WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 257 



STERNA LEUCOPTERA. 

 WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 



(PLATE 49.) 



Sterna leucoptera, Meisner fy Schinz j t Vog. Schweiz, p. 264 (1815) ; Temm. Man. d'Orn. 



p. 483 (1815) ; et auctorum plurimorum Naumann, YarreU, Di-esser, 



Sounders, &c. 



Hydrochelidon leucoptera (Schinz), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 563. 

 Viralva leucoptera (Schinz), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. i. p. 170 (1826). 

 Hydrochelidon nigra (Linn.), apud Gray, Ulasius, Swinhoe, Gurney, Degland fy Gerbe, 



Coues, (Schkgel), &c. 



The White-winged Black Tern was figured by Gerini in the last volume 

 of the work published after his death in 1776, and was accurately described 

 by Pallas about the year 1800 in his posthumous work, which, though 

 printed in 1809, was not published until 1826. Both these naturalists 

 identified the White-winged Black Tern with the Sterna nigra of Brisson, 

 having evidently paid more attention to Brisson's bad figure than to his 

 good description. It appears to have been rediscovered by Schinz in 

 Switzerland in 1815, who either adopted Temminck's name published in 

 the same year, and apparently founded on Germi's figure, or applied the 

 same name to it by a singular coincidence. 



Its earliest known occurrence in the British Islands was in October 1841, 

 near Dublin (Thompson, 'Birds of Ireland/ iii. p. 307). Since then a 

 second example has occurred near the same locality, and, more recently, in 

 the spring of 1875, a third Irish example was obtained near Limerick, and 

 a fourth in the county of Waterford. It has not occurred in Scotland, but 

 in England a score or more examples have been seen and most of them 

 obtained: two were shot near Coventry in June 1857 (Gould, ' Birds of 

 Great Britain/ v. no. 76) j one was shot at Scarborough in 1860 ; one was 

 seen near Flamboro' Head in spring 1867 (Cordeaux, 'Birds of the Humber/ 

 p. 197) ; and one was shot near Ilfracombe, North Devon, early in November 

 1870. In addition to these others have been obtained or seen in Northum- 

 berland, on the Hampshire and Dorsetshire coasts, near Eastbourne, near 

 Newhaven about May, and at Scilly in Mayor June. It has been obtained 

 many times in Norfolk. One was shot on Horsey Mere on the 17th of 

 May, 1853 (Frederick, ' Zoologist/ 1853, p. 3911) ; another was shot on 

 Hickling Broad on the 27th of June, 1867 (Stevenson, 'Zoologist/ 1867, 

 p. 951) ; four were shot out of a flock of five on Breydon Water on the 

 26th of May, 1871 (Stevenson, 'Zoologist/ 1871, p. 2830); five were 



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