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Show 670 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERNINA. [June 20, unwilling to give it specific rank; but it would be somewhat remarkable if subsequent research should show that the Galapagos Islands possess a fuliginous Noddy in addition to their Larus fuliginosus and other peculiar forms of bird-life. ANOUS TENUIROSTRIS (Temm.). (Plate LXI. fig. 1.) Sterna tenuirostris, Temm. Pl. Col. 202(1838). Megaloplerus tenuirostris (Temm.), Boie, Isis, (1826), p. 980, type of genus Megalopterus. Anous melanops, Gould, P. Z. S. xiii. p. 103 (1845) ; id. B.Australia, vii. pl. 34 (1848); Gray, Hand-list, iii. p. 123 (1871). Under this name two species appear to have been confounded. Temminck figures a bird with a light head and neck and pale grey lores. But the bird which is far more abundant in collections under this title is the species which has the lores deep black, figured in Gray's 'Genera of Birds' under the name of A. melanogenys. Temminck's type came from Senegal; and the only specimens like it which I have been able to examine as yet are two in the British Museum from the island of Rodriguez (from one of which the figure is taken), and one in Lord Walden's collection from Mauritius. In the absence of any detailed description it is impossible to say to which species the " S. tenuirostris" of various writers, from the Red Sea, belongs. Beyond the above localities it occurs at Houtmann's Abrolhos, on the west coast of Australia, whence Mr. Gould described and figured it under the name of Anous melanops. Mr. Gould's hird,^ however, appears to me to be identical with Temminck's, in spite of the stress laid upon the supposed absence of a black spot by the eye in Temminck's figure, which spot is conspicuously present in the plate of A. melanops. It seems to be a somewhat rare species, at least in collections. Besides the different coloration of the feathers between the base of the bill and the eye, it appears to be a somewhat smaller bird than A. melanogenys, the wing being nearly an inch shorter; the bill also, in the specimen I have seen, is relatively shorter between the angle and the tip ; but a much larger series must be examined before attaching much importance to that peculiarity. ANOUS MELANOGENYS, Gray. (Plate LXI. fig. 2.) Anous melanogenys, G. R. Gray, Gen. Birds, iii. p. 661, pl. 182 (1849); id. Hand-list, iii. p. 123 (1871). Anous tenuirostris, Scl. & Salv. Neotrop. Lar., P. Z. S. 1871, p. 566. Respecting this black-faced species (see Plate LXI. fig. 2, taken from a specimen in m y own collection) I can only repeat that it is generally found usurping the name of Anous tenuirostris in collections. It is apparently a widely distributed form, occurring on the coasts of Central America, Africa, Australia, and throughout Polynesia. ANOUS LEUCOCAPILLUS, Gould. (Plate LXI. fig. 3.) Anous leucocapillus, Gould, P. Z. S. pt. xiii. (1845) p. 103; id. B. Aust. vii. pl. 35 (1848) ; Cassin, U.S. Expl. Exp. p. 393 (1858) |
