Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/212

 says:—"There is one charming bird, a small and snow-white Tern, which smoothly hovers at the distance of an arm's length from your head, its large black eye scanning with quiet curiosity your expression. Little imagination is required to fancy that so light and delicate a body must be tenanted by some wandering fairy spirit."

THE NODDY.

The (Anous stolidus) represents a group recognisable by its somewhat clumsy appearance; its beak is longer than the head, strong, almost straight, and compressed at the sides, with the fore part of the under mandible bent at an angle; the legs are powerful, and the feet furnished with long narrow toes, fully webbed; the wings are long, narrow, and pointed, but their apices are somewhat rounded off, the tail is long and wedge-shaped, but not forked. The colour of its plumage, with the exception of the upper part of the head, which is greyish white, is sooty brown, a patch in front of and another behind the eye black, the quills and tail-feathers blackish brown; the eye is brown, the beak black, and the foot dusky brownish red. The length of the Noddy is sixteen inches, its breadth thirty-two, length of wing eleven inches, of tail five inches. These birds appear to be more widely distributed than any of their congeners; they are met with both in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, being perhaps most abundant in the latter portion of the globe. Some ornithologists, however, are undecided whether the Atlantic and Pacific birds must be regarded merely as varieties or as distinct species. Mr. Coues, who is of the latter opinion, has proposed to call the Pacific species Anous frater. Mr. Gould, however, prefers to describe the Australian bird under the old name of stolidus, rather than unnecessarily multiply the number of specific appellations, but he observes that though the Noddies of the northern and southern hemispheres are very much alike, considerable variation is found to exist in their modes of nidification, and the season at which it is performed; there is also a difference in the colouring and number of their eggs, those in the northern hemisphere being said to lay three, those in the southern only one egg. The Noddy, and an allied species, Anous melanops, says Gilbert, are extremely numerous on the Houtmann's Abrolhos, where they breed in prodigious numbers. The present species lays its eggs in November and December, on a nest constructed of seaweed, about six inches in diameter, and varying in height from four to eight inches, but without anything like regularity of form; the top is nearly flat, there being but a very slight hollow to prevent their single egg from rolling off. The nests are so completely plastered with the excrement of the bird, that at first sight they appear to be entirely formed of that material; they are either placed on the ground in a clear open space, or on the tops of the thick scrub, over those of the Onochoprios fuliginosus, the two species incubating together with the most perfect harmony, and the bushes presenting a mottled appearance, from the great numbers of both species perched on their tops. By the middle of January the eggs were nearly ready to hatch, and there would be an overwhelming increase of this species yearly, but for the check which Nature has provided against it, in the presence of a small lizard, which is very abundant in their breeding-places, and which finds an easy prey in the young.

"About the beginning of May," says Audubon, "the Noddies collect from all parts of the Gulf of Mexico and coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to their breeding-places on one of the Tortugas, called the Noddy Key, where they form regular nests of twigs and dry grass, which they place on bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On visiting their island on the 11th of May, 1832, I was surprised to see that many of them were repairing and augmenting nests which had remained throughout the winter, while others were employed in commencing 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