MARSH TERN. 631 
black spider, plenty in such places. This spider can travel under 
water, as well as above, and, during summer at least, seems to consti- 
tute the principal food of the present Tern. In several which I opened, 
the stomach was crammed with a mass of these spiders alone; these 
they frequently pic!x up from the pools, as well as from the grass, dash- 
ing down on them in the manner of their tribe. Their voice is sharper 
and stronger than that of the Common Tern; the bill is differently 
formed, being shorter, more rounded above, and thicker ; the tail is 
also much shorter, and less forked. They do not associate with others, 
but keep in small parties by themselves. 
The Marsh Tern is fourteen inches in length, and thirty-four in 
extent; bill, thick, much rounded above, and of a glossy blackness ; 
whole upper part of the head and hind neck, black; whole upper part 
of the body, hoary white; shafts of the quill and tail-feathers, pure 
white ; line from the nostril under the eye, and whole lower parts, pure 
white ; tail, forked, the outer feathers about an inch and three quarters 
longer than the middle ones; the wings extend upwards of two inches 
beyond the tail; legs and feet, black; hind toe, small, straight, and 
pointed. 
The female, as to plumage, differs in nothing from the male. The 
yearling birds, several of which I met with, have the plumage of the 
crown white at the surface, but dusky below; so that the boundaries 
of the black, as it will be in the perfect bird, are clearly defined ; 
through the eye a line of black passes down the neck for about an 
inch, reaching about a quarter of an inch before it; the bill is not so 
black as in the others; the legs and feet, dull orange, smutted with 
brown or dusky; tips and edges of the primaries, blackish; shafts, 
white. 
This ‘species breeds in the salt marshes ; the female drops her eggs, 
generally three or four in number, on the dry drift grass, without the 
slightest appearance of a nest; they are of a greenish olive, spotted 
with brown. 
A specimen of this Tern has been deposited in the Museum of this 
city, [Philadelphia.] 
most exclusively ou strand birds,” and their eges, sometimes on fishes ; whilst the 
S. aranea, generally found on marshes. feeds exclusively on insects.” 
Bonaparte, and the authors of the Northern Zoology, have mentioned the follow- 
ing species as also found in North America : — 
S. cyana, Lath. — Inhabiting the tropical seas of America 3 common on the 
coasts of the Southern States. 
2. S. Arctica, Temm. —( North. Zool. p. 114.) Bonaparte expresses a doubt 
that this is the true Arctica of Temm.; and the description in the Northern 
Zoology pomts out some discrepancies. 
3. S. stolida. Migrates to the North American coasts. 
Phaceton, Linn. 
These birds, from general appearance, approach near to the Terms, (S. Caspia ;) 
but from the want of specimens, I am unable to euter into the proper situation of 
ihe form, except from the authority of others. Bonaparte places it between sula 
and plotus. The on, American species is, 
1. P. cethereus, Linn., Tropic Bird of Wilson’s list. Common during summer 
on the coasts of the Southern States. — Ep. 
* Is this correct? Does this Tern kill other sea-fowl, and plunder their nests ? — Eo. 
