XI 



LEAST TEEN; SEA SWALLOW 

 74. Sterna antillarum 



This is the smallest of the Terns and is popularly 

 known as the Sea Swallow. Having once seen the bird, 

 with its trim wings and forked tail, in flight, one can read- 

 ily see the resemblance to a Swallow. The upper sur- 

 face of the Least Tern is of a delicate pearl gray. 

 The bird has a black cap, and is pure white on its under 

 surface ; it shows much docility in disposition, when not 

 disturbed, and its ferocity in protesting your presence 

 in its nesting domain is equally marked. 



These Terns nest over a large area of the United 

 States, and are about nine inches long, or the same size 

 as the Robin. Their bills are tipped with black, and led 

 me, when I first saw one, to believe, as it flew over me, 

 that it was carrying a small mollusk. 



The nest of the Sea Swallow is like that of the Black 

 Skimmer and many other shore birds, being simply a 

 depression in the sandy beach or a broken shell heap 

 above high tide. Most of the nests I have found have 

 contained only two eggs. (Fig. 14.) The nest is made 

 in an isolated locality away from those of other Terns 

 and Gulls. The eggs are of a whitish-brown, with min- 

 ute chocolate-colored specks all over the surface. 



These birds feed from a height, from which, as soon 

 as they have discovered it, they hover over a school of 

 minnows, which they capture, not by diving like the 

 Pelican, but by a skimming process with the bill barely 

 touching the water. 



While I was walking along the shore of the Laguna 

 de la Madre, on the Texas Gulf Coast, two of these grace- 

 ful Terns flew over my head, screaming as if they were 

 being tortured by some unseen hand. It was in their 

 nesting season and I understood the meaning of all their 

 noise and confusion I was near their nest; they were 

 protesting against the intrusion on their shell-strewn, 



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