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 ; 

 the inner half white, distinctly marked off ; the remainder of the under-surf ace white. 



Nestling in doum. 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. 

 ihalassinus (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 (Ma thews), as darker still and larger than 

 preceding, from the Persian Gulf and south-western Baluchistan ; P. b. 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. b. edwardsi, but about same 

 coloration ; P. b. 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. gwendolence (Mathews) the South-western Australian race, larger and paler. 



67. Pelecanopus bengalensis. LESSER CRESTED TERN. 



[Sterna bengalensis Lesson, Trait4 d'Ora., 8 livr., p. 621, June llth, 1831 : India. Extra- 



limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VII., pi. 25 (pt. xxxvi.), Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 3, pi. 107, Sept. 

 20th, 1912. 



Sterna media Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. i., p. 199, 1821 : Java. 



Not Vieillot, Tabl. Ency. Meth. Ornith., Vol. I., p. 347, 1820. 



Thaktsseus torresii Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (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 ; 

 primary-quills silvery-grey, inner webs white at base, dark brown near the shafts, 



