LEAST TERN. 57 



"In the first week in August, 1870, when travelling from North 

 Uist to Benbecula, and crossing the ford which separates the two 

 islands, I witnessed a very interesting habit of this tern. I had been 

 previously told by a friend to look out for the birds which he said I 

 should find waiting for me on the sands. Upon coming within sight 

 of the first ford, I observed between twenty and thirty terns sitting 

 quietly on the banks of the salt water stream, but the moment they 

 saw us approaching they rose 011 the wing to meet us, and kept 

 hovering gracefully over our heads till the pony stepped into the 

 water. As soon as the wheels of the conveyance were fairly into the 

 stream, the terns poised their wings for a moment, then precipitated 

 themselves with a splash exactly above the wheel tracks and at once 

 arose, each with a sand eel wriggling in its bill. Some had been 

 caught by the head and were unceremoniously swallowed, but others 

 which had been seized by the middle were allowed to drop, and were 

 .again caught properly by the head before they reached the water. 



" I was told by the residents that it is a habit of the birds to be 

 continually on the watch for passing vehicles, the wheels of which 

 bring the sand eels momentarily to the surface, and the quick eyes of 

 the terns enable the birds to transfix them on the spot." 



SUBGENUS STERNULA BOIE. 

 STERNA ANTILLARUM (LESS.). 



28. Least Tern. (74) 



Bill, yellow, usually tipped with black ; mantle, pale pearly grayish-blue, 

 unchanged on the rump and tail ; a white, frontal crescent, separating the cap 

 from the bill, bounded below by a black loral stripe reaching the bill ; shafts of 

 two or more outer primaries, black on the upper surface, white underneath ; 

 feet, orange. Young: Cap, too defective to show the crescent; bill, dark, 

 much of the under mandible pale ; feet, obscured. Very small, only 8-9 ; wing, 

 6-6; tail, 2-3J; bill, 1-1^; tarsus, . 



HAB. Northern South America, northward to California and New England, 

 and casxially to Labrador, breeding nearly throughout its range. 



Eggs, two or three, variable in color, usually drab, speckled with lilac and 

 brown; left in a slight depression in the dry beach sand beyond the reach 

 of water. 



This is a refined miniature of the Common Tern, and a very 

 handsome, active little bird. It is common along the sea coast to 

 the south of us, but probably does not often come so far north as 



