192 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



probable tliat tlie surviving individuals return eacli 

 year to their former breeding grounds. Tlie Terns 

 of Muskeget and Penikese, forming the only two 

 large colonies of these birds remaining on the At- 

 lantic coast, return to their island retxeats every 

 s,>ring ; and actuated by this same love of home, the 

 Brown Pelicans of the Indian River region of east- 

 ern Florida annually repair to a certain small island 

 for the purpose of rearing their young. Many simi- 

 lar cases might be cited in confirmation of the belief 

 — supported also by isolated observations on the 

 mainland — that birds nest in the same locality 

 throughout their lives, and, on occasion, may even 

 occupy their previous season's nest. 



As regards the manner in which these island- 

 inhabiting birds arrive at the nesting grounds, as 

 far as our recorded information goes, it seems that 

 without relation to latitude they appear each spring 

 with remarkable regularity, not straggling back a 

 few at a time, but sending on an advance guard, 

 which usually remains only a short time and is fol- 

 lowed, a few days later, by apparently the entire 

 colony. 



Thus, Mackay writes of the Terns of Penikese : 

 " In 1893 the Terns arrived on May 10th, in the night, 

 an advance guard of several hundred being noted 

 early the following morning at daylight ; these all 

 left before noon of the 11th, and on the morning of 

 the 12th, before daylight, immense numbers had 

 again arrived. ... In IROG the Terns commenced to 

 arrive during the night of May 9th ; they were in 

 evidence at daylight on the 10th, and continued to 

 arrive all day, and on the moruiug of the 11th the 



