Sterna cantiaca, Gm.
990bis. :- Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 321.
Length, 17.5 to 18; wing, 11.5 to 12.5; tail, 6 to 6.2; bill at front, 2 to 2.4.
Bill black, tipped yellowish-white ; irides brown ; legs and feet black.
Forehead, crown, back of neck, and nape, occipital crest and ear-coverts, glossy black; sides of the face, chin, throat, neck in front and behind, breast and entire lower parts, white, tinged with rosy; mantle and wings pale silvery-grey; the first primary is slightly darker than the rest, with more than half of the inner webs near the shaft white ; the next two or three paler, also the succeeding ones, till they shade away into the color of the wing-coverts; their inner webs greyish-white or white; under wing-coverts white; tail forked, white ; the external feathers on each side slightly greyish on their outer webs ; upper tail-coverts white.
In winter plumage the whole of the head is white or mottled with white and black, and there is a crescentic narrow black spot in front of the eye; mantle and wings as in the summer plumage.
This Tern is common in the Kurrachee Harbour and on the Sind and Mekran Coasts. It breeds in the Persian Gulf.
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