APPENDIX. 



405 



with minute freckles, dots, spots, and a few penumbral blotches 

 of different shades of umber-brown uniformly dispersed over the 

 surface of the shell, obsolete markings of the same colour, and 

 deep bluish-grey also appear. Length 1-33 x 1-01 inch. Mr. 

 Atkinson obtained another nest in the same locality together 

 with the bird, each of which contained but a single egg, but two 

 is the usual number laid for a sitting, 



Hob. Wide Bay District, New South Wales, Victoria, South 

 Australia, Tasmania, West and South west Australia. {Ramsay.) 



STERNULA SINENSIS, Qmelin. 

 (S. placens, Gould.) 

 Chinese Tern, White-shafted Temlet, &c. 

 Gould, Ann. <fc Mag. Fat. Hist. (4), Vol. viii., p. 192. 



This bird was found breeding by Messrs. Grime & Yardley, 

 during a visit to the Tweed River Heads on the 7th October, 

 1889. The eggs two in number for a sitting were laid in a slight 

 depression in the sand, all the eggs taken at that time being in 

 an advanced stage of incubation ; in form they vary from true 

 ovals to swollen ovals, terminating somewhat abruptly at one 

 end, some of them being of a stone-grey ground colour, others a 

 light coffee-brown, with rounded spots and irregular shaped 

 penumbral blotches of umber-brown and dark slaty-grey, the 

 latter colour in some instances predominating and appearing as 

 if beneath the surface of the shell. Four specimens measure as 

 follows :— (A) 1-28 x 0-95 inch ; (B) 1-27 x 0-94 inch ; (C) 1-18 x 

 0-95 inch ; (D) 1"25 x 0-9 inch. Skins of the parent birds were 

 obtained and forwarded with the eggs for identification.* 



Hc^. Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port 

 Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 

 Districts, New South Wales, South Coast of New Guinea. 

 {Samsay.) 



* North, Records Australian Musevua, (1890) Vol. i., p. 39. 



