1890
July 2
Muskegat Island, Mass.
numerous. A few Red-wings and one Meadow Lark whistling.
Two or three Song Sparrows near bayberry & beach plum thickets.
Several Crows. The Savanna Sparrows were quite as numerous
among the sand-hills as along the shore.
  At the W. end of this bay a dozen or more Black headed Gulls
were circling about high in air indulging, every minute or two, 
in a general outburst of their wild, ringing laughter. Sandsbury told
me there were a number of nests on some little dry knolls or
island in this marsh and I quickly found two one with 3 the 
other with 4 eggs, all fresh as I ascertained before taking them
by dropping them in water. One nest was among beach grass, the
other in a rank bed of ivy. Pease found three more of their nests
two with 3 eggs each, all far advanced, the third with 5 eggs, most 
of which were chipped and the young peeping loudly. The two with 3 eggs
were within 6 ft. of one another. The one with 5 eggs was a very
large nest & was in a perfectly open place on the edge of the
marsh among short, sparse grass. The birds during our stay
circled several hundred feet above us laughing incessantly. I 
saw five more near the W. end of the island and two at the N. end.
Mr Sandsbury has seen 25 nests this season & thinks there may
be fifty pairs breeding on the island. There are certainly more than
there were in 1869.
  At the W. end of Muskegat I found Terns breeding in great
numbers, all of them Wilson's apparently, certainly not a single
Roseate among them & I think no Arctic Terns. I spent about two
hours here identifying sets of eggs by lying down in the grass and
watching the birds through my glass, as they dropped on their eggs, and
after they had resumed sitting, when I could command the nest.
It proved an easy task to settle the identity of five or six nests
in an hour by this method. The birds would quiet down &
begin to return to their eggs within five to ten minutes
after I had taken my stand but they were very keen-