NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 49 



No. 131. LITTLE TERN. (Sterna minuta.) 

 This is the smallest of our Terns, and arrives early in May at its 

 breeding-stations on the flat sandy or shingly shores scattered along 

 the coasts of the British Islands. In September or early in October 

 it leaves for the south. About the end of May two or three stone- 

 coloured eggs, spotted with grey and brown, are laid in a slight hollow 

 scratched in the sand or among the shingle. In the colony from which 

 the birds and nests exhibited were taken the nests were more widely 

 scattered, being from five to ten yards apart. The eggs were found on 

 the 12th of June and the young sixteen days later. 



Kent, June. 

 Presented by Colonel Willoughby Verner. 



No. 132. ARCTIC TERN. (Sterna macrura.) 



This Tern reaches England towards the end of April and departs 

 southward in the autumn, the migration lasting from August to 

 October. Large colonies breed on many of the islands off the coasts 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, but the species is most numerously 

 represented towards the north of Scotland, and, though it has been 

 found nesting by freshwater lakes in Ireland, its breeding-places are 

 usually by the sea. On migration it is generally distributed along our 

 shores. Two, or sometimes three, eggs, which vary greatly in colour 

 and markings, are laid in a shallow depression in the sand or among 

 shingle, sometimes on dead seaweed or in scanty herbage. 

 Island of Mousa, Shetlands, June. 

 Presented by Lieut. G. H. Bruce, R.N., §■ E. M. Nelson, Esq. 



No. 133. STONE-CURLEW or THICK-KNEE. 



((Edicnemus cedicnemus.) 1 



The Norfolk Plover, as this species is often called, is a summer 

 visitor to the southern and midland counties of England, and has been 

 known to nest as far north as Yorkshire ; it usually arrives in Aprii 

 and departs in October, but some individuals pass the winter in South 

 Devon and Cornwall. It frequents downs, open heathers, wastes and 

 fallows, and feeds principally on worms, molluscs and insects, but it also 

 eats small mammals, reptiles, and frogs. The two buff-coloured eggs, 

 blotched and spotted with brown and grey, are laid in a slight hollow 

 scratched in the ground, often among sand and scattered stones. When 

 alarmed, the bird endeavours to conceal itself in a crouching position, 

 but if closely approached it runs swiftly away and ultimately takes wing. 



Norfolk, May. 

 Presented by Lord Walsingham, F.R.S. 



