146 



CRESTED TERN. 



rump, and tail, are pure snowy white : the first six 

 quills are deep ash-colour, the margins and tips 

 blackish ; the rest are coloured the same as the back : 

 the legs are black. 



Common in the Caspian Sea and its vicinity : it 

 lays two or three large ashy-green eggs, spotted with 

 brown. Its manners somewhat resemble those of the 

 Gulls ; and its voice is similar to the noise made by a 

 person laughing. 



CRESTED TERN. 



(Sterna cristata.) 



St. cinereO'Cana , corpore subtus colloque albis, vertice nigro, 

 occipite subcristata, rectrice eMernd h medio ad apicem alba. 



Hoary ash -coloured Tern with the body beneath and neck white^, 

 the crown black, the occiput slightly crested, the outer tail- 

 feathers from the middle to the tip white. 



Sterna Caspia y. Lath. Ind. Orn. 11. 804. 



Caspian Tern B. Lath. Gen. Syn. vi. 351. 



Crested Tern. Lath, ^ Gen. Hist. x. 101. 



Length about twenty inches : beak three inches, 

 stout, pale and yellow : nostrils pervious : the crown 

 black, the feathers elongated and forming a pinnacle 

 crest at the nape ; the rest of the head, neck, and 

 under parts of the body white : back and wings pale 

 ashy-grey : quills grey, with the ends dusky : inner 

 webs, half way from the base, white : tail grey, the 

 end half of the feathers white : the shafts of the quills 

 and tail white : legs black. The female ? has the 



