Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
June 30
(No 5)
inland had the ground color more or less strongly olive-gray whereas
about over half of those on the beach ridge were nearly or quite free
from olive and tinged with brownish or buffy brown. I suspect that
this may prove to be a more or less constant distinction between the eggs
of the two species and I believe further from what I saw to-day
that the eggs of the Arctic Tern are, as a rule, more boldly & handsomely
marked than those of Wilson's Tern. 
  The Terns on this island were not much slyer than those at
Muskegat. They frequently came within short gun range and
when I shot the Arctic Tern a swarm of birds collected &
hovered over it. Most of the nests, too, had full sets of eggs
many of which were far advanced in incubation & we found
one chick a day or two old. Evidently neither birds nor nests
had been much disturbed.
  Besides Terns & Sheldrake we saw on Trumpet Island two or
three pairs of Savanna Sparrows, several pairs of Spotted Sandpipers,
five or six Bank Swallows and two or three Song Sparrows. I
am very sure that I heard a Piping Plover call a number
of times but unfortunately I could not find the bird.
  We started for home at 5.30 P.M. and having wind & tide
against us did not cast anchor in the cove until nearly
ten o'clock.
  Crossing one of the wide bays this morning we started a
large flock of Scoters sixty birds or more, about half
O. deglandi & the remaining half O. americana the males
of both species all in the mottled immature dress.
  (This page written on our boat in a heavy ground swell)