GREAT TERN. o 41 



The eggs generally three in number, are placed on the surface 

 of the dry drift grass, on the beach or salt marsh, and covered 

 by the female only during the night, or in wet, raw or stormy 

 weather. At all other times the hatching of them is left to the 

 heat of the sun. These eggs measure an inch and three-quarters 

 in length, by about an inch and two-tenths in width, and are of 

 a yellowish dun colour, sprinkled with dark brown and pale 

 Indian ink. Notwithstanding they seem thus negligently aban- 

 doned during the day, it is very different in reality. One or both 

 of the parents are generally fishing within view of the place, 

 and on the near approach of any person, instantly make their 

 appearance over head; uttering a hoarse jarring kind of cry, 

 and flying about with evident symptoms of great anxiety and 

 consternation. The young are generally produced at intervals 

 of a day or so from each other, and are regularly and abundantly 

 fed for several weeks, before their wings are sufficiently grown 

 to enable them to fly. At first the parents alight with the fish, 

 which they have brought in their mouth, or in their bill, and 

 tearing it in pieces distribute it in such portions as their young 

 are able to swallow. Afterwards they frequently feed them 

 without alighting, as they skim over the spot; and as the young 

 become nearly ready to fly, they drop the fish among them, 

 where the strongest and most active has the best chance to gob- 

 ble it up. In the mean time, the young themselves frequently 

 search about the marshes, generally not far apart, for insects of 

 various kinds; but so well acquainted are they with the peculiar 

 language of their parents, that warn them of the approach of an 

 enemy, that on hearing their cries they instantly squat, and re- 

 main motionless until the danger be over. 



The flight of the Great Tern, and indeed of the whole tribe, 

 is not in the sweeping shooting manner of the land Swallows, 

 notwithstanding their name; the motions of their long wings 

 are slower, and more in the manner of the Gull. They have, 

 however, great powers of wing and strength in the muscles of 

 the neck, which enable them to make such sudden and violent 

 VOL. in. i i 



