SANDWICH TKli\ 323 



the ground without treading on the nests containing eggs or young 

 birds. The eggs are two or three in number, and are stone-colour 

 with a yellow tinge, thickly spotted with grey or brown. 



Besides the five species described, there are eight terns set down 

 in the books as British. Of these, the Caspian tern, gull-billed 

 tern, and black tern, are described as ' irregular visitors,' and come 



in small numbers ; ______ 



the whiskered tern, 



white-winged black 



tern, sooty tern, 



Scopoli's sooty tern, 



and noddy, are all 



rare stragglers, the 



last three from the 



tropics. The black 



tern (Hydrocheli- 



don nigra) was in 



reality a British bird 



in former times, a 



summer visitor, FIG. 109. BLACK TERN. \ natural size. 



breeding in immense 



numbers in the fens and marshes in some of the eastern counties. It 



bred ' in myriads ' in Norfolk as late as 1818, and, in diminishing 



numbers, down to 1835. ' Drainage and persecution ' caused the 



destruction of this graceful species. 



Kittiwake. 

 Rissa tridactyla. 



Bill greenish yellow ; legs and feet black ; mantle deep grey : 

 head, neck, tail, and under parts white. Length, fifteen and a half 

 inches. 



The kittiwake takes its pretty name from its usual cry, composed 

 of three notes, two quick and short, and one long. It is the smallest 

 of the British gulls, excluding the stragglers, and is also one of the 

 handsomest and most interesting in its habits. It is more of a sea- 

 bird than most gulls, feeding principally on small fish, which 

 it captures after the manner of a tern, hovering motionless for a 

 few moments, then dashing down on to the water with great force. 



y 2 



