312 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
America; S. lorata, with grey belly, to Peru and Chili; S. nereis, 
with white lores, to Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia ; S. 
balaenarum, with black forehead and base of bill, to Southern Africa. 
S. fuliginosa, S. anaestheta, and S. lunata are the Sooty 
Terns, so-called from their dark upper surface; the second being 
browner and the third greyer than the typical species, wherein 
alone the young differ from the adults in having brown lower 
parts instead of white. The forehead is white, the bill and feet 
are black, while immature birds show whitish markings above. 
These Terns frequent the tropics, but S. /unata only occurs from 
the Moluccas to Laysan, the Sandwich Islands, and elsewhere in 
Polynesia. SS. fuliginosa has been obtained three times in Eng- 
land, occasionally on the Continent of Europe, and in America 
northwards to Maine. The single egg, like that of the Noddy, 
but with finer red, grey, and lilac markings, is laid on sand or flat 
rocks ; descriptions of the colony, or “ Wideawake Fair,” on Ascen- 
sion having been given by several writers.' SS. aleutica of Alaska, 
Bering Sea, and Japan, with a slate-grey mantle, white forehead 
and rump, connects the above with the next section. 
The remaining species, with white foreheads, are the large S. 
bergii, ranging from East and South-West Africa to Japan and 
Polynesia, excluding New Zealand, and S. bernsteini of the Sey- 
chelles, Rodriguez, Diego Garcia, and Halmahera, both of which 
have elongated nape-feathers and a yellowish bill, but grey and 
white rumps respectively. SS. frontalis, of the New Zealand and 
Australian Seas, has a black bill. 
Of large forms, with black foreheads, black feet, and length- 
ened nuchal plumes, S. cantiaca, the Sandwich Tern, breeding 
from Britain and the Mediterranean to the Caspian, and from 
New England to Honduras and both coasts of Guatemala, pos- 
sesses a black bill It migrates to Cape Colony, Sind, and Brazil. 
The large S. maxima, and the similar but smaller S. elegans, 
have the beak red; the former extending from about lat. 
40° N. in America to Peru and Brazil, and in winter to West 
Africa; the latter from California to Chili. S. ewrygnatha, found 
from Venezuela to Patagonia, only differs in its yellow bill; but 
S. media, ranging from the Mediterranean and East Africa to 
Australia, has the tail grey instead of white. In this section 
the richly marked eggs have often a creamy ground. 
1 Cf. Sperling, Zbis, 1868, pp. 286-288 ; Collingwood, Zoologist, 1867, pp. 980-983. 
