36 allen’s naturai.ist’s library. 
Eange outside the Eritish Islands. — The species extends to about 
6o° N. lat. in Europe, is scarce on the northern shores of the Baltic, 
and, as Mr. Howard Saunders says, is “ rare on the southern 
shore of that sea, following the course of the large rivers for 
so great a distance— nesting on their islands and sand-banks — 
that it may be said to extend across the Continent to the 
Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas, w'hile it also fre- 
quents the Atlantic coast.” Eastward it ranges to Transcaspia, 
Turkestan, and Northern India,, breeding in all these localities. 
In winter it ranges along the coast of West Africa to the Cape 
of Good Hope, and is found at the same season along the 
Burme.se coasts as fiir south as the island of Java. The place 
of the Little Tern is taken by Sterna satindersi in the Indian 
Ocean, the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and along the coast of 
East Africa to Natal and the Mascarene Islands. 
Habits. — The Little Tern is one of a group of small species, 
distributed over the greater part of the Old World, as well as 
temperate and tropical North America. From their small size 
and different appearance to the ordinary Terns they have often 
been separated from the latter as a distinct genus Stcnnila, 
but Mr, Saunders finds no characters for their generic separa- 
tion from the members of the genus Sterna. 
Nevertheless, any one who has seen the birds on the shore, 
recognises at once a certain difference in the appearance and 
ways of the Little Tern from those of its larger and more 
conspicuous colleagues. This may be due, however, rather 
to the smaller size of S. minuta, and its quicker motions, than 
to any real difference in the habits of this small Tern, 
as, after all, the ways of the species of the genus Sterna 
are very much alike. Naturally the small size of the present 
bird renders it less conspicuous than the Common Tern, and 
whereas the colonies of the latter bird can generally be detected 
from some distance, the Little Terns are only discovered by 
a sudden invasion of their nesting-places. The pairs keep 
together, and may generally be seen sitting side by side, though 
they do not permit of a near approach, but fly off before the 
intruder comes within gun-shot. Only when they have young, 
however, are they more venturesome, and fly much nearer 
to the enemy. Such, at least, is my experience, though other 
