BRITISH BIRDS. 
207 
Sterna na^lay Lin . — -La Gulfittei BufF. 
Latham fays this bird is in “ length eleven 
inches and a half. Bill dulky ; back part of the 
head and nape black, edged with rufous brown : 
the' eye half furrounded at the back part with a 
black crefcent : the reft of the head, neck, and un- 
der parts, white ; back and wings of a bluifh brown, 
the margins of the feathers paler : the outward part 
of the wing more inclined to blue grey : the wings 
exceed the tail in length ; the laft very little forked : 
legs du&y brown.” He adds, “ This by authors 
has been confidered as a fpecies, but is, no doubt, 
a young bird merely of the Sandwich Tern.” 
Buffon gives a figure, and defcribes this bird as 
common on the coaft of Picardy, and frequently 
feen flying on the rivers Seine and Loire : that it is 
of a middle fize between the Greater and Leflfer 
Tern, but differs from them in fome particulars 
in its habits and oeconomy, viz : that it feeds 
more upon infects, flies, &c., is not fo clamorous 
as the Greater Tern, does not lay its eggs on the 
naked fand, but makes its neft in the marfhes with 
a few dried herbs, in a tuft of grafs or mofs, in 
fome infulated hillock, and that it- fits upon its 
eggs clofely (generally three in number) till the ' 
young are hatched. 
