ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES
The Noddies
(Anous), so called, originally by sailors, on account of their stupidity in permitting a near approach of man, form an interesting group of some half dozen species of tropical oceanic birds obviously related to the Terns, but differing in their heavier, more labored flight, as well as in their habits, as most of their life is spent on the surface of the open ocean, often at great distances from the land, where they secure their food of crustaceans, floating animals, and offal.
They are, for the group, birds of medium size, with the bill longer than the head and strong, the upper mandible curved gradually to the rather acute tip, very long, pointed wings, and a graduated instead of forked tail, while the tarsi are rather short and slender, and the toes long and united by a full web.
The plumage is mainly dusky throughout, becoming grayish white on the forehead, and on the basis of a slenderer bill and the greater length of the third pair of tail feathers, counting from the outside, several of the forms are sometimes separated under the generic name of Micranous, but the difference seems hardly worthy of generic rank.
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