
REMARKS ON THE STERNA INCA. 
bar of the same colour across the wings, the external structure is 
scarcely in accordance with any of the generic forms we have men- 
tioned ; the bill is of more than the usual strength, and the lips are 
furnished with an extension of the edges or a rudimentary wattle, 
of which we have no other example among the Gulls or Terns ; the 
narrow white elongated feathers, springing from the sides of the head, 
are equally without example. The feet are small and tern-like in 
size, but very remarkable in the proportion of the toes, and in the 
hallux being connected to them by a rudimentary membrane. The 
structure of the tail and feet, nearest to those of the true Terns, 
Sterna, remove it from Anous where it has been generally placed. 
We do not advocate the multiplication of genera, particularly in a 
group numbering only from eighty to ninety species; but we do 
think that this bird has claims stronger and more peculiar than 
some others ; and if by any ornithologists it is thought worthy of a 
subgeneric separation, we have drawn its characters under the title 
of Inca. 
. We consider it a most interesting form, drawing closer the alli- 
ance between the Laride and Pelicanide ; for wherever we place 
Phéeton, whether with the first or last, this bird is the intermediate 
step; and we may also think that we see the white lengthened 
feathers, occurring during the breeding season in many of the Cor- 
morants, repeated in the beautiful white plumes of Inca mysticalis. 
Lesson records having met with this species abundantly in February, 
1823, on the barren islet of San Lorenzo, at the opening of the 
immense Bay of Callao. , 
We are indebted for the specimens, in spirits, of the head and 
feet which have served for our illustration, to J. M‘Lean, Ksq.; 
long resident in Peru, 

