NATATOllES, 409 



in colour. The breeding-season is at its height in December, 

 but a few may be found performing the task of incubation in 

 January. So reluctant is it to leave its egg or young, that it 

 will suffer itself to be taken by the hand rather than desert 

 them. For several weeks after the young are able to fly, this 

 bird may be seen in vast flocks soaring at a great height. It 

 is an extremely noisy species, and may be heard on the wing 

 during all hours of the night." 



"The Onychoprio7i fidi^inosa," says Mr. Macgillivray, " was 

 found breeding in prodigious numbers on Raine's Islet and 

 Bramble Key in May and June, associated with Noddies 

 {Anoils stolidus). The Sooty Tern deposits its solitary egg in 

 a slight excavation in the sand, without lining of any kind. 

 The egg varies considerably in its markings. After the party 

 employed in building the beacon on Raine's Islet had been 

 on shore about ten days, and the Terns had had their nests 

 robbed repeatedly, the birds collected into two or three large 

 flocks, and laid their eggs in company, shifting Iheir quarters 

 repeatedly on finding themselves continually molested; for 

 new-laid eggs were much in request among people who had 

 for some time been living upon ship's fare. By sitting down 

 and keeping quiet I have seen the poor birds dropping their 

 eggs within two yards of where I sat, apparently glad to get 

 rid of their burthen at all hazards. During the month of 

 June 1844 about 1500 dozen of eggs were procured by the 

 party upon the island. About the 20th of June nearly one- 

 half of the young birds (hatched twenty -five or thirty days pre- 

 viously) WTre able to fly, and many were quite strong upon 

 the wing. Great numbers of young birds unable to fly were 

 killed for the pot : in one mess of twenty-two men the average 

 number consumed daily in June was fifty, and supposing the 

 convicts (twenty in number) to have consumed as many, 

 3000 young birds must have been killed in one month; yet 

 I could observe no sensible diminution of the number of 

 young, a circumstance which will give the reader some idea 



