326 



Shick on Birds of Seven Mile Beach, N. J. [October 



five or six from the trunk. We took a set of three on May 30. This nest 

 was small, but better made than the previous one. The eggs contained 

 small embryos. 



All of the foregoing were found in a fifty-acre tract of pine woods. The 

 following nests were found in mixed woods. 



12. April 14, I found a nest just started in a tall, very thin pine some 

 50 feet high ; a heavy rain came next day and the nest was deserted. 



13. April 24, I found this pair re-building in a huge pine not far from 

 the first, the nest some 90 feet high and 15 from the trunk. I did not 

 trouble that pair any more. 



BIRDS FOUND BREEDING ON SEVEN MILE BEACH, 

 NEW JERSEY. 



BY CHARLES S. SHICK. 



About five years ago one of the richest ornithological 

 fields open to collectors was Seven Mile Beach in Cape May 

 County, New Jersey, a beautiful island, over seven miles long 

 and from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide, densely cov- 

 ered with cedar, oak, pine, holly, sassafras and birch trees, 

 nearly every one of them covered with long, rich pendants of 

 usnea moss. The natural advantages offered here for nest build- 

 ing are unsurpassed. 



I have watched the encroachments of man year after year, 

 until now, to cap the climax, a seashore resort has been started 

 and the axe of the woodman is clearing away many of the fine 

 old trees on which the Fish Hawks formerly built their homes. 

 In a few years more this island, which five years ago was the 

 collector's paradise, will no longer be frequented by many birds 

 that now summer there. I give a list of birds breeding there at 

 the present time. 



Larus atricilla. Laughing Gull. — During my eight years residence 

 in South Jersey I have found this bird breeding abundantly each summer. 

 On Gull Island, near Hereford Inlet, at the southern point of Seven Mile 

 Beach, a vast colony congregates every year. Early in May and again 

 about June 2 full sets of eggs can be found. The nests are built of sedge 



