BIRD EOOKERIES OF TORTUGAS BARTSCH. 483 



eggs. In a great many instances, the repaired nests formed masses nearly two 

 feet in height, and yet all of them had only a slight hollow for the eggs, broken 

 shells of which were found among the entire ones, as if they had been pur- 

 posely placed there. The birds did not discontinue their labours, although there 

 were nine or ten of us walking among the bushes, and when we had gone a 

 few yards into the thicket, thousands of them flew quite low over us, some at 

 times coming so close as to enable us to catch a few of them with the hand. 

 On one side might be seen a Noddy carrying a stick in its bill, or a bird pick- 

 ing up something from the ground to add to its nest ; on the other several were 

 seen sitting on their eggs unconscious of danger, while their mates brought them 

 food. The greater part rose on wing as we advanced, but re-alighted as soon 

 as we had passed. The bushes were rarely taller than ourselves, so that we 

 could easily see the eggs in the nests. This was quite a new sight to me, and not 

 less pleasing than unexpected. 



The Noddy, like most other species of Terns, lays three eggs, which average 

 two inches in length, by an inch and three-eighths in breadth, and are of a red- 

 dish-yellow colour, spotted and patched with dull red and faint purple. 

 They afford excellent eating, and our sailors seldom failed to collect bucket- 

 fuls of them daily during our stay at the Tortugas. The wreckers assured me 

 that the young birds remain along with the old through the winter, in which 

 respect the Noddy, if this account be correct, differs from other species, the 

 young of which keep by themselves until spring. 



At the approach of a boat, the Noddies never flew off their island, in the 

 manner of the Sooty Terns. They appeared to go fartlier out to sea than those 

 birds, in search of their food, which consists of fishes mostly caught amid the 

 floating sea-weeds, these Terns seizing them, not by plunging perpendicularly 

 downwards, as other species do, but by skimming close over the surface in the 

 manner of Gulls, and also by alighting and swimming around the edges of the 

 weeds. This I had abundant opportunities of seeing while on the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



The flight of this bird greatly resembles that of the Night Hawk when passing 

 over meadows or rivers. When about to alight on the water the Noddy keeps 

 its wings extended upwards, and touches it first with its feet. It swims with, 

 considerable buoyancy and grace, and at times immerses its head to seize a 

 fish. It does not see well by night, and it is perhaps for this reason that it 

 frequently alights on the spars of vessels, where it sleeps so sound that the 

 seamen often catch them. When seized in the hand, it utters a rough cry, 

 not unlike that of a young American Crow taken from the nest. On such oc- 

 casions, it does not disgorge its food, like the Cayenne Tern and other species 

 although it bites severely with quickly repeated movements of the bill, which, 

 on missing the object aimed at, snaps like that of our larger Fly-catchers. Some 

 which I kept several days refused all kinds of food, became dull and languid, 

 and at length died. 



While hovering over us near their nests, these birds emitted a low querulous 

 murmur, and, if unmolested, would attempt to alight on our heads. After a 

 few visits, however, they became rather more careful of themselves, although 

 the sitting birds often suffered us to put a hat over them. Like the Sooty Tern, 

 this species incubates both day and night. The differences exhibited by Terns 

 with respect to their mode of nestling and incubation, are great, even in the 

 same neighbourhood, and under the same degree of atmospheric temperature. 

 This species breeds on bushes or low trees, placing several nests on the same 

 bush, or in fact as many as it will hold. The Sterna fiiliginosa scoops out a 

 slight hollow in thq sand, under the bushes, without forming any nest, and in- 



