256 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
scarcely anywhere else on the Indian coast. Ranges all along 
the temperate and tropical shores of the Atlantic and round 
parts of the Indian Ocean. 
Habits —A Sea Tern rarely seen away from the coast, 
seldom even haunting lagoons. Mr. H. Parker once found 
a colony breeding in June on sand banks in the Gulf of 
Mannar. ‘The eggs were one or two in number, brownish or 
greenish-gray, blotched with dark brown and inky gray. 
Average measurement 1°58 by 1°12. 
STERNA SINENSIS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 320 ; 
Legge, p. 1019). 
The White-shafted Ternlet. 
Description—Summer : An arrow-shaped white patch on 
the forehead running back above the eye ; below this a black 
band from the bill to the eye ; the crown down to the lower 
edge of the eye and the nape black. The upper plumage 
pearl-gray, darker on the wings, and paling to white or 
whitish-gray on the upper tail coverts and tail. The outer web 
and half the inner web of the first two primaries black or dark 
gray, the quill shafts and the inner half of these feathers white. 
The under plumage is white, sometimes tinged with gray. 
In winter the white patch on the forehead is broader and 
the tail shorter. 
Young birds on the crown are grayish streaked with black, 
which increases towards maturity ; the black band from the 
bill to the eye is wanting, and the primaries are grayer ; only 
the shaft of the first primary is white, those of the later 
primaries are grayish or brcwnish. 
Bill in summer yellow with a black tip, in winter brown ; 
iris hazel-brown ; legs and feet in summer orange-yellow, in 
winter dusky yellow. 
Length about 10, when the tail is fully developed ; wing 7 ; 
tail 3-5-5°5 ; depth of fork 2-3°4 ; tarsus ‘65 ; billfrom gape 1-7. 
Distribution—Common round the coast of the dry zone, 
rare on the west coast south of Puttalam. Found on the 
east coast of India and in Burma, extending eastwards to 
Japan and Australia. 
