354 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



An Unusual Set of Eggs of the Least 

 Tern. 



BY DR. R. W. SliUFlvLDT, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Not long ago in going over the cele- 

 brated collection of North American and 

 Australian birds' eggs belonging to Mr. 

 E. J. Court, of Washington, D. C, the 

 owner called my attention to a remark- 



the one in the upper left hand corner is 

 the same Qgg as the one in the lower left 

 hand corner — and so on for the middle 

 and the last one in the row. The mark- 

 ings on one side of any one of these eggs 

 three in the upper row are repeated in the 

 same sequence in the lower row, so that 

 as they are shown in the upper row are 

 bv no means abundant; but when we 



AN UNUSUAL SET OF EGGS OF THE LEAST TERN. 



able set of eggs of the Least Tern, and 

 very generously loaned me the clutch for 

 the purpose of photograph}- and descrip- 

 tion. 



Mr. Court collected this set himself on 

 the sixth of June, 1914, at Deep Point, 

 St. George's Island, Maryland. There 

 was no nest, and the full complement of 

 eggs was three, as shown in my photo- 

 graph illustrating the present article. At 

 the time he was there, a colony of seven- 

 tv-five pairs of these birds was breeding 

 on the same area, which is a part of 

 Maryland I have never personally visited. 



These eggs are of a pale creamy white, 

 with markings, as shown in the cut, of 

 blackish brown — almost black in some 

 places ; there are also scattered spots of 

 pale drab or gray. My photograph shows 

 each of these eggs on two views. The 



come to turn the eggs over it will be 

 observed that each and all of them exhibit 

 a big blotch on the reverse side, and of a 

 pattern shown in the illustration. 



Perhaps the most extraordinary appear- 

 ing egg of this set is the one in the mid- 

 dle of the two rows. On one side it ex- 

 hibits but a few and small scattered spots 

 as markings, while on its other side these 

 spots are still smaller, but to these we 

 find added a great, square, central patch 

 of a deep blackish brown, which gives the 

 egg a very extraordinary appearance. 



I will be interested to know whether 

 any other collector of birds' eggs in this 

 country has ever come across a set of the 

 Least Tern's eggs in any way approach- 

 ing this one in the matter of peculiar 

 markings ; it so, I should very much like 

 to hear of it. 



