314 LA.BIDYE. 



Distribution. Coasts o? the Indian Ocean, with the Persian Gulf, 

 Bed Sea, and Mediterranean. A common bird locally on the 

 coasts of India and Ceylon, less often seen in Burma. 



Habits, #c. This is another Sea-Tern found often in large flocks, 

 about bays, harbours, shallow banks, and even several miles out 

 at sea, and never met with far inland. Like the other Sea-Terns 

 and unlike the Gulls, it always captures living fish by dashing 

 down on them from some height, and it appears very rarely, it' 

 ever, to settle on the sea. Its eggs have not been found within 

 Indian limits, but it breeds in colonies on sandbanks and low 

 coral islands in the Persian Gulf 'and Bed Sea. The eggs are 

 generally white sparingly spotted. 



1502. Sterna bergii. The Large Crested Tern. 



Sterna bergii, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 80 (1823) ; Hume, S. F. i, 



p. 283 ; ii, p. 50 ; iv, p. 470 ; Sutler, S. F. v, p. 298 ; Hume $ Dtiv. 



S. F. vi, p. 493 ; Hume, Cat. no. 989 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 1026 ; 



Vidal, S. F. ix, p. 95 ; Butler, ibid. p. 441 ; Parker, ibid. p. 490 ; 



Gates, B. B. ii, p. 428 ; id. in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 297 ; 



Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 431 ; id. Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. vi, p. 298, 



fig. 989 : Saunders, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 89. 

 Sterna cristata, Steph. in Skate's Gen. Zool xiii, pt. 1, p. 146 (1825) ; 



nee Swainson. 



Sterna velox, Cretzsc.hm. in Rilpp. Atlas, p. 21, t. 13 (1826). 

 Thalasseus cristatus, Blyth, Cat. p. 291 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 842 ; 



Hume, Ibis, 1870, p. 437. 



The Large Sea-Tern, Jerdon. 



The coloration resembles that of S. media, except that the 

 present species has a white frontal band and broader white lores, 

 that the black only descends to the level of the lower edge of the 

 orbit, that the crest is rather more distinct, and above all that the 

 mantle is much darker at all seasons, being grey with a lilac tinge. 

 In the young the quills are greyish brown with white inner 

 borders, and the upper parts much mixed with brown. 



Bill pale yellow ; irides deep brown ; legs and feet black ; soles 

 yellowish. 



Length 21 ; tail 6'5 to 7'5, depth of fork 3 to 3'5 ; wing 15 ; 

 tarsus 1'25 ; bill from gape 3-6. 



Distribution. The coasts of the Indian Ocean and Polynesia, 

 also the west coast of S. Africa, the Bed Sea, and the China 

 Sea. Abundant on the Makra'n coast and at the Laccadives. and 

 generally distributed, often in considerable numbers, throughout 

 the coasts of India and Ceylon, less common on the Burmese coast. 



Habits, fyc. This large Tern has very similar habits to those of 

 S. media, and is thoroughly marine, often fishing far from the 

 shore. It has been found breeding in Ceylon and, in large 

 numbers, in May and June on the island of Astola, off the 

 Makran coast, where the nests, as described by Butler, are small 

 holes scratched in the sand, several close together, each containing 

 one to three eggs, which are generally pinkish buff varying to 



