118 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



placed on a driftwood box, weighted with stones, 

 and completely covered with seaweed. These eggs 

 were hatching, and the bird soon returned to them ; 

 but before it had come back, another bird in darting 



N^ 



60. Tern's nest and hatching eggs in seaweed. 



by had flown into the thread, springing the shutter, 

 and making the picture 60 of the nest and eggs here 

 given quite as effectively as many a similarly inex- 

 perienced photographer could have done. 



The day but one following July 20th these egg- 

 shells had disappeared, and the nest was occupied 

 by two young birds with just enough strength to 

 crawl toward the parent bird when it appeared with 

 food. 61 And when their appetites were appeased the 

 parent bird took her place on the nest and brooded 

 them with the care of an anxious hen. 63 



A few yards from this new family were two 

 young who could not have been over four days old, 

 but who had left the nest for the shade of a piece of 

 driftwood. Here they were fed by two birds doubt- 

 less both parents whom they seemed to recognize 

 among the other Terns hovering above them. They 



