SHORE-BIRD LOITERERS 
247 
upon one with a shore of shell-sand, having seen from the 
vessel that behind the fringe of mangroves along the outer 
beach was a little lake. An occasional flutter of white wings 
made us all the more curious. The sight which greeted us as 
we peered through the low mangrove bushes was one I would 
NEST AND EGGS OF WILSON’S PLOVER 
go far again to see. On a projecting point of the sandy shore 
was a colony of about fifty pairs of the Least Tern. The 
females were incubating, and the males preening their feathers 
on the sand near by or along the margin, their pearl and 
white plumage showing off prettily against the pulverized 
shells and the lapping water. Scattered here and there were 
little gray Wilson’s Plovers quietly feeding along the shore 
or resting on the sand. Out in the shallow water, conspicuous 
