LESSKR TERN. 
SriUlNA MINUTA. 
During the last five-and-twenty years the Lesser Tei'n has entirely disappeared from several of the breeding- 
stations to which it formerly resorted in the southern counties along the shores of the Channel, the rage for 
egg-collecting having doubtless, as in many otlier cases, been the main cause of this interesting species being 
driven to haunts on more unfrequented portions of our coast-line. These birds are, however, still sufficiently 
abundant, breeding at many stations in other parts of the country, to leave little cause for supposing that they 
stand a ehance of becoming a rarity for many years to come. So regardless are these beautiful little Terns 
concerning their own safety that they hover over those who approach the spots where their eggs or young are 
concealed, and, in their anxiety to protect them, point out the whereabouts of their treasures. The shingle- 
hanks on either side of Rye harbour Avere favourite stations of this species at the time I lived in the district, 
from 1858 to 18G2, and numbers put in an appearance early every spring, usually selecting for their breeding- 
quarters the flat portions of the shingle-banks where the gravel was fine or intermixed with sand and small 
broken shells. I paid more attention to the colony established on the stretch of shingle to the west of the 
channel running through the harbour, where from fifty to one hundred pairs were engaged in rearing their 
young, in the years I visited their haunts. During tlic breeding-season, immense numbers of Terns of various 
species, the Lesser perhaps predominating after the spring flights of Sandwich, Arctic, and Common Terns 
have passed on towards the north, hover round the shallow water in the bay and the pools in the sands, darting 
down continuously at the small fry that form their food. In still weather, as soon as the tide had risen too 
high for them to secure their prey, the birds usually settled down and rested on the tops of the poles driven into 
the sand to hold the “ kettle-nets every stake in view at times having its occupant, and each bird sitting ivitli 
its head turned the same Avay, facing any light breeze that might ruffle the surface of the water. Occasionally 
in blusterous weather, with gales of wind and squalls of rain, they would be found in large flocks huddled 
together on the sands, as usual facing the storms. Occasionally at Ioav water I noticed a few of these birds 
• At the time referred to, kettle-nete were set on many parts along the fiat, sandy shores of Kent and Sussex, and especially in Rye Bay ; not 
unfref]uently immense hauls of mackerel were made, so heavy, indeed, that only half of the take could bo saved. Often when brought ashore, 
and the dealers as well as the whole of the natives satisfied, the remainder had to be carted inland and used as manure or left to rot on the beach. 
Kettle-nets, to the best of my knowledge, arc peculiar to the south coast, none having come under my notice in other parts of the country. A large 
circular net, enclosing perhaps a quarter of an acre, is set up to the height of about 10 feet, by hop-poles made fast in the sands in a peculiar 
manner. Spikes cut out of wood are driven through the ends of the poles, and straw-bands then wound around them ; a hole is next dug in the 
sands and the stake with its surroundings placed in the cavity, and the sand returned and pressed down. The circle of net, however, is not quite 
completed, about 10 feet nearest the shore remaining open ; a leader (a net set in the same manner, only in a straight line) is then stretched down 
from the shore and enters the circle a few feet. The shoals of fish, when making their way along shore, strike the leader and swimming down 
towards the open sea, enter the circular net and continue heading outwards till left dry by the tide. Frequently there are two and sometimes three 
“ bights,” that is, so many sets of circular nets and leaders, all leading straight towards high-water mark. By these means the fish at some 
distance from the shore are enclosed ; it is only where the tide ebbs a long distance on sandy fiats that such means for fish-capture can be employed. 
