EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 103 



the south coast it certainly breeds on the Scilly Islands, but is 

 rarer than the Common Tern. In Ireland it breeds in many 

 localities, principally on the west coast. It is a circumpolar 

 species, breeding, according to Saunders, from 82° N. lat. down 

 to about 50° N. lat. in Europe, and 42° in America. 



The breeding-season commences at the Fame Islands in the 

 first half of June. The eggs are generally laid quite close to the 

 sea on the coarse pebbles, sand, and shingle, sometimes amongst 

 drifted seaweed. A nest is very seldom constructed, and, if such a 

 provision is made, it is of the slightest description — a little hollow 

 lined with a few scraps of dry grass or stalks of marine herbage. 



The eggs of the Arctic Tern are two or three in number, never 

 four, and very closely resemble those of the Common Tern, but 

 are on an average slightly smaller, generally more boldly blotched, 

 and the ground-colour is much more often tinged with olive, and 

 very frequently is a huffish-brown, much darker than the brownish- 

 buff of the Common Tern. They vary in length from 1*6 to 1'45 

 inch, and in breadth from 1*2 to l'l inch. 



THE LESSEE TERN. 



(Sterna minuta.) 



Plate 29, Figs. 2, 5. 



The Lesser Tern breeds in scattered colonies as far north as 

 Aberdeenshire on the east, and the Solway Firth on the west, as 

 well as in Ireland. Below the line of the Baltic it is found 

 nesting in many parts of Europe, eastwards to North-western 

 India. There are few places where this bird breeds in greater 

 abundance than on some of the islands in the lagoon of Misso- 

 longhi, 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 limit of the wavelets produced on the lagoon 

 by the storms of winter. 



Three is the usual number of eggs, but now and then four are 

 found in one nest, possibly the produce of two females. In their 

 ground-colour the eggs of the Lesser Tern vary precisely to the 

 same extent as those of the Common Tern, from pale greyish-buff 



