48 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



southward in advance of their parents. On their return the following year, they 

 again keep very much to themselves, taking to a rock or a sand bank out at sea, 

 and not intruding on the breeding colony. 



The migration of the Arctic Terns to a southern latitude may be observed 

 from August to October, — a date at which all the Terns, except those that have 

 by some accident been detained, have left our shores. 



Family— LARIDAL. Subfamily— S TERNINJE. 



Little Tern. 



Sterna minuta, LlNN. 



THIS beautiful Tern is the smallest of all the European species, being only 

 about half the size of the Arctic Tern ; and is less numerous in Britain 

 than the other species already described. In former times it had more widely 

 distributed breeding places than now ; for in many localities where it once nested 

 it is to-day quite unknown. 



It breeds along the east and west coasts of both England and Scotland as 

 far north as the Orkney Islands. Its chief nurseries in England are the Fame 

 Islands, where it is, perhaps, more numerous than anywhere else in our islands ; 

 it occupies a few sites on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts ; and nests also on 

 Romney Marsh, and on Walney Island on the west. Of the two species breeding 

 in Romney Marsh, the Common and the Lesser, " the latter is by far the more 

 numerous," writes Mr. Boyd Alexander, " but the numbers of both have sadly 

 diminished of late years. Both species keep separate in their breeding haunts, the 

 Lesser Tern preferring rather the close proximity to the sea. The restricted 

 breeding area taken up by the Common Terns is distinctly prejudicial to the 

 safety of their eggs. The children of the fishermen and coast-guard officers soon 

 discover these spots, and the eggs are robbed right and left for purposes of eating. 

 Over these places sheep have invariably been feeding, and where they have poked 



