A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.
- George Montagu
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![habits of the Giiifette of Bufifon, we have no doubt he was deceived by those who gave him the information, or at least the habits of tlie Hirundo must be very differ- ent in Picardy than in Sussex and Kent, the opposite coast, and at no great distance from each other. It is therefore probable the manners of Sterna flssipes have been confounded with 'this, when the Guifette is said to make a nest in the marshes on a tuft of grass or moss. Such habits are pe- culiar to the flssipes or Black Tern, and we believe to no other European species. It is, however, not the flrst time we have discovered where that great naturalist has been deceived. It will be observed that in the former part of this work we had pre- flxed all the synonyms of the Linnsean noevia to the Sandwich Tern, upon the authoiity of the ‘ Index Ornithologicus but it must be evident that the dispropor- tion of size is so great as to preclude all possibility of their being the same species. Haying now the good fortune to identify the Buffonian Guifette, and which has been, with great probability, considered to be the Linnoean neevia, we beg those syno- nyms attached to the Sandwich Tem, as a variety, may be cancelled, having brought them to this species. Tem, Greater.—See Tern, Common. Tem, Gullbilled.—[FarreZZ,iii.620; Hew- itson, cxxxi. 476.]—Supplement.—Sterna Anglica. — As we have in some of the pre- ceding Terns been reducing the species, so we trust it will clearly appear that there ai'e two very distinct species confounded for the Sandwich Tem. Before we enter into a comparative deflnition of the two species, it wiU be proper to remark, that amongst several birds which Doctor Latham spared to Mr. Vaughan from his collection, we recognized the original Sandwich Tern, from which the drawing was taken by the daughter of the Doctor, and afterwards en- graved for Mr. Boys’s ‘ History of Sand- wich.’ This identical bird was sent by Mr. Boys to Doctor Latham as a new spe- cies, and as such was denominated Sand- wich Tem in the ‘ General Synopsis,’ and afterwards, in the ‘ Index Ornithologicus,’ Sterna Boysii, making it known, by those appropriate names, the original discoverer and the place where found. Doctor Latham assures us he never liad but two Sandwich Terns, the one sent to him by Mr. Boys, and the other by Doctor Leith of Greenwrich, and that they were similar. The specimen, however, before mentioned is evidently the one from which the ori- ginal drawing and description were taken, as the attitude evinces. This specimen having been presented to us by our friend Mr. Vaughan, has been the occasion of the fortunate discovery that a distinct species, apparently more common, has been erro- neously considered to be that bird; an error we confess to have fallen into, in common with all other naturalists. From the general resemblance of these two spe- cies, it is probable that the one in question would have long remained confounded, had it not been for the means of bringing the two together (being in possession of the new species), which, from the shape of the bill, is denominated the Gull-billed Tern, a prominent character of distinction be- tween the two: and as it has originated in England we have added the more scien- tiflo name of Sterna Anglica. Our speci- men of this species was shot in Sussex, and have known others to have been killed about Eye. Two of these birds are in the collection of Mr. Vaughan, both sent to him for the Sandwich Tem. Now, in oi'der to deflne the distinction of these two species, we shall make a comparative description. The bill of the Boysii is two inches long, slender, and almost regularly subulate, and is black, with a pale horn- coloured tip. That of the Anglica is not above an inch and a half long, thick, sti'ong, and angulated on the under man- dible like the bill of a Gull, and wholly black: upper part of the head of the Boysii is black, spotted with white on the forehead and part of the crown. In the Anglica the upper part of the head, taking in the eyes, is also black, and extends much farther down the back of the head and part of the neck; and in the several specimens examined there have been only two or three white feathers on the crown. The upper parts of the body of the former are of a paler grey, or, as Dr. Latham terms it, hoary lead-colour; and the tail, as well as their upper coverts, quite white. The ge- neral plumage of the Anglica above is dai’ker, being cinereous, and the tail and its upper coverts like the back, the outer feather on each side only being white. The greater quills of the Boysii are hoary black on the outer webs, and more than half of the inner, near the shafts, from the points, but gradually becoming less towards the base, the shafts and interior margins quite to the tip white. In the Anglica the quiUs are hoary, but the tips of the first five are black for an inch or more, without the smallest margin of white on that part; in other respects the wings are somewhat similar, except that part of the inner webs which is white does not quite reach the margin, the very edge being dusky for half the length of the feathers. In their legs and feet there is as great a difference as in their bills; the legs of the Boysii are nearly one-third shorter, black with a 643](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28089935_0371.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
