. Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. . hovering over it, one is sure to be met by several of them,which hasten to remonstrate against the intruders approach by harshcries and threatened blows. As you draw nearer, more of themleave their nests; and at length they are all on the wing, wheelingand bounding—liow high and now low—at times coming quite close,and increasing their cries, which resemble the syllables cree-cree-cree-ae.^ > , , THE TERN. 279 Like the land swallows, these sea birds arrive on
. Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. . hovering over it, one is sure to be met by several of them,which hasten to remonstrate against the intruders approach by harshcries and threatened blows. As you draw nearer, more of themleave their nests; and at length they are all on the wing, wheelingand bounding—liow high and now low—at times coming quite close,and increasing their cries, which resemble the syllables cree-cree-cree-ae.^ > , , THE TERN. 279 Like the land swallows, these sea birds arrive on our coasts in thespring. They disperse themselves over our lakes and large ponds,where they feed on any animal substances they meet with—eitherfresh or putrefied—fish, molluscs, or insects. Montagu says theyare found in great abundance on the Sussex and Kentish coasts,particularly about Winchelsea, and in the Romney Marshes towardsDungeness. Mr. Selby found them breeding in the Solway and inthe Firth of Clyde. McGillivray met with them in great numbers inSouth Uist and Long Island; and his correspondents, Messrs. Bailie. Fig. loi.—The Tern. and Heddle, noted their annual arrival in the Orkneys in arrive in straggling flocks in the beginning of May, saysMcGillivray, and soon betake themselves to their breedmg-places,which are sandy tracts, gravelly or pebbly ridges, rocky ground, some-times low shelving rocks on the sea-shore, their nests being bits ofgrass or fragments of sea-weed, placed in a mere depression. Instormy weather they fly less, sometimes sheltering themselves uponthe shore. They go to roost very late in the evening; for long aftersunset they are still to be seen seeking their sustenance. Terns at their breeding-time always assemble in flocks on thesea-coast, on the margins of lakes, marshes, lands near 28o REPTILES AND BIRDS. the mouths of rivers. Their nests are placed so near to one another,that those sitting actually come in contac
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