STEENA CASPIA. 



(THE CASPIAN TERN.) 



Sterna caspia, Pall. Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. p. 582 (1769) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 280 ; 



Yon Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1434 (1873) ; Degge, Ibis, 1874, p. 3; Saunders, 



P. Z. S. 1876, p. 656; Dresser, B. of Eur. pt. 59, 60 (1877); Hume, Str. Feath. 1879, 



p. 115 (List of Ind. B.). 

 Sterna tsc/iegrava, Lepechin, Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. p. 500 (1769). 

 Sylochelidm caspia (Pall.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 290 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, 



Cat. p. 137 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 270 ; Jerdon, B. of 



Ind. iii. p. 835 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 480 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 407 ; David & 



Oust. Ois. de la Chine, p. 522 (1877). 

 Sylochelidon strenuus, Gould, P. Z. S. 1846, p. 21 ; id. B. of Austr. vii. pi. 22 (1848). 

 The Largest Tern, Jerdon ; Baub-Meerschivalbe, German ; Reus Zeezwaluw, Dutch. Keykra, 



Sindh (Hume). 

 Liniya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male and female (Ceylon). Length 19-2 to 20-5 inches ; wing 15-3 to 15 - 75, reaching to 2 - 5 beyond the tail ; 

 tail 5-0 to 5-8; tarsus 1-7 to 2'0 ; middle toe and claw 1-6 to 1-8 ; bill to gape 3'6 to 3-75 : weight l|lb. The 

 tail is not deeply forked in this species, the outer tail-feathers not much exceeding the adjacent pair. 



Summer plumage. Iris dark brown : bill coral-red, dark brown close to the tip in some ; the extreme tip yellowish ; 

 inside of the mouth orange-red ; legs and feet black. The bill in this species is very stout and slightly curved. 



Forehead and most of lores, crown, and nape glossy black, passing underneath the eye and above the ear-coverts ; hind 

 neck and all the lower plumage, with the axillaries and under wing, pure white ; back and wings very pale grey, 

 paling almost to white on the upper tail-coverts and tail ; primaries blackish grey, the outer webs entirely 

 " frosted " with silvery white ; secondaries grey, with the edges of the inner webs white. 



Winter plumage (Ceylon). Bill not so bright as in summer, with the terminal portion dusky; feathers of the top of 

 the head and nape black in the centre and white at. the edges, leaving on the forehead a black mesial line only ; 

 upper part of the cheeks and the ear-coverts black ; lack darker grey than in summer, and the tail-feathers not so 

 pointed as in summer. The plumage of the head varies, being in some birds blacker than in others, the forehead 

 and lores in the latter being almost white. The black head-dress is put on in Ceylon early in March ; about the 

 10th of that month I noticed that about one third of all the examples I met with at Jaffna were iu the summer 

 plumage. It is noteworthy that the ear-coverts in this species are black in winter and white in summer. 



Nestling in down. Above white, tinged with buff; the down in most places dark-tipped; the scapulars with large 

 spots of brown near the tips of the feathers ; quills, which are just appearing, slaty, tipped with white; ear-coverts 

 blackish. No conspicuous markings anywhere. 



In first autumn plumage the scapulars and tertials and back-feathers are edged with pale fulvescent, with a dark cross 

 bar ; head much as in winter plumage, but the edgings dusky whitish ; bill more tipped with black than in the 

 adult in winter. A bird of the second year in my collection, dated November, has the feathers above the ulna 

 dark grey, and the greater wing-coverts tinged with brownish ; tail-feathers brownish grey. 



Ola. A series which I have examined from S.E. Europe measure — wing 15-2 to 16 - inches ; tail 5-8 to 6-2; tarsus 

 1-7 : bill to gape 3-0 to 3 - 7. Mr. Oates records the dimensions of a pair of male Burmese specimens as — length 

 20-0 to 20-2 inches ; expanse 49'5 ; tail 5-4 to 5*5 ; wing 15 - 4 to 15-9 ; tarsus 1-68 to 1-78 ; bill from gape 3*7 

 to 3'85. In Europe the black head is doffed at the latter end of August. A specimen from the Dobrudscha, in 

 Mr. Dresser's collection, shot on the 26th of that month, is begimiing to acquire the winter dress. Gould separated 

 the Australian bird on account of its alleged greater size and more massive form ; but European specimens are 

 quite as large as these southern birds. 



