The Lesser Tern begins breeding in June. Like all the other species it returns unfailingly to certain spots along the coast each summer, and may, therefore, be presumed to pair for life. Its favourite breeding-grounds are extensive stretches of sand, varied with slips and banks of coarser shingle. It makes no nest, not even so much as scratching a hollow for its eggs, but lays them on the bare ground. It is most interesting to remark that this Tern never lays its eggs on the fine sand, but always on the bits of rough beach—where the ground is strewn with little stones, broken shells, and other _débris_ of the shore—where their colour harmonises so closely with surrounding objects that discovery is difficult. The eggs are from two to four in number—I have on two separate occasions taken clutches of the latter—but three may be given as the average. They vary from buff to grayish-brown in colour, blotched and spotted with various shades of darker brown and gray. During the hottest hours of the day the female sits but little upon them, and it is remarkable how quickly these shore birds will rise from their nests at the first sign of impending danger—the alarm doubtless being given by the male bird from the air above. It is a most exceptional thing to see a conspicuously coloured bird rise from its nest in a bare situation; the eggs are generally coloured protectively, and resemble the objects around them; the presence of the showily attired parent would inevitably lead to their discovery. Early in autumn, when the young are strong upon the wing, the return journey to the winter home on the African coast begins, and it is during these migration journeys that the bird is, perhaps, most commonly observed along the British seaboard. BLACK TERN. Allusion may here, perhaps, be permitted to the _Sterna nigra_ or _Hydrochelidon nigra_ of ornithologists. The Black Tern formerly bred commonly in our marshes and fens, but has long ceased to do so. The “Car Swallow,” as it used to be widely called in the fens, belongs to the group known as Marsh Terns—birds that rarely frequent the sea coast at all, so that its absence from our avi-fauna, although greatly to be deplored, could scarcely be remarked by the observer of marine species alone. The White-winged Black Tern and the Whiskered Tern complete this division, known as “Marsh Terns.” Both these latter are occasional wanderers to the British Islands. _Plovers and Sandpipers_ [Illustration: RUFFS—Sparring. Chapter ii.] CHAPTER II. PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS.