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Show 1875.] MR. W. V. LEGGE ON THE BIRDS OF CEYLON. 377 part of hind neck white ; lower part, interscapular region, scapulars, and wing-coverts dark olivaceous green, tipped fulvous; back buff, with black velvety bars; tail barred black and buff; tips of quill-feathers white ; forehead and all beneath white ; legs and feet greenish olive, toes above plumbeous. A full-plumaged nestling, shot on the 14th July, had attained a length of 13*22 inches ; wing 8 ; tarsus 4*1; hind toe and claw 1*7 ; bill at front 2*2 : iris salmon-colour, slightly mottled dark ; bill blackish olive, dusky at base of upper mandible, and yellowish beneath; tibia and tarsi brownish yellow, dusky bluish grey at joints ; feet and sides of tarsi brown ; crown and nape brown, fading on the hind neck into light brown, and deepening into blackish brown on the interscapular region and scapulars, where the feathers are edged with buff; primaries as in adult; wing-coverts and tertiaries conspicuously margined with buff. 4. STERNULA SINENSIS, Gmel. Great numbers of this Tern, as identified for m e by Mr. Howard Saunders, breed on the foreshores of the Leways. As far as I am able to judge without examples from other parts of the world for comparison, I procured three races of Sternula on the breeding-grounds. They may be classed as under :- a. With one blackish primary, from 7*25 to 6*9 inches in length, the bill long and not exceeding 1*3; vent and shorter under tail-coverts light iron-grey ; feet clear orange. b. With two blackish primaries, from 7*2 to 6 8 inches in length ; bill slightly shorter than a, not exceeding 1*2, and with the gonys deeper and the under tail-coverts pure white ; feet smaller than a, those of the females dusky orange. c*. With black quills and shafts and finely attenuated bill, dusky orange with black tip, and legs and feet yellowish brown. It seems reasonable to suppose that b is very closely allied to, but a different species from, a, which Mr. Saunders identifies as S. sinensis, although its distinctive characteristics are rather trivial. The note of S. sinensis was a peculiar Palaornis-hke pipe, while that of the other variety was a harsh Tern-like cry. A further reason for the existence of two species would be the great variety in size and character of marking displayed in many of the eggs which I took. The nests were found on the perfectly level earthy-sand foreshore, and consisted of the smallest perceptible hollows, appearing as if they were stamped out by the bird's feet, and containing no foundation or bottom of any other substance than the bare earth. They were as a rule a long distance from the water, and were never closer to each other than 10 or 12 feet, and very seldom as near as this. * A n example of this type, now in the possession of Mr. Howard Saunders, and the only one procured, corresponds mainly with a bird shot at Colombo in December 1869 and identified by Lord Walden as S. minuta, the latter differing in its black bill and brownish red feet. A reddish line seems to be a mark of the winter dress in some Terns, those of Hydrochelidon leucopareia being quite red in winter against reddish black in summer. |