STERNA HIRUNBO. 
154 
the place, and, on the near approach of any 
instantly make their appearance over head; 
a hoarse jarring' kind of cry, and flying about 
evident symptoms of great anxiety and eonstcrnat'J’’ 
The young are generally produced at intervals of a jif 
or so from each other, and are regularly and abunfla* 
fed for several weeks, before their wings are suHiciaa'|; 
grown to enable them to fly. At first the pai^jj 
alight with the fish which they have brought in u'*,( 
mouth or in their bill, and, tearing it in pieces, distrih'" 
it in such portions as their young are able to swaUp^ 
Afterwards they frequently feed them without aligW'*^ 
as they skim over the spot; and, as the young baf**^ 
nearly ready to fly, they drop the fish among 
W'here the strongest and most active has the best 
to gobble it up. In the mean time, the young thenisa^^jf 
frequently search about the marshes, generally not j 
apart, for insects of various kinds ; but so well acquaia „ 
arc they with the ])cculiar language of their pat*^ 
that warn them of the approach of an enemy, that^ 
hearing their cries, they instantly squat, and rei"'' 
motionless until the danger be over. |( 
The flight of the great tern, and, indeed, of the 
tribe, is not in the sweeping shooting manner ot . ^ 
land swallows, notwithstanding their name; the nioh'-g 
of their long wings are slon'er, and more in the 
of the gull. They have, however, great powers of 
and strength in the muscles of the neck, which 
them to make such sudden and violent plunges, 
that from a considerable height too, headlong on 1*' p 
prey, which they never seize but with their bills- 
the evening, I have remarked, as they retired froh* t 
upper parts of the bays, rivers, and inlets, to the h ||j 
for repose, about breeding time, that each geucf 
carried a small fish in his bill. , 
As soon as the young are able to fly, they i^nt' 
to the sandy shoals and ripples where fish are abuod 
and, wdiile they occasionally feed them, teach 
their example to provide for themselves. They 
times penetrate a great way inland, along the coO 
