352 suLiD^.. 



these having' pairs, the rest sin,L;le es,i<s, beiiif^ mostly incomplete clutches, as laying' seemed 

 only to have commenced recently, all eggs were fresh, and many nests were being formed. Of 

 those containing eggs some consisted of merely a depression scraped in the sand, others again 

 had gathered round them straw, sticks, bits of coral and shells, the whole nest being about one 

 foot in diameter and about four inches in depth. Many of the eggs are destroyed by Gulls, 

 these birds pouncing upon the eggs so soon as the Gannets rise from them. These Gannets 

 were also nesting in lesser numbers on No. 2 Sandbank' of this group. Three days later, 

 30th October, 1910, I landed on Raine Islet, a vegetated sandbank sixty five miles north-east 

 from Cape Grenville, and eight miles outside the Ivaine Islet opening, through the Great Bai rier 

 Keef. On nearing this island we were again under escort of a great concourse of birds, three 

 species of Gannet fS. cyauops, S. Icnconastcr and S. piicatrix }, Noddies, Sooty Terns and Frigate 

 IrJirds. Many of the Gannets flying w'ere immature birds. The island is covered from end to 

 end with nests and young and old birds, nine-tenths of them being Brown Gannets sitting on 

 eggs, newly hatched young, young in down, and others nearly fully feathered ; two-thirds of the 

 nests contained either a pair of eggs or a young bird ; where nests contained single eggs, this was 

 mostly due to the depredations of Gulls. The eggs varied greatly in size and shape, the lime 

 coating on newly laid eggs being quite soft and easily marked, but soon hardens on exposure. 

 The young are hatched naked, the skin being of a pale leaden colour all over, e\en to the mask 

 and feet; the nestling soon becomes covered with wliite down, which it retains until almost of 

 full size, when the primary feathers appear of a dark grey colour, and this is general of the 

 feathers which appear on the head, back and wings of the fully fiedged young bird, with dirty 

 greyish-white on breast and under parts of wing. The nests were placed everywhere on rock, 

 sand or ' pigface,' and were of the same description as those on the Ashmore Bank, the nests, 

 containing fresh eggs, being mostly merely a depression with very little surrounding material. 

 Where the bird had been sitting for some time there was often a fairly respectable accumulation 

 of broken coral, stones, sticks and other material round about \vhich they procure as they go on 

 incubating. In approaching these birds many fly off after a short shuffling run, others will 

 wait, and only leave after several protesting squealcings and disgorging several fish, often eight 

 or ten inches in length, this as an offering rather than as an offensive measure." 



The preceding figure is reproduced from a photograph taken by Dr. \V. Macgillivray on 

 Raine Islet. 



The members of the " Chevert ICxpedition " to North-eastern Australia and New Guinea, 

 organised by the late Sir William Macleay of Sydney, found this species l)reeding on Bramble 

 Cay, Torres Strait, in i>i~j^. The nests were built upon the ground, and consisted of a few dried 

 sticks and twigs, and placed so closely together, that it was difficult to walk without treading upon 

 them, most of the nests contained two eggs, oval in form, of a bluish-white colour, thickly coated 

 with lime, which in some places was scratched off, revealing the true colour of the shell. A set 

 of two in the Australian Museum Collection measure as follows: — Length (A) 2-33 x r42 

 inches; (B) 2-45 x 1-65 inches. Specimens in the Macleay Museum measure: — Length (A) 

 2'35 X i'48 inches; (B) 2-4 x f45 inches. A set of two measures: — Length (.'\) 2-25 x 1-58 

 inches; (!:>) 2'36 x 1-65 inches. 



Mr. Bernard H. Woodward, F.G.S., Director of the Perth Museum, Western Australia, 

 has kindly sent on loan fourteen eggs, collected by Mr. J. T. Tunney between the 20th and 25th 

 May, 1901, on Bedout Island, North-western .Australia. They vary considerably in shape, 

 ranging from a short to lengthened ovals and ellipses, in fact some of the latter might easily be 

 mistaken for Cormorants' eggs. The true colour of the shell varies from a light bluish-white to 

 a pale bluish-green, but is more or less incrusted with lime, on some specimens being evenly 

 and smoothly covered over the surface of the shell, on others the lime is rough and irregularly 

 deposited, being scratched or chipped off in places, revealing the pale hluish-wliite or bluish- 



