BASS STRAIT TERN. 
In 1908 the Terns arrived before the 15th of August, but had not laid by 
September 14 th. 
The bird figured and described was collected in December, 1886, on 
Troubridge Island, South Australia, by Mr. Edwin Ashby, who gave me the 
specimen. 
This species was first described in the Gen. Synops. Birds., Vol. III., 
pt. II., p. 351, 1785, where Latham described a bird in the British Museum 
“ Supposed to inhabit China,” as var. B of the Caspian Tern. This “ var. B ” 
did not receive a name until Stephens named it S. cristata. Before this 
however, Lichtenstein {Verzeichn douhl. zool. Mus., p. 80, 1823) introduced 
Sterna bergii for a Cape bird as follows : — 
St. rostro elongate compresso subarcuato albo basi fusceseente, cauda forficata alls 
complicatis paulo breviore, occipite cristato. Longit 18" rostri (ab anguloris) 3", tarsi 1" 3'". 
Pileus tempore aestivo (mense Nov. et Dec.) ater, caeterum antice albo maculatus aut 
albus ; frons omni tempore alba. Colores et pictura remigum ut in St. anglica. Pedes 
nigri. Cap. b. sp. 
I have noted that Peron named a bird Sterna caspioides without any 
description, on account of its likeness to Sterna caspia, and that it might 
be Hydroprogne tschegrava strenua Gould that Peron so named. The other 
alternative is that this is the species Peron discovered ; and this view has some 
support from the fact that there is a bird in the Paris Museum brought 
home by Peron and Lesueur which belongs to this species, and whose history 
will be later told. 
Stephens’s description is here attached : — 
Stephen’s, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., pt. i., p. 146, 1826. 
Crested Tem. Sterna cristata. 
St. cinereo-cana, corpore subtus coUoque albis, vertice nigro, occipite suberistata, 
rectrice externa a medio ad apicem alba. 
Hoary ash-colored Tern with the body beneath and neck white, the crown black, the 
occiput slightly crested, the outer tail-feathers from the middle to the tip white. 
Sterna Caspia y Lath., Ind. Orn., II., 804. 
Caspian Tern /3 Lath., Gen. Syn., VI., 351. 
Crested Tem, Lath., Gen. Hist., X., 101. 
Length about twenty inches ; beak three inches, stout, pale and yellow ; nostrils 
pervious ; the crown black, the feathers elongated and forming a pinnacle crest at the nape ; 
the rest of the head, neck, and under-parts of the body white ; back and wings pale ashy- 
grey ; quills grey with the ends dusky ; inner webs, half way from the base, white ; tail 
grey, the end half of the feathers white ; the shafts of the quills and tail wLite ; legs black. 
The female ? has the crown somewhat mottled with grey, and the wings darker yoloured. 
Inhabits China, and many of the south-eastern islands of Asia. ' 
About the same time King published Sterna pelecanoides in the 
Survey Intertrop. Coasts Austr., Vol. II., p. 422, April 18th, 1826, as 
here given : — 
Sterna pelecanoides. S. alba : capitis vertice nigro albo variegato ; dorso, alis, 
caudaque canis ; remigibus fusco-atris, rhachibus albis. 
343 
