THE BUG-EYE. 



FIVE DAYS AMONG THE BIRDS ON COBB 

 ISLAND, VIRGINIA. 



By C. WILLIAM BEEBE, 



CURATOR OF BIRDS. 

 Illustrations from Author's Photographs. 



FROM Labrador to Florida, on the islands and beaches washed 

 by the waves of the Atlantic, a splendid series of birds lay 

 their eggs and rear their young. The narrow limits and compara- 

 tively uniform character of their breeding-grounds make this 

 class of birds exceedingly susceptible to the sentiment prevailing 

 among the nearest human inhabitants, favorable to their exist- 

 ence or otherwise. Their abundance or speedy extinction is abso- 

 lutely under human control. For this, and for many other rea- 

 sons, they are among our most interesting birds. 



Before the advent of Europeans our littoral birds were doubt- 

 less all but immune from danger at their breeding-places. Hawks 

 made raids upon them, and bears and Indians, searching for tur- 

 tles' eggs, may occasionally have wrought havoc among the beach 

 nests. Christopher Columbus saw flocks of birds and took hope 



