282 
THE NODDY TERN. 
under parts dull greyish-white, as are the upper parts, including the tail ; the 
hind part of the head streaked with dusky ; on the back and rump the 
feathers with a curved marginal band of greyish-brown ; primary quills 
greyish-brown, the outer two darker. At this period the tail is even, each 
feather narrowly margined with greyish-white. 
In a male bird the tongue is 10 twelfths long, slender, triangular, tapering 
to a point, horny beneath, emarginate and papillate at the base. On the 
palate are five longitudinal ridges. The posterior aperture of the nares is 
linear, 7 twelfths long. The oesophagus is 4 inches 2 twelfths long, very 
wide, its average diameter on the neck 4i twelfths, within the thorax 9 
twelfths ; it is exceedingly thin and delicate, its muscular fibres scarcely 
apparent, unless closely examined. The proventriculus is only a quarter of 
an inch long. The stomach is 9 twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad, its lateral 
muscles of considerable size, the cuticular lining dense, tough, longitudinally 
rugous, and of a reddish-brown colour, as in Gulls. Contents of stomach 
and oesophagus, small fishes, one of them 2 inches long. The intestine is 
14 inches long, its diameter 11 twelfths. Th'e coeca are 2 twelfths long 
nearly one twelfth in diameter. 
The trachea is 2 inches and 4 twelfths long, its diameter 2 twelfths at the 
top, diminishing to l twelfth ; its rings about 105, unossified ; its lateral 
muscles moderate, as are the sterno-tracheal, and single pair of inferior 
laryngeal. The bronchial half-rings about 25. 
THE NODDY TERN. 
Sterna stolida, Linn . 
PLATE CCCCXL.— Male. 
About the beginning of May, the Noddies collect from all parts of the 
Gulf of Mexico, and the coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to 
their breeding places, on one of the Tortugas called Noddy Key. They 
nearly equal in number the Sooty Terns, which also breed on an island a 
few miles distant. The Noddies form regular nests of twigs and dry grass, 
which they place on the bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On 
visiting their island on the 11th of May, 1832, 1 was surprised to see that 
