Recently published Ornithological Works. 375 



tlie rare instances in which two ej?gs are found together 

 being probably due either to two birds laying together or 

 to eggs accidentally rolling together. But he proceeds to 

 add that it is impossible to lay down a hard and fast rule 

 that a species only lays one egg, and quotes Audubon's 

 extraordinary dictum that on Bird Key (one of the Tortugas) 

 the Sooty Tern " always lays three eggs/' This statement 

 has been copied and repeated time after time, Seebohm 

 {' History of British Birds/ iii. p. 294) also quotes A. O. 

 Hume as his authority for stating that three is the full 

 clutch in the Laccadives, and proceeds to enunciate a theory 

 that when a bird is found sitting on a single egg the power 

 of reproduction has been almost exhausted by continual 

 robbery ! 



A careful study of A. O. Hume's account of his visit to 

 the Cherbaniani Beef Q Stray Feathers/ iv. p. 429) shows 

 that he arrived there late in the nesting season, when the 

 young were already hatched and were running about the 

 reef in great numbers. It was with the greatest difficulty 

 that he obtained some thirty eggs, of which only twenty-three 

 could be preserved. He certainly states that of the Sooty 

 Tern, "\ye. found two and three together," but the eggs were 

 dropped promiscuously on the reef without any nest and 

 probably were in most cases second layings, so that Hume 

 was hardly in a position to state anything definite as to the 

 number of eggs in the clutch. Mr. Stuart Baker informs us 

 that all the eggs of this species in his collection from Indian 

 sources were found singly. 



But to return to the colony on Bird Key. Here we have 

 Audubon's definite statement that three eggs are always 

 laid. We can hardly believe that the birds have changed 

 their habits so radically since his days; yet in 1907, when 

 Mr. J, B. Watson visited the Dry Tortugas from May 4 to 

 July 18 to study the nesting habits of the Noddies and 

 Sooty Terns, he found both species laying only a single egg ! 

 The Rev, H. K. Job had a precisely similar experience in 

 1903, only two nests out of thousands inspected containing 

 more than one e^^. As this agrees exactly with what has 



