NOTES. 495 



There is no mistaking the male of this species however. The 

 bird is somewhat larger than the Common Teal. The chin and 

 upper half of the tliroat are black, and the whole side of the 

 head is straw or buff-coloured, traversed by a conspicuous black 

 bar, involving' the eye, and running from that with a slight 

 slant, downwards across the cheek. This alone is sufficient to 

 distinguish the adult or nearly adult male from all our other 

 Indian Ducks, except perhaps during that short period when, 

 after the height of the breeding season, it, for a time, assumes 

 a garb more like that of the female. 



The female is very like that of the Common Teal, but I have 

 already fully explained {ante, p. 412) how the female of the 

 present species may be distinguished. 



Many years ago I, for the first time, recorded the occurrence 

 oi Sterna {Hydrochelidon) leucoptera, (Meisn. and Schintz.) in 

 Southern Asia, I having received a fine specimen in full breed- 

 ing plumage from the Megna River, where it was shot near 

 Comilla in Tipperah. 



In the P. Z. S., 1873, Mr. Holds worth recorded having 

 obtained a pair near Aripo in Ceylon. 



But not only does Dresser, in his great work on the Birds of 

 Europe, ignore these facts, but so equally does Howard Saun- 

 ders, in his recent valuable Monograph of the Sternince. Speak- 

 ing of the distribution of the species, he says : — " A straggler 

 to Northern Europe, this Tern becomes abundant in the south 

 and south-east, ranges throughout Siberia and China, and 

 reaches to the Transvaal and Damarland and to Abyssinia, 

 whence I have several specimens, all in immature plumage ; there 

 is, however, little doubt that it breeds there. It has also been 

 obtained in Australia and New Zealand, and is recorded by Dr. 

 E. Cones as having been captured in Wisconsin, U. S., on the 

 5th July 1873, in full breeding plumage.""^ 



To this must now be added not only India and Ceylon, 

 hut also The Andamans, whence Mr. F. A. de RoepstorfF has 

 kindly sent me a specimen procured at Aberdeen on the 16th 

 April 1879 by himself. Later in the season a flock of this 

 same species was seen at Haddo, but none were procured. 



The specimen sent is an interesting one. It is immature, but is 

 advancing rapidly to maturity. The tail and upper tail-coverts 

 are already pure white ; the back is mostly leaden-sooty, two 

 or three of the feathers of the interscapular region black at 

 the tips ; the wing-lining and axillaries, black ; the breast and 

 abdomen greyish white, mingled with pure black feathers, but 

 the forehead, anterior portion of the crown, lores, cheeks, chin, 



63 



