Mar., 1922 A LARGE TERN COLONY IN TEXAS 45 
formly distributed over the entire shell. Only one set of two eggs was found 
and this may have been an accidental fusion of two adjoining nests. 
The voice of the Royal Tern was not in quality distinguishable to me from 
that of the Caspian, being a loud, harsh, guttural caaar, but, as Bent says, 
pitehed shghtly higher. 
On both May 16 and 28, eggs were for the most part, fresh or but slightly 
incubated, but on June 5 Mr. Camp found a few small downy young. Nesting 
must commence at the same time as with the Caspian and Cabot terns; possibly 
the Forster and Least should be ineluded here too. The Gull-billed and Com- 
mon get several days start on all the others. 
The eges of the Cabot Tern are to me the most beautiful of all water birds’ 
eggs, and some of them rival the most handsome raptorial products. The 
variation is extensive. The ground color ranges from a beautiful, fresh salmon 
with a peach-hke bloom to it, to pure white, and then to a pecuhar greenish 
white, a ghastly white might be better. The markings range in size from small 
specks to large blotches covering a large portion of the shell, in color from 
Fig. 21. BLAcK SKIMMERS AND QULL-BILLED TERNS NEAR THEIR NESTS. CAMERON COUNTY, 
TEXAS, Photo by Robert Runyon. 
brilliant black to chocolate and magenta. There is in some markings an opa- 
lesecent quality, | mean a hint of several colors combined in the one as in the 
opal. It was a great temptation to take every Cabot Tern ege on the island, 
but one’s blowing capacity is limited! With the exception of two sets of two 
eggs, all the Cabots laid a single egg. In one of the cases of two eges I believe 
two singles were mixed, because the degree of incubation was very different in 
the two eges, and they did not greatly resemble each other either. 
The Cabot Tern has a decidedly distinctive ery, at least when excited. Ti 
is a loud kirhitt--hirhitt, according to Bent, and | agree with him exactly. There 
is a great deal of chuckling when the birds settle on the eges after beine dis- 
turbed. 
Aside from the terns, several other kinds of birds were found nesting on 
the islands, and of these the Black Skimmer (Rhynchops nigra) was the most 
conspicuous. On May 16 they were pairing and seratehing about in the earth 
of the western island. On the 23rd we found perhaps twenty-five nests, all 
containing eggs but none with the full set of four. On June 5, Mr. Camp 
found all the nests to contain four eggs. The Skimmers by their many peculiar 
