STERNA FULIGTNOSA. 
1037 
Immature, about one year old (Ceylon, June and August, 2 examples). Wing 11-3 inches ; tail 4-7 to 5-6, depth of 
fork 2-0 ; tarsus 0-85 to 0-9 ; middle toe 0-8 to 0-85 ; bill at front 1*6 to 1-7, to gape 2-3 to 2-35. 
Iris dusky brown ; bill black ; legs and feet black. 
Forehead greyish ; entire upper surface black, with a greenish gloss in places ; feathers of back edged with white ; 
under surface brown, mixed with whitish chiefly on the throat and belly ; flanks more uniformly dark than the 
breast. 
Another example (Mount Lavinia, June) has the forehead whitish, with blackish spots or “ points chin and gorge 
the same ; throat brownish, lower parts pale whity brown ; under tail-coverts sullied white. 
Ohs. This species has frequently been confounded with the next ; but the characters which I have given above will, 
in addition to its larger-sized bill, serve at once to identify it, should any of my readers procure specimens in 
Ceylon. Mr. Saunders was the first naturalist to point out the important difference in the feet of the two species. 
Distribution. — The Sooty Tern has only recently been added to the avifauna of Ceylon. During the 
south-west monsoon of 1873 three examples -were met with by Mr. Hart, the taxidermist of the Museum, on 
the little tank of Boralesgamuwa, about nine miles from Colombo, and one was shot which I sent to Mr. Hume 
for his inspection. Subsequently another specimen was captured in a net by fishermen at Mount Lavinia in 
August 1874, and a third was secured exhausted on the rocks at the same place in June 1876. I have not 
heard of any further occurrences of the species in the island, but it is no doubt much less rare than these few 
instances of its capture would lead one to infer ; for among the thousands of its near ally, the Brown-winged 
Tern, which are seen on the coasts there must be a certain proportion of the present species. 
Though Jerdon omitted this Tern from the Indian list, Mr. Hume says it is not uncommon right up 
the west coast of the peninsula, and northwards to the Mekran coast. He has seen it from near Panwell, in 
the Bombay Harbour, also from Tutul between Surat and Bombay, and also from Minicoy. In February 1875 
he found it breeding in enormous numbers at the Cherbaniani reef in the Laccadives, and from the stock 
there raised doubtless come the individuals which occur on the west coast of Ceylon. It occurs throughout the 
Indian Ocean, having been met with at various parts on the east coast of Africa, and at the islands of Madagascar, 
Rodriguez, and Mauritius. Von Heuglin observed it on the Somauli coast, and Messrs. Finsch and Hartlaub 
in the northern half of the Red Sea. It is abundant on the west coast of Australia, breeding in great numbers 
in December at the Houtmann’s Abrolhos, near Perth. Mr. Ramsay records it from the South' Australian, 
Victorian, and New South Wales coasts, and from Rockingham Bay, Cape York, and Port Darwin. Macgillivray 
found it breeding in Torres Straits in May and June; and this difference in the time of its nesting on the 
Australian coasts is very noteworthy. It is doubtless an inhabitant of the seas surrounding many of the 
Pacific islands, as I find it recorded from New' Caledonia, from the Samoa Islands, the Marquesas, the Rosa and 
Honden Islands, and from Ponape in the Seniavin group. In the Malay archipelago it has been obtained, 
writes Salvadori, off the coasts of Sumatra and Borneo ; and northwards it occurs along the China coasts to 
Japan, where, however, it appears to be very rare. Pere David says that he has seen it in the interior of 
China “ going west, doubtless towards the great lakes of Central Asia but there appears to be some 
mistake in this naturalist’s identification, as this truly oceanic bird could not have been seen on its way to 
Central Asia. 
Turning now towards the Atlantic, we find it recorded from the Gold Coast and from Senegal ; and at 
St. Helena, where I have seen it, it is tolerably plentiful. At Ascension it breeds in great numbers at certain 
spots in the island termed “ Wide-awake Fairs.” They arrive for breeding purposes about October, and do 
not leave sometimes until May, in which month I saw great numbers there in 1877. Their visits, however, 
are not regular, for Captain Sperling found them breeding in June. It is an occasional straggler as far north 
as Europe. Mr. Dresser enumerates four instances of its occurrence, tw'o of which were in England, viz. one 
at Burton-on-Trent, October 1852, the other at Wallingford, Berks, June 1869; a third was obtained at 
Magdeburg, in Germany, and a fourth at Verdun, in France. It is common on the east coast of America, 
being most abundant in tropical parts. Mr. Dresser met with it in Texas, and it is very numerous on the Florida 
Keys. It has been obtained at Bermuda ; and in the West Indies it is found on the Cuban and Jamaican 
coasts and breeds at St. Thomas’s. On the western side it wanders as far south as Chili, and northwards 
to the Aleutian Islands. 
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