THE SEA AND THE DESERT 183 



at present it affords little space, but such areas as 

 remain seem to be quite sufficient for the birds 

 that resort there. Previous to the decrease in 

 the size of the island, the persistent efforts of egg 

 hunters and gunners for millinery purposes had 

 achieved the usual result ; what was once one of 

 the notable breeding places of gulls and terns has 

 long since been wholly abandoned by the larger 

 part of them. 



Six weeks sufficed to start the work that had 

 been undertaken here, and intrusting its comple- 

 tion to an assistant, the rest of the summer was 

 passed at Nantucket. 



As a result of the work at Cobb's Island, there 

 are in the collections of the Princeton University 

 Museum a series of all the kinds of terns and birds 

 that I have mentioned breeding at this point, 

 except the sandwich tern, which was only a 

 casual bird. Practically every stage of growth is 

 represented, from the chick just hatched to the 

 adult. The common tern, Foster's tern, the royal 

 tern, the black skimmer, the least tern, the 

 willet, the clapper-rail, and the gull-billed tern 

 are included in the collections in this way. 



While at Nantucket, a week was spent in study- 

 ing the petrels that are present off the coast of 

 Massachusetts during the month of August. To 

 observe these birds and procure specimens of each 

 kind it was essential to visit some of the " banks " 



