LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GIILLS AND TERNS. 231 



rounding it. Numerous Louisiana herons were nesting in the " man- 

 groves " and vast colonies of breeding, laughing gulls and black 

 skimmers occupied the remainder of the island. The terns' nests 

 were similar to those seen on the Virginia coast, described above, and 

 the eggs were nearly all hatched. The following day (June 22, 

 1910) I found a much larger colony of this species, consisting of 

 about a thousand pairs, on Hog Island, a few miles distant. This 

 island had been broken up into several sections by the washing away 

 of beaches and soil, leaving large areas of swam})y salt meadows, 

 overgrown with long grass and extensive thickets of " black man- 

 grove " bushes. Louisiana herons were breeding in the " mangroves " 

 and laughing gulls and Forster's terns on the marshes. Most of the 

 tern's eggs had hatched and some of the young were nearly grown. 

 In Texas the nesting habits of this species seem to be entirely 

 different. Mr. George B. Sennett (1878) on May 16 found it 

 breeding in the salt marshes on the Rio Grande. 



On the same low and nearly submerged island where we found the eggs 

 of stilt, Himantovus nipricoUis, and some hundred yards or more distant, wa? 

 a group of those terns upon the ground near their eggs. When we appi'oacheQ 

 them they commenced screaming and flying about in great distress. They 

 had only fairly begun to lay, as no set was complete. One or two eggs were 

 all that any nest contained, and some were not occupied. The nests were 

 situated farther away from the water than the stilts, but still where the mud 

 was wet, and consisted simply of a patting-down of grasses and soil into a 

 shallow, saucer-shaped depression. 



Mr. N. S. Goss (1891) found them "breeding in numbers on the 

 small islands in Nueces Bay, Texas, as early as the 1st of April. The 

 birds at such times are very noisy, and, as their nesting places are 

 approached, their hoarse notes as they circle close overhead are 

 almost deafening. Nest, a hollow, worked out in the sand, and 

 broken shells, and lined with grasses." 



Still another style of nesting seems to prevail in the western 

 States. jSIr. Eobert B. Rockwell (1911) gives an interesting account 

 of a colony of Forster's terns in the Barr Lake region of Colorado, 

 saying: 



On M;iy 24, 1907, a week after the first eggs were found, the breeding colony 

 was in full swing, and we were surprised to find a number of nests containing 

 complete sets, which had been built by the birds upon floating masses of 

 decaying cat-tails. These structures were all made entirely of dead cat-tail 

 stalks, and while they varied greatly in size and bulk, the general plan of 

 construction was the same in all, being a compact pile of material of irregular 

 outline, apparently floating on the surface of the water (although in reality 

 the nests were supported by masses of dead cat-tails beneath the surface of 

 the water), and were very conspicuous owing to the lack of concealing vege- 

 tation. The eggB were deposited in the center of the pile in a neat depression, 

 whicli was lined with small bits of tlie .same material. The bottom of the cavity 

 was, in every instance, well above the surface of the water (usually from 2 to 

 174785—21 16 



