6o BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
noted a pair flying high over the north-eastern end 
of the Eastern Park, making southwards towards the 
ocean. In 1912 I saw a solitary bird, on October 6th, 
hawking up and down the lower reaches of Bream 
Creek, close to the sandhills, and on November 3rd 
another on the south shore of Connewarre, near the 
Bald Hill. 
Like all the larger Terns, the Caspian breeds not 
on the mainland, but on the tussocky islands of Bass 
Strait. On a visit to the Furneaux Group, in No- 
vember, 1 90 1, I found that this Tern, though not 
uncommon, lived in pairs, and never in large com- 
panies as most of the others do. Whenever we saw 
a pair hovering about an islet, we tried to find the 
nest, and were twice successful. The first time, 
knowing that the birds were said to nest on the 
summit of the island, I carefully scrutinised the 
ground as I ascended, and yet all but walked on the 
pair of handsome eggs, lying in a slight shell-lined 
hollow of the black friable soil, rather like a large 
dotterel's nest, and not in the least resembling the 
nest of the Pacific Gull, whose eggs, though smaller, 
are like the Tern's, and might be confused with them 
were the nests not so entirely different. 
On another islet we found a pair of young in down 
near the spot where they had been hatched, on the 
topmost ridge of all. Always in the breeding-season 
these birds are very noisy, and fly screaming about 
the nesting island, as if fearing for the safety of their 
eggs or young. 
