, Mont., but the 
same with S. Anglica, Temm., and 8. meridionalis, Brehm, and therefore common 
to both continents. Wilson’s name, having the priority, must_be exclusively re- 
tained, and Brehm’s name of meridionalis must be rejected. Thus has our author 
here also first named and described a European bird. 
“Mr. Ord was therefore right in not finding himself auithorized to change the 
name. He was right in believing Montagu’s bird distinct ; but wrong in thinking 
Temminck’s bird different, though Temminck had positively stated the specimens 
he had received from the United States and Brazil differed in nothing from his south 
Europeans. Even as respects the discrepance of 8. Anglica, Mont., his reasons 
resting upon the slight difference of an unpublished drawing of Wilson respecting 
measurements of parts, to which Wilson did not attach great importance, were by 
no means conclusive. Jn fact, these measurements are icorrect, with the’ excep- 
tion of the tarsus, which corresponds within a trifle of the bird. The bill is two and 
one eizhth inches to the corners of the mouth, and about one and one half inches to 
the reathers of the forehead ; thus bearing more in favor of Mr. Ord’s argument, 
tnat it is not the Angilica, Mont., than he himself supposed ; but proving that it is no 
other than S. Anglicu, Temm.. (meridionalis, Brehm,) to which, as above stated, 
Wilson’s name of aranea must be exclusively applied. 
“ The principal character we should assign for a ready distinction between these 
two dlossiperelnied species, (in addition to the shorter, thicker, less compressed, 
and straighter bill, with its edges turned inwards in Anglica,) consists in the tarsus, 
which in aranea (owing to its shortness, and the extraordinary length of the nail) is 
of the same length as the middle toe, including the nail, whilst in Angdica it is 
nearly twice the length, (owing to its superior length, and the shortness of the nail.) 
The membranes of our bird are also much more scalloped. The habits of the two 
species are very different. The S. Anglica, confined to the sea-shores, feeds al- 
