THE COMMON TERN. 753 



Althu tlie season was tar advanced, Augnst J-S. lyoi, nests and eggs 

 abounded, making it appear probable that the colony had l)een plundered 

 earlier in the summer, or else had been overwhelmed in time of storm. 

 We made the circuit of the island like excited children, only taking care 

 not to crush the eggs beneath our feet. The birds themselves were tireless 

 in voice and wing, and would not be lulled to any sense (_)f security, while the 

 strangers were on their premises. The convenient, terrace-like arrangement 

 of the ground invited the taking of a census, which showed the following 

 results : empty nests, joo ; nests with eggs, 232 ; nests with young only, 25 ; 

 loose squabs, 26. 



Some of the nests were quite respectable affairs, neat cushions of 

 bark and feathers and trash; but for the most part eggs were dumped 

 just anywhere on the gravel. Two nests were found in the corners of 

 dry-goods boxes, wdiich had 1)een cast up on the reef. One of these con- 

 tained a waif cork by way of a nest-egg. Upon another island the soft 

 bedded masses of driftwood proxed to be a favorite nesting site, altho graxel 

 was not forsworn. At one spot I dug m}' toe into an empty nest for a 

 base and "fetching a compass" with my hands, touched eggs or young in 

 fifteen nests. 



More romantic still, was the scene at North Harbor Island, some 

 six miles further to the northwest. Here a limestiine knob, two acres in 

 extent, rough-chiseled by the ancient glacier, supports a skirting fringe 

 of travel on one side, and a considerable grove of hackberrv trees in the 

 center. As we drew near this charming spot, toward sunset, the island 

 with its attendant halo of timorous Terns, rose out of this inland sea 

 like the fabled Atlantis in miniature, an enchanted isle of wondrous beauty. 

 As the barque of the gentle pirates grated on the strand, a thousand 

 Purple ]\Iartins rose in a cloud from a dead hackberry tree and whirled 

 about in wild confusion until better counsels prevailed and llie}- returned to 

 slumber. 



Not so the Terns. Nothing could completely lull their fears; althi), 

 when we made our bi\'Ouac in the woods, the mothers did settle to their 

 eggs. The Terns were everywhere. We found them nesting inditfer- 

 entlv upon the polished limestone of the western shore, the naked gravels 

 of the south end, the grassy paddocks of the upland, or within the dim 

 and srassless shade of the interior. The Terns owned tlie island and 

 their clamor was really unceasing. A few were crying all night long, 

 and the noise at four o'clock in the morning was nothing short of an 

 uproar. We estimated that something like fifteen hundred Terns found 

 harbor upon the island, but we did not attempt a nest-and-egg census. 



