THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



141 



nests contained three eggs, but (luite a 

 large number contained i'our, a few con- 

 tained five, and four nests were loaded up 

 with no less than six eggs each. It was 

 indeed a delightful experience, viewing 

 th-ose thousands of eggs rt'itli all their 

 A^onderful variations in colour, markings, 

 and size. Ordinarily the eggs vary from 

 a pale olive-green ground sparsely to 

 thickly covered with sepia and black 

 markings, blotches, spots or hair-lines, to 

 deep rich brown ground with similar 

 markings, but some remarkable variations 

 were seen; one with very deep green 

 giound, having a broad ring of black 

 round the thick end, and another with 

 umber ground capped with black, gradu- 

 ally merging into the brown, but witlrout 

 other markings. Two distinct "muta- 

 tions" were found, one being a beautiful 

 pale blue absolutely devoid of markings, 

 and the other having ivhite ground, 

 sparsely streaked and spotted with pale 

 red and purplish red suffused markings. 

 On the occasion of a second visit a few 

 vears later another clutch of this white 

 and red mutation was found and photo- 

 giaphed. 



Although Mr. Bailey had noted the 



('rested Tein {Sterna bergii) nesting on 

 the island, there were none on the occa- 

 sion of my first visit. On the second 

 visit I found a few of these graceful birds 

 Itveeding on a shingly patch on the east- 

 ern side of the north islet, about 30 eggs 

 having been laid amongst the loose 

 stones, without any attempt at making a 

 nest. In one case there were two eggs, 

 apparently laid by the same bird. The 

 accompanying illustration shows how 

 casually the eggs were deposited amongst 

 the stones. 



On my second visit to Montague Island 

 I found that the Wedge-tailed Shear- 

 waters {Puffinus pacific us) had com- 

 menced to construct their burrows pre- 

 paratory to laying. This species is gradu- 

 ally extending its range southward, while 

 the Penguin is extending its range north- 

 ward, as will be seen later in this narra- 

 tive. 



The first visit to Montague had a rather 

 unpleasant ending. As we were proceed- 

 ing to Narooma on the mainland to catch 

 a Sydney-bound steamer, our boat wa.s 

 capsized on the bar, and my camera and 

 pi tes were lost, together with all our 

 personal luggage. We were rescued by 



Nests and eggs of the Crested Tern. (Montague Island.) 



Photo — A. F. Basset Hiil 



