32 
learnt that a species of Tern was breeding in great numbers, on 
a small sand-bank thirty miles due east of the latter island and 
close to the Great Barrier lteef. One of the fishing boats coming 
in on Saturday night, I took my gun and went on board ; sail 
was set soon after, but I did not reach the scene of operations 
till Monday morning, the 23rd of November, 1891. The bank 
was a very small one not more than twenty yards across, and 
about three or four feet above high water in the centre. On 
approaching it we could see the Terns sitting on tho sand in 
hundreds, also several of a very much larger species of sea¬ 
bird*, which I ascertained afterwards on landing were engaged 
in eating the eggs of the Terns, as I found a great number 
of the eggs with a large hole pecked in the side. The eggs of 
the Terns were placed on the bare sand, one to each bird for a 
sitting, and so close together as only to give the birds room to 
sit; there could have been no less than five or six hundred 
eggs on that portion of the bank occupied. Though the birds 
had been breeding more than a mouth, there were no young ones, 
tho fishermen informing me that the larger species we saw on 
the bank devoured the young ones directly they were hatched. 
I shot two of the parent-birds, and the men collected about two 
buckets full of eggs to cook.” 
The eggs are oval in form, some of which are sharply pointed 
at tho smaller end and vary in ground colour from a delicate 
reddish-white to stone and lustreless white, some specimens are 
boldly blotched and spotted with penumbral markings of purplish 
and reddish-brown, and underlying blotches and spots of bluish 
.and pearl-grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell; 
others are uniformly dotted and spotted with smaller markings 
of the same colours, but in all the specimens now before me the 
markings on the outer surface of the shell are mostly penumbral. 
Average specimens measure, length (A) 2 - 02 x 1 *47 inch; (B) 
2T x 1-4 inch; (C) 2-05 x 1-43 inch; (D) 2 08 x 1-42 inch. 
* Probably a Skua, 
