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 60 TIlE CONDOR Vol. XIII On May 31 the colony contained many more nests than on the preceding week, and the birds were much tamer, several alighting on their nests within twenty yards of us. On June 8 all the nests contained incubated eggs, and on June 15 (1908) and June 9 (1909) we found two nests containing freshly hatched young. June 22 about half of the eggs had hatched, and on the 30th the water in the lake rose sufficiently to flood part of the nests, and many of the unhatched eggs were destroyed. The young are beautiful little creatures, with a coat ,of silky down in soft grays and browns. While very young they somewhat resemble chicks, except for their long, sharp bills. They take to the water very readily and their knack of self- concealment is wonderful. With nests on every side of us and a hundred scream- ing parents circling above our heads, an hour's hard search rewarded us with only four young, although there must have been at least a hundred young ones hiding in the area covered by our search. The young as soon as they can "navigate." are very animated, and show an unusual fear of au intruder. They are also quite pugnacious, babies no larger than a warbler, pecking at an outstretched finger as viciously as a young hawk. '., .. Fig. 26. NEXVLV H.akTCHED VOUNG FORSTER TERNS On July 6 many of the remaining nests still contained eggs, and one belated set was found July 21, on which date a great many young of the year were on the wing, and the breeding season of 1907 was practically at an end. The tendency to colonize was apparent wherever we found terns nesting. The fifteen nests found in 1906 vere located on musk-rat houses covering a tract of possibly twenty acres, and outside of this area we did not find a single nest. Sev- eral of the rat houses supported two nests, and one had three nests containing complete sets. The site of the colony in 1907 was about 300 yards from that of 1906 and covered a somewhat larger space, but the great bulk of the nests (probably seventy-five in all) were in an area of less than ten acres. Four of the floating nests mentioned above were close enough together to permit being photo- graphed at one exposure. (See Fig. 23.) The birds were at all times extremely demonstrative, rising in a cloud and coming to meet us with loud cries, while we were still a hundred yards or more distant from the nests. The din of their voices would increase as we approached the nests, and (after the young were hatched) when the nests were reached the birds would swoop down ou us from quite a height on noiseless wings, and as they