472 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



681.— Nehrling, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vii, 1882, 225 (Galveston Bay, etc., 

 breeding). — Zeledon, Cat. Aves de Costa Rica, 1882, 36. — Dalgleish, Auk, 

 i, 1884, 97 (Tangier, Morocco, Dec. 10, 1883; flock).— Wells, List Birds 

 Grenada, 1886, 11. 



[Sterna] regia Gray, Hand-list, iii, 1871, 120, no. 11055. — Coues, Key N. Am. 

 Birds, 1872, 319. 



S[terna] regia Ridgway, Ann. Lye. N. Y., x, 1874, 391 (Illinois). — Nelson, Bull. 

 Essex Inst., viii, 1876, 147 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in summer). 



Thalasseus regius Newton (A. and E.), Ibis, 1859, 371 (St. Croix). — Coues, 

 Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, 538 (monogr.); 1871, 42 (Fort Macon, North 

 Carolina; habits, etc.); Ibis, 1864, 388 (Chiapam, Guatemala; Brit. Hon- 

 duras); Proc. Best. Soc. N. H., xii, 1868, 126 (South Carolina). — Salvin, 

 Ibis, 1864, 385 (Long Cay, Brit. Honduras); 1866, 199 (Guatemala).— Law- 

 rence, Ann. Lye. N. Y., viii, 1865, 103 (Sombrero, Lesser Antilles; habits); 

 ix, 1869, 210 ( Yucatan). ^GuNDLACH, Repert. Fisico-Nat. Cuba, 1866, 392 

 (Cuba); Journ. fur Orn., 1874, 314 (Porto Rico); 1875, 388 (Cuba; habits); 

 1878, 162, 191 (Porto Rico); Orn. Cubana, 1876, 309; Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. 

 Nat., vii, 1878, 410 (Porto Rico).— Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v, 1883, 

 545 (Cape San Lucas district. Lower California), 549 (San Jose del Cabo. — 

 Stahl, Ornis, vol. 3, 1887, 453 (Porto Rico). 



[Thalasseus] regius Lawr-ence, Ann. Lye. N. Y., viii, 1867, 299 (vicinity New 

 York City). 



T[hallaseus] regius Gambel, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 2d ser., i, 1849, 228. 



Sterna (Thalasseus) regia Cotjes, Birds Northwest, 1874, 669. 



[Phcetusa] regia Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xlii, 1856, 772. 



[Sylochelidon] regia Gundlach, Journ. fiir Orn., 1861, 348 (Cuba). 



Sylochelidon regia Gundlach, Journ. fiir Orn., 1871, 294 (Cuba). 



Sterna bergii (not of Lichtenstein) Hartlaub, Orn. West-Afr., 1857, 254 (Gam- 

 bia). — Shelley and Buckley, Ibis, 1872, 293 (Accra and Cape Coast Castle, 

 w. Africa).— Irby, Orn. Straits Gibr., 1875, 209. 



Sterna elegans (not of Gambel) Leotaud, Ois. Trinidad, 1866, 542. 



THALASSEUS ELEGANS (Gambel). 



ELEGANT TERN. 



Adults in breeding (?) plumage (sexes alike). — Pileum, iucluding 

 occipital crest, nape, and upper half of lores, uniform deep black; 

 rest of head and neck, entire under parts, lower rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, and tail immaculate pure white, the under parts more or less 

 deeply suffused with eosine pink; back, scapulars, upper rump, and 

 wings plain pallid neutral gray; inner webs of primaries with a sharply 

 defined stripe of dark gray next to sliaft, this color extending across 

 tips and for a short distance along edge; bill orange or reddish orange; 

 iris dark brown; legs and feet black. 



Adults in post-nuptial (?) plumage. — Similar to the above, but 

 forehead and lores white; crown white, spotted with dusky, only the 

 occipital crest, nape, and sides of crown to and in front of eye, uniform 

 black. 



Young. — Pileum dull brownish black, nearly uniform on occiput 

 (where the feathers are not elongated nor lanceolate, but short and 

 blended), the whole crown streaked with white; forehead and lores 



