THE OOLOQIST 



178 



them for the air, thus augumenting 

 the clouds of wheeling birds overhead 

 until the sky was nearly obscunid. 



I collected a nice series of sets of 

 the Laughing Gull. The eggs were 

 usually three to the set, though several 

 sets of four were found. The ground 

 sometimes brown, mottled, blotched 

 and speckled with varying shades of 

 brown and subdued marking of laven- 

 der. The average size is 2.25 by 1.60. 

 The nests were composed of trash 

 ocean debris of all varieties — the drift 

 from the Equinoctual storms — 

 which is piled up in the marshes 

 marshes by the invading waters. 

 Some of the nests were rather sub- 

 stantially constructed of marsh grass, 

 sea weed and trash hollowed out. 

 Many of the birds remained on their 

 nests until I approached to within a 

 short distance, their snowy plumage 

 contrasting beautifully with the green 

 of the marshes, and their heads oddly 

 offsetting the white breasts. It was 

 painful to me to see their lovely snowy 

 breasts all blood stained and blackened 

 with the black marsh mire, and I re- 

 frained from shooting many. After 

 collecting many sets of the Gulls' eggs 

 desired, I collected a few sets and 

 skins of Forster's Terns. The sets were 

 usually of three eggs of a light gray or 

 brown as regards the ground color, 

 blotched and marbled with darker 

 shades of brown and light shades of 

 lilac. The average of the eggs is 1.80 

 by 1.30. The eggs were placed on the 

 drift wood or on pieces of boards or 

 lumber out in the marshes. Some of 

 the nests were placed closely together, 

 being composed of marsh grass and 

 debris. 



On the wing, the Terns are the most 

 graceful of all birds and are truly the 

 swallows of the sea. It is pleasant to 

 see the wild wings of the ocean's 

 breast as they gather and flit out upon 

 the briny white capped wild waves or 



gather on the sand bars with their 

 heads tucked beneath their primaries, 

 their white plumage as snowy as the 

 ocean foam. On the wing the tail 

 feathers are twitched as they project 

 in scissor like fashion, and the 

 screeching notes are sounded in uni- 

 son with the wild cries of those lovely 

 birds, the Laughing Gulls. Verily 

 these birds here in their island home 

 reflect the spirit of the sea and offers 

 a refreshing sight to the city voyager 

 as alluring as the soft sea breeze and 

 salt air. 



In the same stretches of marsh on 

 the western side I found the seaside 

 sparrows plentiful and paired and nest- 

 ing. Their nests were placed in the 

 marsh grass bordering the marsh and 

 inlets. In these salt marshes there 

 were also a few pair of Willet, and 

 hundreds of pairs of Clapper Rail. I 

 believe I could have collected a thous- 

 and sets of the Clapper Rail had I de- 

 sired, but contented myself with a few 

 fresh sets. The birds remain on the 

 nest until almost touched. The nests 

 were built of marsh grass placed up in 

 the patches of the higher grass stems 

 and lined with finer grass stops. Look- 

 ing over the sweep of marsh the nests 

 could be detected by noting the un- 

 even places in the smooth areas of 

 the grassy aista. When startled from 

 their nests the birds took wing and 

 flew over the grass tops, but often 

 times only skulked away in the high 

 marsh grass cackling and clucking. 

 There were a few pairs of Gulll-billed 

 Terns, probably twenty to fifty readily 

 distinguished by the heavier darker 

 inandibles. The flight of the nilotica 

 is more Gull-like and less airy than 

 that of the other Terns. They nest 

 on the beaches employing a camouflage 

 with the broken shell bits, rocks and 

 sand that make their eggs very diffi- 

 cult to find. Two or three eggs con- 

 stitute the set. The texture of the 



