Letters, Announcements, i^c. 459 



quite that of the Charadriidee. Both birds and eggs are esteemed 

 good food by the sealers. 



Sterna meridionalis. Skins and eggs of a Tern which I can 

 only identify with this species. The latter measure 1" 11'" by 

 1" 3'", and are of a deep olive-green, with black and brown spots 

 generally distributed but forming a zone near the obtuse end. 



Procellaria cequinoctialis. The "Black Haglet" of the sealers. 

 It lays but one egg, which measures 3" 2'" by 2" 2'", and is of 

 a smooth, but not glistening, chalky white. 



Thalassidroma melanognster. The eggs are 1" G'" by 1" 3'", 

 in colour like those of the last, but their texture finer, as befits a 

 smaller egg ; their shape rounded. The birds brought flew on 

 board. In a similar manner a specimen of T. leucogaster was 

 captured, during a gale of wind, by Lieut. -Commander L. A. 

 Beardslee, U.S. Navy, in the ' Aroostook,' 300 miles to the 

 south-west, and presented to this Museum. 



Lestris catarrhactes {L. antarctica. Less.) . I saw this species 

 in Table Bay, for the first time, about two years since, and 

 directed Capt. Armson to keep a good look-out for it. This he 

 has done with success. It lays two eggs, which measure 3" by 

 2" 1'", and are of a pale brown -green (like that of L. parasitica in 

 our Museum), spotted, chiefly at the obtuse end, with large indis- 

 tinct pale purple and brown blotches. The bird is known to the 

 sealers as " Sea-hen,'^ and, with its eggs, is much eaten by them. 



A GulFs egg, which, so far as I can judge, in no way differs 

 from those of Larus dominicanus of the Cape. Capt. Armson 

 has not brought the skin of this species, which he, on closely 

 observing L. dominicanus in the Museum, believes to be diflferent, 

 though some of my sailor-friends avow it is the same. Can it 

 be L. pacificus, Gould ? 



Aptenodytes patagonicus. One bird lived till near the Cape, 

 and then died for want of proper food. The eggs are of a dirty, 

 pale greenish-white, covered with a thin calcai-eous film, which in 

 most cases the sealers have carefully cleared off^. They measure 

 4" 3'" by 3", and in shape are very peculiar, tapering to the 

 acute end very abruptly from the greatest diameter, about five- 

 sixths of their length. A longitudinal section would not be unlike 

 the shape of a boy's kite. The sealers say the birds carry their 



