Birds of Celebes: Laridae. Q09 



Sexes. The sexes are very similar. Mr. Howard Saunders describes the female as being, as 

 a rule, somewhat browner on the shoulders and with less lead-colour on the throat, 

 slightly smaller and with a weaker bill fl9j. 



Young. Differs fi-om the adult in being paler brown, the feathers of the back and the wing- 

 coverts with paler edges; abdomen whity- brown; head above brown like the back, 

 becoming grey on the forehead; supercihary and suborbital stripe white; loral region 

 and above front of eye blackish brown; "feet browiish; bill black" (cf, Manado, 

 16. Nov. 1893: P.& F. Sarasin). 



Eggs. Only one to a sitting. "The most usual variety found is of a creamy white ground- 

 colour, with crowded spots and blotches of chestnut-red and faint bluish grey, the 

 latter coloiu'ing appearing as if beneath the shell's surface; these markings are more 

 tliickly disposed towards the larger end of the egg, and in some specimens form an 

 irregular zone"; size 50.2x35.3 mm (North 12)\ see, also, Gould 77; Baird, 

 Brewer & Ridgway S; 0. Finsch & R Blasius 10; etc. The yolk is yellow; in 

 Stoma fiiliginosa deep orange-reddish (Crowfoot, and Finsch 10). 



Nest. Of sea-weed, about 6 inches in diameter, 4 — 8 in. in height, so completely plastered 

 with the excrement of the bird that at first sight they appear to be entirely formed 

 of that material; placed on the ground in a clear open space, or on the tops of the 

 thick scrub (Grilbert in Gould 77: Houtmann's Abrolhos — see photograph of 

 breeding grounds by A. J. Campbell 15). In the South Seas Dr. Finsch found the 

 Noddy always breedmg in trees; the nests were roughly constructed of dry twigs on 

 the leaves of cocoa-palms, by preference in a parasitic fern growing thereon. On the 



^ contrary at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean Dr. Finsch found the species breed- 



ing on the ground, though the open spot was sm-rounded by trees flOj. Interesting 

 accounts of the breeding of this species have been given by many writers. 



Distribution. The warmer j^arts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. — In the 

 Celebes Pro\-ince: — Sangi Islands (v. BUltzingslowen -i, 11)\ N. Celebes (Nat. 

 Coll., P.& F. Sarasin 18). 



Hitherto the Common Noddy had not been recorded from Celebes, and the 

 adult from our native collectors and the young specimen from the Sarasins 

 described are the only examples from the island with which we are acquainted. 



This well-known species is easily distinguishable from the Terns by its 

 dark smoke-brown plumage and grey cap, and structurally by the shape of the 

 tail, which is graduated, the fourth pair of rectrices from the outside being the 

 longest. Not taking into consideration the doubtful form, Anous galapagensis 

 Sharpe, the Common Noddy finds its nearest relatives in the members of the 

 genus Micranous, which Mr. H. Saunders separates by their longer and thinner 

 bill, and the thiid pair of rectrices from the outside being the longest. Micranous 

 leucocapiUus Gld. and possibly M. tenuii-ostris Temm. may ultimately be found 

 on the coasts of Celebes; the former may be recognised by its head which is 

 white above, by its sooty black plumage and jet-black lores; the latter is like 

 A. stolidus, but is distinguishable by its grey lores and black mark in front of 

 and over the eye; both are also much smaller than A. stolidus. 



Noddy, meaning stupid, is a sailors' name for this species, given on ac- 

 count of its being free from a wholesome dread of man. It has been known to 



