1S4 BILLKTIX: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZO()LOGY. 



No. Sex Locality H'/h// Tail Ciitmcn Tarsus 



U.S.N.M. 212.14S c" Kiisaie, East- S Fel>., 



ern Carolint's' 1!»(H) 277.0 15S.2 42.0 26.0 



212.147 o' Funafuti. El- 24 Dec, 



lice Islands 1S99 2()7.0 153.0 40.0 23.0 



212,140 d" Makenio, Pan- 22 Oct., 



motu Islands 1S99 284. 170.0 41.5 25.0 

 " 212.145 o" Makatea. Pau- S Oct., 



motu Islands 1S99 2S5.0 ItiO.O 43.0 24.0 



24. Megalopterus melanogenys (G. R. Gray). 



Anaits melanogenys Gray, Gen. birds, 1846, 3, p. 658, pi. 182. (No type-locality 

 assigned). 



Three specimens come from the Paumotu Islands, a male taken at 

 Rangiroa, 21 September, 1899, a female at JMakemo, 22 October, 1899, 

 and a third specimen that bears neither locality nor date. These 

 birds are all fully adult. From lack of sufficient material for com- 

 parison it is not practical)le at present to designate to what subspecies 

 the birds from the Low Archipelago belong. INIathews (Nov. zool., 

 1911, 18, p. 4) finds that Megalopterus Boie (Isis, 1826, p. 980) pre- 

 occupies Micranous Saunders (Bull. 23 Brit, ornith. club, 1895, p. 19). 

 Mathews (Birds of Australia, 1912, 2, pt. 4, p. 420) states further that 

 the name Anous mi)iiitu.'^ Boie (Isis, 1844, p. 188) "is applicable to 

 this species only, the bill characters being diagnostic." As Boie, in 

 describing the bill, remarks simply "Schnabel und Fiisse schwarz, 

 ersterer sehr schwach," his statement might apply to either the 

 present species or to M. teiiuirosiris. As the name cannot be fixed it 

 must be abandoned. The next availal)le name is Aiious melanogenys 

 G. R. Gray (Gen. birds, Jany., 184(5, 3, p. 658). This preoccupies 

 the name Anovs leucocapUhts Gould (Proc. Zool. soc. London, 1845, 

 [Iij|by., 1846], p. 103) as this designation although in the volume of the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1845 was not actually pub- 

 lished until February, 1846. The species therefore will stand as 

 Megalopterus melanogenys. 



25. Procelsterxa cerulea (F. D. Bennett). 



Sterna cerulea Bennett, Narrative whaling voyage, 1840, 2, p. 248. ("Christ- 

 mas Island and other low coral formations of the Pacific"). 



One specimen was taken, an adult female from Rangiroa, Paumotu 



