308 



rump and tail, light ashy grey ; primaries darker and brown, 

 except on the outer webs in fresh plumage. 



In summer the forehead, crown, and nape, with the sides of the 

 head down to the lower edge of each orbit, are black ; gape and a 

 streak from it to the nape white ; upper parts ashy, darker than 

 in winter ; chin, throat, vent, and under tail-coverts white ; fore- 

 neck and breast dark grey, passing into sooty black on the 

 abdomen. 



Young birds have the crown and mantle partly or wholly 

 blackish brown, with rufous edges 4o the feathers. 



Bill red ; irides brown ; legs and toes dull red (Oates). The 

 bill and legs are a darker red in winter than in summer. 



Length 10; tail 3vl. ; wing 9 ; tarsus -9 ; bill from gape 1-6. 



Distribution. Temperate parts of Europe, the whole of Africa, 

 Southern Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia. In India, 

 Ceylon, and Burma this is one of the commonest Terns, especially 

 in Northern India, where it is resident and breeds, but many of 

 the birds seen in India in the cold season probably breed farther 

 north. Great numbers make their n sts on the lakes of Kashmir. 



Habits, $c. The Whiskered Tern in India abounds about 

 marshes, tanks, rivers, and paddy fields, it is also found about 

 estuaries in Burma. It breeds not on churs, as Jerdon thought, 

 but amongst rushes or on floating water-plants in large marsh}'- 

 lakes. The nest is large, roughly made of reeds or si raw, and the 

 eggs, usually three in number, measure about 1-51 by 1-09, and are 

 pale olive or greenish, doubly spotted with purplish grey and 

 brown. The eggs have been taken in Kashmir and the N.W. 

 Provinces in the months of June, July, and August. 



1497. Hydrochelidon leucoptera. The White-winged Black Tern. 



Sterna leucoptera, Meisner fy Schinz, Voy. Schweiz, p. 204 (1815). 

 Hydrochelidon leucoptera, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 503 ; Hume, Ibis, 



1870, p. 436 ; id. S. F. vii, p. 445 ; id. Cat. no. 984 bis ; id. S. F. 



viii, p. 495; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 1000 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 420 ; 



Saimders, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 6. 

 Hydrochelidon nigra, apud Jerdon, B. I. in, App. p. 875 ; nee Sterna 



nigra, L. 

 Sterna nigra, apud Holds worth, P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 481. 



Coloration. In winter plumage this Tern is scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from H. hyltrida, except by size. Young individuals 

 of the present species may generally be recognized by th^ir white 

 upper tail-coverts, and adults by their smaller and darker bills. 



In breeding-plumage the whole head and neck, the back and 

 lower parts to the vent, including the wing-lining, are black ; 

 scapulars blackish grey ; tertiaries dark grey ; coverts and quills 

 paler grey (the first two or three primaries generally brownish 

 black), and the smaller coverts on the edge of the wing white ; 

 rump, upper and lower tail-coverts, and tail white. In many 

 birds, probably immature, the tail-feathers are ashy or pearly grey, 

 especially towards the tips. 



