Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/139



I have several reasons for naming this Tern after Mr. Robert Havell, of Oxford Street, London. In the first place I consider him as one of the best ornithological engravers in England. Secondly, I feel greatly indebted to him for the interest which he has always evinced in my publication, which, I dare venture to assert, is the largest work of the kind that has hitherto appeared, and the engraving of which has cost him much trouble and anxiety. Thirdly, I consider myself entitled to express my gratitude in this manner, the individual on whom I confer the honour being more deserving of it than many to whom similar compliments have been paid.

I shot several individuals of this species out of a number congregated on the broad eddies opposite New Orleans, in 1820. They were engaged in picking up floating coleopterous insects; but after I had fired several shots, and was rowing to those which had fallen on the water, the rest flew off. Since that time it had not been my fortune to meet with any birds of the same species, until I visited Texas in the spring of 1837, when two of them were procured.

- Havell's Tern ; Sterna Havelli, And. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 122. Adult, 151, wing, 10^.

From Texas to South Carolina. Common. Migratory. Adult in winter plumage.

Bill about the length of the head, rather stout, much compressed, acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly declinato-convex, the ridge convex at the base, very narrow in the rest of its extent, the side sloping at the base, nearly erect and convex toward the end, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip very narrow. Nasal groove rather short, but with a channel surmounted by a ridge running from its anterior part to the edge of the mandible about half an inch from the tip. Lower mandible with the angle very narrow and acute, extending to beyond the middle, the outline of the crura a little concave, that of the rest ascending and straight, a slight pro-