MARSH TERN. 
151 
tail, which was white, shafted, and broadly centred 
"'ith black. 
The birds from which these descriptions were taken, 
''®re shot on the 25th of May, before they had begun 
fj hrced. The female contained a great number of eggs, 
he largest of which were about tlic size of duck shot ; 
he stomach, in both, was an oblong pouch, ending in a 
eniavkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered or plaited, 
'^.hiitaiuing the half dissolved fragments of the small 
*hrer sides, pieces of shrimps, small crabs, and skippers, 
sand fleas. 
I , On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia these 
h^ds are seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several 
I "ndreds together. There more than twenty nests have 
found within the space of a square rod. The young 
at first, so exactly of a colour with the sand on 
'^**ich they sit, as to be with difficulty discovered, unless 
a close search. 
The sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his 
y^Ung are fit for the journey. He is found on various 
’■“'tsts of Asia, as well as Araericsa, residing principally 
the tropics, and migrating into the temperate 
^*?ions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing his 
young. pjg rarely or never seen far out at sea, and 
not be mistaken for another bird of the same 
a species of petrel,* which is met with on every 
of the ocean, skimming, with bended wings, along 
summits, declivities, and hollows of the waves. 
GENUS LXll. LiNNfiUS. 
‘247. STERNA iJ2.4iVJ?zl, WILSON. — MARSH TERN. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. VI. 
^His new species I first met with on the shores of 
^pe May, particularly over the salt mai-shes, and 
prtiniv down after a kind of large black spider, plenty 
Such places. This spider can travel under -water as 
PTOcellaria Puffinus, tlie Sheerwater Petrel. 
