272 BULLETIK 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The least terns disappeared entirely during the next 10 years. Dr. 

 Frank M. Chapman (1903) visited Cobb's Island in 1902 to gather 

 material for his habitat group, and found them entirely gone. He 

 says of their destruction : 



The former captain of the life-saving station told me of 1,400 least terns being 

 killed in one daj' ; while the present captain of the station and Mr. E. B, Cobb, 

 owner of the island, informed me that when terns were first killed for millinery 

 purposes they, with another man, killed 2,800 birds in three days on and near 

 Cobb's Island. The birds were packed in cracked ice and shipped to New York 

 for skinning, 10 cents being paid for each one. 



The least terns were reported as increasing again in 1905, but when 

 I visited the island during the height of the breeding season in 1907 

 I failed to see a single bird of this species. 



The colonies on the coasts of North and South Carolina were not 

 completely annihilated, but they were greatly reduced in numbers. 

 Mr. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says: 



Hunters came from the north with regular outfits to wage war against these 

 poor, defenceless creatures, and in one season alone all of these terns breeding 

 on Bull's Island were killed. 



In Florida the same cruel work of destruction was systematically 

 conducted. Mr. W. E. D. Scott (1887) thus describes the methods 

 employed : 



About 4 o'clock this afternoon a " sharpie " schooner, some 45 feet in length, 

 came from the direction of Big Gasparilla Pass and anchoi'ed within 200 feet 

 of us. The crew to the number of four at once went on the beach, and from 

 the time they landed until dark there was a perfect fusilade. Going over to see 

 what they were doing I found that they were killing all kinds of shore birds 

 and least terns. One of the men told me that this was Mr. Batty's boat, and 

 that they were collecting birds for the " plume market" ; that Mr. Batty was 

 down the beach shooting an*l would be back for supper. They had bunches of 

 Wilson's plover (breeding), least terns, and various kinds of sandpipers. These 

 birds are skinned, partly filled out with cotton, and at once wrapped up in 

 paper and packed away to be finished after reaching the north. They were 

 killing and preparing by these methods, during the time I was near Mr. Batty's 

 party, from 100 to 150 birds a day. I called on Mr. Batty later in the evening 

 and learned something of his work. 



Spring. — Mr. William Brewster (1879) has written the follow- 

 ing attractive account of the arrival of the terns on their breeding 

 grounds : 



Spring comes over the sea later than upon the land, and fewer tokens are 

 given of its presence. There is no freshening grass; no budding foliage, nor 

 springing up of green things in sheltered places. Summer may be close at 

 hand, but as yet the sea gives no sign. When the wind is from the north the 

 waves in the bay have that steely glint that they have borne all winter. The 

 sand drifts drearily over the wind-swept beach ridges, and the marshes are 

 black and brown, while in the interior robins may be hopping about upon 

 green lawns and violets blooming in every woodland nook. The ducks and 

 geese, it is true, are marshaling their cohorts and stretching out in long lines 



