PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 495 
eggs are deposited about the beginning of October, but laying 
continues for the two or three following months. About the 
break-up of the weather in April all the noddies with their young 
depart. Nota solitary bird remains. A week or two prior to 
the final exodus the birds leave the island daily, but return at 
night. This may be a method of exercising the young before the 
last great flight. There is a curious incident of all these birds 
having suddenly left Rat Island for about a fortnight during the 
month of October when a cold rain set in, leaving eggs and young 
to perish. Upon slight showers of rain falling, the birds clear 
out to the shoals upon the reefs, and skim over the water in a 
remarkable manner, as if fishing. The call-note of the noddy is 
a coarse, gull-like bark. Young in down vary in colour from 
light to dark sooty brown, with the upper portion of the head 
mouldy white. Bill and feet black. 
Anous tenuirostris, Temm. (Lesser noddy.) As its name 
implies, it is similar in appearance but smaller than the noddy, 
yet in one or two points of its natural history differs much. 
Unlike the noddy, which nests upon low bushes or upon the 
ground, the lesser noddy seeks the mangrove trees, and then only 
upon one island (Pelsart) out of all the groups, although man- 
groves exist elsewhere. Then, again, the lesser noddy remains 
throughout the year, whereas the noddies’ visits are periodical. 
The first eggs may be observed the beginning of September, but 
the climax of the breeding season is not reached till December. 
Young in down, sooty black, upper part of head mouldy white. 
Bill and feet black. 
Now that a successful guano depét has been established upon 
Pelsart Island, no doubt in time the limited supply of mangrove 
trees will be used for fuel. What then will become of the 
extraordinary flights of the lesser noddies as they go to and from 
their fishing grounds? I trust the photographs I took may not 
soon be the “light of other days.” 
Puffinus nugax (1). Sol. (Allied petrel.) I am not quite 
satisfied about the identity of this petrel, although it closely 
resembles P. nugax. Professor McCoy, to whom I submitted a 
skin, shares my doubt. If it be P. xugax, then it has never been 
reported from the western side of Australia, nor has it been 
recorded nocturnal, as the Abrolhos bird certainly is. I took my 
specimen flying about Rat Island the midnight of 9th December. 
They have also been known, attracted by the light, to fall into 
the fires of persons camping upon the islands. They breed in 
underground burrows in July, and appear to rear their young 
and depart in time to accommodate the following species. 
Puffinus sphenurus, Gould. (Wedge-tailed petrel.) It has 
never been hitherto published that this petrel is also nocturnal in 
its habits. It is somewhat extraordinary that such a peculiar 
trait in the bird’s character should have escaped Gilbert’s notice. 
