€8 OCEAN BIRDS. 



Lores, crown of the head, and back of the neck deep black; the apical half, the shaft, 

 and the outer web of the lateral tail-feathers white, passing into grey on the lower part of 

 the addomen and under tail-coverts ; irides dark brown ; bill black ; feet brownish black." 



Yarrell tells us one was shot in October, 1852, at Tutbury, Burton-on-Trent, and 

 therefore includes it in his 'British Birds.' He thus describes it: — "The whole leugth 

 of the bird, fourteen inches and a half; wing, from flexure, eleven inches, and extending 

 one hich beyond the end of the tail, but in the adult bird the outside tail-feathers on 

 each side extend for two inches beyond the ends of the closed wings, giving a length 

 of seventeen inches to the fully-adult bird; the leg and middle toe equal in length, each 

 measuring one inch." 



Dresser says: — "Found numerously on the southern coast of the United States and 

 of Central America ; the present species is common on some of the islands in the Atlantic, 

 on parts of the African coast, being somewhat rarer on the coast of Asia, though tolerably 

 common and generally distributed in the Australian seas; but to Europe it is an extremely 

 rare straggler." 



At the January Meeting, 1886, of the Zoological Society, Mr. Howard Saunders exhibited 

 an adult specimen caught alive, near Bath, October, 1886, and pointed out that only two 

 examples of this species had as yet occurred in Great Britain. 



Sterna amestheta is called by Gould the Panayan Tern, S. panayensis. He says it is 

 common on the West Coast of Australia. Mr. Howard Saunders gives it the same 

 geographical range as S. fuliginosa. It is thus described by Gould, ' Birds of Australia ' 

 (vol. ii. p. 413) : — " Forehead, line over the eye, chin, and throat white ; lores, crown 

 of the head, and nape black; back, wings, and tail light sooty brown, the outer tail- 

 feathers being white at the base and on the outer web for two-thirds of its length; edge 

 of the shoulder and under surface of the wmg white ; under surface white, slightly washed 

 with grey; irides blackish brown; bill black; legs and feet blackish green." 



Seebohm calls this bird the Smaller Sooty Tern. 



Genus ANOUS, Leach. 

 " The Noddies," remarks Mr. Jerdon, " are weh-known oceanic birds, frequenting 

 tropical and juxta- tropical seas. They differ from most Terns in their even or somewhat 

 rounded tails; and still more in the manner of their flight, which is steady and slow. 

 They settle on the water when taking their food, which consists chiefly of mollusks and 

 fatty matter; and they are very silent birds. Sundevall, who noted these differences, 

 states that in their mode of life they resemble Petrels rather than Terns." 



