STERNA SINENSIS. 1021 



free from reeds or overgrowth, and the shores of which are grassy or gravelly. On the west coast it ranges 

 down to Puttalam, but is rare south of that place. All the specimens procured at Colombo during the cool 

 season belonged to the next species, and at Galle I likewise never procured it. It is often to be seen some 

 distance away from the coast, and frequents the vicinity of the Bass Rocks in great numbers. 



In India its range is scarcely satisfactorily worked out, as I find that the Little Terns from most localities 

 are set down by Mr. Hume as belonging to the next species, and to a form which he styles S. goiddi*, which 

 appears to be a local race of the true S. minuta of Europe. The present species no doubt occurs along both 

 coasts to the north of the empire ; and Mr. Hume speaks of specimens with two dark, white-shafted primaries 

 being shot while breeding on the Ganges, which appear to me to belong to the same form as our bird, in 

 spite of the rump being grey ; for to cast aside such a good distinguishing character as the two dark primaries 

 with white shafts, on account of a difference in the hue of the rump, does not seem to me expedient, inasmuch 

 as it opens the door to the admission of innumerable unsatisfactory races. To the eastward this species 

 extends to China, whence it was first described as the Chinese Tern by Latham ; and I have no doubt that it 

 will some day be observed on the coasts of Tenasserim and in the Andaman Islands. Swinhoe records it from 

 China and Formosa, and he found it breeding on the east coast of the latter. It has not been noticed at the 

 Philippines, but it is found in some, and probably will occur in almost all, of the islands of the Malay archi- 

 pelago. I have seen it from Celebes ; and in all probability the Ternlet set down by Salvadori as S. minuta 

 (Uccelli di Borneo, p. 378), and recorded from Java, Borneo (Banjermassing, Pontianak), Celebes, Timor, and 

 New Guinea, belongs to this srjecies, some localities perhaps also relating to the next, S. saundersi. In 

 Australia it is found down the coast from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York to New South Wales, 

 southward of which it is replaced by the White-lored Ternlet, above noticed. Mr. Ramsay records it from 

 the south coast of New Guinea in his catalogue of the birds of Australia; and Mr. Gould has figured it 

 from this region, where it is doubtless not uncommon. 



Habits. — This Ternlet, when not breeding, chiefly frequents the open coast and large bays or inlets of the 

 sea, as well as the mouths of rivers, in which latter it affects the bars where the water is shallow and fish are 

 easy to catch. It is also found on salt lagoons near the sea, but not so plentifully as in the localities just 

 mentioned. In the interior it is partial to the description of tank or lake above mentioned, and is consequently 

 localized to some extent. For instance I saw numbers at the deep open sheet of water, between Minery and 

 Pollanaruwa, which is called Girentala ; but at Topare tank, which is choked with vegetation and a favourite 

 haunt of the Marsh-Tern, not a single Little Tern was to be seen. It is a bird of strong and swift flight ; but 

 the beat of its wings is somewhat slow, although powerful and productive of considerable speed. Little flocks 

 of half a dozen or more may be seen flying round a particular spot where they have detected an abundance of 

 food, each one now and then hovering over the fish with its bill pointed downwards and suddenly dropping 

 like a stone upon those who are incautious enough to venture too near the surface. It has a parrot-like 

 monosyllabic call, not unlike one of the notes of the Purple-headed Parrakeet, by which peculiar note it may 

 always be distinguished from the next species. This it frequently utters when flying at great speed towards its 

 breeding-place, when it may often be seen carrying fish in its bill. I have never detected any thing else but 

 fish in its stomach ; and I think its food principally consists of it, though it may feed to some extent on insects, 

 sand-worms, minute shells, &c. It rests on sand banks or on the open beach, and may sometimes be seen seated 

 on the little dividing ridges "which separate the fish-pools constructed by the natives in the various salt lagoons 

 on the east coast. 



Nidification. — This species breeds from June until August, the time in the south of tiny island being from 

 the middle of the former month till the middle of July. At the tanks in the north of Ceylon it lays somewhat 

 later, although I have seen birds carrying fish to their young in June on the salt lakes in the Trincomalie 

 district. The localities chosen are the dry, perfectly level, earthy shores of the leways or salt lagoons of 

 Hambantota, the sandy flats bordering some of the brackish lakes on the north-east coast, and various gravelly 

 or dried-up wastes on the shores of the large tanks in the interior. On the island already alluded to in my 



Preoccupied by Reichenbach in 1856 for 8. fuliginosa. 



0p2 



