AUSTRALIAN WHITE TERN. 
bark of their home-branch most tenaciously if any attempt is made to handle 
them ; indeed, if they get a good grip with both feet I believe it would be well 
nigh impossible to pull them away without dislocating their legs, for their feet 
are armed each with three hooked claws. These grip the wood at the three 
points of a triangle so that the more they are pulled the tighter they hold. 
“ The young bird grows very quickly, and soon becomes feathered ; but 
a remarkable point about them is that they can fly while they are largely 
covered with down, and long before the pinion-feathers are full grown. As 
soon as they are full feathered they go out fishing with their parents during 
the daytime, but always return to their birthplace to camp at night. It may 
be worth noting that the young birds are very dexterous at catching flies. 
They do not eat them, but just crush and drop them. This same practice is 
also indulged in by the young Masked Gannets {Sula cyanops), but I have not 
noticed it in any other young sea-bird. 
“ The young White Terns leave Sunday Island during March and April.”* 
The type-bird figured and described is a male, and was collected on the 
Kermadec Islands. Named in honour of Mr. Roy Bell, the writer of the 
above article. 
In the Mus. Carlson, fasc. i., No. 11, 1786, Sparrman figured and 
described Sterna alba as follows : — 
Corpore toto albo, Rostro pedibusque nigris. 
Habitat in India Orientali, ad Promontorium Bonae Spei Insulasque Maris pacifici. 
Magnitudine et Stature Sternae nigrae. 
Gmelin, in the Syst. Nat., p. 607, 1789, included Sterna alba of Sparrman 
and added Sterna Candida : — 
St. alba, pennarum scapularium, remigum, rectricumque, rostro, palpebris et 
unguibus nigris, pedibus fuscis. 
White Tern. Lath, syn., III., 2, p. 363, n. 17. 
Habitat in insula nativitatis Christi, aliisque maris austrahs, visa quoque in insula 
S. Helenae, an vere distincta ab alba species ? 
Latham’s description reads : — 
Lev. Mus. 
Length thirteen inches : breadth thirty, bill slender, black : eyelids the same : 
general colour of the plumage white as snow ; but the shafts of the scapulars, quills, and 
tail, except the three outer feathers, are black ; the tail is forked in shape, and shorter 
than the wings, when closed, by an inch : legs brown : webs orange : claws black.\ In 
some there is a slight mixture of brown on the head. ' 
Inhabits Christmas Island, and other parts of the South Seas. Seen also off the island 
of St. Helena. 
Bonnaterre {Tabl. Ency. Meth., Ornith., Vol. I., p. 94, 1791) inde- 
pendently named Latham’s White Tern, Sterna semi-alba. 
* Roy Bell, Emu, Vol. XII., p. 26, 1912. 
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