OF VIRGINIA 213 
birds breed on the islands as far north as Accomac County. 
Hog Island is now their greatest breeding ground in Tide- 
water, while some few may be found breeding on Cedar 
and Chincoteague islands further northward. They 
seem to be extending their breeding range further north- 
ward each season, possibly on account of the destruction 
of suitable nesting sites on the islands further southward. 
The extreme northern and southern ends of Hog Island 
offer abundant nesting sites in the way of a dense growth 
of myrtles, and now the majority of the birds resort to 
it, where formerly cedars and pines were used. Some 
few pair even build in the tall marsh grass on the inner 
side of the island. On Mock Horn Island, a visit in 1910 
disclosed about twenty pairs still breeding there; lke 
the herons, Ospreys and Fish Crows, the lumberman’s axe 
had driven elsewhere a once enormous colony. They are 
a sociable bird if unmolested, and while their notes are 
of a rasping, metallic sound, it is not offensive to the ear. 
They are easily distinguished by their size, and when 
in flight the long tail, resembling a boat’s rudder, is most 
conspicuous, and an easy identification mark. 
There was a time when this bird bred abundantly on 
most of the islands off our coast; cccasionally a few pair 
bred on the mainland in company with the preceding 
species. Of late years, owing to most of the pines being 
cut, as well as the cedars on some of the islands, causing 
the small, scrubby growth to die out, less and less have 
returned to breed each season, until, on a visit’to Smith’s 
Island, their great stronghold in years past, only some 
half dozen pair were found breeding. Nor have I found 
any breeding on the mainland as of old, though some few 
undoubtedly breed from Cape Henry southward to the 
boundary line. The nest is a bulky affair of mud, coarse 
