KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 52. N:0 |7. 3 
The specimens of ””/É are not like one another. One of them has the crown 
almost black mixed -with but a few white feathers and the bill coral-red, the other 
one has, on the other hand, a great deal of white in the crown of the head, and 
the bill is yellow-red, as in the rest. 
Moulting. — Two specimens are moulting in the wing. The first wing-feathers 
are growing out. These as well as the other spec. have pins at the top of the head. 
General in wintertime at the coast of Dampier land (Broome). 
Sterna gracilis GouLpD. 
Math. handl. n:r 122. 9 ad., Sunday Island !7/; 1911. 
Juvenal. — This specimen is a rather young bird with white forehead and a 
dark grey band along the upper wing-coverts. Centres of the two inner secondaries 
dark grey. 
Moulting. — Outer wings feathers of this juvenal are growing out. 
Was seen as single specimens on the rocks, where Sterna ancestheta was breeding. 
Sterna bergii LicHT. 
Math. handl. n:r 125. 9 ad. Freemantle ?5/9 1910; nestling Sunday Island 9/2 1911. 
The old bird from Freemantle is in summerplumage. The nestling was taken 
on small rocks near Sunday Island, where one bird was also shot. It was breeding 
in a colony of Sterna anaestheta. It was scattered among birds of the latter species 
in a very few pairs. 
Sterna anaestheta GEN. 
Math. handl. n:r 127. Nestling Sunday Island ?/2 1911. 
It is questionable whether this one is the nestling of that tern. The description 
in Cat. of Birds does not agree very well. 
Ecological. — This nestling was, however, taken on the rocks where Sterna 
anaestheta was breeding in colonies. It was two isolated sandstone rocks sticking 
out high above the sea north-east of Sunday Island. The 8th of Febr., when I was 
there, the terns had eggs or young. They were placed partly on the highest 
point of the rock, where thick grass was growing, partly and chiefly on the bare 
steep sides of the rocks. No nest was built, the eggs lay in a shallow depression 
in the ground. When the bird brooded in the grass, it was hidden by it. Some 
eggs lay in passages like tunnels in the grass, an excellent protection against the 
burning sun. As the birds were not very shy, some of them were taken by the hands. 
Ld 
