502 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



and Raine's Islets in Torres' Straits, from both of which 

 locaHties I possess specimens of the bird and its eggs. As 

 I had no opportunity of observing it, I avail myself of the 

 following information communicated to me by Mr. Macgilli- 

 vray : — 



" This Tropic-bird was found by us on Raine's Islet, where, 

 during the month of June, about a dozen were procured. 

 Upon one occasion three were observed performing sweeping 

 flights over and about the island, and soon afterwards one of 

 them alighted ; keeping my eye upon the spot, I ran up and 

 found a male bird in a hole under the low shelving margin of 

 the island bordering the beach, and succeeded in capturing it 

 after a short scuffle, during which it snapped at me with its 

 beak, and uttered a loud, harsh, and oft-repeated croak. It 

 makes no nest, but deposits its two eggs on the bare floor of 

 the hole, and both sexes assist in the task of incubation. It 

 usually returns from sea about noon, soaring high in the air, 

 and wheeling round in circles before alighting. The eggs are 

 blotched and speckled with brownish red on a pale reddish 

 grey ground, and are two inches and three-eighths long by 

 one inch four eighths and a half broad. 



"The contents of the stomach consisted of the beaks of 

 cuttle-fish. 



" The only outward sexual difference that I could detect 

 consists in the more decided roseate blush upon the plumage 

 of the male, especially on the back; but this varies slightly 

 in intensity in different individuals of the same sex, and fades 

 considerably in a preserved skin." 



Latham states that it is found in great numbers on the 

 island of Mauritius, that it is very common at Palmerston, 

 Turtle, and Harvey's Islands in the South Seas, and that in 

 all these places its eggs are deposited on the ground under 

 the trees. 



The adults have a broad crescent of black before each eye, 

 the upper part of which extends over and behind that or^an ; 



