R.Clapp 1964 Oct. 18 Jaboerukku-Arumeni Islands, Bikar Atoll In the afternoon walked north on Jaboerukku and thence over to the Sooty Tern colony to have a look at the Crested Tern nests in their midst. Near the center of the Sooty colony is a small colony of Crested Tern. Originally there were 20 eggs and 2 chicks but the 2 latter died and 2 rotten eggs were removed by Amerson. Today there are 14 nests encompassed in a very small area. The 14 nests are in an area, which, if boxed in by a recta_gle would encompass 20 square feet. Subtracting about 2 square feet from the total would be justified as a certain amount of this area is not utilized by the birds. (The nesting area is more nearly oval.) This gives a nesting density of about 1 bird/2 sq. ft. or 50 nests/ 100 square feet. I then measured the distances between eggs and their nearest adjacent neighbor to the half inch. I got: 10, 10, 12, 12, 10.5, 11, 11, 11.5, 12, 11, 9.5, and 9.5 inches The nest itself is nothing more than a slight scooped depression in the coarse rubbly coral and sand. Such a depression is about 6 inches in diameter and about .5 to 1.5 inches deep. One egg centrally located was 12, 10, and 10 inches from its nearest neighbors. This would make the mean radius of the territory about 5.5 inches. This would give the bird a territory of less than a square foot.