GREAT TERN. 
155 
of rivers, and are occasionally seen about all our nume- 
rous ponds, lakes, and rivers, most usually near the 
close of the summer. 
. This species inhabits Europe as high as Spitzbergen ; 
is found on the arctic coasts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, 
and also on our own continent as far north as Hudson’s 
Bay. In New England, it is called by some the mackerel 
gull. It retires from all these places, at the approach 
of winter, to more congenial seas and seasons. 
The great tern is fifteen inches long, and thirty 
inches in extent ; bill, reddish yellow, sometimes bril- 
liant crimson, slightly angular on the lower mandible, 
and tipt with black ; whole upper part of the head, 
black, extending to a point half way down the neck 
behind, and including the eyes; sides of the neck and 
whole lower parts, pure white; wing-quills, hoary, as 
if bleached by the weather, long and pointed; whole 
back, scapulars, and wing, bluish white, or very pale 
lead colour ; rump and tail-coverts, white ; tail, long, and 
greatly forked, the exterior feathers being three inches 
longer than the adjoining ones, the rest shortening 
gradually for an inch and a half to the middle ones, 
the whole of a pale lead colour ; the outer edge of the 
exterior ones, black ; legs and webbed feet, brilliant 
red lead ; membranes of the feet, deeply scalloped ; 
claws, large and black, middle one the largest. The 
primary quill-feathers are generally dark on their inner 
edges. The female differs in having the two exterior 
feathers of the tail considerably shorter. The voice of 
these birds is like the harsh jarring of an opening 
door, rusted on its hinges. The bone of the skull is 
remarkably thick and strong, as also the membrane 
that surrounds the brain ; in this respect resembling the 
woodpecker’s. In both, this provision is doubtless 
intended to enable the birds to support, without injury, 
the violent concussions caused by the plunging of the 
one, and the chiselling of the other. 
