182 
SOOTY TERN. 
SOOTY TERN — STERNA FULIGINOSA Plate LXXII. Fig. 7. 
La hirondelle de mer a grande enverguer, JBuff. viii. p. 345. — Egg-bird, Forst, 
Voy. p. 113. — Noddy, Damp. Voy. iii. p. 142. Arct. Zool. No. 447. Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 352. — Peak's Museum, No. 3459. 
STERNA FULIGINOSA.~LA.TnAM. 
S. fuliginosa, JBonap. Synop. p. 355. 
This bird has been long known to navigators, as its appear- 
ance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land ; instances, 
however, have occurred, in which they have been met with 
one hundred leagues from shore.* The species is widely dis- 
persed over the various shores of the ocean. They were seen^ 
by Dampier in New Holland ; are in prodigious numbers in 
the island of Ascension and in Christmas Island ; are said to 
lay, in December, one egg on the ground; the egg is yellow- 
ish, with brown and violet spots.f In passing along the north- 
ern shores of Cuba 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 dis- 
sected several, and found their stomachs uniformly filled with 
fish. I could perceive 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 rounded 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 sides of the neck, pure white ; rest of the plu- 
mage, black ; wings, very long and pointed, extending, when 
shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is greatly 
Cook, Voyage, i. p. 275. 
f Turton. 
