30 



AVIFAUNA OS LATSAN. 



White with a narrow black circle round the eyes. Shafts of remiges and rectnees dark 

 brown, white at the tips. Bill, tarsi, toes, and claws black, webbing between the toes 

 pale flesh-colour. Total length about 13 inches, wing 9 5, tail 5, culmen <ht to 0-5, 

 height of hill at base - 4, tarsus 0-5. 



The first plumage of the young is white, like that of the adult bird, only on the scapulars 

 some pale brown margins are visible. The nestling is covered with brownish down. 



MR. TTahtftrt (I c.) has separated the Gygis from the Caroline Islands (collected by Kittlitz) 

 subspecifically under the name of Gygis alba Httlitzi, chiefly on account of its smaller bill. 

 My specimens from Laysau and Lisiansky are of exactly the same measurements as 

 Mr. Hartert's type in the Frankfort Museum, and I must admit that they are very much 

 smaller than a series of specimens from the Kermadec Islands in my collection. Mr. Saunders, 

 however, will not admit the smaller subspecies, and as he has a greater material from very 

 many localities in the British Museum and in his own collection than I have at present, I 

 refrain from positively giving an opinion about it at present, though I feel sure, as all 

 the small specimens known have been obtained north of the Equator, and the large ones south 

 of it, that Mr. Hartert's opinion will prove correct. (I have given two photographs of this 

 bird illustrating its positions at rest.) 



Palmer found the White Tern in great abundance on Laysan and Lisiansky Islands. 

 They generally sat about on the ground in pairs, and deposited their eggs in a very careless 

 manner anywhere on the rocks or among the scrub ; but a peculiarity of this bird is that it 

 often lays its single egg in the forked branches of bushes. Its note is a low deep croak. 



The eegs are loutish oval, mostly equal at both ends, dull white or pale buff, light green 

 by transparent light. They are spotted and blotched with dark brown, often nearly blackish 

 brown, and with underlying spots of a pale purplish grey; some specimens are marked with 

 hair-like lines, and most of them have a more or less developed band around one end. They 

 measure 1-68 by 125, 1*7 by 1-25, 17 by 122, 175 by 122 inches, thus varying very little in 

 size and shape. 



