LESSER SOOTY TERN.
STERNA AN2ESTHETA, Scopoli.
Sterna ansestlieta, Scopoli, Del. Faun, et Flor. Insubr. i. p. 9 2 ;
Saunders, Zool. 1877, p. 213; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.
xxv. p. 101.
Sterna panayensis, J. F. Gmelin, S. N. i. p. 607.
Mr. Howard Saunders reported in 1877 that he had
examined a specimen of this species said to have been
captured on one of the lightships at the mouth of the
Thames in September 1875.
The range of the Lesser Sooty Tern encircles the
globe in tropical and subtropical seas. The probability
of a straggling bird occurring on our shores is at least
as great as one of either the Sooty or Noddy Tern
doing so. [O. S.]
