488 NOTES, CHIEFLY OOLOGIOAL, 



The birds at first circled round for a short time, and after- 

 wards joined a large party of other Terns at a small neighbour- 

 ing- bank, from which some of them made frequent sallies, fly- 

 ing over my head a few times and then returning. Their cry' 

 was a hoarse croak, or a scream. 



Later in the day I found a pair evidently breeding at another 

 bank beyond that at which my expedition ended, but I could 

 not spare time to visit it. They came out boldly to attack my 

 men, and made very determined swoops, often coming within 

 three feet of my head. They then rose vertically above me 

 for 50 or 60 feet, and after flying back towards the nest returned 

 to renew the assaults. The more timid of the birds, which I 

 presumed was the female, occasionally settled on the nest for a 

 short time, while the male was engaged in bullying me ; as I 

 told him at the time, it was nothing else ; I had not attempted 

 to molest him, and the nest was certainly quite half mile away. 



985 Ms.— Sterna dougalli, Mont. 



June. — (Adam's Bridge). — On a small low bank there was 

 a colony of some 200 pairs of this beautiful Tern, all breeding ! 

 The birds were extremely tame, settling on the nests when I 

 was only 30 yards distant. At short intervals the whole flock 

 rose in a cloud, screaming loudly, and after flying about half- 

 way towards me, returned to the eggs. Many, however, 

 came on, and made persistent swoops within two or three feet 

 of my head, some of them almost alighting ou it, uttering a 

 loud scream at the time, with occasional hoarse notes. A bird 

 noosed on the nest proved to be a male. Some twenty pairs of 

 S. sinensis were breeding in this colony ; as a rule, their nests 

 were not mixed up with the others, and were much more scat- 

 tered. Some nests of S. bergii were in the midst of those ot 

 the Roseate Tern. 



The nests were from a foot to six -feet, or a little more, 

 apart, extending in a broad semi-circle along the highest ridge 

 of the sand, which was in no part more than two feet above the 

 water mark, and generally not more than six inches above it. 

 At high tide some of the nests were evidently surrounded by 

 water. All were small hollows scratched in the sand, from 

 4 to 6 inches wide, and from £ to 1^- inches deep ; some few 

 contained a partial lining of shells, and in one instance a 

 rid (re of them was raised round the nest. The sand taken 

 ouf of the cavity was usually deposited in a small mound 

 round the nest. 



The number of eggs laid was either one or two — two in 

 the greater number of nests. Their ordinary shape is a regular 

 oval, occasionally slightly pointed ; but many elongated and 

 stumpy eggs are also met with. Every intermediate gradation is 



