212 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



were slaughtered for the millinery trade. On account of their large 

 size royal terns were not in demand for ladies' hats, but their eggs, 

 being large and palatable, were collected for food in great quanti- 

 ties. Persistent nest robbing and constant shooting near their 

 breeding grounds discouraged the birds and frightened them away. 

 The reports of the wardens in 1901 and 1902 indicated that the 

 colonies were much depleted until, in 1903, Capt. N. B. Rich stated, 

 in Mr. Dutcher's (1903) report, that he "did not see any royal 

 terns, so they probably have been exterminated so far as Virginia 

 is concerned." During my visit to Cobb's Island in 1907 I did 

 not see any royal terns, but was told by the fisherman that a few 

 are seen occasionally. Since that time conditions have evidently 

 improved under protection, for Mr. Harold H. Bailey (1913) says: 



The royal terns are much more numerous, a large colony still breeding on 

 one of our coastal islands. They did,, however, for a number of years during 

 the overwhelming destruction of some of the following species for millinery 

 trade, desert our coast entirely, but it has only been within the last few years 

 that they have become established as breeding birds once more. 



Spring. — On its spring migration the royal tern, , according, to 

 Bailey (1913), reaches Virginia "the last week in May," although, 

 according to Coues (1877), it arrives in North Carolina "early in 

 April." Its migration is so limited that its movements are prob- 

 ably very deliberate and perhaps quite erratic or variable. I have 

 never seen its courtship performance and can find nothing about it 

 in print. 



Nesting. — An old-time colony on the Virginia coast is described by 

 Bidgway (1880) as follows: ........ .-.•. . 



Allowing the birds sufficient time to deposit their eggs, we visited the locality 

 two days afterwards, and found an area of perhaps one-eighth of an acre com- 

 pletely covered by their eggs, it being impossible to walk through the nesting 

 site without crushing a greater or less number, many eggs having been covered 

 by drifting sand. Comparatively few pairs had deposited their fuft comple- 

 ment, a large majority of the nests containing but a single egg. Still, more 

 than 500 nests were counted, while our man declared that not one-third the num- 

 ber of birds seen by him on his former visit were there, the greater part having 

 been frightened away by the shots which he had fired at them two days before. 



In Virginia, the bird is known as the "gannet striker" or 

 "gannet." 



Mr. B. S. Bowdish (1910) and Mr. P. B. Philipp discovered four 

 breeding colonies of royal terns on the coasts of the Carolinas in 

 1909, as follows : 



The first was situated on Vessel Reef, a low- sand key in Bulls Bay, South 

 Carolina, visited on June 12. About 75 birds were seen there and nesting had 

 just begun, three fresh eggs being found. The second colony was on Royal 

 Shoal, Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Here, Instead of the enormous numbers 

 of the preceding season, estimated at some 7,000 birds, only 50 were found. On 



