900 Birds of Celebes: Laridae. 



Adult in winter plumage. Forehead, face, entire ueck and under parts, including 

 wing below, white; feathers of crown tipped with black, becoming all black on 

 the occiput and nape, where the feathers are very long; a blackish spot in 

 front of eye; back, wings, and tail grey, frosted with pearl-grey on exposed ends 

 and outer webs of the primaries, the inner webs blackish grey, with a white space 

 down the middle towards the base; tips of the greater wing-coverts and inner edges 

 of the remiges white; tail deeply forked (to about 9 cm), the outermost rectrices very 

 narrow (Manado: v. Musschenbroek — C 5274). 



Adult in summer plumage. The cro^vn, but not the forehead, is black hke the occiput and nape. 

 "Iris dark brown; bill murky yellow, tinged with green in parts; roof of 

 mouth and tongue bluish; legs and feet black, with a reddish tinge, soles yellowish"' 

 (Legge 11). 



Young — moulting (in second plumage on the head). Forehead white, rest of head above with 

 black centres to the feathers; the grey feathers of the back with pale tips, upper 

 tail-coverts wliitish; remiges more broadly edged with wliite than in the adult; greater 

 wing-coverts tipjied \\-ith wliite, middle series white, the outer webs with a dusky 

 mark, forming an ill-detined bar (Talaut, Nov. 1893: Nat. Coll. — C 13030). 



Nestling. See, Saunders 38. 



Measurements (4 expls. Celebes area). Wing 315— 330 mm; tail c. 155; tarsus c. 28; middle 

 toe and claw c. 32 ; exp. culmen 48 — 55 mm. 



Eggs, '"The eggs are very handsome. The ground-colour is a saturated grey-yellow, vdih. a 

 reddish hue. Distributed over the whole of the eggs are sharply defined black and 

 grey-brown hieroglyphics, blotches, and dots, which in some eggs are gathered 

 into a cii'clet around the blunt end. The measurements are : 60 — 64 x 40 — 45 mm" 

 (Nehrkorn MSj. See, also, v. Kiinig-Warthausen /; 2, with figures; North 23, 

 figure; Hume 6, 2S. 



Nest. None — "the eggs are laid on the bare ground in the most open and exposed parts 

 of the island [of Astola in the Gulf of Oman] about one foot apart, and when sitting 

 the birds seem packed together as close as possible, without perhaps actually touching 

 each other" (Butler 8). Colonel Butler observed the daring manner in which the 

 eggs of these Terns are seized and devoured by Gulls (Lams hemprichij, and re- 

 marks that it seems evident that the birds lay in groups to protect their eggs from 

 such ravages. On islets in the Red Sea between Suakin and Massowa, Heuglin 

 found the species breeding on rubbish and sand above high-water mark, between 

 soda plants and low shrubs, the birds not rarely sitting in close proximity to one 

 another (4), 



Distribution. The coasts of South, West, and East Africa, of South Asia to Japan; the East 

 India Archipelago; Australia and Tasmania; tkroughout Polynesia (but not New 

 Zealand); Hawaiian Islands. — In the Celebesian area: Talaut Islands, Kabruang 

 (Nat. Coll. 34); Celebes — (Forsten), Minaha.ssa (Meyer and Musschenbroek in 

 Dresd. Mus., P.&F. Sarasin 35), Gorontalo Distr. (Riedel in Brunsw. Mus. 18, 

 and Dresd. Mus.), S. Peninsula, Macassar and Goa (Weber 32). 



The T>arger Yellow-billed Tern appears to be a resident in Celebes. It was 

 most likely this Tern, rather than iS. media, that M e y e r found breeding in large 

 flocks on the rocks in the Strait of Lembeh, N. E. Celebes, for a specimen 

 from there, previously determined as 6'. media, proves to be this bird. It is 

 distinguishable from S. media by its larger size, the grey of the upper parts is 

 lighter, and in the breeding season the forehead remains white. 



