122 
WILD WINGS 
camera of the reflecting-, or “ reflex,” type. Such at this time 
I did not jDossess. Focusing upon a certain point, I snapped 
a dozen times as the birds passed the exact spot. Though 
I am called a good shot with the shot-gun, I actuall}- in this 
case did not “ hit ” a single bird and get it on the plate. All 
the flight pictures I have secured of Skimmers were taken in 
a subsequent year, before the nesting-season, when the birds 
were quite wary, and had me at great disad\'antage. 
But I did manage to photograph them upon their nests. 
One way was with the telephoto lens at quite a distance. 
This, howev'er, secured only a small and not very satisfactory 
picture. So I tried placing the camera close to a nest, to 
make the exposure by a thread from a distance. This did 
not work, as the eggs were freshly laid, and the birds not 
very anxious to incubate. So I left small heaps of seaweed 
near certain of the nests, and had no trouble next day in 
securing all the pictures I required. After the camera was 
properly set, and covered with the weed, and I had lain down 
upon the sand at some distance, the bird would soon return 
and alight about a rod from the nest. After a few moments’ 
hesitation she would patter over to the eggs and settle down 
upon them, always facing the wind. All I had to do then 
was to pull the thread, and then change plates and try again, 
if I wished another picture. 
Along these reaches of sand many terns were also nesting, 
laying their three eggs — smaller than those of the Skimmer, 
and with a darker drab ground-color — in hollows of the sand 
or among shells and pebbles, usually with a little lining of 
straw, or at least of chips of shell. Wherever I went bands 
of terns were hovering overhead, with piercing cries. Most of 
them were the Common Tern, but quite a few were of the 
Southern species known as the Marsh or Gull-billed Tern. 
Both are very similar in color, — white, with pearl-gray 
