564 LARID^E. 



and their narratives have been supplemented by the ob- 

 servations of Mr. D. Gill, F.K.A.S., and Sergeant-major 

 Unwin, R.M., in a paper by Mr. F. G. Penrose (Ibis, 1879, 

 p. 277). There are three colonies or ' fairs' ; and it would 

 appear that the birds arrive at very uncertain intervals. In 

 1875, as Mr. Unwin informed the Editor, the birds remained 

 months longer than usual, owing to an unseasonable down- 

 pour of rain which flooded the breeding-grounds and killed 

 thousands of young ; the birds then left about May and were 

 back in August. In 1877 they made their first appearance 

 in October, and fresh arrivals were noticed for the next two 

 months. The name ' Wide-awake ' is supposed to express 

 their noisy cawing cry. 



Audubon, speaking of the Tortugas, says : " The Sooty 

 Tern never forms a nest of any sort, but deposits its three 

 eggs in a slight cavity which it scoops in the sand under the 

 trees. Several individuals which had not commenced lay- 

 ing their eggs, I saw scratch the sand with their feet, in the 

 manner of the common fowl, while searching for food. In 

 the course of this operation they frequently seated themselves 

 in the shallow basin to try how it fitted their form, or find 

 out what was still wanted to ensure their comfort." Gil- 

 bert, as quoted in Gould's ' Birds of Australia,' expressly 

 states that each bird limits itself to the incubation of a 

 single egg, and so say all the authorities on the Ascension 

 breeding-places ; nevertheless, the Editor has a photo- 

 graph of the principal ' fair,' in which two eggs are shown 

 side by side in the same hollow ; and Mr. Hume's experi- 

 ence at the Laccadives is, that two and three eggs are a 

 usual number. At Ascension the eggs are so constantly 

 taken for eating, 200 dozen being sometimes collected in a 

 morning, that the natural complement can hardly be ascer- 

 tained with certainty, especially as it is well known that the 

 same bird will, if robbed, lay several times. The eggs mea- 

 sure on the average 2 by 1*5 in. ; they are of a pale cream 

 ground-colour ; sometimes with a bluish tint, blotched with 

 purplish-brown and chestnut-red ; the shell is smooth, in 

 which respect it differs strikingly from the egg of the Noddy, 



