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Bird- Lore 



flew off, only to come again and continue its dastardly work. I was now struck 

 with a certain difference in general appearance between the incubating female 

 and this bird. In the latter I also noticed particularly a V-shaped tuft of white 

 feathers that extended far below the nape and overlapped the bend of the wing 

 — a pecularity which shows clearly, as I had hoped, in some of the photographs. 

 As further evidence that this was not the owner, I saw presently that mere 

 destruction was not its aim; it was devouring the eggs with the plainest relish, 



even lifting the eggs entirely 

 out of the nest in its eager- 

 ness to gulp down the oozing 

 contents. And with what a 

 wild, sneaking, diabolical 

 look the handsome robber 

 glanced from side to side, as 

 if momentarily apprehensive 

 of the owner's return! Once 

 more he departed in alarm 

 or fear, this time alighting 

 on the pool to wash off his 

 reeking bill. With appetite 

 still unsatiated, however, he 

 llew boldly back, and con- 

 tinued his disgusting meal 

 within fifteen feet of the 

 tent, from which I watched 

 his every movement. When 

 he left finally, two of the 

 three eggs had been de- 

 stroyed. 



With such a pirate in 

 their midst (and who knows 

 how many more there were 

 in the colony?) it seemed that each pair of Laughing Gulls must maintain 

 the strictest guard over their nest and incubate by turns, or pay the penalty 

 in the distressing way that I had witnessed, — and for which I could not but 

 feel largely responsible. 



Several of the best local observers of that part of the Virginia coast, whom 

 I questioned, had never noticed the rifling of a Laughing Gull's nest by the 

 same species, and were unable to shed any light upon the subject. Further- 

 more, ornithological literature contains no reference*, so far as I am aware, 

 to this remarkable penchant, or habit, of the Laughing Gull. Certain other 



*Since the above was written, Mr. Alfred B. Howell has mentioned in 'The Auk' (Vol. XXVIII, 

 iQii, p. 453) a Laughing Gull's attempt at Cobb's Island to steal eggs, but does not name the species 

 ■whose nest was in danger of being robbed. 



THE ROBBER EATING THE EGGS 



