78 



GREAT TERK 



have remarked, as they retired from the upper parts of the bays^ 

 rivers and inlets to the beach for repose, about breeding time, that 

 each generally carried a small fish in his bill. 



As soon as the young are able to fly, they lead them to the 

 sandy shoals and ripples where fish are abundant; and while they 

 occasionally feed them, teach them by their example to provide 

 for themselves. They sometimes penetrate a great way inland^ 

 along the courses of rivers; and are occasionally seen about all our 

 numerous ponds, lakes and rivers, most usually near the close of 

 the summer. 



This species inhabits Europe as high as Spitzbergen ; is found 

 on the arctic coasts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, and also on our 

 own continent as far north as Hudson^s Bay. In New England 

 it is called by some the Mackarel Gull. It retires from all these 

 places, at the approach of winter, to more congenial seas and 

 seasons. 



The Great Tern is fifteen inches long, and thirty inches in 

 extent; bill reddish yellow, sometimes brilliant crimson, slightly 

 angular on the lower mandible, and tipt with black ; whole upper 

 part of the head black, extending to a point half way down the 

 neck behind, and including the eyes; sides of the neck and whole 

 lower parts pure white; wing quills hoary, as if bleached by the 

 weather, long and pointed; whole back, scapulars and wing bluish 

 white, or very pale lead color; rump and tail coverts white; tail 

 long and greatly forked, the exterior feathers being three inches 

 longer than the adjoining ones, the rest shortening gradually for 

 an inch and a half to the middle ones, the whole of a pale lead 

 color; the outer edge of the exterior ones black; legs and webbed 

 feet brilliant red lead; membranes of the feet deeply scallopped; 

 claws large and black, middle one the largest. The primary quill 

 feathers are generally dark on their inner edges. The female dif- 

 fers in having the two exterior feathers of the tail considerably 

 shorter. The voice of these birds is like the harsh jarring of an 



