38 Allen's naturalist's library. 



Anous stolidus, B. O. U. List, Brit. B. p. 186 (18S3) ; Saunders, 

 ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 567 (1884); id. Man. Brit. B. 

 p. 639 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxix. (1894) ; 

 Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 136 (1896). 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above dark 

 chocolate-brown, rather darker on the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts ; wing-coverts like the back ; primary-coverts and quills 

 blackish, the inner secondaries chocolate-brown like the back ; 

 tail-feathers blackish ; forehead white, extending in a narrow 

 line above the eye ; rest of the crown pearly-grey, slightly 

 darker on the nape and hind neck ; lores and feathers round 

 the eye leaden-black ; eyelid white ; remainder of sides of face 

 and under surface of body chocolate-brown, with a shade of 

 grey perceptible on the sides of the face and throat, as well as 

 on the under wing-coverts ; " bill blackish ; tarsi and feet 

 reddish-brown, fully webbed, the webs ochraceous" (H. 

 Saunders). Total length, 14*5 inches; culmen, 1*2; wing, 

 ii'i; tail, 5*6; tarsus, i"o5. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but slightly smaller, with 

 a weaker bill, and, as a rule, somewhat browner on the 

 shoulders and wiih less lead-colour on the throat. Total 

 length, 14-5 inches ; wing, 10-5. 



Young. — Browner than the adults and rather paler ; forehead 

 and crown greyish-brown, with a narrow white superciliary line, 

 conspicuous by contrast against the blackish lores. A fledge- 

 ling from Ascension Island is umber-brown above and below, 

 with the whitish streak above the lores very marked and 

 continuous round the base of the bill, and with a slight greyish 

 tint on the forehead. A downy nestling about five days old, 

 from British Honduras, has the forehead and crown dull white, 

 the lores blackish ; the upper surface mouse-brown ; the nape 

 and the throat darkest, with the lower parts paler ; another, 

 only just hatched is nearly uniform sooty-brown {Saunders). 



Range in Great Britain.— The only examples of the Noddy 

 recorded from the British Islands, or, for that matter, from any 

 part of Europe, are two specimens obtained in Ireland, off the 

 coast of Wexford, between the Tuskar Lighthouse and the Bay 



