Gould remarked 'How joyous are the emotions of the sailor when, towards the end of a long voyage, he sees the Little Tern flapping its long wings over the surface, or descending headlong into the ocean. Light-hearted is he now; for he knows that this aerial sprite is a never failing indication that the shore is near at hand, and that in a few hours he may get a short relief from his monotonous sea-life.'

Gould visited a breeding colony on the shingle beds at Dungeness, Kent, with his son, Franklin in June 1864. The buff stone-coloured eggs, placed in 'a little depression, without a nest other than a few bits of shells arranged neatly around' looked so similar to the sand and the shingle that it was very difficult to detect them. Dotted over the shore were many more terns, and others were crying and wailing overhead.

The illustration shows the adults feeding the chicks on the shingle and in the distant background is Dungeness lighthouse.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds throughout Palaearctic south to the Mediterranean region, southern Asia, Malaysian Archipelago, and coasts of Australasia. Winters from south Europe, south Asia and Micronesia, south to Africa and Australia