1014 STERNA ANGLIC A. 



Nidification. — The only record we have of the Gull-billed Tern breeding within Indian limits is that of 

 Mr. Hume in ' Nests and Eggs/ relating to some eggs which he found in the Punjab on a sand bank of the 

 river Chenab. I believe that it may perhaps breed in Ceylon, and the discovery of its eggs in the island is 

 much to be desired. It usually lays its eggs on sand or on the bare earth, scratching a hole and lining it 

 scantily with seaweed or grass ; such nests Mr. Seebohm found in Asia Minor and Greece; but Mr. Dresser 

 detected many in America which were mere holes in the sand. Mr. Hume describes the nest he found as a 

 depression in a tiny sand mound, crowned by a dwarf bush. This was in April ; but in Europe the breeding-timr 

 is in May and June. Two or three eggs are laid in the latter region; but in America, according to Mr. Dresser, 

 four are sometimes found. The eggs of this Tern vary considerably in ground-colour, which ranges from pale 

 olive to brownish olive, olivaceous stone, and greyish white. Some are almost perfect ovals, others pointed at 

 the smaller end, and some are very broad ; the texture is a little rough ; the markings are moderately-sized 

 spots of dull brown, scattered pretty evenly over the whole egg, and overlying light olive-brown blotches, 

 beneath which, again, are bluish-grey spots and clouds. A series of five specimens of the American form are 

 on the whole whiter than a number of the Old-World race; the blotches are rather larger aud darker, as 

 also the bluish-grey clouds ; but there is the same general character in both. The dimensions of several, taken 

 from a large series in Mr. Dresser's collection, are :— 1-93 by 1-32, 2"02 by 137, 1-89 by 134, 1-92 by 

 1-35, 1-96 by 126, T82 by 132 inch. 



In a large series taken by Mr. Seebohm at Smyrna the prevailing tints are two — brownish buff and pale 

 stony-grey or greyish white. The latter are in some instances marked with large clouds of brownish red, 

 softening occasionally into purplish brown, and mingled with underlying blotches of purplish grey. Measure- 

 ments, to show the variation in shape, are : — 1 - 83 by T38, 2 - by 125, 1'72 by 1-39, and T79 by T34 inch. 



