Although I have figured one of the two Australian birds of this genus under the above appellation, rather than run the risk of unnecessarily adding to the number of species, I have no doubt it will prove to be distinct from the American bird. “Found breeding in prodigious numbers on Raine’s Islet and Bramble Key in May and June, associated with Noddies (_Anoüs stolidus_). The Sooty Tern deposits its solitary egg in a slight excavation in the sand without lining of any kind. The egg varies considerably in its markings. After the party employed in building the beacon on Raine’s Islet had been on shore about ten days, and the Terns had had their nests robbed repeatedly, the birds collected into two or three large flocks and laid their eggs in company, shifting their quarters repeatedly on finding themselves continually molested; for new-laid eggs were much in request among people who had for some time been living upon ship’s fare. By sitting down and keeping quiet I have seen the poor birds dropping their eggs within two yards of where I sat, apparently glad to get rid of their burthen at all hazards. During the month of June 1844 about 1500 dozen of eggs were procured by the party upon the Island. About the 20th of June nearly one half of the young birds (hatched twenty-five or thirty days previously) were able to fly, and many were quite strong upon the wing. Great numbers of young birds unable to fly were killed for the pot;—in one mess of twenty-two men the average number consumed daily in June was fifty, and supposing the convicts (twenty in number) to have consumed as many, 3000 young birds must have been killed in one month; yet I could observe no sensible diminution of the number of young, a circumstance which will give the reader some idea of the vast numbers of birds of this species congregated on a mere vegetated sand-bank like Raine’s Islet.”—_J. M’Gillivray._ 572. Onychoprion Panaya Vol. VII. Pl. 33. Genus ANOÜS, _Leach_. Unlike other Terns which frequent the sea-shores and rivers, the Noddies inhabit the wide ocean, far remote from land, and which, like the Petrels, they seldom quit, except at the breeding season, when they congregate in vast multitudes on small islands suited to the purpose. Great nurseries of this kind are to be found in every ocean; in the North Atlantic, one of the Tortugas, called Noddy Key, is a favourite resort, and the Bahama Islands are another; in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, beside other situations, the Houtmann’s Abrolhos, off the western coast of Australia, are resorted to in such immense numbers that Mr. Gilbert was perfectly astonished at the multitudes with which he found himself surrounded, upon landing on those remote and little-explored islands. 573. Anoüs stolidus Vol. VII. Pl. 34.