278 BULLETIN U3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



they have young in their company the latter await in the air the rise of their 

 parents, meet them, and receive the food from tliem. When all are satiated 

 they proceed on their journey, stopping at another similar but distant place. 



When their breeding grounds are invaded these terns show their 

 anxiety by hovering over the intruder or darting down at him with 

 shrill, strident cries of protest. Wilson (1832) described their cries 

 as sounding like the " squealing of young pigs." Their ordinary call 

 note, the one most often heard on their breeding grounds, is a shrill, 

 rasping cry, sounding like the syllables " zree ee eep." They also 

 have a variety of cackling and whistling notes. When attacking an 

 intruder, at which they are very bold, they utter a sharp " yip " or a 

 series of vehement notes like "keck, keck, keck," rapidly repeated. 

 While hovering over a school of small fish they become very much 

 excited and noisy, indulging in a constant chorus of shrill cries. 



Least terns are particularly gentle and harmless birds. They are 

 not as sociable as some other species, but they live in perfect harmony 

 with their neighbors on their breeding grounds. They seem to prefer 

 the same localities, and become intimately associated with piping 

 plovers, Wilson's plovers, and snowy plovers in their respective 

 breeding ranges. Their chief enemies are human beings, who shoot 

 them and destroy their eggs, and dogs, cats, and rats, which eat 

 their eggs and young. Fortunately protection has come in time to 

 save this beautiful species from complete extermination, with which 

 it certainly was threatened. 



Winter. — There is not much to be said about their winter habits, 

 for most of them spend the winter south of our borders in warmer 

 climes, though a few winter on our southern coasts. They are more 

 given to wandering during the fall and winter, and are more often 

 seen inland then than at other seasons. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — All along the Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts 

 (Chatham) to the Florida Keys, and along the Gulf coast to south- 

 ern Texas (Cameron County). Islands in the Mississippi and 

 Missouri Rivers ; north, formerly at least, to southern South Dakota 

 (Vermillion) and central northern Iowa (Clear Lake) ; and west to 

 northern Nebraska (Niobrara River) and southwestern Kansas 

 (Cimarron River). From the Bahamas (Andros, Abaco, Eleuthera, 

 Watlings Island, etc.) and the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 Cayman Islands, etc.), southward throughout the Lesser Antilles to 

 Venezuela (Aruba and Bonaire Islands), and westward to British 

 Honduras. On the Pacific coast, from central California (Monterey 

 Bay) southward to southern Mexico (Tehuantepec). Pacific coast 

 birds are now considered subspecifically distinct. 



