THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Metcalfe* says it does not breed in colonies on Norfolk Island. He found 
eleven trees used in one locality, but never saw two eggs on one tree. He 
found the nest placed from 20 to 60 feet from the ground, but 30 to 40 feet 
was perhaps the average height. It always chooses a sheltered situation, 
generally in a valley, and at a variable distance from the sea, from 300 to 800 
yards. Year after year the birds lay on the same spot on the branch. “ There 
is one tree where I have seen the old bird sitting once last year and twice this 
year, for I got both eggs. The first I took on the 27th of December, 1883. 
It was incubated. The second was all but quite fresh on the 25th of January, 
1884. In four other trees I have also found eggs on the same spots as I found 
eggs or young birds last year. These Terns are very tame, and in one case 
we lifted up the bird to take the egg. It is interesting to watch the careful 
way in which the old bird gets oh her egg when going to fly. I have found 
the eggs on three different kinds of trees, viz., the white oak {Lagunaria 
'patersoni), the iron-wood {Notelaca longifolio) and the blood-wood {Baloghia 
luGida)^ 
Mr. Tom Iredalef says the first birds to arrive on Sunday Island (Kermadec 
Islands) in the spring, come early in October, but no eggs were found on 
November 11th. Only a few pair breed on this island. 
Mr. Hull,J who went to Norfolk Island to study this bird, confirms most 
of -what is written above. He gives some notes on the “ nest ” in the 
Lagunaria patersoni : “ This tree is given to sending out shoots, which die 
and leave a small hole around which the bark thickens into a ridge an inch or 
more in height, thus forming an admirable resting-place for the Tern’s egg. 
The broad, flattish, upper surface of the Kmbs of the other trees, frequently 
overgrown with lichens or masses of Spanish moss with pendent streamers, 
also offer reasonably secure accommodation for the eggs, while less frequently 
the moss-grown lower branches of the Norfolk Island Pine-tree {Araucaria 
excelsa) are utilised. No material to form a support of any kind for the egg 
is added to the spot selected for its resting place. 
“ The Tern generally selects trees sheltered from the direct face of the 
prevailing winds from the sea, and the sitting bird puffs out its breast-feathers 
so as to completely hide the egg, depressing its forked tail so as to obtain as 
secure a hold as possible, and sits with its beak pointing into the eye of the 
wind, so as to offer the least resistance. Its position may thus be either facing 
along the limb, or across it diagonally, or at right angles. It sits close until 
the intending robber is almost within reach, when it raises its wings and, 
» Ibis, 1885, p. 266. 
■f Emu, Vol. X., p. 9, 1910. 
XProc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXXIV., p. 661, 1910. 
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