THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
The same writer* gives interesting dates of the nesting-operations on 
Montagu Island, as follows : “ The birds left the south island, where they 
congregate prior to nesting, on the 28th August. This is later than the date 
recorded in 1908 — viz., I5th August — and earlier than those of 1907 and 
1909, when they started in the first week in September and the 5th September 
respectively. They were a fortnight making their preparations, and the 
first egg was laid on 12th September, 1911. By the 14th idem they were in full 
swing. When we paid them a visit on the 10th October there were man}^ 
nests containing young birds in down.” 
Mr. Tom Tregellas says this bird is plentiful everywhere on the coast 
of Victoria ; on the approach of rough weather they come inland to the rivers 
and lagoons, and feed on worms and slugs. It is a non-migrant. 
Mr. A. J. Northf says this bird is very common in all the bays and inlets 
and on the coast, and it frequents grass-paddocks inland after a succession 
of gales. “ Large flocks of these birds settling together on the water often 
denote to fishermen where a good haul may be made.” 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected on Mud Island, 
off Victoria, on November 25th, 1911, by Mr. Tom TregeUas. 
I propose under this, the typical subspecies, to deal with the synonymy 
of this and allied forms, and also to treat the matter of the pattern of the 
primaries, which was utilised by Saunders for the differentiation of this and 
allied species. 
This bird seems to have been first discovered by Forster, but his description 
did not appear until 1844. How it escaped nomination until 1826 I am at a 
loss to explain. It is included in Forster’s drawings, and Latham saw it 
among the Watling drawings. From these he described the Pacific GuU, but 
not this one, in the Index Ornith. Suppl. In his Gen. Hist. Birds, prepared 
more at his leisure, he included the Crimson-billed Gull, and this description 
was given the Latin name Larus novce-hollandice by Stephens in Shaw’s 
Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., p. 196, 1826 as follows : — 
La. albus, dorso alisque argenteo-griseis, rostro pedibusque coccineis. White Gxdl 
with the back and wings silvery-grey, the beak and legs crimson. 
Crimson-billed Gull. Lath., Gen. Hist., Vol. X., p. 145. 
“ Length, seventeen or eighteen inches ; beak from gape to point two inches, colour 
crimson ; irides yellow-hazel ; eyelids dotted with crimson ; head, neck and under parts 
of the body white ; back and wings pale silvery grey ; outer border of the wings white ; 
some of the greater quills chiefly white, but two or three for the greater part black ; all 
of them are white near the ends, for an inch or more, and some of the tips are black ; these 
are so long as to reach an inch beyond the end of the tail, which is white ; leg crimson ; 
webs and toes the same, but of the former rather darker ; claws black. Inhabits New 
Holland ; not infrequent at New South Wales, most so in April.” Latham. 
* Emu> Vol. XI., p. 204, 1912. 
f Birds County Cumber., 'p. 113, 1898. 
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