102 TERN. 



3.— SOOTY TERN.— Pl. clxxiv. 



Sterna fuliginosa, hid. Om. ii. 804. Gm. Lin. i. 605. 



Hirondelle de Mer a grand envergure, Buf. viii. 345. Am. Orn. viii. 145. pl. 72. f. 7. 



Egg Bird, Forst. Voy. i. 115. Cook's Voy. i. 66. 275. 



Noddy, Damp. Voy. iii. pt. i. p. 142. pl. p. 123. f. 5. Hawkesw. Voy. iii. 652. 



Sooty Tern, Gen. Syn. vi. 352. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 447. 



SIZE of the Noddy; length sixteen inches. Bill two inches and 

 a half, black ; the forehead white, passing on each side to the upper 

 part of the eye, and ending in a point; through the eye a streak of 

 black, passing to the hindhead; the crown, neck behind, and all 

 the upper parts, wings, and tail black ; the under, from the chin, 

 white, passing a little backward at the lower part of the neck ; the 

 under wing coverts and inner ridge of the wing white; quills dark 

 greyish black ; tail forked ; outer web of the exterior feather white, 

 except just at the tip ; the shafts of both quills and tail are white, 

 beneath; legs black. Both sexes are nearly alike. 



This species has been met with in various parts, by our voyagers. 

 In the Island of Ascension are seen in prodigious numbers, so as 

 to darken the air. Dampier observed them near the Coast of New- 

 Holland, and in great plenty off the Roca Islands, near Tortuga,* 

 where he has found the nests ; and between New South Wales and 

 New Guinea one of them settled on the rigging of a ship :f it also 

 sometimes strays farther south, having been seen in latitude 48. 38. % 

 Most sailors agree, that this, and others of the Noddy Tribe, seldom 

 go above 70 or 80 leagues from land ; but Captain Cook says, this 

 is not always to be relied on. The specimen in my collection came 

 from Christmas Island, where it is gregarious; it lays a single egg 

 on the bare ground, in the month of December, making no nest. 



It is also found in North America : Sir Ashton Lever received it 

 from New York, from whence General Davies also had a specimen. 

 I have likewise seen a third from Cayenne. 



* Damp. Voy. iii. pt. 1. p. 143. Vol. i. p. 53. f Hawkesw. Voy. iii. 652. 



$ Forst. Voy. i. 113. Cook's Voy.\. p. 66. 



