MICRANUUS im 



Museums. For an opportunity of describiiiL; this species I am indebted to Mr. Bernard Woodward, 

 Director of the Western Australian Museum, Perth, who kindly forwarded me specimens 

 collected by Mr. Otto Lipfert in 1894, and from which the preceding descriptions are taken. 



Gould described this species in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," in 

 1S45, and liptured it in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia," under the name of Anoiis 

 inelanops, from specimens procured by Gilbert on Houtman Abrolhos. Writing of it in his 

 "Handbook to the Birds of Australia,- Gould remarks :—" On the Houtman Abrolhos it 

 is even more numerous than the A. stoluius; like that bird it is truly gregarious, the nests being 

 arranged as closely as possible on the branches of the mangrove, at a height of from four to ten 

 feet above the ground, the seaweed, of which each nest is constructed, being merely thrown 

 across the branch, without any regard to form, until it has accumulated to a mass varying from 

 two to four inches in height ; in many instances long pieces of seaweed hang down beneath the 

 branch, giving it the appearance of a much larger structure than the reality ; the nests and the 

 branches of the trees are completely whitened with the excrement of the bird, the disagreeable 

 and sickly odour of which is perceptible at a distance. South Island, Houtman Abrolhos, 

 appears to be the only one resorted to for the purposes of nidilication, for although large 

 mangroves occur on others of the neighbouring islands, it was not observed on any of them. I 

 have seen many vast flocks of birds, says Gilbert, but I confess I was not at all prepared for 

 the surprise I experienced on witnessing the amazing clouds, literally speaking, of these birds, 

 when congregating in the evening, while they had their young to feed. Durmg their alternate 

 departure and return with food, they presented a most singular appearance. From their breeding- 

 place to the outer reef, beyond the smooth water, the distance is four miles, and over this space 

 the numbers constantly passing were in such close array that they formed one continuous and 

 unbroken line. After the young birds were able to accompany their parents, I observed that 

 they all left the breeding or roosting-place in the morning, and did not again return until the 

 evening, the first comers apparently awaiting the arrival of the last before roosting for the night. 

 It is when thus assembling that their immense numbers strike you with astonishment. Even 

 those who have witnessed the vast flights of the Passenger Pigeon, so vividly described by 

 Audubon, could hardly avoid expressing surprise at seeing the multitudes of these birds, which 

 at sunset move in one dense mass over and around the roosting-places, when the noise of the old 

 birds, the quack and the piping whistle of the young ones, are almost deafening. Like its near 

 ally it commences the task of incubation in December, and lays but a single egg; while sitting 

 on which, or tending its young, it is very easily caught, as it will suffer itself to be taken off the 

 nest rather than quit it. It forms an excellent article of food, and several hundreds were daily 

 killed during our stay on the island. .'\s this bird resorts to the upper branches alone, it is 

 secure from the attacks of the lizard, so destructive to the Noddy, the animal not being able to 

 climb the branches with sufficient facility to capture it; and this may doubtless be one of the 

 causes why it is more numerous than any of the many other birds inhabiting the islands." 



Mr. R. Helms, who visited Houtman Abrolhos in 1901, refers as follows to the Lesser 

 Noddy : — t " Its habitat is the mangrove copses, wherein it nests in crowded colonies. Almost 

 every available portion adapted for the purpose is occupied by a nest in these places, and some 

 are built on branches so limp that they bend under the weight. In the mangrove thicket on the 

 northern part of Pelsart Island, I counted in some of the stunted trees from twenty to thirty 

 nests. They are constructed entirely of seaweeds, and repeatedly serve the same purpose after 

 having some material added to them; the droppings of the young birds, in consequence of the 

 repeated occupation, covered the outer portions with a white crust, and give the nest a calcareous 

 appearance. Of all seabirds known to me this species builds the most attractive nest, although 

 even then it cannot be compared with many of the simpler kinds of land birds. 



* Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 417 {1865). t Journ. Dept. Agric. West. Austr., Vol. I., p. 46 (1902). 



