STERNA MEL AX O G ASTRA. 
1007 
In India it frequents, like the last species, the large rivers, being found, according to Jerdon, on every 
one of them. In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Wenden say that it is common on all the rivers, likewise 
breeding on them ; and the same remark as to its general distribution in Chota Nagpur is made by Mr. Ball, 
who, in his valuable list of the Godaveri-Ganges region, notes it from Bardwan, Manbhum, Lohardugga, 
Sirguja, Sambalpur, and Orissa, while Mr. Hume has it from Raipur. On the Hooghly, Ganges, Jumna, and 
Brahmapootra it is resident and a common species ; and on the streams of Furreedpore it is likewise abun- 
dant all the year round. It extends eastward into Burmah, being very numerous on the Irrawaddy, and 
breeding there in March. Southward, in Tenasserim, it is common on all the inland creeks and laigei riveis 
of the northern half of the province. Captain Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo, and Mr. Davison on the 
Salween and Sittang rivers, and at Kedai-Kcglay, Thatone, and Wimpong ; but it is not recorded from anywhere 
south of Moulmein. Returning now to the north-west of India, we find Mr. Adam recording it from the 
Sambhur Lake in October, where he, however, only procured a single pair, so that it would seem to be a 
straggler to that district ; it does not seem to have been noticed in Guzerat, but on the rivers of Sindh and 
the Punjab Mr. Hume states that he found it excessively common. It has occurred as a straggler during a 
tempest at the island of Reunion. 
Habits .— This elegant little Tern is entirely a freshwater species, seldom frequenting any other localities 
but rivers, except where there are marshes and jheels in riverine districts, when it is found hunting about them, 
after the manner of Marsh-Terns. Its flight is said to be swift ; and if my identifications of it on the wing in 
Ceylon have been correct, I have noticed that it is something like that of the small group ol Terns, S. rninuta, 
& c., to be noticed presently — that is, performed with quick regular beatings of the wings, adroitly turning or 
swerving from side to side as occasion offers. Its note, which it utters when flying round and round over its 
nest, is likened by Captain Burgess to the chirp of a Sparrow. It is a bird of bold disposition ; for I observe 
that Mr. Hume found them resuming their positions near their eggs after having been disturbed, when he had 
only retreated some 30 or 40 yards from them. Its food consists of small fish, larvae, and aquatic insects. 
Nidification . — Like the last species, this little Tern breeds very early in the season, laying as early as the 
second week in March, at which time its eggs have been taken on the Jumna and the Irrawaddy. By the 
beginning of May all eggs are hatched off. No nest is made j but the eggs are merely deposited in shallow 
circular depressions in the sand, sometimes so near the water that they are damp. The eggs are usually three in 
number, never more ; but sometimes two only are laid. They are glossless, and, according to Mr. Hume, are 
of various shades of cream- and buff-colour, marked usually with small specks, streaks, and spots, not thickly 
set, and occasionally with a few large blotches of reddish or purplish brown, under which are hazy spots, clouds, 
and streaks of pale purple. The average size of eleven eggs is given as 1'3 by O' 99 inch. Two specimens 
which I have examined, in the collection of Mr. Howard Saunders, are pale stone-grey and delicate greyish 
white in ground-colour : one is marked with purplish-brown blotches overlying handsome clouds of purplish 
grey, beneath which, again, are faint blots of bluish grey j the other is coloured with small straggly markings 
and specks of red-brown over small blots of purplish grey. They measure ITS by 0'91 and 1‘27 by 0'96 inch. 
