WHITE SEA-BIRDS. 273 



through the eye ; upper parts and wings pearl -gray, 

 but rump and tail white ; face and under parts 

 white ; bill yellow, tipped with black ; legs and feet 

 orange. Summer migrant. 



Egg's. — 2-3, with dull surface, pale buffy stone- 

 colour, spotted and blotched with brown and gray ; 

 1-35 X -95 inch (plate 136). 



Nest. — A depression among shingle just like that 

 used as a nesting-place by the Ringed Plover, with 

 which the Little Tern often associates in its breeding 

 quarters. 



The Little Tern is with us from May until early 

 October, being widely, though not numerously, dis- 

 tributed around the coasta It breeds in small 

 communities, scarcely to be called colonies, placing 

 its eggs in a slight hollow on shingly and sandy 

 beaches above high-water mark. Although so much 

 smaller than our other Terns, the Little Tern in its 

 habits differs from them in no material way, unless 

 it be in its rather livelier motions on the wing, a 

 quality one comes naturally to associate with small- 

 ness of form. When the nesting grounds are in- 

 vaded, the birds fly for some time about the intruder, 

 repeating a short, sharp ' Quip ! ' afterwards with- 

 drawing until the ground is clear again. This bird 

 has, besides, a thin, shrill scream, of which the basal 

 sound is ee, modified by a quickly rolled r. The 

 Little Tern takes surface fish by diving from the 

 air into the sea, as described under the Common Tern. 

 There is no possibility of confounding this tiny Tern 



