AMONG THE WATER FOWL 



there a little vegetation has taken hold, a few spears 

 of grass, or a little clump of weeds. A slight hol- 

 low in such a place serves very well for a nest, and 

 the addition of a few stems of grass or seaweed 

 tucked around it for a rim, answers to give the 

 owner the distinction of a wealthy house-owner and 

 tax -payer. 



Whether the distinction will ordinarily hold or 

 not, I cannot say, but the Arctic Terns of this 

 colony, and of others that I have visited, lay gener- 

 ally but two eggs, while with the Common or Wil- 

 son's Tern three is the ordinary number. On one 

 occasion, when I looked the island over pretty care- 

 fully, and inspected hundreds and hundreds of sets 

 of eggs, only about a dozen contained three eggs, 

 and none more ; the rest two each. 



There is the usual interesting variety in the 

 colors and markings of these eggs that there is in 

 those of other Terns and Gulls, nor is there any 

 perceptible difference between the eggs of the va- 

 rious species of Terns of the size of the Arctics. 

 In these colonies I always like to look for oddly 

 marked or colored eggs, and among so many some 

 very strange types are found. On this island one 

 season I found two eggs in a little hollow of the 

 rock that were of a clear light blue ground-color, 

 with only a few sparse spots. The next year, in the 

 very same place, were two precisely similar eggs. 

 A daughter of one of the keepers gave me a plain 

 bluish green egg without a single spot, which she 

 had found in a previous season. 



The Terns were all over the Island, except at 

 the southeast corner, near the cluster of buildings ; 



140 



