ANOUS STOLIDUS. 
1045 
month at St. Paul's rocks in the Atlantic. At Ascension, however, and in British Honduras it breeds in the 
early part of the year. 
I append here the following account by Mr. Gilbert, taken from Mr. Gould's work, of the breeding of 
this species at the Houtmann's Abrolhos, a group of islets lying off the west coast of Australia in lat. 28° S. : — ■ 
“ It lays its eggs in November and December, on a nest constructed of seaweed, about 6 inches in diameter 
and varying in height from 4 to 8 inches, but without any thing like regularity of form ; the top is nearly 
flat, there being but a very slight hollow to prevent their single egg from rolling off. The nests are so 
completely plastered with the excrement of the bird, that at first sight they appear to be entirely formed of 
that material ; they are either placed on the ground in a clear open space, or on the tops of the thick scrub, 
over those of the Onychoprion fuliginosus , the two species incubating together with the most perfect harmony, and 
the bushes presenting a mottled appearance from the great numbers of both species perched on the top .... On 
walking among the nests I was surprised to observe the pertinacity with which the birds kept their post ; in 
fact they would not remove from off the egg or young, but would suffer themselves to be trodden upon or taken 
off with the hand ; and so thickly were the nests placed, that it was no easy matter to avoid crushing either 
eggs or birds at every step.” Mr. Gilbert says that numbers of the young are killed by a small lizard 
abundant on the island, and which extracts the brains and vertebral marrow, so that not more than one out of 
every twenty hatched reaches maturity. 
The eggs of this Noddy are a delicate reddish white, rather rough in texture and pointed ovals in shape, 
very sparingly marked with small specks of brownish red round the larger end, or with a few larger blots of 
the same sparingly scattered over the whole surface; beneath these markings are faint spots of delicate 
bluish grey. Some examples in a series before me, belonging to Mr. Dresser, and taken in British Honduras, 
measure D87 by 1‘35, 2 - 05 by D41, and 1‘96 by 1'36 inch. 
There are many other breeding-places of this Noddy throughout the world ; some are in the Pacific, 
two of which, at Niuafon and Eua Islands in the Friendly group, are cited by Dr. O. Finsch. It probably 
breeds at Rodriguez, and also, according to Ileuglin, in the Red Sea. 
G AVIiE. 
LARIM. 
Subfam. LARINiE. 
Bill stout, of moderate length ; tip of the upper mandible curved ; the gonys short and 
angulated ; nostrils oblong and pervious. Wings when closed exceeding the tail. Tertials not 
exceeding the 6th primary. Tail short and even, or slightly cuneate. Tarsus longer than the 
middle toe and claw ; the anterior scutes transverse and broad ; toes fully webbed ; hind toe 
rudimentary in one genus. 
With a change of plumage in summer, acquired by a moult, chiefly on the head. Of 
natatorial habit. 
Genus LARUS. 
Characters of bill and wings as in the subfamily. Tail short and even at the tip ; webs 
complete ; hind toe present and not rudimentary. 
6s 2 
