_Sterna pelecanoides_ King, Surv. Intertrop. and Western Coasts
Australia, 2, 1827, p. 422. (Type locality, Torres Strait, northern
Queensland.)
_Sterna bergii_ Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 50
(Palau); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 781
(Ponapé); _idem_, Ibis, 1880, pp. 330, 332 (Ratak Chain); _idem_,
Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 295 (Ponapé); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc.
London, 1880, p. 577 (Ruk); _idem_, Ibis, 1881, pp. 113, 115
(Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy,
1881, pp. 281, 299, 330, 353 (Ponapé, Mortlock, Nukuor, Ruk);
Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 434 (Ruk, Ponapé,
Marshalls); Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 51
(Jaluit); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no.
6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 74 (Pelew, Luganor, Nukuor, Ruk, Ponapé,
Marshall Islands); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 10 (Ruk);
Saunders, Cat. Birds British Mus., 25, 1896, p. 89 (Ponapé,
Marshalls); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Ponapé);
Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9, 1918, pp. 483, 488 (Ponapé).
_Sterna bergeri_ Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 390
(Marschall-Inseln).
_Sterna bergii cristata_ Stresemann, Novit. Zool., 21, 1914, p. 58
(Truk).
_Thalasseus bergii pelecanoides_ Oberholser, Proc. U. S. Nat.
Mus., 49, 1915, p. 523 (Marshall Islands); Kuroda, in Momiyama,
Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 51 (Luganor, Nukuor, Ruk, Ponapé,
Marshall Islands); Kuroda, Avifauna Riu Kiu, 1925, p. 188
(Marshall Islands); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 194
(Palau, Faraulep, Truk, Lukunor, Nukuoro, Ponapé, Jaluit, Mille,
Aurh, Maloelab, Ailuk); Yamashina, Tori, 10, 1940, p. 677 (Helen
Reef, Babelthuap); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 218,
(Babelthuap, Helen Reef, Faraulep, Truk, Lukunor, Nukuoro, Ponapé,
Jaluit, Mille, Aurh, Maloelab, Ailuk).
_Thalasseus bergii cristatus_ Peters, Check-list Birds World, 2,
1934, p. 342 (Carolines, Marshalls); Mayr, Birds Southwest
Pacific, 1945, p. 26 (Micronesia); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll.,
vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 55 (Peleliu, Ngajangel [Kayangel],
Truk).
_Geographic range._--Malaysia and east coast of Australia south to
Tasmania, east to Melanesia and Polynesia, north to Phoenix Islands
and Micronesia (see figure 11). In Micronesia: Palau Islands--Helen
Reef, Peleliu, Babelthuap; Caroline Islands--Ulithi, Truk,
Faraulep, Lukunor, Nukuoro, Ponapé; Marshall Islands--Jaluit,
Mille, Aurh, Moloelab, Ailuk, Bikini.
_Characters._--Adult: A large, white tern with back, rump, tail,
wing-coverts, wing, and axillaries pearl gray; outer edges of
primaries pearly grayish-black; crown black with crest; bill
greenish-yellow with blackish base; feet black. Crown black,
mottled with white and mantle paler in postnuptial plumage.
Immature: Resembles adult, but crown and back dark, mottled with
white and crest small.
_Measurements._--Measurements of Crested Terns of the Pacific area
are listed in table 20.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 10 (6 males, 4 females), as
follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Ulithi, 1 (Aug. 21); AMNH--Truk, 2
(May 7, Dec. 5)--Ponapé, 3 (Nov. 1, 7); Marshall Islands,
USNM--Bikini, 4 (March 4, 11, 12).
_Parasites._--Uchida (1918:483, 488) obtained the following species
of bird lice (Mallophaga) from the Crested Tern at Ponapé:
_Docophorus albemarlensis_ and _Colpocephalum importunum_.
_Remarks._--Oberholser (1915:520-526, pl. 66) lists five subspecies (_T.
b. cristatus_, _T. b. halodramus_, _T. b. pelecanoides_, _T. b.
rectirostris_, and _T. b. poliocercus_) in the region including the
coast of China, the Riu Kiu Islands, Malaysia, Melanesia, eastern
Australia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. Only one subspecies, _T. b.
cristatus_, is recognized in this area by Stresemann (1914:58), Hartert
(1921:1695-1696), and Peters (1934:341-342), who mention that there is
much variation in size and coloring.