JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOCt I C AI. SOCIKTY. 55 



shortly right in the midst of scores of nests, containing both eggs 

 and young birds. 



Now came a new experience to some of us ; for here were nests 

 and eggs in such abundance that we had to use the utmost vigilance 

 to keep from treading them underfoot. The eggs were laid in twos, 

 threes, fours and fives, right on the rocks of the shore and among 

 the rubbish thrown up by the waves. So closely did they harmo- 

 nize with the color of the sand and pebbles that it took a pretty 

 sharp eye to see them. There were single eggs, dropped here and 

 there without the semblance of a nest. Some of these had doubtless 

 rolled away from their original position and the birds had made no 

 effort to get them back. Where there were two or more eggs, there 

 was usually some apology for a nest. If the bird had essayed to 

 make a nest near the dried sea-moss she had used this material for 

 keeping her eggs in place, often constructing a very neat little home. 

 Higher up on the shore, where sticks and straws abounded, the 

 nests were built with more evident care than is usual in such colo- 

 nies. It must, in some cases, have required a good deal of labor to 

 lay the straws in position and to hollow a nest capable of holding 

 eggs a third larger than those laid by Robins. There were many 

 nests with two eggs, but three was the prevailing number. We 

 saw six or eight nests with four eggs each and three or four, at least, 

 with five eggs apiece. I presume there is a question as to whether 

 two birds may not lay in the same nest and so increase the produc- 

 tion beyond the usual limit. This is a matter very hard to settle, 

 however, though some writers take it for granted that such is the 

 case, while others, with an equal amount of guess-work, state that a 

 single bird lays as many as five eggs. 



The eggs are, on the average, a dirty yellow or brown, with 

 numerous blotches, but some are lighter than others, while not a 

 few show pale blue. Often a single nest will contain eggs varying 

 in color and perhaps a trifle in size, but again this is not reliable 

 proof of the presence of two birds. Until some investigator, with 

 the patience of Job, and an eye that can distinguish without error 

 one bird from another, actually observes the laying of the eggs, one 



