DETAILED LIST OF BIRDS, 
303 
Tristram found a whole colony of them breeding in the de- 
serted nests of the Eared Grebes. 
In size the eggs vary from 1*47 to 1'6 in length and from 
1-1 to 1-15 in breadth. {A. 0. H.] 
986. Sterna fluviatilis9 Naum. 
The Common Tern was very abundant in August in Yar- 
kand, where it doubtless breeds, as a young bird barely able 
to fly was caught (on the 22nd August) about ten miles 
from the city. Other specimens were obtained in July at 
Lukung, near the Pangong Lake, in which neighbourhood also 
it probably breeds, as it is also said to do (though I doubt it) 
in KashmV. [G. H.] 
This is a rare species even in Upper India, and I have 
met with comparatively very few even in the Indus. 
[A. 0. H.] 
988. Sternula minuta (Linn.). 
The Lesser Tern is common in Yarkand, where it is called 
Balakchi." A young bird, apparently just fledged, was 
caught in the neighbourhood of the city of Yarkand, on the 
26th of August, so that the bird must breed there, as indeed 
it does on the sandbanks of every large river in the plains 
of Upper India. [G. i/.] 
The Yarkand specimens agree perfectly with our Indian 
ones, which, however, appear to me to differ slightly from 
the only English specimen I have compared them with. 
In India this species breeds from the middle of March to 
the beginning of May, according to locality, those on the 
south beginning earlier and those in the north later ; but 
whether they are early or late, they always lay later than 
the other species, Seena aurantia. Sterna melanog aster, 
Rhynchops albicollis, and Glareola lactea, all of which 
commonly breed on identically the same sandbanks. It is 
needless to say that the eggs, four in number, are laid in a 
slight depression in the bare sand on some entirely water- 
surrounded bank in a considerably sized river. Normally 
the eggs of this species are long ovals, distinctly pointed at 
