(ESTRELATA MOLLIS. 



overhead at night, and are never seen during the day, breed in burrows in great 

 numbers about the summit of Mont Mou, in New Caledonia. The eggs in February- 

 were almost ready for hatching, and were of a dirty white stained with red earth, 

 slightly pointed at one end, not oval ; axis, 2.1 inches, diam., 1.6 (Ibis, 1882, p. 539). 



(E. mollis is said by nearly all the naturalists who have observed it to be very rapid 

 in its flight, which is peculiar from the singular manner in which the bird holds its 

 wings, somewhat bent back like those of a Sandpiper ; it generally flies at some 

 height above the water. 



In the stomach of several specimens examined by Giglioli many beaks of cephalopods 

 were found. 



Adult female. General colour above slaty-grey, with lighter and nearly 

 imperceptible margins of pale ash-colour ; longer scapulars, and the wing-coverts 

 more of a blackish-brown, the greater wing-coverts and scapulars shaded with 

 ashy-grey, and having narrow, and more or less obsolete, fringes of hoary-white ; 

 quills blackish-brown, ashy for the greater part of the inner web, the secondaries 

 blackish-brown, externally shaded with ashy-grey like the greater coverts, and, like 

 the latter, fringed with hoary-white ; lower back and rump a little more dusky than 

 the rest of the back ; upper tail-coverts and tail ashy-grey, dusky-brown on the inner 

 webs of some of the rectrices, the three outer tail-feathers mostly white on their inner 

 webs, and vermiculated with ashy-grey ; crown of head browner and darker than the 

 back, with a shade of ashy-grey ; base of forehead slightly mottled with white ; lores, 

 sides of face, and cheeks white, sparsely spotted with dusky grey tips to the feathers ; 

 ear-coverts dusky-brown like the head, the feathers round the eye and a patch below 

 the latter, black, extending over the fore-part of the ear-coverts ; throat and entire 

 under-surface of body, pure white ; sides of fore-neck uniform ashy-grey like the sides 

 of the neck ; the lower throat and centre of upper fore-neck barred with wavy lines of 

 dark ashy-grey, forming a broken and not very distinct collar ; on the sides of the body 

 a few similar wavy bars of ashy-grey, sometimes taking the form of arrow-head 

 markings ; under tail-coverts white ; under wing-coverts dark slaty-brown with white 

 margins, the marginal coverts darker and blacker ; axillaries dark slate-colour, with 

 distinct terminal fringes of white, the bases white, and some axillaries white, freckled 

 all over with slaty-grey ; quills blackish below, the inner webs slaty-grey almost for 

 their entire length, the primaries edged internally with white, the secondaries entirely 

 slaty-grey below ; " bill black ; feet livid flesh-colour, with a brown spot on the 

 membrane ; iris dull chestnut-brown " (MSS. note on specimen). Total length 

 about 12.5 inches; culmen, 1.0; wing 8.8; tail, 3.7; tarsus, 1.3; middle toe and 

 claw, 1.75. 



According to Giglioli, the bill is black, the tarsus and the basal third of the feet 

 flesh-colour, the remainder black ; the iris brown. 



CE. mollis shows considerable variation in the amount of grey which forms the 



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