430 STERNIN 2. 
Sterna albigena, Licht. 
987bis.—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 324; Butler, 
Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 440. 
THE WHITE-CHEEKED TERN. 
Length, 12°5 to 14°5 ; expanse, 29°5 ; wing, 9'8 ; tail, 4 to 6:5; 
tarsus, 0°75 ; bill from gape, 2°15. 
Bill blackish, tipped whitish-horny ; irides brown ; legs and a3 
Indian-red, tinged dusky. 
The lores and point of the forehead white, the latter with a 
few black speckles; a patch in front of the eye blaek, speckled 
with white ; the anterior half of the crown white, tinged earthy 
or brownish-grey, and with spots and blotches of brownish-black ; 
feathers immediately above the eye, all the feathers behind it, 
the sides of the head, occiput and nape, black ; the posterior half 
of the crown blackish-brown, a little mingled with greyish-white ; 
an imperfect white band from the lores beneath the eyes, with 
another imperfect black one below it; the back of the neck is 
whitish, the feathers suffused with grey towards the tips; the 
whole of the back, scapulars, wings and tail, a moderately dark 
French-grey, darker than in S. bengalensis, but not so dark as in 
some specimens of berg? ; the upper tail-coverts slightly paler ; the 
wings more silvery, but the outer web of the first primary and of 
the exterior elongated tail-feathers much darker ; the inner webs 
of the primaries darker ; the first primary with a considerable 
portion of the inner web white to the margin ; the other primaries 
also with white on their inner web, but with a grey band on their 
margin ; the second and third tail feathers also a rather darker 
grey on their outer webs towards the points; the rest of tail 
feathers, inner and outer webs, pretty well concolorous with the 
rump and upper tail-coverts ; the chin, throat, and sides of neck, 
almost pure white, with only a few faint dusky grey patches ; the 
breast and abdomen a dusky bluish-grey, with many large patches 
of white ; the lower tail-coverts greyish-white ; the wing-lining 
white. 
In breeding plumage, according to Heuglin, the upper surface is 
a full bluish-grey ; the front and sides of the neck, breast and 
abdomen, a somewhat paler and more purplish-grey ; the entire 
upper surface of the head and nape intensely black ; the chin 
and upper part of the throat, the lores, and an oblique band 
below the eyes, conspicuously snowy-white ; the beak coral-red, 
blackish towards the base of the culmen and tip ; the feet bright 
coral-red. 
The White-cheeked Tern occurs along the Sind and Mekran 
coasts, and is not uncommon in the Kurrachee Harbour. 
Sterna saundersi, Hume. 
988ter—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 325; Butler, 
Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 441. 
