I go The I) ish Naturalist. [September, 



be said to make no nests at all. 1 The other two groups — (a.) 

 and (b ) — usually lay their eggs in depressions below the 

 general level of the surrounding ground. ■ 



The Little Tern affords us a good example. Its eggs are 

 generally deposited in such cavities, and it is the nature of 

 these, and how they are formed that I now wish to consider. 



On looking up the literature of the subject it is manifest 

 that the accounts and descriptions given by different writers, 

 dealing with the nests of the Little Tern, are rather general 

 and at the same time somewhat inadequate. 



"There are few places," says Seebohm,' 2 "where this bird 

 breeds in greater abundance than on some of the islands in 

 the lagoon of Missolonghi, in Greece. There it makes no nest, 

 but generally scratches a slight hollow in the sand, or in the 

 long line of broken reeds, bits of cork, dead grass, seaweed, or 

 similar rubbish which marks the limits of the wavelets, pro- 

 duced on the lagoon by the storms of winter." 



Saunders 3 describes the eggs as being " laid on the bare 

 shingle or soil towards the end of May." 



Yarrell 4 simply speaks of the nest as a small depression 

 scraped in the ground above high-water mark. 5 



Atkinson goes further still, and fails to give the Little 

 Tern the credit of even making the depression. This writer 

 says it " lays its two or three eggs in any small cavity which 

 it may be lucky enough to find in the selected place." 



From the foregoing quotations it would appear as if this 

 paiticular species of tern devoted but little time and trouble 

 to the construction of its nest. 



Far from this being the case I hope to show, as a result of a 

 closer study of the subject, that the nest of the Little Tern 

 is a nest, and a true one, and a much more definite structure 

 than has hitherto been described ; and further that it is usually 

 constructed on the same general plan, for a definite adaptative 

 purpose. 



1 It is very probable however that a considerable amount of choice is 

 exercised as to the particular rock on which the eggs are laid. 



2 <l Eggs of British Birds ", p. 103. 



3 " British Birds", Last edition, 1S99. 



4 ' ; British Birds ", vol. iii., p- 558- 



5 I have found the nects below high-water mark when the colonies 

 have been persistently plundered. 



6 " British Birds' Eggs and Nests ", p. 161. 



