from Western Australia. 199 
that sheep are kept at bay by it. Not so with the ''^ Noddy." 
I found, the " Sooty " a very plucky bird, while the " Noddy " 
was not in any way pugilistic (facts reversed in Mr. Helms^s 
paper) ; and this shews how nicely the nesting-habits are 
accommodated, to each, when the sensitive bird places its 
nest on a bush and the ^' fighter " lays its e^^ on the ground. 
When the young birds are ready to essay a flight they 
waddle through the bushes to the beach : cripples must 
needs remain. In the " rookeries " I saw only one abnormal 
bird : it had the hinder crown and neck mottled, and the 
mantle looking as if dusted with flour. It could not 
have been hatched that season, and would be abnormal in 
any case. 
I observed a thousand eggs in the '' rookery," from which 
the birds moved or over which they stood according to circum- 
stances. The crash of the waves on the barrier coral-reef 
could not be heard above the sounds of feathered life. If three 
or four people continue to trample through their nesting- 
ground the sitting birds rush about in a mad paroxysm of fear, 
scrambling under, over, or through the maze of twigs until 
they either sink exhausted, frightened into momentary quiet, 
or gain the air, which to them is home. The egg-laying day 
is to them surely the most anxious of the year ; and the 
croaking sound of two thousand voices, or say six hundred 
at a timC; ten times stronger than that of two hundred 
ordinary frogs, from the throats of myriads of birds in 
close wheeling flight, is truly wonderful. Never have I 
experienced such a sensation of the marvellous as when 
I heard that extraordinary din of bird-voices. 
The nest is simply a depression in the sand, with a few 
twigs or empty mollusk-shells scratched up round it, and 
not always that. All the eggs which I saw were upon the 
ground under the bushes. A few " Noddies," not more 
than a score, had nests upon the bushes over the others. 
I had, of course, a splendid opportunity of examining a 
magnificent series of eggs. Certain fishermen and others 
had been out collecting those of the first laying (Oct. 20th), 
for which they eagerly look out. Their visit was to a distant 
