8c;o NESTS A.VD LOGS OF ACSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Macgillivray wrote : " This beautiful bird is very local in its 

 breeding places, the only one Imown to me being one of the ' three 

 sandbanks' near Sir Charles Hardy's Islands. The eggs are two in 

 number, deposited in a slight hollow in the sand. I have seen this bird 

 on another neighbouring sandbank, also on Solitary Island, near Cape 

 York, and in Endeavour Strait, but was unable to procure a specimen 

 from any of the last-mentioned locahties on account of its excessive 

 shyness. It is one of the most noisy of the Terns, and I generally saw 

 it in small parties of half-a-dozen or thereabouts. The fully-fledged 

 young of the year differs from the adult in having the black on the head 

 dark-brovra, mottled with white, and tlie whole of the upper surface 

 and wings variegated vpith dark brownish-grey." 



The eggs I possess of the Black-naped Tern are a beautiful and 

 softly-coloiu-ed pair, collected 1898 by my old fi-icnd and field natiu-alist 

 Ml-. Ed. M. Cornwall, at Dunk Island, Rockingham Bay, North Queens- 

 land. The birds commenced to lay about the end of October and the 

 beginning of November, the eggs being deposited on the bare sand 

 just above high-water mark. Mr. Cornwall intended to make further 

 observations on the nidification of this pretty Tern had he been able 

 to remain on that verdure-clad islet. 



According to Mr. Allan Hume, who obtained his information from 

 Captain Wimberley, the Black-napcd Tern breeds on the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Islands, where it generally lays between the middle of May 

 and the first week in August. Rocky islets a little detached from the 

 main island, and but for scanty scrub entirely bare, seem to be chosen 

 for nesting places, the bird laying its eggs either upon a little collection 

 of small lumps of coral and stone on the bare rock or in a little 

 depression in the sand. 



651. — Procelsterna cinerea, Gould. — (616) 

 GREY NODDY. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii.. pi. 37. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. x.xv., p. 135. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia, Hand- 

 book, vol. ii., p. ^121 (1865); Crowfoot (Metcalfe) : Ibis. p. 265 

 (1885) ; North : Austn. Mus. Cat., app., pi. 21, fig. 6 (1889). 



Oeoyra'phical Distribution. — -Seas of Northern TerritoiT, Queensland 

 (probably), and New South Wales ; also Lord Howe, Norfolk, and neigh- 

 bom'ing islands, Kermadec Group, lac. 



Nest. — A bare spot on a. rock or floor of the ledge of a cliff. Some- 

 times traces of a nest are indicated by bones, bits of hei-bage, &c. 



Ef/c/s. — Clutch, one; oval in shape, or elliptically inclined; textvu'e 

 of shell somewhat fine and thin ; surface without gloss ; coloiu", stony- 

 white, moderately marked with small blot<'tu>s and spots of umber 

 or reddish-brown, and, chiefly, dull purplish-grey. Dimensions of 

 selected examples- (11 1-7''>v-1-9 l'^\ 1-69 x MS. (S'* l-G'ixl'SS, 

 (4) 1-67 X 1-15, (5) 1-67 X 1-2. 



