354 
STERNIDjE. 
or rushes growing in the water. Two eggs taken from a nest in a 
lagoon in the Loddon District of Victoria, in November 1883, 
are of a light greenish-grey, blotched, spotted and dotted all over 
with dark umber and wood-brown, but chiefly towards the larger 
end where the markings become more thickly disposed, and in a 
fow places confluent. Length (A) 1-52 x LOT inch ; (B) 1-5 x 
1'07 inch. 
Hah. Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, 
Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 
Interior, Victoria and South Australia, West and South-West; 
Australia. (Ramsay ) 
Genus STERNA, Linnceus. 
STERNA BERGII, Lichtenstein. 
(S. pelecanoid.es, King; T. poliocercus, Gould.) 
Torres Straits Tern. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Rds. Aust., Vol. ii., sps. G01, G02, pp. 394, 39G. 
This Torn is found all over the coast of Australia, the islands 
of Torres Straits and the South coast of New Guinea. The c"-\s 
are extremely variable in their markings, in a number of 
specimens now before me, no two are similar, they are oval in 
form and somewhat sharply pointed at the thinner end. I give a 
description of four eggs taken by the late Mr. S. White in Torres 
Straits, to attempt to describe all the different varieties would be 
an endless task. 
Var. A. Ground colour stone-grey with a few large blotches of 
umber scattered over the surface of the shell, clouded markings of 
bluish-grey appearing beneath the shell’s surface; length 2-23 x 
1'5G inches. 
Var. B. Ground colour stone-grey with long black lines, twisted 
and curved in every direction over the surface of the shell; length 
2'32 x 1 *55 inches. 
w-a 
