83 



SHORT-TAILED TERN. 



STERNA PLUMBEA. 

 [Plate LX.— Fig. 3.] 



Peaxe's Museum, JVo. 3519. 



A SPECIMEN of this bird was first sent me by Mr. Beasley 

 of Cape May; but being in an imperfect state, I could form no 

 correct notion of the species ; sometimes supposing it might be a 

 young bird of the preceding Tern. Since that time, however, I 

 have had an opportunity of procuring a considerable number of 

 this same kind, corresponding almost exactly with each other. I 

 have ventured to introduce it in this place as a new species ; and 

 have taken pains to render the figure in the plate a correct like- 

 ness of the original. 



On the sixth of September, 1812, after a violent north-east 

 storm, which inundated the meadows of Schuylkill in many places^ 

 numerous flocks of this Tern all at once made their appearance, 

 flying over those watery spaces, picking up grasshoppers, beetles, 

 spiders and other insects that were floating on the surface. Some 

 hundreds of them might be seen at the same time, and all seem- 

 ingly of one sort. They were busy, silent and unsuspicious, dart- 

 ing down after their prey without hesitation, tho perpetually ha- 

 rassed by gunners whom the novelty of their appearance had drawn 

 to the place. Several flocks of the Yellow-shanks Snipe, and a few 

 Purres, appeared also in the meadows at the same time, driven 

 thither doubtless by the violence of the storm. 



I examined upwards of thirty individuals of this species by 

 dissection, and found both sexes alike in color. Their stomachs 

 contained grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, &c., but no fish. The 



