STERNA FULIGEN'OSA. 1037 



Immature, about one year old (Ceylon, June and August, 2 examples). Wing 11-3 inches ; tail 4-7 to 5-6, depth of 

 fork 2-0 ; tarsus 0-85 to 0-9 ; middle toe 0-8 to 0-85 ; bill at front 1-6 to 1'7, to gape 2-3 to 2-35. 



Iris dusky brown ; bill black : legs and feet black. 



Forehead greyish ; entire upper surface black, with a greenish gloss in places ; feathers of back edged with white ; 

 under surface brown, mixed with whitish chiefly on the throat and belly ; flanks more uniformly dark than the 

 breast. 



Another example (Mount Lavinia, June) has the forehead whitish, with blackish spots or "points ;" chin and gorge 

 the same ; throat brownish, lower parts pale whity brown ; under tail-coverts sullied white. 



Obs. This species has frequently been confounded with the next ; but the characters which I have given above will, 

 in addition to its larger-sized bill, serve at once to identify it, should any of my readers procure specimens in 

 Ceylon. Mr. Saunders was the first naturalist to point out the important difference in the feet of the two species. 



Distribution. — The Sooty Tern has only recently been added to the avifauna of Ceylon. During the 

 south-west monsoon of 1873 three examples were met with by Mr. Hart, the taxidermist of the Museum, on 

 the little tank of Boralesgamuwa, about nine miles from Colombo, and one was shot which I sent to Mr. Hume 

 for his inspection. Subsequently another specimen was captured in a net by fishermen at Mount Lavinia in 

 August 1874, and a third was secured exhausted on the rocks at the same place in June 1876. I have not 

 heard of any further occurrences of the species in the island, but it is no doubt much less rare than these few 

 instances of its capture would lead one to infer ; for among the thousands of its near ally, the Brown-winged 

 Tern, which are seen on the coasts there must be a certain proportion of the present species. 



Though Jerdon omitted this Tern from the Indian list, Mr. Hume says it is not uncommon right up 

 the west coast of the peninsula, and northwards to the Mekran coast. He has seen it from near Panwell, in 

 the Bombay Harbour, also from Tutul between Surat and Bombay, and also from Minicoy. In February 1875 

 he found it breeding in enormous numbers at the Cherbaniani reef in the Laccadives, and from the stock 

 there raised doubtless come the individuals which occur on the west coast of Ceylon. It occurs throughout the 

 Indian Ocean, having'been met with at various parts on the east coast of Africa, and at the islands of Madagascar, 

 Rodriguez, and Mauritius. Yon Heuglin observed it on the Somauh coast, and Messrs. Finsch and Hartlanb 

 in the northern half of the Bed Sea. It is abundant on the west coast of Australia, breeding in great numbers 

 in December at the Houtinann's Abrolhos, near Perth. Mr. Ramsay records it from the South Australian, 

 Victorian, and New South Wales coasts, and from Rockingham Bay, Cape York, and Port Darwin. Macgillivray 

 found it breeding in Torres Straits in May and June ; and this difference in the time of its nesting on the 

 Australian coasts is very noteworthy. It is doubtless an inhabitant of the seas surrounding many of the 

 Pacific islands, as I find it recorded from Xew Caledonia, from the Samoa Islands, the Marquesas, the Rosa and 

 Honden Islands, and from Ponape in the Seniavin group. In the Malay archipelago it has been obtained, 

 writes Salvadori, off the coasts of Sumatra and Borneo ; and northwards it occurs along the China coasts to 

 Japan, where, however, it appears to be very rare. Pere David says that he has seen it in the interior of 

 China " going west, doubtless towards the great lakes of Central Asia ;" but there appears to be some 

 mistake in this naturalist's identification, as this truly oceanic bird could not have been seen on its way to 

 Central Asia. 



Turning now towards the Atlantic, we find it recorded from the Gold Coast and from Senegal ; and at 

 St. Helena, where I have seen it, it is tolerably plentiful. At Ascension it breeds in great numbers at certain 

 spots in the island termed " Wide-awake Fairs." They an-ive for breeding purposes about October, and do 

 not leave sometimes until May, in which month I saw great numbers there in 1877. Their visits, however, 

 are not regular, for Captain Sperling found them breeding in June. It is an occasional straggler as far north 

 as Europe. Mr. Dresser enumerates four instances of its occurrence, two of which were in England, viz. one 

 at Burton-on-Trent, October 1852, the other at Wallingford, Berks, June 1869; a third was obtained at 

 Magdeburg, in Germany, and a fourth at Yerdun, in France. It is common on the east coast of America, 

 being most abundant in tropical parts. Mr. Dresser met with it in Texas, and it is very numerous on the Florida 

 Keys. It has been obtained at Bermuda ; and in the West Indies it is found on the Cuban and Jamaican 

 coasts, and breeds at St. Thomas's. On the western side it wanders as far south as Chili, and northwards 

 to the Aleutian Islands. 



Gr2 



