Cleaves : Bird Photographing on Islands of Virginia i i 



noon I was much amused by Captain Andrews' "aquatic" cat. 

 She actually waded about in two or three inches of water, bal- 

 ancing herself on a submerged beam, and caught several fish by 

 shooting forward a paw, pinning the minnow against the beam 

 and then thrusting her head into the water to take the booty in 

 her mouth. She also captured " mummychugs " along the edge 

 of the creek in like manner, and impressed me as being by far 

 the greatest water-loving cat I had yet seen. 



Mr. George Isdell, proprietor of the club house, had told us of 

 the abundance of flood gulls on Wreck Island, and on the morn- 

 ing tide of the following day our host took us in his power boat 

 to the place, with sufficient food and water supply to last through 

 four and a half days. Ascending a creek through the salt mead- 

 ows back of Wreck Island to a point directly behind the ridge 

 of sand dunes near the beach we were delighted with the sight 

 of clouds of black skimmers rising at the approach of our boat. 

 We had supposed that the majority of these birds were nesting, 

 but on landing and conducting a search across the sandy wastes 

 we were somewhat taken aback to learn that there were many 

 nest hollows but relatively few nests with eggs. The closely 

 massed flocks or beds of skimmers, then, had not, as we imagined, 

 been guarding their homes, but were simply assembled to enjoy 

 the company of their fellows in conformity with their habits as 

 gregarious birds. On the ground the short legs of the skimmers 

 rendered the birds rather ungainly, but when flying they displayed 

 an ease of action which at once transformed them into creatures 

 of gracefulness. When a flock was disturbed its members drifted 

 off in scattered lots, each bird uttering his peculiar nasal, hound- 

 like " ow-ow-ow " which has given the skimmer the name of " sea- 

 dog " with some. A few hundred yards away a dozen or so of 

 the company almost invariably settled again on the ground and 

 about this nucleus the entire company regathered, the black of 

 their backs, as the birds stood closely massed, forming a notice- 

 able dark area on the otherwise practically unbroken expanse of 

 grayish-white sand. 



