160 
STERNA FULIGINOSA. 
slightly forked ; shoulders of the wing, brownish ash ; 
legs and webbed feet, tawny. It had a sharp shrill cry 
when wounded and taken. 
This is probably the brown tern mentioned by Wil- 
loughby, of which so many imperfect accounts have 
already been given. 
251. STERNA FULIGINOSA GMELIN AND WILSON. 
SOOTY TERN. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. VII. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This bird has been long known to navigators, as its 
appearance 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 j 
species is widely dispersed 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 yellowish, 
with brown and violet spots, f 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 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 plumage, 
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. 
