304 LAiiiri.E. 



evidently choosinf; nesting sites. On wading out we found several nests in course of construction, 

 others were finished and contauied one or two eggs, but none a full clutcli. The nests were 

 formed by heaping up the water weed to about three inches above the water level, and were 

 about eight inches to a foot in diameter, with a central egg cavity. On visiting this lal<e again 

 on the 22nd December, we found no new nests of the Marsh-Tern on tliis patch of weed, but at 

 the other end of the lake another large patch had l)een taken possession of by a small party of 

 these Terns; about twelve nests contained three eggs each. In constructing their nests they 

 carry the weed to the nesting site, and inany were seen flying with long trailing pieces in their 

 bills." 



From Broome Hill, South-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote: — "The Marsh Tern 

 {Hydrochdidon hyhrida ) was only observed at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, in the 

 years of 1898 and 1900. In the sumtner of 1898 heavy storins filled with water a large White 

 Gum Hat about twenty miles inland from Point Cloates, and many of these birds were again seen. 

 The same flat was also flooded in April, 1900, and Hocks of some hundreds were seen then, 

 but I could not find that they bred there. A few individuals were seen in July of the same year 

 at a flooded salt marsh south of Point Cloates." 



The eggs are usually three, occasionally only two, and rarely four in number for a sitting, 

 varying in shape from oval to pyriforni, the shell being close-grained and usually slightly lustrous. 

 In ground colour they vary from a bright green to pale olive-brown, but the most usual variety 

 found is of a dull greenish-grey, some specimens being boldly spotted and blotched with penum- 

 bral markings of blackish-brown and umber-brown, particularly on the larger end, where in some 

 instances they become confluent and form a more or less ill-defined zone. Others have freckles 

 and dots of the same colour over the entire surface of the shell, with which are intermingled 

 large underlying blotches of sepia and inky-grey, while some are uniformly and thickly covered 

 with small dots, spots and rounded markings of blackish-brown, umber-brown and inky-grey, 

 the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. A set of three in the Australian 

 Museum Collection, taken by Mr. K. H. Bennett on the 8th November, 1889, on Yandembah 

 Station, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) 1-44 x i-i inches; (B) i*5i x i-i inches; 

 (C) i'5i X I'll inches. An average sized set, taken in the same locality on the loth November, 

 1889, measures : — Length (A) r^j x i-i inches; (B) 1-55 x 1-07 inches; (C) i-^t, x 1-12 

 inches. Another set of three taken in the same locality measures : — Length (A) 1-51 x i-ii 

 inches; (B) f53 x f05 inches; (C) i'48 x foy inches. 



In Eastern Australia the breeding season usually commences about the third week in 

 October, and continues until the end of January. 



<3-erL-U.S <3-EXjOCI3:EIjI3D02>T, Brehm. 

 Gelochelidon rnacrotarsa. 



LONG-LEGGED TERN. 



Gf/ochflidon rnacrotarsa, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 26 ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. IT., 

 p. 403 (186.^) ; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Suppl., pi. 81 (I8G9). 



Geloclididon anylica,? Saunders, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 25 (1896) ; Sliarpe, Hand-1. 

 Bds., Vol. I., p. 134 (1899). 



Adult male, in summer. — Gein'ral colour aliov, inchiding the ii'iHijs, di'licale pearl-grey ; primaries 

 liyht grey, darker on llieir inner webs and tips, their bases broadly margined with white ; mantle, 

 ■upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers pure white ; forehead, crown of the head, nape and occipital crest 



