BY COL. W. V. LEGGE, R.A., F.Z.S. 131 



He informs me that the nests were slight depressions among 

 shingle, overgrown with herbage, just above high water mark, 

 a few herbs and strips of seaweed being the only lining in the 

 bottom. The eggs were two in number. The ground colour 

 varies from pale yellowish stone to stony white, and the 

 markings, which are very handsome, are hieroglyphic in 

 character, consisting of zigzag and otherwise irregular linear 

 blotches, slightly confluent in parts, and laid on over light inky 

 grey or lilac streaks and spottings. They measure from 2'24i 

 to 2"3 inches in length, by 1"52 tu 1'55 inches in breadth. 



In Mr. Hume's exhaustive account of the Indian Ocean re- 

 presentative of this Tern (S. Bergii, Lichtenstein), contained 

 in Vol. iv. " Stray Feathers," pp. 473-4, he describes the eggs 

 obtained at its great breeding haunt, the Island of Astolah, 

 off the Mekran Coast, as extraordinarily variable, and pos- 

 sessing great richness in colouring. The ground colour 

 varies from " white, greenish and pinkish white, to pale buff, 

 pale yellowish, and again pure pale pinkish, stone colour to 

 the richest and warmest salmon pink." The markings which 

 are deep burnt sienna and pale inky purple are either in the 

 form of large blotches, and spots predominant at the large 

 end or of " entirely hieroglyphic lines." Twenty-five eggs 

 vary from 2*3 to 2"71in., and in breadth from 1*63 to l'78in. 



Laetts Nov^ffi HoLLANDi^, Stephens. 



On the 31st October I found this species breeding at the 

 south point of the Great Actseon. About 50 pairs were 

 nesting, accordiug to the habit of this Gull, close together. 

 During the early part of the next month many more must 

 have bred, making a large " colony," as an immense number 

 of eggs were taken by the inhabitants of Recherche, who 

 make an annual raid upon the tmfortunate birds. The nests I 

 found at the end of October were all fresh, so that the height 

 of the breeding season would be about the 10th of JSTovember, 

 They were situated under the rank herbage and thistles 

 growing at the edge of the pebble beach, none of them being 

 more than four yards from the margin of the vegetation. 

 Little hollows between the rolled pebbles lined with herbage 

 ormed the nests, which were placed as near one another as a 

 couple of feet. No nests contained more than two eggs at 

 this time, the third not having been laid. In colouring there 

 are three types of eggs of this gull, viz.: — yellowish, chocolate, 

 pale earth brown, olive grey, and stone grey, the former 

 usually possessing the heaviest markings. 



An egg of the latter type before me is evenly clouded 

 throughout the surface with two shades of rich deep sepia, over 

 larger primary clouds of inky grey in two shades ; some of 

 the clouds are longitudinal, and others transverse. Eggs of the 

 light type are blotched and speckled with two or three shades 



