29G MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE [Apr. 21, 



L ARI D ^. 



Sterna fuliginosa (Gmel.). 



Sterna lunata (Peale ^). 



These two species had precisely similar habits. There were 

 thousands of them on the island going about in large flocks, now 

 settled on the ground and now rising with shrill and deafening 

 cries. The flocks were not mixed, each being formed of a single 

 species. The eggs are laid on the bare patches of coral shingle, 

 the two species occupying separate areas. Though I came on several 

 of these patches and collected numbers of the eggs, I never found 

 two eggs together, as though laid by one bird. 



The habits of the Sooty Tern {Sterna fuliginosa), with regard to 

 the number of eggs it incubates at one time, appear to vary. Pick- 

 ering states that among the hundreds of eggs he saw at Rosa 

 Island, he saw two eggs together only in tvpo cases ^. Similarly at 

 ' Wideawake Fair ' on Ascension the bird is described as laying only a 

 single egg^. On the other hand, Hume found the eggs "two and 

 three together " at the Laccadive Islands *, and Audubon states that 

 the bird lays three eggs ' in his description of their nesting-haunts in 

 the Tortugas Keys. 



Both Arundel and Hague {op. cit.) say that the " Wideawakes," 

 under which term either or both of these species may be included, 

 have two laying-seasons in the year at these islands. 



Sterna fuliginosa is found all round the world in the tropics, 

 occasionally visiting our own shores. Sterna lunata, which was 

 first obtained by the Wilkes Expedition at various tropical islands 

 of the Pacific, ranges also into the Indian Ocean. 



The egg of Sterna lunata resembles that of S. fuliginosa in colonr, 

 but it is smaller and rounder. My largest specimen is 1 "68 in. long 

 and r26 broad, the smallest is 1 .55 in. long and 12 broad. The egg 

 is creamy white, profusely and uniformly sprinkled with overlying 

 spots of rich brown and deeper ones of pale purple. 



Anous stolidus (Linn.). 



These were present in hundreds, going about in large flocks. 

 They have a habit of settling packed together as close as they can 

 stand. I found no eggs, but we came on half-fledged young birds 

 under the tangled branches of the Sida. 



The bird is distributed through all the tropical seas. 



Anous c^ruleus (Bennett*'). 



This exquisite little bird is of a delicate silvery-grey colour 

 and the most elegant proportions. They follow one about in parties 



1 Peale, Zoology U. S. Expl. Esped. 1848, p. 277. 



2 Cassin, U. S. Expl. Exped., Zool. p. 388. 



3 Sperling, ' Ibis,' 1868, p. 287. Penrose, Ibis, 1879, p. 278. 

 * Hume, ' Stray Feathers,' 1876, p. 430. 



'" Audubon, ' Ornithological Biography,' vol. iii. p. 266. 

 ■'' Narrative oP a Whaling Voyage round the Globe, ii. p. 298 (1840). 



