666 A. FE. Verril—The Bermuda Islands. 
b6.—The Egg Birds (Sterna, sev. sp.). 
Under the name of “Egg Birds,” the early writers included all 
the species of terns that were breeding, of which there may have 
been several. Hughes designated two kinds, viz: “Sandie Birds and 
Noddies.” 
The numbers of the Egg Birds originally breeding on some of 
the smaller islands must have been exceedingly great. But owing 
to the reckless and heartless manner in which they were destroyed, 
with their eggs and young, it took but a few years to exterminate 
them, or so nearly so that they ‘ceased to breed in any noticeable 
numbers, and only on the most inaccessible rocks. 
They are now known only as migrants. As breeding birds they 
have long been extinct at the Bermudas, the last records of their 
breeding, even in small numbers, being about fifty years ago. 
Capt. John Smith, in the 1829 edition of his History, says that 
both the egg birds and the cahows were even then “all gone.” 
William Strachy, of Somers’ party, described them in 1610 : 
“There is fowle in great number upon the Ilands, where they 
breed, that there hath beene taken in two or three houres, a thousand 
at the least: the bird being of the bignes of a good Pidgeon, and 
layeth egges as big as Hen egges upon the sand, where they come 
and lay them dayly, although men sit downe amongst them: that 
there hath beene taken up in one morning by Sir Thomas Gates’ 
men one thousand of Egges: and Sir George Sommers’ men, coming 
a little distance of time after them, have stayed there whilst they 
came and layed their eggs amongst them, that they brought away as 
many more with them ; with many young birds very fat and sweet.” 
The Rey. Lewis Hughes, who recognized two kinds of egg birds, 
noticed the regularity with which these and the Cahow returned each 
year. He says: 
‘* When the Cahouze time is out, other birds called noddies and 
sandie birds come in, and continue till the latter end of August.” 
Governor Moore, in 1612, gives the following graphic account of 
the abundance of the Egg Birds at that date : 
“And for fowle wee went the third day of our arrival unto the 
Bird Ilands* (as we call them) and using neither sticke nor stone, 
bowe nor gunne wee tooke them up in our hands so many as we 
* One of these was undoubtedly Long Bird Island. They probably bred also 
on Cooper’s Island, Charles Island, Castle Island, and several other small islands 
where there was sandy soil. 
