STERNA. 



725 



others. The upper part is grey, with black or dusky 

 on the webs or some of the quills, but with all the 

 shafts white ; the head and nape are black, and all 

 the under parts white, with a rosy tint on the neck, 

 the breast, and the middle of the belly. The geo- 

 graphy of this bird is not very well known, but it is 

 supposed to be a bird of the colder latitudes. On the 

 shores of many parts of the Baltic, and also on those 

 of Denmark and Norway, it is said not to be uncom- 

 mon. In Britain it is rather a rare bird, and has 

 been usually seen in company with the common 

 tern. 



THE COMMON TERN (S. hirundo). This is the 

 species which is best known, and the one which has, 

 by way of eminence, got the name of sea-swallow. 

 In the mature bird the upper part is pure ash-colour, 

 the cap on the crown of the head and nape black, 

 and all the rest white ; the feet and basal part of the 

 bill are red, and the tip of the bill black. The 

 length is about a foot. The young have the plumage 

 on the upper part mottled, and the chin, which is 

 white in the old birds, of a dusky colour ; the colour 

 of the tip of the bill varies in different individuals, 

 and the plumage changes with the season, and par- 

 tially also with the latitude. There is also a con- 

 siderable seasonal movement in the birds. They 

 resort to much more northerly places in the breeding 

 times, and more southward, again, in the winter ; and, 

 as they are found in different dresses in the two lo- 

 calities, they have been by some multiplied into 

 several species. They are very widely distributed 

 over most shores abutting on the north Atlantic ; 

 and they are found in abundance upon all parts of 

 the British shores that are adapted to their habits. 

 They leave the high rocks to the gulls, petrels, and 

 other birds, which, ranging over the surface of the 

 water, have also much more of a swimming habit 

 than the terns. But on the low shores, where there 

 is an accumulation of sand and shingle, and the bot- 

 tom is for a considerable way alternately exposed 

 and covered, there is sure to be abundance of them ; 

 and their rapid motions on the wing, and the shrilly 

 cries'which they utter, all tend to give them tha't 

 peculiar character which imparts so much interest to 

 the sea-birds, especially in lonely places. They de- 

 posit their eggs on the bare sand. On the British 

 shores these are seldom more than two in number ; 

 but on the shores of America they are generally 

 three another proof that it is more favourable for 

 beach and marsh birds than the eastern shores of the 

 Atlantic. The eggs, as is frequent with sea-birds, 

 are larger in proportion, of a dim yellow colour, and 

 mottled with spots of brown and dusky. The com- 

 mon terns depend more upon the waters for their 

 food than most others of the genus, for they live in 

 great part upon the fry of fishes, which they are very 

 expert at twitching out of the shallow water. During 

 the day the eggs are left by both birds, unless in case 

 of rain ; but they are far from abandoning them. 

 The birds are never at any great distance from the 

 eggs ; and the instant that any one approaches the 

 place, they are in a state of great excitement, and, by 

 their squeaking and wheeling about in the air, endea- 

 vour to draw the attention of the visiter, and keep up 

 their motions and their voice around him, until they 

 have got him to a considerable distance. Indeed, if 

 one walks along for some distance where the beach is 

 favourable for them, he may have a guard of terns 

 the whole way ; for one pair hand over the traveller 



to another, and he continues to get well scolded until 

 he is fairly out of the domain of the terns. 



The young, when (hey break the shell, are not so 

 immediately fit for finding their own food as the 

 young of many other sea birds. A running bird, 

 and even a swimming one, requires little or no 

 attention from its parents, as the one can almost im- 

 mediately run about, and the other take to the water ; 

 but the development of wings upon which the bird 

 shall be borne when it is feeding is another matter ; 

 and no bird, as it comes out of the shell, is capable 

 of flight. Therefore, the terns have to be fed by the 

 parent birds until their own wings are fit for flight ; 

 and, as young birds are voracious in proportion to 

 the feathers that they have to produce, the terns 

 have a good deal of labour in feeding the young, 

 although the brood is so small. There is a sort of 

 progress in this feeding. While the birds are very 

 young, the old ones divide the food for them, and 

 put it into their bills. After they have grown a 

 little, they twitch it into the mouth of the young, 

 without pausing, on the wing ; and when they are 

 nearly fledged, the old ones simply drop the food 

 for them, and leave them to pick it up while they go 

 in quest of more. Soon after this the young are able 

 to rise on the wing, and find their own food, and then 

 the labours of the old birds are at an end for the 

 season. Thus we find that there is rib deviation from 

 the general law of nature even here. Every thing in 

 nature, as well as in art, is a production ; and the 

 law is general, that the labour which the production 

 demands is in proportion to the value of that produc- 

 tion. A wing is a far more nice instrument than a 

 walking or swimming foot ; and when it is required 

 as a principal organ in any bird, the parents of that 

 bird must undergo a more severe and more protracted 

 labour. 



The very same principle holds in human labour ; 

 for, if there is to be additional value in any thing, 

 there must be additional labour in the making or pro- 

 duction of it. This is true not only of those fictitious 

 grounds upon which things are often valued, but also 

 upon the score of absolute intrinsic worth. There 

 are circumstances which render the cases not quite 

 parallel. For instance, there are different degrees of 

 knowledge and dexterity in human workers, and 

 these so far affect the results of their labours, that 

 the actual time and labour which the producer ex- 

 pends upon it are not measures of the intrinsic value 

 of a human production. But in nature there is no 

 difference of knowledge and dexterity in the pro- 

 ducer, all being alike, and everywhere perfect : and 

 therefore natural productions are entirely free from 

 the uncertain and indeterminate element which affects 

 the productions of human labour. This being the 

 case, the operation for we cannot properly call it 

 labour and the production, are always in exact pro- 

 portion to each other ; and this is the ultimate stand- 

 ard of perfection to which the labour of man should 

 be made to approximate as nearly as possible, 

 although it is one which, in the nature of things, 

 never can be reached. When we say that any one 

 production of nature has a certain degree of value or 

 perfection which another does not possess, we only 

 state, in other words, (hat a greater number of 

 opposing causes have been overcome in the produc- 

 tion of it ; and as, in nature as well as in art. the only 

 means of overcoming is by the greater being mtide 

 to act upon the less, the producing energies must be 



