

STERNA. 727 



In breeding plumage, according to Heuglin, the upper surface is a pale 

 bluish grey ; the front and sides of the neck, breast and abdomen, a some- 

 what paler and more purplish grey; the entire upper surface of 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 bill coral red, blackish 

 towards the base of the culmen and at the tips ; the feet bright coral red. 



Length. 14-5 inches to 12-5 ; expanse 29-25 to 29-5 ; tail from vent 6-5 

 to 4-1 ; wing 9-9 to 97; tarsus 077 to 075 ; bill from gape 2- 15, at front I 55 

 to 1-47 ; irides brown ; legs and feet Indian red, tinged in front of tarsi and 

 toes with blackish dusky; bill blackish, with the extreme tips whitish horny. 

 (Str. F. vi. p. 469.) 



Occurs along both the Sind and Mekran Coasts, and in the Kurrachee 

 harbour. Mr. Hume (vol. iv. p. 468) in his excellent paper on the birds of 

 "the Laccadives and the West Coast," says This species, which he obtained 

 there, had only hitherto been obtained on the coasts of the Red Sea, 

 northward to about 24 parallel north latitude and southward to the Gulf 

 of Aden. 



1438. Sterna Saundersii, Hume, Sir. F. iv. p 469; v. p. 326; 



Murray, Edbk., Zool., $y., Sind,p. 249; id., Vert. ZooL, Sind, p. 325. 

 SAUNDERS' LITTLE TERN. 



"A triangular frontal patch, the angles reaching to within O f i2 of the eyes, 

 white ; a very broad stripe through the lores to the eye black; a narrow white 

 line intervenes between this stripe and the upper mandible. The whole crown, 

 occiput, short occipital crest and sides of occiput as low as the lower margin 

 of the eye velvet black, the central two-thirds of the lower eyelid white, and 

 no black below this ; all the rest of the sides of head and neck, chin, throat, 

 entire under parts, wing lining and exterior tail feather, pure white ; the first 

 three primaries black with black shafts and broad white margins on their inner 

 webs ; their greater coverts dusky black ; the whole of the rest of the upper 

 surface, including wings and tail, and excepting parts and feathers already 

 described, a most delicate satin grey, contrasting in the strongest manner with 

 the early black primaries. 



"Length 9-12 inches; expanse 19-25 ; tail 3-0 ; wing 6-43; bill at front 

 r 1 2, from gape i'5; tarsus O f 6 ; legs and feet dusky yellowish olive; bill 

 yellow, broadly tipped dusky; irides blackish brown." (Str. F. v. p. 326.) 



This species is extremely common at Kurrachee and along the coast during 

 the latter part of April, also in May and June, in which months it breeds at 

 Kurrachee on the bare plains between Kurrachee and Clifton at Ghizree and 

 on the Moach. The eggs are usually laid in a small depression in the saline 

 soil, the birds selecting wherever possible spots where there is a little loose 

 shelly sand. Eggs glossless and often chalky, two to three in number, oval 



