172 On the Ornithology oj Wilts \_Laridce~]. 



It has a strong sharp-pointed beak, not hooked as in the Cormorant. 

 Twice within my knowledge has this species occurred in Wiltshire 

 of late years ; once (as I learned from Mr. Marsh), on the borders 

 of the county towards Bath, which came into his collection : and 

 for the second instance I am indebted to the daughter of Captain 

 Meredith, who informed me of one killed at Heddington some twelve 

 or fourteen years since. 



LARID2E (The Gulls). 



We have now reached the last Family of birds, and it is a very 

 large one, comprising the great tribe of Terns, the still larger list 

 of Gulls, and the Petrels. They are all long-winged, and enjoy a 

 prodigious power of flight, which is not only extremely rapid, but 

 can be indefinitely prolonged, and apparently without exertion, at 

 all events without causing fatigue. They are all web-footed and 

 seek their food on the surface of the sea or on the shore where it 

 has been washed up by the waves : but though they float with 

 buoyancy on the ocean, they are unable to dive. They are conse- 

 quently rather birds of the air than of the water, and their evolu- 

 tions on the wing are extremely graceful and pleasing; and as the 

 distances they traverse are very great, they are frequently seen far 

 inland, so that we are well acquainted with many of them in this 

 county, to which an excursion from the southern coast is a mere 

 morning's amusement. 



" Common Tern." {Sterna Mrundo.) The " Sea-Swallows, as all 

 the species which compose this genus are commonly called, are of 

 light and elegant shape, with small slim bodies, but with wings of 

 prodigious length and deeply forked tails ; and as they shoot over 

 the waves, or skim through the air, and occasionally dip into the 

 water, they bear a close resemblance in general appearance to the 

 real Swallows, whose arrival we hail with such joy every spring. 

 But in reality they have no connection whatever with the Hirun- 

 dinidce, for in anatomical structure and habits they are true water 

 birds, and all their food is derived from the sea, or from fresh-water 

 rivers and lakes, from which they are never long absent, and on 

 whose shores they make their nests. Their beaks are long and 

 straight, and sharp-pointed ; and their legs are short and their feet 



