from Weitern Australia. 201 



65. Angus stolidus. Noddy. (Hall's Key, p. 89.) 

 I visited one large " rookery " on Pelsart Island proper, 

 where some two thousand Noddies were assembled (21.10.99). 

 They had not begun to lay their eggs, although it was past 

 the usual date. Mr. Beddoes tells me that this species is the 

 earliest Tern to lay on the Houtman's Abrolhos, and that 

 August 9th is the earliest record which he has of their doing 

 so. The " hovering as bees '"' only occurs at the initial stage, 

 but it starts again when the young are being taught to fly. 

 The teaching lasts from fourteen to twenty-one days. The 

 young struggle in from the sea at all hours of the day, 

 but the parents arrive en masse during the evening. My 

 experience with them was very quiet, because they were 

 assembled in a single colony upon the salt-bushes and upon 

 the bare ground near them. Encouraging some of them to 

 move on simply meant that they rose before us like a 

 cloud such as few people have seen — a mass of quickly-flying 

 bodies in revolution and unmethodical action. Fishermen 

 watch for this sign, and onslaughts upon the eggs soon after 

 follow. It has been observed that by marking off a section 

 of a rookery and taking the eggs, a second and subsequent 

 laying ensues, contrary to what happens if the birds are 

 undisturbed. This season the Noddy had not begun to lay 

 by October 21st, and it was remarked that the sensitive bird 

 had been made more so by the depredations of wild cats, once 

 introduced to subdue the rats. Although the eggs of the 

 two species are externally too much alike to be distinguished 

 from one another, there is a diff'erence in the yolks : that 

 of the Sooty has a deep red yolk, while that of the Noddy 

 has a yellowish one. 



Among the four thousand Sooty Terns breeding on Rat 

 Island, 21.10.99, 1 found only two nests of the Noddy. One 

 was large, and measured eleven inches across, the bowl being 

 3'5 inches in diameter. It was made of marine weeds, salt- 

 bush twigs, and light filamentous sponges. Both nests were 

 placed on the tops of Salsolacece, some three feet from the 

 ground, upon which the eggs of the '' Sooty ■'^ were very 

 numerous. 



