302 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



992&IS.—THE SOOTY TEEN. 



Sterna fuUginosa, Gml. 



I am indebted to Mr. Gumming for an egg of the Sooty Tern. It 

 was taken on an island at the head of the Persian Gulf, but I am not 

 in a position to give the particulars. I have also seen a couple of 

 eggs that were taken from an island on the Somali Coast. 



Having but a single egg, I cannot do better than quote Mr. 

 Hume's description : — 



" The eggs of this species are very variable, both in size, colour, and 

 markings. Typically, they are moderately elongated, rather regular 

 ovals, somewhat pointed, as a rule, towards the smaller end, but some 

 are of the ordinary hen-egg shape, and a few are markedly elongate. 



The shell is very fine and compact, but has no gloss. The ground- 

 colour varies from white to pinky-white, and from this latter to a 

 yellowish-pinkish stone-colour. The primary markings consist of 

 large blotches, spots, streaks and specks of a very rich brown, which 

 on the pinkish eggs is often decidedly red, and on the rest is a sienna- 

 brown (burnt or raw). The secondary markings, which look more 

 or less as if they were beneath the shell, consist of spots and blotches 

 of pale purple-lilac, purplish -brown or grey, the shade varying in 

 different specimens. 



The extent and character of the markings vary much. In some 

 eggs all the markings are small and spotty, in others the majority 

 are large and bold ; in some they are scattered evenly over the whole 

 egg, in the majority they are most numerous about the large end ; 

 in some the markings are pretty densely set, in others they are very 

 sparse. 



In length the 23 eggs I was able to preserve varied from 1-86 to 

 2-03, and the breadth from 1-26 to 1'45, but the average of the lot is 

 1-96 nearly by 1-34." Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, 2nd Edn. } 

 Vol. III., p. 303. 



995.-THE SCISSOR BILL. 

 The Indian Skimmer. 



Rhijnc/iops albicollis, Swains. 

 ^ The Scissor Bill is very common on the Indus, and I once saw one, 

 just before the monsoons, skimming over the lake at Jeerun, about 



