15^ 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



Collecting Sea-Birds' Eggs. 



IN the pleasant month of June, a few 

 years ago, while camping near a small 

 fishing village on the coast of Maine, 

 the writer took a short collecting trip, 

 which afforded a great deal of pleasure. 

 After an earl}' breakfast of fried cunners, I 

 met, b\- appointment, a j'oung fisherman, 

 who had volunteered to pilot me to several 

 small islands in the vicinity, which report 

 credited with heinu' the nesting places of 

 large numbers of sea-birds. Setting sail 

 we soon rounded the point, and in less than 

 an hour were close to a small islet, from 

 which the Terns were rising in clouds. I 

 was considerably excited at the sight, as I 

 had never collected a set of Terns' eggs. 



We found it difficult, however, to reach 

 a landing place, as the rocks along the 

 shore offered no security for the Ijoat, so 

 taking a large basket for eggs, and telling 

 my young friend to sail round and wait for 

 me, I jumped as the boat passed a favorable 

 rock, and scrambled over the slippery sea- 

 weed to the shore. I found myself on a 

 rocky sort of beach, fringed with boulders, 

 and along this I hurried, expecting every 

 instant to find a set ot Arctic Tern's eggs, as 

 I peered in crevices and .searched the shore. 



However, although the air was filled with 

 birds, I could find no eggs, until on reach- 

 ing the end of the island I happened to 

 glance down at a bed of sea-weed at my 

 feet, and my eye fell on four eggs, reposing 

 ■in a little hollow. They resembled the 

 sea-weed .so much in color that I wonder 

 that I saw them at all. I was much 

 plea.sed at this find, as they were the first 

 Tern's eggs I had ever collected, and were 

 very handsome. I was a little surprised at 

 the number, however, for I had always sup- 

 posed that three was the maximum; ])ut as 

 they agreed in marking and incubation, 

 they were undoubtedly all laid by the same 

 bird . 



I followed the beach a little farther, and 

 then concluded that the Terns must nest in 



some other situation, so I mounted a bank 

 which fringed the beach nearly around the 

 island, being sometimes earth and some- 

 times rock, the top of which was covered 

 with short grass. I found two sets, side 

 by side, almost the moment I arrived at the 

 summit, one of two and the other of three 

 eggs. As I came up the side of a little 

 gully I flushed a Seaside Sparrow, and a 

 moment's search revealed the nest under a 

 tuft of grass. It was quite deep, and com- 

 posed of dried grasses. It contained four 

 pretty little eggs, greenish-white, spotted 

 with red. These birds were extremely 

 common, more so than the Terns, but the 

 nests were so well hidden that with all my 

 search I only found three .sets — the one just 

 mentioned, in which the incubation was 

 advanced, a fresh set of six and a partial set 

 of three. I saw comparatively few males. 



Passing on I collected several more sets 

 of Terns, and then as the grass became 

 longer the nests ceased to be found, so I 

 struck out for the other end of the i.sland. 

 Here there was a tract overgrown with high 

 marsh grass, interspersed with little patches 

 of driftwood, in which the bulk of Terns 

 on the islet nested, nearly every patch hav- 

 ing two or three nests. These were mere- 

 ly depressions, lined with a peculiar kind 

 of straw or dried grass, found on the 

 beach everywhere at high-water mark. 



I secured thirteen sets, including another 

 set of four, and next occupied myself in 

 hunting the bank for Seaside Sparrows' 

 nests. I was moderately successful, finding 

 two, desciibed above, the taking of which 

 occasioned a vigorous protest from the 

 owners and twenty or thirty neighboring 

 birds. The s])ecies found in great numbers 

 on the island was the Spotted Sandpiper, 

 but I found that I was late for eggs, as I 

 saw quantities of broken eggs on the rocks. 

 However, I found one set of four in the long 

 grass. It was probably a second one. 



Nearly every high bank of earth along 

 the shore held a colony of Bank Swallows. 

 The Terns' eggs ranged from one to four in 



