Species II. STERNA MINVTA. 



LESSER TERN. 



[Plate LX. Fig. 2.] 



Aret. Zool. No. 449. — La petite Hirondelle de mer, Bufp. tiii., 337. PI- Enl. 996. 



— Bewick, ii., 183.* 



This beautiful little species looks like the preceding in miniature, 

 but surpasses it far in the rich glossy satin-like white plumage with 

 which its throat, breast, and whole lower parts, are covered. Like the 

 former, it is also a bird of passage, but is said not to extend its migra- 

 tions to so high a northern latitude, being more delicate and suscepti- 

 ble of cold. It arrives on the coast somewhat later than the other, but 

 in equal and perhaps greater numbers ; coasts along the shores, and 

 also oVer the pools, in the salt marshes, in search of prawns, of which it 

 is particularly fond ; hovers, suspended in the air, for a few moments 

 above its prey, exactly in the manner of some of our small Hawks, and 

 dashes headlong down into the water after it, generally seizing it with 

 its bill ; mounts instantly again to the same height, and moves slowly 

 along as before, eagerly examining the surface below. About the 

 twenty-fifth of May, or beginning of June, the female begins to lay. 

 The eggs are dropped on the dry and warm sand, the heat of which, 

 during the day, is fully suflBcient for the purpose of incubation. This 

 heat is sometimes so great, that one can scarcely bear the hand in it for 

 a few moments, without inconvenience. The wonder would therefore 

 be the greater should the bird sit on her eggs during the day, when her 

 warmth is altogether unnecessary, and perhaps injurious, than that she 

 should cover them only during the damps of night, and in wet and 

 stormy weather ; and furnishes another proof that the actions of birds 

 are not the effect of mere blind impulse, but of volition, regulated by 

 reason, depending on various incidental circumstances, to which their 

 parental cares are ever awake. I lately visited those parts of the beach 

 on Cape May, where this little bird breeds. The eggs, generally four 

 in number, were placed on the flat sands, safe beyond the reach of the 

 highest summer tide. They were of a yellowish brown color, blotched 

 with rufous, and measured nearly an inch and three-quarters in length. 

 During my whole stay, these birds flew in crowds around me, and often 

 within a few yards of my head, squeaking like so many young pigs, 



* Sterna minuta, Gmel. Sysi. i., p. 608. — Ind. Orn. p. 809, No. 19. — Sterna 

 metopoleucos, lb. No. 22.— Briss. vi., p. 206, pi. 19, fig. 2.— Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 

 752. 



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