COBB'S ISLAND 



69 



I stooped to pick him up, at the touch of my finger tips, he 

 evaded my grasp and scudded over the beach so fast I scarce 

 could catch him. 



It was easier to discover the nests of the Skimmers than 

 a vantage point from which one might study the habits of 

 their owners. As yet I had not learned whether they incu- 

 bated by day or night, and this could be done only by con- 



Skimmer on Nest 

 Note the young bird in the shade of the plant 



cealing myself and waiting until peace and quiet in Skim- 

 merland came, with the assurance that their enemy had 

 departed. The blind was therefore erected in a depression 

 on a sand dune within one hundred and fifty feet of twenty 

 oi" more nests. The whole affair was then covered with 

 beach grass, and into it I crept. 



For a time, the birds threatened this unfamiliar object, 

 darting at it with loud screams ; but within one hour and a 

 half, it ceased to annoy them and, to my great satisfaction, 

 bird after bird returned to its nest, some alighting directly 

 on the little hollow in the sand, others dropping near-by and 



