31 
13th of December, 1890, are oval in form, tapering somewhat 
sharply to the smaller end, the ground colour is of a greyish-white, 
and is almost obscured with minute freckles of pale umber-brown 
while sparingly distributed over the surface of the shell are 
conspicuous spots and blotches of dark slaty-grey, which in some 
places approach an inky-black hue. Length (A) 0-97 x 0-73 inch, 
(B) 098 x 0'73 inch. These eggs can easily be distinguished from 
those of T. velox , by being much darker and the surface of the 
shell bright and glossy. During the same month, eggs of 
Excalfatoria australis were procured in the same locality. The 
latter species, Mr. J. A. Boyd informs me, is very common on 
the Herbert River. 
STERNA MEDIA, Ilorsfield. 
Crested Tern. 
Sterna media, Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc., 1820, xiii., p. 198. 
Sterna lengalensis, Lesson, Traite d’Orn., p. 621 (1831); Gould, 
Handbk. Bds. Austr., Yol. ii., p. 327, sp. 603 (1865). 
Thalasseus torresii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., (1842), p. 142 ; id. 
Bds. Austr., fol. Yol. vii. pi. 25. 
This species of Tern has a most extensive range of habitat. It 
is found frequenting the Northern and Eastern coast of Africa> 
the Red Sea, and the southern shores of Asia, the Indo-Malayan 
and Austro-Malayan Archipelago, and the Northern and Eastern 
coasts of Australia. 
Mr. H. Grensill Barnard, who has lately returned from a 
collecting tour in the islands contiguous to the coast of North¬ 
eastern Queensland, has kindly sent the following interesting 
notes respecting the nidification of this Tern, also several of its 
eggs description, and a skin of one of the parent birds for 
identification. 
“ In conversation with the keeper of a fishing station on a 
small island, about six miles south of North Barnard Island, I 
