LITTLE-TERN 109 



beach, the little-tern, like the common, nests also inland on the 

 shingly banks of rivers. In Germany it is far more numerous in 

 such places than the common. 1 It nests usually in shingle, or on 

 sand among stones, broken shells, and bits of seaweed. Mr. W. 

 Farren has informed me that in Spain he saw it nesting on the mud 

 in the marismas. Naumann, who in his time examined hundreds of 

 nests in Germany, never saw one on bare sand. 2 In the British Isles 

 and in Holland, 3 however, nests on bare sand are undoubtedly found. 

 (PL XLIV.) Occasionally, after a heavy gale, the eggs disappear, 

 buried in the sand to a depth of several inches. At Spurn Point it 

 has been noted that "the old birds almost invariably scratch them 

 out again, and make all right." 4 



Naumann's view was that the little-terns avoided bare sand because 

 their coloration would, by contrast with the yellow, render them conspic- 

 uous to their enemies. It is certainly true that a little-tern sitting in 

 shingle or on sand among stones and broken shells is much less easily 

 detected than when on bare sand. I have often, at fifty yards distance, 

 watched, through a strong binocular, one after another fly on to its nest 

 in shingle, and then, on putting away the binocular and looking long 

 and steadily at the spot, have yet entirely failed to detect the bird, so 

 well did its coloration blend with the vague outlines of the black, white, 

 and grey stones. 



The chief value of its coloration to the species lies, no doubt, in 

 that it enables the birds to incubate without betraying the where- 

 abouts of their eggs. If it was evolved by natural selection for this 

 purpose, it is interesting to note that the natural selectors, four-footed 

 or other, have now in the British Isles ceased to exert an important 

 influence. The little-tern, though it nests usually where its colora- 

 tion has protective value, is nevertheless among the least successful 

 of its kind in the struggle for existence. It is much less successful, 

 for example, than the common and Arctic, though they nest often on 



1 Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 124. * Op. cit., p. 125. 3 F. C. R. Jourdain, in litt. 



* British Birds, ii. 321 (O. Grabham). See also Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, p. 376, and 

 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 398. 



