130 tern. 



cinereous white; the quills dusky, the shafts white beneath, the two 

 nearest the body tipped with rufous ; tail as the quills, the two middle 

 feathers rufous at the tips ; the shape somewhat forked, and the wings 

 do not quite reach to the end of it; legs dull red, claws black. 



Inhabits the Island of St. Domingo, and seems allied to the last, 

 though much inferior in size. 



46— SHORT-TAILED TERN. 



Sterna plumbea, Short-tailed Tern, Amer. Orn. vii. 83. pi. 60. f. 3. 



LENGTH eight inches and a half; extent twenty-three. The 

 bill, crown, auriculars, spot before the eye, and hindhead are black ; 

 forehead, eyelids, sides of the neck, passing quite round below the 

 hindhead, and the whole lower parts pure white ; back and shoulders 

 dark ash, the feathers broadly tipped with brown ; wings and tail 

 dark lead-colour, the former longest by one inch and a half; the tail 

 slightly forked ; legs tawny. 



Inhabits America, found about the Schuylkill, and other places, 

 towards the end of summer; oftener on the mill ponds and fresh 

 water marshes, than in the Bays: is considered a different bird from 

 the Minute Tern, and never associates with that species; it also has 

 an extent of wing wider by three inches than the other, and makes 

 its appearance when the Minute is gone off; the stomach, on exami- 

 nation, was found to contain grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, &c. but 

 no fish. It is doubted, whether it can be the same with the Little 

 Gull, or Brown Tern of Willughby, for the figure in the plate has 

 the bill shaped like that of the Tern, and by no means that of a 

 Gull, being much longer, and more slender in proportion to the size 

 of the bird. 



