THE LESSER SOOTY TERN THE NODDY. 55 



FamilyI.ARinsE. Subfamily STERNINsE. 



LESSER SOOTY TERN. 



Sterna ancestheta, SCOP. 



A SPECIMEN of this Tern and the only one known to have reached the 

 British Islands was taken at one of the light-ships, at the mouth of the 

 Thames, in 1875. 



Family L ARID/%.. Subfamily S TERNIN&. 



NODDY. 



AHOUS sto/idus, LINN. 



ONLY three specimens of this tropical Tern have been taken in Great Britain, 

 or, indeed, in Europe. Two were shot in Ireland in 1830, and the third 

 on the Dee Sands, Cheshire, in 1891. The latter is preserved by Captain Congreve, 

 Burton Hall, Neston, Cheshire. It is said that the species appears occasionally 

 also in St. George's Channel. 



The forehead white, the crown ashy-grey ; sides of the head, the throat, with the 

 upper neck and under wing-coverts, sooty-brown, tinged with grey ; the lores and 

 feathers round the eye greyish-black ; rest of the plumage sooty or chocolate-brown ; 

 tail and primaries blackish-brown ; bill black ; legs and feet dull reddish-brown, 



