108 THE TERNS 



speedily to the sea, is a rapid, equally excited tiri-wiri-tiri-wiri-tiri-wiri I 

 a sort of general announcement to the beach that the little-tern 

 is coming, and that he means to assert himself, if necessary. 



The first arrivals reach our south coast in mid- April, but they 

 are not seen at the more northerly breeding-grounds till the end of 

 the month or early May. 1 



Though there are several colonies scattered up and down our 

 coasts, these are usually small, sometimes composed of only a few 

 pairs. The average number of pairs to a colony would fall far short 

 of that of the other British-breeding terns, excluding, of course, the 

 roseate. The same fact was long ago noted by Naumann. 2 The 

 marked preference for the open beach as a nesting-place shown by the 

 species, as compared with its congeners, may supply the explanation, 

 for not only are its chicks thereby much exposed to the effects of 

 bad weather, but its eggs are often washed away. At Dungeness I 

 have found chicks shivering on the beach on a sharp windy day in 

 July, and some of them did not survive the experience. Deaths from 

 exposure to rough w r eather are also recorded annually at Spurn Point. 3 

 A good instance of the damage done by high tides to the eggs is 

 provided by the same colony. There the danger is so well recog- 

 nised that, when necessary, the watcher is in the habit of removing 

 the eggs " a considerable distance inshore, and the birds easily find 

 them." 3 One may here remark, parenthetically, that, if it is possible 

 for birds to be astonished, certainly those at Spurn Point have reason 

 to feel so, for it is not the usual practice of human beings, when they 

 take eggs, to deposit them where they can be found by their rightful 

 owners. Another colony that nested on a shingle bank in the estuary 

 of the Dovey was less fortunate. Twice, in 1903 and 1907, its home 

 was flooded, and the eggs floated away on the water. 4 



Though it nests usually, in the British Isles at least, on the 



1 For the dates see " Classified Notes." 



J There are exceptions. Seebohm records that near a ternery, Missolonghi (Greece), he 

 found the little much more numerous than the common, a discovery which he celebrated by 

 blowing two hundred and fifty of their eggs. 



3 British Birds, ii. 320 (Oxley Grabham). 4 Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, p. 376. 



