APPENDIX. 
403 
Tern’s eggs, at the end of October and beginning of November, 
and noticed they were in far greater numbers than on the previous 
occasion, and that they were breeding all over the swamp, and 
hatl not only constructed fresh nests, but had utilized the ones 
from which I had taken the eggs, and also the disused ones of 
Tribouyx ventralis, and other birds. I examined a great number 
of nests all of which contained eggs.” 
The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, usually the 
latter, and vary in shape from oval to pyriform, the ground 
colour varies from bright green to pale olive brown, but the most 
usual variety found is of a dull greenish-grey, some specimens 
being boldly blotched and spotted with pennmbral markings of 
blackish-brown and umber-brown, particularly towards the larger 
end, others have freckles and dots of the same colour over the 
entire surface of the shell, in some instances a few large under¬ 
lying blotches of sepia appear, others are uniformly dotted and 
spotted with rounded markings of the same colour appearing as 
if beneath the shell, the latter variety closely resembling small 
eggs of Sarcioj,horns pectoralw. Two average sized sets taken on 
the 8th of November, measure as follows:—length (A) 1-57 x IT 
inch; (B) 1-55 x 1-07 inch; (0) 1'53 x 1T2 inch . (D)l'61xlTl 
inch ; (E) 1-53 x 1-05 inch ; (F) 1-48 x L07 inch. 
Hub. 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.) 
STERNA FRONTALIS, Or ay. 
(S. mclanorhyncha, 'Gould.) 
White-fronted Tern. 
Gould, llandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. G04, p. 398. 
Mr. Atkinson has forwarded the eggs together with the follow¬ 
ing note regarding the breeding of this bird :—“ The eggs of Sterna 
vielanorhyncha, were taken on Actreon Island in D’Entrecasteaux 
