488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



pass over the sand flat of Long Key after the young have slipped 

 from their shell, and not see a dozen young birds, but set up your 

 tent on the breeding grounds, and take a station within it, and j^ou 

 will soon see the parents arrive and their call will cause the little 

 fellows to appear on all sides and run up to the parents to accept the 

 dangling minnow from their bill. They seem to be springing from 

 the very ground, for places which you may have carefully scrutinized 

 only a few moments before and passed as sand only, now yield these 

 tiny, animated fluffs of down. A little later the young birds follow 

 the shore line of the beaches, where they indulge in the never-ending 

 occupation of preening the growing feathers, wading, bathing, and 

 occasionally taking a swim. If you surprise them at such a time 

 they will boldly strike out from shore to rapidly place as much dis- 

 tance between you as possible ; after a wide detour to the beach, they 

 will make a rapid rush for the cover of the rougher ground or vege- 

 tation. Our figures show birds in various stages of development, 

 usifally in the hiding place. 



The adult least tern, so far as I know, has no enemies while on the 

 breeding ground. The eggs, however, and probably the young are 

 destroyed by the ghost crab {Ocypode albicans Bosc.) (pi. 26). I 

 have seen large members of this species sidle up to the resting terns 

 and in spite of the vigorous wing beating to which they were 

 subjected, force the bird from the place which it was occupying. 

 This persistent annoyance on the part of the crab appears to permit 

 of but one interpretation ; that is, that they are after eggs or young 

 fledglings. I have twice found young birds that had escaped with a 

 partially clipped off wing. One of these, almost fledged (pi. 25), 

 had the primary portion of its wing clipped off very recently, for 

 the wing was still bleeding when the bird was found. The young 

 least terns may also fall the prey of the few laughing gulls that 

 frequent the breeding ground during the season, and it is equally 

 possible that the man-o'-war birds occasionally stoop for these tiny 

 morsels. 



The fishing of these little terns is a marvelous thing. They are by 

 far the most active and quickest members of the entire group, a bun- 

 dle of nervous energy. They speed over the shallow lagoon until a 

 place is found where, at this season, small fish fry congregate in 

 countless numbers, then a momentary halt, a headlong plunge, a dive 

 with sufficient force to make you fear for the safety of the bird as he 

 strikes the water, but it is only a moment, and he is back in the air, 

 shivers the water from his feather^' dress, talking, meanwhile, in his 

 ever-pleasant chatty way as he heads for his family with his slender 

 shining prey. 



I wish that you might spend a couple of hours within my tent 

 on the breeding grounds of these beautiful creatures and watch their 



