66o 



LITTLE TERN. 

 Sterna minuta (L.). 



Summer visitant ; breeds at Spurn ; very rare inland. 



Perhaps the earliest Yorkshire reference to this species 

 is that made by Tunstall, thus : " The Lesser Tern Sterna 

 minuta (Linn and Gm.). Common, and frequents sea-coasts, 

 unable to bear the inclemency of winter on our coasts, but 

 returns in spring." (Tunst. MS, 1784, p. 94.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : 



Sterna minuta. Lesser Tern Is met with near Huddersfield ; 

 near Sheffield two individuals have been shot in Ecclesfield Dam ; 

 not infrequently obtained near Barnsley. A. Strickland says, " Though 

 this breeds to the north of us it is certainly one of the least frequent 

 about here, though I have known it killed." 



This graceful little bird, the smallest of the Terns, is a 

 summer visitant to the south-eastern extremity of the county, 

 Spurn Point, where a considerable nesting colony has been 

 in existence for many years. The main body generally 

 arrives in May, although individuals are sometimes seen 

 earlier, as on 5th April 1886 (Eighth Migration Report), 

 I5th April 1885, and I4th April 1893. An account of a visit 

 to Spurn during the last week of May 1861, states that the 

 nesting site was on the seaward side of the sandy neck of 

 land that connects Spurn Lighthouse with the coast, and about 

 half a mile from the point. From forty to fifty pairs of birds 

 were noticed, and the nests were, as in other colonies, in 

 close proximity and within a few yards of high water mark. 

 They never breed on the Humber side of the neck, although 

 the distance across is only about a hundred yards (Dobree, 

 Zool. 1861, p. 7648). The colony afterwards extended its 

 limits, and now includes nearly the whole of the strip of 

 shingle from the point mentioned by Mr. Dobree to opposite 

 the warren. The nests were mercilessly plundered by egg 

 collectors and excursionists, but in the year 1895 an effort 

 was made by the County Council, under the powers of the 



