NODDY TERN. 
37 
observers have found the bird quite bold, so much so that it 
iv,! known to settle down on its nest within sight of the 
intruder. 
E Read tells me that in the south-east of 
ng and_ he has never found any attempt at a nest, the eggs 
eing laid on the bare sand. Thus, too, I have found them 
lyselt ; but on the east coast of Scotland, Mr. Read says that 
cf found some very pretty nests, consisting of a cup- 
laped hollow scooped out of the sand, and surrounded by a 
ing of broken cockle-shells and other .shells of various colours. 
, Eg-a._Generally two, but sometimes three in number, vary- 
ing to a remarkable extent in tint of ground-colour, from 
gieyish stone-colour to buff or clay-brown of different shades, 
of are generally distributed over the whole surface 
brown ^ scattered spots of deep reddish- 
Imt I'r occasionally confluent and forming a blotch, 
Ivino- seldom that large blotches are seen. The undcr- 
, y. ®Pols are always more or less in evidence. Axis, 
I 25-1 4 mchj diam. o-g-i-o. 
the noddy terns, genus anous. 
7 ious^ Steph. in Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiii. part i. p. 139 (1826). 
Type A. stolidiis (L.). 
The tail^is^fifl remarkable for their sombre plumage, 
shorter than^tlio^^^'^^’ outer pair of tail-feathers are 
being the" lonaes/'^^Uu^'’’’ Pair from the outside 
and claw do nS eaual 
strong and decurveTat The bill is 
angle of the genvs to !• distance from the 
p, 2.) S P • (Cf. Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. 
I. THE NODDY TERN. ANOUS STOLIDUS. 
Hist^^l^T p'”?.' Nat. i. p. 227 (1766); Seebohm, 
