November, 19o2. I THE CONDOR x45 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 mule 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 1 filltd a two ounce bottle with shellac dissolved in NEST AI?11? 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 packrd.
