Cleaves : Bird Photographing on Islands of Virginia i 5 



Unfortunately the skimmer and other sea-bird colonies along 

 the Virginia coast and probably elsewhere are visited persistently 

 well into the month of July, and often beyond, by parties of 

 native eggers, who take every egg in sight. Two such companies 

 visited Wreck Island during our stay there, one consisting of 

 three and the second of six men and boys. They came equipped 

 with baskets and pails and were very systematic in their hunt for 

 eggs, spreading out and advancing in a line that embraced the 

 entire strip occupied by the colony. The eggs of terns, as well 

 as those of skimmers were taken unless it was very evident 

 that incubation had begun, and we learned that earlier in the sea- 

 son the colonies of laughing gulls had been "beach combed" in 

 the same manner. It was a source of great satisfaction, there- 

 fore, on leaving Wreck Island and going to the historic Smith's 

 Island (discovered by and named after Captain John Smith; 

 owned for a considerable period by the adopted son of George 

 Washington and later by General Robert E. Lee) to learn that 

 the kindly but firm persuasiveness of Captain Hitchins of the 

 Smith's Island Life Saving Station, and agent of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, had exercised such an influ- 

 ence for good among the people of the immediate region that an 

 extensive colony of skimmers and terns on Little Isaac's Island 

 nearby was at all times immune from the depredations of eggers. 

 Had we known of this colony earlier we should have devoted 

 more time to it instead of spending only a few hours of the last 

 two days among these birds, since they seemed tamer and were 

 surely living a more normal existence, for it was here that we 

 found the only skimmers' nests containing what is probably the 

 full complement of four eggs. There is a law in Virginia for- 

 bidding the gathering of birds' eggs, although at least in the region 

 of the coast it seems to be pretty generally ignored. An almost 

 total lack of public sentiment and a scarcity of highly conscien- 

 tious wardens and agents (chosen entirely from among the natives 

 themselves) seem to be the two factors militating against a radical 

 reform in favor of total abstinence from the egging habit. But 



