Birds in Southern Ceylon, 33 



two Sea-Terns which affect our coasts^ viz. Sterna bengalensis, 

 Lesson, and Sterna bergii, Lichtenstein (or Sterna cristata, 

 Stephens, = S. pelecanoides, King, whichever it is) , are very nu- 

 merous, arriving here in November and leaving again about 

 the last week in April or first in May, according to the strength 

 of the south-west monsoon. These Sea-Terns are numerous 

 wherever there are detached rocks some distance from land, 

 which they make their head quarters, roosting there during 

 the heat of the day when they have gorged themselves with 

 fish. There appears to be some doubt what the larger species 

 really is. Hume, in ' Stray Feathers ' (vol. i. p, 283), affirms 

 that the bird frequenting the coasts of India, and which he 

 met with in Sindh last year, is S. bergii, Lichtenstein, the 

 wings of which he gives as varying from 14*2 to 14"8 inches, 

 and the bills from 2' 6 to 2' 75 inches, and says that Sterna 

 cristata (the bird given by Jerdon as the common species 

 round India) has a wing of from 13 to less than 14 inches, 

 and a bill of from 2 to nearly 2*5 inches, and furthermore has 

 the forehead white at all seasons. My specimens have the 

 wing 13 and 13' 1 inches, and bills barely 25 inches — the di- 

 mensions given for S. cristata, Stephens. It is extremely 

 difficult to work the subject out, in the south of Ceylon espe- 

 cially, on account of the birds leaving before many of them 

 acquire any signs of summer plumage. At the end of April 

 and the first week in May I have seen the larger Sea-Tern 

 with both black and white foreheads ; but I was not fortunate 

 enough to procure specimens of either, so that I cannot say 

 whether they were two species or winter- and summer- 

 "headed" examples of the same. S. caspia does not extend 

 to the south of Ceylon : and Gelochelidon anglica, Montagu, 

 is not at all common here ; it commences on the south-east 

 coast and gets more numerous towards the north, where it is 

 more abundant than any other species. The Marsh-Tern, Hy- 

 drochelidon indica, Stephens, is abundant about paddy-fields, 

 and arrives here early in the fall of the year. 



I have once seen a Frigate Bird, which I conclude was 

 Attagen minor ; they do not appear off these shores except 

 when the wind is blowing strong from the west or south-west^ 



SER. III. VOL. IV. D 



