r.ARiD.f;. 



639 





THE NODDY TERN. 



Axous STi)LiDus (Linnaeus). 



Two examples of this pelagic species are recorded by Wm. 

 Thompson (Mag. Zool. & Bot. i. p. 549) as having been obtained 

 between the Tuskar Lighthouse— off the coast of Wexford— and 

 the Bay of Dublin, about the year 1S30, and one of these is in the 

 Science and Art Museum of the above capital. Some later re- 

 ports of birds which were identified on the wing as belonging to 

 this species either refer to the Arctic Skua or are unworthy of 

 serious consideration. No other specimens are known to have 

 been taken in the British Islands or on the Continent. 



The Noddy is — like the Sooty Tern — of general distribution 

 throughout the tropics ; some of its best known breeding-grounds 

 being in the Tortugas group off the coast of Florida, the Bahamas, 

 and many of the Cays of the West Indies, as well as on both sides 

 of Central America. In the Atlantic it was found by the ' Chal- 

 lenger ' Expedition residing as far south as the storm-beaten Inac- 

 cessible Island, off Tristan d'Acunha ; while in the Pacific it visits 

 Chili, and wanders to New Zealand. On the islands and coasts 

 of Polynesia and Australia it is found breeding in most of the 

 localities mentioned when treating of the Sooty Tern, thougli often 

 slightly apart from that species ; and it equally occurs throughout 

 the Indian and African seas, breeding on the Laccadives, the islands 

 of the Red Sea, St. Helena, Ascension, and other places. 



Contrary to the habit of all other Terns, this and most of the 

 members of the genus Anoiis make a nest, which is often of large 



