402 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus STERNULA, Boie. 



Europe and Australia are both tenanted by Little Terns, the 

 specific distinctness of which cannot be questioned. They are 

 very fairy-like birds, and differ somewhat in their habits from 

 the true Terns. 



Sp. 607. STERNULA NEREIS, Gould. 



Little Tern. 



Sternula nereis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x, p. 140. 

 Little Te3'n, Colonists of Western Australia. 



Sternula nereis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii. pi. 29. 



This delicately coloured and elegant Little Tern inhabits 

 many of the low sandy islands in Bass's Straits, whence its 

 range extends along the south coast to Western Australia. I 

 observed several pairs on the small island opposite the settle- 

 ment on Elinder's Island, where they appeared to be breeding. 

 It would seem, however, to be much more numerous on the 

 western coast, and during the month of December congre- 

 gates in immense flocks on Rottnest and Garden Islands. It 

 makes no nest, but lays its two eggs in a depression on the 

 sand or shingle. Like that of other Terns, the food of this 

 species principally consists of the smaller oceanic fishes, which 

 it captures with apparent ease, plunging down into the water 

 from a considerable height with such unerring aim that it 

 rarely misses the object. 



The Sternula nereis is a beautiful representative in the 

 southern ocean of the Little Tern of the European seas, the 

 habits, actions, and economy of both being precisely alike. 



The eggs are two in number, of a pale stone-colour, in 

 some instances marked all over, but more thickly at the larger 

 end, with dark umber-brown ; in others very largely blotched 

 with the same colour; they are one inch and three-eighths 

 long by seven- eighths broad. 



