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THE GREAT TERN. 
birds may, at first sight, appear a benefit to mankind ; but 
when we consider how many persons are sustained by 
their flesh, either fresh or salted, we shall find no satis- 
faction in thinking that these poor people may in time 
lose their chief support. The Gull usually builds on the 
ledges of rocks, and lays from one egg to three, in a nest 
formed of long grass and sea-weed. It defends its young 
with great intrepidity. When the natives of the Fero 
Islands attempt to plunder the nest, the parent birds 
attack them with such vehemence that, on the men holding 
a knife perpendicularly above their own heads, the Gulls will 
sometimes transfix themselves in pouncing on the invaders. 
Most of the kind are fishy tasted, with black stringy flesh ; 
yet the young ones are better food; and of these, with 
several other birds of the penguin kind, the poor inhabitants 
of the Arctic regions make their wretched banquets. They 
have been long used to no other food ; and even a salted 
Gull can be relished by those who know no better. 
THE GREAT TERN. {Sterna hisundo .) 
This bird is about fourteen inches long, and weighs four 
ounces and a quarter. The bill and feet are a fine crimson, 
the former is tipped with black, and very slender. The 
back of the head is black ; the upper part of the body is a 
