310 BowDisH, Bird Photographing in tJie Carolinas. [july 



in one flock. On this date the warden reported his count of eggs as 

 follows: Common Tern, 248; Least Tern, 107 and 12 young birds; 

 Black Skimmer, 60. We started for Ocracoke ahead of one of the 

 warden's 'living gales' or 'dangerous squalls', but reached there 

 alive and well, about four-thirty p. m. 



On the following day Mr. Abbott left us, bound for New York, 

 while the rest of the party started for Buxton on Cape Hatteras. At 

 noon we stopped at Miller Lump where a colony of about one thou- 

 sand Royal Terns were breeding. Most of them had one egg, several 

 two, and a few young had hatched. One Gull-billed Tern was seen 

 and the warden reported that a pair had bred. There were also 

 three pairs of Cabot's Tern, each with a single egg, in the colony. The 

 birds had laid their eggs but a few inches apart on the highest part of 

 the island and the area occupied was not over twenty feet in diam- 

 eter and grouped about a warning sign. After doing some photo- 

 graphing we went on to Davis Lumps, on one of which a colony of 

 about one hundred Black Skimmers were congregated, perhaps pre- 

 paring to breed, and about twenty-five pairs of Common Terns were 

 nesting. The latter had a number of young, some several days old, 

 as well as eggs. We went on to Buxton, where we were entertained 

 over the next day at the home of Dr. Davis, and spent a c[uiet Sun- 

 day. 



On June 28 we returned to Miller Lump and did some more 

 photographing. It was an occasion of rare pleasure to find the 

 Royal Terns so fearless. When we sat in plain view, and not over 

 one hundred feet from the eggs, the birds tjuickly returned, and by 

 erecting a blind of the sea-weed drift, in great mats, over a frame- 

 work of sticks, we photographed the birds at a range of fifteen feet 

 or less. 



Leaving for Ocracoke we stopped at Legged Lump, which is the 

 property of the North Carolina Audubon Society. Notwithstand- 

 ing the warning sign, the birds breeding here had been robbed 

 regularly. Some two hundred Skimmers and a few Common and 

 Least Terns were attempting to breed. We found one nest of the 

 Common Tern with three eggs, one with two and one with one; 

 one nest of the Least Tern with one egg and three with two each; 

 two nests of the Skimmer with one egg each, foiu- with two each, 

 three with three each. IVIany empty nests of the Common Tern 

 and Skinnner were seen. 



