about half a mile away, paying occasional visits to the nest in the mangrove; but, though I remained on Barrow Island about six weeks, up to the time of my departure no egg was laid in either nest. The breeding season commences about the end of June in these latitudes. On 5th July I found a full clutch in a nest built on a coral beach where a colony of Caspian Terns was nesting. The latter species did not appear to be troubled by the presence of the nesting Ospreys. About half a mile away was another nest placed on a ledge in a rocky cliff. On Bezout or Leper Island a pair had a nest on a precipitous spur of rock. These were the only nests not easily accessible. Near another nest, containing three eggs, a colony of White-fronted Ternlets was breeding. Mr. H. L. White writes me that for a small series these Dampier Archipelago eggs are richer in markings than any other he has previously examined. Certainly they are infinitely more beautiful than a set of four I obtained later on in the season on Dirk Hartog Island, some 500 miles further south. Once the young are hatched, their parents cater liberally for them. In a nest containing two fully fledged young, on Delambre Island, I counted the remains of twenty-seven fish, the majority but little eaten. On a close approach to this nest both young menaced me with open beak and outspread wings. They presented a noble appearance, with their angry, yellow eyes. Taking hold of them by the tips of their expanded wings, I gave them a start, when both flew gracefully out to sea, to return in a few minutes and perch on a large rock. Both parents, in the meantime, hovered anxiously overhead.
Newly-hatched young are covered with a dense fawn-coloured down. An infertile egg taken from a nest containing one young bird a week old has the ground colour almost yellow. The eggs varied considerably in the size and intensity of their markings, but, as a rule, large chocolate blotches prevailed. Some had underlying markings of neutral colour, and in one exceptionally handsome egg the markings nearly obscured the ground colour. In several sets infertile eggs occurred.
Haliæetus leucogaster. White-bellied Sea-Eagle.—The White-bellied Sea-Eagle occurs on many of the islands of the archipelago. Even those of a very small area possess a pair, but, with the exception of Barrow Island and some of the larger islands like Dolphin, Angle, and Gidley Islands, which lie near to the mainland, never more than one pair is found on the same island.
They are very conspicuous birds, and it was my practice, when landing on an island, to ascend the nearest and highest sand-hill and from thence take a sweeping glance around the horizon with my field-glasses. If Eagles were present, I seldom failed to discern their gleaming white heads and necks against the dark background. I had many interesting hours with this species, and in all must have examined about twenty nests. Hitherto I had always associated Eagles' nests with rocky precipices or huge, unclimbable forest trees. It was a new experience, therefore, to find nests on bushes, sand-hills, and even on the flat ground of the interior of an island and on the verge of a low cliff. In the Dampier Archipelago this species must begin nesting early in June, or even in May, for I found a nest on one island containing young at least ten days old on 13th July. The first nest I found containing a pair of eggs was on 6th July. The site was a low cliff on the west side of a rather small island. Before
