314 LARID^E. 



'I'luihis^piisi heiigalensU, Gould, Haiiflljk. lids. Auslr., Vol. II., p. .'i'.)" (1805). 



Slerua m>jdm, Haunders, Cat. lUis. I'.rit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 80(1890;; 811iarpe Hand-l. fids., Vol. 

 I., p. 135 (1899). 



Adult .MALK. — " Forehead, sides of tlie face and neck., iippcr jinrt nf llii' hack, ami all /he under 

 snr/ace silkij ivliite .■ feathers of the croivii and surrounding tlie eije ivliite, iritli a minute s/iot of black 

 in llie centre of eacli ; occi/uit aud back of llie neck black; hack and irint/s deep (/rey ; tail iji'ey ; 

 primaries grey isli -black, broadly margineil on, their inner ivebs niith ivhile : llie shafts u^hite ; iris 

 (lark brown ; bill ochreyellon' ; feet blackish-grey. Total length hi .7 inches, irimj ll'o, tail Ji-75, bill 

 ^'75, tarsns 1." 



Adult fem.^lk. — " The sexes are alike in plumage ; in summer the fore part of the head is black, 

 nihile in winter it is ichile " (Gould).* 



Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland. 



^jInN Australia this smaller Crested Tern is found inhabitint; the seas and islets of North-western 

 Jl. Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Gould described it in the" Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society of London," and figured it in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia" 

 under the name of Thnlassiiis torrcsii, from specimens procured by Gilbert at Port Essington, 

 who remarked ; — " This bird is numerous on all the sandy points in the harbour, as well as all 

 round the coast and the neighbouring islands, during the months of April and May." In 1875, 

 during the Voyage of the " Chevert," the late Mr. George Masters informed me it was found in 

 abundance on all the islands of Torres Strait visited by the members of that e.xpedition. It 

 breeds in large colonies, but it was not until April, 1892, that a detailed description of its nesting 

 habits in Australia was published in the " Records of the i^ustralian Museum," f from notes and 

 specimens sent me by Mr. H. G. Barnard; the latter being collected by him on a sand-bank 

 thirty miles east of North Barnard Island, near the Great Barrier Reef, North-eastern Queensland. 

 In the same month an account was published in "The Ibis," [ giving a description by Mr. J. 

 Walker, R.N., of the Bird Life of .Adele Island, North-western .-\ustralia, on the opposite side of 

 the continent, and which included a reference to the breeding grounds of this species. Since 

 then its eggs have been found on many occasions by various collectors, principally on some of 

 the islands in the neighbourhood of the Great Barrier Reef and the north-eastern coast of 

 Queensland. I have never known of its occurrence in New South Wales waters. The adults 

 in winter have the forehead and fore part of the crown uf the head white, the latter spotted or 

 streaked with black. 



Owing to its wide distribution, the type being described by Horsfield from Java, this species 

 has received many vernacular names, among others that of the Allied Tern, Lesser Sea Tern, 

 Torres Straits Tern, Indian Tern and Crested Tern, of which the former appears to be in more 

 general use. Of its ultra-Australian range the late Mr. Howard Saunders, in the " Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum," records it as follows: — "The Mediterranean Sea, from the 

 Straits of Gibraltar sparingly eastwards to Egypt; the Red Sea: East .Africa to Madagascar and 

 the islands of the Indian Ocean ; the Persian Gulf, .Arabian Sea, Lower Bay of Bengal, Malacca, 

 Sumatra, Java and Celebes." 



From Broken Hill, South-western New South Wales, Dr. W. Macgillivray wrote as 

 follows: — "Mr. W. McLennan found Sterna media breeding on Oyster Cay, near Cairns, in 

 company with S. hergii, S. fuliginosa and .-Inous siolidiis. The island, which is about a quarter of 

 a mile long, and three hundred yards broad, was covered with nests and eggs, the species under 

 notice, forming the smallest colony, had all hatched out. On my way up the coast of Queensland 

 in October, 1910, I first noticed Sterna media at Mackay pursuing the shoals of little fish, which 



• Gould. Handbk. Bds. Austr.. Vol. II., pp. 397-8 (1865). t North, Rec. Austr. Mas.. Vol. II., p. 20 (1892). 



J Ibis. 1892, p. 258. 



