470 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
Then again, some have the entire rump, upper tail coverts 
and tail, pure white; others have the rump, grey, others the 
upper tail coverts also grey, while lastly, some have the entire 
tail, except the outer tail feather, also grey. 
But I am quite unable to group these differences together in 
such wise as to permit of any specific separation, and I must, 
therefore, leave it to some one wiser than myself to decide 
whether our specimens obtained at Cherbaniani are veritable 
minuta or not. 
I measured five specimens, 3 males and 2 females, very care- 
fully. 
The males varied as follows :—Length, 9"°5, 9""2, 8'"6 ; expanse, 
20°-5, 20:5, 19°°6; tail from vent, 2” i, 31, Q" 35; wing, y 10,6779; 
6"°6; ‘tarsus, 0": 68, O'-7, 0"-65 ; bill from gape, 1” 65, 167, E 45} 
The females measur ed: -—Length, 9"°25, 85 5 expanse, 20:0, 
19°-5 ; tail from vent, 2°75, 2-4; wing, 6°45, 6"-5 tarsus, 0”: 67, 
CESK bill from gape, 15, 1"-6 
Tn all, the legs and feet were a dusky olive yellow, or dusky 
olivaceous orange ; the irides, deep brown. 
The bill varied—in one, dusky olive browner at tips of man- 
dibles and base of culmen ; in another, olive orange tipped and 
with basal portion of culmen rich brown ; in another, the whole 
bill was deep brown, slightly tinged with olivaceous about the 
middle portion of the mandibles. 
The only sign of immaturity exhibited by this bird was the 
dusky slaty colour of the lesser wing coverts along the ulna and 
carpal joint. 
989.—Sterna Bergii, Licht. 
I have taken a good deal of trouble with these large Sea 
Terns of late years—see also Stray Fraruers, Vol. I, p. 933 — 
and I am disposed to believe now that, admitting Sterna pele- 
canoides, King, to be distinct, it does not occur anywhere on our 
Indian coasts. I have procured numerous specimens from the 
coasts of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Kurrachee, the 
Laccadives, Madras, the mouths of the Hugli, the Megna and 
Mergui Harbour, and Bopyin at the south of the Tennasserim 
Provinces. One and all appear to me to be referable to the same 
species. The males are generally rather larger birds, and have 
decidedly stouter and stronger bills than the ‘females, but in the 
same sex the bills vary inter se. In some, the ridge of the culmen 
is rounder than in others, as a rule it is very round and obtuse, 
but in one specimen it is distinctly carinated and every inter- 
mediate form occurs. Then again, the angle of the gonys is 
pretty strongly marked in some, while it is almost wanting in 
others. Again in both sexes, some specimens are slightly 
