292 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STERNA FULIGINOSA. 

 SOOTY TERN. 



(Plate 48.) 



Sterna fuliginosa, Gmel. Si/st. Nat. lii. p. 605 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



— Wihon, Audubon, Baird, Brewer S) Ridyway, Saunders, &c. 

 Sterna infuscata, Lirht. Verz. Doubl. p. 81 (1823). 



Onychoprion serrata, | F^ster,Jide Wagl. Ms, 1832, pp. 277, 1222. 



Planetis giittatus, i 



Ilaliplana fuliginosa (Gmel), Wagl. Isw, 1832, p. 1224. 



Hydrochelidon fuliginosum {Gmel.), Bonup. Comp. List B. Eur. 8,- N. Amer. p. 61 



(1838). 

 Sterna serrata, Forster,Jide Licht. ed. Forst. Descr. An. It. Mar. Austr. p. 211 (1844), 

 Thalassipora infuscata {Liclit.), Eiipp. Syst. Uehers. p. 140 (1845). 

 Anous rherminieri, Less. Desc. Mamm. et Ois. p. 255 (1847). 

 Onychoprion fuliginosus {Gmel), Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 32 (1848). 

 Sterna gouldi, Beich. Schwimmvbg. SujjpL pi. xxii. fig. 829 (1848). 

 Haliplana infuscata {Licht.), Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 97 (1854). 

 Haliplana serrata, Bonap. Compt. Rend. xlii. p. 773 (1856). 

 Sterna luctuosa, I'hil. 8) Landh. Wieym. Arch. 1866, p. 126. 

 Haliplana fuliginosa, var. crissalis, Baird, fide Laicr. Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. 1871, 



p. 285. 

 Hydrocbelidon infuscata {Licht.), Ileuyl Orn. Nordost Afr. ii. p. 1457 (1878). 



The earliest description whicli can be found of the Sooty Tern is con- 

 tained in a very graphic account of the breeding of this species on Ascension 

 Island, which was communicated by Viscount de Querhoent to Buffon, 

 who gave to the Sooty Tern the name of " L'Hirondelle de Mer k Grande 

 envergure/^ on account of its great extent of wing. In 1784 Pennant 

 described this bird more carefully (' Arctic Zoology/ ii. p. 523) under its 

 now familiar name of Sooty Tern, from an example which was sent from 

 New York to Sir Ashton Lever, lie added to his OAvn description a 

 translation of part of Buffon's of the enormous numbers Avhich breed on 

 the Island of Ascension. In the following year Latham added considerably 

 to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of this bird ; but the 

 Sooty Tern was not dignified Avith a Latin name until 1788, when Gmelin 

 compiled his edition of Linnseus's ' Systema Naturte.^ 



The Sooty Tern is a bird of the tropics, but on tMO occasions it appears 

 to have strayed as far as our ishmds. The first example w\as shot in 

 October 1852, near Burton-on-Trcnt (Brown, 'Zoologist,' 1853, p. 3755), 

 and was figured in Yarrell's ' British Birds ; ' and the second was shot on 



