568 



Museum, Dublin. Thereupon Mr. Thos. Austin (Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 1842, p. 435) .stated that the ' Black 

 Noddy ' was a summer visitor to St. George's Channel, 

 but owing to its extreme shyness and the rapidity of its 

 flight, he had never been able to obtain a specimen ; as, 

 however, he speaks of it as robbing the other Terns, it seems 

 not improbable that his * Noddy ' was an Arctic Skua. With 

 the exception of the first, there is no other record worthy 

 of consideration, of the capture or even the occurrence of the 

 Noddy on the coasts or islands belonging to Europe.* 



The Noddy is, like the Sooty Tern, of general distribution 

 throughout the tropics. Its best known breeding-grounds 

 are in the Tortugas off the coast of Florida, on the Baha- 

 mas, and on many of the Cays and along the coasts of the 

 West Indies and tropical America on both sides. In the 

 Atlantic- it was found residing so far south as the storm- 

 beaten Inaccessible Island, off Tristan d'Acunha, by the 

 ' Challenger ' Expedition ; and in the Pacific it is said to 

 visit Chili, and to straggle to New Zealand. On the islands 

 and coasts of Polynesia and Australia, it is found breeding 

 in the same localities as those already mentioned when 

 treating of the Sooty Tern ; and, like that species, it occurs 

 throughout the Indian and African seas, breeding on the 

 Laccadives, on the Ked Sea islands, St. Helena, Ascension, 

 and other localities. 



Audubon gives the following account of the habits of this 

 species : " About the beginning of May the Noddies collect 

 from all parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the coasts of Florida, 

 for the purpose of returning to their breeding-places on one 

 of the Tortugas called Noddy Key. These birds form 

 regular nests of twigs and dry grass, which they place on the 

 bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On visiting 

 their island on the llth of May, 1832, I was surprised to 

 see that many of them were repairing and augmenting nests 

 that had remained through the winter, while others were 

 employed in constructing new ones, and some were already 



* Mr. H. Blake-Knox writing of the coast of Dublin, says of this species, 

 " Has occurred to myself" (Zool. s.s. p. 307) ; whatever tbat may mean. 



