LESSER TERN. 311 



their numbers are but small compared with former times. 

 They usually arrive about the middle of April and com- 

 mence laying in May, but the first batch of eggs being 

 invariably gathered by the beachmen, fresh ones may be 

 found up to the middle of June, and the young are 

 hatched by the middle of July. No nest is made, but a 

 slight depression in the sand or shingle contains the 

 eggs ; never more than three in number, and generally 

 two ; these, from their extraordinary similarity to sur- 

 rounding objects, are by the novice more likely to be 

 found by accident than otherwise, though the practised 

 eye of the egg gatherer ' detects them at once, and 

 dogs are also trained to assist in the search." To the 

 west of the place to which Mr. Stevenson refers they 

 were at the time he wrote still found " in some few 

 localities in marshy spots between the sandhills, in com- 

 pany with the ring dotterel and the common tern, the 

 eggs of all three birds being occasionally sent to Norwich 

 for sale every year from different places. As soon as 

 the young are able to fly, at which time they present a 

 very pretty appearance from the mottled tints of their 

 plumage, they join their parents in their search for food, 

 and continue on our coast until the end of September 

 or beginning of October,* when they again betake them- 

 selves to more southern quarters. A singular instance, 

 however, of one being exhibited in Norwich Market, in 

 the third week of December, is recorded by Yarrell on 

 the authority of the Eev. William Howman." 



I have little to add to what Mr. Stevenson has so 

 charmingly told us of this species, except that it has suf- 

 fered rather less from egging and considerably less from 

 shooting than has its larger relative, with which it is so 

 much associated during its stay on our coast that much 

 which has been said of that species will apply equally to 

 this. They are decidedly more numerous than the " big 

 tern " as a species ; and although, perhaps, there is no 



I think very few lesser terns remain so late as the 1st of 

 October ; they leave us earlier than the larger species. Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, jun., tells me he has noticed that they continue to feed 

 their young on the wing after they are full grown and strong 

 flyers. 



