434 PHETONINEA, 
neck ; lores dark brown, with a narrow white line dividing this 
from the hue of the head, which at times appears to assume a 
delicate purplish-ash color as far as the crown, gradually shading 
into the brown of the occiput ; lower parts slightly lighter than 
above. 
The young bird has the feathers blackish, edged with white. 
The Noddy occurs on the Sind and Mekran Coasts. 
GxENvus, Rhynchops, Lin. 
Bill with the upper mandible much shorter than the lower one, 
exceedingly compressed, long, straight ; the tip of both mandibles 
truncated ; wings long ; feet short ; webs excised. 
Rhynchops albicollis, Svws. 
995.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 847; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 82; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 441; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 327. 
THE INDIAN SKIMMER. 
Length, 16°5 ; expanse, 44; wing, 16; tail, 4°75 ; tarsus, 1:25; 
‘bill, upper mandible, 2°9 ; lower mandible, 3°75. 
Bill deep orange, yellowish at tip; irides brown ; legs bright 
vermilion-red. ;, 
Crown of the head, back and scapulars, rump and the two 
central tail-feathers, sooty-brown or black; the quills somewhat 
darker, edges of the secondaries and tertials white; forehead, 
face to the eyes, the back of the neck, and the whole lower parts, 
with the sides of the lower back and rump, and the lateral tail- 
feathers, white ; wing beneath glossy-cinereous. 
The young bird has the feathers edged with creamy-white, and 
the bill and legs dusky-yellow. 
The Scissors-bill or Skimmer is very common on the Indus, and 
occurs, but more rarely, in Guzerat, the Deccan and Central 
India. 
It affects the larger rivers, rarely visiting tanks or jheels. The 
only one I obtained in Central India was hawking over the sur- 
face of a tank during the rains, but thisis most exceptionable. 
Faminy, Phetonidee. 
Sus-FAMILY, Phetonine, J. 2. Gr. 
Bill as long as the head, sharp, and gently curved above ; mar- 
gins finely serrated ; two central feathers of tail long and narrow ; 
tarsus short. 
GeENus, Pheeton, Lin. 
The characters are the same as those of the sub-family. 
Pheton indicus, Hume. 
996bis—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 327. 
