SOOTY TEEN 401 



A Hied Species and Eepresentative Forms. There are 

 several racial representatives of the Little Tern : S. sinensis 

 from the East, is larger and has white shafts to all its 

 primaries. 8. saundersi, with black shafts, inhabits Africa 

 and India. The North American form, 8. antillarum, has 

 dark shafts, but has grey on the rump and very little black 

 at the tip of the beak, whereas S. superciliaris, found along 

 the east side of South America, and far up the great rivers, 

 has a strongly-built beak, completely yellow in colour 

 (Saunders). 



SOOTY TERN. Sterna fuliginosa (J. F. Gmelin). 



Coloured Figures. Dresser, ' Birds of Europe,' vol. viii, pi. 587 ; 

 Lilford, * Coloured Figures,' vol. vi, pi. 11. 



Of the occurrence of this very rare visitor three instances 

 are cited by Mr. Saunders, and since the publication of the 

 second edition of his ' Manual ' in 1899, there have been two 

 other records. 



In October, 1852, a specimen obtained at Tutbury, near 

 Burton-on-Trent. was exhibited by Yarrell before the Lin- 

 nean Society in February, 1853. 



On June 21st, 1869, another was secured near Walling- 

 ford in Berkshire, which was examined in the flesh by Mr. 

 Harting. 



On October 4th or 5th, 1885, a third example was caught 

 alive about three miles from Bath, after stormy weather ; 

 it was examined in the flesh by the late Eev. Leonard 

 Blomefield. 



In the ' Zoologist,' 1902, p. 355, mention is made of a 

 Sooty Tern in adult plumage, which was picked up on 

 October 9th, 1901, in an exhausted state, in Hulme, a 

 densely-populated district of Manchester. The bird soon 

 died and was subsequently set up and exhibited at a meeting 

 of the British Ornithologists' Club on November 20th, by 

 Mr. Saunders (C. Oldham). 



In the ' Zoologist,' 1903, p. 393, Mr. W. G. Clarke, of 

 Norwich, writes that a bird found dead on the heath-land 

 between Thetford and Brandon, towards the end of March 

 or beginning of April, 1900, and erroneously supposed to 

 have been a Black Tern, has been identified by him as a 



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