480 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
are—(1) A. stolidus, Lin ; (2) A. senex, Leach; (?= A. tenui- 
rostris, Tem., Pl: Col: 202.); (3) 4 leucocapillus, Gould. 
The following particulars will, I think, suffice to enable any 
one to distinguish the three species to which I refer :— 
A. stolidus. A. senex. A, leucocapillus. 
Length .., 15” to 16" 11” to 12"°5 13”°5 to 14” 
Wing ae LOM yl Sma LS gape. 54 
(Rather stout Slenderer and 
Bill 3 16! to 1°75 ap Much slenderer «straighter 1-9 
\ front. Ghepoe : 2”-2. at front. 
Lores a { Blackish. or mouse brown. Blackish. 
I may mention here that I have no doubt that the White- 
headed Noddy, described by Jerdon as Anous tenuirostris 
with the bill 2’:12 at front, was really lewcocapillus, Gould. 
The specimen in the Indian Museum, No. 1,716, entered as 
tenuirostris and from the mouth of the Ganges, is also clearly 
I think Jeucocapillus. It has a bill nearly 1:9 in length and 
blackish lores ; the other Madieran specimen is too dilapidated 
to enable one to offer any opinion. 
The true tenwirostris as, Teminck’s figure shews, has the bill 
almost exactly as long as the head, measuring from the point 
of the feathers on the forehead, to the tip of the bill and from 
the same point to the occiput. Measuring in this way, I find 
that in the species which I identify as senex the bill measures 
1:6 and the head 1:5. Measured in the same way leucocapillus 
has the head 1:55, and the bill 2:1 Both these species have 
comparatively slender bills, but the much greater length of 
that of leucocapillus separates it at once. Again from stolidus, 
senex is at once separated by the absence of the black or 
blackish lores by its much smaller size and slenderer bill. 
There is a fourth species that might well occur, but of which 
T have never yet seen specimens obtained within our limits, 
viz -— 
Anous melanops, Gould.—This seems to be much of the same 
size as tenuirostris, Tem., which I identify as senex of Leach, 
but differs in the conspicuous black crescent in front of the 
eye and black patch behind the eye, and in this respect exactly 
resembles leucocapillus. 
Note that in mclanops the bill is about 1:7 in front, and the 
wing about 7:5. 
The few eggs of our present species (A. stoldus) that I 
secured were barely, if at all, separable from those of S. fuli- 
ginosa, except that they seem to average somewhat larger, 
(contrary to what Mr. Gould says, Hand. B. of Aus., pp. 410 
