254 Mr. J. Walker on. the Bird-life of 



Dysporus serrator (Banks). 



In the last volume of the ' Transactions of the N, Z. Insti- 

 tute ' (vol. xxiii. p. 223), Mr. Cheesmau states that on Norfolk 

 Island Sula cyanops lays two eggs in the nest, while in the 

 Kermadec Islands it lays only one. Again, Mr. North says"^ 

 that in Australia the nest of Dysporus serrator usually con- 

 tains two eggs. Now, in New Zealand, one egg is the usual 

 number laid, and in a breeding-station that I have visited in 

 four different years I have never seen more than one egg in 

 each nest. 



If this is really the case, why should Dysporus serrator and 

 Sula cya7iops lay more eggs in one locality than they do in 

 another ? 



XIX. — The Bird-life of Adele Island, North-west Australia. 

 By James Walker, R.N., H.M.S. ' Penguin," 



About 45 miles due north of the entrance of King Sound, 

 North-west Australia, is a little island surrounded by exten- 

 sive banks of sand and coral, which appears to have been 

 first noticed by Commodore Baudin, during the voyage of the 

 French discovery-ships ' Geographe ' and ' Naturaliste ■* 

 (1801), and named by him Adele Island. It is incidentally 

 mentioned in the narratives of the voyages of Captain P. P. 

 King ('Survey of the Intertropical Coasts of Australia/ vol. ii. 

 pp. 214, 215) and of Captain Stokes {' Discoveries in Aus- 

 tralia,' vol. i. p. 184), but neither of these explorers appears 

 to have landed on it, and all that seems to be known about 

 the island is, that it is of very small extent (about three 

 miles long, in a N.N.W. and S.S.E. direction, by about one 

 mile broad), very low, sandy, and grassy, frequented by mul- 

 titudes of sea-birds, and having a small patch of guano near 

 its south-eastern extremity. 



It being desirable to ascertain the position of this island 

 with as much accuracy as possible, H.M. surveying-ship 



* ' Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Birds found 

 breeding in Australia and Tasmania/ p. 363. 



