182 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



islands containing " rookeries," for these animals, treading over 

 the place, cave in the burrows and squash both young and old. 

 Lessees of islands might be required to fence the rookeries off. 



White-breasted Cormorant (Graculus leucogaster ). — We 

 found an interesting rookery on Storehouse Island, off the east 

 coast of Flinders Island. The nests were terraced upon ledges 

 and tops of naked granite on the seashore. We estimated there 

 were between 300 and 400 nests, and as the season then (21st 

 November) was somewhat advanced for these birds, they were 

 mostly occupied by fledgelings in black down with a little 

 mouldy-white cover on the underneath parts. The newly hatched 

 young were quite naked. However, some of the nests contained 

 one, two or three eggs, but generally a pair, some quite fresh. 

 The nests were comparatively large, and were built of seaweed 

 of various kinds and colours, saltbush, &c., the diameter of an 

 average-sized nest being 18 inches by 3 or 4 inches high, 

 while the receptacle or hollow holding the eggs was 8 or 9 

 inches across hy 2j4 inches deep. Like the Gannet rookery, the 

 aroma of the live guano was very pungent. 



White-faced Storm Petrel ( Procellaria fregata). — On the 

 1 8th November with genuine delight we invaded a rookery of 

 this dear little creature. It was indeed a romantic situation — an 

 islet in a sheltered sound, grassed with tussock, brightened with 

 crops of wild white flowers, and surrounded with great outcropping 

 granite rocks, lichen covered, like sentinels guarding the place. 

 From under the grass in the ground, out of the rat-like burrows, 

 which extend the length of one's forearm, we withdrew the soft 

 and delicately plumaged little birds, each with a single egg; and 

 remarkable as it may appear (especially to those who pretend to 

 possess a theory on the colouration of eggs), about four in every 

 ten of the eggs were slightly spotted at the one end, the egg 

 usually being pure white. 



Terns. — These graceful sea-birds are always of fascinating 

 interest to ornithologists. We found nests of the large Caspian 

 Tern {^Sterna caspia), the bird easily recognized by its large size 

 and beautiful silvery plumage, relieved by powerful red bill. The 

 birds were in solitary pairs about the islets, the nest being usually 

 situated on the rocky summit of the islet, and merely a slight 

 hollow (7^ inches by ij^ inches deep) in the coarse sandy earth 

 amongst pig-face weed, green or dead. The flocks of Bass 

 Straits Terns {S. bergii), noted, with yellowish bill, upon the 

 Samphire River reef, had not laid. The smaller Southern Tern 

 (S. frontalis), with black bill, vvas observed in a colony on a rock 

 between Woody and Little Woody Islands, in Franklin Sound. 

 They also had not yet laid in their nesting hollows amongst the 

 short matted ice-plant and other weeds. The Little Tern 

 (Sternula nereis) was scarce. We only saw it at one or two 

 points, when it flew up against the wind to screech at us. 



