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island ; they were laid flat one upon another, and cemented together with what was apparently 

 excrement, and though placed almost anywhere, were usually in a fork. The birds were rather 

 shy at lirst, but appeared to get more used to us in a few days, though, whene\er we walked 

 through the scrub, they always greeted us with a noisy chorus." 



Writing later of a visit paid to the same island in the last week of November, 1913, Mr. 

 McCulloch remarks : — "The nests of the White-capped Noddies were found in almost every 

 tree inside the outer belt of Ciisiiiiriuns, very few being pkiced iii those trees themselves. The 

 nests are built anywhere above si.\ feet, even to the tops of the Piioiiia trees, well over fifty feet 

 from the ground. Both sexes apparently take part in the work of nest building. One flies 

 down and picks up a I'isoiila leaf from the ground, and flies back witii it to the other at the nest, 

 who receives it and puts it in place. Both then sit around for a while preening their feathers. 

 Though most of the nests were complete and had an egg in them, yet quite a number of the 

 birds could he seen flying down for an occasional leaf. Fresh leaves are apparently never picked 

 off the trees, only those which have recently fallen lieing used. We counted over eighty nests in 

 one small tree ; however the numbers varied greatly, some being crowded together, but more 

 often scattered. Almost every nest at the time of my visit contained one egg, which was usually 

 partly incubated, and most of those collected on the 2yth No\einlier contained young in too 



advanced a stage to be blown. The 

 rggs are often rolled out of the flat 

 iK-sl by the bird as it rises, scared 

 by our approach. The adults are 

 continually chattering, e\en when 

 undisturbed, while tlie appearance 

 of a man is the cause of an angry 

 outburst of noise. At night the 

 centre of the island sounds lil<e a 

 swamp with frogs croaking all 

 iround it, on account of the curious 

 latlling noise these birds make. 

 Normally they sit on their nests 

 both day and night, but if disturbed 

 they leave them at any time and 

 return when quietened down again, 

 though their flight in the dark appears to be rather clumsy, especially among the trees. One sees 

 very few birds which are not sitting on nests, though pairs were regularly seen in the evening flying 

 rapidly above the trees. Others might be seen wading near the water's edge at low tide, on the 

 look out for food, or Hying over the lagoon ; at other times they would collect floating scraps of 

 seaweed, while on the wing, to add to their nests. As the young were not hatched the birds 

 were not quite so tame as they would be later on, and one could only approach within about ten 

 yards before they took liight. 1 brought back with me adults in breeding plumage, nests and 

 eggs." 



The accompanying figure is reproduced from a photograph taken by Mr. McCulloch. 



The nest is a nearly flat structure composed throughout of Pisouin leaves laid on one another, 

 with a very slight addition of seaweed, and cemented together with the bird's excrement, giving 

 the exterior, and especially on the egg cavity, a white-washed appearance; an average one 

 measures six inches in diameter by two inches and three quarters in depth. 



Only one egg is laid for a sitting. There is a fine series in the Australian Museum Collection. 

 Typically they are oval in form, although specimens varying from short to elongate oval are not 

 uncommon, the shell being rather coarse-grained, dull and lustreless. In ground colour they 



NESr OK WIIITK-CAPPRD NODDY. 



