33 
Birds in Southern Ceylon. 
two Sea-Terns which affect our coasts, viz. Sterna bengalensis, 
Lesson, and Sterna bergii, Lichtenstein (or Sterna cristata , 
Stephens, = S.pelecanoides , King, whichever it is), are very nu¬ 
merous, arriving here in November and leaving again about 
the last week in April or first in May, according to the strength 
of the south-west monsoon. These Sea-Terns are numerous 
wherever there are detached rocks some distance from land, 
which they make their head quarters, roosting there during 
the heat of the day when they have gorged themselves with 
fish. There appears to be some doubt what the larger species 
really is. Hume, in c Stray Feathers J (vol. i. p. 283), affirms 
that the bird frequenting the coasts of India, and which he 
met with in Sindh last year, is S. bergii , Lichtenstein, the 
wings of which he gives as varying from 14*2 to 14*8 inches, 
and the bills from 2‘6 to 2*75 inches, and says that Sterna 
cristata (the bird given by Jerdon as the common species 
round India) has a wing of from 13 to less than 14 inches, 
and a bill of from 2 to nearly 2*5 inches, and furthermore has 
the forehead white at all seasons . My specimens have the 
wing 13 and 13*1 inches, and bills barely 2 5 inches—the di¬ 
mensions given for S. cristata, Stephens. It is extremely 
difficult to work the subject out, in the south of Ceylon espe¬ 
cially, on account of the birds leaving before many of them 
acquire any signs of summer plumage. At the end of April 
and the first week in May I have seen the larger Sea-Tern 
with both black and white foreheads; but I was not fortunate 
enough to procure specimens of either, so that I cannot say 
whether they were two species or winter- and summer- 
“ headed” examples of the same. $. caspia does not extend 
to the south of Ceylon : and Gelochelidon anglica, Montagu, 
is not at all common here; it commences on the south-east 
coast and gets more numerous towards the north, where it is 
more abundant than any other species. The Marsh-Tern, Hy - 
drochelidon indica , Stephens, is abundant about paddy-fields, 
and arrives here early in the fall of the year. 
I have once seen a Frigate Bird, which I conclude was 
Attagen minor; they do not appear off these shores except 
when the wind is blowing strong from the west or south-west, 
ser. hi.—vol. iv. x> 
