358 PKLECAMIi.t:. 



While resident at Point ("loales. Xortli-westei n Australia. Mr. Tom Carter wrote nie as 

 tollows:— "A Red-tailed Tropic-bird ( I'liactlwii riihitnuidd) wa?, shot near Point Cloates, while 

 ho\erin,L; o\fr our cainp on the :ijid .\pril, i.Syi, and was the only one we noted." 



The sin,u;le e,^,^' laid by the bird for a sitting,' is deposited in almost inaccessible positions on 

 the face of precipitous clilfs, or laid under the shelter of a projecting,' rock, and consequently are 

 usually diH'ii alt to procure throUL^h the sittiuL,' bird \ iolently disputin;,; the possession of it with 

 an intruder an.\i(}us to draw it away. On unfrequented islets it more often breeds in less 

 protected situations. Its egj^'s are extremely \ariable in size, shape, colour and markings. 

 Typically they are oval or thick' ovals in form, but in a series of fourteen eggs now before me 

 are an elon,L;ate-o\'al and a rounded-oval, becoming ;;reatly pyriform at the smaller end, the shell 

 being coarse-grained, dull and lustreless, and having in some places small limy e.xcrescences. 

 Some specimens are of a pale pinkish-red ground c(jlour, which is almost obscured by minute 

 freckles and spots of a deeper hue, intermingled with numerous larger underlying markings of 

 purplish-grey ; others have the ground colour dull white, which is freckled, spotted and blotched 

 with purplish-red and reddish-black, the latter colour being frequently confined to the larger 

 end, where in some instances it appears in the form of a cap or zone, while specimens may be 

 found (jf a warm reddish-white almost uniloimly co\ered with rich reddish-brown or pale 

 purplish-brown, or smeared all over with the latter colour, which in places appear to have been 

 rubbed off the shell when wet, giving it a longitudinally streaked appearance. Two specimens 

 are almost pure white, one having a faint wash of pale purple the other of brown. Six typical- 

 sized specimens fronr Lord Howe island measure respectively as follows: — Length (.\) rj^- < 

 I-S8 inches; (B) 2-67 x 1-07 inches; (0)2-64 x 2-01 inches : (0)272 x 1-78 inches; (L)2-66 

 X I-S6 inches; (V) 2-(^\ x i-88 inches. A very small egg measures: — Len;;th 2-32 x P68 

 inches. .\ pyriform egg measures : — Length 2-53 x 1-92 inches. Four eggs taken byl>r. P. 

 Herbert Metcalfe, on Philip Island, lying off Norfolk Island, measures respectively as follows : - 

 One taken on the 7th I'ecember, 1886, length 2-75 x 1-95 inches; another taken on the (ith 

 No\ember, 1890, length 2-47 x 1-78 inches; two taken on the 7th January, 1891, length 

 (.\) 2-4 X 1-85 inches; (1!) 2-74 x 1-85 inches. 



Immature birds have the general plumage white, a black crescent in front of the eye, 

 feathers on the crown of the head centred with black, the hind neck, back, scapulars, rump and 

 upper tail-coverts and centre of wing transversely barred with black, the primaries and their 

 coverts white with a narrow black' central streak widening out near their tips into a broad band 

 or large subterminal spot ; secondaries white, transversely barred with black, the innermost 

 series with a very broad blackish central spot occupying most of the feather ; tail-feathers white 

 basal portion of their shafts blackish. Wing 12 inches. 



The breeding season on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands begins in September or October, 

 and extends over the five following nionths. On Ducie Island, in the Western Pacific, eggs 

 were found in June, so were they on Raine Islet, off the north-eastern coast of Queensland. 



Family PELECANID^. 

 Pelecanus conspicillatus. 



PELICAN. 

 iWccajms co/i«/»ci//o<((.v, Temui., PI. Col., Tom. V., pi. 276 (1824); Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. 

 VII , pi. 74(1848) : id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. IL, p. 486 (186,5) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Oat. 

 Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 483 (1898) ; Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds , V^ol. I., p. 238 (1899). 



