THE MISSISSIPPI RESERVES 299 



together, in bird cities, so to speak, and gen- 

 erally rather low on the beaches. On island 

 after island the waves had washed over the 

 nests and destroyed them by the ten thousand. 

 The beautiful royal terns were the chief sufferers. 

 On one island there was a space perhaps nearly 

 an acre in extent where the ground was covered 

 with their eggs, which had been washed thither 

 by the tide; most of them had then been eaten 

 by those smart-looking highwaymen, the trim, 

 slate-headed laughing gulls. The terns had 

 completely deserted the island and had gone 

 in their thousands to another; but some skim- 

 mers remained and were nesting. The western- 

 most island, we visited was outside the national 

 reservation, and that very morning it had been 

 visited and plundered by a party of eggers. 

 The eggs had been completely cleared from 

 most of the island, gulls and terns had been 

 shot, and the survivors were in a frantic state 

 of excitement. It was a good object-lesson in 

 the need of having reserves, and laws protecting 

 wild life, and a sufficient number of efficient 

 officers to enforce the laws and protect the re- 

 serves. Defenders of the short-sighted men 

 who in their greed and selfishness will, if per- 

 mitted, rob our country of half its charm by 

 their reckless extermination of all useful and 



