STERNA DOTJGALLI. 1035 



appears on the wing to have an attenuated Parrakeet-like tail. It constantly utters a monosyllabic and not 

 unmusical piping note; but when a pair are together they give out a harsh crake, very unlike the ordinary call. 

 This Tern is decidedly a shy bird, for when numbers were fishing off the fort at Trincomalie with the Gull- 

 billed and Common Tern they seldom came within shot of my position ; and when I met with them flying along 

 the surf they kept well out from the beach, except at dusk, when they would pass close to me. 



Nidification. — The breeding-season in the northern hemisphere lasts from May till July ; but on the 

 coasts of Australia and in the Pacific, as we have seen, this Tern nests in the opposite season of the year. 

 According to one authority (Captain Walker, of Belmont, Ireland) the nest is a little hollow in the sand, 

 surrounded by a small hoop of about 3 inches in diameter, made of grass and neatly put together. No 

 mention, however, of this curious construction is made by Dr. Heiberg, who found it breeding in Denmark, 

 and concerning whose discovery Mr. Dresser publishes details from a correspondent in Copenhagen. 



The eggs are said to be two in number; and a series I have examined are rather large for the bird, pointed 

 ovals, and slightly rough in texture. Some are rather stumpy at the small end. They vary considerably in 

 ground-colour, some being creamy white, others buff-brown and pale olivaceous stone. The markings are 

 scanty in some and rather thickly distributed throughout the surface in others : one specimen before me has a 

 zone of handsome blackish-sepia blotches round the obtuse end, under which are clouds of dark inky grey of 

 two shades ; another is rather closely marked with small blots of rich brown of two shades over dark inky- 

 grey blots ; a third has a few openly-distributed small spots of pale brown over larger, more numerous, and 

 almost equally prominent blotches of bluish grey. The dimensions of several specimens in Mr. Dresser's 

 collection are 1'64 by 1-19, 173 by 1T8, D68 by 1T9, and 1-68 by 1-08 inch. 



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