STEKNA FULIGINOSA. 
(THE SOOTY TEKN.) 
Sterna fuliginosa, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 605 (1788); Temm. & Schl. Faun. Jap. p. 133, 
pi. 89 (1842) ; Finsch & Haiti. Orn. Centralpolyn. p. 225 (1867) ; Sperling, Ibis, 1868, 
p. 286; Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 666, et 1877, p. 796; Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, 
p. 477 ; Dresser, B. of Eur. pt. 61, 62 (1877); Hume, Str. Feath. 1879, p. 116 (List 
B. of Ind.). 
Onychoprion fuliginosus (Gm.), Gould, B. of Austr. vii. p. 32 (1848) ; Sclater & Salvin, 
P. Z. S. 1871, p. 572 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 140 (first record from Ceylon); 
Salvadori, Uccelli di Borneo, p. 373 (1874). 
Hydrochelidon infuscata (Licht.), Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1457 (1873). 
Haliplana fuliginosa (Gm.), David & Oust. Ois. de la Chine, p. 528 (1877). 
Wide-awake of sailors. 
Characteristics. Bill from gape not less than 2‘2 inches ; black loral stripe oblique; inner and middle toes 
fully webbed. Young brown beneath. 
Adult male and female (Atlantic). Wing ll - 2 to 11-8 inches ; tail 5 - 5 to 7 - 0, according to length of outer tail-feather, 
which is much attenuated; tarsus 0 - 8 to 095 ; middle toe 08, its claw 038, web of inner and middle extending 
to T \j- from the tip of the sole of the latter ; bill to gape 2-3. 
Adult male and female (Laccadives). Length 16'1 to 17‘75 inches ; wing 1005 to 11-8, expanse 32-5 to 35'25 ; tarsus 
09 to 0 - 93 ; bill from gape 2‘3 to 2 - 4, at front 1-6 to l m 7. Weight of the largest specimen 8 oz. (Hume.) 
Iris deep brown, almost black ; bill, legs, and feet black. 
Breeding-plumage (Ascension). Head and nape deep glossy black, the colour extending to within 0-3 inch of the base 
of the bill, and covering the sides of the head and upper part of the hind neck down to the level of the lower 
eyelid ; forehead and upper part of the lores white, narrowing to a point above the centre of the eye, and leaving 
a border of black inch wide, which descends as a broad oblique stripe to the gape ; entire upper surface and 
wings black-brown, darkening into black on the least wing-coverts, which are set off by a white border round the 
edge of the wing ; outer web of lateral tail-feathers white, the inner greyish white, passing into brown at some 
distance from the tip ; entire under surface white, sullied slightly with grey on the breast and abdomen. 
Young, nestling in down (Ascension). Above mingled grey and brown, the tips of the down being of the latter colour, 
which is most conspicuous on the sides of the back, forming two stripes with a w'hite interspace ; forehead brown ; 
head whitish, mingled with jet-black down, the whole being stiff and pointed, and not “ decomposed,” as on the 
back ; wings as the back ; beneath uniform whitish. 
The young vary ; two specimens from Iloutmann’s Abrolhos do not possess the white patch on the centre of the back, 
and one is much more closely mottled aud altogether darker than the other. 
Almost completely fledged bird. “Entire upper surface, sides of the neck and breast, and upper abdomen a deep sooty 
browm, almost black on the head and scapulars ; all the scapulars and largest tertials tipped with white, and those 
of the intersc-apulary region and all the wing- and upper tail-coverts tipped with rufescent buff.” (Hume, 
Laccadives.) 
Immature, first plumage (Brit. Mus.). Entirely brown, paler beneath and of a chocolate tint, the bases of the feathers 
w'hite ; feathers of the head crossed with minute bars of fulvous ; interscapulary region barred with buff-white, 
the markings increasing in width towards the rump and confined to the tips of the feathers ; scapulars and 
tertials broadly tipped with white ; wing-coverts less so, the least sex-ies blackish brown and unmarked ; secondaries 
and tail-feathers tipped with dull white. Wing 8’G inches. A younger bird, just fledged, is barred above in the 
same way, but has the throat whitish, striped with blackish. 
