292 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STERNA FULIGINOSA. 

 SOOTY TERN. 



(PLATE 48.) 



Sterna fuliginosa, Gmel. Syst. Nat. iii. p. 605 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Wilson, Audubon, Baird, Brewer 8f Ridc/ivay, Saunders, &c. 

 Sterna infuscata, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 81 (1823). 



Onychoprion serrata, | Forst fide w L Isi 1832 277 1222> 



Planetis guttatus, I 



Haliplana fuliginosa (Gmel.), Wagl, Isis, 1832, p. 1224. 



Hydrochelidon fuliginosum (Gmel.), Bonup. Comp. List B. Eur. fy N. Amer. p. 61 

 (1838). 



Sterna serrata, Forster,Jide Licht. ed. Forst. Descr. An. It. Mar. Austr. p. 211 (1844). 



Thalassipora infuscata (Licht.), Rilpp. Syst. Uebers. p. 140 (1845). 



Anous I'herminieri, Less. Desc. Mamm. et Ois. p. 255 (1847). 



Onychoprion fuliginosus (Gmel.), Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 32 (1848). 



Sterna gouldi, Reich. Schwimmvog. Suppl. pi. xxii. fig. 829 (1848). 



Haliplana infuscata (Licht.), Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 97 (1854). 



Haliplana serrata, Bonap. Compt. Rend. xlii. p. 773 (1856). 



Sterna luctuosa, Phil, fy Landb. Wiegm. Arch. 1866, p. 126. 



Haliplana fuliginosa, var. crissalis, Baird, Jlde Later. Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. 1871, 

 p. 285. 



Hydrochelidon infuscata (Licht.), Heugl. Orn. Nordost Afr. ii. p. 1457 (1873). 



The earliest description which can be found of the Sooty Tern is con- 

 tained in a very graphic account of the breeding of this species on Ascension 

 Island, which was communicated by Viscount de Querhoent to Buffon, 

 who gave to the Sooty Tern the name of " L'Hirondelle de Mer a Grande 

 envergure," on account of its great extent of wing. In 1784 Pennant 

 described this bird more carefully (' Arctic Zoology/ ii. p. 523) under its 

 now familiar name of Sooty Tern, from an example which was sent from 

 New York to Sir Ashton Lever. He added to his own description a 

 translation of part of BufFon's of the enormous numbers which breed on 

 the Island of Ascension. In the following year Latham added considerably 

 to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of this bird ; but the 

 Sooty Tern was not dignified with a Latin name until 1788, when Gmelin 

 compiled his edition of Linnaeus's ( Sy sterna Naturae/ 



The Sooty Tern is a bird of the tropics, but on two occasions it appears 

 to have strayed as far as our islands. The first example was shot in 

 October 1852, near Burton-on-Trent (Brown, 'Zoologist/ 1853, p. 3755), 

 and was figured in Yarrell's ' British Birds ; ' and the second was shot on 



