300 



THE LABILE. 



gun, the others surround it, full of grief and sympathy, nor will 

 they leave it until all hope of saving its life is at an end. 



These birds in their flight give utterance to shrill and piercing 

 calls, which, when produced by numbers together, cause a deafen- 

 ing uproar in the sky. These calls are raised with increased 

 power when they are about to undertake some longer flight than 

 usual. But the time, above all others, when their noise is most 

 discordant and shrill is the breeding season. " On going up 

 to one of their breeding-places," says McGillivray, " which may 

 always be discovered from a distance, as some of the birds will 

 be seen hovering over it, one is sure to be met by several of them, 



Fig. 106. The Tern (Sterna hirundo, Linn.). 



which hasten to remonstrate with the intruder by harsh cries and 

 threatened blows. As you draw nearer, more of them leave their 

 nests; and at length they are all on the wing, wheeling and 

 bounding now high and now low at times coming quite close, 

 and increasing their cries, which resemble the syllables ' cree- 

 cree-cree-ae.' ' 



Like the Land Swallows, these sea-birds arrive on our coasts in the 

 spring. They disperse themselves over our lakes and large ponds, 

 where they feed on any animal substances they meet with either 

 fresh or putrefied fish, mollusks, or insects. Montagu says 

 they are found in great abundance on the Sussex and Kentish 



