LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 205 



On the Texas coast large colonies are found. Capt. B. F. Goss, 

 in a letter to Major Bendire, says : 



We found the Caspian tern breeding only in Nueces Bay, and, although we 

 examined 150 miles of coast, did not see a bird of this species more than a 

 mile or two from the mouth of the bay. They breed on some small, low sandy 

 islands near the middle of the bay. We took about 60 sets of eggs in all, mostly 

 on one island not larger than 4 by 6 rods. As we approached this spot in a 

 boat the birds rose about 8 feet and hovered a few moments, looking like a 

 white cloud; then commenced circling, doubling, and turning in the most re- 

 markable manner. It was a beautiful sight. As we approached they began 

 plunging at the ground in great apparent excitement. My companion shouted, 

 " They are breaking their eggs," and we hastened with all speed to the spot ; 

 found about 40 sets, a few of one, but mostly of two eggs. These lay on the 

 bare sand without any attempt at a nest. At least one-quarter of the eggs had 

 been broken by the birds in their frantic plunges, some only marked, in others 

 the bill had passed clear through the egg. My companion said they had done 

 the same thing in former years when he was collecting the eggs for culinary 

 purposes, and thought they did it to prevent the eggs falling into our hands. 

 It seemed to me like a frantic attempt to remove or conceal the eggs, but will 

 not attempt to account for the actions of the birds, but deem the fact worth re- 

 cording. 



Some fine breeding colonies still exist in Michigan, of which Prof. 

 W. B. Barrows (1912) writes: 



A few are seen, spring and fall, on Lakes Brie, Huron, and Michigan, and 

 colonies of the birds have long been known to nest on certain islands belonging 

 to Delta County, Michigan, lying in the entrance from Lake Michigan to Green 

 Bay, and also on certain of the Beaver Islands, belonging to Charlevoix County, 

 Michigan. At both these places the birds have been persecuted from time im- 

 memorial by fishermen and Indians, who use their eggs as well as those of 

 other terns and gulls for food ; and unless better protection is afforded, the ex- 

 tinction of the colonies can not be long postponed. The nests are placed on 

 gravelly or shingly islands, are usually pebble-lined, and the two or three 

 eggs (rarely four) are very variable in ground color, ranging from grayish 

 white to pale olive, and more or less thickly spotted with brown and black, the 

 spots commonly small and distinct." Mr. C. A. Reed (1904) refers to a colony 

 on Hat Island, Lake Michigan, found by Mr. Charles L. Cass, on July 1, 1896, 

 where " fully a thousand terns " were " nesting on about one acre." They had 

 built no nests, but the two eggs were " laid in a hollow in the gravel." 



A distinctly different style of nesting is found in the big colonies 

 of the Klamath Lake region of Oregon. Messrs. Finley (1907) and 

 Bohlman have illustrated these colonies very fully in the numerous 

 excellent photographs which they have taken. In one case they 

 found as many as 500 nests of Caspian terns in a single colony. Here 

 these terns nest in closely grouped colonies often in proximity with 

 other species, such as California gulls, Forster's terns, Farallon 

 cormorants, and white pelicans, on the floating masses of dead tules. 

 The nests are merely hollows in the dead and decaying vegetation 



