a 
SHORT-TAILED TERN. 513 
SHORT-TAILED TERN.—STERNA PLUMBEA. — Fic. 241. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 3519. 
STERNA NIGRA. — Linnxus.* 
Sterna plumbea, Bonap. Nomencl. No. 244.— Sterna nigra, Bonap. Synop. p. 355. 
A specimen of this bird was first sent me by Mr. Beasley of Cape 
May ; but being in an imperfect state, 1 could form no correct notion 
of the species, sometimes supposing it might be a young bird of the 
preceding Tern. Since that time, however, I have had an opportuni- 
ty of procuring a considerable number of this same kind, correspond- 
ing almost exactly with each other. I have ventured to introduce it 
in this place as a new species; and have taken pains to render Fig. 
241 a correct likeness of the original. 
On the 6th of September, 1812, after a violent north-east storm, 
which inundated the meadows of Schuylkill in many places, numer- 
ous flocks of this Tern all at once made their appearance, flying over 
those watery spaces, picking up grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, and 
other insects, that, were floating on the surface. Some hundreds of 
them might be seen at the same time, and all seemingly of one sort. 
They were busy, silent, and unsuspicious, darting down after their 
prey without hesitation, though perpetually harassed by gunners, 
whom the novelty of their appearance had drawn to the place. Sev- 
eral flocks of the Yellow-Shanks Snipe, and a few Purres, appeared 
also in the meadows at the same time, driven thither doubtless by the 
violence of the storm. 
I examined upwards of thirty individuals of this species by dissec- 
tion, and found both sexes alike in color. Their stomachs contained 
grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, &c., but no fish. The people on the 
sea-coast have since informed me that this bird comes to them only 
in the fall, or towards the end of summer, and is more frequently seen 
about the mill-ponds and fresh water marshes than in the bays; and 
add, that it feeds on grasshoppers and other insects which it finds on 
the meadows and marshes, picking them from the grass, as well as 
from the surface of the water. They have never known ‘it to asso- 
ciate with the Lesser Tern, and consider it altogether a different 
bird. This opmion seems confirmed by the above circumstances, and 
by the fact of its greater extent of wing, being full three inches 
wider than the Lesser Tern; and also making its appearance after 
the others have gone off. 
The Short-Tailed Tern measures eight inches and a half from the 
point, of the bill to the tip of the tail, and twenty-three inches in ex- 
* C, L. Bonaparte remarks, —“S. plumbea is evidently, even judging only by 
Wilson’s figure and sepa ate no other than the young of the European S. nigra, 
of which so many nominal species had already been made. Indeed, so evident 
did the matter appear to us, even before we compared the species, that we cannot 
conceive why this hypothesis did not strike every naturalist, particularly as the S. 
_ nigra is well known to inhabit these states, though not’ noticed by Wilson in its 
adult dress. It is’a singular fact, that we hardly observed one adult among twenty 
young, which were common in the latter vart of summer at Long Beach, New 
York.” — Ep. 
