Male SOOTIES remain away from home all day while eggs are hatching but return when young arrive and feed their mates and give them a chance for exercise.
Water is so much with them that they never touch it unless fishing or bathing.
Like other Terns they follow small fish driven to the surface by larger ones and are convinced the ground around their homes belongs to them. This sense of possession is so strong that every bird must land in his own yard or be attacked by those whose domain it invades.
Nest quite in the Tern manner — a mere hollow in sand.
Florida and coasts of Louisana and Texas.