no 



Bird -Lore 



captain of the life-saving station told me of 1,400 Least Terns being 

 killed in one day ; while the present captain of the station and Mr. E. 

 B. Cobb, owner of the island, informed me that when Terns were first 

 killed for millinery purposes they, with another man, killed 2,800 birds 



in three days on and 

 near Cobb's Island. 

 The birds were packed 

 in cracked ice and 

 shipped to New York 

 for skinning ; ten 

 cents being paid for 

 each one. \ 



July, 1902, I vis- 

 ited Cobb's Island to 

 secure data, photo- 

 graphs and material 

 to represent its bird- 

 life in a group at the 

 American Museum of 

 Natural History. A 

 photograph of a por- 

 tion of this group is 

 shown herewith. Least Terns have been included in it, although the 

 species is now extinct on the island, with the double object of show- 

 ing the island-life as it was and of emphasizing the cause of this bird's 

 annihilation. 



Several hundred common Terns were observed and the species was said 

 to be increasing. None of the few young seen had passed out of the 

 downy plumage. Of Gull-billed Terns not more than eight pairs were 

 noted. Several nests were found containing eggs, but no young were seen. 

 Forster's Terns were present in small numbers nesting out on the marsh. 

 A pair of Oyster -catchers, one pair of Willet, and a pair of Wilson's Plover 

 had nested successfully earlier in the season. 



Laughing Gulls were breeding in the marsh in large numbers, making 

 their nests on piles of grass and weeds. The nests, as a rule, contained 

 eggs, but in some cases young were found, and two birds a week or more 

 old were found running about on the beach. 



Black Skimmers proved to be the most abundant, as they are the most 

 interesting birds on Cobb's Island, several thousand pair doubtless nesting 

 there. Fortunately their plumage has never been fashionable and to this 

 fact may be attributed their happy escape from the fate of the more daintily 

 colored Terns. The Skimmers alone make Cobb's Island a worthy Mecca 

 for bird students. Singular alike in structure and in habit, remarkably 



BEACH AT COBB S ISLAND, SHOWING SKIMMERS ON NEST 

 IN THE DISTANCE 



