340 LARID.E. 



Island, Jloutman Abiollios, Western Australia, measure :— Length (A) 2-07 x 1-45 inches; (B) 

 2-03 X i'47 inches; (C) 2-12 x 1-47 inches. Three egsjs taken by Dr. P. H. Metcalfe, on the 

 I4tli November, 1908, on Nepean Island, off Norfolk Island, measure: — Length (A) 2-18 x 1-47 

 inches; (B) 2-:q x i'43 inches; (C) 2-07 x 1-42 inches. Three eggs talcen by me on Great 

 Admiralty Kock, on the 15th October, 1910, lying off the north-east coast of Lord Howe Islanil, 

 measure; — Length (A) 2-04 x 1-44 inches; (B) 2-14 x i'45 inches; (C) i-g x 1-42 inches. 

 Three eggs taken on the 20th October, 1910, by Dr. \V. Macgillivray, on No. 10, Howick Group, 

 Torres Strait, measure .- — Length (A) 2 x 1-41 inches; (B) 2-02 x 1-46 inches; (C) 2-26 x 

 I '42 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season in Australia, 

 Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island ; by far, however, the greater number of eggs are laid in 

 November, although on Oyster Cay, North-eastern Queensland, Mr. A. F. Smith noted four 

 young birds nearly able to lly during that month, but this is an exceptionally early record. 



Ca-eHTAS 2yIIOi3ufi>.3SrO"CrS, Snnw/ers. 



Micranous tenuirostris. 



LESSER NiJliUY'. 

 Sterna (emiirostris, Temni., PI. Col., Tom. II., pi. 202, (1823). 



Aiious melanopa, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VH., pi. 35 (1848) ; iiL, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 

 n., p. 417 (18G.5). 



Micranoux tenuiruxfris, Saunders, t!at. Bd.s. Brit. Mus., Vol. XX V^., p. 144 (1896); Sharpe, Hand 1. 

 Bds., Vol. I., p. 138 (1899). 



Aduli' m.m^k, in breeding plumage. — General colour dull mnherbroivn, tslroiiyly suffused with 

 (/rey oil the mantle, scujiidars, hack, rump, itj/per lail-corerts and tail -feather s ; upper wuig-coverts 

 dull umber-bro/vn : i/nills blackisli-broivn ; forehead yreijish.-ivhite, passing into pale grey oil the 

 lores, crown of t/ie Itead a.nd hinii-neck : above and in front of the eye a broad black lialf circle ; 

 remainder of tlie eye snrroniided by a ■narrow half ring of 7vhite feathers, broken on the posterior 

 portion by a small black, spot : chin and centre of tliroal dnsky-browii ; remainder of the under surface 

 and t/ie luider tail-coverts dull U)nber-brou:)i, the sides of the iieck strongly siifinsrd with grey ; bill 

 (of skin J black ; legs and f-et 'lull yellowis/i-bro/vn. Total lengtli 12'75, inches, icing S:.', tail JfS, 

 hill 1'7, tarsus 0'S5. 



Adult femalk. — Similar in plumage to t/ie male. 



Disfi'ibutioii. — Islands of the West Australian coast. 



^1^ HE Lesser Noddy is found in countless numbers on some of the Houtman Abrolhos, 

 -L lying off Geraldton, on the south-western coast of Western Australia, and this group 

 of islands is, so far as I am aware, the only properly authenticated locality in which it occurs in 

 Australian waters. In Northern Australia it is represented in the islands of Torres Strait, the 

 Great Barrier Reef, and off the Queensland coast by its near ally I\ficraiions hucpcapiUtts. 



Not only is the Lesser Noddy confined to a small portion of the coast and contiguous 

 islands of Western Australia, but according to Mr. Howard Saunders its ultra-.Australian range 

 is remarkably circumscribed, being restricted to the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, the Seychelles 

 and Mascarene Islands. Although this species has been found in incredible numbers in the 

 breeding season on Wooded Island and Pelsart Island in the Houtman Abrolhos Group, Western 

 Australia, it is remarkable that a bird so common should be comparatively rare in .Vustralian 



