NOTES AND QUERIES. 149 
track, near a fence ; the opposite side of the tarn would have been far more 
private, as few, very few, persons in that neighbourhood would have taken 
the trouble of a ride or walk round the shore to disturb the community. 
As one descends the steep slope to the narrow rim of beach, with noisy 
clamour the scared birds ascend from their eggs or young; reluctantly they 
rise, loth to leave their charge; the whole scene is enlivened with winged 
motion, as the pretty gulls fan the air, or wheel across the clear waters 
of the lake. Their flight is joined by swift-flying Stilt Plovers, who add 
their discordant squeals to the general noise. With the gulls circling in 
ceaseless fight, doubled on the calm surface of the mountain lake, there 
was a charming picture of bird-life, set in a frame of uniform dull tussock 
and snow-grass, tawny-coloured. Just above the water, on the bare shore, 
Without any attempt at nest-building, the Lake Gull lays one or two eggs, 
in close proximity to hundreds more; one can scarcely walk through this 
nursery without causing damage by breakage, or by treading on some 
newly-hatched dark-eyed youngster, clad in grey. The eggs are remarkably 
beautiful, far handsomer and bolder in their markings than those of any 
other species of New Zealand gull. In shape they differ much, for some 
are very broad at the top, with the smaller end quite obtusely rounded ; 
others ovoid, oval, or so narrowed towards the smaller end that they might 
be termed almost pyriform. In the ‘Birds of New Zealand’ Dr. Buller 
gives a good description of the eggs of this bird, from my collection in the 
Canterbury Museum. Those eggs came from a nursery on the Upper 
Rangitata River; I see from my note-book they were obtained on December 
14th. Looking at a series of the eggs, the ground colour usually is 
pale olive-brown or greenish gray, with very rich splashes and large 
blotches of umber and dark brown. Some have most of the surface 
covered with round-edged marks of indistinct grey, apparently sunk into 
the shell; others have greenish brown or olive splashes, with large irregular 
shaped blotches of purplish grey; or angular fantastically-shaped marks 
or streaks. I referred to the appearance of certain Pied Stilts on the scene 
of disturbance; this is to be accounted for, because about ten yards 
distance from the thickly-spread carpet of gulls’ eggs, was a long hollow in 
the flat by the narrow beach. In this natural rent, that gave something of 
a ditch-like shelter, were six small grassy nests of the Pied Stilt (Himan- 
topus leucocephalus, Gould). Five of these nests contained in each four 
richly-marked eggs; the sixth contained five, an unusual number, and 
worth recording. It will be seen from the above account that the habits of 
L. pomare differ considerably from those of L,. Nove-Hollandie. 1. have 
been struck with the appearance of some eggs of the last-named sea-bird, 
which my son Randal Potts brought from the Chatham Isles. He 
collected them in a cave-like opening in the cliff$ near Waitangi, into which 
the sea entered freely at high tide. These eggs show a remarkable uniformity 
