THE SOOTY TERN. 
253 
It was curious to observe tbeir actions whenever a large party landed on 
the island. All those not engaged in incubation would immediately rise in 
the air and scream aloud ; those on the ground would then join them as 
quickly as they could, and the whole forming a vast mass, with a broad ex- 
tended front, would as it were charge us, pass over for fifty yards or so, 
then suddenly wheel round, and again renew their attack. This they would 
repeat six or eight times in succession. When the sailors, at our desire, 
all shouted as loud as they could, the phalanx would for an instant become 
perfectly silent, as if to gather our meaning ; but the next moment, like a 
huge wave breaking on the beach, it would rush forward with deafening 
noise. 
When wounded and seized by the hand, this bird bites severely, and ut- 
ters a plaintive cry differing from its usual note, which is loud and shrill, 
resembling the syllables oo-ee, oo-ee. Their nests are all scooped near the 
roots or stems of the bushes, and under the shade of their boughs, in many 
places within a few inches of each other. There is less difference between 
their eggs than is commonly seen in those of water birds, both with respect 
to size and colouring. They generally measure two inches and one-eighth, 
by one and a half, have a smooth shell, With the ground of a pale cream 
colour, sparingly marked with various tints of lightish umber, and still 
lighter marks of purple, which appear as if within the shell. The lieute- 
nant, N. Lacoste, Esq., informed me that shortly after the young are 
hatched, they ramble pell-mell over the island, to meet their parents, and 
be fed by them ; that these birds have been known to collect there for the 
purpose of breeding since the oldest wreckers on that coast can recollect ; 
and that they usually arrive in May, and remain until the beginning of 
August, when they retire southward to spend the winter months. I could 
not, however, obtain a sufficiently accurate description of the different states 
of plumage which they go through, so as to enable me to describe them in 
the manner I should wish to do. All that I can say is, that before they take 
their departure, the young are greyish-brown above, dull white beneath, 
and have the tail very short. 
At Bird Key we found a party of Spanish eggersfrom Havana. They had 
already laid in a cargo of about eight tons of the eggs of this Tern and the 
Noddy. On asking them how many they supposed they had, they answered 
that they never counted them, even while selling them, but disposed of them 
at seventy-five cents per gallon ; and that one turn to market sometimes 
produced upwards of two hundred dollars, while it took only a week to sail 
backwards and forwards to collect their cargo. Some eggers, who now 
and then come from Key West, sell their eggs at twelve and a half cents the 
