Viewing Conditions, and at Worst a Pointless Exercise Since the Populations Vary and Intergrade in Mantle Colour
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VOL. 8 (5) MARCH, 1980 LANE: Black-faced Shag Breeding 167 viewing conditions, and at worst a pointless exercise since the populations vary and intergrade in mantle colour. In his description of the birds in the Northern Territory, Boeke! stated that one bird was of a "slightly lighter shade on the dark back than the other". Yet van Tets and later the RAOU Checklist Amendment Committee (Emu 78: 86) boldly assign both birds to the nominate race of fuscus. British birds are known to have reached the Gulf of Guinea and, though less likely as far eastern vagrants, can hardly be excluded from reaching Australia on geographi cal grounds, especially if ship-assisted. From my experience of British and Scandinavian Lesser Black-backed Gulls in Europe and West Africa, and one hour's notes on Kelp or Dominican Gulls Larus dominicanus in Hobart Harbour, I am unable to find any feature of the wing-tip pattern by which the two species may be separated in the field. At Hobart, I could not make out any clearly subterminal white spots on the second (or other inner) primaries, which by van Tets's definition, ought to have been there. The only specimen of adult dominicanus that I have examined is one in the W.A. Museum. It has fresh, unabraded outer primaries and clearly shows a large sub terminal white spot on the outer primary, but only terminal white on the remaining primaries. The use of wingtip patterns as identification fea tures of the large Palaearctic gulls has elsewhere been discredited (see Brit. Birds 64: 285-288; 65: 85-87) and individual patterns are liable to obliteration through wear of the contour feathers. I would like to sug gest that observers finding black-backed gulls in northern Australia should concentrate on bill, leg and foot details rather than wingtip pat terns which are easily abraded or moulted. Of 20-30 adult Kelp Gulls which I saw at Hobart in October 1976, all legs appeared from greenish yellow through grey-green to light grey, whereas the legs and feet of adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls are usually bright-yellow, perhaps a shade more orange-yellow for some northern birds. A strongly migrant Lesser Black-backed Gull must be a not unlikely possibility for vagrancy to the northern coastline, but on the published t>vidence I submit that the record of Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Mel ville Bay is simply not good enough to be a first for Australia. By PETER J. CURRY, 29 Canning Mills Road, Kelmscott, W.A. 6111 ABW Black-faced Shags Breeding on Islands off Wilsons Promontory, Victoria. In June 1963, W. R . Wheeler (1964) reported Black-faced Shags Leucocarbo fuscescens breeding in the Bay of Islands near Peterborough, Victoria. Apparently, this was the first recorded breeding for the species in that state, while Serventy, et al. (1971), in addition to this location, listed other recorded breeding stations - in Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. The Black-faced Shag is distributed along the southern coast of Aus tralia and Tasmania, its stronghold being in South Australia, particularly in Spencer Gulf. It is not uncommon in small numbers around Wilsons Promontory and R . P. Cooper (1974) , in his summary stated "Mainly coastal. Present throughout the year. Nests on Flinders and King Islands." Apparently he was referring to the closest nesting locations known at the time. AUSTRALIAN 168 WREN: Arctic Terns, Cairns BIRD WATCHER · During a visit to Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, in November 1978, P. Muller (National Parks Service) informed me that cormorants had nested recently on Skull (or Cleft) Rock in the Anser Group. In Decem ber 1978, M. P. Harris and D. M . Deerson (in press) found unfledged young and juveniles on Notch Island in the Seal Island Group off the eastern coast of the Promontory; they were informed that the location was a regular nesting site. In November 1979, during a further visit with H. Battam to the islands off Wilsons Promontory, Black-faced Shags were found nesting on Dannevig Island in the Glennie Group on November 10. Thirty birds were counted sitting on nests on a steep, broken granite boulder slope in the centre of the eastern side of the island. A number of shags were roosting on a large, rounded boulder just below this site during our visit to Dannevig Island on November 24, 1978. The rock was well white-washed but there was no evidence of breeding on that occasion. References Cooper, R. P., 1974. The Avifauna of Wilson's Promontory, Part 3, Aust. Bird Watcher 5: 253-276. Harris, M. P. and D. M. Deerson (in press). Seabird Islands, Notch Island, Seal Island Group, Victoria. Serventy, D. L., V. N. Serventy and J. Warham, 1971. The Handbook of Australian Sea-birds. A. H. & A. W. Reed, Sydney. Wheeler, W. R., 1964. Black-faced Cormorant in Victoria, Aust. Bird Watcher 2: 89-90. By S. G. LANE, 65 Wood Street, Lane Cove, N.S.W. 2066. ABW Possible sighting of the Arctic Tern at Cairns, North Queensland On December 3, 1979, I was birdwatching on the Esplanade, Cairns, when I noticed a medium-sized tern in a group of Little Terns Sterna albifrons. As I moved to view the bird from a better position I noticed that it was larger than the Little Terns. I was also lucky to have two Gull-billed Terns Sterna nilotica, standing nearby and it could be clearly seen that the tern was much smaller than the two Gull-billed Terns. Luckily a friend of mine, Bill Whayman, was able to confirm my sighting. From our observations we concluded that the tern must either be the Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii, Common Tern Sterna hirundo, or the Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea. We took the following description of the bird: At rest: bird in non breeding plumage; length: 13 inches; head: extensive white forehead reaching up to the crown, from the crown to well below the nape is black; from the nape to the crown on each side of the black area there is a prominent white patch on the head; back: sooty grey; wing tips well pointed and extending over the tail where they cross; primaries: black edges; throat and breast: white; flank: white. I was unable to get the leg colour. In flight: forehead and black cap quite visible in flight, deeply forked tail; back and scapulars: sooty grey; rump: white; tip of tail: sooty grey but not as dark as the back; underparts: white. The flight of the bird resembled that of the Little Tern and while it was settled in with the group of Little Terns they did not seem to be .