The White-Winged Fleet 



Nearly all the nests had three eggs, but occasionally 

 there were but two. 



The island was very small, hardly more than an 

 acre in extent, so that it was not hard to estimate 

 the population. We counted just about an even 

 hundred nests with eggs, besides a number more 

 that were empty. Some had probably been robbed, 

 and I think it safe to say that there were three hun- 

 dred birds belonging on this island. There was 

 about one pair of Herring Gulls for ten of Ring-bills. 

 The eggs of all had evidently been laid the mid- 

 dle of May, and there were no young yet hatched. 



Meanwhile we had also investigated the homes 

 of the Cormorants, and a most interesting sight it 

 was. The nests were good-sized platforms, built 

 very ingeniously 

 of crooked sticks 

 that were so in- 

 terwoven that 

 the nests were 

 often substantial 

 enough to be 

 lifted up without 

 falling apart. In 

 fact, we once 

 found a nest on 

 the shore of the 

 mainland that 

 had either been carried or drifted there, and yet 

 was intact. There were seventy - three nests in 

 all, in two about equal areas, one down by the 

 shore, the other well up on the higher part of 

 the island, but not far away. In each area the 



THE NESTS WERE GOUD-SIZED PLATFORMS, BUILT 

 VERY INGENIOUSLY OF CROOKED STICKS." NESTS 

 OF DOUBLE- CRESTED CORMORANTJ. THE NEAR- 

 EST HAS IN IT TWO NAKED BLACK Y'OUNG THAT 

 HARDLY SHOW IN THE PICTURE 



149 



