"Adult in autumn.--Similar, with more white on the forehead, and shorter tail-streamers; primaries darker on their terminal portions, owing to the disappearance of the frosting, until the new quills appear. "Immature.--Like the above, but dull white on crown and the front of the lores; primaries still darker, the outer shafts always white, the other shafts dusky; upper wing-coverts dark gray; tail-feathers grayish, and the streamers not much prolonged; bill dark brown, tarsi and toes ochraceous. "Young.--Forehead buffish white, crown with black streaks which become confluent on nape; upper parts mottled and barred with buffish brown on a dull gray ground. Bill horn-color; feet ocher-yellow. When the bird is barely fledged the buff-color predominates on the upper surface." (Saunders.) "Found by us in great abundance near the center of Mindoro, where it was flying about over the dried beds of streams and alighting among the pebbles, its color assimilating so closely with that of the sand and small stones that it was well nigh impossible to see it on the ground." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 84. STERNA MELANAUCHEN Temminck. BLACK-NAPED TERN. Sterna melanauchen Temminck, Pl. Col. (1827), pl. 427; Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 25, 126; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 137; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1901), 1, 195; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 21. Palawan (Platen); Cresta de Gallo (McGregor). Tenasserim, Malay Peninsula, Nicobars, Andamans, northern Mascarene Islands, Pacific Islands, Liu Kiu Islands, northern Australia. "Adult in breeding plumage.--Forehead and crown pure white; in front of the eye a black triangular patch, the apex of which does not reach base of bill; behind the eye on each side and inclosing the nape a band of black, broad and prolonged in the center; neck white; mantle and rump delicate pearl-gray; shafts of all primaries white; outer primary with the outer web blackish, and the streak next shaft on inner web pale gray; the succeeding primaries palest gray next the shafts on the outer and the inner webs, the inner margins of all being pure white; tail long and forked, the middle tail-feathers pale pearl-gray, the rest white; under parts glossy white, with a beautiful roseate tint. Bill black; tarsi and toes dark brown to black. Length, 343; culmen, 41; wing, 216; tail, 152; depth of fork, 76; tarsus, 18; foot with middle toe, 23. The male appears to have somewhat longer streamers than the female; otherwise the sexes are alike externally. "Adult in winter plumage.--Differs only in having less black in front of the eye and on the nape. "Immature.--Similar to the above, but there is a brownish tinge to the black on the nape; wing-coverts ash-gray; a dark line along the carpal joint; webs of the four outer primaries on both sides of the white shafts dark ash-gray (outermost black), outer webs of the tail-streamers also ash-colored.