Order LARIF0RME8 Family LARIDM. 
No. 132. 
THALASSEUS BENGALENSIS TORRESII. 
LESSER CRESTED TERN. 
(Plate 107.)* 
Thalasseus torresii Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lend.) 1842, p. 140 ; Port Essington. 
Sterna media Horsjfield (not Vieillot), Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., p. 199, 1821. 
Salvador!, Ornith. Papua e Moll, Vol. III., p. 437, 1882 ; Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. 
Birds, p. 23, 1888 ; Walker, Ibis 1892, p. 258 ; North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. II., 
p. 20, 1892 ; Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 86, 1896 (pars) ; Hall, 
Key Birds Austr., p. 88, 1899 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, p. 835, 
1901 ; Cornwall, Emu, Vol. III., p. 46, 1903 ; Carter, ib., p. 208, 1904 ; Hall, 
Key Birds Austr., p. 88, 1906 ; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austr., p. 20, 1908 ; id., 
Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 208, 1912. 
Thalasseus torresii Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1842, p. 140 ; id., Birds Austr., Vol. VII., 
pi. 25, 1848. 
Pelecanopus torresii Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Sci., Paris, Vol. XLII., p. 772, 1856. 
Sterna torresii Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Isl. Pac. Ocean, p. 58, 1859. 
Thalasseus hengalensis (not Lesson) Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 397, 1865 ; 
Masters, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. I., p. 62, 1875 ; Ramsay, ib., p. 386, 1876. 
Distribution. North Austraha, as far South as Oyster Bay in Queensland and North- 
west Cape in North-west Austraha ; extrahmital to Java. 
Adult male in breeding-plumage. Head and nape deep black; upper wing-coverts, 
scapulars, back, and middle tail-feathers dove- grey ; bend of wing white ; primary- 
quills silvery-grey, inner webs white at base, dark brown near the shafts, this 
colour increasing in extent and becoming pale towards the tips ; the inner primaries 
and secondaries grey on the outer webs, fringed and tipped with white on the inner 
ones, the white increasing in extent on the secondaries ; tail for the most part grey hke 
the back with a certain amount of white on the inner webs of the feathers ; lores, hind- 
neck and upper mantle, throat and entire under-surface silky white, including 
the axiUaries, under wing- coverts, and under tail-coverts ; biU reddish- orange ; iris 
dark brown; feet black. Total length 420 mm; culmen 50, wing 308. tail 152, 
tarsus 26. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
* The Plate is lettered Sterna media. 
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