92 THE SOOTY TERN. 



is only a few miles distant, alight on the water, and frequently on the yards 

 of vessels, where, if undisturbed, they sleep until the return of day. It is 

 from this circumstance that they have obtained the name of Noddy, to 

 which in fact they are much better entitled than the present species, which 

 has also been so named, but of which I never observed any to alight on a 

 vessel in which I was for thirty-five days in the Gulf of Mexico, at a time 

 when that bird was as abundant during the day as the other species, of which 

 many were caught at my desire by the sailors. 



The present species rarely alights on the water, where it seems incom- 

 moded by its long tail; but the other, the Sterna stolida, which, in the 

 shape of its tail, and in some of its habits, shews an affinity to the Petrels, 

 not only frequently alights on the sea, but swims about on floating patches 

 of the gulf weed, seizing on the small fry and little crabs that are found 

 among the branches of that plant, or immediately beneath them. 



I have often thought, since I became acquainted with the habits of the 

 bird which here occupies our attention, that it differs materially from all the 

 other species of the same genus that occur on our coasts. The Sterna 

 fuliginosa never dives headlong and perpendicularly as the smaller species 

 are wont to do, such as St. Hirundo, St. arctica, St. minuta, St. 

 Dougallii, or St. nigra, but passes over its prey in a curved line, and picks 

 it up. Its action I cannot better compare to that of any other bird than the 

 Night Hawk, while plunging over its female. I have often observed this 

 Tern follow and hover in the wake of a porpoise, while the latter was 

 pursuing its prey, and at the instant when by a sudden dash it frightens and 

 drives toward the surface the fry around it, the Tern as suddenly passes over 

 the spot, and picks up a small fish or two. 



Nor is the flight of this Tern characterized by the buoyancy and unde- 

 cidedness, if I may so speak, of the other species mentioned above, it being 

 as firm and steady as that of the Cayenne Tern, excepting during the 

 movements performed in procuring its food. Like some of the smaller 

 Gulls, this bird not unfrequently hovers close to the water to pick up floating 

 objects, such as small bits of fat pork and greasy substances thrown over- 

 board purposely for making the experiment. 



There is a circumstance connected with the habits of the two species of 

 which I now more particularly speak, which, although perhaps somewhat 

 out of place, I cannot refrain from introducing here. It is that the Sterna 

 stolida always forms a nest on trees or bushes, on which that bird alights 

 with as much ease as a Crow or Thrush; whereas the Sterna fuliginosa 

 never forms a nest of any sort, but deposits its eggs in a slight cavity which 

 it scoops in the sand under the trees. But, reader, let us return to the Bird 

 Key. 



