THE GREAT, OR COMMON TERN. 373 



From the variety in the appearance of the eggs, it is 

 pretty obvious that the females indifferently and frequently 

 lay in each other's nests, in the manner of our common 

 fowls in a state of domestication. Though to all appearance 

 thus abandoned to accident, the nests are constantly under 

 the surveillance of the Terns, and the appearance of an in- 

 truding visiter on the solitary spot chosen for their breeding 

 retreat, fills the whole neighboring troop with dismay and 

 alarm ; and in defence of their young they are very bold, 

 clamorous and resentful, sweeping round and darting down 

 so close to the visiter as sometimes to touch his hat ; making 

 at the same time a hoarse and creaking sound, and occa- 

 sionally uttering a plaintive long drawn ^ptee-ivay, and 

 when much irritated and distressed by the fall of their com- 

 panions or their brood by the gun, we hear a jarring k'k, 

 h^k, k'k, as well as a piping plaint, and at times they utter a 

 bark almost like so many puppies. On a rocky islet near 

 Nahant, in the vicinity of Boston, known by the name of 

 the Egg Rock, 30 or 40 pairs annually breed, and among 

 these, others are also distinguished by the name oi'])ce-boo's 

 from the sound of their usual note. 



The young are often hatched at intervals of a day or two 

 from each other, and are carefully fed and watched for sev- 

 eral weeks before they are in a condition to fly. At first 

 they are fed on small fish and insects, such as grasshoppers 

 and beetles, the hard and indigestible parts of which food 

 appearing to be rejected by the bill in the manner of rapa- 

 cious birds. The young are afterwards fed without alight- 

 ing, as they skim over the spot ; and then they merely drop 

 the fish among the brood, when the strons^est and most ac- 

 tive are consequently the best served. The young at length 

 launch out into the marshes for themselves in quest of in- 

 sects ; while thus engaged, at the warning voice of their pa- 

 rents, or the approach of an enemy, they instantly squat 



