EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT. 173 



mandible rested upon and cut into the sand at the margin. These 

 bill marks were a sure indication of the direction of the wind dur- 

 ing the night and sometimes the entire circle would be thus in- 

 dented. 



Late in the afternoons of windy days we noticed that some of 

 the eggs of the Skimmers were fairly buried beneath the shifting 

 sand, and soon after, when the bird had cleared her eggs, we were 

 given hints of the way these birds make their nests. Unmistaka- 

 ble signs, made the more permanent by the damp cohesive nature 

 of the sand immediately beneath the surface, showed that when 

 the bird wished to make or deepen a hollow, she stood on the 

 edge and flicked out the sand with her flat lower mandible, or 

 else balanced herself in the center of the depression on one leg, 

 and kicked out the sand behind her with the other foot. Weak and 

 small as these limbs are, a Skimmer can send lumps of sand to a 

 considerable distance. When a good-sized depression had thus 

 been made, the bird settled into it, and turning round and round, 

 moulded it smooth with her breast. When they settle down 

 upon their eggs they utter a soft lower note, very different from 

 the yeh ! yeh ! which is their usual vocal utterance. 



Of the two hundred or more young Skimmers which we esti- 

 mated would soon be scurrying over the sand-dunes of Cobb 

 Island, we later learned that not one lived to mature. The cause 

 was reported to be the crabs which so amused us during our stay, 

 but which, at the thought of their devouring every one of the 

 poor helpless fledglings, we now think of with disgust. If this is 

 true, as my recent experience with young Skimmers has led me 

 to believe, a new factor enters into bird protection, comparable 

 with the voracious gulls of the bird colonies on the Farrallone 

 Islands off the California coast, which seize every opportunity to 

 devour the eggs of other birds. The fish-crows of the Florida 

 heron rookeries have also become chronic nest robbers, carrying 

 a failing of their family to an extreme. 



The problem of the crabs is one to be undertaken and solved at 

 once if these birds are to be saved from extermination, and it is 

 hoped that during the coming season absolute proof either of 

 the innocence or guilt of these crustaceans can be obtained. 



The local name "Flood-Gull" is given to these birds because 

 of the habit which the Skimmers have of following the flood-tide 

 up the creeks in search of food. They are called "Sea-Hounds" 

 from a fancied similarity between their call and the baying of a 

 distant foxhound while in the chase. Their strange habit of 

 feeding at night has been mentioned. 



