161 
SOOTY TERN. 
STERKA FULIGLYOSA. 
[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 7.] 
Gmel. Syst, I, p. 605, No. 11. — Ind. Om. p. 804, Ab. 4. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 352, No. 4. 
V Hirondelle de Mer a grande envergurcy Buff. VIII, p. 345. — Egg-bird^ Forst. Eoy. I, 
p. 113.— Noddy, Damp. Voy. Ill, />. U%—Arct. Zool. No, 447— Peale’s Museum, No. 
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. The species is widely dispersed over the va- 
rious shores of the ocean. They were seen by Danipier 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 yellowish, with brown and violet spots. 
In passing along the northern 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 dissected several, and found their stomachs uniformly 
filled with fish. I could perceive little or no difference between 
the colors of the male and female. 
Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet 
six inches ; bill glossy black, an inch and a half long, sharp point- 
ed, and rounded above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near 
the point ; nostril an oblong slit ; irides dusky ; forehead as far 
as the eyes white ; whole lower parts, and sides of the neck, pure 
* Cook, Voy. I, p. 275. 
VOL. VIII. ^ ^ 
