323 



states it was found breeding by Gilbert in November, and further adds : — - " Mr. MacGiliivray 

 informs nie that he first met with it on Solitary Island, near Cape Vorl< ; subsequently it was 

 found on Kaine Islet by the late Commander Ince, K.N., and by himself on Bramble Cay, in 

 'I orres Strait, where it was breedinf,' in small numbers, and where it deposits its single egg in 

 the holes of the loose friable coral sandstone; and it was here, while turning over the shells of 

 dead turtles, which had been apparently arranged by the natives who occasionally visit the place, 

 that he was surprised to find beneath them se\-eral of these pretty Terns sitting on their eggs 



without any nest." 



Nowhere in Australia does 

 it seem to be more abundantly 

 distributed than the islands 

 of Torres Strait and those 

 between the Great Barrier 

 Keef and the coast of North- 

 eastern Queensland, where it 

 has been found breeding on 

 many occasions. In the "Cata- 

 logue of Birds in the British 

 Museum," Mr. Howard Saun- 

 ders records its ultra-Austra- 

 lian range as follows: — " The 

 Gulf of Mexico and West 

 Indies, West Africa, Lower 

 Red Sea, East Africa, Mada- 

 f^ascarandMascarene Islands, 

 and Indian (^cean generally; 

 the Moluccas and China Seas 

 up to Japan, Pelew Islands, 

 Sic, New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, 

 lillice and Phrenix Groups." 

 According, too, to I\Ir. Saun- 

 tlers, full plumage is not 

 attained until the bird is at 

 least two years old, and the 

 adult in winter plumage is 

 similar to that of the adult 

 in breeding plumage, but the 

 lores and crown are mottled 

 with white for a short time. 



For the specimen from 

 which the preceding descrip- 

 tion is taken of the adult male 

 in breeding plumage, and the photograph from which the accompanying figure of the nesting- 

 place and egg of the Panayan Tern is reproduced, I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. Allan 

 R. McCulloch, who, in company with Mr. B. Jardine, found this species breeding on a small 

 rocky islet to the north-east of Albany Island, Northern Queensland, on the nth October, 1907. 

 He remarks: — " On this islet we also found Sterna amrsthda very abundant, though we saw but 

 few of their eggs, only securing eleven, and these latter were placed singly on the bare ground, 



NKSTING-PLACK AND EGG OF THK HANAYAN TKRN. 



* Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 411 (1865). 



