76 COMMON TERN. 
With an easy and buoyant flight, the Tern visits the whole of our 
indented coasts, with the intention of procuring food, or of rearing its 
young, amidst all the comforts and enjoyments which kind Nature has 
provided for it. Full of agreeable sensations, the mated pair glide 
along side by side, as gaily as ever glided bridegroom and bride. The 
air is warm, the sky of the purest azure, and in every nook the glit- 
tering fry tempts them to satiate their appetite. Here, dancing in 
the sunshine, with noisy mirth, the vast congregation spreads over the 
sandy shores, where, from immemorial time, the species has taken up 
its temporary abode. They all alight, and with minced steps, and 
tails carefully raised so as not to be injured by the sand, the different 
pairs move about, renew their caresses, and scoop out a little cavity in 
the soil. If you come again in a few days, you will find the place co- 
vered with eggs. There they lie, three in each hollow, beautifully 
spotted and pointed; and as they receive heat enough from the sun, 
the birds have left them until evening. But not absent are they from 
the cherished spot, for they have seen you, and now they all fly up 
screaming. Although unable to drive you away, they seem most an- 
xiously to urge your departure by every entreaty they can devise ; 
just as you would do, were your family endangered by some creature 
as much stronger than yourself as you are superior to them. Humanity 
fills your heart, you feel for them as a parent feels, and you willingly 
abandon the place. The eggs are soon hatched; the young in due 
time follow their parents, who, not considering their pleasant labour 
ended when they are able to fly, feed them on wing in the manner of 
swallows, until they are quite capable of procuring their subsistence 
themselves. So soon as this is the case, the young birds fly off in bands, 
to seek on distant shores, and in sunny climes, the plentiful food which 
the ocean yields. 
The nest of the Common ‘Tern is, as I have said, a mere hollow 
made in the loose sand of some island or mainland beach, scantily 
tufted with wiry grass, or strewed with sea-weeds. Their eggs never 
exceed three in number; their average length is 1 inch 53 eighths, 
their breadth 14 inch. They vary greatly in their markings, as is the 
case with those of all the smaller species of this family ; but their 
ground colour is generally pale yellowish-green, blotched and spotted 
with brownish-black and purplish-grey or neutral tint. 
The young, which are fed with small fishes, shrimps, and insects, 
