THE YOUNG ORNITHOLOGIST. 



ing of Frigate Birds, Sandwich, Royal, 

 Sooty, Noddy, and Bridled Terns, 

 rose with deafening clamor from the 

 naked top of the rocky key. 



A hasty survey of the place soon 

 convinced me that the numerous birds 

 were not as yet breeding, when my 

 attention was attracted by my dog, 

 who always accompanied me. She 

 was pointing at a cavity beneath a 

 huge rocky slab. As 1 approached, a 

 Bridled Tern scrambled out, dashed 

 past the dog, and with a scream, rose 

 into the air only to fall dead on the 

 rocks, for, suspecting that she was 

 breeding, I shot her, and stooping- 

 down, guided by my dog's nose, I soon 

 discovered her single egg. This 

 was my first specimen, but later, 

 both on the more northern Washer- 

 women, on Galden Key, and on the 

 Ship Channel Keys, I found sev- 

 eral other eggs. The time of breed- 

 ing with this species, when undis- 

 turbed, is about the middle of May, 

 and the eggs are invariably deposited 

 under rocky slabs, often so far un- 

 der that they could not be reached 

 with our arms. Unlike the Sooty and 

 Noddy Terns, this species is quite 

 shy, and only in one or two instances 

 was 1 enabled to capture the bird on 

 the nest. Then I came upon the bird 

 suddenly, without its having been 

 aware of my approach. 



The eggs of the Bridled Tern are 

 on an average smaller than those of 

 the Sooty, and are not usually as 

 pinkish nor as coarsely spotted, 

 but vary somewhat in this respect. 

 Out of some twenty specimens which 

 1 collected, only four or five were as 

 large as the smallest Sooty, and about 

 the same number were coarsely spot- 



ted, and only two or three were of 

 the decidedly pinkish shade seen in 

 the ground color of the Sooty Tern. 



The Bridled Terns are not uncom- 

 mon on the isolated outer Keys of 

 the Bahamas, but, owing to the com- 

 paratively inaccessible character of 

 the rocky islets which they frequent, 

 the eggs will probably never be com- 

 mon in collections. 



THE BLACK-CAPPED CHICA- 

 DEE. 



{Parus atricapellus.) 



This little bird is a great favorite 

 with me, the reason being that it is 

 so easily watched and ■ studied, and 

 another reason is that it can be 

 observed and its habits studied all 

 through the cold winter months. We 

 have Jays, Woodpeckers, Nuthutches, 

 and a few others that stay with us 

 all winter, but they are seldom seen, 

 with the exception of the Jays. 



The Chicadees may be seen about 

 the house and in the woods almost 

 anywhere that it can find food, nearly 

 every day all winter whether stormy or 

 pleasant. I have watched them a 

 great many times from a window in 

 the house, having placed a piece of 

 meat near by for them to feed upon. 

 I have noticed that two birds never 

 seem to be on the same piece of meat 

 at the same time ; they seem to under- 

 stand each other, for I have seen two 

 birds, one feeding on the meat and the 

 other on a tree nearby, start at the 

 same instant and change places. 

 They do not seem disposed to quarrel 

 much, though they evidently think 

 that they have a right to stay and eat 

 until they have had their fill. By 



