3'Jl 



Sterna melanorhyncha. 



BLACK-HILLKD TERN. 



Sleni.ii )ni'!anor/n/ucha, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. 26 (1848) ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. II., p. .398 (1805). 



Adult male, in breeding plumage. — General colour above, iucludliKj the /rings and tail, pale 

 tp'i'ij, the outer web of the outer primary on eitlter side black ; the inner webs of all the primaries 

 brotidhj margined ivith white ; inner roebs of all btit the innermost secondaries white ; -upper portion 

 of till' forehead, croirn of tlie head and nape black : rmiiaindi-r of the plnmage pure lohite ; bill black ; 

 legs and feel reddish-brown ; iris black. Total leni/'h lH incites, unng 11, central tail-feathers .^, 

 enter tail-feathers 7, bill lij, tarsus 0-S. 



Adult femalk, in breeding plumage. — Simitar in. plumage t<i the male. 



Distribution. — New South Wales, Victoria, Islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania. 

 /"I^HIi Black-billed Tern frequents tne seas washing the south-eastern portion of the 

 -L continent and some of the islands of Bass Strait, but is far more common on the islands 

 surrounding the south-eastern portion of Tasmania, where it breeds, and this is the only part of 

 the States in which it does that I know of, as Mr. J. Graves found it breeding on Actaon Island, 

 in D'Entrecasteaux Channel. 



There are only three specimens in the Australian Museum Reference Collection obtained 

 in New South Wales, and all are in winter plumage. Of these one is unlocalized, another 

 was obtained by Mr. J. A. Boyd, at Narrabeen, si.xteen miles north from Sydney, in June, 1S76. 

 On the gth of June, 1900, after a prolonged easterly gale, Mr. A. M.N. Rose brought me a 

 specimen he had picked up dead in one of his paddocks at Campbelltown, thirty-four miles 

 south of the metropolis and nearly the same distance from the coast. The adults, in winter 

 plumage, have the upper portion of the forehead and crown of the head mottled with white. 



According to the late Mr. Howard Saunders in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum, Sterna melanovliyncha, Gould, is a synonym of Sterna frontalis, Gray, originally described 

 from New Zealand, but as I have no specimens from the Dominion for comparison, I thought 

 it better to let the species stand under Gould's name for the Australian and Tasmanian bird. 

 Gould described the type of Sterna mclanovhyncha in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia," 

 from specimens obtained by him off the coast of Tasmania, and within a few miles of Maria 

 Island. 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson, while resident at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, 

 forwarded me the eggs, together with the following note relative to the breeding of this bird : — 

 "The eggs of Sterna melanorhyncha were taken in 1888, on Actaeon Island, in D'Entrecasteaux 

 Channel, South-eastern Tasmania, by Mr. J. Graves. They were laid just above high-water 

 mark, and like our other Terns, in a slight hollow in the bare gravel or sand." 



The eggs are oval or elongate oval in form, some specimens being rather pointed at the 

 smaller end ; the shell being comparatively close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. They 

 vary in ground colour from a faint yellowish-stone to an ashy and very pale greenish-grey, while 

 a not uncommon variety is of a light coflee-brown. Over the lighter ground colours are 

 usually distributed irregular-shaped dots, spots and blotches, and a few hair-lines of sepia and 

 brownisli-black or dark umber, with which are intermingled similar underlying markings of faint 

 inky-grey. On some specimens the blotches are blurred or confluent and form coalesced patches 

 on one part or another of the shell, or one colour partially overlies another; others have the 

 markings small and evenly distributed over the shell. As a rule the markings on the specimens 



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