STERNA DOUGALLI 345 



collected in a band at the larger end in others. The average measure- 

 ments of the eggs are 42 x 30 mm. The breeding season in Tunisia 

 extends from about the middle of May to the end of June or middle 

 of July. 



According to Loche the Arctic Tern {S. macrura) has been met 

 with accidentally in Algeria, and it may also occur, as a wanderer, 

 in Tunisia, though so far it appears to be unrecorded from the 

 Eegency. 



STERNA DOUGALLI, Montagu. 

 EOSEATB TEEN. 



Sterna dougalli, Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. (1813) ; Saunders, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. BIus. XXV, p. 70 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1896, p. 99. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Djerba, South Tunisia. 



Forehead, crown and nape jet black ; mantle, back, scapulars, secon- 

 daries and upper wing-coverts pale pearl-grey, edge of wings round the 

 carpal joint white ; primaries silvery grey, with the white margins of the 

 inner webs extending to the very tips of the feathers, the outermost primary 

 with the outer web blackish ; rump and upper tail-coverts very pale jpearl- 

 grey ; tail white, the outer rectrices projecting far beyond the others and 

 beyond the wing-tips ; under parts white, the breast tinged with a delicate 

 rose-colour. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black, and reddish at the base ; feet red. 



Total length 16 inches, wing 9-25, culmen 1-75, tarsus -80. 



Adult female similar to the male. 



In winter the forehead is white, the crown and nape black and white, 

 the rose tint is missing on the under parts, and the bill is nearly entirely 

 black. 



Observations. — A beautiful male specimen in my collection from Tunisia 

 is entirely white, except for the jet black crown and nape, and pale silvery 

 grey primaries. When fresh it had a most pronounced rose tint on its 

 underparts, but this is now much faded. I may, however, here observe that 

 I have seen a pair of skins of S. dougalli in Mr. J. H. Gurney's collection, 

 which show the rose blush most distinctly, though they are probably 

 over forty years old. 



This, the most beautiful of all the Terns, is, or was up to a few 

 years ago, abundant on the south-east coast of Tunisia durmg the 



