TOWNSEND AND WETMORE : THE BIRDS. 183 



who made a collection of birds on Christmas Island in the Fanning 

 Group in 1874 (Bull. 7 U. S. N. M., 1877) did not record Aeckmo- 

 rhynchus jjarvirostris, and Christmas Island is two thousand miles 

 from the nearest point at which that species is known at present. 



The female shot on Whitsunday Atoll is distinctly larger than the 

 specimens collected by Peale. The bill is longer, and the toes are 

 noticeable for their length. As Peale's specimens are more or less 

 stained and yellowed there can be no direct comparison in color and 

 as none of his specimens have the sex indicated on the labels it is proba- 

 ble that these differences in size may be merely sexual characters. 



It is possible that AechmorhynchiLS parvirostris is an ancient species 

 now on the verge of extinction. The bird collected on Whitsunday 

 Atoll has three white edgings on the scapulars of the left side, and one 

 of Peale's specimens (U. S. N. M. 15,721) possesses an extra digit with 

 two phalanges and a small claw, growing from the base of the second 

 phalanx of the fourth toe on the left foot. These abnormalities may 

 mark degeneration due to inbreeding, or declining virility in the stock. 



LARIDAE. 

 23. Angus stolidus pileatus (Scopoli). 



Sterna pileata Scopoli, Deliciae florae et faunae Insubricae, 1786, pt. 2, p. 92. 

 (Philippines). 



Four specimens, all adult males, were collected as follows: — 

 Kusaie, Eastern Caroline Islands, one, 8 February, 1900; Funafuti, 

 Ellice Islands, one, 24 December, 1899; Makemo, 22 October, 1899, 

 and Makatea, 6 October, 1899, both in the Paumotu Islands. Mathews 

 (Birds of Australia, 1912, 2, pt. 4, p. 411) assigns the name Anous s. 

 unicolor (Nordmann) to birds from the Society and Paumotu Islands 

 "and other South Pacific groups.". He remarks only that this pro- 

 posed form is larger than any of the others. xA.s it is found that birds 

 from the Straits of Malacca and the China Sea are fully as large, this 

 name is rejected and the specimens are placed under A. s. ■pileatus 

 (Scopoli). It may be remarked also that specimens of A. s. gala- 

 poycnsis Sharpe, a form distinguished by its darker coloration, have 

 the wing as long as birds from the Paumotu Islands. Measurements 

 of the specimens in the present collection are as follows : — 



