WITH ADDITIONS, TO THE AVIFAUNA OF THE ISLAND. 377 



in pairs, and as they disappeared almost entirely from the 

 neighbourhood of the Fort a week or two afterwards, I 

 am sure they have some breeding place in the district ; as 

 I was away on a trip into the interior in July I failed to 

 find it, and it is therefore left to the lot of some future 

 worker in Ornithology to make this discovery. I obtained 

 one lovely bird with a pure black bill, which, together with 

 the black head and long pointed velvet-black crest, and whole 

 nuder surface glowing with the most exquisite rose, formed 

 the most beautiful bird-picture I have ever seen. All the other 

 examples I shot had the bill with the apical portion black, 

 changing at the gonys to rich orange on the basal half; the 

 legs and feet very delicate, coral with brownish claws. The 

 largest example measured : Length, 15'8 ; wing, 9 ; tarsus, 8 ; 

 mid toe and claw, "98; bill at front, 1*5 ; lateral rectrices 7*7; 

 depth of fork of tail, 4'4 ; the length from base of bill over- 

 head to tip of black crest in this bird was 3 - 2. The note of 

 this Tern varied, generally, a somewhat musical pipe, but when 

 a pair were together they had a loud and harsh crake. 



? *— Sternula sinensis, Gmelln. (312.) 



I found this little Ternlet breeding on the inland tanks of 

 Minery and Kandelay, at the latter end of July ; I obtained a 

 number of eggs on the same island in Kandelay tank on 

 which the Stilt and Kentish Plover were breeding. A oreat 

 variety of type existed here, as already described in my paper 

 to the Ibis last year, and I found several nests of the same laro-e 

 handsomely blotched eggs referred to therein. I noticed a o-ood 

 number of marsh terns, H. hjbvida, flying near these nests 

 with the Ternlets, and some few were in summer plumage, but 

 as these could not have been the owners of these eggs, they 

 remain still a puzzle to me. 



992.— Sterna t anosthsetus, Scop. (315.) 



Another, hitherto considered, rare Tern which I have found 

 to be tolerably common during the past year. On landing 

 from Australia at Colombo, in August last, I noticed a num- 

 ber of elegant Black Terns sitting on the buoys in the 

 harbour. A week or two afterwards half a dozen examples were 



* I hope Mr. Legge will give us further information in regard to some of the species 

 herein referred to. I do not know which species he refers to as S. sinensis, ftmel. 

 Mr. Hnldsworth treats this as synonymous with S. svmatrana, Raffles, but this I > Jink, 

 is usually considered a synonym of minuta. I somewhat doubt both Sterna gracilis, 

 Gould, and S. paradisea, Brun., (S. DouqaUii, Mont) occurring in Ceylon. Specimens 

 procured at the Andainans were referred by Mr. Saunders to paradisea. I feel a little 

 doubtful whether the Ceylon, Laccadive and Maldive bird is true anosthcetus. — Ed. 



f Mr. Saunders informs me in epist. that the generic term Onyehoprion as applied 

 to this Tern is a misnomer, having been bestowed by the author of the genus on an ex- 

 ample with a claw only apparently pectinated, probably worn in scratching to form its 

 nest. 



