Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Mees G.F. (1975) Identiteit en status van Sterna bernsteini Schlegel. ARDEA 63 (1-2): 78-86
Identity and status of Sterna bernsteini Schlegel. In recent literature, Sterna bernsteini Schlegel (1863) based on a bird collected off Halmahera, Moluccas, by H. A. Bernstein on 22 November 1861, has been either regarded as a synonym of Sterna bergii cristata Stephens, or, by those authors who consider the Moluccan population of S. bergii to be different from the Chinese population, as a valid race of that species, in the combinations Sterna bergii bernsteini or Thalasseus bergii bernsteini. Examination of the type of Sterna bernsteini, a mounted specimen in good condition, revealed that it's currently accepted identification was erroneous, and that it belongs to the species at present known as Sterna zimmermanni Reichenow (1903). As the name S. bernsteini has thirty years priority over S. zimmermanni, the species must henceforth be known under the first-mentioned name. The exact breeding places of S. bernsteini are still unknown, but they must lie off Shantung, north-eastern China. On migration it has been collected at Foochow, and in winter off the east coast of Peninsular Siam (Nakhon Sithammarat), Sarawak (Baram and Buntal), Halmahera (Kaoe); there is also an unlocalised record from the Philippines. In June and July 1937, Shaw (1938) collected 21 specimens at Mukuantao and Tsangkow, near Tsingtao, Shantung, and that is the last time that the species has been seen alive. One sight record has been published since (Hong Kong, 1960), but it is not acceptable. Professor Cheng of the Academia Sinica, Peking, has confirmed that there is no recent information on the status of the species in China. He also reported that at present there is in China no law to protect gulls and terns. Considering that Sterna bernsteini has not been reliably recorded for 37 years and that the population must always have been small, an investigation of its present status at the presumed breeding grounds is urgently required as a prerequisite for its protection. It may be already too late.


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