1 30 WILD WINGS 



particularly of oysters, scallops, and sea-clams. Some of the 

 terns by this time had young. The downy little fellows do 

 not remain long in the home-nest, but wander about freely 

 over the warm sand. Nature's " protective coloration " won- 

 derfully blends them with their surroundings. When an 

 enemy approaches, all they have to do is to squat and keep 

 perfectly still, and the chances are that they will not be no- 

 ticed. 



At one place a Marsh Tern was making a great ado over 

 my presence, screaming and swooping down so vigorously 

 as almost to strike me on the head. Slowly walking about, 

 I kept my eyes fastened on the glaring sand. After some mo- 

 ments, I suddenly spied the cause of the commotion, a young 

 tern squatting at the foot of a weed. During the quarter of 

 an hour I spent photographing it, not a yard away, the little 

 creature did not stir a hair's breadth. As long as I did not 

 touch it, it evidently thought itself unobserved. But when my 

 work was done, I gave the touch that dissolved the magic 

 spell, and it went racing away. 



In this vicinity the Laughing Gulls were also nesting. 

 Some had nests out on the marsh, others in the clumps of 

 coarse grass just back from the beach. I chose a spot where 

 there were only a few scattered pairs, to make as little com- 

 motion as possible and not to keep many birds long off their 

 nests, where I began the ordeal of trying to photograph them 

 at short range. Selecting a nest with the usual three eggs, 

 conveniently located, I set the camera on the ground near 

 it in a clump of grass, the latter arched over it in what 

 I thought to be a masterly manner. As I lay hidden, peering 

 over a sand-dune, thread in hand, I was prepared to see the 

 gull return almost at once to its nest. Soon the bird was 

 hovering over it ; she seemed about to alight, when away 

 she went. Making a few circlings, she came back, but after 



