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Show 650 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINA. [June 20, Middendorff's specimens only, H. Si) ; Bias. J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 59 Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871). In its slender shape and grey-tinted underparts this species seems to connect the preceding with S. macrura; the feet, however, are brown ; and the bill is black in the breeding-season, and probably at other times. But authentic specimens in immature plumage are still desiderata, although I can refer to no other species a specimen obtained by Mr. Wallace in New Guinea. Lord Walden's collection contains a specimen from Yeso, the most northern of the Japanese islands; and thence it reaches as far west as Lake Baikal, where, as before observed, S. tibetana is also found ; indeed many of the specimens sold by the Paris dealers as S. longipennis are really the latter species. STERNA MACRURA, Naum. Sterna hirundo (in part), Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 227 (1766), id. F. S.p. 55. no. 158; Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871); Sharpe & Dresser, B. Europe, xii. (1872). Sterna macrura, Naum. Isis, 1819, p. 1847; Coues, P. Phil. Acad. 1862, p. 549 ; id. B. N.W. A m . p. 685 (1874). Sterna arctica, Temm. Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 742 (1820). Sterna brachypus, Swainson, B. W . Afr. ii. p. 152 (1837) ; Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871). Sterna pikei, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N . Y. vi. p. 3 (1853); id. Baird's B. N. Am. p. 853, pl. 95 (1858); Grav, Hand-list, iii. p. 118 (1871). Sterna paradisea, Briinn., Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Sterna, p. 15 (1863) ; Bias. J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 74. "Sterna senegalensis, Sw.," Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Sternee, p. 16 (1863) (no. 1 sp. examined, H. Si). Sterna portlandica, Ridg. A m . Nat. viii. p. 433 (1874); Coues, B. N.W. A m . p. 691 (1874). (Other unimportant synonyms are intentionally omitted). It is true that the mere description of Sterna hirundo given by Linnaeus suits the Arctic Tern as regards the colour of the bill, which is properly described as " rubrum," and as "coccineum" in the 'Faun. Suec.,' whereas in the Common Tern the red bill is somewhat tipped with horn-colour. In the references to former authors and in the context, especially where he says " habitat ubique ad lacus et stagna," there is, on the other hand, a stronger probability of Linnaeus's bird being the Common Tern, a species abundant in Sweden, and which is far more in the habit of frequenting inland waters than the Arctic Tern. Since the time when the two species were discriminated, first by Naumann, and in the following year by Temminck, the names of S. macrura and S. arctica have been generally adopted for the Arctic Tern, the latter being, perhaps, the more widely recognized, until the late Mr. G. R. Gray, and afterwards Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, in one of the early Parts of the ' Birds of Europe,' on which they were then jointly engaged, considered it advisable to shift the time-sanctioned name of S. hirundo |