VOL XV.] LITTLE TERN AND YOUNG. 



63 



In the afternoon my brother spent two hours in the tent 

 and found that the female spent most of her time with the 

 chicks. On one occasion as she was brooding one of them, 

 the other raised its open bill and she touched it gently with 

 hers, but no food passed. About ten minutes later the male 

 chattered and arrived in the control carrying a tiny sand-eel. 

 One of the chicks ran to meet him and he offered it the fish, 

 but the chick touched it and refused to hold it. The male 

 then gave it to the female as she sat covering the other chick 

 and she offered it to the first, which swallowed it at once. 



Little Tern: Six days old chick swallowing a sand-eel. 

 {Photographed by J. N. Douglas Smith.) 



This was the first time that either of us had seen the chicks 

 fed. The same chick received a larger sand-eel ten minutes 

 later, and five minutes after that the male brought back 

 another sand-eel. This he offered to the other chick, which 

 seized it rather too near the middle. After watching the 

 chick give three or four futile gulps the male held up the eel 

 by the tail, and, thus adjusted, it slipped comparatively easily 

 down the chick's throat. 



I did not visit the moor on the third day, and when I 

 returned on the fourth I noticed a considerable change. 

 The weaker chick had always been slightly darker than the 



