THE NODDY TERN. 123 



under parts dull greyish-white, as are the upper parts, including the tail; the 

 hind part of the head streaked with dusky, on the back and rump the 

 feathers with a curved marginal band of greyish-brown; primary quills 

 greyish-brown, the outer two darker. At this period the tail is even, each 

 feather narrowly margined with greyish-white. 



In a male bird the tongue is 10 twelfths long, slender, triangular, tapering 

 to a point, horny beneath, emarginate and papillate at the base. On the 

 palate are five longitudinal ridges. The posterior aperture of the nares is 

 linear, 7 twelfths long. The oesophagus is 4 inches 2 twelfths long, very 

 wide, its average diameter on the neck 4^ twelfths, within the thorax 9 

 twelfths; it is exceedingly thin and delicate, its muscular fibres scarcely 

 apparent, unless closely examined. The proventriculus is only a quarter of 

 an inch long. The stomach is 9 twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad, its lateral 

 muscles of considerable size, the cuticular lining dense, tough, longitudinally 

 rugous, and of a reddish-brown colour, as in Gulls. Contents of stomach 

 and oesophagus, small fishes, one of them 2 inches long. The intestine is 

 14 inches long, its diameter Ij twelfths. The coeca are 2 twelfths long, 

 nearly 1 twelfth in diameter. 



The trachea is 2 inches and 4 twelfths long, its diameter 2 twelfths at the 

 top, diminishing to 1 twelfth; its rings about 105, unossified; its lateral 

 muscles moderate, as are the sterno-tracheal, and single pair of inferior 

 laryngeal. The bronchial half-rings about 25. 



THE NODDY TERN. 



-^-Sterna stolid a, Linn. 



PLATE CCCCXL.— Male. 



About the beginning of May, the Noddies collect from all parts of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and the coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to 

 their breeding places, on one of the Tortugas called Noddy Key. They 

 nearly equal in number the Sooty Terns, which also breed on an island a 

 few miles distant. The Noddies form regular nests of twigs and dry grass, 

 which they place on the bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On 

 visiting their island on the 11th of May, 1832, I was surprised to see that 



