Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
July 12
(No 2)
drawn up on the beach. While we were talking with them a small
sloop anchored near the island and a boat laden almost to the
water's edge brought ashore a second party consisting of two men, each
of about thirty years of age, with five children - four girls & a boy
ranging in age from four or five to seven or eight years. They were
pretty children neatly & attractively dressed and their fathers were
rather fine looking men, with clean-shaven and intelligent faces
and in respect to both clothes and general appearance apparently
much above the ordinary grade of fishermen or farmers. But
a more wanton & ruthless set never before raided a colony of innocent
and beautiful sea-birds and the sights & sounds which we were 
compelled to witness during the next three or four hours were
simply sickening. The children laughing & at times fairly screaming
with excitement ran hither and thither over the island gathering eggs
& young in their small hands and aprons, dropping & breaking many
eggs and stuffing the young into baskets to be taken to their house
to die of neglect & starvation. I saw them catch a little down-clad
Spotted Sandpiper & stroke its back fondly exclaiming "oh! you little
darling!" but it soon went into one of the baskets & was carried 
off with the rest. Of course this cruelty on the parts of the
children was chiefly or wholly due to the thoughtless ignorance of
the consequences of their acts but no such excuse can be
found for their fathers who, despite their really pleasant &
attractive faces, soon showed themselves to be human brutes of
the lowest & meanest kind. They both carried double barreled breech
loading guns and it presently became evident that they had brought
them for the express purpose of killing as many of the breeding Terns
as possible. But they first beat up and down back & forth through
the long beach grass evidently knowing that Sheldrake are in the
habit of nesting there & hoping to surprise a duck on her
eggs and shoot her as she rose. This quest fortunately proved