THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Specimens are not at hand to decide whether that name should be used, 
but it seems probable that part of Saunders’s 8. saundersi may be referable 
to a distinct race which may bear this name. My reading of the variations 
recorded by Hume is that they are mostly due to moulted birds,* either 
young or adult, and that we do not understand the plumage changes of the 
Ternlets comprising the species 8. albifrons. Under the next subspecies 
I will note my observations on that form, which require confirmation by other 
observers on other subspecies. 
How many subspecies will later be recognised I cannot guess, and will 
here note the names that have been given in connection, as a guide to other 
workers : — 
8ternula albifrons albifrons Pallas. 
Under the name 8terna minuta minuta Linne, in the recent Hand-List of 
British Birds, p. 195, Hartert, Jourdain, Ticehurst, and Witherby give the 
distribution as “ British Isles (breeding). Breeds in north Europe and north- 
west Africa, and in Asia as far east as Turkestan, and perhaps India (Indian 
birds may be separable), and winters as far south as tropical and South Africa, 
Burmah and Java. Replaced by allied forms in America, the Malayan Archi- 
pelago, the China Seas and Australia, and (according to Zarudny and Loudon) 
in Persian Baluchistan.” 
I cannot quite understand what bird is meant by “ winters . . . Burmah 
and Java ” while an “ allied form replaces it in ‘ the Malayan Archipelago,’ ” 
nor the “ breeds in north Europe and north-west Africa.” Is 8. minuta 
Linne absent as a breeding bird from South Europe, its type-locality ? If 
so, it suggests the separation of the north-west African breeding bird. 
According to Saunders the birds from East Africa were referable to 
8. saundersi and not to 8. minuta, while Hartlaub founded his 8. novella 
on such a bird. 
I cannot discuss the western Palsearctic forms and must leave them to 
Dr. Hartert in his Vogel palcearktischen Fauna, but 
8ternula albifrons saundersi Hume ; India 
is certainly distinct. Whether Hume’s other Indian forms are separable 
must be carefully considered. I use the above name for the Indian forms 
as a whole, and not as introduced by Hume or utilised by Saunders. 
8ternula albifrons sinensis Gmelin ; China. 
Although this form was accepted as a distinct species by Saunders on account 
of the white shafts to the primaries, it is very closely allied ; the most 
* Reichenow has also recorded his opinion (Ornith. Monatsb., Vol. IV., p. 114, 1896) : “ Danach vermute ich, 
dafs die Form S. saundersi nur eine individuelle Abweichung von 3. minuta ist.” Notwithstanding this 
conclusion, the Indian birds constitute recognisable subspecies, and this name must be used to denote one of 
these. 
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