BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND NOT FIGURED BY BULLER, 
Eggs. Clutch four to eight. The eggs of the “ species ” vary in an 
extraordinary way. The species extends from Spain and North Africa to 
East Asia and Australia. In Spam the eggs may he (1) white; (2) blue; 
(3) white with brown spots ; (4) blue with brown spots, etc. 
In the Balearic Isles only (1) and (2) types are known. In the Japanese 
birds all the eggs belong to type (3) and types (1), (2) and (4) are unknown. 
Chinese buds are very similar. The East Asiatic buds have eggs [white, 
occasionally with a faint bluish tinge, with bold spots of red-brown]. Average 
measurements 15.5 mm. by 11.5. 
Breeding-season. The spring, and varies in different localities. 
Sterna vittata (King Bird). Lays one or two eggs on bare, stony ground 
in November at Tristan da Cimha. Mostly they are single eggs, seldom two. 
Ground colour stone with small dark spots, mostly at the larger end. Some 
have the ground darker and are more heavily marked. They measure 45 
to 47.5 mm. by 31.5 to 33, the average of half a dozen being 46 by 32. 
Hypoleucus varius. Clutch three, 56 to 59.8 by 34 mm. Average 57.5 by 
34. October 27th. New Zealand. 
Hypoleucus chalconotus. Clutch two, 66 by 43 mm., 66 by 43.5. August 
8th. Otago Peninsula. 
Bruchigavia scopulinus. Clutch three, pale greenish-white, with dark brown 
spots ; 53 mm. by 37. December 4th. Dunedin. 
MEGADYPTES ANTIPODES. 
Writing in the Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum, Vol. I., 
No. 6, for September 26th, 1935, Falla, on p. 319, comments on the uniformity 
of size in these birds from Stewart Island. Apparently the bill in the males 
is slightly longer than in females. 
Adult birds show no variation in plumage except for the occurrence of a few 
white feathers in the upper tail-coverts of some birds, a feature that occurs in 
several other species. 
In life the feet are fleshy-white and the iris honey-yellow. 
The full clutch is invariably two, of about equal size, and generally not much 
vaiiation is shown in a series from one locality. The average measurements of 
eight eggs are 1 5.7 by 54.3 ; the extreme measurements being 74 by 55.5 and 
80 by 50 ; and 76 by 56.5 mm. 
Breeding-season September 22nd-October 27th, or even November 6th. 
• A r' e ^’S rmvn chick in secondary down, Stewart Island, December 12th, 
193... The bird weighed 2 lbs. 12 ozs. and measured 430 mm. from bill to tail. 
164 
