LARID.E. 



635 





thp: little tern. 



Sterna minuta, Linnaeus. 



Early in May this smallest of the British Terns makes its appear- 

 ance on our coasts, especially on those which present low flat shores 

 covered with sand, broken shells and shingle. In such localities it 

 may be found along the English Channel and from Kent northward 

 to the H umber, but the small colony which Selby found on the 

 coast of Northumberland opposite Holy Island, has ceased to exist 

 for many years. Mr. Wm. Evans informs me that this is also true 

 of GuUane in Haddingtonshire, but the bird still nests near the 

 mouth of the Tay and in Aberdeenshire ; though only a pair or two 

 can be recorded from the south-east of Sutherland and none from 

 the west, while recent authorities have not observed the species in the 

 Orkneys, Outer Hebrides, or Skye. Southward there are small 

 settlements along the west side down to the Solway, below which, 

 except where persecuted — as in Lancashire — the Little Tern breeds 

 in suitable localities as far as Cornwall. In Ireland it nests in 

 many places, though seldom in large numbers. As a rule it leaves 

 us in September or early in October, but a laggard has been obtained 

 in the third week of December. 



The Little Tern seldom occurs in the northern part of the Baltic, 

 but is abundant on the south shore of that sea, and follows the 

 course of the large rivers for so great a distance —nesting on their 



