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Show 336 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON BIRDS FROM DIEGO GARCIA. [June 29, nuptial dress at the date of Mr. Bourne's visit, whereas this example is not so. 5. BUTORIDES JAVANICA (Horsf.). " Macaque." [No. 1. d. Sept. 22nd, 1885. Eye light golden-yellow. Skin at base of beak yellow. No. 10. $. East islet, 28th October, 1885. These birds are common, and may be seen any evening standing by the rock-pools, or on the beach at low water, on the look-out for fish. They are rather shy, and when alarmed fly off with a shrill cry like kac-kac kac-kac kac^\ 6. TRINGA SUBARQUATA (Guldenst.). [No. 14. o*. Eye black. Tolerably common, frequenting spots where slimy mud is left bare at low water.] 7. NUMENIUS PHiEOPUs (Linn.). " Corbijeu." [No. 13. d . Eye black. Common, but very shy and difficult to approach. I only got one shot during m y stay.] 8. STREPSILAS INTERPRES (Linn.). " Alouette-de-Mer." [No. 6. $ . October 22nd, 1885. Eye dark brown. Common on soft marshy ground. They usually fly in flocks of twenty to thirty.] 9. DROMAS ARDEOLA. [No. 12. o*. Eye black. Common along the outer shores and in marshy places. Wary and difficult to approach.] The fact that the Crab-Plover breeds in burrows and lays a single white egg, similar to that of a Shearwater, has been known for some years. (See P. Z. S. 1881, p. 259.) 10. STERNA BERNSTEINI, Schlegel. " Goeland." [No. 9. d- October 9th, 1885. Eye black. Not common.] An immature specimen of this very rare Tern, the adult breeding-dress of which is still unknown. It is nearly of the size of Sterna bergii, from which it may be distinguished by the very light colour of the mantle and by the white tail-coverts. W e have yet to learn whether the adult in nuptial dress has a white frontal band at the base of the bill, as in S. bergii, or whether the black of the forehead comes down to the bill as in most other Terns. The present species is known from Halmaheira on the one side, and the Rodriguez waters on the other, and that is about all that can be said. The type from the first-named locality is in the Leyden Museum; there are two examples from Round Island and He de la Baleine, near Mauritius, in the collection of Messrs. A. and E. Newton ; two more from the island of Rodriguez are in the British Museum of Natural History : the present is the sixth example I have examined. |
