SPECIES 5. STERNA FULIGINOS^. 
SOOTY TERN. 
[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 7.] 
Le Hirondelle de Mer & grande envergiier, Buff, viii, j). 345. — 
Egg bird, Forsi . Voy.p. 113. — Damp. Voy. iii, 142. 
— ,irct. Zool. JSTo. 447'.~Lath. Syn. m, p. 352. — Peale’s JIu- 
seiim, JVo. 3459.* 
This bird has been long known to navigators, as its appear- 
ance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land; instances, how- 
ever, have occurred in which they have been met with one 
hundred leagues from shore, f The species is widely dispersed 
over the various shores of the ocean. They were seen by Dam- 
pier in New Holland; are in prodigious numbers in the island 
of Ascension; and in Christmas Island are said to lay, in De- 
cember, one egg on the ground, the egg is yellowish, with brown 
and violet spots. X In passing along the northern shores of Cu- 
ba and the coast of Florida and Georgia, in the month of July, 
I observed this species very numerous and noisy, dashing down 
headlong after small fish. I shot and dissected several, and 
found their stomachs uniformly filled with fish. I could per- 
ceive little or no difference between the colours of the male and 
female. 
Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet 
six inches; bill an inch and a half long, sharp pointed and round- 
ed above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point; 
nostril an oblong slit, colour of the bill glossy black; irides 
dusky; forehead as far as the eyes white; whole lower parts and 
* Sterna fuliginosa, Gmel. Syst. i, p. 605. — Ind. Orn. p. 804, No. 4. Gen. 
Sijn. Ill, p. 352, No. 4. 
t Cook, Voy. I, p. 275 
t Turton. 
