5° British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The nest of the Little Tern is a slight hollow on shingle banks near the sea, 

 or on a sandy beach, sometimes lined with vegetable debris ; but oftener a mere 

 depression on the shingle inlaid with small pebbles, in which are deposited two or 

 three eggs, the former number being the more common. 



In colour the eggs are hardly distinguishable from those of the Common Tern ; 

 and are covered over with brown or black spots — those underneath the shell paler and 

 of a purplish- grey colour, or irregularly blotched and dotted with the same colour. 

 In dimensions they are about it inch in length, by & inch in breadth. 



The nestling is covered with a buff down, black on the head, grey on the 

 back ; the throat buff, but the rest of the under surface fawny white. 



During the time they have eggs, or while the nestlings are still unfledged, 

 the parents are very daring, darting down, or hovering closely over the intruder, 

 and evincing more and more acute anxiety and alarm, the closer he approaches 

 the eggs or young. The knowing depredator can thus cause himself to be guided 

 to the very spots where the Tern desires him least to go. The Little Tern will 

 also bravely attack Rooks or Crows which come too near to their colony. 



The Little Tern, in its full fledged plumage, is thus described by Dresser : — 

 " Crown brownish- grey, marked with black, becoming black on the nape and [after 

 the second year] on the mark through the eye ; upper parts dull French- grey, the 

 feathers margined with blackish-brown [bars], outside of which is a narrow white 

 margin ; the tail as in the adult, but shorter, and slightly marked with blackish- 

 grey at the tip ; quills as in the adult ; under parts pure white." 



For a short period after becoming fledged, the upper surface is flushed with 

 reddish-buff, which very early fades. The immature birds are easily recognized 

 from the old, during their first autumn, by the darker plumage of their upper side. 



This species does not exhibit such marked seasonal differences as most of the 

 other species already described. The Little Tern changes very little between its 

 becoming fully fledged and the moult of its second autumn, when the black bars 

 are lost and it assumes its first winter plumage, which differs from the winter 

 dress of the adult only in being darker. In the following spring the Little Tern 

 puts on its first nuptial plumage, which, as soon as incubation is over, it exchanges, 

 as all the adult birds do, for its winter garb. This is similar to the summer 

 plumage, but the head becomes somewhat whiter, and the grey on the back slightly 

 darker; the outer primaries rather darker near the end; and the white parts 

 sometimes flushed with French-grey. 



" In the elegance of its buoyant flight," writes that acute and ardent ornith- 

 ologist, Professor Macgillivray, "as it skims over the waters, or shoots along on 

 its way to and from its breeding place, the tiny creature must be an object of 



