282 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, Sfd. 



down to the sea, as I saw specimens even in Kurracliee Harbour. 

 Outside the Harhoui', however^ I missed it entirely, and never 

 once saw it in the Gulf of Oman. In all the larg-e broads of 

 Siudh (as we should call them, or dhunds as they are locally 

 designated) this tern abounds beyond measure. 



In the winter plumag-e this bird entirely loses the black of 

 the head, retaining- only a dark line round the eye and a 

 dusky blackish tint on the ' ear coverts. The bill, too, at this 

 .season is tipped dusky. It is however rare to obtain specimens 

 in this stage ; the change does not begin till after the 1st of 

 December, in fact I have obtained specimens in the full breeding 

 plumage as late as the 15th of December, and by the 1st of 

 February, or at latest by the 15th^ the full plumage is again 

 assumed. 



Adams, I observe, states that Sterna hirundo* L., is common 

 on the Indus and the rivers of the Punjab. I have made 

 two trips down the Jhelum before, and I this year worked the 

 Jhelum from Jhelum to the Chenab, the Chenab to the Indus, 

 and the Indus to Sukkur, and again from Sehwan to Hyderabad. 

 We had sometimes four guns out ; we onlj'' travelled by day 

 and we worked not only the main stream, but all the more 

 important side channels. On no occasion did we even see a 

 specimen of the common tern, easily distinguishable at a con- 

 siderable distance with binoculars, by the color and tbe shape 

 of the bill, from 8. adirantia, the only bird with which we 

 could have confounded it, and this although we were spe- 

 cially on the look-out for it. During more than twenty years 

 that I have been shooting in India, I have never met with 

 a single specimen, though from my childhood upwards, I have 

 been thoroughly familiar with it. The only specimens that I 

 have ever seen were those brought from Yarkand and the head of 

 the Pangong Lake by Dr. Henderson, and a single specimen said 

 to have been obtained in Cashmere. I may have been singular- 

 ly unfortunate, but my conviction is that it is almost unknown 

 out of the Himalayas and that even there, the localities in which 

 it occurs are high up and few and far between. 



987. — Sterna javanica, Horsf.—S. melanogastra, 



Temm. 

 Mr. Gould says, that Sterna javanica, Horsf., is not identical 



* I presume 5. ^«/.«iaZz7J*, Naum., the cowimojj tern, and not S. hirundo, L., 

 the arctic tern is meant. The former (in the adult) has the tip of the bill 

 blackish, a tarsus of '7, and wings reaching beyond the tip of the tail. The 

 latter has the bill entirely red, the tarsus only 0'55, and a tail extending beyond 

 the wings. In the young the difference in the size of the tarsus has chiefly to be 

 relied on. The above diagnosis I take from Mr. Sharpe. 



