432 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
occurrence in Ceylon. It must consequently at times be found near the 
Burmese coast. In fact Mr. Davison states that he thinks he saw this 
Tern in the Mergui archipelago^ and as he knows the bird well he is not 
likely to have been 'mistaken. 
It has a very wide range^ being found in all the intertropical seas o£ the 
globe. 
This Tern is entirely oceanic. Mr. Hume discovered them breeding 
on the Vingorla rocks off the western coast of India, and it has also been 
found nesting in the Red Sea. 
770. STERNA FULIGINOSA. 
THE SOOTY TERN. 
Sterna fuliginosa, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 605 ; Hume, S. F. iv. p. 477 ; Saunders, 
P. Z. S. 1876, p. 666 ; Dresser, Birds JEur. viii. p. 307, pi. ; Penrose, Ibis, 1879, 
p. 277 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 116; Leyge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1037 ; Oates, S. F. x. 
p. 247. Onychoprion fuliginosus, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 373. Haliplana 
fuliginosa, David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 528. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead, produced back on either side 
as a streak extending to just over the middle of the eye^ white; a band 
covering the lores and reaching back to the eye, the crown, nape and hind 
neck black ; remainder of the head and neck and the whole lower plumage 
pure white ; the whole upper plumage brownish sooty ; the primaries 
tinged with grey^ the shafts reddish brown ; outer tail-feathers white except 
the terminal thirds which is brown like the rest of the tail. 
The young bird of the year is sooty brown all over ; the back^ rump^ 
upper tail-coverts_, tail^ scapulars and wing- coverts broadly tipped with 
dull white. 
Iris deep brown ; bill_, legs and feet blackish. 
Length up to 17 inches, tail 7*5_, wing ll'S^ tarsus bill from gape2'4^ 
fork of the tail nearly 3 inches. 
This species bears a close resemblance to the preceding ; but Mr. Howard 
Saunders has pointed out a structural peculiarity in the foot by which the 
two birds may be unhesitatingly identified. In S. ancestheta the webbing 
on the outer side of the middle toe reaches only to the first joint of that 
toe ; in S. fuliginosa the webbing of the same part reaches to the root of 
the claw. \ 
I shot a young specimen of this species in June on the Canal not far 
from the mouth of the Sittang river. ' It has not again been observed in 
Burmah, but it is doubtless not uncommon on the coast. 
