VIRGINIA BIRD HOMES 
125 
backs, and black cap and wing-tips, — except that the former 
species has an orange bill, the latter a black one. The nests 
were scattered irregularly about and usually contained three 
eggs. 
The great salt marsh back of the narrow strip of sand was 
meanwhile offering its allurements. Willets were flying about 
with loud outcries, distressed lest I should find their young. 
BLACK SKIMMER INCUBATING EGGS 
A flock of Laughing Gulls — so called from their laughter¬ 
like cacklings — were preening their feathers by a pool on 
the marsh’s edge. The occasional “cluck, cluck’’ of some 
Marsh Hen, or Clapper Rail, invisible in the grass, bespoke 
a new wonder of which I desired to know more. Although 
there are doubtless tens of thousands of these peculiar birds 
on all these great marshes, I learned to my chagrin that 
it was by no means easy to find a nest. Two hours’ hard 
tramping over the sticky and treacherous expanse failed to 
reward me with an occupied nest. Two were discovered from 
which the young had gone. They were neat, saucer-shaped 
