80 
GREAT TERN. 
STERNA HIRUNDO. 
[Plate LX. — Fig. 1.] 
ArcU Zool. p . 524, No» 448 . — Le Pierre garin^ ou grande Hirondelle-de-mery Buff. VIII, 
331. PI . Enl. 987. — Bewick, II, 181. — Ind. Orn. p . 807, No. 15. — Briss, 6 ^ p . 203, 
19,^^. 1. — Temm. Man. d'Om, p . 740. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 3485. 
THIS bird belongs to a tribe very generally dispersed over 
the shores of the ocean. Their generic characters are these : — 
Bill straight, sharp-pointed, a little compressed and strong; nos- 
trils linear ; tongue slender, pointed ; legs short ; feet webbed ; 
hind-toe and its nail straight ; wings long ; tail generally forked. 
Turton enumerates twenty-five species of this genus, scattered over 
various quarters of the world ; six of which, at least, are natives 
of the United States. From their long pointed wings they are ge- 
nerally known to seafaring people, and others residing near the sea- 
shore, by the name of Sea-swallows ; tho some few, from their near 
resemblance, are confounded with the Gulls. 
The present species, or Great Tern, is common to the shores 
of Europe, Asia and America. It arrives on the coast of New Jer- 
sey about the middle or twentieth of April, led no doubt by the 
multitudes of fish which at that season visit our shallow bays and 
inlets. By many it is called the Sheep’s-head Gull, from arriving 
about the same time with the fish of that name. 
About the middle or twentieth of May this bird commences 
laying. The preparation of a nest, which costs most other birds 
so much time and ingenuity, is here altogether dispensed with. 
The eggs, generally three in number, are placed on the surface of 
the dry drift grass, on the beach or salt marsh, and covered by 
the female only during the night, or in wet, raw or stormy wea- 
