JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 59 



and later waded ashore. Several times a young bird fled on fool 

 and got so near the water that the waves engulfed him and tumbled 

 him end over end. He would always recover himself handily with* 

 an air of remarking "I wonder how that happened," only to be 

 bowled over again by the next breaker. Often one of the birds in 

 the air would swoop down at us, as if no longer able to control its 

 anger at our intrusion. In these cases we may have been near the 

 nest or young belonging to this particular bird, though as to that I 

 am unable to give anything beyond a conjecture. It seems reason- 

 able to suppose, however, that the birds may keep special watch 

 over their own offspring and make an effort to protect them. 



While the young birds are helpless the parents have to work all 

 through the daylight hours to feed them. Small fish, not over three 

 inches in length, are the only diet furnished to the nestlings. At 

 each nest which contained a young bird we saw lying on the ground 

 one or more freshly caught fish. Most of these were little sand-eels, 

 and it was evident that the adult Terns knew where to find this kind 

 of food in abundance. A couple of days later I was at Pine Point 

 and there I saw where the birds secured their sand-eels in so gener- 

 ous quantities. While the tide is out many pools are left and in 

 these tiny fish abound. Over one of these pools hovered a couple 

 of score of Terns, facing a fresh westerly breeze, and balancing 

 themselves with rapid wing-strokes, but keeping their bodies almost 

 motionless. For a space of fifteen seconds, or more, they would 

 hold themselves in the same position, without moving forward a foot. 

 The turn of a feather would give a different angle to their wings 

 and then they would fly ahead rapidly at will. Frequently one of 

 the birds would dive headfirst into the water and rarely did he fail 

 to secure his fish. With the morsel in his bill, the bird would turn 

 and take a straight course for Bluff Island, which lay in plain sight 

 two or three miles away. vSo, I doubt not these busy workers made 

 many journeys back and forth during the day, for the}^ fly so rapidly 

 that two miles are covered in a very few minutes. 



