300 



CALIFORNIA BIRD STUDIES 



baying dogs while uttering a loud, emphatic ki-M-ki-M, 

 and when hovering over the rookery chattered ka-ka-ka-ka 

 more rapidly than human tongue could emaciate the sylla- 

 bles. At times, when swimming, they jerked out the single 

 syllable go, with such force that the head was thrown for- 

 ward and the bill entered the water ; but I could attach no 

 meaning to any of these calls. The note of the young birds 

 was a shrill, squealing whistle. 



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" The old birds, one after the other, dropped down into the reeds " 



The Caspian Terns, of which there were but about 300, 

 all in one colony, occupied a point of an island where they 

 were associated only with Cormorants. The Gulls built nests 

 of the tide stalks, but the Terns laid their eggs in depres- 

 sions in the fallen, matted reeds of silt which, near the 

 water, sometimes covered them. Most of the eggs had 

 hatched and, as I landed, the downy young scurried into the 

 reed forest which bordered the open space along the shore. 



