STEENA MELANOGASTRA. 



(THE BLACK-BELLIED RIVER-TERN.) 



Sterna melanogaster, Temm. PL Col. v. pi. 434 (1838); Gould, B. of Asia, pt. 19 (1867); 



Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 481 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 4'07. 

 Sterna javanica, Horsf. apud Blyth, Gat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 292 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 271 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 840 (1805) ; Hume, Str. 



Feath. 1873, p. 282; id. Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 652 (1875). 

 Sterna melanogastra, Temm., Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 645 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1878, 



p. 492 (B. of Tenass.), et 1879, p. 116 (List Ind. Birds). 



Adult. (India) Wing 8-5 inches ; tail 5*8, outer feathers 3'4 longer than middle pair; tarsus 0-42; middle toe Oo ; 

 bill at front 1-45. (Futtehgurh) Wing 8-2 ; tail 5-8 ; tarsus 0-6 ; middle toe 0-5 ; bill at front 1-5; length 12 

 inches. (Jerdon.) 



Summer plumage. Iris brown ; bill orange-yellow ; legs and feet pale clear yellow. 



(Futtehgurh). Forehead, head, and nape black ; lores almost all white, the black colour only occupying the space just 

 in front of the eye; neck, back, and wings bluish grey ; upper tail-coverts and tail paler bluish grey ; outer web 

 of the 1st primary and tips of the remainder dark grey, the outer webs of the remainder silvery greyish white; 

 shafts white ; face and throat white, passing into delicate grey on the chest, and thence gradually on the breast 

 into the uniform black of the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts ; flanks and axillaries pale blue-grey ; under wing 

 white. 



Winter plumage (India). Bill yellow, tip blackish ; legs and feet yellow. 



Back and wings grey, paler than in summer ; lores and forehead white : head and nape grey, striated with black, which 



behind the eyes becomes confluent and forms a patch. 

 The winter plumage is assumed, according to Mr. Hume, as late as the middle of December, as in the case of its larger 



relative, S. seena, and is doffed again in February and March. 

 I have been unable to examine a nestling of this Tern ; nor am I acquainted with the immature plumage, which is, 



however, probably tipped above, as in other species, with brown and fulvous. 

 In both this species and S. seena the bird of the second year is probably characterized by the usual dark feathers above 



the ulna. 



Obs. Data as to size and weight are given by Mr. Cripps, in his ' List of the Birds of Furreedpore,' as follows : — 

 "Male. Length 12-7 inches ; expanse 25"0 ; wing 8 - 75 ; tail from vent 5"5 ; tarsus 058 : weight 2'5 oz. Iris 

 brown ; bill bright orange-yellow ; legs dark orange-yellow." 



Distribution. — This handsome little Tern, which is a very rare species, was never procured by me 

 in Ceylon; and though I identified, in my paper "On the Birds of the South-eastern Subdivision of Ceylon" 

 (' Ibis/ 1875), a species seen there with it, I am now pretty sure that I was mistaken, and that many, if not 

 all, the dark-bellied birds I saw in the hot season were nothing but the Marsh-Tern, and those I met with in 

 winter plumage and thought to be it were the Asiatic Little Tern, S. sinensis. Mr. Holdsworth writes that he 

 has frequently seen it near Aripu, and occasionally at Colombo; but he informs me that he never procured it, 

 and I am under the impression that many examples taken by him for it were the Marsh-Tern in summer 

 plumage. Layard's remark concerning it is : — " S. javanica is common even on the lakes at Anaradhapura." 

 This evidently applies to the Marsh-Tern, for though the present species is found straying about jheels and 

 tanks in India, it is when they are in proximity to the large sandy-shored rivers on which it passes the most of 

 its time : there are, however, none such in Ceylon ; and I am convinced that such a small island, devoid of these 

 rivers, is wholly unsuited to the habits of both this and the Larger River-Tern ; but at the same time I am 

 ready to admit that both may be occasional visitants to the island. 



