Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/165

Rh black, of which there is a darker mark behind, and another before the eye; the forehead greyish-white, as are the sides of the head, the fore neck, the breast, and the abdomen; the sides dusky-grey; the lower wing-coverts greyish-white. The quills are darker towards the end, and the first primary is black along the outer web.

Length to end of tail 7f inches, to end of wings 9 T ; wing from flexure 7f ; tail 2|f; bill along the ridge %, along the edge of lower mandible If^i tarsus -ff ; middle toe T 8 T, its claw T 3 2>

Tongue 1 inch in length, very slender, grooved above in its whole length, tapering to a very fine horny point, which is a little slit. (Esophagus 3^- inches long, -| inch wide, within the thorax dilated to a very large sac, 9 twelfths in breadth. Stomach of moderate size, roundish, 8 twelfths long, 7 twelfths broad; the lateral muscles moderate, the tendons large, the epithe- lium dense, with large longitudinal rugae. The proventricular belt 8 twelfths in breadth. Intestine 12 J inches long, from 2 twelfths to 1 twelfth in width; cceca 1-J twelfths long, twelfth wide, 1 inch 2 twelfths from the extremity; cloaca globular, 7 twelfths in width. Liver very large, the left lobe 10 twelfths long, the right 1 inch 2 twelfths. Trachea 2 inches 7 twelfths long, 2^ twelfths wide, tapering to 1 twelfth; the rings slender, unossified, 102 in number. Bronchi rather wide, of 20 half rings. Muscles as in the other Terns.

LEAST TERN.

-j- Sterna minuta, Linn.

PLATE CCCCXXXIX.— Adult and Young.

As no account of this species exists in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, it is to be supposed that it is not met with beyond the western shores of Labrador, where however I found it in abundance, and breeding, in the beginning of June 1833. On the 14th of August following I observed them at New- foundland, moving southward in detached parties of old and young, against a strong breeze, and uttering their clamorous cries. Again, in the end of April 1837, hundreds of pairs were breeding on the islands of Galveston Bay in Texas, the numerous specimens which I then examined exhibiting