THE WHITE NODDY. 433 



It has as wide a range as the last, bring found in all the intertropical 

 seas of the globe, and occasionally wandering some distance out of this 

 zone., even as far as Great Britain. 



This Tern is an inhabitant of the wide ocean, being most frequently 

 found near lonely islands and isolated rocks. Mr. Hume found it breeding 

 in enormous numbers in January and February on one of the Laccadive 

 Islands. Many of its breeding-haunts are known; but the most remark- 

 able place of this kind is, perhaps, on Ascension Island, where the scene 

 presented to the visitor is extremely curious and has acquired the name of 

 " Wideawake Fair/' 



Genus GYGIS, Wagler. 



771. GYGIS ALBA. 

 THE WHITE NODDY. 



Sterna alba, Sparrm. Mm. Carls, i. pi. xi. ; Scldegel, Mus. Pays-Bos, Sterna, p. 35. 

 Sterna Candida, Gtn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 607. Gygis Candida, Gould, B. Austr. 

 vii. pi. 30; Saunders, P. Z.S. 187(3, p. 667; David et Oust. Ois. Chi/ie, p. 529; 

 Penrose, Ibis, 1870, p. 279. Gygis alba, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 375; Hume, 

 S. F. vii. p. 447, viii. p. 116. 



Description. The whole plumage pure white ; the shafts of the quills 

 and the feathers immediately round the eye black. 



Bill in the dry specimen black ; tarsus and toes brown, said to be orange 

 in the live bird. 



Length about 12 inches, tail 4*6, wing 9*3, tarsus '45, bill from gape 2*3, 

 at front T75. 



As noted by Mr. Hume, there is a specimen of this bird in the Leyden 

 Museum procured by Dussumier in the Bay of Bengal ; and Mr. Hume 

 further notes that he believes that he has twice seen this species in the 

 same seas. In any case it must at times occur sufficiently near the 

 Burmese coast to justify its title to a place in this work. 



The White Noddy is an oceanic Tern of very wide range, but confined 

 more or less to the tropics. It breeds on islands and rocks in various 

 parts of the world, laying a single egg on the bare ground or sometimes 

 on a low flat branch of a tree, without making any nest. 



An allied species is G. microrhyncha, Saunders, which differs in being 

 smaller and in having the shafts of all the primaries \\hite except those of 



VOL. II. 2F 



