AUSTRALIAN WHITE TERN. 
gently fluttering them, ‘ tiptoes ’ sideways off the egg and hovers about, 
uttering a gutteral ‘ heech, heech.’ Both parents share in the task of incuba- 
tion, and when changing guard the male bird circles round, uttering his cry, 
and as he settles on the limb, balancing himself with raised wings, the hen 
sidles off, and he with equal caution takes her place. Although in a few 
instances I found birds inhabiting adjoining trees, they were generally widely 
scattered, and frequently a quarter of a mile was covered between nests. 
Owing to the dense growth and the height at which the birds laid their eggs, 
the most successful plan for locating them was to ascend to the top of a ridge 
and scan the trees growing on the opposite side of the gully. On a sunny 
day the gleaming white plumage of the bird was conspicuous against the dark 
green of the leaves or the grey of the branches. After noting the position 
of the tree, a plunge through the thick undergrowth to the bottom, and a 
toilsome scramble up the other side, led to a search for the inhabited tree, 
which often proved far more formidable to climb than it appeared from a 
distance. 
“ One egg, just chipping when found, was left to hatch out, 24th October. 
On the 31st I saw the young bird, a ball of black down, squatting unconcernedly 
on the bare limb while its parents were away searching for food. A week later 
it was still there, and had then grown nearly as large as its mother, but was 
still covered with the black down. Its mother flew up, and straddled over 
it, vainly endeavouring to cover it. There it sat blinking down at us, like a 
black picaninny in the arms of a white nurse.” 
The following account of the life-history of this bird is the best one I 
can find : — 
“ White Terns begin to arrive at Sunday Island usually about the first 
week in September, but they are most irregular in their time of arrival and 
date of laying. For instance, I may mention that a half-fledged young one 
was found on 29th November, 1908, while during the same season the last 
new-laid egg found was on the 10th January, 1909. The Terns are found 
in small colonies or in single pairs here and there along the east, south, and 
south-west coasts of the Island. They are not found on any of the outlaying 
rocks, nor, I beheve, on any other island of the Kermadec group. 
“ The birds arrive, generally, in very small numbers at a time, though 
large flocks, apparently just arrived, have sometimes been seen. They shttle 
almost at once on the trees in which they eventually breed. These trees they 
apparently occupy during the period of their stay, whether they breed or not. 
They always perch in them during the heat of the day and camp in them by 
night. Many fall victims to cats, for it is quite common to find three or four 
pairs (on one occasion as many as eight) mangled at the roots of a tree. These 
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