70 OCEAN BIRDS. 



bird the bill is black, from the base of the bill to the eye is also black; irides brown; 

 the forehead and crown buff-colour; occiput smoke-grey; the whole of the body above 

 and below and all the wing-coverts dark chocolate-brown ; primaries and tail-feathers 

 brownish black ; legs, toes, membranes, and claws black. The whole length of the specimen 

 here fiorurcd and described, fourteen inches and a half to the end of the tail, which is 

 graduated, the middle pair of feathers being the longest; the wing, from the carpal-joint 

 to the end of the first quill-feather, ten inches and a half." 



Lesser Noddy {Aiions melanops). — This Noddy is very abundant in the Australian seas. 

 Gould accounts for this from the fact that they roost up high, and thus escape the attacks 

 of a small lizard that destroys multitudes of the other Noddies. He thus describes it in 

 'Birds of AustraUa ' (vol. ii. p. 419) :—" Crown of the head and back of tlie neck light 

 ash-colour, passing into deep grey on the mantle and back; immediately before the eyes 

 a large patch, and behind a smaller one, of jet-black ; posterior half of the lower and a 

 smaller space on the upper lash snow-white ; throat, fore part of the neck, and all the 

 under surface deep sooty-black; wings and all the under surface of the same colour, but 

 rather browner ; bill black ; tarsi and toes brownish black. Total length, 12 to 13 inches ; 

 tail, 2i ; wing, 8} ; tail, 5 ; tarsi, I ; middle toe and nail, 1^." 



