VIRGINIA BIRD HOMES 
127 
LAUGHING GULLS HOVERING OVER THEIR NESTS 
thing is that they are not known to breed in eastern North 
America, though they occur as migrants. Unfortunately 
there had been a high tide which had washed the key clean 
of all nests and eggs, certainly of Black Skimmers and Com¬ 
mon Terns, and probably of the Black Terns also. I noticed 
one little hollow, lined with weed, which looked like one of 
their nests. 
On another islet, — this one marshy, — a dozen miles to the 
northward of this, I finally found my first nest of the Marsh 
Hen. First of all, in landing there, I discovered several nests 
of the Forster’s Tern, mere hollows in piles of dry eel-grass 
drifted up on the marsh grass. One of these, which had the 
usual three eggs, I photographed, and with it the female bird 
in the act of alighting. This was done by setting the camera 
upon the tripod and pulling the thread from hiding in some 
