160 



Mr. North, in his published account of the birds on Lord Howe Island, has the following- 

 interesting remarks on this species : — 



This bird was found breeding on the rocky ledges and flat parts of the cliffs, but more often on the 

 bare sand ; little or no attempt was made at forming a nest, except in a few instances where a little debris 

 was found scraped around the single egg laid by this bird for sitting. Mr. Saunders, who visited the island 

 during the breeding season, collected a large number of the eggs during November. In a series of over one 

 hundred eggs examined, there is a great variation in the size, colour, and disposition of their markings. The 

 predominant form is oval, tapering slightly towards the small end, the colour a dull white, some being nearly 

 devoid of markings, others uniformly freckled and spotted over the whole surface of the shell with reddish- 

 brown markings, others have large irregularly-shaped confluent blotches of purplish-red and slaty-grey, the 

 latter appearing as if beneath the shell, these markings predominating — in some towards the larger end of the 

 eggs — and a number have rounded spots of rich-red evenly distributed over the surface of the shell. In 

 comparatively few instances do the markings assume the form of a zone. Measurements : 2 - 13 in. by 1*42 in. 



Mr. Etheridge also, writing of the same locality, says : — 



The white breast, white forehead and cheeks, and otherwise black plumage of this graceful species, with 

 the two long delicate tail-feathers, render it very conspicuous. In Gould's figure of Sterna fuliginosa the two 

 characteristic tail-feathers are represented as black with a white edging, whereas, in reality, they are quite white 

 with the slightest possible cloud on the inner margin. The egg is laid on the exposed surface, ledge or rock, 

 or on bare spots amongst grass, without protection of any kind, from immediately above high-water mark 

 upwards to the full height of the island. The eggs, which vary much in the mottling of the surface, are 

 plentiful at the beginning of September. 



Mr. Jennings, of the Otago Museum, showed me two eggs of this Tern, in his private 

 collection, received from the Kermadecs. They are broadly ovoid in shape, and white, marked 

 over the entire surface with spots and small splashes of rich umber-brown. At the larger end of 

 one of them, some of the markings are confluent ; the other is similarly marked, but the spots 

 are more minute and there is no confluence. These eggs are similar in size to those of 

 Sterna frontalis, to which they bear a general resemblance. 



Mr. Cheeseman, in his account of the birds of the Kermadec Islands, officially visited by him 

 in 1887, gives the following particulars respecting this Tern : — 



This species arrives at the end of August and remains until the end of December or middle of January. 

 According to Mr. Bell, it is one of the commonest sea-birds on the islands during this period, although very 

 rarely seen during the winter months. It is active and noisy, and its first act on arriving on the island is to 

 drive off the few hawks which are present. It is gregarious, breeding in immense colonies both on the main 

 island and the adjoining rocks, one of the largest breeding-places being on the sandy beach of Denham Bay. 

 Its nest is a slight bottom scooped out of the bare sand, and it only lays a single egg. The eggs seem to vary 

 in size, but the average of size in those sent by Mr. Bell is 21 in. by T5 in. The colour is a pale buffy- 

 white, copiously marked with blotches of reddish-brown. 



In the British Museum collection there are specimens from North America, Panama, 

 Jamaica, and the mouth of the Amazons; from Ascension Island, Fernando Po, Madagascar, 

 Mauritius, Seychelles, Ceylon, Duke of York Island, Australia, the Fiji Islands, Phcenix Island, 

 and the Sandwich Islands. It will be seen, therefore, that the species has an extensive range. 



