290 BRITISH BIRDS. 



and Dr. Kriipcr says that it breeds late in April. Late to arrive^ this 

 charming little Tern is one of the earliest to leave our shores, departing 

 for the south again in September. It is said to leave Denmark early in 

 August, which is also about the date of its departure from Transylvania. 

 The latest date on which Irby observed this bird at Gibraltar was on the 

 25th of October, 



The Lesser Tern is a very interesting little bird. It frequents sandy 

 rather than rocky coasts, and it generally shares its breeding-grounds 

 with some species of Ringed Plover. In its habits it dift'ers very little 

 from the Arctic and Common Terns. Its life is for the most part spent 

 on the wing, beating slowly along, a few yards above the rippling surface 

 of the water, every now and then swooping down, or falling as if shot, to 

 catch its finny prey. It is rather a noisy bird. In addition to the call- 

 note krr-ee, which is common to most of the Terns, it has an alarm-note, 

 constantly heard when its colonies are invaded, and which may be rendered 

 as ikr or ivihr. 



There are few places where this bird breeds in greater abundance than 

 on some of the islands in the lagoon of Missolonghi. During the week I 

 spent there at the end of May 1873, I blew two hundred and fifty of its 

 eggs, and might have taken hundreds more if I had wanted them. The 

 lagoon is very shallow, and flat-bottomed boats alone can be used. On 

 some of the islands where the Pelicans breed there is little or no vegeta- 

 tion ; others are covered with short grass and are surrounded by reeds, 

 here the Redshank and the Black-headed Wagtail make their nests. Many 

 of the islands are black, dried-up^ and cracked mud, Avith patclies of marine 

 plants of various thick-leaved species, where the Pratincoles breed, whilst 

 others have extensive beaches of bare sand. On these sandy flats the 

 Kentish Plover, the Gull-billed Tern, and the Common Tern breed in 

 some numbers, but by far the most abundant bird is tlie Lesser Tern. It 

 makes no nest, but generally scratches a slight hollow in the sand, or in 

 the long line of broken reeds, bits of cork, dead grass, seaweed, or similar 

 rubbish, which marks the limit of the wavelets produced on the lagoon by 

 the storms of winter. Three is the usual number of eggs, but now and 

 then four are found in one nest, possibly the produce of two females. 



In their ground-colours the eggs of the Lesser Tern vary precisely to the 

 same extent as those of the Common Tern, from pale greyish buff to dark 

 buff, occasionally with a slight shade of olive ; but in the boldness of their 

 spotting they very frequently equal the eggs of the Arctic Tern ; otherwise 

 they may be regarded as miniature eggs of these two allied species. They 

 vary in length from 1"3 to 1'2 inch, and in breadth from ]*0 to '9 inch. 

 Some of them very closely resemble eggs of the Kentish Plover ; but the 

 latter may generally be recognized by their more pyriform shape, and by 

 most of the markings being streaks rather than spots. 



