67 



picture of the mother bird, Prest and Wilcox had been searching 

 about down the beach, and were rewarded by finding a nest 

 of the Piping Plover. The four eggs were effectively concealed 

 by their resemblance in color to the bare sand on which they 

 were laid. A photograph was taken of this set, and, meanwhile, 

 Wilcox discovered another nest of the Ring-neck with four eggs, 

 by watching the bird from a sand dune a couple of hundred yards 

 away. This Ring-neck, like the other, was exceedingly shy, and 

 when she left the nest, declined to return. 



On our way back to the boat we observed a pair of Terns 

 hovering over a sand dune, on the top of which was a nest con- 

 taining two finely marked eggs. One of the birds was secured, 

 and proved to be an Arctic Tern, the only individual of this 

 species which we were absolutely sure we saw during our stay. 

 The tremendous colony mentioned by Audubon and subsequent 

 observers seems to have entirely disappeared. 



As it was by this time dark, we headed for the bay, and the 

 wind having entirely died out, we settled down to a long row 

 back to Grosse Isle. 



The following day, the 20th, we hoped to start for Bird Rock. 

 We awoke, however, to find a hard easterly storm of wind and 

 rain, which made us give up any notion of going to sea. We 

 decided to spend the day searching for Mergansers' nests at 

 Grand L'Etang, a sandy area, dotted with ponds and spruce- 

 covered hillocks, to the southward of Grosse Isle. Up to this 

 time we had not succeeded in finding a nest of the Spotted Sand- 

 piper, which is by far the commonest Shore Bird of Grosse Isle. 

 On this trip, however, we discovered no less than six nests on the 

 brush-covered hillocks around the shallow ponds. One of these 

 nests was beautifully situated at the foot of a little spruce tree, 

 the four eggs being laid with their points together, as is cus- 

 tomary in Shore-bird households, on a bed of dried bayberry 

 leaves. The birds had just completed laying, for all the eggs 

 taken were fresh. 



It was on this trip to Grand L'Etang that we saw our only 

 Bay-breasted Warbler in the Magdalens. 



The weather the next day (the 21st) proved unfavorable for 

 the trip to Bird Rock, and so we returned to East Point in 



