LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 213 



June 24 one fresh egg was noted. The third and largest colony was found 

 on June 26, on Miller Lump, a small, low sand bar in Pamlico Sound, 

 lying in a broad expanse of very shallow water. This colony comprised 

 1,000 adult birds. The nesting was advanced ; some 258 good eggs were 

 counted, usually one egg to a set, though a few doubles were found. There 

 were also many young, some of which were able to run about. All the 

 eggs were advanced in incubation. The fourth breeding colony visited was 

 on Davis Lump, a small sand bar near Miller Lump. Here about 60 pairs 

 of birds were breeding. Thirty-two eggs were counted, for the most part 

 advanced in incubation. Half a dozen newly hatched young were also seen. 



My own experience with the nesting habits of the royal tern was 

 gained in the large protected colonies of the Breton Island reserva- 

 tion, off the coast of Louisiana, where the birds have certainly 

 flourished during the recent years. They are now safe from the 

 depredations of man, but they still suffer occasionally from the de- 

 struction of their breeding colonies by the elements. The combina- 

 tion of high winds or storms with a high course of tides often results 

 in the flooding of the low sandy islands on which they breed and 

 the washing away of the eggs or young ; but such wholsesale damage 

 is generally repaired by a second attempt at nesting. 



On June 18, 1910, with Warden W. M. Sprinkle, in his patrol 

 boat, I visited one of these colonies. Sailing due south from what 

 seemed to be the outer islands, we headed straight out to sea and 

 were soon out of sight of land. After several hours of apparently 

 aimless sailing Captain Sprinkle pointed out on the horizon a distant 

 sand bar, and as we drew nearer we could see with our glasses a 

 cloud of white specks hovering over it, so we knew that the terns 

 were nesting there as expected. They had been washed off one of 

 the other islands earlier in the season and had come here to make 

 their second attempt at nesting. The island, which is known as 

 Grand Cochere, was merely a low, flat sand bar, with no vegetation 

 on it whatever, only 2 or 3 feet above high-water mark at its 

 highest part. It was nearly triangular in shape, perhaps half a 

 mile long, and surrounded by dangerous sandy shoals. On an old 

 wreck at one end 30 or 40 man-o'-war birds were perched in a long 

 black row; a large flock of brown pelicans were resting on one of 

 the sand bars; and at night thousands of black terns came in to 

 roost on the beaches. There were several small nesting colonies 

 of black skimmers, and three or four small mixed groups of royal 

 and Cabot's terns, scattered over the island with their eggs lying 

 in the dry, hot sand, as well as a few scattering pairs of laughing 

 gulls and a little colonly of 40 nests of Caspian terns at the eastern 

 end. But the main population of the island was concentrated in 

 an immense, closely packed nesting colony of royal and Cabot's terns 

 on the south side. As I approached this colony, over the level sandy 

 plain on which it was spread out,, the birds all arose at once, as if 



