THE MISSISSIPPI RESERVES 301 



they often — not always — nested so close to- 

 gether, the nests were in no way alike. The 

 gulls' dark-green eggs, heavily blotched with 

 brown, two or three in number, lay on a rude 

 platform of marsh-grass, which was usually 

 partially sheltered by some bush or tuft of reeds, 

 or, if on wet ground, was on a low pile of drift- 

 wood. The skimmers' eggs, hght whitish green 

 and less heavily marked with brown, were, 

 when the clutch was full, four to six in number. 

 There was no nest at all, nothing but a slight 

 hollow in the sand, or gravel or shell debris. 

 In the gravel or among the shell debris it was 

 at first hard to pick out the eggs; but as our 

 eyes grew accustomed to them we found them 

 without difficulty. Sometimes we found the 

 nests of gull and skimmer within a couple of 

 feet of one another, one often under or in a 

 bush, the other always out on the absolutely 

 bare open. Considering the fact that the gull 

 stood ready, with cannibal cheerfulness, to eat 

 the skimmer's eggs if opportunity offered, I 

 should have thought that to the latter bird 

 such association would have seemed rather 

 grewsome; but, as a matter of fact, there seemed 

 to be no feehng of constraint whatever on either 

 side, and the only fighting I saw, and this of a 

 very mild type, was among the gulls themselves. 



