BRITISH BIRDS. 
201 
LESSER TERN, 
OR, LESSER SEA-SWALLOW. 
{^Sterna minuta, Lin . — La petite Hlrondelle de Mer, BufF.) 
The Lefler Tern meafures about eight inches in 
length, and nineteen in breadth, and weighs a little 
more than two ounces. It looks like the former 
fpecies in miniature — is equally, if not more deli- 
cately elegant in its plumage and general appear- 
ance — and its manners and habits are much the 
fame ; but it is not nearly fo numerous, or fo wide- 
ly difperfed. It differs from the Common Tern 
in having the black patch on its head divided by a 
white fpot on the front of its brow, in the tail 
being wholly white, and, in proportion to the fize 
of the bird, much fhorter or lefs forked, and in 
the bill and the feet being more inclined to orange 
VoL, IL t C c 
