LESSEU TEEN. 309 



STERNA MINUTA, Linnaeus. 

 LESSER TERN. 



I am sure the reader cannot fail to derive pleasure 

 from the following notes which Mr. Stevenson has left 

 on this charming little bird ; and, although rather out 

 of date in some particulars, they exhibit so truthfully 

 the loving spirit of the writer, as well as his keen powers 

 of observation, that it would be a positive loss to con- 

 dense them. 



" Long may it be ere these exquisite little birds cease 

 to frequent our coast during the summer months, and 

 yet, when considering their extended range in former 

 days, and the contracted area within which they are 

 still found breeding, one can but contemplate the worst 

 result from the combined eflPects of shooting and egging. 

 Too often, I am sorry to say, these delicate little crea- 

 tures are slaughtered in their nesting season for the 

 mere sake of sport, their pretty forms being left to rot 

 upon the beach to which each action of their harmless 

 lives had lent a further charm. The collector, even 

 though with some excuse in the desire to obtain speci- 

 mens for preservation and study, will feel but small 

 delight in the possession of his prize, if, as once hajD- 

 pened to myself at Salthouse, his victim's mate, with 

 plaintive cries, comes hovering round. Heedless of 

 danger to itself, this widowed bird called on its dead 

 companion with every accent of distress and grief, and 

 finding still no answering nOte, it gently seized its 

 partner by the beak and tried to bear it off. What 

 would I not have given to recall that luckless shot ! and 

 oft as I remember that touching instance of animal 

 affection, the thought recurs — 



Have they no feeling ? or does man pi^etend 

 That he, alone, can make, or mourn a friend ?* 



* Mr. Stevenson told me that he was so grieved to see the dis- 

 tress thus plainly evinced by this bereaved one, that, to end its 

 sorrows, he felt compelled to shoot it also, not, however, thereby 

 extinguishing his regret at the result of his thoughtless act. In 

 order to commemorate this touching incident he made a rouo-h 



