Mr. Tom Iredale on Sterna fuscata. 437 



adopted by a bird towards a trespasser upon the square foot 

 sacred to its young one. I watched this walk-around many 

 timeSj and was successful in obtaining a photo from which 

 Plate XVI. was drawn. Though the birds walked round 

 and croaked at each other, so far as my observation went, 

 fighting never took place. 



This picture will also show the point I wish to emphasize. 



In the Check List of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 3rd ed. 1910, p. 46, the name Sterna fuscdia Linn. 1776 

 is used for the Sooty Tern, hitherto more commonly known 

 under the name Sterna fuliginosa Gmelin. 



Upon investigation, the Linnean name is found to be 

 solely based upon a bird described by Brisson (Ornith, 

 vol. vi. 1760, p. 220), and figured on pi. xxi. fig. 1. The 

 description and figure so unmisiakably refer to the immature 

 of this species that the name must be accepted. At my 

 suggestion Mr. Mathews admitted it and has since used 

 it in all his works. As birds agreeing perfectly in every 

 detail with Brisson's description and figure are available for 

 examination in the British Museum, there can be no doubt 

 about the matter. However, in the ' Hand-list of British 

 Birds' by Hartert, Jourdain, Ticehurst, and Witherby, 

 1912, p. 196, Sterna fuliginosa Gmelin is maintained whilst 

 "^ Sterna fuscata Linne is cited in the synonymy. 



How this mistake occurred I cannot say as there is no 

 uncertainty whatever about the name. I can only suppose 

 that Dr. Hartert had in his mind the superficial resemblance 

 of the adult Sterna anathetus Scopoli to the adult Sterna 

 fuscata Linne, and imagined without investigation that the 

 immature must be alike and therefore that Sterna fuscata 

 Linne might refer to either. 



But such is not the case. The immature of S. ancethetus 

 Scopoli is quite different and cannot be confused in any 

 plumage with the young of the Wideawake ; and there is 

 no other Tern with a plumage at all like the bird Brisson 

 described and figured. Linne's name Sterna fuscata must 

 therefore be accepted in place of Sterna fulijinosa Gmelin 

 for the Wideawake Tern. 



