Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/109

Rh Terns, is precisely similar to the smaller Gulls, as it is also in the form, structure, and muscles of the trachea. In these respects, the Terns also resemble the Shearwater. The bill of the Cayenne Tern evidently indicates an affinity to the Phaetons, and in a less degree to the Gannets, as does the head, which is very large in proportion to the bird. On the other hand, as regards the bill, the affinity is to the larger Gulls and the Shearwater. The feet resemble those of the Gulls, but are proportionally smaller, these birds being more volatorial, and the Gulls combining that character with an affinity to the loading birds, while the Shearwater exhibits the abbreviated feet of the purely fly ing birds in a still greater degree.

MARSH OR GULL-BILLED TERN.

"fSTERNA ANGLICA, Montagu.

PLATE CCCCXXX.— Male.

Having taken six specimens of the Marsh Tern of America to the British Museum, and minutely compared them in all their details with the speci- mens of the Gull-billed Tern which formed part of the collection of Colonel Montagu, and were procured in the south of England, I found them to agree so perfectly that no doubt remained with me of the identity of the bird loosely described by Wilson with that first distinguished by the English ornithologist.

I have shot several Marsh Terns out of the same flock, in the early part of spring, when the youngest must therefore have been nearly a year old, and found them all equally perfect and beautiful in their plumage, but differing considerably in the length of their bills, tarsi, toes, and wings, insomuch that a person bent on forming new species might easily gratify his inclination by founding "specific characters" on differences, which, however, would be merely those of males and females of different ages. With me the habits of birds, when minutely and faithfully described, go much farther to establish the identity of individuals found in the different parts of the globe, than the best and closest descriptions of prepared skins. Colonel Montagu informs us that the Gull-billed Tern, Sterna anglica, resorts by