The Bird Book 



on almost all the suitable stretches of sand and 

 shingle just above high water mark around our 

 coasts. On the south coast especially, where the 

 sea has for many years been retreating, there are 

 large waste stretches of shingle, where these and 

 many other rarer birds rear their young. Here 

 the Kentish Plover still holds out despite the 

 ravages of the collector, and the Stone Curlew 

 utters his loud, plaintive whistle as evening draws 

 in. Colonies of both Common Tern and Lesser 

 Tern are settled at intervals along the beach, while 

 here and there the eggs of Redshank and Oyster- 

 catcher may be found. 



In general appearance Terns are Gulls in 

 miniature. There are, however, marked differ- 

 ences in structure, and though in some cases it 

 may be difficult to say where the Tern ends and 

 the Gull begins, science has classified them as 

 two sub-families of the family Laridce. A de- 

 scription of the difference in the shape of the 

 bills does not appeal to the imagination, but the 

 bird-lover will have little difficulty in recognising 

 the Tern by its long, narrow, pointed wings and 

 forked tail. The Lesser Tern is pearly-grey 

 above and pure white on the rump, tail and 

 underparts. The crown of the head is black. 

 One would think that a flock of birds of such 

 plumage would be conspicuous even at a dis- 

 tance, but a friend and I, visiting the Norfolk 

 coast early in June, found it far otherwise. 

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