specimens correspond exactly with specimens of this rare 

 British Bird in the British Museum." Mr. Blyth has 

 obtained this species at Calcutta. 



The specimens I have been able to examine, some from 

 Germany and others in the British Museum, appear to me 

 to be of the same speciesf the tarsus in all of them mea- 

 suring one inch and a quarter, the middle toe and claw 

 together being of the same length as the tarsus. M. Tem- 

 minck mentioned that Boie had received specimens from 

 the eastern coast of Jutland, where this bird is said to 

 breed. Two examples were seen in the south of Holland, 

 in the summer of 1839, by M. Temminck himself, one of 

 which was obtained. M. Savi includes this species in his 

 Birds of Italy. It visits the shores of the Red Sea ; and 

 M. Temminck says it is very abundant in the islands of 

 Sunda, several specimens sent him from thence not differ- 

 ing from those of Europe. The Sterna affinis of Dr. Hors- 

 field, obtained in Java, is considered also by M. Temminck 

 to be of the same species. 



This Tern feeds on small fishes and large insects, fre- 

 quenting marshes rather than the sea coast, and lays two 

 or three eggs ; one in my own collection measures one inch 

 eleven lines in length, by one inch four lines in breadth, 

 of a dull greyish-white, with a few spots of ash grey, and 

 a greater number of dark reddish-brown. 



In the adult in summer the bill is black, and one inch 

 and a quarter in length from the point to the feathers on 

 the forehead ; the angle at the symphisis of the lower 

 mandible rather prominent, and hence called Gull-billed ; 

 irides reddish-brown; forehead, crown, and nape jet black; 

 neck behind greyish- white ; back, scapulars, wings, the 

 coverts, secondaries, and tertials, upper tail-coverts, and 

 tail-feathers uniform pale ash grey ; the outside web of 

 the first primary slate grey, the other primaries pearl 



