408 BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



Genus ONYCHOPRION, Wagler. 



Of this form two species frequent the Australian seas ; and 

 one of them appears to be universally distributed over the 

 Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. 



Sp. 611. ONYCHOPRION PULIGINOSA. 



Sooty Tern. 



Sterna seiTata, Forst. Descr. Anim., p. 276. 



guttata, Forst. lb., p. 211. 



fuliginosa, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat.^ torn. i. p. 605. 



Omjchoprion serrata, Wagl. Isis, 1832, p. 277. 

 Haliplana fuliginosa, Wagl. lb., p. 1224. 



serrata, Bonap., Compt. Rend, de I'Acad. Sci., 1856, p. 772. 



Sterna oahuensis, Bloxh. Voy, of Blonde, p. 291. 



{Onychoprion) serrata, G. R. Gray, Cat. of Birds of Trop. Isl. of 



Pac. Ocean in Coll. Brit. Mus', p. 59. 

 Anous Vherminieri, Less. Descr. de Mamm. et d'Ois., p. 255. 

 Haliplana gouldi, Reich. (Bonap.). 



Onychoprion fulig-inosus ?, Goidd, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii.' 

 pi. 32. 



This common species appears to be very generally distri- 

 buted over the seas surrounding Australia, but to be less 

 numerous on the southern than on the western, northern, and 

 eastern coasts. It is now supposed to be the same species 

 which frequents the shores of the countries washed by the 

 Atlantic, both north and south, and that examples from 

 North America and Australia are not different ; if this be 

 the case, no bird of its family enjoys so wide a range over the 

 globe. Gilbert found it breeding on the Houtmann's Abrolhos 

 in December, and Mr. JNIacgillivray in Torres Straits in May 

 and June. 



Gilbert states that it " lays a single egg on the bare ground 

 beneath the thick scrub ; and that the egg varies considerably 



