Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/171

Rh under parts dull greyish-white, as are the upper parts, including the tail; the hind part of the head streaked with dusky, on the back and rump the feathers with a curved marginal band of greyish-brown; primary quills greyish-brown, the outer two darker. At this period the tail is even, each feather narrowly margined with greyish-white.

In a male bird the tongue is 10 twelfths long, slender, triangular, tapering to a point, horny beneath, emarginate and papillate at the base. On the palate are five longitudinal ridges. The posterior aperture of the nares is linear, 7 twelfths long. The oesophagus is 4 inches 2 twelfths long, very wide, its average diameter on the neck 4^ twelfths, within the thorax 9 twelfths; it is exceedingly thin and delicate, its muscular fibres scarcely apparent, unless closely examined. The proventriculus is only a quarter of an inch long. The stomach is 9 twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad, its lateral muscles of considerable size, the cuticular lining dense, tough, longitudinally rugous, and of a reddish-brown colour, as in Gulls. Contents of stomach and oesophagus, small fishes, one of them 2 inches long. The intestine is 14 inches long, its diameter Ij twelfths. The coeca are 2 twelfths long, nearly 1 twelfth in diameter.

The trachea is 2 inches and 4 twelfths long, its diameter 2 twelfths at the top, diminishing to 1 twelfth; its rings about 105, unossified; its lateral muscles moderate, as are the sterno-tracheal, and single pair of inferior laryngeal. The bronchial half-rings about 25.

THE NODDY TERN.

-^-Sterna stolid a, Linn.

PLATE CCCCXL.— Male.

About the beginning of May, the Noddies collect from all parts of the Gulf of Mexico, and the coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to their breeding places, on one of the Tortugas called Noddy Key. They nearly equal in number the Sooty Terns, which also breed on an island a few miles distant. The Noddies form regular nests of twigs and dry grass, which they place on the bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On visiting their island on the 11th of May, 1832, I was surprised to see that