404 APPENDIX. 



Channel, South-east Tasmania, by Mr. J. Graves. They were laid 

 just above high water mark, and like our other Terns in a slight 

 hollow in the bare ground. The eggs are two for a sitting, and 

 large numbers of these birds were nesting close together in the 

 same locality." The eggs are lengthened ovals slightly pointed 

 at the smaller end, and are of a stone-grey ground colour, one 

 specimen (A) being thickly covered all over with rounded dots 

 and spots of different shades of olive-brown and dark umber, 

 obsolete markings of the same colour appearing as if beneath the 

 surface of the shell ; the other specimen (B) is irregularly blotched 

 and streaked with short wavy markings of the same colour, 

 becoming confluent in some places towards the larger end, all the 

 markings being larger than on the previous specimen, but not so 

 thickly dispersed over the surface of the shell. Length (A) 1 '83 

 X 1 "3 inch ; (B) 2 x 1 -34 inch. Another specimen is smaller, and 

 is of a light coffee-brown, with irregular shaped spots of rich 

 umber-brown scattered over the surf'Bce of the ^ell ; a .few large 

 blotches and fine streaks, together with obsolete markings of the 

 same colour appear towards the larger end. Length 1'75 x 

 1-23 inch. 



Hob. Derby, N. W. Australia, Port Darwin, Port Essington, 

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

 Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania. {Ramsay.) 



STERNULA NEREIS, GouU. 

 Fairy Tern. 

 Gould, Handbh. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 607, p. 402. 



An egg of this species taken by Mr. E. D. Atkinson on 14th 

 November, 1889, from a slight hollow in a loose shelly sand bank 

 near the shore of Mosquito Sound, Walker's Island, in Bass's 

 Straits, is similar to that of the following species, S. sinensis, but is 

 slightly larger. It is a swollen oval in form, somewhat sharply 

 pointed at the smaller end, of a pale stone-grey ground colour. 



