LITTLE-TERN 113 



dropping into shallow water, instead of diving, alight on the surface. 

 They often make false descents, that is, they check themselves and 

 take wing before reaching the water. 



The little-tern appears, for the most part, to set out upon 

 its southward journey to winter quarters in September. In this 

 connection a curious fact is related as the result of an attempt to 

 introduce the species on to the Fames by placing eggs in the nests 

 of the common and Arctic-terns. The little-terns were hatched out, 

 and they departed southward in the autumn with their foster-parents, 

 but they were not seen on the Fames the following spring. Unfor- 

 tunately these birds were not marked, so we do not know where they 

 went. 



1 British Birds, ii. 321 (O. Grabham). 



VOL. III. 



