LESSER CRESTED TERN. 93 
brown spots on the tips, giving a speckled appearance. These brown tips become 
larger and more frequent on the feathers of the upper back, with fewer but more 
strongly marked on the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; the tail-feathers 
have white bases and white tips, the anterior portion brown in varying proportions ; 
the middle feathers are mostly grey, with a brownish marking towards their apices, 
but all the tips white ; the next pair have more brown, less grey, and less white 
tipping, and so on outwards ; the scapulars are marked like the middle tail-feathers ; 
the bend of the wing is white ; the greater wing-coverts are deep brown with white 
tips ; the median white with brownish tips, the extreme tips, however, white again ; 
the lesser wing-coverts ashy-brown tipped with white ; the secondaries ashy-grey 
with white tips ; the primaries deep brown on the outer and half of the inner web ; 
theinner half white, distinctly marked off ; the remainder of the under-surface white. 
Nestling in down.—Dirty white above and below, the upper-surface with a few 
black speckles, but pattern not discernible. Iris pale brown ; legs and feet brownish- 
white ; bill white. 
Nest.—A depression in the sand. 
Eggs.—Clutch, one, sometimes two ; ground-colour dark to light stone, marked 
with blotches and wavy lines of very dark purple, other markings of lavender which 
appear as if beneath the shell ; axis 56, diameter 39. 
Breeding-season.— October to January. 
Distribution and forms —Round the coast of South and East Africa, through the 
Indian and Pacific Oceans, as far northward as the Japanese seas and eastward to 
the Low Archipelago. Oberholser has recently reviewed the species, admitting 
eleven subspecies, as follows: P. b. bergii (Lichtenstein) from South Africa; P. b. 
thalassinus (Stresemann) from the Seychelles Islands, as decidedly smaller and 
somewhat lighter in colour ; P. b. velox (Cretzschmar) as decidedly darker than the 
typical from the Red Sea; P. b. bakeri (Mathews), as darker still and larger than 
preceding, from the Persian Gulf and south-western Baluchistan ; P. 6. edwardsi 
(Mathews) from Ceylon and southern India, much smaller and even a little darker ; 
P. b. cristatus (Stephens) from southern China, the Liu Kiu Islands, the Philippine 
Archipelago (northern islands), etc., smaller than P. 6. edwardsi, but about same 
coloration ; P. 6. halodramus (Oberholser) from the southern islands of the Philippine 
Group, much paler above than last named; P. b. pelecanoides (King) decidedly 
larger than the preceding, from North Australia, the East Indies, and Melanesia, 
darker and smaller than the typical race ; P. b. rectirostris (Peale) from Polynesia, 
paler than the former, both as to adult and young ; P. b. poliocercus (Gould) is darker 
and smaller, from New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia ; 
and P. b. gwendolene (Mathews) the South-western Australian race, larger and paler, 
67. Pelecanopus bengalensis.—LESSER CRESTED TERN. 
[Sterna bengalensis Lesson, Traité d’Orn., 8¢ livr., p. 621, June 11th, 1831; India. Extra- 
limital.] 
Gould, Vol. VII., pl. 25 (pt. xxxvu.), Dec. Ist, 1848. Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 3, pl. 107, Sept. 
20th, 1912. 
Sterna media Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. 1, p. 199, 1821: Java. 
Not Vieillot, Tabl. Ency. Méth. Ornith., Vol. I., p. 347, 1820. 
Thalasseus torresti Gould, Proc. Zool. Soe. (Lond.), 1842, p. 140, Feb. 1843: Port Essington, 
Northern Territory. 
Thalasseus bengalensis robini Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 3, p. 55, April 7th, 
1916: Cape York, Queensland. 
DistriBuTION.—North Queensland, Northern Territory, North-west Australia. 
Adult male in breeding-plumage——Head and nape deep black; upper wing- 
coverts, scapulars, back, and middle tail-feathers dove-grey ; bend of wing white ; 
we, 
primary-quills silvery-grey, inner webs white at base, dark brown near the shafts, 
