THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Nest. “ A fissure of a rock close to the water’s edge, without any nest ” (Gilbert). 
“Well concealed under a tussock of grass” (Macgillivray). 
Egg. Clutch, one ; ground-colour stone, spotted all over with rich chestnut, and smaller 
spots of grey ; axis 44 mm., diameter 31-32, 
Breeding-season. October (Macgilhvray) ; November and December (Gilbert). 
Gilbert,* who found this species breeding on Houtman’s Abrolhos, West 
Australia, says: “It commences breeding in the latter part of November 
and during the period of incubation it differs in its habits from all the other 
allied species, inasmuch as instead of being gregarious, each pair remains 
solitary, and its single egg is deposited in the fissure of a rock close to the 
water’s edge without any nest or flooring.” He further states that it was very 
seldom seen at Port Essington. 
MacgiUivrayt told Gould that he met this bird on Solitary Island, near 
Cape York ; subsequently it was found in Raine’s Islet by the late Com- 
mander Ince, R.N., and by himself on Bramble Quay, in Torres Strait, where 
it was breeding in small numbers, and where it deposits its single egg in the 
holes of the loose, friable coral sandstone ; and it was here, while turning over 
some of the shells of dead turtles, which had been apparently arranged by the 
natives who occasionally visit the place, that he was surprised to find beneath 
them several of these pretty Terns sitting on their egg without any nest. 
Mr. A. J. Campbell,! writing of this bird on the small islands near Rottnest 
Island in Western Australia, says : Some times the birds [when sitting on 
their eggs] were so far in the clefts of rocks as to be nearly in darkness. One 
of the sitting birds I caught was a male.” 
Mr. C. G. Gibson§ records a few of these Terns in Pelsart Island, breeding 
in the open, in company with “ Sooties ” {Onychoprion juscatus serratus). 
Messrs. Campbell and White, || writing on this Tern from the Capricorn 
group of Islands, Queensland, says : “ On Mast Head, on the 1 1th October, 
the first brown winged or Panayan Tern were observed on shore amongst the 
pandanus roots selecting nesting sites, and many were flushed in the evening 
from the ground scrub. Afterwards a few were seen flying by day, but by 
night they were heard by hundreds judging by their sharp, puppy-like barking 
notes and gurgling calls. These graceful Terns apparently arrive after dark 
to select their nesting-places — ^merely a hollow on the bare sand underneath 
vegetation, particularly under the stiff aerial roots of the pandanus palms,, 
* Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 411, 1865. 
t id., ib. 
J Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, p. 842, 1901. 
lEmu, Vol. VIII., p. 66, 1908. 
I|i6., Vol. X., p. 200,1910. 
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