The name marsh tern refers to
terns of the genus ''Chlidonias'', which are typically found in freshwater marshes, rather than coastal locations. The genus name ''Chlidonias'' is from
Ancient Greek , "swallow-like", from , "
swallow".
Species
There are four species:
Notice the hesitation in the gender of the epithet of the scientific names, as they are usually masculine (''albostriatus, leucopterus'' or ''niger''), but in the case of the whiskered tern is mostly used as feminine (''hybrida''), maybe from the influence of the previous gender used, ''
Sterna
''Sterna'' is a genus of terns in the bird family Laridae. The genus used to encompass most "white" terns indiscriminately, but mtDNA sequence comparisons have recently determined that this arrangement is paraphyletic. It is now restricted to ...
''.
The
black-bellied tern
The black-bellied tern (''Sterna acuticauda'') is a tern found near large rivers in the Indian subcontinent, its range extending from Pakistan, Nepal and India to Myanmar. It has become very scarce in the eastern part of its range and the Intern ...
(''Sterna acuticauda'') and the
white-cheeked tern (''Sterna repressa'') might also be placed in ''Chlidonias''.
References
*
Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
{{Charadriiformes-stub