858 A'ESTS AXD EGGS OF AVSTRAUAN BIRDS. 



Pacific in general, Malayan Archipelago, Bay of Bengal, Madagascar, 

 St. Helena, Ascension, Martin Vas Islets, Trinidad, and Fernando 

 Noronha. 



Xest. — None, merely the bare horizontal Umb of a tree, and, accord- 

 ing to Saunders, a point of a coral reef. 



Eggs. — Clutch, one ; almost a true ellipse in shape ; texture of 

 shell comparatively fine ; siu'face slightly glossy ; colour, vanes from 

 stone-grey to stone-yellow, blotched and curiously streaked with umber 

 and puiplish-grey, also with some dark (nearly black) linear markings 

 on or about the apex. One singularly beautiful specimen is almost 

 completely clouded witli purplish-grey, over which are interlacing streaks 

 of umber, somewhat after the fashion of the eggs of Bower Birds 

 (Ghlamijduderce). Dimensions in inches (1) 1'84 x r32, (2) 1'78 x 1-\V2, 

 (3) 1-75 X 1-35, (4) 1-75 x 1-3, (5) 1-74 x 1-32, (6) 1-74 x 1-29. (Plate 25.) 



Observations. — Tins lovely snow-white Tern, with plumage strikingly 

 contrasted by dark bill and eyes, enjoys a somewhat scattered range of 

 habitat. In Australia it has been observed chiefly in the seas of the 

 northern and eastern coasts. 



The late Mr. Cuning informed Gould that on his visiting EUzabeth 

 Islands, in the Pacific, he found this, or an allied species,* breeding on 

 a species of pandanus, its single egg being deposited on the horizontal 

 branches in a depression, which although slight, was sufficient to retain 

 it in position despite the high wind and the consequent oscillations to 

 which it was subjected. Mr. Cuning added that the old birds were 

 flying about in thousands, like swanns of bees, and that he noticed 

 several breeding on the same tree ; some of the young birds wore 

 hatched and covered with down, and being within reach, he took a few 

 of them in his hand, and after examining replaced them on their 

 dangerous resting-place, from which it appeared they occasionally fell 

 down and were destroyed, for he observed several lying dead on the 

 ground. 



Referring to this species, Mr. Saiuidcrs writes (P. Z. S., p. 669, 

 1876) : " The nesting of the Gygis is peculiar, the single egg of clay- 

 white, mottled with brown, being placed on a cavity of the branch of 

 a tree or in a fork of two branches, and on the points of the coral reefs, 

 anywhei-e, in fact, where it will lie." 



Again I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. F. M. Nobbs, 

 of Norfolk Island, for a series of ten handsome eggs of this rare and 

 beautiful Tern, gathered on his salubi'ious island. Mr. Nobbs is well 

 qualified to give a description of the breeding habits of this Tern (as 

 well as other local sca-bu-ds), being acquainted with it not only on 

 Norfolk Island, but on that historic island, Pitcairn — his birthplace, — 

 where the Tern nests on banyan trees. 



The White Tern breeds on Norfolk Island in November, in trees, 

 chiefly in valleys, at a height of about from twenty to si.xty feet ; the 



■ Probably G. miti'orlivitii, Saunders. 



