GENUS 93. STERNA. TERN. 
SPECIES 1. STERNA HIRUNDO. 
GREAT TERN. 
[Plate LX. — Fig. 1.] 
Jirct. Zool. p. 524. — JVb. 448. — Le pierre garin, ou grande Hiron- 
delle de mer, Buff, viii, 331. PL Enl. 987. — Bewick, ii, 181. — 
Peale’s Museum, JSTo. 3485.* 
This bird belongs to a tribe very generally dispersed over 
the shores of the ocean. Their generic characters are these: — 
Bill straight, sharp pointed, a little compressed and strong; nos- 
trils linear; tongue slender, pointed; legs short; feet webbed; 
hind toe and its nail straight; wings long; tail generally forked. 
Turton enumerates twenty-five species of this genus, scattered 
over various quarters of the world ; six of which, at least, are 
natives of the United States. From their long pointed wings 
they are generally known to seafaring people, and others resi- 
ding near the seashore, by the name of Sea Swalloios; though 
some fevq from their near resemblance, are confounded with 
the Gulls. 
The present species, or Great Tern, is common to the shores 
of Europe, Asia and America. It arrives on the coast of New 
.Jersey about the middle or twentieth of April, led no doubt by 
the multitudes of fish which at that season visit our shallow bays 
and inlets. By many it is called the Sheep’s-head Gull, from 
arriving about the same time with the fish of that name. 
About the middle or twentieth of May this bird commences 
laying. The preparation of a nest, which costs most other birds 
so much time and ingenuity, is here altogether dispensed with. 
* Sterna Hirundo. Gmel. Syst. i, p. 60G. — Ind. Orn, p. 807, JVb. 15 . — Briss. 
VI, p. 203. pi. 13, fig. 1. — Temm. J\Ian. d'Orn, p. 740. 
