,3, 



STEKNA FULIGINOSA. 



Sterna fuliginosa, Gmelin, S. N. i. p. 605 (1788) ; G. R. Gray, List B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 177 (1844) ; 



Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xii. p. 379 (1889) ; Saunders, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 106 



(1896). 

 Sterna oahuensis, Bloxam, Voy. ' Blonde/ p. 251 (1826). 

 Sterna [Onychoprion) seirata, G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Is. p. 59 (1859). 

 ? Sterna panaya, Dole, Proc. Boston Soc. N. H. 1869, p. 306; id. Haw. Alrnan. 1879, p. 56. 

 Ony chop-ion fuliginosus, Wiglesworth, Aves Polyn. p. 75 (1891). 

 Haliplana fuliginosa, Rothschild, Avif. Laysan, p. 39 (1893). 



[Except in a few cases the above citations refer to the Sandwich Islands and some other 

 localities in the Pacific Ocean. The list could be easily extended.] 



This bird was noticed in the Sandwich Islands by Bloxam, who recorded it in his 

 Voyage of the ' Blonde ' by the name of Sterna oahuensis, under the impression that 

 he had discovered a new species. Two specimens from Oahu, an adult and a young 

 bird presented by Sir Edward Belcher, are still in the British Museum, as may be seen 

 from Mr. H. Saunders's Catalogue of the Gulls and Terns. Mr. Dole apparently 

 included this species in his lists under the name of Sterna panaya, while Dr. Stejneger 

 received an adult from Mr. Knudsen, procured on Kauai, where it appears to be 

 common ; others were contained in the collection which I made in 1887, and Palmer 

 found large breeding colonies in the Laysan group in 1891. The bird is very widely 

 distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical seas, while it is even found outside 

 these limits. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Sooty black, with white forehead, superciliary 

 stripes, sides of the neck, and under surface ; the lores, crown, and nape still blacker, 

 while the two lateral tail-feathers shew white on their outer webs. Bill and feet 

 black. 



Dimensions. — "Total length about 17 inches, culmen 2T, wing 11'75, tail about 7*5, 

 tarsus - 9, middle toe with claw l'l " (Saunders). 



2p 



