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Show 1876.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINA. 653 from Damaraland being really S.fluviatilis in winter dress; there are specimens in the British Museum from the. Cape of Good Hope, and I have several examples from Natal. It is found off Rodriguez, and breeds at the Andaman Islands, where the eggs, sent with the parent birds by Capt. Wimberley, are far handsomer in markings than any American specimens; and quite recently I have received from Capt. Vincent Legge, R.A., a lovely rose-tinted specimen from Ceylon, shot in May, with but little black on the mandibles. Capt. Legge writes that a month later the red in the bills of the birds still on the coast had almost disappeared, showing what a changeable and untrustworthy character the colour of the bill is. From Ceylon this species is found throughout the Malayan islands down to Houtmann's Abrolhos, on the west coast of Australia. In North America, where it is far more abundant than in Europe, it breeds from Massachusetts to Florida and at the Bermudas; also in Central America, and visits various West-Indian islands. In the British Museum is a skin registered as obtained at Taboga ; and, the only place I know of that name being an island off Panama, this is a considerable extension of its range, if the locality can be trusted. STERNA CANTIACA, Gm. Sterna cantiaca, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 606 (1788); Schl. Mus. P. B. Sterna, p. 5 (1863) ; Layard, B. S. Africa, p. 370 (1867) ; Scl. & Salvin, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 569 ; Coues, B. N.W. Am. p. 673 (1874). Sterna africana, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 605 (1788), jr. Sterna boysii, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 804 (1790). Sterna canescens, Meyer & Wolf, Tasch. deutsch. Vog. ii. p. 458 (1810). Thalasseus cantiacus, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 563 ; Bias. J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 81. Actochelidon cantiacus, Kaup, Sk. Entw. Eur.Thier. p. 31 (1829), type of Actochelidon. Thalasseus canescens et candicans, Brehm, Vog. Deutsch. pp. 776, 777 (1831). Sterna acuflavida, Cabot, Pr. Bost. Soc. ii. p. 257 (1847) ; Lawr. Birds B. N. Am. p. 860 (1858). Thalasseus acuflavidus, Coues, Pr. Phil. Ac. 1862, p. 540. Actochelidon cantiaca, Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 119 (1871). It is now generally admitted that the European and American birds are identical. The range of this species may therefore be broadly described as from Northern Europe to the Cape of Good Hope and the Bay of Bengal in winter, and along the Atlantic coast of North America to the West-Indian Islands, Honduras (probably its southern breeding-limit), and Brazil, at least as far as Bahia, whence I have a specimen. STERNA ELEGANS, Gamb. Sterna elegans, Gambel, Pr. Phil. Ac. iv. 1848, p. 129 (Mazatlan) ; Lawr. Birds N. A. p. 860 (1858). PROC. Z O O L . Soc-1876, No. XLIII. 43 |