354 STEENIDffi. 



or rushes growing in the water. Two eggs taken from a nest in a 

 lagoon in the Loddon District of Victoria, in November 1883, 

 are of a light greenish-grey, blotched, spotted and dotted all over 

 with dark umber and wood-brown, but chiefly towards the larger 

 end where the markings become more thickly disposed, and in a 

 few places confluent. Length (A) 1-52 x 1-07 inch ; (B) 1-5 x 

 1-07 inch. 



Hal. Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, 

 Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 

 Interior, Victoria and South Australia, West and South-West 

 Australia, fRarmay ) 



Genus STEENA, Linnmus. 



STERNA BERGII, Lichtenstein. • 

 (S. peleccmmdes, King; T. jpQliocercus, Gould.) 



Torres Straits Tern. ^ JCHC -? 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sps. 601, 602, pp. 394, 396. 



This Tern is found all over the coast of Australia, the islands 

 of Torres Straits and the South coast of New Guinea. The eggs 

 are extremely variable in their markings, in a number of 

 specimens now before me, 'no two are similar, they are oval in 

 form and somewhat sharply pointed at the thinner end. I give a 

 description of four eggs taken by the late Mr. S. White in Torres 

 Straits, to attempt to describe all the different varieties would be 

 an endless task. 



Var. A. Ground colour stone-grey with a few large blotches of 

 umber scattered over the surface of the shell, clouded markings of 

 bluish-grey appearing beneath the shell's surface ; length 2'23 x 

 1'56 inches. 



Var. B. Ground colour stone-grey with long black lines, twisted 

 and curved in every direction over the surface of the shell ; length 

 2-32 X 1-55 inches. 



