( 50 ) 

 NOTES ON THE LITTLE TERN AND YOUNG. 



BY 



J. N. DOUGLAS SMITH. 



During the nesting seasons of 1919 and 1920 I spent some 

 time watching and photographing the Terns on Tentsmuir, 

 Fife. I had many opportunities of studying the behaviour 

 of adult Common, Arctic and Little Terns, all of which nest 

 on or near the moor, but in each case I found that mj^ observa- 

 tions came to an end shortly after the eggs were hatched. 

 As soon as the young were able to leave the nest they scrambled 

 after their parents, which sometimes seemed to make a point 

 of enticing them away from my hiding tent, until at last 

 they were either entirely hidden from view or were at such 

 a distance from me that it was impossible to see clearly just 

 exactly what was happening. I was anxious to evolve some 

 plan by which it might be possible to keep the chicks under 

 observation for a considerable length of time, but it was not 

 until late in the 1920 season that I managed after several 

 unsuccessful experiments to set up a control in which the young 

 birds could live under natural conditions and into which 

 the old birds would enter without fear. 



At first I surrounded the chicks with low strips of wire 

 netting, but at that time I was unable to obtain any with a 

 smaller mesh than three-quarters of an inch, and the young 

 of the three Terns succeeded in squeezing through during 

 the first day. Then I tried making an enclosure by means 

 of pieces of driftwood, and finding a nest of the Little Tern 

 {Sterna a. albifrons) with two newly hatched chicks, I set up 

 the boards, letting them project three inches above the level 

 of the shingle and banking them up on the outer side with 

 sand. One of the chicks was very weak compared with the 

 other and lay close to one of the boards, where it was sheltered 

 from the \\ind, while the other scrambled about in the 

 enclosure. When the female arrived she was very nervous 

 and flew off and returned several times before she showed 

 much interest in the chicks. After watching the extreme 

 neatness with which Little Terns run over the shingle it was 

 very strange to see the chimsy way in which this particular 

 Tern hopped down the three-inch drop into the control ; 

 several times she only saved herself from falling by the timely 

 use of her wings. When she had become accustomed to the 

 enclosure she followed the more active chick and seemed to 

 peck at its back. She opened her bill slightly and then 



