320 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ordinary high- water mark. But Robinson, if he scents 

 danger, moves the eggs a considerable distance inshore, 

 and the birds easily find them. If the first clutch be 

 destroyed the Little Terns always lay again, and occasion- 

 ally even when they have hatched off one clutch they 

 will lay again. Sometimes just at hatching time we 

 have had two or three days of very cold rough weather, 

 and then I have seen the poor little chicks, just out of 

 the shell, huddling together under the lee of a big stone, 

 an old boot, piece of wood, or any flotsam and jetsam 



Fig. 3. — Little Tern calling to her Mate. 

 {Photographed by Oxley Grabham.) 



washed ashore by the sea that will afford them protection 

 and at such times a few always succumb to exposure. 

 But, as a rule, there is very little mortality amongst 

 either the old or young birds, if the weather is propitious. 

 They have few natural enemies here, and their eggs are 

 very fertile — one seldom comes across a bad one. The 

 young are fed largely on very small plaice about the size 

 of a penny, sand-eels, sprats, etc. During 1908 between 

 fifty and sixty pairs of birds bred here, and in spite of 

 some very cold weather, just at hatching time, a good 



