AX &

THALASSEUS PELECANOIDES.

Torres’ Straits’ Tern.

Sterna Pelecanoides, King’s Survey of Intertropical Australia, vol. ii. p. 422.

Pelecanopus Pelecanoides, Wag].—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit. p. 100.—List of Birds in Brit. Mus.
Coll., part ii. p. 180.

Caspian Tern, Lath. in Phil. Voy., p. 160. pl. in p. 77 2—Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. vi. p. 351. var. B.

Crested Tern, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. x. p. 101.

Gerra-gerra, Aborigines of New South Wales.

Kal-jeer-gang, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia.

Yellow-billed Tern, of the Colonists.

 

Tur Tern forming the subject of the present Plate I believe to be the bird described by Capt. King as
Sterna Pelecanoides, as it is the only large species of the family inhabiting Torres’ Straits. Captain King’s
description was doubtless taken either from an immature bird or one in the winter plumage. It differs
from Thalasseus poliocercus in its much larger bill and in being a much stouter bird; it is however most
nearly allied. I have received specimens and eggs from Port Kssington, and also from Rottnest Island
off the western coast of Australia, where Mr. Gilbert found the bird breeding in great numbers on an
isolated rock about two hundred yards from the main-land; it also attracted the notice of Mr. John
McGillivray while cruising in Torres’ Straits, and it is to him that I am indebted for the following
information as to its range, &c.:—‘‘ This handsome Tern, which supplies the place of the Thalasseus
poliocercus upon the north-east coast, is generally distributed from Lizard Island to the southward as far
northward as Bramble Quay, and is also to be found in Endeavour Straits. It was breeding on Lizard
Island in the beginning of May, and on Raine’s Island in June, when both eggs and young birds were
procured ; in the latter locality I found it in three small parties upon a low ridge on one side of the island,
depositing its single egg in a slight hollow scooped out of the ground in a bare smooth spot surrounded
with herbage. This bird was so much more shy than the Sooty Tern and Noddy, that I was obliged to
resort to the gun to procure specimens, as it would not allow me to approach sufficiently near to throw a
short stick with effect. The eggs vary considerably in their markings; the ground-colour is generally
stone-grey, in some instances thickly speckled and blotched with black; others are marked with irregular
waved streaks and minute spots of dark brown; others again with scattered irregular streaks and spots of
black ; some are thickly blotched, especially at the larger end, with reddish, and others are finely blotched
and streaked with dark red on a light pinkish grey ground; they also vary somewhat in size, but they
usually average two inches and three-eighths in length by one inch and a half in breadth.” I possess
one which differs both in size and colouring, being considerably larger and of a rich reddish buff, blotched
all over, but particularly at the larger end, with brownish black, and others in which the streaks assume
the appearance of Chinese characters.

Mr. Gilbert states that on the rock near Rottnest Island they breed in December, and that the eges are
merely deposited in a slight hollow made by the parents in the soft part of the rock, but were so numerous
that it was with difficulty he could move among them without crushing many at every step.

Crown of the head and occipital crest jet-black ; forehead, sides, and back of the neck and all the under
surface silky white; back, wings and tail dark grey, deepening into black on the edges and tips of the
primaries, the shafts of which as well as those of the tail are white ; bill pale greenish yellow ; irides very
dark brown; legs and feet black; soles dirty brownish yellow.

Young birds have the grey of the upper surface much paler, and the black of the head mottled with
white.

The Plate represents two birds, one in the winter and the other in the breeding plumage, rather under
the natural size.