THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Immature. Pure white below, except for a few minute grey spots on the fore-neck ; the 
feathers of the back with substantial dark brown spots and fringed with sandy- 
buff ; lesser wing-coverts blackish, fringed with white hke the bastard-wing and 
primary-coverts ; median and greater coverts ash-grey fringed with white ; primary- 
quills hoary-grey fringed with white on the inner webs, the inner primaries tipped 
and margined with white on both webs ; secondaries white with dark slate-colour 
on the outer webs ; scapulars white at base becoming sandy-buff towards the tips, 
with two longitudinal brown streaks on each side of the shaft which converge at 
the tip. These brown marks do not always follow the same course : sometimes 
they form twin spots, whereas in others they are irregular bars ; rump and upper 
tail-coverts faintly marked with grey, but some of the feathers have darker pear- 
shaped spots ; middle tail-feathers are white, with dark grey running longitudinally 
towards the tips and margined with white, the outer feathers dark brown, tipped 
with white and fringed with the same colour near the base ; feathers of the hind- 
neck white, with an apical spot of black and fringed with sandy-buff ; feathers of the 
head white at the base, centred with black and fringed with buff, the black being more 
pronounced on the nape and sides of crown ; a black spot in front of each eye. 
Nestling in down. Buffy-white, darker on the throat and paler on the abdomen, with an 
admixture of black on all the upper -parts, except the head. 
Nest. A depression in the sand. 
Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour stone, marked aU over, but more at the larger end, 
with dark purple and brown spots ; axis 63 mm., diameter 45. 
Nesting-season. March, April, May, August, September, and November, West Austraha 
(Carter) ; October and November, island in Franklin Sound (Belcher). 
The succeeding notes will show once more the necessity of only quoting 
habits which absolutely refer to the subspecies under notice. Though the 
Australian form has been lumped with the Palsearctic, it has quite a different 
life-history from the northern forms. Gould, conversant with both Palsearctic 
and Australian birds, immediately indicated these differences upon receipt of 
Gilbert’s notes. The European forms appear to breed in colonies, but, as will be 
gathered from the following, our Australian subspecies never does. 
It would seem that Peron was the first naturalist to note this form, as 
on p. 216 i Voy. Decouv. Terres. Austr., Vol. L, 1807) is written : “ La troisieme 
etoit egalement inconnue aux naturalistes, et d’apres ses rapports avec le 
Sterna Caspia, Lin., elle requt le nom de Sterna Gaspioidesy Owing to the 
death of that clever ornithologist, the description was never published, so 
that the nude name above quoted may be referable to the next species, as 
I wiU there point out. 
Mr. Tom Carter says this species is “ A resident and fairly common species 
on the north-west coast, not being seen in large flocks, but one or two pairs 
would frequent each sandy point or small island. I have seen a few' birds 
in the harbours near Albany. Two eggs is the usual full clutch, and they are 
laid in a slight hollow in the sand on islands, and sandy spots, and occasionally 
I have found them on the mainland at some httle distance from the sea (100 
yards or so) on a sand hill about thirty feet in height. The loud, harsh notes 
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