22 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



perhaps every third or fourth nest would have from one to three 

 eggs in it. These are used by the inhabitants very largely for 

 food, and a hungry man can dispose of a good many such small 

 eggs, but the birds are in such numbers, and are such persistent 

 layers, that it is not very long before the inhabitants tire of eggs 

 as a diet, and the birds are thus allowed to raise their young in 

 peace. Even before this period arrives it is impossible for the 

 inhabitants to eat all the eggs that are laid by so many tens of 

 thousands of birds ; therefore many nesting places are left untouch- 

 ed, and the egg collecting is largely confined to those localities 

 more accessible and convenient to the houses. Although too 

 early for the main crop of eggs, yet three of our party one evening 

 gathered over a hundred eggs in about twenty minutes. They 

 reported the nests as being so close together that one could step 

 from nest to nest, and this was also the case on a small island in 

 one of the fresh-water ponds, which I visiteJ, where there were 

 probably a hundred nests in a space not more than twenty yards 

 long. The majority of the nests were merely a hole scooped in the 

 sand, but a fair number had more or less straw and dry grass as a 

 lining ; and a very few had quite a compact and thick lining of 

 the same material. The eggs vary much in color, the normal type 

 being clay color with blackish spots, probably f'jf of the eggs 

 being thus colored. A few are of a rich dark brown, similarly 

 spotted while at the other extreme about one of the hundred is of 

 a clean pale blue, almost or quite unspotted. At least two com- 

 mon species of gulls show a similar variation. The birds are 

 exceedingly graceful flyers, living almost entirely upon the wing, 

 and catching their prey, which consists of small fish, by darting 

 down and taking it from the water, sometimes without wetting 

 more than the bill, while at other times the force of the plunge is 

 not sufficient to carry the bird deep enough to catch the fish. 

 They feed largely upon a long, slender fish, called the lance, and 

 also upon sticklebacks, which grow to a length of about 3J inches. 

 Qver every favorable piece of inland water the birds may be seen 

 hunting at all times of the day, and thousands more are out upon 

 the ocean, following the schools of cod, which chase the small fish, 

 driving them to the surface, where they become the prey of the 

 terns. Their call is heard everywhere, and at all times. Even in 



