SANDWICH TEBN 323 



the ground without treading on the nests containing eggs or young 

 birds. The eggs are two or three in number, and are stone-colour 

 with a yellow tinge, thickly spotted with grey or brown. 



Besides the five species described, there are eight terns set down 

 in the books as British. Of these, the Caspian tern, gull-billed 

 tern, and black tern, are described as * irregular visitors,' and come 

 in small numbers ; 

 the whiskered tern, 

 white-winged black 

 tern, sooty tern, 

 Scopoli's sooty tern, 

 and noddy, are all 

 rare stragglers, the 

 last three from the 

 tropics. The black 

 tern {Hydrocheli- 

 don nigra) was in 

 reality a British bird 

 in former times, a 

 summer visitor, Fig, 109.— Black Tern. ^ natural size. 



breeding in immense 



numbers in the fens and marshes in some of the eastern counties. It 

 bred ' in myriads ' in Norfolk as late as 1818, and, in diminishing 

 numbers, down to 1835. ' Drainage and persecution ' caused the 

 destruction of this graceful species. 



Kittiwake. 

 Rissa tridactyla. 



Bill greenish yellow ; legs and feet black ; mantle deep grey : 

 head, neck, tail, and under parts white. Length, fifteen and a half 

 inches. 



The kittiwake takes its pretty name from its usual cry, composed 

 of three notes, two quick and short, and one long. It is the smallest 

 of the British gulls, excluding the stragglers, and is also one of the 

 handsomest and most interesting lq its habits. It is more of a sea- 

 bird than most gulls, feeding principally on small fish, which 

 it captures after the manner of a tern, hovering motionless for a 

 few moments, then dashing down on to the water with great force. 



