104 THE TERNS 



common and Arctic-terns, may and often do take place. The favourite 

 attitude wings half spread and flat-topped, beak turned upward, tail 

 sometimes also erect, air of high condescension is shown on Plate 102, 

 drawn from life at the Fames by Mr. Seaby. The supplicating attitude 

 of the hen is also shown, from which it must not be assumed that she 

 always adopts it. She sometimes snatches the fish from her mate's beak. 

 On the other hand, she has sometimes to exercise patience. I have 

 seen a cock suddenly fly off with the fish, just when the hen had risen 

 from the nest in the full expectation of a meal. She crept very humbly 

 back. It might have been a scene from the Taming of the Shrew. 

 On the left of the same picture two males are seen parading before 

 each other, or rather round each other, for what purpose I could not 

 divine, as the performance abruptly ceased, each bird going about 

 his business as if nothing had occurred. The drawing, as a whole, 

 gives a very lifelike image of the corner of a Sandwich-tern colony. 

 No birds are more charming to watch, the soft grey and white of the 

 plumage, the black velvety wind-tossed mane-like crests, the small 

 black legs pattering with precise little steps over the sand, the quaint 

 ceremonious bows gentlemen of the old school these terns ! the 

 fluttering butterfly-like descents to the ground, the white grey wings 

 flashing in the blue of the sky, or over the deeper blue of the sea, all 

 combine to make a picture of which one does not tire, which one can 

 sit and watch by the hour, and which, among the dusty ways of men, 

 one can see again in mental vision, and rejoice in its freshness and 

 beauty. 



The displays of the Sandwich before nesting operations commence 

 I have not had an opportunity of watching. According to an account 

 published in Ussher and Warren's Birds of Ireland (p. 318), the males, 

 at this period, strut about among the females, "their heads being 

 thrown back and their wings drooping, or almost trailing on the 

 ground. After a time, if there is no response from the females, which 

 generally look on at the performance with the greatest unconcern, 

 one of the males goes off for a time and returns with a sand-eel in his 



