324 LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



Ayres mentions seeing several of these birds hawking for insects over a swamp some 

 eight miles from Potchefstroom. He speaks of their flight as being slow, uncertain, 

 and wavy. Their stomachs were found to contain insects. 



Genus ANOUS, Leach. 



Anous, Leach, Stephens' Gen. Zool. XIII. 1826, 139 (type, Sterna stolida, Linn.). 



Char. Size rather small ; tail graduated or wedge-shaped ; webs of the toes completely filling 

 the interdigital spaces, and not at all scalloped out anteriorly. Color uniform dusky, becoming 

 hoary on the forehead. 



The genus Anous embraces but one North American species — the A. stolidus, Linn. In other 

 portions of the world, more especially in the several regions of the South Pacific Ocean, several 

 other more or less nearly related species occur, only one of which (.1. melanogenys) reaches the 

 American coast. Their characters are as follows : — 



A. Lores dusky, in abrupt and marked contrast with the hoary of the forehead. 

 a. Forehead only distinctly whitish. 



1. A. stolidus. Plumage sooty brown, gradually lightening into hoary gray on the nape and 



pileum. 

 h. Entire pileum distinctly whitish. 



2. A. melanogenys. 1 White of the pileum changing gradually into ash)' on the nape ; 



glumage of the body sooty brown. 



3. A. leucocapillus.- White of the pileum abruptly defined posteriorly against the sooty 



brown of the nape ; plumage of the body sooty black 

 I". Lores hoary whitish, like the forehead. 



4. A. tenuirostris. 3 Hoary ash of occiput and nape changing gradually into sooty brown 



on the chin and throat, the cheeks also being grayish brown. 



1 Anous melanogenys, Gray. 



Anous melanogenys, Gray, Gen. I'.. Ill 1S49, 661, pi. 182; Handl. III. 1871, 123. —Saun- 

 ders, P. Z. S. 1876, 670, pi. 61, fig. 2. 

 Anous tenuirostris, Scl. & S.w.v. P. Z. S. 1871, 566. — Coues, B. N. W. 1874, 710, footnote. 

 Uab. Intertropical seas and coasts, from Australia, Africa, and throughout Polynesia, to Central 

 America, breeding in immense numbers along the coast of Honduras, and undoubtedly to be detected 

 along the Gulf Coast of the United States. 



2 Anous leucocapillus, Gould. 



Anous leucocapillus, Gould, 1'. Z. S. 1845, 103 ; Birds Austr. pt. vii. 1848, pi. 35. —Saun- 

 ders, P. Z. S. 1876, 670, pi. lxi. fig. 3. 

 Hab. Raines Islet, Australia ; Bristow Island, south coast New Guinea ; Paumotu Islands. 

 8 Anous tenuirostris, Temm. 



Sterna tenuirostris, Temm. PI. Col. 202 (1838). 



Anous tenuirostris, Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, 670, pi. lxi. fig. 1. 



Annus melanops, Gould, P. Z. S. 1845, 103; B. Austr. pt. vii. 1848, pi. 34. 

 Hab. Senegal ; Rodriguez and Mauritius ; Houtmann's Abrollios, west coast Australia. 



