350 LAIUN.E. 



From Broken Hill, South-western New South Wales, Dr. W. Macgillivray wrote me as 

 follows: — " The Silver Gull { Lanis iwvcr-hoUamUic) is quite a common bird on the lakes and 

 swamps of Western New South Wales, up to the Queensland border, when these have been 

 lilled by the seldom recurring rains. They find a living by hawking over these waters, and 

 unlike the Gull-billed Tern never search the plains for food. Only odd pairs of this species 

 were found nesting on the islands of the Barrier Reef that I visited in 1910, and these had bred 

 earlier than the time of my visit, October, as most of the young birds were well feathered. They 

 were present in numbers on Raine Islet and the Ashmore Bank, where Gannets were nesting, 

 and on No. 10 of the Howick Group, where there was an extensive nesting colony of Noddies, 

 and on each of these proved themselves in my presence to be inveterate thieves of the other 

 birds et^gs; no sooner had the Gannets risen from their nests than the Gulls pounced upon the 

 eggs, broke the shells, and commenced to eat up the contents, and seemed to prefer those in 

 which incubation had advanced to such a stage as to provide a luscious young one. On Kaine 

 Islet two Gulls were seen to approach a Gannet, and while one enticed the bird from the nest, 

 the other dashed in and broke the egg, and started to devour the contents. Again, when the 

 Noddies rose from their nests on our closely approaching them, the Gulls would immediately 

 pounce upon the nests and carry off the eggs, quite regardless of our presence." 



Writing again from Broken Hill in May, 1913, Dr. Macgillivray remarks :—" During the 

 spring and early summer of 1912, Silver Gulls were attendant on all the colonies of Gull-billed 

 Terns breeding on Topar Station, about lifty miles north-east of Broken Hill. One pair of 

 Silver Gulls nested at the foot of a small tree, on an island on Inkerman Lake, in the centre of 

 a colony of Gull-billed Terns; two eggs were in the Gull's nest." 



From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Heartland wrote: — "Although I never found the 

 eggs of the Silver Gull (Lciiiis iwvir-hoUandiir ) on the main land, a visit to a small island on the 

 west coast of King Island, Bass Strait, which could be reached by wading at low water, fnrnished 

 an abundant supply. On a few acres of land there were thousands of nests, some containing a 

 single fresh egg, others the full clutch, either fresh or heavily incubated, and whilst newly-hatched 

 young ones were scarcely able to walk, there were others nearly able to tly, which fluttered to 

 the water and swam out to sea. I noticed on dissection that the young bird with the mottled 

 markings on the wings contained the dark brown-coloured eggs, and the mature birds contained 

 the light greenish-grey coloured ones. When rough weather prevails in the Strait, the Silver 

 Gulls come up the Yarra in great numbers, but as soon as liner weather sets in they return to 

 the ocean. These birds make nice garden pets, and I have seen several young ones bred from 

 pinioned birds in gardens." 



Mr. A. F. Goodman, of the Government Printing Office, Sydney, has kindly favoured me 

 with the following notes relatixe to the photograph from which the accompanying block is 

 reproduced: — "The Silver Gulls build their nests pretty well all over the northern half of 

 Montague Island, lying off the coast of South-eastern New South Wales, in amongst the coarse 

 grass and rushes, some of them being well made. They usually lay three or four eggs; some 

 nests, however, contain five, and rarely as many as six eggs. There were plenty of young Gulls, 

 well feathered, about the middle of November, 1909, some of them being almost able to fly. 

 The Silver Gulls and Crested Terns all rise up and circle round when disturbed, but soon 

 settle down if one remains still. The Hawks from the mainland seem to be always attacking 

 them ; nearly every day one would see them flying around surrounded by hundreds of Gulls. 

 Sometimes the Silver Gulls have eggs in their nests as late as January." 



From Broome Hill, South-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote; — " The Silver Gull 

 (Lai'Hs novce-lwUand'ue) was a very common species about Point Cloates, North-western .Australia, 

 all the year round, e.\cepting the months of January to April, when they disappeared to breed 

 somewhere, probably to the south, as I never observed them breeding. They became very 



