6 THE CONDOR Vol. X

ter till the first relay of plates, carried in the game pocket of an old hunting coat, was exhausted. Retracing my steps as cautiously as I had come, I secured another batch of , ig. 2. SURF-BIRDS: THE FIRST EXPOSURE plates and returned to the fray. This time I succeeded in reaching the reef itself and in lessening the distance to some forty feet--a score of Surf-birds at forty feet! They rose at length, for there were timorous souls among them, but they Fig. 3. SURF-BIRDS IN FLIGHT; ONLY THE BLACK TURNSTONE REMAINS From a photograph. copyright. 1913. by W. L. Dawson returned or ever I had reached the base of supplies. After a hasty cold lunch of bread-and-butter, omelette and cake, all sugared impartially with fine sand, I re- sumed the quest, pausing only to note that the Surf-birds were themselves busily