SLENDER-BILLED GULL. 75 



Of tliese eggs, fifteen have been sent to me for examiaati(jn. The 

 dimensions of twenty have been given in Dr. Cullen's paper. The 

 ground colour of those sent to me is creamy white in one, pale 

 greenish white in two, yellowish white in nine, and pale salmon 

 colour in three. They are all variously coloured with spots, blotches, 

 and streaks of dark umber brown of two shades, one well marked, 

 the other as usual indistinct. One egg has a well-marked zone of 

 brown streaks round the larger end, and another of blotches in the 

 same situation. Of those kindly sent to me for my collection, one, 

 the creamy-white-ground specimen, has nothing but indistinct dark 

 marks, and looks at a distance white. Another has large dark 

 blotches towards the larger end, while the third is covered pretty 

 regularly all over with brown spots of two shades. Some of the eggs 

 are spotted almost like those of the Noddy Tern. Others again look 

 like eggs of the Sandwich Tern, but are readily distinguishable on 

 comparison. They are altogether larger, and the brown marking is 

 different. They cannot be mistaken. Badeker, in his 'Eier der 

 Europa Yoegel,' has two excellent figures of the egg. The skins of 

 the bird accompanied the egg." 



Dr. E. Baldamus (" Naumannia," 1853, p. 419, et seq.) has the 

 following remarks: — "These eggs differ at a glance from all other 

 Gulls' eggs, in having one entirely bright white ground colour. 

 When fresh they may have perhaps just a touch of greenish or 

 yellowish, and herein they resemble the bright eggs of Sterna cantiana, 

 though they differ remarkably in their coarser shell and larger size. 

 The markings of the dull eggs are umber and black brown, with 

 indistinct spots of ash grey. Great diameter fifty to fifty-five mille- 

 metres, small diameter thirty-seven to thirty-eight millemetres." 



It is not included by Count Mlihle among his Grecian birds. 

 Lindermayer says it occurs there, on the authority of Erhardt and 

 Degland. It is not much more common on the African side, or at 

 least its appearance is not often mentioned by naturalists on that 

 continent. This may happen in consequence of the bird being con- 

 founded with other species. Captain Loche includes it in his list of 

 Algerian birds; and my figure is taken from a bird obtained by Mr. 

 Tristram at Tunis, on the loth. January, 1858, and therefore in its 

 winter plumage. It is a female, and the following is its descrip- 

 tion : — 



Head, nape, neck, tail, all the lower parts, lesser wing coverts, 

 and the greater part of the four first primaries, white, with a rosy 

 tinge; scapularies, greater wing coverts, secondaries, and greater part 

 of primaries (after the first four) light lead-colour; outer web of first. 



