COBB'S ISLAND 75 



once distinguishable from the Skimmers ' by the large num- 

 ber of shells which had obviously been arranged about them. 

 The Terns' light, thin, somewhat reedy tee-tee-tee, which 

 sometimes suggested a weak-voiced katy-did, was a readily 

 identifiable note. 



From my blind among the Skimmers, I could look out 

 over the marsh where the Laughing Gulls nested, and in the 

 morning the breasts of the birds facing the east looked like 

 great white flowers with which the marsh was dotted. No 

 attempt was made to study these birds, but they were pho- 

 tographed without difficulty by erecting bundles of grass on 

 tripods near the nests, one evening, and replacing them with 

 grass-covered cameras, the following morning. Exposures 

 were made with a thread run to the blind, (which was made 

 to resemble a musk-rat's nest), a hundred and fifty feet 

 away. Some nests contained newly hatched birds, and com- 

 parison of their black and umber down, so like, in general 

 tone the color of their nest, with the gray down of the 

 young Skimmer, which might be described as sand rendered 

 in feathers, shows how perfectly each helpless chick 

 matches its own background. 



Newly Hatched Laughing Gull 



