FAMILY CARES — BUILDING THE HOME. 143 



our "rookeries" and heronries, for instance ; and 

 by the wonderf id gull colony at Scoulton Mere, 

 Norfolk, where the black-headed gull breeds in 

 thousands ; as also by the guillemots and gannets 

 along our coast-line, and so on. The penguins, 

 albatrosses and terns, swifts, swallows and martins, 

 are other, and well-known cases. In all these, 

 however, the nests are separate one from another. 



The nesting-colonies of the sooty terns or 

 "wide-awakes" are peculiarly interesting. Dr 

 Sharpe tells us that this bird " herds in countless 

 numbers on Ascension Island," and "wide-awake 

 fair," as the nesting-place is called, has often 

 been alluded to in works on ornithology. One 

 of the best accounts is that given by the late 

 Commander Sperling, who found the "fair" to 

 consist of a plain about fifteen acres in extent, 

 in the interior of this most desolate of islands. 

 He says that no words can give an adequate 

 idea of the effect produced by thousands upon 

 thousands of these wild sea-birds soaring and 

 screaming over the arid cinder-bed, the eggs 

 and young being scattered so thickly on the 

 ground that it was often impossible to avoid 

 treading on them. Only a single egg is laid, 

 and the bird defends its treasure most courage- 

 ously. 



Although terns are birds which usually lay 

 their eggs on the sand, or on the grassy flat 

 of an island, there are some remarkable excep- 

 tions in the noddy terns of the genus Anous and 

 Gygis. 



The latter genus contains two snowy-white 

 species, and no nest is made by them. The 



