AMONG THE WATER FOWL 



the probable number of Gulls at about five thou- 

 sand, though one of the party thought it was 

 nearer ten thousand. Whatever it was it is a won- 

 derful sight, and those days spent there in camp 

 will be of fragrant memory. At night I would 

 look out over the moon-lit expanse and hear the 

 clamor of the colony that appeared to cease not 

 day nor night. Possibly at night the Musk-rats or 

 Minks were disturbing them. 



This lake was a wonderful center for bird-life. 

 Besides Coots, Rails, Night Herons, Bitterns, large 

 numbers of Ducks, and about a thousand of vari- 

 ous kinds of Grebes, some of them in colonies, we 

 estimated that there were something like a thousand 

 Black Terns breeding. These we found hovering 

 in flocks wherever we went in the area of water- 

 growing grass 

 that extended in 

 a wide border 

 out from the 

 shore all around 

 the lake as far 

 as we went. It 

 was not hard to 

 find their nests, 

 which were little 

 mounds floating 

 in partial open- 

 ings amid the 

 grass. They were not close together, but in oc- 

 casional little communities, being placed there a 

 few yards, or even rods, apart, perhaps a dozen or 

 so to a group. Two eggs are usually laid, some- 



166 



T 'IT WAS NOT HARD TO FIND THEIR NESTS, WHICH 

 WERE LITTLE MOUNDS FLOATING IN PARTIAL 

 OPENINGS AMID THE GRASS." NEST OF BLACK 

 TERN 



