THE BUG-EYE. 
FIVE DAYS AMONG THE RIRDS ON COBB 
ISLAND, VIRGINIA. 
By iC WILEVTAM BEEBE, 
CURATOR OF BIRDS. 
Illustrations from Author’s Photographs. 
ROM Labrador to Florida, on the islands and beaches washed 
by the waves of the Atlantic, a splendid series of birds lay 
their eggs and rear their young. The narrow limits and compara- 
tively uniform character of their breeding-grounds make this 
class of birds exceedingly susceptible to the sentiment prevailing 
among the nearest human inhabitants, favorable to their exist- 
ence or otherwise. Their abundance or speedy extinction is abso- 
lutely under human control. For this, and for many other rea- 
sons, they are among our most interesting birds. 
Before the advent of Europeans our littoral birds were doubt- 
less all but immune from danger at their breeding-places. Hawks 
made raids upon them, and bears and Indians, searching for tur- 
tles’ eggs, may occasionally have wrought havoc among the beach 
nests. Christopher Columbus saw flocks of birds and took hope 
