Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 147 



There is a very enthusiastic young naturalist at Kingston, 

 named Mr. Charles Turner, and I have had many conver- 

 sations with him. He also has visited Morant Cays, and 

 agrees with me that one egg is all that the Sooty and 

 Noddy Terns lay and sit on at one time, though it is certain 

 that they hatch out other eggs during the season. 



In 1885 I was cruising in H.M.S. ' Starling' in the Red 

 Sea, off the Soudan coast, and on one of the small island- 

 reefs I found a breeding-place of the smaller Sooty Tern 

 {Sterna ancestheta). It was after the breeding-season; but 

 the ground was covered with their burrows, and I found six 

 or eight eggs in deserted nests. The nests were made by 

 burrowing between tufts of coarse grass and into the sand 

 for about 1 foot or 18 inches, and I never found more than 

 a single egg in any nest, so it appears that this species also 



lays only one egg. 



Yours &c., 



H.M.S. 'Pylades,' James B. Young. 



North- American and West-Iudiau 

 Station, Oct. 9, 1890. 



Sir, — I have recently obtained an English-killed example 

 of Coracias indicus, an adult, shot at Muckton, near Louth, 

 in this county, on Oct. 27, ISS-'i, by a cottager. The bird 

 was perched at the time on a heap of manure. 



It was received in the flesh by a local taxidermist, in 

 whose shop I saw it shortly afterwards, during the time he 

 was setting it up. It was closely bound with coarse cotton- 

 thread over slips of wood to keep the feathers in position 

 when drying. 



The occurrence was recorded in the Migration Report for 

 1883, p. 47, and in 'The Zoologist,' 1884, p. 185, but erro- 

 neously there as Coracias garruhs, the colour of the breast 

 and back, so far as these could be examined, leading me to 

 think that it was probably an immature example of that 

 species. Without going into further details, I may say there 

 is perfectly satisfactory evidence that the bird was obtained 

 as described, and that there is no possibility of its having been 



