154 
STERNA HIRUNDO. 
the place, and, on the near approach of any person, 
instantly make their appearance over head; uttering 
a hoarse jarring kind of cry, and flying about with 
evident symptoms of great anxiety and consternation. 
The young are generally produced at intervals of a day 
or so from each other, and are regularly and abundantly 
fed for several weeks, before their wings are sufficiently 
grown to enable them to fly. At first the parents 
alight with the fish which they have brought in their 
mouth or in their bill, and, tearing it in pieces, distribute 
it in such portions as their young are able to swallow. 
Afterwards they frequently feed them without alighting, 
as they skim over the spot ; and, as the young become 
nearly ready to fly, they drop the fish among them 
where the strongest and most active has the best chance 
to gobble it up. In the mean time, the young themselves 
frequently search about the marshes, generally not far 
apart, for insects of various kinds ; but so well acquainted 
are they with the peculiar language of their parents 
that warn them of the approach of an enemy, that, on 
hearing their cries, they instantly squat, and remain 
motionless until the danger be over. 
The flight of the great tern, and, indeed, of the whole 
tribe, is not in the sweeping shooting manner of the 
land swallows, notwithstanding their name; the motions 
of their long wings are slower, and more in the manner 
of the gull. They have, however, great powers of wing 
and strength in the muscles of the neck, which enable 
them to make such sudden and violent plunges, and 
that from a considerable height too, headlong on their 
prey, which they never seize but with their bills. In 
the evening, I have remarked, as they retired from the 
upper parts of the bays, rivers, and inlets, to the beach 
for repose, about breeding time, that each generally 
carried a small fish in his bill. 
As soon as the young are able to fly, they lead them 
to the sandy shoals and ripples where fish are abundant ; ij 
and, while they occasionally feed them, teach them by 
their example to provide for themselves. They some- 
times penetrate a great way inland, along the courses 
