145 



SOOTY TERN. 

 STERNA FULIGIJVOSA. 

 [Plate LXXII.— Fig. 7.] 



Le Hirondelle de Mer a grande enTerguer, Buef. Till, p, 345. — Egg-bird, Forst. Voy. p. 113.-— 



J^oddy, Damp. Voy. Ill, p. 142 »lrcL Zool. JN^o. 447.— -Lath. Syn, III, p. 352.— Peale's Mu- 



seuridf JVo. 3459. 



THIS bird has been long known to navigators, as its appear- 

 ance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land; instances, how- 

 ever, have occurred in which they have been met with one hundred 

 leagues from shore.* The species is widely dispersed over the va- 

 rious shores of the ocean. They were seen by Dampier in New 

 Holland ; are in prodigious numbers in the island of Ascension ; 

 and in Christmas Island are said to lay, in December, one egg on 

 the ground; the egg is yellowish, with brown and violet spots.t 

 In passing along the northern shores of Cuba and the coast of 

 Florida and Georgia, in the month of July, I observed this species 

 very numerous and noisy, dashing down headlong after small fish. 

 I shot and dissected several, and found their stomachs uniformly 

 filled with fish. I could perceive little or no difference between 

 the colors of the male and female. 



Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet 

 six inches ; bill an inch and a half long, sharp pointed and rounded 

 above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point ; nos- 

 tril an oblong slit, color of the bill glossy black ; irides dusky ; 

 forehead as far as the eyes white; whole lower parts and sides of 

 the neck pure white ; rest of the plumage black ; wings very long 



* Cook, Voy. i, p. 275. 

 VOL. VIII. 



t Tiirton, 



O O 



