On the Nourishment of the Animals of the Deep Seas. 193 



ink ; forehead white, advancing over each eye to near its 

 posterior angle ; lores, a narrow line above the eyes, crown 

 and nape black ; upper surface of the body and wing- 

 coverts grey; the first primary slaty black on the outer 

 web and along the inner web next the shaft ; the shaft 

 itself and the outer half of the inner web white ; the second 

 primaiy similarly but a little less strongly marked ; the 

 remainder of the primaries silvery grey, with lighter shafts ; 

 throat and all the under surface of the body silky white ; 

 tail white ; feet yellow. 



Total length 10 inches ; bill, from the gape, If, wing 7^, 

 tail 4f , tarsi |. 



Hah. Torres Straits. 



Remarh. Two specimens of this bird are now before me : — 

 one, a female, which has been in my collection for many years ; 

 the other, a fine adult male, forming part of the collection 

 above mentioned, and which had lately been received at Ade- 

 laide from the northern territory at Port Darwin. 



I have carefully compared this species with the Sternula 

 nereis of Australia, the S. minuta of Europe, and the Sternula 

 of India, supposed to be identical with the latter (but this, 

 I think, is a question). I have also compared it with all the 

 little Terns of America, both North and South. Its nearest 

 ally seems to be the European species ; but from this it dif- 

 fers in having considerably longer wings, in the snow-white 

 hue of the shafts of the primaries, and in the larger and well- 

 defined mark of black on the tips of the mandibles ; from 8. 

 nereis it is distinguished by having black instead of white 

 lores. 



XXIII. — Whence comes the Nourishment for the Animals of 

 the Deep Seas'i By Prof. Kael Mobius*. 



The investigations of the greatest depths of the ocean, made 

 in Baffin's Bay by John Ross (1818), in the Pacific Ocean by 

 James Ross (1843), in the North- Atlantic Ocean by Wallich 

 (1860), near Spitzbergen by Chydenius and Torell (1861), in 

 the north-eastern part of the Atlantic by Carpenter, Jeffreys, 

 and Thomson (1868 and 1869), and in the Gulf-stream off 

 Florida by Pourtales (1869), have shown that the bottom of 

 the ocean at great depths (550-3000 fathoms) consists princi- 



• Translated byW. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from a separate copy of the paper 

 sent by the author to Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. 



Ann.& Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. viii. 14 



