666 A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



b. — The Egg Birds (Sterna, sev. sp.). 



Under the name of " Egg Birds," the early writers included all 

 the species of terns that were breeding, of which there may have 

 been several. Hughes designated two kinds, viz : " Sandie Birds and 

 Noddies." 



The numbers of the Egg Birds originally breeding on some of 

 the smaller islands must have been exceedingly great. But owing 

 to the reckless and heartless manner in which they were destroyed, 

 with their eggs and young, it took but a few years to exterminate 

 them, or so nearly so that they ceased to breed in any noticeable 

 numbers, and onlv on the most inaccessible rocks. 



They are now known only as migrants. As breeding birds they 

 have long been extinct at the Bermudas, the last records of their 

 breeding, even in small numbers, being about fifty years ago. 



Capt. John Smith, in the 1829 edition of his History, says that 

 both the egg birds and the cahows were even then "all gone." 



William Strachy, of Somers' party, described them in 1610 : 



" There is fowle in great number upon the Hands, where they 

 breed, that there hath beene taken in two or three houres, a thousand 

 at the least : the bird being of the bignes of a good Pidgeon, and 

 layeth egges as big as Hen egges upon the sand, where they come 

 and lay them dayty, although men sit downe amongst them : that 

 there hath beene taken up in one morning by Sir Thomas Gates' 

 men one thousand of Egges : and Sir George Sommers' men, coming 

 a little distance of time after them, have stayed there whilst they 

 came and layed their eggs amongst them, that they brought away as 

 many more with them ; with many young birds very fat and sweet." 



The Rev. Lewis Hughes, who recognized two kinds of egg birds, 

 noticed the regularity with which these and the Cahow returned each 

 year. He says : 



" When the Cahouze time is out, other birds called noddies and 

 sandie birds come in, and continue till the latter end of August." 



Governor Moore, in 1612, gives the following graphic account of 

 the abundance of the Egg Birds at that date : 



" And for fowle wee went the third day of our arrival unto the 

 Bird Hands* (as we call them) and using neither sticke nor stone 

 bowe nor gunne wee tooke them up in our hands so many as we 



* One of these was undoubtedly Long Bird Island. They probably bred also 

 on Cooper's Island, Charles Island, Castle Island, and several other small islands 

 where there was sandy soil. 



