80 



LESSER TERN. 

 STERNA MINUTA. 

 [Plate LX.— Fig. 2.] 



Jirct. Zool. JS'o, Vi<9. — La petite Hirondelle de mer, Buff. VIII, 337. PZ. Enl. 996. — Bewick, 11, 183. 



Peaie's Museum, JVo. 3505. 



THIS beautiful little species looks like the preceding in mi- 

 niature, 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 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, 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 dropt on the dry and warm sand, the heat of 

 which, during the day, is fully sufficient for the purpose of incuba- 

 tion. 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 du- 

 ring the damps of night, and in wet and stormy weather; and fur- 



