430 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
768. STERNA SINENSIS. 
THE EASTERN LITTLE TERN. 
Sterna sinensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 608 ; Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876^ p. 662 ; Hume, 
S. F. V. p. 325^ yiii. p. 116 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1019. Sternula minuta 
(Z.), Hume, Nests a^id Eggs, p. 654 (part.) ; Oates, S. F. iii. p. 349 ; Wardlaw 
Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 472. Sterna minuta, apud Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. 
p. 163 ; Hu7ne ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 492. Sternula sinensis, David et Oust. Ois. 
Chine, p. 527. Sterna gouldi, Hmne S. F. v. p. 326 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 314 ; 
Hume, S: F. viii. p. 116, ix. p. 131 Oates, S. F. x. p. 247. 
Description. — Summer plumage. Foreliead, continued back to a point on 
either side to just over the eye, white ; crown, nape, the upper part of the 
hind neck and a streak from the nostril through the eye to the nape deep 
black ; upper plumage pale grey, becoming paler and whitish on the upper 
tail-coverts and tail; first two primaries nearly black, margined on the 
inner web with white ; remaining primaries and secondaries grey, the latter 
tipped with white on the outer webs ; shaft of first primary white, that of 
the second more or less white ; remainder of the plumage white. 
Winter plumage. The crown is white, gradually turning to dusky and 
running into the nape, which remains black ; the black of the nape extend- 
ing to behind the eye ; the band from the nostril to the eye is lost, there 
being merely a dusky spot in front of the eye ; remainder of plumage as in 
summer. 
The young bird has the whole upper plumage, including the wing-coverts, 
tertiaries and tail, beautifully mottled with black and white. 
Iris always brown ; in summer the bill is yellow broadly tipped with 
black, and the legs and feet are orange-yellow ; in winter the bill is dark 
brown, nearly black at tip, and the legs and toes are reddish brown ; claws 
black. 
Length 10 inches, tail 4, wing 7, tarsus -75, bill from gape 1*7; the 
pointed outer tail-feathers are seldom perfect, but when they are so the 
fork of the tail measures rather more than 2 inches. 
S. minuta, the European Little Tern, and S. saundersi, which is found in 
the Malay archipelago and extends sometimes to Ceylon, have the shafts of 
the first three primaries blackish brown. The Little Tern which inhabits the 
greater part of India and the whole of Burmah has been separated by Mr. 
H ume under the name S. gouldi. The differences between this race and 
the true S. sinensis are so minute that I cannot consider the two birds 
worthy of separation ; and Mr. Howard Saunders, who examined the large 
series of these small Terns which I brought from Burmah, assigns the 
whole of them to S. sinensis. Mr. Hume^s latest statement on the subject 
of these small Terns will be found in S, F. ix. p. 131. 
