LESSER TERN. 
91 
The food of the Lesser Tern consists in small fry of fish, 
insects that it finds on and above the surface of the water 
and the shore, and in some instances the more tender 
weeds that float on the surface of the ocean. Young broods 
of shrimps and crabs constitute a great part of its food on the 
sea-shore. 
The present Tern breeds on the sandy sea-shore, and 
equally so on the sandy and gravelly banks, on the borders 
of rivers, where it is not likely to be disturbed ; the eggs 
are laid in some natural depression in the ground, but never 
in clean sand, as the bird is led by instinct to deposit 
them in the midst of shingle, remains of Crustacea, and de¬ 
cayed weeds, for their concealment and safety; they are 
two or three in number, in shape, size, and colour, as 
represented in our plate. In a fortnight the young are 
produced, by the parents sitting alternately on them during 
the night, and leaving them to the sun’s rays during the day. 
Like other terns, the young of the present species are soon 
able to fly after their parents, and remain with them during 
their migrations, their winter sojourn, and their returning 
passage in the spring; when they pair and have families of 
their own to look after. 
The Lesser Tern measures nine inches and a half in 
length ; the beak, from the forehead, one inch two lines ; 
the wing, six inches nine lines ; the tarsus, seven lines and a 
half. 
The plumage of the adult in summer is as follows:—the 
forehead and streak over the eye, the sides of the face, chin, 
and all the under parts, white ; between the beak and eye 
there is a black mark which continues through the eye, and 
covers the nape, occiput, and crown of the head ; the back, 
wing-coverts and scapulars are pale bluish-ash. The first 
three quill feathers are blackish-grey, the inner webs broadly 
