336 BIRD-LIFE IN WESTERN CANADA 



yond ; nor did I have more success with the California 

 Gulls. 



The Common Terns occupied the larger islets with sandy 

 beaches, where their nests were placed closer together than 

 I have seen them elsewhere ; ten being found in a measured 

 six-foot square. Always nervous, possibly the proximity of 

 the four or five hundred birds, in a colony which was under 

 observation for some hours, accounted for the frequency 

 with which they left their nests. Without evident cause of 

 alarm, and acting as a single bird, with a rush of wings, 

 they would suddenly dart from their nests out over the 

 water. Not a note was uttered but as they circled and flut- 

 tered above their eggs, they called the familiar tear-r-r, and 

 gradually dropping, soon returned to their eggs. But 

 scarce were they settled when the performance was 

 repeated, and if a hatching egg had not been found, the 

 adequacy of their incubation methods might have been 

 questioned. There appeared to be exceptionally wide vari- 

 ation in the coloration of the eggs in this colony ; one nest 

 containing two which were blue, and unspotted. 



A railroad now passes within a stone's throw of our 

 camp-site at Shoal Lake and the bird-life of the borders of 

 the lake has doubtless already yielded to the changed condi- 

 tions implied by increased accessibility; but the reefs and 

 islets are not so readily affected and let us hope will long 

 hold their own. 



