BY A. F. BASSET HULL. 657 



A single egg is laid for a sitting, and the nest is seldom much 

 more than a depression in the sand which has drifted into the 

 ere vice,withafewbitsof grass or dry sea weed loosely scattered about. 

 The egg is very fragile, somewhat similar in general appearance 

 to that of the Noddy, but the ground-colour is more a greyish 

 stone-colour. The reddish-brown spots are sparingly distributed 

 over the whole shell, and a few purplish-grey suffused markings 

 are also generally distributed. In shape they are more or less 

 pointed ovals, and they vary considerably in size. Dimensions : 

 (1)1-7 X l-2(Admiralty Islet, 15/x./07); (2)1 -8 x l-2(Lord Howe L, 

 26/ix./08); (3)l-65xM8(Lord Howe I., 26/x./08); (4)1-6 x M6 

 (Nepean Island, 15/x./08); (5)1-6 x M2(Nepean Island, 15/x./08); 

 (6)1-5 X M2(Nepean Island, 31/x./08). 



133(M). IS.Anous stolidus Linnaeus. 



Noddy; Noddy(L.H.I., and N.I.). 



Anous stolidus, Crowfoot, p. 264; Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 

 S. Wales, ii., 2nd Ser., p.678, 1887; Ramsay, p.38; North, 'Nests 

 and Eggs,' p. 375; North, 'Lord Howe Island,' p. 46; Etheridge, 

 p.l5; Cat. Birds Eggs, B.M., i. p.l9S, 1901; Campbell, p.851. 



Hab. — Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. (Tropical and juxta- 

 tropical seas of the world). 



At Lord Howe Island the Noddy breeds only on the Admiralty 

 Islets, visiting the main island for feeding purposes only. During 

 my visit to the large Admiralty Islet, I found several hundreds 

 of these birds nesting amongst the twisted limbs of some dead 

 shrubs lining the edge of a cliff. The nests were constructed of 

 dry grass and seaweed loosely packed together, with a moderate 

 depression in the centre; they were placed very close together, 

 the shrubs being literally covered with them. Later comers who 

 had failed to secure a branch had fain to be content with the 

 ground beneath the bushes. The eggs were for the most part 

 far advanced in incubation(16/x./07). 



At Norfolk Island the Noddy also avoids the main island, 

 breeding only on the rocky islets, Nepean and Phillip Islands. 

 On Nepean Island I saw large numbers of birds on October 15th, 

 68 



