374 
SHORT-TAILED TERN. 
of the three exterior primaries, black, their inner edges white ; 
tail, pale ash, but darker than the back, and forked, the two 
outer feathers an inch longer, tapering to a point ; legs and 
feet, reddish yellow ; webbed feet, claws, and hind toe exactly 
formed like those of the preceding. The female nearly 
resembles the male, with the exception of having the two 
exterior tail-feathers shorter. 
SHORT-TAILED TERN. — STERNA PLUMBEA. 
Plate LX. Fig. 3. 
Peale’s Museum , No. 3519. 
STERNA NIGRA. — Linnjeus.# 
Sterna plumbea, Bonap. Nomencl. No. 244. — Sterna nigra, JBonap. Synop. p. 355. 
A specimen of this bird was first sent me by Mr Beasley 
of Cape May ; but being in an imperfect state, I could form 
no correct notion of the species, sometimes supposing it might 
be a young bird of the preceding Tern. Since that time, 
however, I have had an opportunity of procuring a consider- 
able number of this same kind, corresponding almost exactly 
with each other. I have ventured to introduce it in this place 
as a new species ; and have taken pains to render the figure 
in the plate a correct likeness of the original. 
On the 6th of September, 1812, after a violent northeast 
storm, which inundated the meadows of Schuylkill in many 
* C. L. Bonaparte remarks, — “ S. plumbea is evidently, even judging only 
by Wilson’s figure and description, no other than the young of the European 
S. nigra , of which so many nominal species had already been made. Indeed, 
so evident did the matter appear to us, even before we compared the species, 
that we cannot conceive why this hypothesis did not strike every naturalist, 
particularly as the S. nigra is well known to inhabit these states, though not 
noticed by Wilson in its adult dress. It is a singular fact, that we hardly 
observed one adult among twenty young, which were common in the latter 
part of summer at Long Beach, New York.”— Ed. 
