286 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



many other birds of similar appetites and propensities, they 

 are seen in great flights assiduously following the shoals of 

 their finny prey. They pursue them by flying near the 

 surface of the water, and may now be seen continually 

 dropping on the small fish, which approach the surface to 

 shun the persecution of the greater kinds by whom they are 

 also harassed. A rippling and silvery whiteness in the 

 water marks the course of the timid and tumultuous shoals; 

 and the w^iole air resounds wdth the clangor of these glut- 

 tonous and greedy birds, who exulting or contending for 

 success, fill the air M'ith their varied but discordant cries. 

 Where the strongest rippling appears there the thickest 

 swarms of Noddys and sea fowl are uniformly assembled. 

 They frequently fly on board of ships at sea, and are 

 so stupid or indolent on such occasions, as to suffer them- 

 selves to be taken by the hand from the yards on which 

 they settle ; they sometimes, however, when seized, bite and 

 scratch with great resolution ; leading one to imagine, 

 that they are disabled often from flight by excessive fatigue 

 or hunger. 



The Noddys breed in great numbers in the Bahama 

 islands, laying their eggs on the bare shelvings of the rocks ; 

 they also breed on the Roca Islands and various parts of 

 the coast of Brazil and Cayenne. According to the ac- 

 counts of voyagers they lay vast numbers of eggs on cer- 

 tain rocky isles contiguous to St. Helena, and the eggs are 

 there accounted a delicate food. Some have imagined that 

 the appearance of the Noddy at sea indicates the proximity 

 of land, but in the manner of the Common Tern, they 

 adventure out to sea, and like the mariner himself, the 

 shelter of whose friendly vessel they seek, they often voyage 

 at random, for several days at a time, committing them- 

 selves to the mercy of the boundless ocean ; and having at 

 certain seasons no predilection for places, where the cli- 



