STERNA FULIGINOSA. 
160 
slio-litly forked ; shoulders of the wing, hrow'nish ^ J 
legg and wehhed feet, tawny. It had a sharp shriU 
when wounded and taken. ,y||. 
This is probably the brown tern mentioned by 
loughby, of which so many imperfect accounts h' 
already been given. 
251, FULlGJNOSA.-^G'SilR'Ll'S AXD WILSOK» 
SOOTY TERN. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. VH. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE 
Tins bird has been long known to navigators, 
appearance ^it sea usually indicates the vicinity o 
instances, however, have occurred, in which they 
been met with one hundred leagues from shore.* ^,( 
species is widely dispersed over the vaiuous shor^.^^ 
the ocean. They were seen by Dampier m - ^ 
Holland, are in prodigious numbers in the isl^ 
Ascension, and in Christmas Island are said to 
December, one egg on the ground ; the egg is yello"'^ 
with brown and violet spots, f In passing alon? j | 
northern shores of Cuba and the coast of Florida 
Georgia, in the month of July, I observed this wd 
very numerous and noisy, dashing down headlong^^ ' 
small fish. I shot and dissected several, and i" j,! 
their stomachs uniformly filled with fish. I 
perceive little or no difference between the colom 
the male and female. „iit 
Length of the sooty tern, seventeen inches, eS‘,, 
three feet six inches ; hill, an inch and a halt 
sharp pointed and rounded above, the ujiper man 
serrated slightly near the point; nostril, an o ,j 
slit, colour of the bill, glossy black ; irides, 
forehead, as far as the eyes, wliite ; whole lower 1^ 
and sides of the neck, pure white ; rest of the 1“''® jjjii 
black; wings, very long and pointed, extending, 
shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which isgi'^ 
* Cook, Voyage, i. p. 275. 
f Tiiarox. 
