Miscellanea . 
375 
January I found the eggs very nearly ready to hatch, and but 
few young birds ; in numerous instances the bird would suffer me 
to take it by the wing and throw it off the nest, but would im ¬ 
mediately return, although I was still standing close to the spot. 
There would be an overwhelming increase to this species yearly 
but for one check which nature has provided against it in the pre¬ 
sence of a lizard, which is extremely abundant about their breed¬ 
ing-places, and which finds an easy prey in this and S. fuliginosa. 
I am satisfied, from constant observation, that on an average, not 
more than one out of every twenty birds hatched ever reach ma¬ 
turity, or live long enough to take wing ; besides this, great num¬ 
bers of the old birds are constantly killed : tliese lizards do not 
eat the whole bird, but merely extract the brains and vertebral 
marrow; the remainder however is soon cleared off by the Der- 
mestes lardarius , which is here in amazing numbers, and gave me 
a great deal of uneasiness and constant trouble to preserve my 
collection from their repeated attacks. I did not observe the 
Noddy inhabiting any other but South Island ; they do not ap¬ 
pear to go far out to sea to feed, finding an abundance of food 
immediately outside the outer reef; nor did I in any one instance 
observe it feeding in the smooth quiet water between the outer reef 
and the islands. Their food consists of small fish, small mollusca, 
medusas, cuttle-fish, &c. Irides brown, bill and legs blackish 
grey; flight somewhat heavy and very irregular/' 
“ Anous -? (Lesser Noddy).—This, although an allied 
species to the Noddy, is totally different in its habits of incuba¬ 
tion, and is even much more numerous than the former ; it builds 
a nest of sea-weed on the branches of the mangrove, from four 
to ten feet above the ground; like the Noddy, however, it is truly 
gregarious, arranging their nests as closely as possible; the sea¬ 
weed is merely thrown across the branch without any regard to 
form, till they have a heap varying from two to four inches in 
height, the long pieces of seaweed in many instances hanging 
beneath the branch, which makes it appear a much larger struc¬ 
ture : their nests and the branches of the trees are completely 
white from their excrement, throwing out a most disagreeable 
and sickly odour, which is perceptible at a considerable distance. 
