ON THE BIRDS OF THE \VEDDELL AND ADJACENT SEAS. 269 



as has already been stated, no terns appear to liave been previously captured within 

 seas girdled by the Antarctic Circle. 



The Scotia collections include some interesting specimens. An adult female 

 obtained on March 23rd, 1904, in 68 32' S. and 12 49' W., has already assumed full 

 breeding-plumage, and shows no signs of moulting. Another (a male) is assuming its 

 summer hood, leaving the head a mixture of black-and-white feathers; this specimen 

 still retains the dusky upper wing-coverts of youth. In addition to gaining the black 

 head for the first time, it exhibits further evidence of moulting, inasmuch as neither 

 the primaries nor the rectrices are quite fully grown, the first primary being still 

 shorter than the second by about half an inch. I am inclined to think that we have 

 here a bird about twenty-one months old. 



The series also includes two immature examples in the plumage known as the 

 S. portlandica stage. These have the forehead and crown nearly white, the rest of 

 the head blackish, the lesser wing-coverts conspicuously dark, and the bill and feet 

 black. They are in deep moult so far as their primary-quills and tail-feathers are 

 concerned, but apparently not otherwise. Some of their primaries are only three 

 inches long. 



The Gauss obtained a tern off Wilhelm Land, in 66 S., 89 38' E., on February 

 18th, 1903, which Reichenow (On/. Monatsber., xii. p. 47) described as a new sub- 

 species of the Arctic Tern under the name of S/cnm nutcrura antistropha. This is 

 said to be "very like S. -niacriira, but with the bill darker, not cinnabar or poppy- 

 red, but carmine at the base and blackish towards the tip ; lower edge of mandible 

 longer, 21-22 mm., in nn/cnira only 1(5-19 mm. Feet not yellowish red to cinnabar- 

 red, but dusky carmine red, webs blackish. Tarsus somewhat longer, 15-17 mm." If 

 described from skins, that fact might account for the subtle differences in colour, or 

 if such differences really exist they might be due to the season (the winter for 

 S. iii<-rtira). The Scotia specimens do not exhibit the peculiarities attributed to this 

 subspecific form, except that one of them agrees with it so far as the dimensions of the 

 mandible and tarsus are concerned. 



[Gulls. 



No gulls were observed during the. Antarctic voyages of the Scotia except Lams 

 dominicanus in the vicinity of the South Orkneys. In the Ai/t<trci/r Monnal (p. 232) 

 it is stated that this gull was obtained in G4 18' S., and that a specimen of Larus 

 scoresbyi, also in the British Museum, was obtained in the vicinity of the South 

 Shetlands in 64 55' S. Dr Bruce, who was naturalist on the Baln-itu, from which 

 vessel the birds in question were obtained, tells me that these examples were un- 

 doubtedly captured at the Falkland Islands, and that they were skinned by him.] 



