6 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XV 
ter till the first relay of plates, carried in the game pocket of an old hunting coat, 
was exhausted. 
Retracing my steps as cautiously as I had come, I secured another batch of 
Eig. 2. Surf-birds: the first exposure 
plates and returned to the fray. This time I succeeded in reaching the reef itself 
and in lessening the distance to some forty feet — a score of Surf-birds at forty 
feet! They rose at length, for there were timorous souls among them, but they 
Fig. .1. .Surf-birds in flight; only the black Turnstone remains 
From a photograph, copyright, 1913, by W. 1^. Dawson 
returned or ever I had reached the base of supplies. After a hasty cold lunch of 
bread-and-butter, omelette and cake, all sugared impartially with fine sand, I re- 
sumed the quest, pausing only to note that the Surf-birds were themselves busily 
