ALLIED TERN. 89 



borders of tlie Caspian Sea. Blasius docs not include 

 it in "Der Wirbelthiere/' but states, in "Naumannia," 

 1855, tbat tliere are grounds for its admission. It is 

 not, however, mentioned by Count Miihle or Dr. 

 Lindermayer as being found in Greece, neither is it 

 included in Lord Lilford's list of birds occurring in 

 the Ionian Islands, nor by Mr. Simpson among those 

 of Western Greece. Probably there has been some 

 confusion between this bird and the Gull-billed Tern, 

 (Sterna anglica.J It is better known, however, in 

 Africa and Asia than in Europe. 



Mr. Tristram includes it among his Syrian birds, 

 ("Ibis," vol. i, p. 88;) and in the same volume, p. 350, 

 Dr. Hueglin records its occurrence on the shores of 

 the E,ed Sea, and most commonly on the southern 

 coast. Temminck received specimens from New Guinea, 

 Ceram, and Celebes; and in the thirteenth volume of 

 the "Linnsean Transactions," p. 190, No, o. Dr. 

 Horsfield describes it as S. media among the birds of 

 Java, the *S'. affinis. No. 5 of that paper, belonging to 

 the Gull-billed Tern, S. anglica of Montagu. 



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 eg^. 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 



