VISIT TO THRNERY AT WELLS-BY-THE-SEA. 363 
he alighed, but put his beak into the chick’s mouth and appa- 
rently gave it liquid food. I never saw the old bird eject food on 
to the ground for the young to peck at, as does the Black- 
headed Gull. 
On one occasion the male brought a fish like a big minnow, 
which was as long as, if not longer than, the chick. The chick 
got it half-way down, and there it stuck. The male who was 
watching gave the protruding part of the fish a nip, but it was 
no use, and the chick, dropping it, the male flew away with it, 
but returned in a few seconds, when another chick had a try 
with the same result. This time the old bird, after picking it up 
and flying away, returned, but the fish was not visible. The 
chick looked very comical staggering about, but unfortunately 
for me the incident took place during a sunless interval. We 
several times came across small fishes and shrimps which had 
apparently been dropped during scrimmages, and we tried to get 
the chicks to swallow them, but failed. Once or twice the female 
got off her eggs when the male came down and walked about a 
little, as if to stretch her legs. 
The following day, as this bird had hatched out all her three 
eges and therefore might not always be in the same place, my 
partner, Mr. Earl, thought it would give me a better chance if 
there were two nests in the field of view; so he transferred 
another Tern’s chick and egg to a spot about three feet from the 
other. The plan did not answer, because the new birds did not 
claim their offspring. What did happen was that after about the 
second visit our bird saw the egg, and it proved a great attraction 
—half the times she alighted at the new site instead of the old, 
and sat on the egg. One photograph I took shows her sitting 
on the new nest with her wings very much spread out, as she was 
covering four chicks and an egg at the time; she certainly made 
no difference between the strange chick and her own. 
Although the Lesser Tern, owing to its stupidity or superior 
boldness, should have yielded the best photographic results, we 
in the end only had very poor photographs, because after the 
first few exposures we went on to something more difficult. 
When we came back to them after dealing with the other birds we 
encountered a difficulty we had not met with previously. The local 
barber had amused Mr. Earl by affirming that Terns did not sit 
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