22 Brewster on Terns of the New England Coast. 
wounded one, which had been taken into the boat, begin to arrange 
its disordered feathers, and its feeble efforts to remove the blood- 
stains from its fresh wounds were truly touching. 
When th§ wind blows hard the Terns spend much of their time 
on the wing, and then display great restlessness and activity. They 
seem to exult with the freshening breeze, like ships that have been 
becalmed. At such times I have seen them play for many minutes 
with a fish which one of their number had captured. The holder 
would drop it, evidently by design, and the whole troop go sweep- 
ing down in pursuit. The foremost was sure to seize it before it 
reached the water, when it w T as taken up into the air and again 
dropped. In this manner the prize would be in turn passed from 
one to another. The game was apparently well understood by 
all, as no attempt was made by any of them to devour the fish. 
Swallow swill frequently play with a feather in a similar manner. 
The ease with which sea-birds find their way through the densest 
fog is as astonishing as it is inexplicable. I have seen the Terns 
passing between the fishing-grounds and Muskegat when it was im- 
possible for human eyes to discern an object many yards away, and 
yet their course was as direct and decided as in the clearest weather. 
Indeed, at such times the fishermen are often guided by their flight. 
The Least Terns usually leave for the south in the latter part of 
August, and the Short-tailed species commonly departs before the 
close of the succeeding month. But the Wilson’s, the Roseate, and 
the Arctic Terns linger about Nantucket through the first half of 
October. After that their numbers thin rapidly, and by the 25th 
all are gone. The fishermen say that they follow the blue-fish in 
their southward migration. However that may be, when the chill- 
ing blasts of early November sweep across the sea, the Herring and 
Black-backed Gulls have taken their places upon the sand-bars about 
Nantucket ; the Eider Duck, the Scoter, the Whistler, and the 
Sheldrake flock to fish among the Muskegat “ tide-rips ” ; and troops 
of Snow-Buntings whirl over the bleak sand-hills. ] 
