168 WORCESTER. 



The terns did not again take wing until we were close in shore, and 

 then refused to leave the immediate vicinitj' of the reef, circling close 

 over our heads. Nearly all of the individuals were black-naped terns. 

 Sterna melanauclien Temminck, but by pure accident I killed a single spec- 

 imen of the oriental roseate tern, Sterna gracilis Gould, which had never 

 before been taken in the Islands. By watching sharpty, I was then able 

 to pick out and kill two additional specimens, recognizing them in flight 

 by their red legs. 



We found numerous eggs on the reef. They were deposited singly or 

 in pairs in slight depressions in the sand, lined in a number of instances 

 with bits of sea shell and of white coral. 



So far as I am aware, this was the first time that terns have been 

 found breeding in the Philippines. 



On August 24, 1910, I joined Gevernor-General Forbes and the Sec- 

 retary of War on board the steamer Rizal at Capiz, Panay, and was 

 greatly interested to learn that on their way from Jolo to Puerto Prin- 

 cesa they had landed on Bankoran Island in the middle of the Sulu Sea, 

 finding great numbers of brown and red-legged boobies and some of the 

 greater frigate birds, as well as a few terns. They had obtained speci- 

 mens of all the species observed and had put them in cold storage so that 

 I was able to make positive identifications. They told me that there 

 were many nests in the trees and on the ground, but that only one egg 

 had been obtained. Upon examination I found that the egg was ob- 

 viously that of a booby, but whether of a brown or a red-legged booby it 

 was impossible to say. 



On September 16, 1910, I had occasion to leave Manila on a trip to 

 the west coast of Palawan and subsequently passed through Balabac 

 Strait and sailed north along the chain of islands and shoals which 

 extends in a generally northeasterly direction through the Sulu Sea. 

 Bankoran Island was reached early on the morning of September 22. 

 Fortunately the weather was calm and we were able to land at the south- 

 western end of the island at 6 o'clock. From the steamer we had seen 

 immense flocks of boobies circling about the island, which is covered 

 throughout nearly its entire extent with trees, but has at its western end 

 sand-spits, partially overgrown with grass and l)ushes, while at low tide 

 rough masses of coral rag are left exposed by the receding water. 



We at once discovered that the red-legged boobies, Sula piscator (Lin- 

 hffius), were nesting in the trees, while the brown Ijoobies, Sula leuco- 

 gastra (Boddaert), were nesting on the ground. A few moments' ob- 

 servation sulficedto show that a number of red-legged boobies, which 

 we found in, or close to, nests upon the ground, were not their owners as 

 we had at first supposed, but were stealing nesting material from them in' 

 the absence of the brown boobies which had built them. 

 - With very few exceptions the nests on the ground contained no eggs. 



