720 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



while those from S. Pacific have, also longer outer tail-feathers and 

 rather longer bills. Distinguished from other British Terns by black 

 upper -parts. 



Breeding-habits. — Breeds often in enormous colonies, chiefly on 

 islands. Nest. — A mere hollow in sand or shingle or ledge of rocky 

 cliff. Eggs. — Normally 1 only but occasionally 2 found together or 

 even 3, but probably by other hens : ground varies from white to 

 pinkish, sometimes heavily blotched but at times finely spotted 

 with sienna or deep chestnut and ashy -grey. Average of 31 eggs, 

 50.1x35.3. Max.: 57.1x37 and 52x38. Min. : 43.7x33.5 and 

 48-32.4 mm. Breeding -season. — Varies according to latitude : from 

 April to October. Incubation. — By both sexes, each bird sitting for 

 24 hours. Period 26 days (Watson). Single brooded. 



Food. — A British-killed specimen had sand-eels (Ammodytes) but 

 small cephalopoda (Sepiola) also taken. 



Distribution. — England. — Nine. Tut bury near Burton-on-Trent 

 (Staffs.), Oct., 1852. Near Wallingford (Berks.), June 21, 1869. 

 Near Bath (Somerset \ Oct. 4 or 5, 1885 (Saunders, p. 653). Near 

 Brandon (Suffolk), Mar. or April, 1900 (W. G. Clarke, Zool. } 1903, 

 p. 393). Hulme, Manchester (Lanes.), Oct. 9, 1901 (Saunders, Bull. 

 B.O.C., xii, p. 26). Near Barmouth (Merioneth), Aug. 17, 1909 

 (F. C. Rawlings, Zool., 1909, p. 438). Brighton (Sussex), April 24, 

 1911 (A. F. Griffith, Bull. B.O.C., xxvti, p. 95 ; Brit. B., v, p. 81). 

 Jury's Gap (Kent), male April 9, female April 10, 1914 (J. B. 

 Nichols, Brit. B., ix, p. 98). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Atlantic Ocean from shores of Florida, 

 Louisiana and Texas, West Indian Islands to British Honduras, and 

 Venezuela, also on Fernando Noronha, Ascension, and St. Helena. 

 Hence casual Maine, Azores, and to west Europe : Piedmont, Verdun, 

 Germany (once), in winter south to Falkland Islands. Replaced by 

 subspecies as yet ^sufficiently elucidated in Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans. 



[Note. — A specimen of the Lesser Sooty Tern, Sterna ancethetus, which 

 is found in several forms (S. a. melanoptera, nesting Bahamas and W. Indies to 

 W. Africa ; S. a. ancethetus, Philippines to Ceylon and Australia ; S. a. fuligula,. 

 Red Sea ; S. a. antarctica, Seychelles to Laccadives ; S. a. nelsoni, West 

 Coast Central America) is alleged to have been taken on a lightship at the 

 mouth of the Thames, Sept., 1875 (H. Saunders, Zool., 1877, p. 213), but the 

 evidence was not considered sufficiently perfect to warrant the introduction of 

 the species as a British bird {id., Yarrell, in, p. 566). Two specimens of the 

 Noddy Tern, Anous stolidus stolidus (L.) (Sterna stolida Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., 

 ed. x, i, p. 137 (1758 — In the " American Sea " : West Indian seas meant) ), 

 alleged to have been shot between Tuskar Bock and Dublin about 1830, were 

 brought in skinned by the captain of a vessel, and the evidence is not con- 

 sidered sufficient by B. J. Ussher (cf. List Irish Birds, p. 48 ; Brit. B., n, 

 p. 248). Another, alleged to have been shot on the Dee Marshes, is not 

 authentic [Birds Cheshire, p. 229). Anous stolidus stolidus appears to be dis- 

 tributed throughout the Atlantic from Florida Keys and coast of Louisiana 

 to Bahamas and West Indies, south to Brazil and Tristan da Cunha, but it 

 has been suggested that it only winters in these southern latitudes. It is 

 represented by allied forms in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.] 



