VOL. XV ] LITTLE TERN AND YOUNG. 51 



closed it, but her pecks never reached the chick. Then she 

 sat down in the middle of the control and fluffed out her 

 feathers as if w^anting to brood the chicks, but the one was 

 too lively and the other was too weak to respond. Once or 

 tvnce she shuffled forward for a few inches after the active 

 chick and several times she went through the " tucking-in " 

 movement, although there was nothing under her to tuck in. 

 It would appear that this is an instinctive action, and I am 

 inclined to think that the former pecking was simply part of 

 the movement. 



While the Tern was sitting she suddenly gave an angry 

 chatter, finishing in a scream, and dashed off in pursuit of some 

 bird, probably a Crow, which was being chased past by some 

 other Terns. When she had been away for some time heavy 

 rain began to fall, and very soon both chicks showed signs of 

 collapse. A sudden rainstorm coming on when the parent 

 birds are absent from the nest seems to be practically always 

 fatal to chicks during the first day of their lives, and during 

 the wet season last year immense numbers of nestlings of 

 the Common Terns were destroyed in this way. I waited 

 anxiously for the return of the female, and fortunately the 

 shower was of short duration, but it was not until fifty-five 

 minutes had elapsed from the time when she left the control 

 that I heard her call over m}^ head. Knowing that she could 

 not possibly collect both chicks, and that at best only one 

 would be saved, I left the tent and placed the two of them 

 together in a little hollow in the sand. They were quite cold 

 and almost lifeless, but when I examined them on my way 

 home an hour later they were still in the hollow but had 

 revived after their narrow escape. 



The next day — the second in the lives of the chicks — I 

 erected a new control with a six-yard strip of wire of five- 

 eighths of an inch mesh, with six inches of netting above the 

 sand. I put the chicks in a fairly deep hollow to protect 

 them from the wind, but when the female arrived she was very 

 restless. She soon left, and on her return the chicks ran to 

 her and she brooded them quietly on the level ground. I 

 think it was the inability of the Tern to keep a proper watch 

 that militated against the success of the wooden enclosure, 

 for after she left the hollow the female never showed any 

 signs of nervousness. At first the male was rather doubtful 

 about entering the control, but at last he flew down into it 

 and walked about for some time before he flew away. After 

 he had been absent for five minutes the female suddenly 

 chattered, and the male alighted in the control carrying a 



