. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 141 nests contained three eggs, but (luite a large number contained i'our, a few con- tained five, and four nests were loaded up with no less than six eggs each. It was indeed a delightful experience, viewing th-ose thousands of eggs rt'itli all their A^onderful variations in colour, markings, and size. Ordinarily the eggs vary from a pale olive-green ground sparsely to thickly covered with sepia and black markings, blotches, spots or hair-lines, to deep rich brown ground with similar markings, but some remarkab
. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 141 nests contained three eggs, but (luite a large number contained i'our, a few con- tained five, and four nests were loaded up with no less than six eggs each. It was indeed a delightful experience, viewing th-ose thousands of eggs rt'itli all their A^onderful variations in colour, markings, and size. Ordinarily the eggs vary from a pale olive-green ground sparsely to thickly covered with sepia and black markings, blotches, spots or hair-lines, to deep rich brown ground with similar markings, but some remarkable variations were seen; one with very deep green giound, having a broad ring of black round the thick end, and another with umber ground capped with black, gradu- ally merging into the brown, but witlrout other markings. Two distinct "muta- tions" were found, one being a beautiful pale blue absolutely devoid of markings, and the other having ivhite ground, sparsely streaked and spotted with pale red and purplish red suffused markings. On the occasion of a second visit a few vears later another clutch of this white and red mutation was found and photo- giaphed. Although Mr. Bailey had noted the ('rested Tein {Sterna bergii) nesting on the island, there were none on the occa- sion of my first visit. On the second visit I found a few of these graceful birds Itveeding on a shingly patch on the east- ern side of the north islet, about 30 eggs having been laid amongst the loose stones, without any attempt at making a nest. In one case there were two eggs, apparently laid by the same bird. The accompanying illustration shows how casually the eggs were deposited amongst the stones. On my second visit to Montague Island I found that the Wedge-tailed Shear- waters {Puffinus pacific us) had com- menced to construct their burrows pre- paratory to laying. This species is gradu- ally extending its range southward, while the Penguin is extending its range north- ward, as will be se
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
