1038 STERNA FULIGINOSA. 



Habits. — This Tern is exclusively an oceanic species, never straying inland, except during the prevalence 

 of strong winds. It may be seen at great distances from the land, though it is not so much at home as the 

 Noddies in mid-ocean, and when seen there has the appearance not so much of wandering about as of making 

 its way to some distant land, and merely flying round the ship, on the look-out for food thrown overboard. 

 When I have met with it fishing it has generally been within twenty miles of the land. Being a bird of very 

 powerful flight it no doubt travels long distances in search of food, particularly when it has young to feed ; for 

 I find it noticed by Mr. Penrose, in his paper " On the Birds of Ascension," that one was caught with a fish 

 in its bill which was unknown in those waters. I have observed it sweeping down rapidly to the surface of 

 the water and dipping up its prey as it were, but I have not noticed it pouncing. It adroitly twists and turns 

 and contrives often to avoid the attacks of its enemy, the Frigate-Bird, which I have seen dashing headlong 

 at it in order to rob it of its well-earned food. It has a loud scream, which I omitted to syllabize when listening 

 to it, but which Audubon likens to the syllables ooee oo-ee ; and he says that when seized or wounded it utters 

 a plaintive cry, differing from the ordinary note. Its food consists of fish, cephalopods, floating animalculae, &c, 

 besides which it will pick up various substances thrown overboard from ships. 



Nidification. — The Wide-awake breeds, as a rule, in vast colonies on small islands or reefs, many such 

 breeding-places having been discovered within the last fifty years. The following are known to me ; and as far 

 as I am able I have given the dates, from which it appears that the breeding-time varies at different places from 

 December until August: — Cherbaniani reef, Laccadives (February) ; Houtmann's Abrolbos, W. Australia 

 (December) ; Torres Straits (May aud June) ; Raines Island Barrier Reef (August) ; Ascension (December 

 and June) ; St. Thomas's, West Indies ; Florida Keys. The eggs are laid in a depression in the sand 

 scratched by the bird, and often near the shelter of a bush ; they vary from one to three in number, and 

 while the bird is sitting on them she will suffer herself to be taken by hand, hissing and biting at the intruder. 

 Mr. Hume gives an interesting account of his visit to Cherbaniani, and states that the ground literally swarmed 

 with young ones, which ran about between his feet in such a manner that it was difficult to avoid treading on 

 them. On taking some young back to the reef on the following day, the parents, amidst thousands of birds, 

 immediately found out their lost offspring ! The eggs of the Sooty Tern vary much, both in ground-colour and 

 marking : some are almost pure white, and many different tints are observable between that and the pale salmon- 

 colour of others. They are, as a rule, broad, rather pointed, ovals, the shell moderately smooth and with scarcely 

 any gloss. The markings are very handsome, the whitest eggs being covered with openly distributed roundish 

 blotches of rich brownish red, or clouded with the same round the obtuse end, there being but few small spots 

 on this latter type, but numerous clouds of purplish grey underlying the dark markings. Some white eggs are 

 blotched throughout with oblicruely-direeted blots of a redder tint running into purplish grey. In others the 

 blotches take a transverse direction : one specimen, in the fine series before me from Ascension Island, is smeared 

 all over with light reddish washed-out blotches, mingled with streaks and scratches of the same, with large 

 underlying clouds of bluish grey. The dimensions of various specimens are as follows: — 2*19 by F43, 1*97 

 by l'Ki, 2-17 by 1-39, 2-03 by 135, 1-8-4 by 135, and 205 by 1 -39 inches. The variation in shape will be 

 thus observed ; some specimens are rather blunt at the small end. 



1 here subjoin some extracts from the accounts given by Audubon and Captain Sperling of the interesting 

 breeding-places of this bird. The latter writes, concerning Ascension : — -" Leaving Comfortless Cove about the 

 middle of the day, I walked over two dreary miles of cinders and ashes, uncheered by a symptom of vegetation, 

 before I noticed flocks of Terns converging from various parts of the ocean to a spot apparently about a mile in 

 front of me ; but as yet I observed nothing of the ' fair ;' at length, on turning slightly to the left aud surmount- 

 ing a low ridge, the whole scene was disclosed. A gradual incline of a quarter of a mile terminated in a plain 

 of ten or fifteen acres in extent, which was literally covered with the birds. The plain was surrounded by low 

 mountains, except on the side on which we stood ; and being entirely sheltered from the wind, its heat under 

 the full blaze of a tropical sun was very oppressive. No description can give an adecpiate idea of the effect pro- 

 duced by the thousands upon thousands of these wild sea-birds floating and screaming over this arid cinder-bed, 

 the eggs aud young scattered so thickly on the ground that in some instances it was impossible to avoid 

 crushing them and the bleached bones of dead birds distributed in all directions. During our short walk 

 down the incline, large flocks of parent birds hovered over our heads, and assailed us with plaintive cries. 



