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Show 18/6.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINyE. 659 group, we find a uniformly dark mantle and tail ; but at Ceylon we begin to meet with a race which differs in no respect but that of size, and this by imperceptible gradations. I must therefore follow Messrs. Finsch & Hartlaub, and unite these three varieties under one head. Before coming to this conclusion, I have examined about 70 specimens, and must especially acknowledge the great assistance I have received from the fine series of sexed and dated specimens sent to me from Ceylon by Capt. V. Legge, R.A. It is at Ceylon that the two races seem to unite, large and small examples occurring throughout the year in the same locality and flocks ; and the difference thus becomes reduced to one of mere individual peculiarity. A series of measurements show that in length of wing (14 inches) and general dimensions, some Australian specimens are fully equal to the largest African ones ; Polynesian examples are somewhat smaller, and there is less of a brown tinge in the colour of the back. This Tern appears to range as far as the Sandwich Islands; but I have not seen specimens. The description given by Thompson, in the ' Birds of Ireland,' of the bird killed between Howth and Dublin undoubtedly applies to this species; but it is to be regretted that he did not see it in the flesh, as the fact of the specimen having the black head and white frontlet haud (the mark of the fullest breeding-plumage) at the end of December, is somewhat remarkable. I learn from Mr. A. G. More, of the Dublin Museum, that this specimen is no longer in existence, having been burned with the rest of Mr. Walter's collection many years ago. STERNA FRONTALIS, Gray. 1 Sterna striata, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 609 (1788): Striated Tern, Lath. Syn. iii. 2, p. 358, pl. 9 8 - N e w Zealand (from a drawing by Sir J. Banks), jr. Sterna velox, Gould (nee Riipp.), P. Z. S. 1842, p. 140. Sterna frontalis, Gray, Voy. Erebus & Terror, p. 19 (1844) ; Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871) ; Buller, B. N e w Zealand, p. 281 (1873). Sterna albifrons, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exp. Birds, p. 279 (1848). Sterna melanorhyncha, Gould, B. Australia, vii. pl. 26 (1848)- Van Diemen's Land ; id. Handbk. B. Australia, ii. p. 398 (1865) ; v. Pelzeln, Orn. Novara-Reise, p. 154 (1865); Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118(1871). Sterna atripes, Ellman, Zoologist, 1861, p. 7473. Sterna longipennis, Finsch (nee Naum.), J. f. Orn. 1867, p. 339. "Phatusa astrolaba, Bp.," specimen in the Paris Mus. from Tongatabu, Quoy & Gaimard's Voy., is a young bird ; but another bird from same locality and similarly n a m e d = A bergii!-II. S. After comparing an immature specimen of this species with Latham's plate of the Striated Tern from New Zealand, I have no doubt in m y own mind that this was the bird he figured ; but it must be admitted that the drawing and description would almost equally suit the young of the Sandwich Tern; and S. striata, Gm., has in con- |
