THE LEAST TERN. 549 
species is found by itself, or to wait until late in the season, 
and, after finding a nest, observe carefully the bird that 
hovers over it, and shoot her. It is a well-known habit 
of these species to hover over 
their eggs after being driven 
from them : but this is generally 
confined to the close of the sea- 
son of incubation, or very dark 
or wet weather ; and the student, 
to avail himself of it, must be 
on the spot at the proper time. 
The moment a person approach- ~ 
es one of their breeding places, a 
the whole colony leave their egos Z 
or young, and fly to meet the — 
intruder. I have been on an 
island of not more than thirty 
acres area, where thousands of 
these birds of both species, and also the following, were 
breeding ; and their cries, *kree ’kree *kree, were so loud that 
my companions within twenty feet of me had to shout at 
their loudest to make their words intelligible. 
The Arctic Tern, like all the others, leaves its eggs in 
warm sunny days for several hours, depending on the sun 
to assist in incubation. When one bird is shot, the others, 
instead of flying off, only redouble their outcries, darting 
down at the intruder within a few feet of his head; and the 
noise and confusion are so great, that one is almost bewil- 
dered, and can hardly keep his wits about him sufficiently 
to secure and properly identify his Specimens. 
ie 
STERNA FRENATA.— Gambel, 
The Least Tern, 
Sterna minuta, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIL. (1813) 80. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 
175. Jb., Birds Am., VII. (1844) 119. 
Sterna argentea, Nuttall. Man., I. (1834) 280. 
