THE WHITE-WINGED FLEET 



by bird-filth and swarms of insects, and given the 

 nests of some rather shy Gulls and a camera, let 

 him try it, and see if he could keep his temper 

 when the string became snarled, and how many 

 fogged plates he would get. 



On June 15, the weather calm and cloudy, we 

 again visited "The Enchanted Isles," four of us 

 this time. We took some more pictures on the 

 same island, and then rowed to the next two, that 

 lay together a 

 mile away. 

 There we had 



enough to oc- ftp 



cupy us the ^ v 



rest of the day. 

 These islands 

 were each con- 

 siderably larger 

 than the other, 

 and were teem- 

 ing with bird- 

 life. The first 

 of them had 

 on it quite a colony of Common Terns, the second 

 a much larger one of Terns, and quite a num- 

 ber of Ring - billed Gulls, perhaps a hundred of 

 the latter. The Terns had their sets, usually of 

 three eggs, everywhere about above the beach, 

 among the stones, and in the grass. We photo- 

 graphed a great many nests of various sorts, and it 

 was well that we did it early, for about the middle 

 of the afternoon the sky grew very dark, and a 

 furious rain set in. Fortunately, we were well pre- 

 153 



I GOT A FINE EXPOSURE ON TWO BIRDS ON TOP OF 

 THE ROCK." RING -BILLED GULLS ABOUT TO RE- 

 TURN TO THEIR NESTS 



