362 THE 4ZOOLOGIST. 
three eggs were surrounded by a band about four inches wide, 
made up of a mosaic of irregular pieces of moss placed side by 
side and right side up. Close to this nest Mr. Frank Southgate 
and I found a nest of the Common Tern containing a chick and 
ege overrun with ants. The chick was quite sore about its back, 
and kept wincing and shaking itself under their attack. After 
freeing them from ants we moved them to a spot about thirty feet 
away, which seemed free from these insects, obliterating the old 
nest made of grass and making a newone. We thenretired to 
the neighbouring sandhills, and whilst having our lunch watched 
events through our field-glasses. The old bird pitched momen- 
tarily four times at the old site, the fifth time about ten feet from 
the new nest, and the sixth time quite close to it, and then went 
on to it. On inspecting the nest afterwards we found it again 
overrun with ants. 
Some of the Common Terns held their wings up almost per- 
pendicularly for quite a second before folding them; some did 
this much more than others. In folding their wings there 
seemed no rule which should lie uppermost. In the same bird, 
at an interval of only a few minutes, the order was changed. 
During two days of our fortnight’s stay there was a strong and 
cold north wind, accompanied by widespread mortality amongst 
the chicks. Cringle pointed out that it is not the cold which is 
so fatal as the wind, which, by making ripples on the water, 
prevents the old birds from being able to see to fish. I took a 
good many photographs of the young being fed, and was surprised 
to find how seldom this takes place even in fine weather; hardly 
ever were the intervals shorter than half an hour. The approach 
of the male with a fish was heralded by the female looking up 
and screaming. Although I could not detect any difference in 
the notes, the young were better informed, for they immediately 
scrambled out from under their mother, waving their wing- 
stumps frantically, and with widely open mouths calling “‘ cheer, 
cheer.’”’ Then the male would alight with a whitebait or sand- 
eel held crosswise in his beak, and it was in a flash transferred 
to the nearest chick, who swallowed it head first and retired 
under his mother. Occasionally there would be a long wait 
after the heralding cry, due to the male with the fish being 
pursued by other Terns. Sometimes the male had no fish when 
