900 
Birds of Celebes: Laridae. 
Adult in winter plumage. Forehead, face, entire neck and under parts, including 
wing helow, white; feathers of crown tipped with black, becoming all black on 
the occiput and nape, where the feathers are very long; a blackish spot in 
front of eye; back, wings, and tail grey, frosted with pearl-grey on exposed ends 
and outer webs of the primaries, the inner webs blackish grey, with a white space 
down the middle towards the base; tips of the greater wing-coverts and inner edges 
of the remiges white; tail deeply forked (to about 9 cm), the outermost rectiices very 
nari'ow (Manado: v. Musschenbroek — 0 5274). 
Adult in summer plumage. The crown, but not the forehead, is black like the occiput and nape. 
‘Tris dark brown; bill murky yellow, tinged with green in paids; roof of 
mouth and tongue bluish; legs and feet black, with a reddish tinge, soles yellowish” 
(Legge 11). 
Young moulting (in second plumage on the head). Forehead white, rest of head above with 
black centres to the feathei's; the grey feathers of the back with pale tips, upper 
tail-coverts whitish; remiges more broadly edged with white than in the adult; greater 
wing-coverts tipped with wliite, middle series wliite, the outer webs with a dusky 
mark, forming an ill-defined bar (Talaut, Nov. 1893: Nat. Coll. — 0 13030). 
Nestling. See, Saunders 38. 
Measurements (4 expls. Celebes area). Wing 315—330 mm; tail c. 155; tarsus c. 28; middle 
toe and claw c. 32; exp. culmen 48 — 55 mm. 
Eggs. “Tlie eggs are very handsome. The ground-colour is a saturated grey-yellow, with a 
reddish hue. Distributed over the whole of the eggs are sharjily defined black and 
grey-brown liieroglyphics , blotches, and dots, which in some eggs are gathered 
into a circlet around the blunt end. The measurements are : 60—64 X 40—45 mm” 
(Nehrkorn MS). See, also, v. Konig-Warthausen b 2, with figures; North 23, 
figure; Hume 6', 28. 
Nest. None — “the eggs are laid on the bare ground in the most open and exposed parts 
of the island [of Astola in the Gulf of Oman] about one foot apart, and when sitting 
the birds seem packed together as close as possible, without perhaps actually touching 
each other” (Butler 8). Colonel Butler observed the daring manner in which the 
eggs of these Terns are seized and devoured by Gulls (Lariis hempi’ichi), and re- 
marks that it seems evident that the birds lay in groups to protect their eggs from 
such ravages. On islets in the Red Sea between Sualdn and Massowa, Heuglin 
found the species bi'eeding on rubbish and sand above high-water mark, between 
soda plants and low shnrbs, the birds not rarely sitting in close proximity to one 
another (4). 
Distribution. The coasts ol South, West, and East Africa, of South Asia to Japan; the East 
India Arcliipelago; Australia and Tasmania; throughout Polynesia (but not New 
Zealand); Hawaiian Islands. — In the Celebesian area: Talaut Islands, Kabruang 
(Nat. Coll. 34); Celebes — (Forsten), Minahassa (Meyer and Musschenbroek in 
Dresd. Mus., P. &F. Sarasin 35), Gorontalo Distr. (Riedel in Brunsw. Mus. 18, 
and Dresd. Mus.), S. Peninsula, Macassar and Goa (Weber 32). 
Ihe Imrger Yellow-billed Tern appears to be a resident in Celebes. It was 
most likely this Tern, rather than 8. media, that Meyer found breeding in large 
flocks on the rocks in the Strait of Tembeh, N. E. Celebes , for a specimen 
from there, previously determined as -S', media, proves to be this bird. It is 
distinguishable from 8. media by its larger size, the grey of the upper parts is 
lighter, and in the breeding season the forehead remains white. 
