The lovely Rhodostethia rosea, or Wedge-tailed Gull, of the North Polar seas, supposed to breed on islets north of Asia and America if not of Franz Josef Land, is easily distinguished by its small black bill, red feet, black collar, and rosy lower parts. One specimen is on record in Britain. Xema sabinii, or Sabine's Gull, which nests on maritime marshes from Greenland westward to the Taimyr Peninsula, wanders to Britain, France, the Bermudas, and Texas, and annually visits Peru; it may be recognised by its plumbeous head, black collar, and forked tail. Of the larger collarless X. furcatum, with a white basal band on the maxilla, the only five examples known are from the Galápagos and Peru.
Sub-fam. 3. Rhynchopinae.–Of this group the curiously compressed beak and the habits have already been described (pp. [301], [304]). The sole genus Rhynchops, or Scissor-bill, contains five species, of which R. nigra is black, with white forehead, cheeks, and lower parts; the wing-quills being also broadly tipped, and the tail-feathers varied, with white. The bill and feet are red, with a black end to the former. In winter the nape is whiter, while the young are buff and blackish above. Breeding from New Jersey to Florida, this bird strays to New Brunswick and migrates to Trinidad, occurring also in South-West Mexico. R. intercedens of South Brazil and Argentina, and the larger R. melanura, of the North and West of South America, have nearly uniform brown rectrices, but the latter has little white on the secondaries. R. flavirostris, extending from Senegal to Damara-Land, and from Egypt and the Red Sea to Nyassa-Land, has a red and orange beak; R. albicollis, of India and Lower Burma, differs from it in having the back of the neck white.
Sub-fam. 4. Sterninae.–The Terns may be commenced with the snow-white Gygis candida, which ranges from the islands east of Brazil to Ascension, St. Helena, Madagascar and its vicinity, the Indian Ocean, the Malay countries, Australia, the Ladrones, the Sandwich Islands and Polynesia generally. The form and habits have been already noticed (pp. [301], [303]). The smaller slender-billed G. microrhyncha seems to be peculiar to the Marquesas.
Anous stolidus, termed with its congeners the "Noddies" from their stolid indifference at times to man, chiefly frequents tropical and sub-tropical regions, and has occurred once in Ireland. It is sooty-brown, with whitish forehead, grey head, black bill and lores, and reddish-brown feet; A. galapagensis of the Galápagos being entirely sooty-black above. A. (Micranous) leucocapillus, with a weaker bill and a white crown, has a somewhat more restricted range; A. (M.) tenuirostris, with grey lores, ranges from the neighbourhood of Madagascar to Australia; A. (M.) hawaiiensis, with lighter upper parts, occurs around the Sandwich Islands. These species make a large flat nest of twigs, leaves, grass, and sea-weed, on trees, bushes, or even on the ground, laying one buffish-white egg with scattered red-brown markings. Several pairs often use one tree. A. (Procelsterna) cinereus, extending from Australia to Chili, and A. (P.) caeruleus of Central Polynesia, are nearly grey above, but the former is white beneath. The egg is ordinarily deposited with little or no nest on a bare rock or on sand.
In all the rest of the Sub-family the tail is forked instead of graduated, though less markedly in Naenia inca of Peru and Chili, which is leaden-grey, with curling white plumes below the eye, red bill and feet.
The genus Sterna contains the more typical Terns or Sea-Swallows, of which the coloration–unless subsequently mentioned–is grey above, and white or lighter grey beneath and on the tail. S. trudeaui of Brazil, Argentina, and Chili, which strays to the United States, and S. melanauchen, ranging from the Amirante and Seychelles Islands to the Liu Kiu group and Polynesia, are the only two species with the crown white in place of black in the breeding season; the former bird has a black streak through the eye, the latter a band from the lores to the nape.
S. minuta, the Lesser Tern, breeds in many parts of Britain, and extends from about lat. 60° N. in Europe to the Mediterranean, the Caspian, and North India, migrating to South Africa, Burma, and Java. It has a white forehead and belly, black lores, orange feet, and yellow bill with black tip. The two or three whitish or drab eggs, marked with grey and black, differ strikingly from those of the Common Tern and its allies. The larger S. sinensis occurs from Bengal and Ceylon to Japan, New Guinea, and Australia; the greyer-rumped S. antillarum, the Least Tern, from northern South America to California and New England, or exceptionally to Labrador and West Africa; S. saundersi, with nearly black outer primaries, from East Africa to Burma. S. superciliaris, with yellow beak, is peculiar to eastern South America; S. lorata, with grey belly, to Peru and Chili; S. nereis, with white lores, to Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia; S. balaenarum, with black forehead and base of bill, to Southern Africa.
S. fuliginosa, S. anaestheta, and S. lunata are the Sooty Terns, so-called from their dark upper surface; the second being browner and the third greyer than the typical species, wherein alone the young differ from the adults in having brown lower parts instead of white. The forehead is white, the bill and feet are black, while immature birds show whitish markings above. These Terns frequent the tropics, but S. lunata only occurs from the Moluccas to Laysan, the Sandwich Islands, and elsewhere in Polynesia. S. fuliginosa has been obtained three times in England, occasionally on the Continent of Europe, and in America northwards to Maine. The single egg, like that of the Noddy, but with finer red, grey, and lilac markings, is laid on sand or flat rocks; descriptions of the colony, or "Wideawake Fair," on Ascension having been given by several writers.[[201]] S. aleutica of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Japan, with a slate-grey mantle, white forehead and rump, connects the above with the next section.
The remaining species, with white foreheads, are the large S. bergii, ranging from East and South-West Africa to Japan and Polynesia, excluding New Zealand, and S. bernsteini of the Seychelles, Rodriguez, Diego Garcia, and Halmahera, both of which have elongated nape-feathers and a yellowish bill, but grey and white rumps respectively. S. frontalis, of the New Zealand and Australian Seas, has a black bill.
Of large forms, with black foreheads, black feet, and lengthened nuchal plumes, S. cantiaca, the Sandwich Tern, breeding from Britain and the Mediterranean to the Caspian, and from New England to Honduras and both coasts of Guatemala, possesses a black bill. It migrates to Cape Colony, Sind, and Brazil. The large S. maxima, and the similar but smaller S. elegans, have the beak red; the former extending from about lat. 40° N. in America to Peru and Brazil, and in winter to West Africa; the latter from California to Chili. S. eurygnatha, found from Venezuela to Patagonia, only differs in its yellow bill; but S. media, ranging from the Mediterranean and East Africa to Australia, has the tail grey instead of white. In this section the richly marked eggs have often a creamy ground.