1020 
STERNA SINENSIS. 
blackish border ; quills dark silvery grey, the first two visibly darker than the rest and with whitish shafts ; tail 
pale slate-grey, tipped broadly with tawny yellowish, which is set oil by a black border; beneath white. 
Before the young fly the tawny-yellow coloration is isabelline grey, almost reddish. 
About three weeks older than the above. Wing 6-4 inches, reaching 1‘0 beyond the tail, which is forked to a depth 
of 075. 
Iris brown ; bill brownish yellow, gape and base of lower mandible dingy yellow ; legs and feet dusky yellow, joints 
and sides of the webs brownish. 
Forehead still mouse-grey, the feathers of the crown margined with fulvous, those of the nape slightly tipped with it ; 
a whitish stripe above the black loral spot ; the marginal coloration of the mantle not so tawny, but greyer ; 
wing-coverts bluish grey ; the lesser series dark grey, and the median with the edges fulvous grey ; rump and 
upper tail-coverts pale slaty, the lateral feathers white ; tail-feathers whitish, the central pair slaty grey, the 
lateral pair unmarked, the blackish markings at the tips of the remainder modified into elongated spots. 
By degrees the feathers of the occiput and nape become black, and the forehead and margins of the coronal feathers 
white; the back-feathers are moulted slowly to blue-grey, the colour of the 1st winter, but the tail and wing- 
feathers are retained, as in other species ; and specimens are shot at the end of the year in this mixed plumage. 
The bill is blackish, tinged with yellow then ; the legs and feet dusky yellow'. 
Obs. The colour of the first two primaries varies a little, owing to exposure, which wears off the bloom of the first, 
and gives it a darker appearance than the second (see variety a, P. Z. 8. 1875, p. 377). The bill, though varying 
somewhat in stoutness, has always a more pronounced gonys than the next species. It does not assume its 
normal shape and sharp tips until the bird is about five months old. Chinese specimens before me are slightly 
darker on the back than Ceylonese. A small series varies in measurement as follows : — wing 6-7 to 7'2 inches ; 
bill to gape l - 5 to 17 ; outer tail-feathers in an April specimen, in full breediug-plumage, 2-6 longer than the 
adjacent pair. An example from Celebes measures —wing 7 - 5 inches ; tail 4-5 ; bill to gape P7. 
The Australian Little Tern ( Sterna nereis, Gould) has the bill very straight and highly compressed and the gonys 
very long, the tip blackish ; legs and feet yellow. The lores are W'hite, with mei’ely a black spot in front of the 
eye ; upper surface exceedingly pale ; tail white and deeply forked ; and the primaries silvery grey, with the 
1st quill dark just adjacent to the shaft, which, with those of the others, is pure white. A specimen before me 
measures — wing 6-5 inches ; tail 3'8 ; bill to gape 1'7. 
As the Black-naped Tern, St. melanauchen, is not unlikely to occur in Ceylon, I here subjoin a description from 
Chinese specimens : — 
Adult (China). Wing 8-5 to 9-0 inches ; tail 5 - 5 to 6-0 ; tarsus 0'7 ; middle toe 0-6 ; bill to gape 1-75 to 2-0 ; 
outer tail-feathers 3’5 to 3'8 longer than middle pair. Bill very slender. (Mr. Hume gives the length of 24 
Andaman specimens as 12-9 to 14-5 inches; weight 2-7 to 3-75 oz.) 
Iris brown ; bill blackish ; legs and feet black. 
Head, crown, hind neck, entire under surface with the under wing pure white ; a black band passes from the middle 
of the lores to the eye, widens behind it, and passes in a crescentic shape round the occiput, where it develops 
into a short crest ; back and upper tail-coverts very delicate grey; the wing-coverts slightly darker; the quills 
white, faintly shaded with the palest grey, and with the outer web of the 1st dark grey. In freshly killed 
individuals the under surface is adorned with a beautiful roseate hue. 
Distribution. — The White-shafted Ternlet is a very abundant species on the south-western, eastern, and 
northern coasts of Ceylon, but is chiefly noticeable during the breeding-season, when large numbers congregate 
together in certain localities to rear their young. Whether they, to a great extent, leave the island during the 
cool season, or are so scattered along the whole sea-board that one does not take notice of them, I am not quite 
prepared to say ; but I incline to the former hypothesis, as in some places where they are numerous in the 
breeding-season, they are rarely seen between the months of November and April. In the nesting-time it is 
chiefly found about salt lagoons and backwaters and on contiguous portions of the coast ; in such localities 
it is common from Hambantota to Batticaloa, and from Trincomalie to Jaffna. During my residence at 
Trincomalie I seldom noticed it either on the lagoons about the Fort or in Kottiar Bay until March, after 
which it steadily increased in numbers till May, when the majority disappeared for their breeding-grounds on 
the shores of salt lakes. It extends inland at this season, and breeds in considerable numbers at large tanks, 
such as Kanthelai, Minery, Girentala, and other sheets of water w'hich are deep, well supplied with fish, and 
