G70 Mr. M. J. Nicoll on the Birds collected and 



figure (Mus. Carls, ii. fasc. 1, no. 2) is not at all bad and is 

 easily recognisable as the White Tern ; although the bill and 

 legs are coloured black and the black feathers round the eye 

 are not represented. The great mistake is that he (Sparrman) 

 says that it is found " also " at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Sparrrnan's description of his Sterna alba was evidently 

 taken from specimens from the South Pacific, and I have 

 therefore named the Atlantic species Gyyis crawfordi, after 

 the Earl of Crawford. 



This species breeds on the branches of the dead trees with 

 which South Trinidad is covered ; the egg is placed on a 

 nick or depression in the branch. Many young or hard-set 

 eggs were also found on small ledges of rocks higher up the 

 island, while at its summit the birds were nesting on the 

 tops of the dead tree-fern trunks from which the foliage 

 had rotted. One bird which I found covering its young 

 I purposely drove off, to see if the chick would be thrown 

 from its insecure resting-place by the sudden departure 

 of its parent, but, although it was almost jerked off, it 

 hooked its head over the branch and by means of its bill 

 and strong hooked claws soon righted itself. The old birds 

 were exceedingly tame, and could be easily caught with a 

 butterfly net while hovering in front of the intruder, and 

 when photographing a pair of adults on a dead tree I had to 

 drive away others, which were hovering like a cloud of 

 mosquitoes in front of the camera-lens. 



Anous stolidus (Linn.). 



Anous stolidus Saunders, Cat. B. B. M. xxv. p. 136. 



The Common Noddy, which was very plentiful on South 

 Trinidad at the time of our visit, does not seem to have 

 been noticed by the explorers of the ' Discovery/ We 

 found it breeding in some numbers, principally close to 

 the shore. Several pairs, however, were nesting on a 

 large square rock some little way up the hillside ; they 

 had eggs and young at the time of our visit, but were 

 not nearly so tame as the White Terns. Six adults were 

 obtained. 



