November, 1902. [ 
THE CONDOR 
145 
visited the locality three times and have 
experienced a great deal of pleasure in 
watching the habits of twenty or thirty 
pairs of birds that colonize there. 
Unfortunately the energetic little 
fishers have many enemies and in the 
course of my explorations I found many 
deserted nests around which the broken 
shells told their own mute tale of de- 
struction. 
In this section we seldom find a set 
of this species containing more than 
of shelter. 
I am only a novice at collecting, but 
take pains to get as good specimens as 
possible of nests as well as of eggs, and 
the method employed in saving the 
nest shown in the illustration, in their 
original condition, may be of interest to 
some of your readers. 
The scheme was suggested to me by 
Mr. Ingersoll and is as follows. While 
preparing for my trip I filled a two 
ounce bottle with shellac dissolved in 
NEST AND EGGS OF LEAST TERN. 
two eggs. The nesting places vary con- 
siderably, sometimes being merely a lit- 
tle wallow, 3 or 4 inches across, in the 
fine gray or black sand; at other times 
the eggs are deposited among coarse 
gravel and broken shells, while at 
others the nest is in the plain sand but 
is more or less elaborately decorated 
with bits of rock, shell, or wood. In 
all cases, however, that have come to 
my notice, the nests have been on al- 
most level ground, and entirely devoid 
alcohol about in the proportion of one 
to ten. 
After having photographed the nest 
and removed the eggs I carefully pour- 
ed the shellac all over the surface to be 
preserved and left it for two or three 
hours, during which time the alcohol 
having evapoaated, the sand to a depth 
of one half to three fourths of an inch, 
was thoroughly hardened and ready to 
be packed. 
