266 
LARIDiE. 
RUPPELL'S TERN* 
Sterna velox, Ruppell. 
Has been once obtained. 
In the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist/ for September 1847 (vol. xx. 
p. 170), I published the following notice of this species : — “In 
March last I had the opportunity of examining, in Mr. R. Ball's 
possession in Dublin, a specimen of a tern, the species of which I 
did not know. It was left by a young taxidermist at my friend's 
house early in the month of January, and apparently had been 
but recently skinned. Mr. Watters, jun., to whom the specimen 
now belongs, assured me, that he saw it in a fresh state, and that 
it was killed near Sutton — a place on the road between Dublin 
and Howth — at the end of December 1846 ; two others of the 
same species were stated by the shooter to have been in company 
with it. As the bird was unknown to me, I noted down the fol- 
lowing particulars of it, which are given here that others may have 
an opportunity of forming their judgment upon the species : — 
Wing and longest tail-feathers about of equal length ; outer or 
longest tail-feathers exceed the middle by three inches. Bill wholly 
yellowish horn-colour; legs and toes wholly black. Colour of 
entire plumage the same as that of the common tern (S. hirundo), 
but the back is rather of a darker shade than that of the latter 
when adult. The black of the head does not reach within one- 
* I am happy to connect, in English, the name of its describer with the bird — not 
as a matter of any honour to one so eminently distinguished as a traveller and a 
naturalist, but as a personal reminiscence of a gentleman whom I highly esteem. 
Length, total (stuifed), to the end of longest tail-feathers 
„ of hill above from forehead to point 
„ from rictus to point 
of wing from carpus .... 
of tarsus about ..... 
of middle toe to base of nail 
of nail itself measured in a straight line about 
in. lin. 
20 3 
2 6 
3 4 
13 9 
1 0 
0 11 
0 4 
