THE OOLOGIST 



169 



An Island Idyll. 

 By J. W. Daniels, Jr. 



Ornithologists and oologists will hold 

 a certain soft spot in their hearts for 

 old Cohb's Island for whom it used to 

 be a favorite resort. These visits to 

 this famous bird Metropolis have al- 

 ways struck in my memory as among 

 the most enjoyable days of my life. 



I recall sitting in my study one 

 evening, reading articles in the 

 Oologist, by Gilbert Raison, on a visit 

 to Cobb's Island, Chester Barlow on a 

 visit to the Farralone Islands, Califor- 

 nia, both of which pleasures I was 

 destined to realize. I thought of an 

 "island in the sea" with myriads of 

 nesting gulls, terns, and skimmers 

 where one might bird nest without fail- 

 ing to find the object of the quest. 

 The only terns I had ever seen were 

 those which Mr. Robert Ridgway had 

 shown me in the Smithsonian cabi- 

 nets, explaining the difference of the 

 species of common tern (Sterna hir- 

 undo) and Fosters Tern (stenna for- 

 steru) from specimans he had taken 

 on Bone and Cobb's Island. He also 

 told me of the nesting habits of the 

 two species, the habits of Forsters 

 Tern — of its eggs in little hollows in 

 the "winrows" of drifted sea weed and 

 of their occasional rather substantial 

 nests of sea weed out in the salt 

 marshes in strong contrast to the nests 

 of the Common Tern (stena herundo) 

 which always nests along beaches lay- 

 ing its eggs in little hallows of the 

 sand above the tide water mark, and 

 in the sand dunes. 



My first visit to Cobb's Island, back 

 in the early nineties, I reached th^ 

 Island in early May, accompanied by 

 my mother and we found a hospitable 

 reception at the little old hotel at the 

 southern end of the Island. This little 

 hotel, kept by Mr. Cobb, was together 

 with several frame houses, at the end 

 of the island entirely swept away by 



a flood in later years, which entirely 

 submerged the greater part of the 

 island, playing havoc with the nesting 

 birds and cutting a channel entirely 

 across the island at the northern end. 



We arrived duly at Cape Charles 

 and early one bright morning in May 

 we secured a train from the hotel at 

 Cape Charles and drove to the "land- 

 ing" six or eight miles south of Cape 

 Charles, where without baggage we de- 

 camped at a wooden pier, to await 

 the arrival of a boat from Cobb's to 

 carry us and baggage the ten miles 

 out in the Atlantic to our island des- 

 tination. 



Our trunks were placed on the pier 

 and during the interval of time till the 

 boat arrived we spent in bird watch- 

 ing. The day was very bright and 

 sunny and spring migration of the 

 shore birds was at its zenith. In all 

 directions there were flocks of the 

 Linicolar Pipers, small and large, 

 wheeling and circling in all directions. 

 There were birds, Least Sandpipers by 

 the thousands, also Sanderlings, Wil- 

 son Plovers, Laughing Gulls, Fish 

 Crows and Spreys. No terns had yet 

 been seen. 



Under the pier, Barn Swallows were 

 nesting in hundreds, and I amused my- 

 self by looking up their nests. 



Toward twelve o'clock we saw a 

 boat approaching the lea, and soon 

 met Captain Roberts who had come to 

 take us over. 



Shortly after twelve, we were com- 

 fortably seated in the sailboat and the 

 captain unfurled sail and we were 

 away to our island in the sea. 



At about five miles out, we met our 

 first Terns — a few approaching quite 

 near the boat and the captain in- 

 formed us that those were "strikers" 

 and we soon saw the reason, for sev- 

 eral of the birds commenced their 

 downward plunges from the consider- 

 able height, striking the water with 



