362 LARID^ : JAEGARS, GULLS, TERNS, ETC. 



goes on. It is indeed the price of blood that is paid for 

 nodding plumes. Science may be, nay, certainly is, 

 cruel at times, but not one tithe of the suffering is 

 caused by her disciples that the votaries of the fickle 

 goddess Fashion yearly sanction. 



" My first visit to Muskegat was in 1870. It was about 

 the 25th of June when we landed on the island, and 

 three days were spent in investigating its fauna. 

 Although the fishermen told us that the Terns had 

 been diminishing for years, their numbers at that time, 

 nevertheless, were astonishing. The Arctic Terns were 

 breeding apart in a separate colony, on a long, narrow 

 strip of sand, while the Common and Roseate Terns 

 intermingled freely, oftentimes placing their nests side 

 by side. Little preference seemed to be accorded 

 by the last two species to any given locality. Their 

 eggs were as often laid upon the windrows of sea-weed at 

 high-water mark, as among the ivy-vines on the sand- 

 hills. Indeed, they were scattered everywhere, and the 

 birds that were breeding there must have been numbered 

 by hundreds of thousands. The sight was a novel 

 and impressive one. Overhead, at varying heights, 

 swarms of Terns were passing and repassing, crossing 

 each other's flight in mazy lines. From the birds just 

 skimming the crests of the sand-hills to the white specks 

 floating thousands of feet above the earth in the blue 

 sky, the air was filled with their countless numbers. 

 Hundreds were continually rising from their nests and 

 making out to sea, or returning from the fishing-grounds, 

 each with a small fish held crossways in its bill. 



" If a Tern were shot, the effect was instantaneous 

 and startling. Every voice was at once hushed, 

 hundreds of long narrow wings were set, and troops 



