Sterna minuta, Linnaeus.'*
THE LESSER TERN.
• Sterna. Minuta.
This bird, the smallest of the British Terns, ia?,not uncommon
during summer on such' parts of the coast of the
British Islands as are suited to* its habits vJ’lA.appears to
prefer low flat shores, oyMifp|||^of sand,?^rokert shells.; or
small shingle, coming here in May, an<| laying two or three
eggs before the end of that month in a small depression
scraped ip J&a- ^pjjjud aboyé. highrwater mark. The
Author found considerable numbers of this Tern at the
mouth of the Thames, on the Kentish side,"about Yantlêt
Island and the creek of the same name close by. ^ When
their breeding-haunts are visited, they exhibit but little fear,
settling on jhe ground not far from those who may be looking
for their eggs or young, and É m .frequently walk about
with a light step, or with a piping note again take wing.
They fly with rapid beats of their long pinions, and from this
circumstance look;.much5? larger in the air than when in the
hand. Their food consists of the fry of surface-swimming
fish, and small Crustacea^ upon which they descend from the
air, and-they- are frequently "seen tp alight on the water/
•sometimes evidently seeking food, on the surface, and at
.others’ only resting from their' labours. Their note is a
sharp pvrre. j 1
;;r\"The eggs are of a stone-colour, spotted and speckled with
ash-grey' and dark chestnut-brown -average measurements
135 byr9’5 in. Theyoung are generally able id fly by: thé
end of the second week in July; and, usually, both old and
young leave , this country about ..the end of September, but
«the Authbr, had a note of one seen on the l@£h of.,-October,
and he received a notice from the Rev, William How-
man of&oneiihat was .exposed for sale"in Norwich market/ in
the third week, of the' month of December,
^ This species visits many different places along .the line of
the southern coast from Cornwall to Sussex, It-breeds, .oil
the shores of Essex;-'Suffolk, and Norfolk; .near Skegness in
-Lincolnshire; a-nd on Spurn.Point in Yorkshire; but the
small colony which bred imSelby’s-fraie, on the main land
near Holy Island in/Notthumber-land, no longer exists.
£_,©n the east -coasts ©fr. Scotland colonies are to be found
from Haddingtonufoa Sutherland; and its summer range
is -said to: extend-to-the' Orkneys:' On the west "side nit
»hésts in several: löêalitjêg^both inland, as on Loch Lomond;
and on the 'Coast, down 'to the Solway; and,^c.ohtinuing the
line, we find it breeding in Cumberland, Lancashire, and- in
statable places in Walesr In Ireland *>it 1 of tolerably
genera! distribution-Along the coast,' and bn the fresh-water
jjughs~, althppih nowhere abundant. Mr. R. Warren informs
the; Editor that -lq;has an egg of a clutch taken a few years
jligo- ;at the end North Wall, Dublin—a remarkable
situation for a n;est>|>,£. .this species.:
-The northern range- ©£ .the Lesser Tern can scarcely;be
traced beyond' thé southern; portions of? Norway, .-Sweden,