NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. 299 



placed in depressions scratched in the sand ; they are broad ovals 

 in shape, very much pointed towards one end, but variations 

 from the type are not uncommon ; they have no gloss, but the texture 

 of the shell is firm and compact. The ground-colour varies a good 

 deal ; white, greenish-, and pinkish-white, pale yellowish, pale buff, 

 pinkish stone-colour and warm salmon-pink, all occur. 



The markings are also very variable, consisting of specks, spots, 

 streaks, blotches and jagged lines of a deep burnt sienna-brown, in 

 some eggs almost black ; the secondary markings are the usual pale, 

 washed-out underlying clouds and blotches of lilac and faint 

 inky-purple. 



They are usually very handsome eggs. They vary a good deal 

 in size, but not more so than those of most large Terns do. 

 The average of a large number was 2*45 inches in length by about 

 1*7 in breadth. 



Doctor Bartlett, of the Indian Medical Department, sent a fisher- 

 man from Aden to look for eggs in August, the man returned having 

 been to Obok, a French settlement on the Somali Coast, with a 

 great number of eggs of the Large Sea Tern [Sterna bergii) and the 

 Smaller Sea Tern [Sterna media). There were some others, a few of 

 the Sooty Tern [Sterna fuliginosa), and one pair of the White-cheeked 

 Tern [Sterna albigena), and several that I felt doubtful about, as I 

 had no eggs for comparison, having left my collection behind at 

 Saugor, C. P., and it does not do to trust one's memory. He kindly 

 gave me as many of these eggs as I wanted. 



990.— THE SMALLER SEA TERN. 



Sterna media, Mors. 



The Smaller Sea Tern is very common about Karachi harbour, 

 and occurs for some distance along the coast. 



They breed abundantly on the islands at the head of the Persian 

 Gulf. Colonel Butler obtained a large series from the island of 

 Arabe in the Persian Gulf. He does not state the date on which he 

 got them. 



I received eggs from an island of the Somali Coast, and others 

 from an island near the French settlement of Obok in August. 



