THE OOLOGIST 



171 



forceful alacrity and sending up little 

 volumes of white sprays. Gulls also 

 were becoming numerous now about 

 two miles from the island, they were in 

 hundreds of pairs, flying close to -the 

 surface of the water, the wings of the 

 paired birds nearly touching the wings 

 of each other and tlie wing tips with 

 their tipped primaries presenting a 

 striking appearance. The presence of 

 so many birds at one time was a 

 novelty to us but the captain informed 

 us that this was nothing to what we 

 were later to experience, that these 

 birds were only a few, and so it even- 

 tuated. 



Wlien a mile or so from the island, 

 the home of the sea bird, hove into our 

 line of vision, narrow rim of green on 

 the lea, and soon we were anchored 

 at a small pier again and we were 

 greeted by Mr. Cobb and the hotel 

 lady at that dear little weather beaten 

 hotel, so dear to the hearts of hun- 

 dreds of sportsman and Ornithologists 

 and now only a memory. 



Cobb's Island is a narrow strip of 

 land ten miles out in the Atlantic. On 

 the eastern side it is almost entirely 

 sandy and towards the northeastern 

 end there is a series of sand dunes. 

 For the most part the eastern side is 

 a continuous stretch of beach, almost 

 bare save for a spare growth of beach 

 grass in straggly patches. The beach 

 is firm and beautiful, one of the finest 

 on the Atlantic seaboard. 



On the western side there are broad 

 acres of salt marshes and several 

 sloughs while at the northern end 

 there is a channel that divided a part 

 of the island. The flood which oc- 

 curred subsequently to my first visit 

 caused this channel, it also narrowed 

 the island on the southeast. 



The little hotel seemed very invit- 

 ing to us as we were rather fatigued. 

 We were shown neat apartments and 

 the meals were excellent. I shall not 



soon forget our first supper on Cobb's, 

 consisting as it did of clam fritters, 

 soft shelled crabs, fresh sea trout and 

 black drum steak varied later with 

 clam chowder and oysters. I noticed 

 a photograph on the hotel showing 

 A. Jones of Rochmond with his "catch" 

 of red drum. And I noticed some fine 

 drum fishing during my stay — the first 

 day's fishing yielding two monster 

 drums; and there was also excellent 

 sea trout fishing. I almost filled the 

 boat on one occasion and sometimes 

 took three on a line at one time. As 

 we landed we saw at once that this 

 was a bird paradise for now there 

 were thousands upon thousands of 

 gulls hovering over the marshes and 

 in all directions Common and Gull 

 Billed Terns wheeled and screeched. 



With the first light of day on the 

 morning following our arrival I was 

 up and attired in canvas hunting 

 clothes and with collecting basket was 

 away to the salt marshes at the midde 

 of the island on the western side. The 

 experience was a novel delight and 1 

 was enthusiastic in my endeavors to 

 collect full fresh sets of all species 

 represented in the island's avifaune. 

 The Laughing Gull was found nesting, 

 thousands of pairs and fresh eggs 

 were found in most all the nests, in 

 sets of threes and fours. Many of 

 these sets were merely laid in depres- 

 sions in the "windrows" of dry sea 

 weed in the marshes and incubation 

 had already commenced in several of 

 the sets. This was early in May. In 

 the nesting colonies, the gulls arose in 

 clouds, wheeling in screaming egions 

 overhead and among them were hun- 

 dreds of Forster's and Gull-billed Terns. 

 These Gulls were in easy range and 

 it was an easy matter to bring down 

 on the wing a few specimens of each 

 species I desired. The first caused 

 consternation among the birds and the 

 birds that were sitting upon nests left 



