246 BIEDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



LITTLE TEEN. 



Sterna minuta, Limipeus. 



Local Names — SparUnfj, Kek, Ski-iliC, Sea-Swallow, Sea- 

 Mouse. 



Like the Arctic and Common Terns, the Little Tern 

 is a summer visitor to the Lancashire coast, but owing 

 to the senseless destruction which has pursued it and 

 many other beautiful and interesting species, it now 

 breeds only in one part of Walney Island, and that in 

 much diminished numl)ers. In the neighbourhood of 

 Lytham, where, near the lighthouse, Mr. J. B. Hodg- 

 kinson says it used to breed thirty years ago, and 

 between that place and Blackpool, where, as Mr. K. J. 

 Howard tells me, the nest has been taken by Mr. W. L. 

 Constantine, the increase of population is sufficient 

 reason for its disappearance ; but on Foulney Island, 

 once so prolific in l^ird-life, there is nothing save the 

 havoc caused by shooting parties, and this so long 

 favoured spot is now rarely frequented by any breeding 

 birds, save perhaps a few Ringed Plovers. The Little 

 Tern arrives in May, and leaves in October, and at these 

 times, and especially the latter, it is often shot on the 

 various parts of the coast, heavy storms also driving it 

 inland. It breeds in small colonies, laying three, and 

 occasionally four, eggs in a slight hollow in the sand or 

 shingle, little above high-water mark, and, unlike the 

 Common and Arctic Terns, preferring the sea- ward side 

 of the sand-hills to the more sheltered positions inside. 

 Its cry also is different from theirs, being a single sharp 

 note frequently repeated (J. E. Harting, ZooL, 1864). 



