56 ALLIED TEBN. 



must be admitted into tlie Sicilian fauna, tliougli it is always figured 

 as an accidental and very rare species. It does not occur in 

 Sardinia." 



Salvadori says of this bird: — "This species resembles greatly by 

 its structure and aspect the Sandwich Tern, but is distinguished 

 easily by its yellow beak. This species is found on the Red Sea, 

 and as far as the Indian Archipelago. It is said to have been 

 observed in the Grecian Archipelago and in the Bosphorus." 



In the "Ibis," vol. ii, p. 127, Baron E,. K. Von Warthausen gives 

 a description of the nidification of this bird, and three very good 

 drawings, by J. Jennings, of the egg. The nests were found near 

 Amarat, and on the Island of Lobo, (Archipelago of Duhalek,) the 

 end of July and beginning of August, on coral reefs close to the 

 beach, in shallow cavities of three inches in diameter, and sometimes 

 without a cavity, on pebbles or fragments of chalk. They breed 

 separately, both from S. senegalensis, a species found in the same 

 locality, and from themselves. 



"The average dimensions of eight eggs are twenty-three lines by 

 sixteen. The weight of the shell varies between thirty-six and 

 forty-four grains. There are two principal varieties with respect to 

 colour. A. — White or greenish white, with coarse spots, sometimes 

 scattered, sometimes arranged in groups. The centre of each spot 

 is violet grey or blackish grey, which colour passes into a beautiful 

 chesnut brown and dark brown towards the periphery; the edges 

 are generally burnt brown. These eggs resemble those of Ceplius 

 grylle, (the Black Guillemot.) B. — Yellowish, sometimes with a 

 reddish shade, dotted and striolated; the darkest points, dots, and 

 streaks are black brown or brownish red; the margin of the spots 

 shining brown or red. In one specimen bluish grey spots form a zone 

 round the base, with many flourishes. All the eggs, held against 

 the light, are transparent yellowish green. Some of the eggs much 

 resemble those of the Sandwich Tern, fS. cantiaca,) but they are 

 all distinguished by the more variegated coloration, the smaller size, 

 and the different structure, characterized by shallow serrated pores, 

 and by finely-granulated rounded tubercles, which render some parts 

 of the shell rather rough." 



Male and female in breeding plumage have the forehead, vertex, 

 and occi^^ut of a deep black; nape silvery white; top of the body 

 bluish ash, like the Sandwich Tern; lower part of the body, front 

 and sides of the neck, and cheeks of a silvery white; wing coverts 

 like the back; primaries of a velvety ash; bordered on their inner 

 webs with white; tail bluish ash, darker than the wing coverts, with 



