THE WHISKERED TERN. 
419 
and with a black margin on the outer web ; the next primary the same^ 
but with no black margin on the outer web ; the other primaries with a 
gradually diminishing amount of white and an increasing quantity of 
black, and the white turning to ashy on the later primaries. 
In ivinter the head becomes white and there is a dusky patch behind the 
ear-coverts. 
Bill^ edges of eyelids and legs deep carmine ; iris deep brown. 
[Dresser.) 
Length about 15 inches^ tail 5^ wing 12 to 13^, tarsus 1*8, bill at 
front 1-8. 
The Laughing Gull^ according to Dr. Jerdon^ occurs in the Bay of 
Bengal and at the mouths of the Ganges and the Hooghley. It must 
consequently at times be found on or near the Burmese coast. 
It is met with over a great portion of Asia_, Africa and Europe, and it is 
a very well-known species in Great Britain. 
Subfamily STERNIN^.. 
Genus HYDEOCHELIDON, Bote, 
758. HYDEOCHELIDON HYBEIDA. 
THE WHISKERED TERN. 
Sterna hybrida, Pall. Zooyr. Ross.-Asiat. ii. p. 338 ; Oates, S. F. iii. p. 348. Sterna 
javanica, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 198. Viralva indica, Stejj/i. in Shawns 
Gen. Zool. xiii. i. p. 169. Hydrochelidon indica, Jei-d. B. Ind. ii. p. 837 ; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 648 ; Hume ^ Henders. Lah. to Yarh. p. 301 ; Bl. B. 
Burm. p. 163. Sterna innotata, Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 404. Hydrochelidon 
hybrida, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 372 ; Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 640 ; Dresser, 
Birds Bur. viii. p. 315, pi.; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 624; Hume, S. F. 
iy. p. 224; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 694; Hume Sf Dav. S. F. vi. p. 491; 
Hume, S. F. vii. p. 445, yiii. p. 115; Legge, Birds Ceglon, p. 996; Oates, S. F. 
X. p. 246. 
Description. — Summer plumage. Forehead, crown^ nape and upper part 
of tlie liind neck black ; a broad band from the bill, passing under the eye 
and down the sides of the neck_, white ; chin, throat and fore neck, com- 
prising the whole space between the white bands, delicate pale grey, deepen- 
ing on the breast and gradually turning to blackish brown on the abdomen 
and sides of the body ; under tail- and wing-coverts white ; upper 
2 E 2 
