THE OOLOaiST 



217 



fifty feet from the ground in a tall 

 pine tree. 



The next day, our trim little motor 

 boat "The Comet" took us to an ad- 

 joining county, to a large marsh in 

 quest of Laughing Gull nests. It took 

 a large amount of marsh wading in 

 soft sticky mud, to find a few nests 

 of this species containing full comple- 

 ments, as local sea faring men and 

 fishermen systematically rob the gull 

 nests, using the eggs for food. They 

 visit the colony on alternate days, de- 

 stroying the eggs in all nests contain- 

 ing more than one egg, so that on 

 their regular visits they will be sure 

 of fresh eggs. I was told that parties 

 from the mainland often took whole 

 boat loads of eggs and sold them for 

 ten cents a dozen. At any rate they 

 earned their money, for marsh wad- 

 ing is exceedingly hard work. Most 

 of the Gull nests are built along the 

 edges of the hundreds of winding 

 creeks that traverse the marsh in all 

 directions, until they form such a 

 labyrinth that a novice is soon bewild- 

 ered. If a crazy blind man were given 

 a pencil and a piece of paper he could 

 not draw a more complicated and 

 meaningless map than a true chart of 

 this marsh would be. 



The Gull nests are composed mainly 

 of mar.^h grass and drift and are 

 roughly conical in shape with a de- 

 pression at the apex to contain the 

 eggs. Of the large number of nests 

 examined this day (June 4th), I doubt 

 if there were more than twenty-five 

 with full sets of three eggs each. A 

 number of nests of Clapper Rail were 

 examined with from eight to twelve 

 eggs each, but most of them were on 

 the point of hatching. 



A few scattered groups of Forster's 

 Tern nests were found containing full 

 sets. This Tern builds a much better 

 nest than does its cousin, the Common 

 Tern. The nests are almost a com- 



plete miniature of Laughing Gull 

 nests, though built of finer materials. 

 All nests found were built upon con- 

 venient piles of drift. There was a 

 large number of these birds about and 

 at a latter date, I found the main 

 colony of perhaps three hundred pairs, 

 with the nests containing hatching 

 eggs. 



The next day was lost as far as bird 

 work was concerned, for I had worn 

 so many blisters on my feet that it 

 was impossible to do much walking. 

 The following day saw me again at 

 "Sandy Island". Most of the Common 

 Terns had full sets of three eggs. 

 Black Skimmers were beginning to 

 nest and I saw numbers of nests con- 

 taining one or two eggs and one with 

 a full set of four. These birds suffer 

 worse from the depredations of eggers 

 than do the Laughing Gulls, as it is 

 much easier to pick up a basketfull of 

 eggs from the sand, than it is to wade 

 the marsh for them. While it is true 

 that the eggs are smaller, the egger 

 just takes more eggs. As is well 

 known, the eggs are deposited in a 

 shallow depression, wallowed out in 

 the sand by the birds. 



On the following day (June 7th) we 

 went to a marsh that in 1917 contained 

 about (as I estimated) one thousand 

 nests of Laughing Gull and a large 

 colony of Foster's Tern. It had been 

 egged to such an extent that I saw 

 less than a half dozen full sets of Gull 

 eggs and but one of the Tern. 



Landing at another island on the 

 way back, I found a nest of Oyster- 

 catcher containing two eggs. This 

 nest was much the prettiest one of 

 this species I have ever seen. It was 

 plentifully lined with bits of sea shell 

 and had about its rim, long slender 

 pieces of the same. It reminded me 

 of the border of shells often seen 

 about the edges of old fashioned 

 flower beds. 



