667 A. EF. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 
bo 
Or 
Or 
would, that every one of the company were to have, some three 
some foure a peese, three for a childe boy or girl, for a man foure, 
then reckon what those that served some fourscore people did amount 
unto. But this is certaine, if wee would have brought away twice 
sO many more wee might, but our order is not to take Fish or Fowle 
but for one or two meales, because that by reason of the flies, and 
heat of the countrey they will not keepe, especially these two 
monthes, June and July, and some part of August.” 
Governor Butler, writing of the Egg Birds in 1619, said : 
_ ©Thes last, arriveinge the first of the spring, upon the first of 
May,* a day constant kept, falls a layeinge infinite store of egges, upon 
certaine smale sandy ilands reserved for them ; and so continue all 
that monethe, being all the while so tame and fearlesse that they suffer 
themselves, with much adoe, to be thrust of their egges, the which, 
notwithstandinge they laye and sitt upon promiscuously ; so that 
many thousands of egges (being as bigge as hen’s egges) are yearely 
eaten, and many more would be, but that by stricte inhibition, they 
are preserved.” | 
This was written after certain restrictive laws had been passed, 
against recklessly killing and robbing these birds and the Cahow, 
but “overlate,” as Butler himself said. (See p. 673.) 
From the early accounts it is not possible to tell, with certainty, 
which species of terns were included under the general name of 
Egg Birds. 
Hughes speaks of two kinds: the Noddies, which were probably 
the same as the West Indian Noddyt (Anous stolidus), and the 
Sandies, which may have been the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) 
and the Roseate Tern (Sterna Dougalli), both of which are recorded 
by Hurdis as having been found breeding on Gurnet Head Rock in 
some numbers (40 to 50 pairs), in 1848, but were destroyed or driven 
away soon after that, so that for about fifty years past they have 
only been known as irregular migrants, not seen at all some years, 
but sometimes appearing in flocks of considerable size in autumn. 
*This being ‘‘old style” reckoning, the corresponding date now would be 
May 12th. This is about the date when they now arrive at Nautucket Island, 
where they still breed. 
+ Hughes and the other early historians of Bermuda probably obtained their 
names of the birds and fishes, etc., directly from the sailors, some of whom had 
doubtless visited the West Indies in former voyages. It is well known that the 
vernacular or sailor’s names of West Indian productions are wonderfully per- 
sistent, large numbers of them being widely used now, just as they were 300 
years or more ago, 
