178 NEW YORK’ ZOOLOGICAL, SOGIELY. 
skimmers, but when the colony is disturbed the birds all fly back . 
and forth—a great intermingling mass of forms in the air above 
the marsh. They have a clear, high note, and occasionally they 
break out into an ah-ah-ah-ah-ah which bears some resemblance 
to our expression of mirth. The young birds seem to have much 
the same habits as the terns, although very few had hatched at 
the time of our visit. At night they roam about the beach, the 
members of each brood keeping together. The adult Gulls, and 
indeed most of the birds on the island, seemed to enjoy an insect 
diet. Dragon flies in the marshes, and the white-winged tiger 
beetles of the beaches, were devoured by the hundred. 
RESULTS. 
A. As immediate direct results of the trip, ninety-two specimens 
of living birds, representing six species, were added to the 
Society’s collection. Acknowledgment should here be made of 
the courtesy of Dr. J. W. Bowdoin, President of the Eastern 
SKIMMER 14 DAYS OLD. LEAST TERN 21 DAYS OLD. 
The young birds were hatched in a Park incubator. 
Shore Game Protective Association of Virginia, in granting 
permits to collect and to ship out of the State, birds protected 
by law. 
B. Exhaustive notes were made upon the heron rookeries of 
this part of Virginia, which will form the subject of a future 
paper. 
C. Even the brief examination which we were enabled to make 
