22O KEELER 



land that visits the United States only in the coldest 

 weather. Upon a low, rolling shore of gravel between 

 two of the smaller glaciers of this remarkable fiord we 

 came upon a nesting place of short-billed gulls and Arctic 

 terns. The nests were on the ground and were formed 

 by making a depression in a clump of grass and epilo- 

 bium, sometimes scantily lined with additional sticks and 

 dried grass. Indeed the terns made almost no attempt at 

 nest building, depositing their eggs upon the stony ground 

 with but the flimsiest lining of loose grass. The eggs 

 were marvelously protected in their exposed position, 

 their color blending so perfectly with their surroundings 

 that we frequently were on the point of treading on them 

 before detecting their presence. The eggs of the two 

 birds are very similar in color, although those of the gull 

 are of course much larger. The ground color is olive, 

 irregularly spotted with brown and obscure lilac. The 

 gulls' nests contained, as a rule, three eggs, while most of 

 the terns' held but two. 



The short-billed gull in breeding plumage is a beautiful 

 bird, with its snowy white body, its delicate pearl-gray 

 mantle, and its black flight-feathers tipped with subter- 

 minal spots of white. We noted the dull yellow of its 

 feet, its waxy-yellow bill, its gray eye and the striking 

 spot of vermilion on its eyelid. The parent birds hovered 

 with extreme solicitude over the spot where their eggs 

 were concealed, uttering a short, insistent note of a de- 

 cidedly squeaky and unmusical quality tup! tup! tup! 

 ye' up I ye up ! Sometimes the cry was varied thus : ke- 

 up I kup ! kup ! and they also had a higher uninflected 

 cry. We saw a number of black oyster-catchers running 

 along the beach big waders with long, blunt, vermilion 

 beaks, long, agile legs, and blackish-brown bodies. 



Another day during our stay in Prince William Sound 

 we visited one of the alpine meadows which are so char- 



