190 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
LITTLE (on LESSER) TERN. 
Sterna minuta, Linn. 
Pl. XXXII, fig. 8. 
Geogr. distr.—Temperate Europe; wintering on the western coast 
of Africa, and as far south as the Cape; also found in Western 
America. In Great Britain it is scattered here and there from the 
southern coast of England to the Orkneys, but is most common along 
the eastern coasts. 
Food.—Aquatic insects and small fish. 
Nest.—A mere hollow scooped out of the shingle or mud. 
Position of nest.—Usually in gravelly sand on the sea-shore. 
Number of eggs.—3. 
Time of nidification.—V-VI. 
In his ‘Birds of the West of Scotland,’ p. 471, Mr. 
Robert Gray says of the Little Tern :—‘‘In its habits it 
resembles other Terns, but is even a more interesting 
study to the ornithologist, being so much smaller than the 
Common orArcticTerns. During the breeding time it shows 
considerable impatience on its haunts being invaded, and 
meets the intruder with shrill cries, which it persistently 
utters so long as he remains in the neighbourhood. On 
dispersion of these breeding colonies it travels by slow 
degrees southwards, and finally quits our shores in Sep- 
tember, arriving again in the following spring.”’ 
Although the above account would give one the idea that 
the Little (or Lesser) Tern was much alarmed when 
disturbed from the nest, such does not appear to be the 
case. Mr. Howard Saunders says that he ‘‘found con- 
siderable numbers of this Tern at the mouth of the Thames, 
on the Kentish side, about Yantlet Island and the creek of 
the same name close by;’” and he adds, ‘“‘ When their 
breeding haunts are visited they exhibit but little fear, 
settling on the ground not far from those who may be 
looking for their eggs or young, and will frequently walk 
about with a light step, or, with a piping note, again take 
wing.”—(Yarrell’s Hist. Brit. Birds, 4th ed., vol. i11., p. 558.) 
The bird breeds pretty generally along the coasts of 
Scotland and Ireland, and in suitable places in Wales. In 
England it nests in Lancashire, Cumberland, Yorkshire, 
Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and perhaps 
Dorsetshire. 
