EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



175 



she the last survivor, haunting the place where once her young 

 were reared? 



On Assateague Island, forty miles to the north of Cobb, a 

 colony of four hundred Least Terns still hold their own, and the 

 last week in July about a hundred young birds were safely 

 hatched. 



20. Common Tern (Sterna hirundo, Linn.). — We estimated 

 that there were about five hundred mature Common Terns and 

 two hundred eggs on the island. These had just begun to hatch, 

 and pipped eggs were in almost every nest. These birds begin 

 to arrive about April first and leave in October. Next to the 



GULL-BILLED TERNS IN NEST. 

 One is just breaking through the shell. 



Least Terns they have paid the heaviest tribute to plume-hunters 

 and the agents of milliners. 



As we approached a colony of Common Terns, they rose en 

 masse and circling and wheeling about our heads filled the air 

 with their anxious cries, — tearr ! tearr ! tearr ! But no matter 

 how closely we examined their eggs or young they never seemed 



