!\'ESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



859 



single egg being simply deposited on the bare bark, not even in a fork, 

 aa a nile. Unlike most other Terns, the White one does not breid in 

 colonies, one or two may be found breeding on adjacent trees, or one 

 alone in a valley. 



As the nesting habits of the Wliite Tern are so remarkable and 

 interesting, I give further observations by Dr. P. Metealf, also made 

 on Norfolk Island, as furnished by Dr. W. M. Crowfoot in the " Ibis " 

 (1885) : " It lays its eggs on trees, and here and there one finds two 

 or three trees occupied in the same valley. I have seen eleven trees 

 used in one locality ; but I never saw two eggs on one tree, though 

 I have seen them on adjoining trees. The egg is laid on the bai'e 

 branch, sometimes in a slight depression or against a piece of roughened 

 bark ; one I have seen is in a fork. Generally it lays its egg on an 

 outstanding branch, and balances it in a tiiily wonderful manner. 

 There is not a trace of a nest, and often not even of a depression. 

 One egg only is laid. I have seen it placed on a branch about twenty 

 feet from the ground, and also at a height of sixty feet or more : tliirty 

 or forty feet is, perhaps, the average height at which it lays. The bird 

 always chooses a sheltered situation, generally in a valley, and at a 

 variable distance from the sea, from three hundred yards to eight 

 himdi'ed yards in the cases I have seen. Year after year this bird lays 

 on the same tree, on the same branch, aye, and on the same spot on 

 the branch. There is one tree where I have seen the old bird sitting 

 once last year, and twice tliis yeai-, for I got both eggs. The first I took 

 on the 27tli December, 1883. It was incubated. The second was all 

 but quite fresh on the 25th January, 1884. In four other trees I have 

 found eggs on the same spots as I foimd eggs or young birds last year. 

 These Terns are verj' tame, and in one rase we lifted up the bird to 

 take the egg. It is interesting to watch the careful way in wiiich the 

 old bird gets off her egg when going to fly. The young are very comical- 

 looking little objects. 



" I have found the eggs on three different kinds of trees, viz., 

 white-oak (Lagunaria patersoiiij, the ironwood (Nnfelcea longifnlia), 

 and the bloodwood ( Baloghia hicida). How do the eggs and young 

 birds keep on in windy weather? In November, 1882, I was looking 

 for a specimen to send to you, and seeing one on a tree, I shot it. 

 I was sorry to see, when it fell, that a yoimg one was luider it. 

 However, this year I fovuid another bird sitting on an egg in the same 

 spot." 



