STEBKA. 299 



eggs upon this island were of two types, a larger and a smaller; 

 but he is certain that both belonged to S. bergii, for he shot many 

 birds, and no other Tern was discovered at this spot. The largest 

 egg roeasured 2-4 by 1'65 inch and the smallest 2 by 1'38. 



Mr. H. Parker found this Tern breeding at Adam's Bridge, 

 Ceylon, in June, and Mr. Nevill took the eggs in June from a 

 rocky islet about 20 miles north of Galle. 



The eggs are typically broad ovals, strongly pointed towards the 

 small end, but considerably elongated varieties are not uncommon. 

 The shell is strong and compact, but entirely devoid of gloss. The 

 ground-colour varies from white, greenish and pinkish white, to 

 pale buff, pale yellowish, and again pale pinkish stone-colour, to 

 the richest and warmest salmon-pink. The markings are of two 

 colours, — an intensely deep burnt-sienna brown, often quite black 

 in its intensity, and a pale inky purple, which has an appearance 

 of lying beneath the surface of the shell. In some eggs the inky 

 purple markings are almost entirely wanting ; in others they are 

 almost more numerous and extensive than the dark ones. In some 

 eggs these dark markings, which I may mention are of every con- 

 ceivable shape and size, are comparatively thinly sprinkled; in 

 others they are very dense. In some eggs they are huge blotches 

 and spots, and in these eggs the markings always predominate 

 about the large end, where iu some eggs there is a broad zone, in 

 others a huge more or less mottled cap. In other eggs the mark- 

 ings are almost entirely hieroglyphic-like lines, and in these eggs 

 there is rarely any conspicuous cap or zone. In some few eggs 

 all the markings are small and spotty, and in about 1 per cent, 

 they are almost entirely wanting over the greater portion of the 

 surface of the egg. 



Of 25 eggs which reached me, no two were very closely alike, 

 and for variety and richness of colouring they surpass as a body the 

 eggs of any species with which I am acquainted. 



In length they vary from 2-3 to 2-71, and in breadth frpm r63 

 to 1-78 ; but the average of two dozen was 2-4.5 by 1'71 *. 



* Sterna media, Horsf. The Allied Tern. 



Colonel Butler writes of the nidification of this species in the Persian Gulf : — 

 " I received a magniiicent series of eggs of the Allied Tern from an island close 

 to the Island of Arab^ in the Persian Gulf in 1878, numhering about 400. 

 They are in character a good deal like the eggs of Sterna bergii, but of course 

 considerably smaller." 



The eggs are typical Terns' eggs, ovals sometimes moderately broad, generally 

 somewhat elongated, almost invariably decidedly pointed towards the small 

 end. The shell is tolerably fine, but entirely devoid of gloss ; the ground-colour 

 is in most specimens nearly white, but in some has a slight pinky huffy tinge ; 

 the markings are always sparse ; the primary markings are extremely dark, in 

 some cases almost absolutely black, but where the colour is thinner showing a 

 deep burnt-sienna brown. Some of these markings are moderate-sized blotches 

 and spots, but almost every egg exhibits at least one or two, and many of them 

 several, very large coarse irregular patches, almost black in the centre, but red- 



