SUMMER BIRD-LIFE OF COBB'S ISLAND, VIRGINIA 



A SHELL-STREWN sand-bar seven miles long and about the same 

 distance from the mainland, Cobb's Island, off eastern Virginia, 

 is an ideal resort for sea-birds. Here they are beyond the reach 

 of most bird enemies, while the surrounding waters furnish an unfail- 

 ing supply of food. The home of the birds has little or no value as 

 "real estate " ; they themselves are unfit for food, and it might have been 

 supposed that their continued existence was assured, but about twenty- 

 five years ago they suddenly acquired a commercial value. Their plum- 

 age became fashionable for millinery purposes. As a result, thousands 

 of birds were slaughtered on their nesting-grounds, and within a few 

 seasons some of the most abundant species were practically exterminated. 



At no place were more birds killed than on Cobb's Island and the 

 islands immediately adjoining it. In a single day, 1,200 Least Terns 

 were shot on Cobb's Island; in three days three baymen killed 2,800 

 Terns in the same locality; at the end of two seasons the Least Terns, 

 for which there was especial demand, no longer existed in this region, 

 and the Common Terns were greatly reduced in numbers. Fortunately 

 the State of Virginia passed a law prohibiting the killing of these birds, 

 and for several years the National Association of Audubon Societies 

 provided a warden to enforce this law during the nesting season. 



In response to this protection the birds began increasing in numbers, 

 and in time may become as abundant as they formerly were. The 

 Least Terns have not reappeared, there being no stock to begin with, 

 but the Common Terns are yearly becoming more numerous, several 

 hundred pairs having nested on the island even in the summer of 1902. 



Besides the Common Terns, Skimmers, Gull-billed Terns, Oyster- 

 catchers and Wilson's Plovers now nest on the beach of Cobb's Island; 

 while in the marshes which flank the beach on the bay, or west side, 

 numerous Laughing Gulls, a few Forster's Terns and many Clapper 

 Rails, or Marsh Hens, make their nests. 



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