68 STOKIES OF BIRD LIFE 



Indies, and I do not believe there is a rookery in all this 

 line of coast that I have not repeatedly visited. ' ' He had 

 shipped, he told me, more than one hundred thousand 

 skins. 



One of the most attractive of the tern family is the small 

 variety known as the least tern. Once they lived by thou- 

 sands along our coast, but now the birds are rarely seen. 

 I asked the old feather hunter where these might be found 

 nesting, and he replied, "I doubt if there will be a least 

 tern's egg laid this summer within two hundred miles of 

 here." 



Before me stood an old man whose eyes had become 

 dim through a life spent in contending with waves, and 

 wandering over the blistering sands of summer beaches. 

 He had never been taught to love and protect the birds, and 

 by killing them he had seen a chance to win his bread. Is 

 he the one to blame for the death of the terns ? 



The destruction of so many sea birds at length drew 

 public attention, and several States, now when it was 

 almost too late, passed laws for their protection. On some 

 of the islands along the New England coast inhabited by 

 terns, wardens are stationed whose business it is to keep 

 off intruders. Thus protected the birds in a few places 

 are once more increasing in numbers. Societies for the 

 protection of birds have been formed in many parts of the 



