i;klociiklii)on. 305 



(jlnssy hhirk : ImviT lull t (}[ ln'ai!, .v(r/.'s- o/ nape anil wc/i, chin and entire wider /inrt.i irJiite ; bill 

 blii.rk : li'i/s <ind fiel black ; iriti bnnrn. Total Iciiijth, lo'i incites, ivimj i-j'.'-7, /ail 'rj, bill l.S, 

 tarsus }'5. 



Adult kkmalk, in summer. — Similar in jilninage to the male. 



Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory, (Jueensland, New South Wales, 

 \'ictoria, South Australia, Western AustraHa. 



WIIl-yrilElv the Lon,t!-legged Tern of Australia described hy Gould, in the" Proceedin;,'s 

 of the Zoological Society of London," under the name of Sterna macrutaysa, is distinct 

 from Geloelulidou nilotica of Gmelin, the G. angelica of most authors, is open to question. 

 Certainly, front the amount of material before me — not a large series, consisting only of six 

 adult Australian specimens in summer plumage — the wing-measurement slightly exceeds the 

 largest size given for Gdochdidon atiglicd by the late Mr. Howard Saunders in the " Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum. "■' Moreover, the Australian birds differ in their summer 

 plumage, from the specimens there described, in having the mantle, upper tail-coverts and tail- 

 feathers pure white. There are no specimens in the Australian Museum Collection in winter 

 plumage, but according to Mr. Saunders Sterna angUca, to which he referred the Australian birds, 

 has, in winter, the " forehead, upper lores, crown and nape white, with black streaks, which 

 form a patch before and behind the eye ; otherwise as in summer." 



Gould, in his " Handbook to the Birds of Australia," applied the vernacular name of Long- 

 legged Tern to this species, but in his " Supplement to the folio edition of the Birds of Australia," 

 published four years later, there refers to it under the name of the Great-footed Tern. It is, 

 however, more widely known in Australia as the Gull-billed Tern, the recognised European 

 vernacular name for GcloehcUdon auiilica of most authors. 



The Long-legged Tern is widely distributed throughout the inland portions of the Australian 

 States, and in most of them it has been found breedmg. Mr. Tom Carter observed it nesting about 

 twenty-five miles south of Point Cloates, North-western Australia, while Mr. G. A. Heartland, 

 a member of the Calvert lixploring Expedition noted flocks flying over the camp at Fitzroy 

 River, and this species was also seen during April, 1^97, at a swamp within six miles 

 of Derby. Gould remarks: — I" It is now about twenty-iive years ago since asmall collection of 

 Australian Birds was sent to the Council of the King's College, London, as a donation to their 

 Museum. In this collection was a fine species of Tern, which proved to be new to science, and 

 of which I published in 1S37 a full description, together with its admeasurements and a sketch 

 of the head, under the name of Sterna macrotarsa. In the interval between 1837 and 1S59 I have 

 only seen two other examples ; it is evident, therefore, that the bird is extremely rare, or that we 

 have not yet visited its true habitat. One of the two specimens referred to was procured by the 

 late Mr. Elsey, on the Victoria River, in North-western Australia, and is now in the British 

 Museum, the other, which is in my possession, was obtained at Moreton Bay, Queensland." 



In New South Wales all the specimens I have seen were procured in the south-western 

 portion of the State, where the late Mr. K. H. Bennett and Dr. W. Macgillivray found it breeding 

 on several occasions. From Victoria I have the eggs of this species taken near Lake Buloke, in 

 the Wimmera District, in the north-western portion of that State. 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, wrote as follows from Mossgiel, South-western New South 

 Wales, in 1S86: — "Occasionally in good seasons Sterna auglica visits this locality in large 

 numbers, and even during periods of drought it may Ije frequently met with in small numbers 

 wherever wide sheets of water occur. In 1S70, and again in 1872, it bred here. In both instances 

 the sites chosen were similar, a sandy bank rising two or three feet above the surrounding plain 

 and thickly covered with dwarf saltbush. These breeding places were about forty miles apart ; 



* Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 29 (1S96). t Bds, Austr., fol. Vol, SuppL, text opp. pi. 81 (1869). 

 77 



