r 26 Bird - Lore
another. The poor birds seem to have as hard work satisfactorily disposing of their catch as they have making it in the first place.
The great number of the birds and their exact similarity and quick movements tnade individual observation diflicultwunless the bird was very close at hand. Exceedingly graceful in the air, with an enormous spread of wing, on land the Tern is handsome but ungraceful, appearing much too heavy for his slight feet. At the moment of alighting he is beautiful; once on the ground.he moves with a weak, uneven gait. Hundreds of these jerking.waddling figures crossing and recrossing in the field of vision give little chance of studying any one bird.
The willows under which I was hiding grew at one side of the island on a shelving shore, along which some hali-grown birds were wading. A Least Sandpiper. the only alien we saw in the colony of Terns, lingered in the shal- lows for a while. Farther out there was almost constantly aflock of Terns swimming about in the water. lVIost of them were young birds, distin- guished from the adults by less brilliant coloring of bills and feet and by brownish tints in the pearl gray of the body. These birds would occasion- ally swim to shore and waddle up and down on the pebbles for a while and then go back to the water. The presence of this large flock of swimming birds explained the sudden disappearance of most of the full-grown young soon after our coming to the island. Incapable of sustained flight, if indeed they could fly at all, the birds ran to the water and escaped. Many of them returned and settled down after we had been hidden awhile. Evidently the birds are strong swimmers long before they can fly. Perhaps in the course of evolution the birds' ancestors were swimmers before they were flyers— and the life history of the individual folloivs the same order. These birds paddled about serenely, close together. like a flock of Ducks.
From the report of other observers who have made a longer visit to the Tern islands. the birds keep up their noise incessantly, even though there be no one in sight. So we had no hope that the whole flock would become quiet. By noon, however, the birds were fairly well settled, and at a little distance I could see crowds of adult birds walking about or crouching among their little ones. Now and then a flock would rise, adding their cries to the tumult overhead, and we knew that the photographer was moving his camera, His task was a diflicult one. He had brought a long piece of tubing, thinking to hide at a distance and take pictures in peace. but the birds, which were somewhat afraid of him, were in deadly terror of the camera. and preferred the man to the machine. The young birds, protected by their coloring, at first remained motionless. seemingly unfrightened. On being touched or moved. however. so that they knew they were discovered, they scurried away, to hide under stones or driftwood. and nothing could induce them to come out and face the camera.
There are two methods of self-protection in universal use among animals
