LEAST TERN. 
279 
no difference from those obtained in Labrador and in our Middle Districts. 
Nay, once, in the middle of June, while wading through the quick-sands of 
Bayou Sara in Louisiana, I came to a high and dry sand-bar where I picked 
up several eggs belonging to three pairs of birds of this species, although 
the distance was about two hundred miles from the sea in a direct line. 1 
have at various times observed this tern on the waters of the Ohio in 
autumn, and now and then in spring, at the latter period in company with 
the Short-tailed Tern, Sterna nigra, and have again met with it on the 
shores of Lake Erie. I have also found it in winter on the eastern coast of 
the Floridas, but in small numbers. Few birds indeed seem to me to be so 
irregular in their migratory movements, for they appear to stop at any con- 
venient breeding place from Texas to Labrador. 
Few birds are more gentle than this delicate species is at times ; for, appa- 
rentlyunaware of danger from the vicinity of man, it allows him to approach 
within a few yards, whether it be on wing or on the ground. Indeed, in 
the latter case, I have seen it when gorged so reluctant to fly off that I have 
more than once thought it was asleep, although on coming up I was always 
disappointed in my attempts to catch it. Nothing can exceed the lightness 
of the flight o,f this bird, which seems to me to be among water fowls, the 
analogue of the Humming-bird. They move with great swiftness at times, 
at others balance themselves like hawks over their prey, then dart with the 
velocity of thought to procure the tiny fry beneath the surface of the waters. 
When you invade their breeding place, they will sometimes sweep far away, 
and suddenly return, coming so near as almost to strike you. While travel- 
ling, their light but firm flight is wonderfully sustained; and on hearing and 
seeing them on such occasions, one is tempted to believe them to be the 
happiest of the happy. They seem as if marshalled and proceeding to a 
merry-making, so gaily do they dance along, as if to the music of their own 
lively cries. Now you see the whole group suddenly check their onward 
speed, hover over a deep eddy supplied with numberless shrimps, and dash 
headlong on their prey. Up rises the little thing with the shrimp in its 
bill, and again down it plunges; and its movements are so light and graceful 
that you look on with pleasure, and are in no haste to depart. Should this 
scene be enacted while they have young in thmr company, the latter await 
in the air the rise of their parents, meet them, and receive the food from 
them. When all are satiated, they proceed on their journey, stopping at 
another similar but distant place. 
Although along our Southern and Middle Districts, the Least Tern merely 
scoops a very slight hollow in which to deposit its eggs, doing this from the 
first of April to the first of June, according to the latitude of the place, those 
which I found breeding on the coast of Labrador had formed very snug 
