Least Tern 381 



during the '8o's, before the Audubon work became effective, their slaughter 

 constituted one of the blotches on our American life. 



It was the custom in those times for men to fit out vessels with provisions, 

 ammunition, and collecting materials sufficient to last them for days, or even 

 weeks. These piratical crews sailed the coast, killing and skinning the Least 

 Terns and, incidentally, many other birds for the New York millinery houses. 



This shooting was carried on almost entirely in spring and summer when 

 the birds were gathered in colonies for the purpose of rearing their young. It 

 was very easy to kill them in numbers, as they flew in screaming clouds low 

 over their eggs and young that dotted the breeding territory. In fact, it was not 

 always necessary to use a gun. So dense were the clouds of birds that the 

 hunters frequently would hurl clubs or short poles among the flying hosts. 

 From two to a half-dozen birds could easily be disabled at a stroke. A half- 

 hour's work at clubbing and shooting by two or three men was often sufficient 

 to secure several hundred birds — all that the crew could skin during the 

 remainder of the day. 



By this method the colonies on Long Island were exterminated in a short 

 time. A big killing went on along the coast of Virginia. On Cobbs Island, 

 10,000 specimens were taken in a single season. A woman representing a New 

 York millinery house directed this work. She took with her two or three 

 skinners and employed the local gunners to kill thp birds, paying them ten cents 

 for each one brought in. 



So rare had the Least Tern become on Cobbs Island in 1892 when the writer 

 visited the place during the height of the breeding season that less than a half- 

 dozen individuals were seen. The terror of man was so strong upon them that 

 when they caught sight of two of us coming down the beach they flew with 

 startled cries toward the open sea, and we did not see them again during our 

 subsequent excursions along the beach the next three or four days. 



Two inhal)itants of Morehead City, N. C, Augustine Piner and Joseph 

 Royal, were famous slaughterers of birds in those days, and the numbers of 

 Terns and Egrets that these two men and their crews gathered for the feather 

 business ran into the hundreds of thousands. 



By both of these men I have been given intimate, detailed descriptions of 

 their killing and skinning cruises. From them I learned that they frec[uently 

 found the shooting of Terns protita])le at other ])laces than on the breeding- 

 grounds. The Terns often gathered in numbers about inlets to the sea where 

 the constant ebb and flow of the tide evidently furnished excellent oppor- 

 tunities for feeding. 



As soon as one bird was shot down on the water, tlie others in tiie neighbor- 

 hood would come n>ing about overhead, dipj)ing down and shouting at the 

 strange api)earance of tlieir hel])less comrade. It was then easy to make a 

 large bag of birds in a few niiiiutcs. If the tlock was wild and ditlicult\- was 

 experienced in getting down the first bird, all they needed to do was to tie a 



