PLATE II 

 LITTLE TERN. Sterna minuta 



June 5///, 1893. This Plate is taken from a nest which I photographed near 

 the mouth of the Eden, Fifeshire, on a great stretch of fine sand covered 

 with large shells. The coast here is very flat, and there are great expanses 

 of sand which form a perfect paradise for these little birds. 



We spent a day looking for the nests along the coast and came upon 

 a small colony of them near an old wreck lying on the beach. There must 

 have been six or seven pairs nesting there, but some of the young birds were 

 hatched, and we only found four nests with eggs, which were all very highly 

 incubated. 



The day was fearfully hot and bright, and the glare on the white sand 

 was very trying to the eyes. We sat down in the shade of the old wreck 

 and watched the birds to their nests as well as we could for the clouds of 

 small black flies which covered everything. We saw the Lesser Tern bringing 

 in tiny fish to their young ones among the driftwood and dead seaweed ; the 

 fish generally hung down, being held by the back of the head, and was picked 

 to pieces by the little bird and tiny bits given to the young ones. The Lesser 

 Tern is certainly not a good walker, and its movements on the ground are 

 clumsy in the extreme. 



When we had marked most of the nests we got up and went to examine 

 them. They were all simply depressions in the sand, without any traces of 

 lining, not even a little bit of broken shell or a small stone, as is usual. It 

 was very hard to get a good photograph of them, as the sun made such a glare 

 on the sand that it reflected back into the lens and fogged the plate before 

 the exposure could be made. 



2 K 153 



