LESSER TERN. 
233 
side. According to Mr. Thompson, it is a regular 
summer visitant in Ireland. It breeds on the 
shingly beach, never, that we have seen, on the 
rock or among grass, like some others ; but the 
nest is placed in a situation similar to that of the 
ring-dotterel, in a slight hollow, and without the 
protection of any cover or lining. Mr. Selby has 
mentioned a colony on the coast opposite the Fam 
Islands ; we have visited another upon Guillon 
Point, above North Berwick on the Firth of Forth, 
and a third upon the Solway at Skinburness, all 
similar to each other. "When approached, this tern 
may be heard at a distance seeking for the invader 
of its ground, and by and bye its tiny form is seen 
advancing with long strokes of the wing; hut it is 
scarcely so bold or clamorous as some of those we 
have described, and hovers over the person, making 
long stoops at him, and again rising high. "We 
have once or twice met with it in small parties 
of young and old, late in autumn, but it seems 
to leave the coast immediately after incubation, and 
is much less frequently seen la e in the season than 
the Sandwich and arctic terns Its European range 
is not very well ascertained; in France and Hol- 
land it is said to be common, and the shores seem 
suited for it, but although in -hided in some of the 
southern Fauna, little more is said regarding it. 
We believe the Indian specimms are identical, but 
those from North America, o asely allied to it, are 
distinct. 
