Seena Tern. 



Sterna Seena, Sykes, Proc. Comm. Sci. & Corr. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 171. 



The specimen from which the accompanying figure was taken, has been most obligingly lent 

 me by Col. Sykes, from his own collection, and from whose account of the species the following 

 observations have been compiled : — 



This species differs from Sterna qffinis, of Ruppell, tab. 14. p. 23, in its smaller size, and 

 having red instead of black legs ; in the white not being so brilliant, and in a stronger bill. 

 Ruppell's Sterna velox appears to correspond in size with it. Proportionably to the shortness of 

 the legs, the claws are long, much arched, slender and sharp, and turned outwards. Hind claw 

 never touches the ground. Fish found in the stomach. In the stomach and (Esophagus of one 

 bird were found the extraordinary number of thirteen Cyprini, one of them two and a half inches 

 long. Tail very much forked ; lateral tail-feathers subulate, white, eight inches long. Wings very 

 narrow and long, reaching nearly to the end of the tail. Although the wings are so long, the flight 

 is slow, and with a good deal of flapping. Take their prey while on the wing, by darting obliquely 

 upon it. Do not dip under water, nor dart perpendicularly like Alcedo rudis. This species 

 Col. Sykes shot one hundred and sixty miles inland, and at an elevation of eighteen hundred feet 

 above the sea. Gregarious. Rare in Dukhun. 



Total length, seventeen inches. 



