52 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



Hebrides. All round Ireland it is also found in suitable 

 places, but less frequently in the south and south-west. 

 On the Continent the Little Tern is not confined to the 

 coasts, but follows the large rivers far inland and nests 

 on their banks and islands. 



Under the efficient protection now afforded this species 

 at many of its haunts, it is regaining much of the ground 

 lost owing to persecution ; but many colonies have been 

 altogether wiped out. When left to themselves, the birds 

 have few natural enemies, and there is said to be little 

 mortality among the chicks ; where their numbers have 

 decreased it must be put down to human agency — wanton 

 destruction and indiscriminate collecting. 



The eggs are two or three in number, and are laid in 

 a hollow in the sand or shingle, almost always quite 

 unlined. In addition to their much smaller size, they are 

 more oval in shape and lighter in colour than those of 

 the Common Tern, and harmonise extraordinarily well with 

 the ground on which they are usually laid. The colour 

 varies from light, almost bluish, stone gray to faint buff, 

 and the markings are deep brown and the iinder-markings 

 purplish. In some districts, at any rate, the Terns of 

 this species tend to be a trifle later in their nesting 

 operations than the Common Terns of the same region. 

 Nests sometimes come to grief by being placed within 

 reach of the waves ; but the birds lay again if they lose 

 their first clutch, and occasionally, it is said, when they 

 have successfully reared one brood. The chicks, which are 

 active from the first, and are clad in down, varying from 

 gray to buff in colour, with darker spots, 'are fed 

 largely on very small plaice about the size of a penny, 

 sand-eels, sprats, &c.'' In their first plumage the young 

 birds have the head merely streaked with dark brown, and 

 have mottlings of the same colour on the mantle and 



