(hacen 
LEAST TERN. 
STERNA MINUTA, LINN. 
PLATE CCCXIX. Anutr anp Youne. 
SYLPH-LIKE bird of the waters, how delightful has it been to me to 
gaze on thy gliding movements, on the fannings of thy gentle wings, 
on the delicate silvery glance of thy soft and sattiny bosom, as thou 
camest from distant and unknown shores, when the winter had passed 
away, and the mild breezes of early summer blew around thee, and 
thou soughtest a place of safety in which to sojourn for a time. That 
frail frame of thine must have suffered many a hardship. Fronting 
that last damp and chilling blast, I have seen thee gathering up all 
thy little strength to force thy way ; and when the fury of the tempest 
assailed thee, wert thou not glad to seek for refuge under yon bold head- 
land! Ah, deny it not, for I have seen the delight expressed by thee, 
when after awhile, returning calm and sunshine revived thee, and thou 
spreadest thy wings anew, to ramble gaily over the still turbulent wa- 
ters. Well knowest thou, heaven-taught, each bar and shallow along 
the desolate shore which thou skirtest pilotless; soon shalt thou reach the 
haven where last summer smiled on thee and thy brood; and there shalt 
thou gracefully alight by the side of one whose love is all to thee. 
As no account of this species exists in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, it 
is to be supposed that it is not met with beyond the western shores of La- 
brador, where however I found it in abundance and breeding, in the be- 
ginning of June 1833. On the 14th of August following I observed them 
at Newfoundland, movingsouthward in detached parties of old andyoung, 
against a strong breeze, and uttering their clamorous cries. Again, 
in the end of April 1837, hundreds of pairs were breeding on the islands 
of Galveston Bay in Texas, the numerous specimens which I then ex- 
amined exhibiting no difference from those obtained in Labrador and 
in our Middle Districts. Nay, once, in the middle of June, while 
wading through the quick-sands of Bayou Sara in Louisiana, I came 
to a high and dry sand-bar where I picked up several eggs belonging 
to three pairs of birds of this species, although the distance was about 
two hundred miles from the sea in a direct line. I have at various times 
