392 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Family STERNID-SI. 



The members of this aerial group of sea-birds I consider to 

 be deserving of a family designation, for the species are very 

 numerous and constitute many genera. They are dispersed 

 over all the sea-girt lands of the globe, and their range may 

 therefore be said to be universal, or if there be any exception 

 it is only near the poles. Australia is well represented in this 

 group, for nearly twenty species pertain to her fauna, and 

 doubtless others will yet be discovered. 



Genus SYLOCHELIDON, Brehm. 



A single species of this form inhabits Australia ; the same 

 bird is also found in India and Europe. It is the largest and 

 most powerful member of the family. 



Sp. 600. SYLOCHELIDON CASPIA. 



Caspian Tern. 



Sterna tschegrava, Lepechin, Nov. Com. Pet., torn. xiv. p. 500. 



caspia, Pall. Nov. Com. Pet., tom. xiv. p. 583. 



Thalasseus caspius, Boie, Ibis, 1822, p. 563. 



Hydroprogne caspia, Kaup, Sk. Ent. Em\ Thierw., 1829, p. 91. 



Helopus caspius, Wagl. Isis, 1832, p. 1224. 



Sylochelidon caspia, Brehm. Haiiclb. der Nat. Vog. Deutschl., p. 770. 



Sterna megarhynchos, Mey. Tascb. Deuts., tom. ii. p. 457v 



[Sylochelidon) strenuus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part p. . 



Sylochelidon strenuus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii. 

 pi. 22. 



The Sylochelidon casjna frequents Southern Europe, India, 

 Africa, and all the shores of Australia, but is perhaps more nu- 

 merous on the islands in Bass's Straits and Tasmania than else- 

 where. Its favourite breeding-places are the promontories of 

 small islands, spits of land running out from the shores of 



