300 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



The full complement of eggs is three, and they are laid on the bare 

 ground, after the manner of those of its larger relative ; they are oval 

 in shape, occasionally moderately broad, and are pointed at one end, 

 the texture is fine but glossless. The ground-colour is white, rarely 

 bufly- white, the primary markings, which are as a rule thinly scattered 

 over the whole surface of the shell, are very dark in colour, almost 

 black, there are generally one or two large blotches of this colour, 

 blackish in the centre, but becoming reddish-brown at the edges ; the 

 smaller sjDots, too, are often surrounded by a kind of reddish nimbus, 

 which adds much to the beauty of the egg ; the secondary markings 

 are pale lilac or faint inky -purple, and have the appearance of lying 

 beneath the surface of the shell, but they are few in number and often 

 not very apparent. 



They vary greatly in size, from 2"36 to 1*9 inches in length, and 

 from 1*5 to 1*37 inches in breadth, but the average of a very large 

 series, carefully measured, was 2*15 by 1*44. 



990.6m.— THE SANDWICH TERN. 



Sterna cantiaca, Om. 

 This Tern is not uncommon on the Sind and Mekran Coasts, where 

 it is stated to breed, but I have never seen an egg, neither can I 

 find any description of one, and I only notice it here, in the hope 

 that some one more fortunate may be able to supply the information 

 required. 



992.— THE BROWN-WINGED TERN. 



Sterna ancestheta, Scop. 



The Brown-winged or Panayan Tern is common along the sea-coast, 

 Mr. Hume found thousands of rotten and addled eggs on the 

 Vingorla Rocks when he visited them in February. They had 

 apparently been lying there since the monsoons. Many dead birds, 

 both young and old, enabled him to identify the species to which 

 they belonged. 



Colonel Butler has left on record two or three notes on the breed- 

 ing of these birds near Bushire, which I reproduce : — 



" A few eggs of the Panayan Tern (at least said to belong to this 

 species) were taken for me by some fishermen about the 8th June, 



