VICTORIA 137 



by one, so I left them to her tender forethought 

 and care. 



THE GULL FAMILY (TERNS) 

 (Plate 1, Fig. 9) 



a. Sea Terns. 



b. Land Terns. 



c. Sea and Land Terns. 



The Terns are the straight-billed section of the 

 family; the Australian waters having eighteen 

 species. Map 58 shows their approximate field with 

 examples. 



The great mass of terns is tropical and the Sooty 

 and Noddy species are the most numerous. 



Sea terns offer two experiences in one's life, the 

 first a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, and the 

 second to the Abrolhos Coral Islands. On the 

 latter I have seen a thousand nests of the 

 Noddy upon the low salt-bushes, and a thousand 

 of the Sooty on the ground beneath those bushes. 

 To add to the wonder of it, there were a thousand 

 petrels nesting in the holes of the ground below the 

 tern nests. 



The quiet of the day was relieved by the voice 

 of the terns, the dark of the night by the sounds 

 of the petrels. Homoplasmy or the action of a like 

 environment has caused the gull and petrel to 

 appear alike. Gulls are related to the plover tribe. 



The land Terns are very graceful and fork-tailed, 

 keeping to the rivers and marshes to nest, some- 

 times using the deserted nests of grebes. 



