. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . were nesting at this particu-lar spot. By threes and fours their rather large white eggs,handsomely marked with black, were readily seen lying inhollows in the dry sand above high-water mark. They makeno nest whatever, save to scratch out a little round depression,which is similar to the numerous wallows where the birdshave been s(|uatting to bask in the sun. A few hundredyards beyond was another group of perhaps twenty nests,and so these groups recurred, as I continued my way alongthe se
. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . were nesting at this particu-lar spot. By threes and fours their rather large white eggs,handsomely marked with black, were readily seen lying inhollows in the dry sand above high-water mark. They makeno nest whatever, save to scratch out a little round depression,which is similar to the numerous wallows where the birdshave been s(|uatting to bask in the sun. A few hundredyards beyond was another group of perhaps twenty nests,and so these groups recurred, as I continued my way alongthe seemingly endless beach. It was a lively and beautiful scene. Parties of Skimmerswere flying about in all directions, some across the sand,other bands close over the surface of the ocean just outsidethe white line of the lazilv breaking surf. One moment theywould wheel and look like snowy terns, then immediatelythey would become as black as crows, according as theypresented their lower or upper parts. But their cries! Some-times one would suddenlv dash bv me and utter, almost in VIRGINIA BIRD HOMES 121. PARTIES OK SKIMMERS WERE ELVINci AKOUT my ear, a veritable shriek, loud enough to startle one greatly,if taken unawares. More often the cry was a reiteration ofsounds which reminded me of the violent sobbing of a child,made by drawing in the breath. They were anxious abouttheir eggs; indeed it would sound as though they werefairly heart-broken. If they really suffered as much as theircurious remonstrance seemed to imply, I should have felt posi-tively guilty in subjecting them to such outrageous indignityby prying into their domestic privacy and happiness. I calledthem thesobbing birds, and they darted about and sobbedtheir hearts away as long as I stayed near their nests. Asthey sobbed, I could see their bills, like pairs of greatshears, open and shut, as though, in flying by, they wouldsnip off my ears. Flying low over the water, they seem toshear it as they quickly, in passing,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjobh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds
