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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![given to us that were taken on the Black Eock, and where the birds to which they belong are in vast abundance, and are called by the British sailors Boatswain- bird. This subject has been mentioned before, under the article of Boatswain, and therefore we only notice it here in hopes of stimulating some persons who may have an opportunity to investigate this matter, and rescue it from obscurity. [Tern, Swift. — Ruppell, pi. 13: Baron B. K. von Warthausen, Ibis, 1800. Sterna velox, Buppell, A tlas, pi. 13 ; Thompson, Annals of Natural History for September, 1847, XX. 170; id. Natural Hist, of Ire- land, iii. 200; Schlegel, Revue Crit. des Ois. d’Europe, p. 115; Heyland, Ornith. Europ. p. 335. ? Sterna ciistata, Swain- son, Birds of Western Africa, p. 247, pi. 30. — “ Wings and longest taU-feathers about of equal length ; outer or longest tail- feathers exceed the middle by three inches. Bill whoEy yellowish horn- colour ; legs and toes wholly black; Colour of the entire plumage the same as that of the Common Tern (Sterna Hi- rundo), but the back is of rather a darker shade than that of the latter when adult. The black on the head does not reach within one-tbii’d of an inch of the bill; space between the termination of the black plumage and the bill pure white.”—Thomp- son, 1. c. A specimen of this bird was shot by Mr. Lynch, of Cork Street, Dublin, near Sutton, a place between Dublin and Howtb, at the end of December, 1840 : two others of the same species were seen : full details are priven in the ‘ Annals of Natural His- toi’y,’ in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1847, at p. 1878, and in Thompson’s ‘ Natural History of Ireland,’ as cited above. It is known as an inhabitant of the Eed Sea, Eastern and Western Africa, and the Mediterranean as far west as Sicily. “ Found breeding on the low treeless sand island off the Luabo mouth of the Zambesi, in the month of January. The nests, which were placed a few yards from the tide-mai’k, consisted of slight hollows in the sand, with a few sticks gathered round. They were quite open and exposed, or placed occasionally under shelter of any log of wood cast up, but never in the centre of the island. This place is well protected from visits of mon- keys by a wide extent of water.” — T)r. J. Kirk on the Birds of the Zambesi Region, Ibis, 1804, p. 337. The following particu- lars of its eggs leave nothing to be de- sired : — “1 have fourteen eggs in a good state of preservation, and five injured ones, collected on the island of Lobo (Archipe- lago of Dahalak), 1st Aug. 1857. They are distinguished from all the eggs of Sterna hitherto known by their consider- able size, and beautiful and verj^ varied coloration. Their length reaches 25—29, their breadth 17 J—IBJ, lines; their weight amounts to 57—70, generally to 00, grains. The ground-colour is greenish white, greenish grey, reddish w'liite, incarnate or violet-rose. The greenish specimens have, as in Alca torda, large blackish brown burnt spots and grey clouds ; the reddish ones mostly smaller, rounded, sometimes also burnt spots, the colour changing from the centre to the margin, as stated above, and frequently short and numerous fioui’ishes of a chesnut-brown (rarely en- tirely black or light brown), nearly red colour. In several specimens the nourishes are as large and as well-developed as in the finest eggs of Uria troile. Bluish grey markings lie deeper in the substance of the shell, and sometimes little conspicuous in the w'hitish specimens. They generally con-espond to the external spots in size, foi-m and situation, and appear rarely as larger clouds in dotted eggs. One speci- men is uniform greenish white. Eeddish eggs held against a light are transparent yellowish green, greenish ones bluish green. The granulation is strong, coarse, fiat, longitudinal, with rounded pores and deep pits.”— Baron R. K. von Warthausen on the Nidijication of certain Birds in North-Eastern Africa, Ibis, 1800, pp. 127, 128.] [Tern, Sooty.— Farrell, iii. 543. Sterna fuhginosa, Wilson, Amer. Ornith. iii. IGO of Jameson’s Edition. Onychoprion fuli- ginosus, Gould, Birds of Australia, vol. vu. pi. 32 ; Handbook of the Birds of Australia, ii. 408. — “ ’The length of Sooty Tem se- venteen inches, extent three feet six inches ; bdl an inch and a half long, sharp- pointed and rounded above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point; nostril an oblong slit; colour of the bill glossy black; irides dusky ; forehead, as far as the eyes, white; whole low^er parts and sides of the neck pure w'hite ; rest of the plumage black; wings- very long and pointed, extending, w-hen shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is greatly forked, and consists of twelve feathers, the tw'o exterior ones four inches longer than those of the middle, the whole of a deep black, except the two outer feathers, which are white, but towards the extremities a little blackish on the inner vanes; legs and webbed feet black; hind toe short. The secondary wing-feathers ai’e eight inches shorter than the shortest primary. This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea, and, in common with another species, S. stolida, is called by the sailors the Noddy.”— Wilsoti, iii. 100. In the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1853 Mr. Edwin Brown,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28089935_0376.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
