694 



APPENDIX. 



[No. V. 



increasing in depth of colour, and becoming chestnut towards the other end, at which 

 a few black feathers are intermixed ; the black feathers of the head are continued 

 along the back of the neck, becoming towards the back dark brown, which is the 

 colour of the whole back ; the neck, breast, and sides under the wings quite to the 

 tail are deep chestnut ; the belly is glossy white, the primaries dark brown, and the 

 secondaries white. 



Sterna Arctiea. Arctic Tern. 



The Common Tern of the Polar and Northern Seas, was supposed to be the Sterna 

 Hirundo, and as such was described by Captain Sabine, in his account of the birds 

 of Greenland, noticing however the remarkable difference between the specimens 

 he obtained, and the Common European Tern, in the length of the bills and 

 legs. M. Temminck, on his visit to England in 1819, received specimens of 

 the northern Tern, and in the second edition of his Manuel described them as a 

 new species. The Terns brought from the Polar Seas in the second voyage, as 

 well as a specimen sent home by Captain Franklin, have the same characters ; it is, 

 therefore, probable that these alone are natives of the more northern seas, and that 

 the Sterna Hirundo lives only in more temperate latitudes. M. Temminck states 

 that the specimens he received, corresponded with those killed in Scotland and on the 

 English shores ; this surely must be a mistake, for the Arctic Terns have not, it is 

 believed, been ever found on the British coast. Captain Sabine, in the Appendix to 

 Captain Parry's Voyage, has described the immature plumage with which M. Tem- 

 minck was unacquainted. The Arctic Terns may always be distinguished from the 

 Common Tern by the length of their tarse ; which is not more than half an inch in 

 the former, whilst in the latter it is near an inch long ; the bill of the Arctic Tern is 

 shorter and the tail somewhat longer ; there are also some smaller points of difference 

 noted by M. Temminck. The Sterna Hirundo, figured and described by Wilson, is 

 probably the bird to which that name is properly applied, though his account differs 

 in some points from the European bird ; he has omitted to give the length of the 

 legs and bill of his Sterna Hirundo, which is necessary to the identification of the 

 species, which must remain unsettled until a specimen, or further particulars, can 

 be obtained from the United States. 



Sterna Nigra. Black Tern. 



The specimen received is in perfect summer plumage ; the head, neck, and 

 whole under parts, except the abdomen, are sooty black; the abdomen and under 

 tail coverts pure white ; the back, tail, and upper part of the wings dark ash colour ; 

 the under parts of the wings light ash colour ; wings exceeding the tail about an 

 inch in length; the tail slightly forked. In winter the under parts become white. 



