VIRGINIA BIRD HOMES 127 



LAUGHING GULLS HOVERING OVER THEIR NESTS 



thing is that they are not known to breed in eastern North 

 America, though they occur as migrants. Unfortunately 

 there had been a high tide which had washed the key clean 

 of all nests and eggs, certainly of Black Skimmers and Com- 

 mon Terns, and probably of the Black Terns also. I noticed 

 one little hollow, lined with weed, which looked like one of 

 their nests. 



On another islet, this one marshy, a dozen miles to the 

 northward of this, I finally found my first nest of the Marsh 

 Hen. First of all, in landing there, I discovered several nests 

 of the Forster's Tern, mere hollows in piles of dry eel-grass 

 drifted up on the marsh grass. One of these, which had the 

 usual three eggs, I photographed, and with it the female bird 

 in the act of alighting. This was done by setting the camera 

 upon the tripod and pulling the thread from hiding in some 



