The Sea and the Desert
THE next year I was constantly in Princeton, confined closely to the work of extending the growth of the museum. This had now assumed such proportion that it was essential to have some one working continually at the collections, keeping them in repair and adding to the exhibits material that had been accumulated from the several expeditions.
In the spring of 1881, having all the museum matters well in hand, I made an expedition to Cobb's Island on the coast of Virginia. Just north of the capes of the Chesapeake, the eastern shore of Virginia is protected by low, outlying sand islands not unlike those found at various points on the coast of New Jersey. Some of these, notably Hog Island, are inhabited, and Cobb's Island at this time afforded residence for a family of settlers by the name of Cobb, who had lived there many years, maintaining a house of entertainment for sportsmen. As a sportsmen's resort it was noted. The adjacent waters and marshes teemed with bird life, the fishing was
excellent, and the many waterways afforded fine opportunity for boating.
The bay-birds migrating along the coast in the spring and fall found at Cobb's Island plentiful supplies of food. This and other local conditions attracted them in vast numbers. The usual group associated with the sea beaches and marshes of the Atlantic coast were represented, and there was little difference in kind as compared with Barnegat. The numbers of the greater and lesser yellowlegs, the Hudsonian curlew, the dowitcher, the jacksnipe or creeker, the robin snipe, the willet, the blacked-bellied and golden plovers, not to mention innumerable representatives of least and semipalmated sandpipers, were striking. The marshes sheltered quantities of clapper-rail, while the beaches on the surf side were patrolled by many piping, ring-necked, and Wilson's plovers, as well as hosts of sanderlings and dunlins. Wilsons' plover, unlike the others, bred here in the rough shingle, not far above high-water mark, and willets were equally plenty, breeding in the marshes.
It was the great number of different kinds of gulls and terns that had attracted me to this point. Here vast colonies of them found breeding ground. It is difficult to say which kind were more numerous; there were myriads of all. The laughing gull was the only true gull breeding, but when I first arrived at Cobb's Island, Bonaparte
gulls, ring-billed and herring gulls were passing to their more northern home. The outer beaches were the resort, not only of many terns, but there too came oyster-catchers, which bred in the sand dunes just back of the beach, and whose nests were readily discovered by the regular trail the birds made in their frequent journeys to the ocean's edge.
Among the terns breeding were the gull-billed tern, Foster's tern, the common tern, the least tern, the royal tern, and the black skimmer. Now and then one met with representatives of the sandwich tern, and at least a dozen pair of Caspian terns nested each season. The breeding colonies of the several sorts were clearly defined, the different kinds not associating together to any extent.
My purpose in coming here was not only to make adequate collections of the eggs and adult birds, but more especially to procure large series of the fledglings in various stages of their early life. In this work, thanks to a good assistant, I was eminently successful.
My dog Grouse, who was with me, aided largely, finding numbers of nests and young birds that would otherwise have been overlooked. Posted just outside of some piece of sedge-grass, I had only to command him to go in and fetch out young birds. He did this kind of work with-
out reluctance or demur, but on the whole with deprecatory air, appearing ashamed of being used for the purpose. Disappearing in the long grass, in a few moments he was back with a young gull, a clapper-rail, or some other downy chick. When I took the bird from him, it was not only unharmed and unruffled, but the delicate plumage was seldom even moistened by contact with the dog's mouth. If I did not care for a specimen, I would return it to him, tell him to take it back, leave it where he found it, and bring me another. Off he would go, and presently return with a different bird. I have seen dogs that would fetch, but I have seen but one or two dogs that would take things away and return them to the spot whence they had been brought. In the house, Grouse would not only bring me my slippers, but would take away my shoes and put them as carefully in the closet as I could myself. He knew just where they belonged, and in what position they should stand. I fancy he was as solicitous in returning the unharmed fledglings to the place where he found them.
Cobb's Island has been largely decreased in area by some of the more violent storms of the last ten or fifteen years, and is now comparatively small, whereas formerly it was some three miles long. On the bay side vast marshes extended over hundreds of acres. As a breeding ground
at present it affords little space, but such areas as remain seem to be quite sufficient for the birds that resort there. Previous to the decrease in the size of the island, the persistent efforts of egg hunters and gunners for millinery purposes had achieved the usual result; what was once one of the notable breeding places of gulls and terns has long since been wholly abandoned by the larger part of them.
Six weeks sufficed to start the work that had been undertaken here, and intrusting its completion to an assistant, the rest of the summer was passed at Nantucket.
As a result of the work at Cobb's Island, there are in the collections of the Princeton University Museum a series of all the kinds of terns and birds that I have mentioned breeding at this point, except the sandwich tern, which was only a casual bird. Practically every stage of growth is represented, from the chick just hatched to the adult. The common tern, Foster's tern, the royal tern, the black skimmer, the least tern, the willet, the clapper-rail, and the gull-billed tern are included in the collections in this way.