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BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE LESSER TERN. 



LESSER SEA SWALLOW. 



(Sterna Minuta, Linn. Petite Hiro)iticllc-dc--nicr y 

 Temm.) 



MEASURES about eight inches in length, and 

 nineteen in breadth, and weighs a little more than 

 two ounces. It looks like the Common Tern in 

 miniature; is equally, if not more delicately elegant 

 in its plumage and general appearance, and its 

 manners and habits are much the same ; but it 

 is not nearly so numerous, or so widely dispersed. 

 It differs from the Common Tern in having the 

 black patch on its head boundered by a white 

 line on the front of the brown, and over each 

 eye ; in the tail being wholly white ; and, in pro- 

 portion to the size of the bird, much shorter or 

 less forked ; and in the bill and the feet being 

 more inclined to orange or yellow. Nothing can 



