ANOUS. 



339 



hatched to fully feathered birds, and also many nests in course of construction. The eggs varied 

 from pure white to strongly marked specimens something like a Sooty Tern's egg. At Kaine 

 Island there were great numbers of these birds, but they had not commenced to nest." 



Mr. A. F. Smith wrote as follows from Cairns, Queensland : — " I paid a visit to the Upolu 

 Bank and Oyster Cay in November, 1904, to get sea bird's eggs. The birds were not nearly 

 so plentiful then as the previous year, according to accounts; however, I brought home about 

 ten dozen eggs of four species, Stcnin Ivrgii, S. media, S. fiili;j,inosa and A units stolidiis ; no others 

 were breeding. While the eggs varied from fresh to about half hatched, there were four young 

 Noddies almost able to fly on one island." 



From Perth, Western Australia, Mr. C. G. Gibson forwarded me the photograph from 

 which the figure on the preceding page is reproduced, and wrote : — " I took this photograph of the 

 Noddies (Auons stolidiis) nesting on the 13th November, 1907, on Rat Island, Houtman Abrolhos. 

 These l>irds were breeding in countless thousands on Pelsart Island, but were even more 

 numerous on Rat Island. They were breeding in company with the Sooty Tern (Steiiia 

 fitligiuosn)." 



Mr. Tom Carter wrote me from Broome Hill, South-western .Australia: — "The Noddy 

 (Auons stolidiis) is sometimes seen in immense flocks on low sandbanks about Fraser Island, at 

 Point Cloates, North-western Australia, in May. On one occasion I noticed from my house 

 (from which Fraser Island was distant about four miles) what appeared to be columns of smoke 

 rising from the island, and my natives also said it was smoke, so concluding that another crew 

 of shipwrecked mariners was stranded there, I sailed out in my cutter, taking provisions and 

 water, but on approaching the island we found that dense floclcs of Noddies circling in the air 

 were the cause of the illusion, and the aboriginals killed scores by throwing boomerangs 

 and sticks amongst the birds, to take home for food, as they were very fond of them." 



From Norfolk Island the late Dr. P. H. Metcalfe wrote :— " The Noddy (Auons stolidiis) is 

 very much the same size as the Sooty Tern, and breeds about a month later. It is found on 

 Norfolk Island, Phillip Island, Nepean Island and adjacent rocks. It lays but one egg for a 

 sitting, usually on sand, but I have seen an attempt at a nest, which was flat, formed of a few 

 sticks, twigs and seaweed on the sand, and once on the top of an old stump about two feet from 

 the ground. The egg is very like the Sooty Tern's, but with less markings, and the yolk is 

 always yellow. I have never seen a pure white one, as in the case of the Sooty Tern, than 

 which it is much less common." 



The nesting-place may either be on the bare earth, or rock, with debris consisting of short 

 sticks and shells scraped around it, or a small flat nest of sticks and twigs deposited on the tops 

 of coarse grasses, seaweed or dwarf rigid weeds, but usually a nest is constructed. Only one 

 egg is laid for a sitting. The eggs are oval or elongate-oval in form, some specimens being 

 rather pointed at the smaller end, the shell being fairly smooth, comparatively close-grained and 

 lustreless. Typically they are of a dull white ground colour, but not infrequently they are of a 

 faint cream or buffy-white hue, over which is sparingly distributed, but particularly on the 

 larger end, to which the markings are sometimes entirely confined, rounded and irregular-shaped 

 spots and blotches of different shades of purplish-red, purplish-brown and occasionally a dull 

 blood-red hue, with which are intermingled smaller underlying markings of faint purplish-red 

 and dull violet-grey, the latter colour being almost obsolete on some specimens. While some 

 are sparingly marked rather uniformly all over, in others the markings consist chiefly of a zone 

 or cap on the larger end ; others are minutely freckled over the remainder or the shell, and 

 rarely some have only a few large patches, or coalesced markings of different hues on one end or 

 side of the shell. There is not the variation to be found in the eggs of this species as in those 

 of Stei'ua fnliginosa, although some varieties of the Noddy closely resemble some of those of the 

 Sooty Tern. Three eggs taken by Mr. C. G. Gibson, on the 13th November, 1907, on Rat 



