GREAT TERN. 373 



Bill, straight, sharp pointed, a little compressed, and strong ; 

 nostrils, linear ; tongue, slender, pointed ; legs, short ; feet, 

 webbed ; hind toe and its nail, straight ; wings, long ; tail, 

 generally forked. Turton enumerates twenty-five species of 

 this genus, scattered over various quarters of the world ; six 

 of which, at least, are natives of the United States. From 

 their long pointed wings, they are generally known to sea- 

 faring people, and others residing near the sea-shore, by the 

 name of sea-swallows; though some few, from their near 

 resemblance, are confounded with the gulls. 



The present species, or great tern, is common to the shores 

 of Europe, Asia, and America. It arrives on the coast of 

 New Jersey about the middle or 20th of April, led, no doubt, 

 by the multitudes of fish which at that season visit our shallow 

 bays and inlets. By many it is called the Sheep's-head gull, 

 from arriving about the same time with the fish of that 

 name. 



About the middle or 20th of May, this bird commences 

 laying. The preparation of a nest, which costs most other 

 birds so much time and ingenuity, is here altogether dispensed 

 with. The eggs, generally three in number, are placed on the 

 surface of the dry drift grass, on the beach or salt marsh, and 

 covered by the female only during the night, or in wet, raw, 

 or stormy weather. At all other times, the hatching of them 

 is left to the heat of the sun. These eggs measure an inch 

 and three-quarters in length, by about an inch and two-tenths 

 in width, and are of a yellowish dun colour, sprinkled with 

 dark brown and pale Indian-ink. Notwithstanding they seem 

 thus negligently abandoned during the day, it is very different 

 in reality. One or both of the parents are generally fishing 

 within view of the place, and, on the near approach of any 



this bird as identical with the St. kirundo of Europe. Later comparisons 

 by the Prince have induced him to consider it distinct, and peculiar to 

 America, and he has dedicated it to Wilson. That gentleman mentions, 

 as North American, in addition to the list by Wilson, St. cyanea, Lath. ; 

 St. arctica, Temm. ; St. stolida, Linn. — Er>. 



