Sooty Terns Resting in the Grass. 
There are also a few young cocoanut palms 
and some patches of Bermuda grass and 
cactus. 
Among the island birds are in- 
cluded all the regular inhabitants of Bird 
Key, other than migrants which may 
casually rest upon it. In fact, two kinds 
will embrace all but about two dozen 
individuals. These abounding sorts are 
the sooty and the noddy terns, both birds 
of the tropics, that are found nesting 
only in this one spot 
in all the United 
States. Each is 
about the size of a 
pigeon, slender and 
graceful, with rather 
long, pointed wings. 
The sooty tern is 
deep black in its up- 
per plumage, and 
snowy white below, 
while the noddy is 
dark brownish gray 
all over, save for a 
whitish cap on its 
head. 
The sooty terns 
form the great ma- 
jority of the popula- 
tion of Bird Key. 
My guess would be 
that there were 
On Lonely Bird Key 
about six to eight 
thousand of them at 
this time. Of the 
noddies there were 
hardly a thousand, 
a great decrease 
from former num- 
bers. Only these 
two species breed on 
the Key. Its only 
other frequenters 
were some two doz- 
en great man-o’-war 
birds that loafed 
around, sunning 
themselves upon a 
certain clump of 
bushes, the wharf, 
or the beacon, when 
they were not  se- 
renely floating in the 
air, or pursuing and 
robbing the terns as 
they came in with 
food secured each morning and afternoon 
in their trips out to sea. 
Though the climate is warm throughout 
the year, it is not until May that the 
feathered hosts arrive from the far South 
at this sandy rendezvous. In the van 
come the noddies, a few about the first of 
May, and the rest within a few days. A 
week later the sooty terns pour in, and it 
is said that within a week of their arrival 
both kinds begin to lay. At the time of 
Noddy on Nest—A Scolding Attitude. 
