NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 185 
No. 131. LITTLE TERN. (Sterna minuta.) 
This is the smallest of our Terns, and arrives early in May at its 
breeding-stations on the flat sandy or shingly shores scattered along 
the coasts of the British Islands. In September or early in October 
it leaves for the south. About the end of May two or three stone- 
coloured eggs, spotted with grey and brown, are laid in a slight hollow 
scratched in the sand or among the shingle. In the colony from which 
the birds and nests exhibited were taken the nests were more widely 
scattered, being from five to ten yards apart. The eggs were found on 
the 12th of June and the young sixteen days later. 
Kent, June. 
Presented by Colonel Willoughby Verner. 
No. 132. ARCTIC TERN. (Sterna macrura.) 
This Tern reaches England towards the end of April and departs 
southward in the autumn, the migration lasting from August to 
October. Large colonies breed on many of the islands off the coasts 
of Great Britain and Ireland, but the species is most numerously 
represented towards the north of Scotland, and, though it has been 
found nesting by freshwater lakes in Ireland, its breeding-places are 
usually by the sea. On migration it is generally distributed along our 
shores. Two, or sometimes three, eggs, which vary greatly in colour 
and markings, are laid in a shallow depression of the sand or among 
shingle, sometimes on dead seaweed or in scanty herbage. 
Island of Mousa, Shetlands, June. 
Presented by Lieut. G. H. Bruce, R.N., & E. M. Nelson, Esq. 
No. 133. STONE-CURLEW or THICK-KNEE. 
(C&dicnemus cedicnemus. ) 
The Norfolk Plover, as this species is often called, is a summer 
visitor to the southern and midland counties of England, and has been 
known to nest as far north as Yorkshire ; it usually arrives in April 
and departs in October, but some individuals pass the winter in South 
Devon and Cornwall. It frequents downs, open heathers, wastes and 
fallows, and feeds principally on worms, molluscs and insects, but it also 
eats small mammals, reptiles and frogs. The two buff-coloured eggs, 
blotched and spotted with brown and grey, are laid in a slight hollow 
scratched in the ground, often among sand and scattered stones. When 
alarmed, the bird endeavours to conceal itself in a crouching position, 
but ifclosely approached it runs swiftly away and ultimately takes wing. 
Norfolk, May. 
Presented by Lord Walsingham, 
