234 OUR RARER BIRDS 



than a foot apart. Long before we got to this oological 

 El Dorado every bird had taken wing, and the entire colony 

 was sailing and fluttering and screaming high in air above 

 our heads. Very white they looked against the dark blue 

 sky, and their black head-caps showed conspicuously against 

 their gray upper plumage. Many birds hovered like Kestrels 

 just above our heads, and now and then several would swoop 

 almost to the ground and rise again as suddenly. The whole 

 time we lingered near this fascinating spot, the birds kept in 

 motion, nor did they finally settle down till long after we had 

 left their island home. 



The Sandwich Tern makes very little nest — merely a 

 hollow in which a few bits of withered herbage and dry sea- 

 weed are collected; and in some cases nests are entirely 

 dispensed with, when the eggs are laid on the shingly beach. 

 The eggs very closely resemble the ground on which they lie. 

 They are tw^o or tliree in number, and vary considerably in 

 shape and coloration. Eggs of this Tern rank amongst the 

 most beautiful objects a well-filled egg cabinet can display. 

 They vary in ground colour from white to buff, spotted and 

 blotched with dark brown and violet-gray. Many eggs are 

 very boldly marked indeed, the entire colouring matter being 

 collected in one or two large splashes. Others are spotted 

 evenly over the entire surface, and some are streaked and 

 clouded with colour in a most remarkable manner. I know 

 of no other eggs which are more handsomely marked than 

 those of the Sandwich Tern. But one brood is reared in the 

 year, although, if the first lot of eggs is destroyed, others are 

 invariably laid after the lapse of a week or so. Both birds 

 assist in hatchim^ the efygs. 



The Sandwich Tern does not wander far from home during 

 the breeding season, and obtains most of its food from the 

 water in the immediate neighbourhood of its nest. It obtains 

 its food when flying over the sea, dropping down into the 



