J64 



E R N. 



Place. 



except the three outer feathers, are black : the tail is forked in 

 fhape, and fhorter than the wings, when clofed, by an inch : legs 

 brown : webs orange : claws black. In fome there is a flight 

 mixture of brown on the head. 



Inhabits Chriftmas I/land, and other parts of the South Seas. 

 Seen alfo off the ifland of St. Helena. 



18. 

 LESSER T. 



Description; 



Place and 

 Manners. 



Sterna minuta, Lin. Syfl. i. p. 228. 4. — Scop. Ann. i. N° no. 



La petite Hirondelle-de-Mer, Brif. Orn. vi. p. 206. 2. pi. 19. fig. 2.— « 



Buf. Ot/.v'm. p. 337.— PI. Enl. 996. 

 Leffer Sea-Swallow, Raii Syn. p. 131. A. 2. — Will. Orn. p. 353. pi. 68.— 



Albin, ii. pi. 90. 

 Leffer Tern, Br. Zool. N° 155. pi. go.—Ar<3. Zool. N° 449. 

 Br. Muf. Lev. Muf. 



ENGTH eight inches and a half: breadth nineteen and a 

 half: weight little more than two ounces. Bill yellow, 

 tipped with black : irides dufky : forehead, to the crown* 

 white : the reft of the head and nape black : through the eye, 

 from the bill, a ftreak of the fame ; except this, the fides of the 

 head, the neck, all the under parts, and tail, of the pureft 

 white : back and wings pale grey : quills deeper grey, and much 

 longer than the tail : legs yellow : claws black.. 



This feems to have much the fame haunt and manners as the 

 common Tern ; but is not met with fo far north,, nor does it ap- 

 pear to be fo numerous a fpecies : it however breeds on many of 

 our fhores. The egg is an inch and a half in length, of a dirty 

 yellowifli brown, dafhed all over with reddilh blotches. Out of 

 thefe-realms it is found in the fouthern parts oiRuffia, about the 

 Black and Cafpian Seas ; and in Sibiria, about, the river Irtifch. 

 In America feen, during the fummer, about New York. 



Br; 



