430 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



768. STERNA SINENSIS. 

 THE EASTERN LITTLE TERN. 



Sterna sinensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 608 ; Sounders, P. Z. S. 1876 ; p. 662 ; Hume, 

 S. F. v. p. 325, viii. p. 116 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1019. Sternula minuta 

 (Z.), Hume, Nests and Er/gs, p. 654 (part.) ; Oates, 8. F. iii. p. 349 ; Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 472. Sterna minuta, apud Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. 

 p. 163 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 492. Sternula sinensis, David et Oust. Ois. 

 Chine, p. 527. Sterna gouldi, Hume S. F. v. p. 326; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 314; 

 Hume, S. F. viii. p. 116, ix. p. 131 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 247. 



Description. Summer plumage. Forehead, continued back to a point on 

 either side to just over the eye, white ; crown, nape, the upper part of the 

 hind neck and a streak from the nostril through the eye to the nape deep 

 black ; upper plumage pale grey, becoming paler and whitish on the upper 

 tail-coverts and tail; first two primaries nearly black, margined on the 

 inner web with white ; remaining primaries and secondaries grey, the latter 

 tipped with white on the outer webs ; shaft of first primary white, that of 

 the second more or less white ; remainder of the plumage white. 



Winter plumage. The crown is white, gradually turning to dusky and 

 running into the nape, which remains black ; the black of the nape extend- 

 ing to behind the eye ; the band from the nostril to the eye is lost, there 

 being merely a dusky spot in front of the eye ; remainder of plumage as in 

 summer. 



The young bird has the whole upper plumage, including the wing-coverts, 

 tertiaries and tail, beautifully mottled with black and white. 



Iris always brown ; in summer the bill is yellow broadly tipped with 

 black, and the legs and feet are orange-yellow ; in winter the bill is dark 

 brown, nearly black at tip, and the legs and toes are reddish brown ; claws 

 black. 



Length 10 inches, tail 4, wing 7, tarsus '75, bill from gape 1*7; the 

 pointed outer tail-feathers are seldom perfect, but when they are so the 

 fork of the tail measures rather more than 2 inches. 



S. minuta, the European Little Tern, and S. saundersi, which is found in 

 the Malay archipelago and extends sometimes to Ceylon, have the shafts of 

 the first three primaries blackish brown. The Little Tern which inhabits the 

 greater part of India and the whole of Burmah has been separated by Mr. 

 H ume under the name S. gouldi. The differences between this race and 

 the true S. sinensis are so minute that I cannot consider the two birds 

 worthy of separation ; and Mr. Howard Saunders, who examined the large 

 series of these small Terns which I brought from Burmah, assigns the 

 whole of them to S. sinensis. Mr. Hume's latest statement on the subject 

 of these small Terns will be found in S. F. ix. p. 131. 



