STEENA. 



355 



Var. C. Ground colour light brown, with a large coalesced patch 

 of brownish-black on the thicker end; length 2'3 x 1'58 inches. 



Var. D. Ground colour light reddish-buff heavily blotched all 

 over the surface of the shell with dark blackish-red markings ; 

 length 2-29 x 1-57 inches. 



These eggs were taken in the month of July. 



Hab. Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 

 Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 

 Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South- West 

 Australia, South Coast of New Guinea. (Samsay.) 



STERNA ANGLICA, Mont. 



(Gelochelidon macrotarsa, Gould.) 



Long-legged Tern. 



Gould, Handhh. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 608, p. 403. 7V^ -? 



This species is found on the eastern and south-eastern portions 

 of Australia, it likewise ranges very far inland, where it resorts 

 to breed. It formerly bred in large colonies near the shores of 

 Lake Bolac in Victoria, from whence numerous specimens were 

 obtained. Mr. K. H. Bennett also found them breeding in the 

 interior of New South Wales; from his MSS. I extract the following: 



" On two occasions (1870 and 1872) I have known S. anglica, 

 to breed in the Ivanhoe district. In both instances the sites 

 chosen were similar, viz., a sandy bank rising some two or three 

 feet above the surrounding plain, and thickly covered with dwarf 

 saltbush ; these breeding places were about forty miles apart, in 

 one case close to a wide sheet of water, and in the other quite 

 two miles away from the nearest water. At both places hundreds 

 of the birds were breeding, and the eggs, two in number for 

 a sitting, were deposited on the bare ground, and so closely 

 together that care was required when walking so as not to step 

 upon them," 



