128 TERN. 



42 —DOVE-COLOURED TERN. 



LENGTH full nine inches. Bill one inch, slender, black; the 

 forehead, to the middle of the crown, before the eye, and all beneath, 

 from the chin, white, passing round the neck, below the nape, in a 

 slender ring; from the middle of the crown, and the nape dusky 

 black, mottled with a paler colour; upper parts of the body, wings, 

 and tail dove-colour, or fine bluish ash, the feathers mostly fringed 

 with brown ; lesser wing coverts within darker than the rest; quills 

 and tail blue grey ; under wing coverts nearly white ; sides of the 

 breast dark ash ; of the body beneath and wings like the back; the 

 quills pale grey, with white shafts, and exceed the tail by one inch 

 and a half; the latter three inches long, moderately forked, the two 

 middle feathers being only half an inch shorter than the middle ones ; 

 legs dusky brown, or reddish. 



Inhabits Georgia, in America, and said to be rare. One of these, 

 in the collection of General Davies, had the top of the head brown ; 

 behind the eyes, or rather over the ears, an oblong blackish patch ; 

 nape mottled brown and black : in other respects it answered to the 

 last description. 



43.— GEORGIAN TERN. 



LENGTH ten inches; breadth twenty-three. The feathers project 

 much forwards on the base of the bill, and from thence the bare part 

 is one inch more; the head and neck dusky black; forehead, to the 

 middle of the crown, and the sides of the gape, to the eye, much 

 mottled with white; the rest of the plumage bluish ash ; thighs and 

 vent white ; the wings, when closed, reach one inch and a half 

 beyond the tail ; the shaft of the first quill feather white, of the others 

 very pale; the legs red. The female has a greater mixture of white 

 about the head and neck. 



