Birds of Kercjiielen Island. 1 1 



had the melancholies. Even when the young birds are as 

 large as their parents they hide under rocks for protection, 

 but soon become impatient and start for the water. So dark 

 in colour are some, that one of our men took one for a young 

 Skua j but others show a lighter mottling. I think the birds 

 hatched in December assume a dress similar to the adult 

 about February to Marcli^ but not so much contrasted. On 

 December 27th the young were scarcely noticeable amongst 

 a flock. On January 17th they were plentiful on the wing. 

 On February 15th I noted a flock of some fifty young marbled 

 birds, and they were then more numerous, though not so 

 conspicuous as the adults. I conclude that the young assume 

 the plumage of the adult in one season. 



Previous expeditions have noted eggs as early as October 

 14th, and I found them fresh as late as January 16th. This 

 latter " find '^ was on a small, low, flat island next to Suhm's 

 Island. From it we gathered seventeen fresh eggs and 

 observed thirty nests. Four of the nests had each one egg 

 (not unusual), most had two eggs in them, and two had each 

 three eggs. One clutch of two had one heavily and typically 

 blotched, Avhile the other was quaintly scrolled. On this 

 islet of a few acres there Avere no Sheathbills, which would 

 be a relief for Gulls, and there were no Petrel-holes, so it was 

 quite a Gulls' paradise, although an occasional Skua visited it. 

 The nests were in the seaweeds just above the high-water 

 mark, with one exception which lay in the grass in the centre 

 of the island. Usually I found the nests placed upon fiat 

 rocks sheltered partly by others. 



Sterna virgata Cabanis ; Saunders, Cat. B. xxv. p. 50. 



This little Tern does not go far out to sea, and it is a taker 

 of crustaceans rather than of fishes, the latter being distinctly 

 scarce. Upon observing the repeated dives of some of these 

 Terns I asked a gunner to shoot three, and found upon dissec- 

 tion that they contained small rectangular-shaped crustaceans 

 in abundance ; but along Avith other birds even the Terns 

 came down to taste seal's flesh and seemed to relish it. I 

 generally observed them in flocks of about a dozen, but on 

 January 26th I was interested to see forty birds in two 



