MlCRANOUs. 343 



while intermingled with them, and appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell, are faint 

 irregular-shaped spots and blotches of dull purplish-grey. Some specimens are almost pure 

 white, and nearly devoid of markings. Three eggs taken on Wooded Island, Iloutman 

 Abrolhos, on the 12th November, 1907, measure: — Length (A) 177 x 1-22 inches; (Li) rS x 

 1-2 inches; (C) r']6 x i.ig inches. 



September and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season. 



Micranous leucocapillus. 



WUriK-rAPl'ED M.iDUY. 



Aiwn:< leHcuca/nllus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Hoc, 184"), p, lU.'i ; id., Lids. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. 36 

 (1848) ; id., Haiidlik. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 119 (1865). 



Micranaiis leucocajnllus, Saunders, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 14.')(1896J; Sharpe Hand-1. 

 Bds., Vol. I., p. 138 (1809). 



Adult male, in breeding plumage. — General colour above and helow sooty brownish-black; 

 •upper iiniiy-coverls like the back : the outer primaries almost black; tail dark brown, irith an at-hi/ 

 shade irliirh is more jrronounced on the central feathers ; forehead and croan of the head very faint 

 ffreyish-n-hite, passing into liyht lavender-yrey on the nape, the hind-neck being suffused with the 

 latter shade, and the cheeks aho, bat eery much less pronounced; lores and the feathers above and 

 belonj the anterior portion of tlie eye, aiid a very small spot behind it, Jet black ; a short narrow streak 

 above, and a longer one below, the eye pure white ; bill black Total length in the flesh IJJ inches, 

 wing S'S, tail 5, biV PS.'i, tarsus 0''JJ. 



Adult fem.\lk, in hreeding plumage. — Similar in plumage to the tnale. 



Distribution. — Northern Territory, Queensland, Islands of Torres Strait, Norfolk Island. 



/■ 1(^1 Ik- White-capped Noddy was originally described by Gould in the "Proceedings of the 

 JL Zoological Society of London," in 1845, from specimens received by him from Raine 

 Islet, just outside the Great Barrier Reef, North-eastern Queensland. It beautifully represents 

 in the islands of the northern and north-eastern parts of the continent the Micranous tcnuirostris 

 of the western and north-western coasts, a specimen being obtained by Mr. John MacGillivray, 

 during the \oyage of M.M.S. " Rattlesnake," as far south as Moreton Bay, Queensland. 

 Mr. C. Hedley and Mr. A. R. McCulloch f9und it breeding freely on Masthead Island, about 

 thirty miles east of Pott Curtis, in the Capricorn Group, in October, 1904, and Mr. E). Fry, 

 collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the .Australian Museum, secured a number of its eggs on 

 the same island in October, 1910. It does not occur in New South Wales waters. 



Mr. ,\. R. McCulloch has handed me the following notes relative to a visit to Masthead 

 Island: — ".-Ml through the night, as we lay anchored off the reef, the ghostly yells of the 

 ' Mutton birds ' came over to us from the island, and when day broke we saw thousands of White- 

 capped Noddies wheeling over the tree-tops. Beautiful Pacific Gulls played around the boat, 

 fighting among themselves for the scraps of fish thrown to them. 



" The following morning was a dead tropical calm, and scarcely a sound broice the general 

 stillness. Our feelings then can be better imagined than described as, when we landed and first 

 stepped through the fringe of Casuarinas, there came from out of the quiet a great bursting cry, 

 sweeping like waves among the trees. Hundreds and hundreds of excited and astonished 

 White-capped Noddies arose in black clouds from every branch and tree, and circled screaming 

 and chattering above our heads. \t the time of our visit, towards the end of October, 1904, 

 they had only just commenced to build, though a few of the nests contained eggs. The nests 

 were composed of the leaves of a species of Pisoiiia, a large tree growing abundantly on the 



