ANGUS. 359 



where Mr. Macgillivray found it breeding in great numbers during 

 1862. The nest is composed of small twigs and seaweed and is 

 placed on the top of a bush, at other times upon the sand, it 

 never contains more than a single egg. Like all the Terns' eggs 

 they are extremely variable in their markings, the most usual 

 variety found is of a creamy-white ground colour, with clouded 

 spots and blotches of chestnut-red and faint bluish-grey, the latter 

 colour appearing as if beneath the shell's surface ; these markings 

 are more thickly disposed towards the larger end of the egg, and 

 in some specimens form an irregular zone. The average length 

 of a number of specimens is 1"98 x 1"39 inch. 



A specimen in the Macleayan Museum Collection taken on 

 Bramble Cay on the 13th of August 1875, measures 2-1 inches by 

 147 inch. 



Hah. 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, West and South- West Australia, 

 South Coast New Guinea. (^Ramsay.) 



__,_^ ANGUS TENUIROSTRIS, Temminck. 



(A. melanops, Gould.) 

 The Lesser Noddy. 

 Oould, Randbh. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 614, p. 417. 



Gilbert found this species breeding in great numbers on South 

 Island, Houtmann's Abrolhos, forming a nest of seaweed on the 

 branches of the mangroves and placed at a height of from four to 

 ten feet from the ground. " Like its near ally, A. stolidus, it 

 commences the task of incubation in December, and lays but a 

 single egg. The egg is of a pale stone or cream colour, marked 

 all over with large irregular-shaped blotches of dull chestnut-red 

 and dark brown, the latter colour appearing as if- beneath the 

 surface of the shell ; the blotches are thinly dispersed except at 

 the larger end, where they are largest and most numerous ; it is 



