. A history of British birds . of the middletoe three-eighths of an inch, strong and curved. Indianexamples are, on the average, smaller. Adult birds in winter have the forehead, crown, and all theunder parts pure white ; occiput, neck, streaked with black;a black spot behind the eyes; mantle, back, wings, tail-coverts and tail-feathers uniform ash-grey; bill, legs, andfeet deep lake-red. Young birds of the year have the crown of the head,occiput, and ear-coverts greyish-black; the feathers of theback, scapulars, and secondaries dark brown in the middle,barred and tipped with buff ; tail-feath
. A history of British birds . of the middletoe three-eighths of an inch, strong and curved. Indianexamples are, on the average, smaller. Adult birds in winter have the forehead, crown, and all theunder parts pure white ; occiput, neck, streaked with black;a black spot behind the eyes; mantle, back, wings, tail-coverts and tail-feathers uniform ash-grey; bill, legs, andfeet deep lake-red. Young birds of the year have the crown of the head,occiput, and ear-coverts greyish-black; the feathers of theback, scapulars, and secondaries dark brown in the middle,barred and tipped with buff ; tail-feathers grey, darkertowards the tips, but margined with white; beak brown, redat the base ; legs and feet flesh-colour. The nestling is a clear ruddy-buff above ; a black spot atthe base of the upper mandible, followed by a warmer patchof chestnut; head and back streaked with black; throatbrownish-black ; chest and under parts white. Of the threeMarsh Terns it is the most easily recognized. I GULL-BILLED TERN. GA VI^. 531 Sterna anglica, Montagu.* THE GULL-BILLED anglica. Sterna, Brissonf—Bill locger than the head; nearly straight, compressed,often slender and tapering, with the edges sharp, and the end pointed ; themandibles of equal length, the upper one slightly decurved. Nostrils near themiddle of the beak, pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs slender, naked for ashort space above the tarsal joint; tarsi short. Toes four: the three in frontunited by intervening membranes concave in front, or semi-palraated ; the hindtoe free; claws curved. Wings long, pointed, the first quill-feather the distinctly forked in varying degrees. This species was first made known by Colonel Montagu,who gave a figure and description of it in the Supplement tohis Ornithological Dictionary; one specimen was shot byhimself in Sussex, and he saw two others that had beenkilled at Rye. The birds obtained were at first confoundedwith the Sandwich Tern, but the differen
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
