STERNA SINENSIS. 
1021 
free from reeds or overgrowth, and the shores of which are grassy or gravelly. On the west coast it ranges 
down to Puttalam, hut is rare south of that place. All the specimens procured at Colombo during the cooi 
season belonged to the next species, and at Galle I likewise never procured it. It is often to be seen some 
distance away from the coast, and frequents the vicinity of the Bass Rocks in great numbers. 
In India its range is scai-cely satisfactorily worked out, as I find that the Little Terns from most localities 
are set down by Mr. Hume as belonging to the next species, and to a form which he styles S. gouldi *, which 
appears to be a local race of the true S. minuta of Europe. The present species no doubt occurs along both 
coasts to the north of the empire; and Mr. Hume speaks of specimens with two dark, white-sliafted primaries 
being shot while breeding on the Ganges, which appear to me to belong to the same form as our bird, in 
spite of the rump being grey ; for to cast aside such a good distinguishing character as the two dark primaries 
with white shafts, on account of a difference in the hue of the rump, does not seem to me expedient, inasmuch 
as it opens the door to the admission of innumerable unsatisfactory races. To the eastward this species 
extends to China, whence it was first described as the Chinese Tern by Latham ; and I have no doubt that it 
will some day be observed on the coasts of Tenasserim and in the Andaman Islands. Swinhoe records it from 
China and Formosa, and he found it breeding on the east coast of the latter. It has not been noticed at the 
Philippines, but it is found in some, and probably will occur in almost all, of the islands of the Malay archi- 
pelago. I have seen it from Celebes ; and in all probability the Ternlet set down by Salvadori as S. minuta 
(Uccelli di Borneo, p. 378), and recorded from Java, Borneo (Banjermassing, Pontianak), Celebes, Timor, and 
New Guinea, belongs to this species, some localities perhaps also relating to the next, S. saundersi. In 
Australia it is found down the coast from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York to New South Wales, 
southward of which it is replaced by the White-lored Ternlet, above noticed. Mr. Ramsay records it from 
the south coast of New Guinea in his catalogue of the birds of Australia; and Mr. Gould has figured it 
from this region, where it is doubtless not uncommon. 
Habits .— This Ternlet, when not breeding, chiefly frequents the open coast and large bays or inlets of the 
sea as well as the mouths of rivers, in which latter it affects the bars where the water is shallow and fish are 
easv to catch. It is also found on salt lagoons near the sea, but not so plentifully as in the localities just 
mentioned. In the interior it is partial to the description of tank or lake above mentioned, and is consequently 
localized to some extent. For instance I saw numbers at the deep open sheet of water, between Minery and 
Pollanaruwa, which is called Girentala; but at Topare tank, which is choked with vegetation and a favourite 
haunt of the" Marsh-Tern, not a single Little Tern was to be seen. It is a bird of strong and swift flight; but 
the beat of its wings is somewhat slow, although powerful and productive of considerable speed. Little flocks 
of half a dozen or more may be seen flying round a particular spot where they have detected an abundance of 
food, each one now and then hovering over the fish with its bill pointed downwards and suddenly dropping 
like a stone upon those who are incautious enough to venture too near the surface. It has a parrot-like 
monosyllabic call, not unlike one of the notes of the Purple-headed Parrakeet, by which peculiar note it may 
always be distinguished from the next species. This it frequently utters when flying at great speed towards its 
breeding-place, when it may often be seen carrying fish in its bill. I have never detected any thing else but 
fish in its stomach ; and 1 think its food principally consists of it, though it may feed to some extent on insects, 
sand- worms, minute shells, &c. It rests on sand banks or on the open beach, and may sometimes be seen seated 
on the little dividing ridges which separate the fish-pools constructed by the natives in the various salt lagoons 
on the east coast. 
Nidification . — This species breeds from June until August, the time in the south of the island being from 
the middle of the former month till the middle of July. At the tanks in the north of Ceylon it lays somewhat 
later although I have seen birds carrying fish to their young in June on the salt lakes in the Trineomalie 
district. The localities chosen are the dry, perfectly level, earthy shores of the leways or salt lagoons of 
Hambantota the sandy flats bordering some of the brackish lakes on the north-east coast, and various gravelly 
or dried-up wastes on the shores of the large tanks in the interior. On the island already alluded to in my 
* Preoccupied by Reich enbach in 1856 for S. fuliginosa. 
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