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 cranimed with a mass of these spiders alone; these 
they frequently pick 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. ae ; 
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 thin 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 gréenish olive, spotted 
with brown, : 
A specimen of this Tern has been deposited in the Museum of this 
city, [Philadelphia.] 
most exclusively on strand birds,* and their eggs, 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 wee as also found in North America :— is 
. §. cyana, Lath. — Inhabiting the tropical seas of America ; 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 points out some discrepancies. _ 
3. S. stolida. Migrates to the North American coasts. 
, Phaceton, Linn. ( 
These birds, from general appearance, approach near to the Terns, (S. Caspia ;) 
but from the want of specimens, I am unable to enter into the proper situation of 
the form, except from the authority of others. Bonaparte places it between sua 
and plotus. The only 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. 
