CEYLON RAILS, WADERS, GULLS, AND TERNS. 259 
Distribution.—Has been recorded two or three times from 
the coast near Colombo, and is occasionally met with on 
Indian shores. Its range is the same as that of the Panayan 
Tern, but it keeps even more to the open sea, breeding on 
oceanic islands. 
ANOUS STOLIDUS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 325 ; 
Legge, p. 1043). 
The Noddy. 
Description.—Forehead and crown pale gray, passing 
through gray-brown on the nape into the dark smoky-brown 
of the upper and lower parts. The lores are black, gradually 
paling into lead-brown on the cheeks and throat. The wing 
quills and tail feathers are darker than the body. 
Immature birds are paler brown, with a grayish-brown 
forehead and neck. 
Bill black ; iris deep brown ; legs and feet dark flesh colour 
or reddish-brown, the webs paler. 
Length 16 ; wing 10°5; tail6; tarsus 1:0; bill from gape 2°3. 
Distribution —An oceanic bird, occasionally seen on the 
seas round Ceylon, and once obtained on the beach near 
Colombo. It also occurs in the Bay of Bengal, and breeds on 
the Laccadives in February. The range extends all round the 
tropics. 
Family STERCORARIID A. 
The Skuas. 
The Skuas are a family of marine birds, with a piratical 
manner of existence. They obtain their living chiefly by 
chasing other sea birds on the wing, forcing them to drop any 
food which they have secured, and bearing off the booty thus 
relinquished. They also harry colonies of breeding birds, 
stealing the eggs and fledglings. 
As I have shown above in my remarks on the order, the 
chief external differences between Skuas and Gulls lie in the 
bill and claws. The hind toe is small ; the front toes are long 
and fully webbed ; the wing is long and pointed ; the tail is 
longish and rounded, and the two middle tail feathers are 
noticeably longer than the rest. 
12 6(9)16 
