( fi7 ) 



39. Hydrochelidon leucoptera (Meisu. & Schinz) (Oust. 11. p. 57). 



A yonng bird shot on Guam, November 6tli. Native name: "("Iiugi." Bill 

 II. 1 (black); iris II. 1; legs and feet IV. 6. 



It may also be mentioned that we have received two adult II. leucoptera from 

 a place called" Ogasawara." They have been sent as with other rare Japanese birds 

 by Mr. Owston, and are no doubt from one of the islands belonging to Japan, 

 though I cannot find tlie name on our map. 



40. Gygis alba kittlitzi Hartert (Oust. II. p. 58). 



I am inclined to keep up my snbspecitie term for the white tern of the North 

 Pacific, not that I consider it veri/ different from others, but to call attention again 

 to the fact that the northern birds are regularly smaller than those from the South 

 Pacific. I have before me now half a dozen white terns from Guam, a series from 

 Laysan and Lisiansky, and one from Huahine, which I have compared with a large 

 series from the Kermadec Islands, and I found that they all have the bill from 

 3 to 10 mm. shorter and the wing from to 20 mm. shorter than those from 

 the Kermadecs, a fact which in any case is worth recording. (Of Hartert, KataL 

 Vof/rls. Senckenb. Mus. p. 237, footnote 460 ; Rothsch., Apt/. Lnymu I. p. 36 ; 

 Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXV. pp. 149—152.) 



Mr. Saunders (I.e.) i)refers the name G. caml/ila (1788), instead of G. alba 

 (1786), for reasons given P. Z. S. 1876. p. 667 — namely, that the latter was badly 

 described. Sparrman's description, however, is quite recognisable, and there is no 

 other tern to which it could apply (except G. mkrorhyncha, which is only known from 

 the Marquesas !). He says, " Sterna tota alba, rostro pedibusque uigris," and 

 further, that it has the size of S. nigra, and is found in the South Sea, in India, and 

 at the Cape of Good Hope. Saunders' descri23tion {I.e.) runs: "Above and below 

 ivory-white, except for a narrow black ring round the eye; at times some dark 

 colour on the shafts of the primaries and rectrices, depending, I think, on the age 

 of the feather: bill black; irides blue: tarsi and toes dark brown, the webs yellow 

 and very much incised." (Follow exact measurements.) If we consider that the 

 ring round the eye is very narrow indeed and not visible in bad skins, such as they 

 most likely had over a hundred years ago, there is no great difiference between the 

 two descriptions. The feet are certainly more black than brown in skins, nor are 

 they exactly " dark brown " in life. If Sparrman's description is to be rejected, 

 then hardly any Linnean or any older name can be accepted, and a good many 

 modern names must be rejected too, as one can easily find out by glancing them 

 over. Sorry as I am for dissenting in any case from the Catalogue of Bin/.'s, 1 must 

 accept Sterna alba of Sparrman. If we care for an undisturl)ed standard uomcu- 

 clature at all, we must be strict and firm to the utmost in following priority without 

 exceptions — unless the name is already used in the same genug, or not with any 

 certainty referring to the species in question, which, I think, Sparrmnn's name 

 does as well as any other. 



Our coUectors found this species breeding on Sai/jan, and sent skins from there 

 and from Guam, shot in the months of January, February, and March. The native 

 name is " C'hugi." The iris is given, as liidgway III. 1 to III. 2, the centre of the 

 eve as II. 1 (seal-brown to clove-brown): bill 11. 1 (black), liasal part light IX. ."i 

 (light hyaciulh-blue); legs and toes 11. 16 (plumbeous;, claws 11. 1 (black). 



