THE NODDY TERN. 
283 
many of them were repairing and augmenting nests that had remained 
through the winter, while others were employed in constructing new ones* 
and some were already sitting on their eggs. In a great many instances, the 
repaired nests formed masses nearly two feet in height, and yet all of them 
had only a slight hollow for the eggs, broken shells of which were found 
among the entire ones, as if they had been purposely placed there. The 
birds did not discontinue their labours, although there were nine or ten of us 
walking among the bushes, and when we had gone a few yards into the 
thicket, thousands of them flew quite low over us, some at times coming so 
close as to enable us to catch a few of them with the hand. On one side 
might be seen a Noddy carrying a stick in its bill, or a bird picking up 
something from the ground to add to its nest ; on the other several were 
seen sitting on their eggs unconscious of danger, while their mates brought 
them food. The greater part rose on wing as we advanced, but re-alighted 
as soon as we had passed. The bushes were rarely taller than ourselves, so 
that we could easily see the eggs in the nests. This was quite a new sight 
to me, and not less pleasing than unexpected. 
The Noddy, like most other species of Terns, lays three eggs, which 
average two inches in length, by an inch and three-eighths in breadth, and 
are of a reddish-yellow colour, spotted and patched with dull red and faint 
purple. They afford excellent eating, and our sailors seldom failed to collect 
bucketsful of them daily during our stay at the Tortugas. The wreckers 
assured me that the young birds remain along with the old through the 
winter, in which respect the Noddy, if this account be correct, differs from 
other species, the young of which keep by themselves until spring. 
At the approach of a boat, the Noddies never flew off their island, in the 
manner of the Sooty Terns. They appeared to go farther out to sea than 
those birds, in search of their food, which consists of fishes mostly caught 
amid the floating sea-weeds, these Terns seizing them, not by plunging 
perpendicularly downwards, as other species do, but by skimming close over 
the surface in the manner of Gulls, and also by alighting and swimming 
round the edges of the weeds. This I had abundant opportunities of seeing 
while on the Gulf of Mexico. 
The flight of this bird greatly resembles that of the Night Hawk when 
passing over meadows or rivers. When about to alight on the water, the 
Noddy keeps its wings extended upwards, and touches it first with its feet. 
It swims with considerable buoyancy and grace, and at times immerses its 
head to seize on a fish. It does not see well by night, and it is perhaps for 
this reason that it frequently alights on the spars of vessels, where it sleeps 
so sound that the seamen often catch them. When seized in the hand, it 
utters a rough cry, not unlike that of a young American Crow taken from 
