STERNA SEENA. 
(THE INDIAN RIVER-TERN.) 
Sterna seena, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1834, p. 171; Saunders, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 645 ; Hume, Nests 
and Eggs, iii. p. 650 (1875); id. Str. Feath. 1878, p. 492 (B. of Tenass.), et 1879, 
p. 116 (List of Ind. B.). 
Sterna aurantia, Gray & Ilardw. 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. 69. fig. 2 (1832) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 
1873, p. 281. 
Sterna Irevirostris , Gray & Hardw. t. c. fig. 1 (1832). 
Seena aurantia (Hardw.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 291 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. 
Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 271; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 838 (1864); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 480. 
The Large River-Tern, Jerdon; SyJces's Tern of some. 
Adult female (Tcnasserim). Length 16-75 inches; wing 10-9; tail 7' 75 ; tarsus 0 - 85; bill to gape 2-38, at front 
I- 55. 
Male (Godaveri). Wing 11-0 inches ; tail 6-9, depth of fork 4-8 ; tarsus 08 ; bill at front 1-6. — “ India,” sex ? Wing 
II- 0 ; tail 6-8 ; tarsus 0-85 ; middle toe and claw 0-75 ; bill to gape 2-5. 
The bill is stout and curved throughout in this species, resembling that of the Caspian Tern ; lateral tail-feathers highly 
attenuated in the breeding-season. 
Breeding-plumage . Iris brown ; bill fine orange ; legs and feet bright orange-red. 
Female (Tenasserim). Head and nape intense black, with a greenish lustre, including the entire forehead and lores to 
the gape, and thence under the eye to above the ear-coverts ; beneath the eye a white spot ; hind neck, back, 
scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials dark slate, paling on the rump and upper tail-coverts and central tail-feathers 
into bluish slate ; three lateral pair of feathers white, tinged with grey ; secondaries slate-grey ; primaries grey 
on the inner webs, and “ frosted ” white on the outer, the coverts the same ; chin round the gape and ear-coverts 
white, darkening imperceptibly on the fore neck, entire under surface, axillaries, and under wing into delicate grey, 
most pronounced on the lower breast ; under tail-coverts white. Some examples are paler above than the one here 
noticed. 
Winter plumage. Bill yellow, “dusky brown at the tip for half an inch” ( Butler ); legs and feet not so bright as in 
summer. 
Eorehead whitish, passing into grey on the head and occiput; round the eye a dark border, most prominent in front ; 
“ ear-coverts dusky blackish ” {Hume). The black head is said by Mr. Hume to be worn until December ; and 
as the bird breeds in March, the winter plumage must be doffed very shortly after it is assumed. In a specimen 
before me changing to breeding-dress, the new black feathers of the head are intermingled with those of winter, 
which are very plainly dark grey. 
Young. Although this bird is so common in India, I have been unable to detect a specimen of the nestling in down in 
any collection in England. 
The immature bird is figured by Hardwicke (1. c.), from whose plate I take the following description : — 
Bill yellow, tipped with black ; iris dark brown ; legs and feet yellow. 
Head fulvous brown, with blackish strife ; ear-coverts and beneath and in front of the eye blackish ; above slate- 
grey, the feathers of the hind neck and back tipped with blackish ; the wing-coverts, scapulars, and tertials tipped 
and edged with buff, bordered internally with blackish ; upper tail-eoverts edged with dark grey. 
Captain Beavan (Ibis, 1868, p. 403) says that the edgings to the feathers of the upper part are dark and wavy. 
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