Sterna antillarum. 
j^artha' s Vineyard• 
Aug . 5, 1890.1 visited the same colony this afternoon at 2 o'clofclc 
and found the single egg hatched and the young gone the empty 
shell alone remaining near the hollow. 7 Another nest which con¬ 
tained two eggs yesterday morning was also empty. Searching near 
it I first found the egg shells ( which had been removed or had 
blown to a distance of a few rods) and then the two young. The 
latter were some twenty yards from the nest and nearly that 
distance from one another. Each was squatting flat on the sand 
at the roots of and partially hidden by a scanty tuft of beach 
grass. 7 One kept his eyes closed, the other had them wide open. 7 
I took the first some distance from his hiding place and laid him 
on the bare sand where he lay motionless as before with eyes 
still closed. 7 Neither of these chicks made any effort to escape 
when handled or uttered any sound. There was a marked difference 
in color between them one having the ground color grayish white 
the other brownish or buffy white. 
The parent birds became greatly excited and alarmed as I 
approached and examined their young uttering their shrill aik 
and a tch, tch , tch which was very like that of agelaeus and 
dashing down repeatedly at m., head, passing it so closely that 
I could distinctly feel the wind of their wings. 7 It required 
not a little control of nerve to keep one's eyes fixed steadily 
in the descending bird and allow it to pass without dodging the 
head. 7 More than once'the Least Terns discharged their excrement 
