R.S. Brown 1966 Sooty Tern Dayman particular is nesting in sparse Stoner on the E side. The birds are nesting extremely well for banding purposes. Those in the dense grass clumps are especially reluctant to leave the eggs and it is rather easy to band up to 300 per hour in broad daylight by taking parents (mostly 99%) of eggs. In certain areas (see Dayman Finch section) the egg loss to dayman finches is amazingly high. This is one of the very few natural controlling factors that I have noted in the numerous Sooty Tern colonies in the Pacific. Band returns are considerable (up to 100 per night with 7 max. ears); most of these are from the massive hatching July - August 1965. To date (15 June) one Lisianski bird has been recorded and at least 4 orange streamed Sand Shooter birds. It is unknown whether these were breeding or not on Eto Dayman. A small number (ca.3) Two egg clutches were noted by me during banding operations. From the uniformity of the two eggs in each respective clutch, it would almost certainly appear to be the work of one female in each case. This, I would imagine R.S. Brown 1966 Sooty Tern Dayman: is quite possible and besides, birds are anatomically equipped with two perfectly good functional brood patches. We doubt there has been selection against two eggs for the species in the past evolution since one egg = 1 chick appears to be enough to maintain the species and at an extremely high population level. Last year's July and August surveys are actually a poor companion to use in estimating population numbers because at that time practically all birds had varying sized chicks and a good portion of the adult population could have alternatively been at sea in pursuit of food. However, I believe the adult population is considerably greater the present year. I would tentatively raise last year's population of 1,000,000 to 1,250,000. This might over be low as more birds seem to be coming down all the time. The majority of birds use the shelter of an overhanging clump I guess to place the egg. Some nests are elaborate depressions in fallen grass cover but the majority are laid in shallow sand scrapes.