830 A'ESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



lying iii it, so exposed that you would tliink a slight wind would blow 

 them ofi the nest. Among these, in the proportion of say eight to ten 

 of the Terns, was to be seen the darker nast of the Grebe, with eggs 

 carefully hidden from view. The Terns' nests were very symmetrically 

 built of gi'een gi'ass. They were about 8 inches in diameter on the top, 

 with submerged foundations of about 18 inches, prettily fringed romid 

 with the growing couch grass. Tlie clutches of eggs varied from a dark 

 umber ground with heavy blotches to finely speckled on a light gi'eenish 

 gi'ound." 



Again Mr. Morton writes : " I was out on the bax;k swamps, 26th 

 November, 1893, aiid took a number of clutches of Marsh Terns' eggs — 

 three to each nest. Nest built of long stalks of green water plants, cup- 

 shaped, and just sufficiently large to hold the eggs, placed on a radiated 

 base about 16 to 18 inches across. Nests within a few yards of each 

 other, floating among flowering Limnonfhemiim. Nearly all the eggs 

 were fresh." 



Referring to the Marsh, or Whiskered Tern as it is sometimes called, 

 breeding in oiu- great Indian Empire, Mr. Allan O. Hume gives a pretty 

 picture when he writes : " In the centre of the jheer (lagoon), where the 

 water was deepest, and no rice or rush grew, but where the lake was 

 paved with lotus or lily leaves, a small colony of those birds had estab- 

 lished itself. On the broad leaves of the lotus they had loose, slight 

 nests of rice and rash stems, and in these we found their eggs. Only 

 two nests contained three eggs each, the others two, and one. All the 

 eggs were perfectly fresli. The birds had obviously just begun to lay. 

 There were not less than twelve nor more than twenty couples. We 

 shot one, a female, which we preserved. Whilst the nests were being 

 robbed the birds whirled round and roimd the men's heads continually, 

 emitting their hoarse sa-eaming cry." 



It is a curious fact that in North Africa Canon Ti-istram found a 

 colony of Marsh Terns breeding in the deserted nests of Grebes. 



640. — Gelocheltdon anglica, Montagu. — (608) 

 (r. iniirrotfirxd, Gnuld. 



GULL-BILLED TERN. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., supp., pi. 81. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 25. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Legge : Birds of Ceylon, p. 1014 

 (1880) ; Campbell : Victorian Naturalist (18SS) ; North : Austn. 

 Mus. Cat., p. 355, pi. 17, fig. 2 (1S89) ; Hume — Oates : Nests 

 and Eggs of Indian Birds, vol. iii., p. 314 (i8go). 



Geii(jrnphir,al Distrihutinn. — Australia in general; al>o Malayan 

 Archipelago, Asia, Europe, North Africa, ami America. 



XcKt. — A few pieces of dry herbage or stems of " cane " grass, placed 

 on a small patch of ground, surrounded by water. Ten or twelve nests 

 may bo sometimes found on a patch of about 6 or 8 feet in diameter. 



