TERN. Ill 



16— SIMPLE TERN. 



Sterna simplex, Ind. Orn. ii. 805. Gin. Lin. i. 606. 

 Simple Tern, Gen. Syn. vi. 358. 



LENGTH fifteen inches. Bill almost three inches long, stout, 

 and reddish ; crown of the head nearly white ; upper parts of the 

 neck and back pale lead-colour ; the under white ; behind each eye 

 a spot of black ; the lesser wing coverts, scapulars, and tail like the 

 back ; the middle of the greater coverts white, and the margins of 

 some of the latter brown ; quills black ; tail slightly forked, and the 

 wings exceed it much in length ; legs red. 



Inhabits Cayenne ; it seems to have many markings with the last 

 described, but is a larger bird. 



17.— MARSH TERN. 



Sterna aranea, Amer. Orn. viii. 143. pi. 72. f. 6. 



LENGTH fourteen inches ; breadth twenty-four. Bill thick, 

 much rounded above, and glossy black ; crown, and neck behind 

 black; all beneath pure white, and a line of white between the 

 nostrils and the eye ; body above, wings, and tail hoary white ; the 

 last forked, and the wings exceed it in length by two inches ; legs 

 black. Male and female much alike. The young ditFer as in others 

 of the Genus; the tips and edges of the prime quills blackish, with 

 white shafts; legs dull orange, mottled with brown or dusky. 



Inhabits America, breeding in the salt marshes ; lays three or 

 four eggs on the dry grass, greenish olive, spotted with brown. Is 

 common on the shores of Cape May, particularly in the salt marshes, 

 darting down after a kind of black spider, which is in plenty in such 

 places ; this spider, it is said, can travel under water as well as above, 

 and during the summer at least, the stomach of the bird is wholly 



