O. GRABHAM : COLONY OF LITTLE TERNS. 319 



county that needed protection), subscribed together 

 and put on a watcher. We also received great assistance 

 from Mr. Consett Hopper, Mr. J. W. Webster, the hght- 

 house keepers, and others who hve at the Point. Things 

 had got so bad that the colony had dwindled to about a 

 dozen pairs, and these few were so harried and disturbed 

 that they hardly ever came near their eggs during the 

 daytime, and had to trust to the heat of the sun and the 

 sand, only settling down when night fell. 



The birds arrive at their breeding grounds almost 



Fig. 2. — Newly-Hatclied Young. 

 {Photographed by Oxley Grabham.) 



to a day at the end of April. In the cold spring of 1907 

 they did not appear till May 1st, the latest date that 

 Robinson, our watcher, has ever known, and most of them 

 leave at the end of August. The}^ sit on their eggs for 

 about seventeen days, and the young can toddle away 

 as soon as they are out of the shell, which the old birds 

 remove at once. I have noticed two types of chicks : 

 one much yellower than the other. High tides often do 

 much damage to the eggs, which are placed too near the 



