Recent Literature . 
141 
concede all that Mr. Saunders claims respecting the shading into one 
another of several of them, and agree that if we are to take positive struc- 
tural modification as the only gen us- warrant, the minimum number of 
five must be accepted. Out of more than thirty (!) genera which have 
been proposed for this remarkably homogeneous and compact group of only 
about fifty species, Mr. Saunders only allows Sterna , Hydrochelidon , Narnia, 
Gygis, and Anous. But it does not follow that a few others, like Haliplana 
and Sternula, are not at least convenient sections or subgenera to recog- 
nize in so difficult a group. 
The three new species are S. tibetana, p. 649 (near longipennis and fluviati- 
lis), S. eurygnatha, p. 654. f. 1 (the Atlantic form of elegans), and Gygis micro- 
rhyncha, p. 668, f. 5 (with a smaller bill than that of G. Candida , and white 
instead of black shafts of the primaries). The colored plate illustrates the 
heads of three species of Anous. 
Want of space alone prevents me from giving, as I should wish to do, 
an abstract of this valuable paper ; but I must confine myself to such 
portion as bears upon the species of Terns which occur in North America. 
According to Mr. Saunders’s determinations, our Sternince stand as follows : 
1. Hydrochelidon leucoptera (Meisn. and Schinz). 
SS. fissipes and ncevia, Pall. — Hyd. leucoptera, Boie. — Viralva leucoptera , 
Steph. — Hyd. nigra, Gray. — S. nigra, Schleg. — Hyd. subleucoptera, C. L. 
Brehra. — Hyd. juvanica , Swinhoe nec Horsf. 
This is the Old World species that I recently recorded as H. nigra from 
Wisconsin (B. N. W. 1874, 709). It seems that Gfay, and those of us 
who have followed him, were wrong in identifying it with S. nigra, Linn., 
the latter being = fissipes=noevia, L. 1766 = lariformis, L. 1758, “ as any 
one who is willing to take the trouble of examining the matter for himself 
will ” find out, says the author. 
2. Hydrochelidon nigra (L.). 
SS. nigra (p. 227), ncevia, fissipes (p. 228, 1766), L. — Viralva nigra, Steph. 
— Larus merulinius, Scop. — S. surinamensis, Gm. — S. plumbea, Wils. — 
Hyd. nigra, Boie. • — Hyd. fissipes, Gray. — Anous plumbea, Steph. — Hyd. 
plumbea, Lawr. — Pelodes surinamensis, Gray. — Hyd. lariformis, Coues [from 
S. lariformis, L. 1758]. 
I am glad to find my union of the American bird with the European 
indorsed by such well-versed authority ; though as to the name, I prefer 
to take Linnseus at 1758, as the custom now is this side of the water. 
3. Sterna anglica, Mont. 
S. nilotica, Hasselq. ? (pre-Linnsean). — Gelochclidon nilotica, Gray. — Tha - 
lasseus anglicus, Boie. — Viralva anglica, Steph. — Laropis anglica, Wagler. — 
Gelochelidon anglica, Coues. — aranea, Wils. — Gelochclidon aranea, Gray. 
S. afiinis, Horsf. (type examined, H. S.). — Gelochelidon balthica, G. meridi- 
onalis, Brehm. — S'. macrotarsa, Gould. — Gelochelidon macrotarsa, Gould. 
Since I joined aranea to anglica , it has become generally admitted that 
