Least Tern, 4 
Co. <%> ■ <%> 
o.&o. vm.oct.mP3 p7& 
On a Collection of Bggs from 
Georgia. ii. B, Bailey, 
104. Sterna antillarum. Least Tern. —Eggs three, laid on the 
high sand near sea. June 18. 
Bull. N.O.O* 8, Jan, 1838, Pt 43 
A Query in regard to the Least Tern. 
To the Editors of the Auk :— 
Dear Sirs :—I wish to inquire about a peculiarity in the nesting habits of 
the Least Terns or, as they are commonly known here, the ‘Little Sea 
Gulls.’ They generally arrive here about May 6 (this year, May 13) to 
breed on the sand bars of the Mississippi River. If the water is off the 
bars they begin laying about the middle of June, and they continue to lay 
until August, for I have found their eggs as late as the middle of the latter 
month. I have generally found three or four, and often live, eggs in a 
nest. The nest is only a little hollow scooped out in the sand. In July, 
when most of them are laying and have eggs, if you walk over the bars 
they fly close to you and almost strike you with their wings, making a 
loud noise as if they were terribly annoyed by your presence and wished 
to drive you away. 
Upon examining the eggs you will find perhaps half of them have a spot 
of water on them. How did it get there? Is it put there by the parent 
bird, and if so, for what purpose? I have questioned persons who were, 
I thought, ornithologists of some authority, but got no satisfactory 
answers. One even wrote to me that perhaps it was dew formed on the 
eggs. Just think of dew, at midday, on the sand blazing under a semi- 
tropical sun, with not a particle of shade except when the sky is overcast! 
Cannot any of your readers throw' some light on the subject? 
The young are just the color of the sand. I have followed their trails 
through the sand for fifty or a hundred yards and found the little downy 
fellows with not a feather on them. How they escape the foxes, raccoons, 
and opossums, besides the numerous Hawks, is more than I can tell. 
Yours respectfully, 
Gideon Mabbett. 
AUK.VII.Oot, 1890,p a H/o-*W < 
Rod?i cy, Miss iss iftft i. 
