APPENDIX. 403 



Tern's eggs, at the end of October and beginning of November, 

 and noticed they were in far greater numbers than on the previous 

 occasion, and that they were breeding all over the swamp, and 

 had not only constructed fresh nests, but had utilized the ones 

 from which I had taken the eggs, and also the disused ones of 

 Tribonyx ventralis, and other birds. I examined a great number 

 of nests all of which contained eggs.'' 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, usually tlie 

 latter, and vary in shape from oval to pyriform, the ground 

 colour varies from bright green to pale olive brown, but the most 

 usual variety found is of a dull greenish-grey, some specimens 

 being boldly blotched and spotted with penumbral markings of 

 blackish-brown and umber-brown, particularly towards the larger 

 end, others have freckles and dots of the same colour over the 

 entire surface of the shell, in some instances a few large under- 

 lying blotches of sepia appear, others are uniformly dotted and 

 spotted with rounded markings of the same colour appearing as 

 if beneath the shell, the latter variety closely resembling small 

 eggs of Sarciophorus pectoralis. Two average sized sets taken on 

 the 8th of November, measure as follows : — length (A) 1'57 x I'l 

 inch; (B) 1-55 X 1-07 inch; (G) 1-53 x 112 inch . (D)l-.51xMl 

 inch ; (E) 1-53 x 1-05 inch ; (F) 1-48 x 1-07 inch. 



Hab. 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. {Ramsay.) 



STERNA FRONTALIS, Gray. 

 (S. inelanorhynclia, Gould.) 

 White-fronted Tern. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. ii., sp. 604, p. 398. 



Mr. Atkinson has forwarded the eggs together with the follow- 

 ing note regarding the breeding of this bird : — " The eggs of Sterna 

 melanorhynclm, were taken on Actajon, Island in D'Entrecasteaux 



