NODDY. 
233 
breed on the Roca Islands and various parts of the coast of 
Brazil and Cayenne. According to the accounts of voyagers, 
they lay vast numbers of eggs on certain rocky isles contiguous 
to St. Helena, and the eggs are there accounted a delicate 
food. Some have imagined that the appearance of the Noddy 
at sea indicates the proximity of land j but, in the manner of the 
Common 'Fern, these birds adventure out to sea, and like the 
mariner himself, the shelter of whose friendly vessel they seek, 
they often voyage at random for several days at a time, com- 
mitting themselves to the mercy of the boundless ocean ; and 
having at certain seasons no predilection for a peculiar climate, 
the roving flocks or stragglers find a home on every coast. 
This Tern never comes up the Atlantic coast beyond the South- 
ern States, but is common around Florida and on the Gulf shores. 
