THE OOLOGIST. 



37 



rected flaps of the wings and tail, and a 

 few kicks with the feet, she shapes the 

 nest much in the same manner as the 

 domestic fowl hollows a nesting place 

 in the dust. In these shallow excava- 

 tions the birds deposit two, three or 

 four eggs, which to describe thoroughly 

 would take much more space than the 

 length of the present paper will permit. 

 Suffice it to say that they are of a pale 

 greenish-brown ground color, with 

 spots, splashes, scratches and dots of 

 various colored markings, ranging from 

 a nearly jet black to a pale green. But 

 not always is the female so choice of 

 a location. Frequently a depression in 

 a piece of driftwood or even the rough 

 flat surface of a rock serves for a "nest." 

 There seems to be no difference in 

 this particular between the three varit- 

 ies (in this locality at least), and I have 

 found nests of each in the most out-of- 

 the-ordinary situations (that is to say, 

 to my mere human intellect, but prob- 

 ably Mrs. Sterna has ideas of her own, 

 and knows more about the economics 

 of her household than I. 



We found many dead young birds as 

 we walked about the island, and upon 

 looking more closely than at first, we 

 easily found the reason for finding so 

 many corpses, for stowed away under 

 boulders, in the crevices of rocks, and 

 under pieces of driftwood, all below the 

 highwater mark, we discovered many 

 of the dead young birds, who probably 

 crept under these sheltering roofs to 

 get out of the excessive heat, and be- 

 came imprisoned by the rising tide and 

 were either drowned or perished from 

 starvation. Also on the top of the is- 

 land among the tall rank grass and 

 weeds, we found many young birds, 

 both alive and dead. I should judge 

 that the larger number of dead birds on 

 the top of the island must have perished 

 from starvation, as it was very difficult 

 to find them in the thick vegetation. I 

 have visited the island many times, but 

 never saw so many dead birds before. 



- As we left the outer island r and were 

 rowing to the middle one we were a little 

 surprised to hear the peculiar note of 

 the Laughing Gull [Lotus atricilla), and 

 looking up saw two of these birds close- 

 ly pursued by a great number of Terns, 

 who seemed intent upon driving the 

 Gulls from the locality. They were fi- 

 nally successful in this, and after float- 

 ing lazily about at a height to which the 

 Terns did not seem to care to venture, 

 the Gulls departed to the westward. 



On the middle island I expected to 

 find the Arctics, (S . paradisea) breeding, 

 but none were to be seen, and as noth- 

 ing but the common variety (S.hirundo) 

 were breeding on the outer island, the 

 absence of the Arctics was all the more 

 noticeable. 



Landing on the middle island, we 

 found much the same condition of 

 affairs as on the outer one, except that 

 here the Roseates (S. dougali) were 

 breeding with the common variety, but 

 on neither of the three islands did we 

 find the Arctics. No satisfactory rea- 

 son has been offered for the sudden dis- 

 appearance of the Arctics from the lo- 

 cality, and in years past they have been 

 observed breeding here in large num- 

 bers. 



On this island we were confronted by 

 a sight which made us pause in as great 

 consternation as that of our friend Rob- 

 inson Crusoe, upon discovering the 

 footprints of a human being upon this 

 desolate island. Turning the corner of 

 a large boulder, we came upon a pile of 

 broken eggs, probably numbering sev- 

 eral hundred. We turned the heap 

 over carefully and as near as could be 

 told each egg contained a chick nearly 

 ready to break the shell. Ordinarily 

 we are not particularly profane, but at 

 the sight of this wholesale "murder by 

 contract" we (as Eugene Field says) "ut- 

 tered things my pious pen would leifer 

 not repeat." This sad destruction was 

 wrought by the Portugese lobster fish- 

 ermen, who make their headquarters in 



