83 



While I was working on the Skimmers and the Laughing. 

 Gulls, Bowdish had been busily engaged in capturing and 

 photographing ^young Least Terns. Like the young of most 

 of the beach birds, the chicks can run as soon as hatched. Here 

 the usual number of eggs in the Least Terns' nests was two, and 

 most of the young birds were found in pairs. Bowdish suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining some admirable photographs of the young, 

 ones, some of which illustrated the surprising variation, in color 

 not infrequently found in youngsters presumably hatched in the 

 same nest. Thjey are very cunning little fellows, and their 

 coloration is such that by simply lying flat and remaining, 

 perfectly still, they most effectively conceal themselves on the 

 bare sand. 



Although most of the Least Terns had young birds, we found 

 a few nests with eggs. There is really no nest,, the eggs being 

 deposited in shallow hollows scratched in the clear sandy spaces 

 between the shells. These hollows are sometimes hned, appar- 

 ently for effect, with tiny shells and chips of shells.. The eggs 

 themselves are of a drab ground color, spotted and mottled 

 with various shades of brown and umber, and faintly splashed 

 with lilac here and there; they admirably match the sand on 

 which they are laid. 



Our photographic work and our observations^ including the 

 making of an estimate of the nests and birds on the shoal, took 

 up the greater part of the 25th of June. We could not stay 

 longer, and late that afternoon we reluctantly packed up and. 

 made a very rough passage across Pamlico Sound to the quaint 

 old town of Ocracoke, where Abbott was obliged to leave us. 

 and start on his return journey to New York. We spent the^ 

 night of the 25th and part of the following day in and around, 

 this old fishing village. It is situated on the narrow strip of. 

 sand known to mariners as the Hatteras Banks, one of the most, 

 dangerous places on the Atlantic coast. The town itself is a. 

 place of some historic interest, having been made famous by 

 the pirate chief Blackbeard, who used to come in through 

 Ocracoke Inlet, careen his craft, and lay in his supplies. It is 

 reported that he buried much treasure somewhere around the 

 town, and the natives still have the idea that if they hunt 



