i66 
NATURE STUDY. 
Fast summer, while loitering in the woods, we heard the 
soft, liquid notes of a veery, and discovered the songster, 
on a low branch but a few yards away. The streakings 
upon the bird’s breast were almost invisible, and though 
the song was of the usual quality, it was not as loud as us¬ 
ual. We listened for a long time, then passed on. About 
a quarter of a mile farther on, we came upon another veery, 
which made the woods ring with its loud, clear notes. We 
did not get quite as close to this bird, but could plainly see 
the heavy markings upon his breast. We concluded, at 
the time, that the first bird which we saw was a female bird 
from the faint markings, and the softness of the song. There 
was certainly a marked difference between the two thrush¬ 
es. 
Though “one swallow does not make a summer,” if one 
female bird sings, why may not others? 
Mary Hazen Arnold. 
Waterbury, Ct. February 17. 1902. 
Gulls and Terns of New England. I. 
BY W. R. VARICK, M. D. 
It seems best to confine our discussion, in this paper, en¬ 
tirely to the gulls and terns, though they constitute but 
one family in the order Tongipennes ; for the other mem¬ 
bers of the order who visit our neighborhood are very few 
and extremely rare—jaegers and skuas are birds of the 
deep ocean, and the black skimmers have long since de¬ 
serted our shores for the South. 
Among the gross anatomical features of the family is the 
strong, horny bill, long, slender and straight in the terns ; 
stout and curved, or almost hooked, in the gulls. The 
wing primaries are eleven in number, and very long, espe¬ 
cially in terns, giving great power and endurance inflight. 
