COBB'S ISLAND 



71 



Apparently only the female incubates, but the much 

 larger male often comes and stands by her side while she 

 sits on the eggs, a pleasant picture in bird life suggestive of 

 domestic harmony. In all the pictures made of the sitting 

 bird from the front, one or two of the eggs can be seen 

 through the breast feathers, as though the bird had a larger 

 " clutch" than she could cover. The period of incubation I 

 had no means of determining, but certain it is that once the 

 chick announces his coming by a chicken-like peep, the trans- 



' ". - *-- . , 



^ >'".", ' vv ,:.-., ' f 



Three Young Skimmers 

 " Squat close to the sand with neck stretched out " 



formation of a pipped egg into a bright-eyed downy Skim- 

 mer, endowed with all the instincts of its kind, is a matter of 

 only two and one-half or three hours. 



As soon as the nestling emerges from the egg, the shell 

 is taken by the parent, and, so far as was observed, carried 

 out of sight; a singular custom, common to most birds. 

 The habit is doubtless of importance to a tree-nesting bird, 

 where the egg-shell below might advertise the young bird 

 above ; but why, with a beach-nesting species an egg-shell 

 should be considered more conspicuous than an egg it is 



