NATATORES. 395 



of the Thalasseits poliocercus upon the north-east coast, is ge- 

 nerally distributed from Lizard Island to the southward as far 

 northward as Bramble Quay, and is also to be found in En- 

 deavour Straits. It was breeding on Lizard Island in the be- 

 ginning of May, and on Raine's Island in June, when both 

 eggs and young birds were procured ; in the latter locality 

 I found it in three small parties upon a low ridge on one side 

 of the island, depositing its single egg in a slight hollow 

 scooped out of the ground in a bare smooth spot surrounded 

 with herbage. This bird was so much more shy than the 

 Sooty Tern and Noddy, that I was obliged to resort to the 

 gun to procure specimens, as it would not allow me to 

 approach sufficiently near to throw a short stick with effect. 

 The eggs vary considerably in their markings ; the ground- 

 colour is generally stone-grey, in some instances thickly 

 speckled and blotched with black; others are marked with 

 irregular waved streaks and minute spots of dark brown ; 

 others again with scattered irregular streaks and spots of 

 black ; some are thickly blotched, especially at the larger 

 end, with reddish, and others are finely blotched and 

 streaked with dark red on a light pinkish-grey ground ; they 

 also vary somewhat in size, but they usually average two 

 inches and three-eighths in length by one inch and a half in 

 breadth." I possess one which difiFers both in size and 

 colouring, being considerably larger and of a rich reddish 

 buff, blotched all over, but particularly at the larger end, 

 with brownish black, and others in which the streaks assume 

 the appearance of Chinese characters. 



Crown of the head and occipital crest jet-black ; forehead, 

 sides, and back of the neck, and all the under surface silky 

 white ; back, wings, and tail dark grey, deepening into black 

 on the edges and tips of the primaries, the shafts of which as 

 well as those of the tail are white ; bill pale greenish yellow ; 

 irides very dark brown ; legs and feet black ; soles dirty 

 brownish yellow. 



