Plate CCCCX. Male.
Bill about the length of the head, stout; wings longer than the tail,
which is moderately forked; bill and feet black; upper part of the
head and occiput greenish-black; sides of the head, fore neck, and all
the lower parts, white; upper parts pale greyish-blue, edges of the
wings whitish; primaries hoary on the outer web, deep grey on the
inner, their shafts and those of the tail-feathers white; the tail of
a paler tint than the back, and the outer feather nearly white.
_Male_, 14, 34.
Cosmopolite. In America, breeds from the mouth of the Mississippi to
Connecticut. Not abundant. Migratory.
Marsh Tern, Sterna aranea, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p. 143.
Sterna aranea, Bonap. Syn. p. 354.
Marsh Tern, Sterna anglica, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 269.
Marsh or Gull-billed Tern, Sterna anglica, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
v. p. 127.