VOL. XV.] LITTLE TERN AND YOUNG. 55 



not appear to have any idea as to what he ought to do about 

 it. Then he ran up to the female, which was facing away 

 from the scene of the tragedy, and in some way wliich I could 

 not follow seemed to acquaint her with his loss. She rose, 

 and, followed by both chicks, walked to the fish, which she 

 picked up and gave to its rightful owner. Shortly afterwards 

 she also picked up a small piece of black sea-weed, which to 

 me looked very like a sand-eel. This she flung away sharply 

 to one side with a gesture as near akin to impatience as I 

 have ever seen in any bird. 



During the three consecutive hours which I spent in the 

 tent on that day, the chicks received six sand-eels of various 

 sizes ; but of these the light chick secured five, while the dark 

 chick had to be content with one. 



On the sixth day the dark chick was lying dead in the middle 

 of the control. There was no sign of injury, and on examina- 

 tion soon afterwards there was nothing in his stomach. It 

 seems probable that his end was due to the superior pace and 

 weight of the other chick, but whether he might have reached 

 maturity after a weakly infancy if he had been allowed un- 

 restricted liberty must remain a matter of conjecture. 



After the removal of his only competitor, the light chick 

 had things all his own way. For the first time I saw a small 

 flat-fish included in the menu. Once the female looked very 

 intently at the black weed which she had picked up the day 

 before, but did not touch it again. She spent a good deal 

 of time sitting about outside the wire. Sometimes she brooded 

 the chick, taking up a position, which I had noticed before, 

 with her bill over her right shoulder, either pressing down the 

 chick or touching the tip of his bill, I could not see which, as 

 he crouched between her body and right wing. 



The seventh day was uneventful except for the fact that 

 the chick once dropped a sand-eel and picked it up immediately 

 by the middle. After some manoeuvring, during which the 

 fish did not again touch the sand, he succeeded in getting 

 its head into his mouth and swallowed it. 



On the eighth day my visits to the moor came to an end, 

 and, as I had only a short time to spare before collecting my 

 various belongings, 1 thought it might be interesting to count 

 the number of meals which the chick received in one hour. 

 By this time both parents were playing then- parts in catching 

 fish, and the fun was fast and furious. The food consisted 

 of sand-eels and flat-fish, all the eels being about two and a 

 half inches long, while the flat-fish also were all of one size. 

 One of them was passed through the netting, the mesh of 



