from Western Australia. 199 



tliat sheep are kept at bay by it. Not so with the " Norldy/' 

 I found the " Sooty " a very plucky bird, while the " Noddy " 

 was not in any way pugilistic (facts reversed in Mr. Helms's 

 paper) ; and this shews how nicely the nesting-habits are 

 accommodated to each, when the sensitive bird places its 

 nest on a bush and the " fighter " lays its egg on the ground. 

 When the young birds are ready to essay a flight they 

 waddle through the bushes to the beach : cripples must 

 needs remain. In the " rookeries ^' I saw only one abnormal 

 bird : it had the hinder crown and neck mottled, and the 

 mantle looking as if dusted with flour. It could not 

 have been hatched that season, and would be abnormal in 

 any case. 



I observed a thousand eggs in the " rookery,'' from which 

 the birds moved or over which they stood according to circum- 

 stances. The crash of the waves on the barrier coral-reef 

 could not be heard above the sounds of feathered life. If three 

 or four people continue to trample through their nesting- 

 ground the sitting birds rush about in a mad paroxysm of fear, 

 scrambling under, over, or through the maze of twigs until 

 they either sink exhausted, frightened into momentary quiet, 

 or gain the air, which to them is home. The egg-laying day 

 is to them surely the most anxious of the year ; and the 

 croaking sound of two thousand voices, or say six hundred 

 at a time, ten times stronger than that of two hundred 

 ordinary frogs, from the throats of myriads of birds in 

 close wheeling flight, is truly wonderful. Never have I 

 experienced such a sensation of the marvellous as when 

 I heard that extraordinary din of bird-voices. 



The nest is simply a depression in the sand, with a few 

 twigs or empty mollusk-shells scratched up round it, and 

 not always that. All the eggs which I saw were upon the 

 ground under the bushes. A few " Noddies,'' not more 

 than a score, had nests upon the bushes over the others. 

 I had, of course, a splendid opportunity of examining a 

 magnificent series of eggs. Certain fishermen and others 

 had been out collecting those of the first laying (Oct. 20th), 

 for which they eagerly look out. Their visit was to a distant 



