240 
MARSH TERM. 
Terns, is precisely similar to the smaller Gulls, as it is also in the form, 
structure, and muscles of the trachea. In these respects, the Terns also 
resemble the Shearwater. The bill of the Cayenne Tern evidently indicates 
an affinity to the Phaetons, and in a less degree to the Gannets, as does the 
head, which is very large in proportion to the bird. On the other hand, as 
regards the bill, the affinity is to the larger Gulls and the Shearwater. 
The feet resemble those of the Gulls, but are proportionally smaller, these 
birds being more volatorial, and the Gulls combining that character with 
an affinity to the wading birds, while the Shearwater exhibits the abbre- 
viated feet of the purely flying birds in a still greater degree. 
MARSH OR GULL-BILLED TERN. 
Sterna anglica, Montagu. 
PLATE CCCOXXX.— Male. 
Having taken six specimens of the Marsh Tern of America to the British 
Museum, and minutely compared them in all their details with the speci- 
mens of the Gull-billed Tern which formed part of the collection of Colonel 
Montagu, and were procured in the south of England, I found them to 
agree so perfectly that no doubt remained with me of the identity of tho 
bird loosely described by Wilson with that first distinguished by the Eng- 
lish ornithologist. 
I have shot several Marsh Terns out of the same flock, in the early part 
of spring, when the youngest must therefore have been nearly a year old, 
and found them all equally perfect and beautiful in their plumage, but differ- 
ing considerably in the length of their bills, tarsi, toes, and wings, inso- 
much that a person bent on forming new species might easily gratify his 
inclination by founding “specific characters” on differences, which, how- 
ever, would be merely those of males and females of different ages. With 
me the habits of birds, when minutely and faithfully described, go much 
farther to establish the identity of individuals found in the different parts of 
the globe, than the best and closest descriptions of prepared skins. Colonel 
Montagu informs us that the Gull-billed Tern, Sterna anglica, resorts by 
