THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 469 
darker ; the inner webs of the primaries, darker ; the first primary 
with a considerable portion of the inner web, white to the mar- 
ein; the other primaries also, with white on the inner web, but 
with a grey band on the margin. 
The second and third tail feathers also a rather darker grey 
on the outer webs towards the points; the rest of the tail 
feathers, inner and outer webs, pretty well concolorous with the 
rump and upper tail coverts ; the chin, throat, and sides of the 
neck, almost pure white, only a few faint dusky grey patches ; 
the breast and abdomen, a dusky bluish grey, with many large 
patches of white ; the lower tail coverts, greyish white; the 
wing lining, white. 
In breeding plumage, according to Heuglin, the upper surface 
is a full bluish grey; the front and sides of the neck, breast, 
and abdomen, a somewhat paler and more purplish grey ; the 
entire upper surface of head and nape, intensely black ; the 
chin and upper part of the throat, the lores, and an oblique 
band beneath the eyes, conspicuously snowy white; the 
beak, coral red, blackish towards the base of the culmen and at 
the tips; the feet, bright coral red. 
988.—-Sternula minuta, Lin. 
We shot eight or ten little Terns, on Cherbaniani reef, but 
observed them in no other part of the group. 
I must humbly confess my inability to separate the little 
Terns into the several species that seem now-a-days accepted 
by many authors.* For instance, I have a Tern from Ceylon, 
which, Captain Legge assures me, was named Sterna sinensis, Gm. 
by Mr. Howard Saunders. I am unable to discover any 
constant points of difference between this specimen and nume- 
rous specimens from various parts of India, Burmah, the 
Laccadives, England and Kurope. Of course the bills vary very 
much in colour, but I take that to be a sign of age or season. 
In the young birds the bills will be brown, a little later they 
will be tinged with olive in the central portion, then the central 
portion will become an olive orange, then, when the bird is 
adult, the bill is sometimes yellow with a conspicuous deep 
brown tip 0:3 in length ; others have it similarily tipped 0-2 
and 0°1 in length, others have a mere brown spot at the extreme 
tips, others are all yellow. 
Then the bills differ very materially in length and shape, 
some are decidedly more slender, others, both deeper and 
broader, some have the angle of the gonys pretty well marked, 
in others, this is not the case. 
* T shall feel greatly indebted to all correspondents who will send me good skins 
carefully sexed and dated, of the little Tern from various parts of India, Burmah, and 
Ceylon. —EbD., S. F. 
