16 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
in regard to the ruffling of its plumage by wind. 
Each individual in the Ternery sits facing the 
breeze. Throughout my visits the hope was con- 
stant in my mind that even whilst I watched, the 
wind might change, and that I might witness 
the company rise as one bird and face about as 
in some measure of a stately dance. The larger 
colonies breeding on the northern beach appeared 
at first impression to be sitting in two great homo- 
geneous companies. Closer inspection, however, 
showed that each of them was composed of many 
smaller companies, and that the effect of uni- 
formity was produced by the sitting members of 
each sept dovetailing into that of another. Hach 
nest is a shallow pit containing a single egg.! 
Upon it sits the Tern, its breast a bulwark to the 
racing grit. 
Few sights are more elegant than such a colony 
in repose, the beautiful birds in hundreds facing 
one direction, settled into the sand as if floating 
on water, each with the same pure greys below, 
the same black cap above, the same dark bill, 
the same long pinions crossed above the back 
like the forked tails of a great Brazilian butterfly, 
each bird sheltering the same long tapering delta 
of bright, clean, shining sand. To and from the 
fishing ground during incubation there is a con- 
1 In some Sea Swallow Terneries on Stewart Island two eggs 
are laid. 
