ON LONELY BIRD KEY 
87 
the LInited States. Each is about the size of a pigeon, slender 
and graceful, with rather long, pointed wings. The Sooty 
Tern is deep black in its upper plumage and snow-white 
below, while the Noddy is dark brownish gray all over, save 
for a whitish cap on its head. The Noddy reminds me of 
photographic negatives of our common terns of the North, 
which are of the reverse shades of color, so that I had the 
constant feeling of being in a strange part of the world where 
the accustomed order was upset, as though antipodal China¬ 
men were walking on their heads, and white were here black. 
The Sooty Terns form the great majority of the population 
of Bird Key. There are such clouds of them that accurately 
to estimate their numbers was impossible, but my guess of 
six or eight thousand I think cannot be far out of the way. 
Of the Noddies there are hardly a thousand, which is a 
THE NESTING NODDY. “A CASE OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT” 
