AUSTEALIAN BEOWN-WINGED TEEN. 
be used for it is not so easily settled. I have stated that, working strictly, 
Coues’s name of H. discolor is unavailable. The only other name to be 
reckoned is S. ^nelanoptera Swainson, West Africa, and his description does not 
suit this bird. I propose, therefore, to call the Bahama breeding bird 
Melanosterna ancethetus recognita, subsp. n. 
The plumage changes which this species undergoes seem complex, and 
with the material before me not easily traced. They are certainly not in 
agreement with those of the genus Onyclioprion, and are quite different from 
those of the genus Sterna. 
Apparently the first plumage is of a uniform brown above, the scapulars, 
secondaries, and upper wing-coverts buff-tipped ; in some instances the whole 
of the feathers of the upper-back have bright buff tips ; in others the buff 
tips are almost absent. The reason of this variation is at present unknown ; 
The feathers of the top of the head have white tips, the eye-stripe being 
indicated by a lighter streak, the loral patch being darker ; the back of the 
neck darker than the head or back, and the under-surface white with a dirty- 
grey wash varying in intensity. 
No collections of immature have been made so that we can only record 
the above as referring to the Australian subspecies, and do not know whether 
the differences observed are due to locality or seasons. It should be noted 
that these birds nest at different times in different localities, and such may 
account for the apparent variation. 
The preceding plumage is moulted to a similar one, in which the head- 
feathers have broader white tips, the forehead, pre-loral patch and eye-stripe 
more distinctly marked, while the back-feathers are replaced by grey ones 
with broad white tips. 
When this is complete, the bird is as described by me as immature 
male.” It would seem that the bird carries this plumage for a full season, as 
the majority of birds procured are in this state. I do not think that when 
the full breeding-plumage is obtained that the bird would revert to the pre- 
ceding as the winter-plumage, yet so many birds are met with in comparison 
with immature states of other Terns that doubt is felt as to the correct 
interpretation of this plumage. 
Whatever happens no other Tern, save Sterna lunata, which I consider 
absolutely congeneric, approaches this in these peculiar changes of plumage. 
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