EASTERN WHITE-WINGED TERN. 
This description is drawn up from one of Gould’s Cape York specimens, and agrees 
very closely with the type of Sterna grisea Horsfield from Java with which I have 
instituted comparison. Another bird collected on the Voyage of the “ Rattle- 
snake,” “ Female, Gape York, Nov. 9th, 1849,” agrees, but it is not so worn ; there 
are fewer white tips to the back of the head-feathers, and the two outer tail- 
feathers are pure white, the rest whitish on the inner web. 
Another bird collected by Elsey, “ Victoria River, March, ’56, Male,” is in the 
same plumage, and has the additional information on the label, “Iris blue-black.” 
Adult in change. The feathers on the lower-back are coming blackish ; the rump, 
upper tail-coverts, and the tail are all white, save the fifth pair from the outside 
which are still grey ; the second outside pair and the centre pair are only half 
grown ; about half the scapulars and secondaries are new black-grey feathers ; 
all the primaries are new grey feathers while the outside half of the inner wing- 
coverts are new black feathers ; the inside half and the whole of the under surface 
are still pure white, while the head- and neck-coloration is still as in the winter- 
plumage. This description is drawn up from another of Gould’s Cape York 
specimens. 
Another bird collected by Elsey, “ Victoria River, March, 1856, Female,” is in much 
the same plumage, but the tail contains fewer white feathers ; the head is missing, 
and on the label is noted, “ Stomach contaiued grasshoppers.” 
The preceding descriptions taken from specimens procured m Australia may be 
supplemented by accounts of further plumage-changes as these may occur. 
A bird from the Andamans, April 16th, 1879, shows a further change than the 
preceding ; the whole of the tail is white ; the whole of the inner wmg-coverts are 
black ; the primaries, upper wing-coverts, and secondaries are all completely 
new ones ; the black feathers are beginning to come on the back and under- 
surface, commencing on the belly and lower-breast. 
Immature. “ Pegu ? 13/10/78, very young and small, E. W. Oates,” is much like what 
I have described as the winter-plumage, but the head-feathers are deep brown, while 
the feathers of the upper-back as well as the scapulars have dark brown tips ; the 
upper tail-coverts are white ; the tail-feathers brownish-grey, the outer ones 
lighter. 
Nestling, Nest, Eggs, and Breeding-season. Unknown. 
This bird was added to the Australian avifauna by Gould {loc. cit.) just after the 
appearance of his Handbook, and was apparently regarded with suspicion by 
later Australian ornithologists. After the publication of the Gat. Birds Brit. 
it was included by Hall in his Key Birds Austr., p. 87, 1899, as a 
“ Doubtful visitor,” as five specimens were catalogued by Saunders as being 
in the British Museum. Since then it has been generally accepted, but I know 
of no recent specimens. Examination of the British Museum examples proves 
this bird to be an undoubted visitor, and if the authenticity of Gould’s record 
were questioned, there are three other instances — Elsey having procured two 
on the Victoria River, Northern Territory, in March, 1856, and a third 
obtained at Cape York on the Voyage of the “ Rattlesnake.” Upon these 
records no doubt whatever can be thrown. I do not impugn Gould’s record 
myseK, but a third specimen in the British Museum from the Gould Collection 
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