16 Brewster on Terns of the New England Coast. 



from icy seas. Bold, hardy, vigorous, they deUght in the cold, and 

 their every motion bespeaks conscious power and strength. The 

 Terns, on the other hand, are characterized by a delicate perfection 

 of outline and a swift grace of movement, that seems ill-adapted to 

 stern, pitiless surroundings. They are like swift yachts that winter 

 in southern seas, and come back to us on the first warm breezes of 

 summer. Yet the significance is perhaps only local, after all, for 

 both Gulls and Terns herald the opening summer to the inhabitant 

 of Labrador or Greenland. 



The Least Terns, although the smallest and seemingly the most 

 delicate of their tribe, arrive first. By the middle of May they 

 appear in certain favored spots, — for they are not anywhere very 

 numerous, — and small colonies of from ten to fifty pairs are soon 

 formed at various points along the shores of Cape Cod and upon 

 some of the more sandy islands in the Vineyard Sound. 



A few days after the advent of the " Little Strikers," as the 

 Least Terns are called by the 'longshoremen of Virginia, the Wil- 

 son's and Roseate Terns begin to appear. They are already paired, 

 but, judging by the occasional bickerings and jealousies that arise, 

 even the more sedate females are not above a little harmless flirta- 

 tion. It is a pretty sight to see the mated birds sitting side by 

 side upon some long sand-spit, all with their breasts turned to the 

 soft morning breeze, and each little glossy black cap glistening in the 

 sunlight. Forty or fifty thei'e may be altogether, with others con- 

 tinually arriving from the distant fishing-grounds. As the incom- 

 ing birds settle among their fellows, a low murmur of welcome 

 runs through the assembled throng, and fifty pairs of wings are 

 simultaneously raised above their owners' backs. It is like the 

 greeting offered by men to one whom they delight to honor, save 

 that among these simple sea-birds even the humblest are rarely 

 neglected. Those individuals occupying the higher portion of the 

 bar are squatted on the warm sand, or lying with wings partially 

 extended to the grateful rays of the sun, while along the water's 

 edge many are washing and pluming themselves, scattering the 

 salt spray in every direction, or toying with the lapping waves. 

 As the rising tide encroaches on their domain, numbers of the more 

 careless are floated off" their feet, when they take wing and alight 

 again among the rest. In this way the area continually narrows, 

 until the birds are massed in a compact body upon the highest 

 point. When this at length becomes submerged they all take wing 



