652 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINJE. [Julie 20, 



Sterna dougalli, Mont. 



Sterna dougalli, Mont. Orn. Diet. Suppl. (1813) ; Vieillot, N. D. 

 H. N. xxxii. p. 174 (1819), Gal. Ois. ii. p. 225 ; Steph. in Shaw's 

 Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. i. p. 153(1825); Scl. & Salv. P.Z.S. 1871, p. 571; 

 Coues, B. N.W. Am. p. 688 (1874). 



Sterna paradisea, Keys. & Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. 247. no. 484 

 (1840) (nee Briinn.); Lawr. B. N. Am. p. 863 (1858); Coues, Proc. 

 Phil. Acad. 1862, p. 551; Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 119 (1871); 

 Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 149 (Andaman Is.). 



Sterna gracilis, Gould, P.Z.S. 1847, p. 222, B. Australia, vii. 

 pi. 27 (1848), Handbook B. Austr. ii. p. 399 (1865) ; Gray, Hand- 

 list, iii. p. 1)9 (1871). 



"Sterna douglasii, Mont.," Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Sternee, p. 24 

 (1863). 



"Sterna douglasi, Mont.," Blasius, J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 80. 

 ? Larus polo-candor, Sparrm. Mus. Carl. ii. fasc. 4, no. 83 (1788). 

 (" Habitat ins. Polo-candor, mari Chinensi.") The plate represents 

 a very young Tern, apparently of this species. Bonaparte says (in his 

 " Notes sur les Larides," in the Rev. et M. de Zool, 1854) that he has 

 proved it to be a young Rissa ! but any thing more unlike a Kitti- 

 wake it would be difficult to imagine. 



Apart from its light and elegant shape and its proportionally short 

 wings, this species may always be recognized by the white inner 

 margins of the primaries, extending quite round the tips of the 

 feathers as far as the outer webs ; the rump and tail-coverts are 

 washed with gray. The coloration of the bill varies considerably 

 with age and seasons ; in some specimens it is black almost to the 

 base, whilst in others the red or orange extends far in front of the 

 angle. In American specimens the bill is, perhaps, a trifle stouter 

 than in British examples, which are in this respect identical with 

 birds from Africa and the Indian Islands. In these the red colour 

 ' gradually encroaches upon the black, until, in two specimens from 

 the Andaman Islands, in Lord Walden's collection, the black at the 

 tip of the bill has almost disappeared, in which state it becomes the 

 S. gracilis of Mr. Gould, whose typical specimen in the British 

 Museum is in *every other respect identical with S. dougalli from 

 any part of the world ; indeed, in his original description (in P. Z. S. 

 1847, p. 222) Mr. Gould calls it "a very elegant species, closely 

 allied to S. dougallii of the British Islands," although he omits that 

 remark in the ' Birds of Australia.' In view of these gradual 

 changes in the amount of black in the bill, as exemplified by a series 

 of upwards of fifty specimens from various localities, I must consider 

 S. gracilis merely a form of S. dougalli with more red in its bill 

 than is usual in northern specimens. 



I do not find authentic records of the occurrence of this bird 

 beyond 57° N. lat., south of which it ranges in scanty numbers 

 along the British and European coasts, and goes up the Mediter- 

 ranean at least as far as the Balearic Islands, whence Canon Tris- 

 tram possesses an adult obtained in May. I have not seen any 

 specimens from the west coast of Africa, all those so marked 

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