LESSER TERN. s 511 
is doubtless intended to enable the birds to support, without injury, 
the violent concussions caused by the plunging of the one, and the 
chiselling of the other. . 
_ 
LESSER TERN.—STERNA MINUTA.—Fic. 240. 
Arct. Zool. No. 449. — La petite Hirondelle de mer, Buff. viii. 337. Pl. enl. 996. — 
Bewich, ii. 183. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3505. 
STERNA MINUTA. — Linnzvs.* 
Sterna minuta, Bonap. Synop.—Flem. Br. Zool. p. 144.— Temm. Man. d’ Orn. 
ii. p.75. 
Tus beautiful little species (Fig. 240) looks like the preceding in 
miniature, but surpasses it far in the rich, glossy, satin-like, white plu- 
mage with which its throat, breast, and whole lower parts are covered. 
Like the former, it is also a bird of passage, butis said not to extend 
its migrations to so high a northern latitude, being more delicate and 
susceptible 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, gen- 
erally seizing it with its bill; mounts instantly again to the same 
height, and moves slowly along as before, eagerly examining the sur- 
face below. About the 25th of May, or beginning of June, the fe- 
male begins to lay. The eggs are dropped on the dry and warm sand, 
the heat of which, during the day, is fully sufficient for the purpose of 
incubation. This heat is sometimes so great, that one can scarcely 
bear the hand in it fora 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 im- 
pulse, but of volition, regulatea by reason, depending on various inci- 
dental circumstances to which their parental cares are ever awake. 1 
* This species is common to Ebro and the northern continent of America. 
Bonaparte mentions another closely allied species, which appears to take its place 
in South America, and has been confounded with it. 
The breeding places of this Tern are somewhat different from many of those 
British species with which we are acquainted. Most of the latter breed on rocky 
coasts and solitary islands, while the Little Tern ae flat, shingly beaches, 
where the eggs are deposited in the manner described by Wilson, — in some little 
hollow or footstep. They become clamorous on approaching the nest, but seem 
hardly so familiar or bold as most of the others. The young soon leave the hollow 
where they were hatched, and move about as far as their limited powers will al-. 
low. — Ep. 
