The Least Tern 
Taken near Santa Barbara 
cited birds. The pair most nearly threatened does not hesitate to 
dive and shriek, after the fashion of the falcon, while all about us 
is a bewildering chorus of expletives. Uik, uik, uik, squeals the exas¬ 
perated bird in accents which would do credit to a baby porker caught in 
the fence. Uik, uik, grunts a sympathetic neighbor, in spite of a slender 
minnow dangling from her beak; while the less disturbed express them¬ 
selves in a more musical tone, kit'oo, kit'oo or jik, jik, kit'oo. 
As often as we are quiet, the gentle Terns begin to settle. But as 
they do so, they oftenest 
remain for a moment or so 
with wings daintily uplifted. 
This may be partly for readi¬ 
ness to instant flight, or partly 
as a decoy signal, for they 
sometimes make a little run 
with the wings up, and then 
look about over the shoulder 
to see if we are following. 
There is no law or order 
whatever about a choice of 
nesting places. One may 
be marked by a stick or a 
clam-shell hard by; another 
will be on the bare sand a rod 
from any other object. Now 
and then a bit of scattered 
drift may attract attention, 
and occasionally a brooding 
Snowy Plover, already es¬ 
tablished, will act as a sort 
of land-mark for the home¬ 
steading tern. Once I found 
two eggs of the tern quar¬ 
tered with three of the plover. 
The tern 1 knew to be the 
offender; and I think she 
acted from no more sinister 
motive than that of using a 
recommended site. 
Because of incessant dis¬ 
turbance to which the birds 
are subjected, incubation will 
FACE TO FACE 
TAKEN FROM BLIND AT RANGE OF 2 K FEET 
Photo by the Author 
1456 
