GULL-BILLED TERN. 
1 1 
Es’gs. — Three in number. Ground-colour deep clay oi 
stone-buff with an olive shade, spotted with chocolate-brown, 
deepening to blackish and forming irregular blotches on 
different parts of the egg, as much in the middle as towards 
the end of the latter. The underlying marks of grey are not 
very evident. Axis, i' 35 -i’ 45 j diam,, o'95-i-o5. 
THE gull-eilled terns, genus gelochelidon. 
Gelochelidon, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 774 (1831.) 
Type, G. anglica (Mont.) 
In this genus the outer tail-feathers are very pointed, and 
exceed the others in length. The bill is very stout and obUjse ; 
the tarsus is longer than in most of the Terns, and exceeds 
the middle toe and claw in length ; the tail is short, being 
less than half the length of the wing. 
The single species, G- anglica, is found in the temperate and 
warm portions of the Atlaritic Ocean on both sides, also in the 
Indian Ocean and Australian seas, but it is not known from 
the Pacific side of America. 
1. THE GULL-BILLED TERN. GELOCHELIDON ANGLICA. 
Sterna anglica, Mont. Orn. Diet. Suppl. (1813); Dresser, B. 
Eur. viii. p- 29S1 5^5 (*877); B. 0 . U. List Brit B. 
p. 182 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. hi. p. ^31 
(1884); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 263 (1885); 
Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 623 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 
Brit. B. part xxix. (1894). 
GelocIieliJon anglica, Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 666 (1852); 
Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 25 (1896). 
{^Plale XCVI.) 
Adult Male. — General colour above pearly-grey, including the 
wings and tail, the outer feathers of the latter inclining to 
greyish-white on the outer webs ; quills darker ashy-grey, 
frosted with pearly-grey externally, the primaries with white 
shafts and a great deal of white along the inner web ; 
Secondaries narrowly edged with white at the tips ; head and 
