YOl i909 :VI ] Recent Literature. 211 



testimony of light-house keepers and on a single cruise in a launch for 

 observation. 



When the author arrived at the island, on May 4, both species were 

 already actively engaged in nest-building, and some of the birds were be- 

 ginning to lay. Thus there was little opportunity to observe the mating 

 of either species, which are reputed to mate before reaching the island. 

 He, however, records a "striking series of reactions between two noddies," 

 which he considers may have been a case of mating. The supposed male 

 began nodding and bowing to a supposed female (the sexes are externally 

 indistinguishable), when the latter gave immediate attention and began 

 to extract fish from the throat of the other bird. " The feeding reaction 

 was alternated with the nodding." Then the male brought a stick and 

 deposited it near the female, and then the male attempted sexual 

 relations. 



The noddies nest in bushes ; the number of nests was estimated at 700, 

 which would give a total of 1400 adult noddies on the island. The nest 

 of the sooty, when any is made, "consists of a shallow oval depression 

 in the sand." The number of nests of this species on the island was found 

 to be (approximately) 9429, which would indicate the presence of 18,858 

 adult sooties. Where the nests of the sooties "are very numerous they 

 often are not more than 10 to 12 inches apart. On account of this close 

 grouping of the nests," says the author, "and of the quarrelsome nature of 

 the brooding birds, exact localization of nest and recognition of nest and 

 mate easily became the most important features in the lives of the sooty 

 terns. This situation affords a convenient starting-point for a psycho- 

 logical study of the behavior of these birds." 



Under 'Reactions of the Noddies [and Sooties] observed in nest-building' 

 are given a very detailed account of the actual nest-building of a pair of 

 noddies, and of the selecting of nesting-sites by the sooties and the forma- 

 tion of their nest cavity. Under the caption 'The Daily Rhythm of Activi- 

 ties' are detailed with great minuteness the daily routine of each species, 

 before the egg is laid, during incubation, and after the egg is hatched; 

 from which it appears that in the case of the noddy the male and female 

 pursue a different daily routine during the period of nest-building and 

 before the egg is laid, the female remaining almost constantly at the nest, 

 the male supplying her with food. During the nest-building and egg-lay- 

 ing period the chief points in the lives of the noddies are thus summarized : 

 "(1) there is common activity in the building of the nest; (2) the female 

 guards the nest while (3) the male procures food for both." The manner 

 of feeding the female by the male, as here described, is well worth citing, 

 not only for its intrinsic interest, but also as an illustration of a highly 

 specialized vocabulary: "The male fishes until intra-organic pressure of 

 food in the crop reaches a certain intensity [in other words, until the crop 

 is full]. This acts as a stimulus to return (proximate and distant orienta- 

 tion discussed on pages 224 and 277 respectively). The visual stimulus 

 of mate (and nest and nest locality) coupled with the intra-organic stimuli 



