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Show 1876.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINA. 651 from the Common to the Arctic Tern. There could be no objection to their discarding S. hirundo for the former and adopting S. fluviatilis ; but these violent transfers must always be productive of confusion even when justifiable ; and in this case it seems to m e that the original description is so ambiguous that they would have done better to discard S. hirundo altogether, and to adopt the first name about which there could be no mistake-a step which, much as I dislike to differ from such high authorities upon nomenclature, I feel compelled to take. This species is the S. paradisea of Briinnich (Orn. Bor. p. 42 (1764)-a pre-Linneean name, which is not available. I notice it, however, because this name has frequently been employed for the Roseate Tern (S. dougalli), a bird with which Briinnich was unacquainted. From the plate and description I always imagined that S. pikei was an immature bird of this species, and am glad to have this opinion confirmed by Dr. Elliott Coues, who has lately reexamined the type. With regard to S. portlandica, Mr. W . Brewer's investigations and the latest information from American sources leave little doubt that it is only an immature example of this species. The Arctic Tern ranges along the coasts of northern Europe, Asia, and America ; in winter it visits the African coast, descending as far as Walwich Bay; and I have an example obtained by Wucherer off Bahia, the only instance known of its occurrence so far south on the American side; it is possible, however, that the bird mentioned by Philippi and Landbeck, Cat. Av. Chilenas, 49 (1869), may be this species. STERNA FORSTERI, Nutt. Sterna hirundo, Sw. & Rich. F. Bor.-Am. p. 412 (1831), nee auct. (Saskatchewan River). Sterna forsteri, Nuttall, Man. Orn. ii. p. 274, note (1834); Lawr. B. N. A m . p. 862 (1858); Coues, P. Phil. Acad. 1862, p. 544; Bias. J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 74; Scl. & Salv. P.Z.S. 1871, p. 569; Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871) ; Coues, B. N . W . A m. p. 676 (1874). Sterna havelli, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. (1839) p. 122, pl. 409. fig. 1, and of Lawr. &c. (fide Coues); Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871). A rather stouter aud larger species than S. fluviatilis, this species may always be distinguished by its having the outer webs of the long tail-streamers white, whereas in the allied species they are dusky. In the * Birds of the North West' (I. s. c.) Dr. Coues gives the differential diagnoses of S. forsteri, fluviatilis, and macrura ; and to these I have nothing to add. In summer this Tern breeds in the interior of British America and in Wisconsin; but at other seasons it is generally distributed throughout the United States, and goes down as far as Guatemala, on both the Pacific and Atlantic side, and even to the latitude of Pernambuco, Brazil, thus nearly impinging upon thenorthernlimits of S. trudeaui, a species to which, in winter plumage only, it bears a superficial resemblance. |