No. III. ORNITHOLOGY. 213 



no eggs were found there, although the young were obtained 

 in all stages of plumage. 



11. Sterna ma rura. — The Arctic tern is not uncommon 

 in Smith Sound, and we found it breeding at several localities 

 we visited on our way north. On August 11, 1875, on 

 Norman Lockyer Island, I noticed several pairs, and picked 

 up a bleached egg, probably an addled one of a former season. 

 August 21, we found eight or ten pairs breeding on a small 

 islet off the north end of Bellot Island (lat. 81° 44' N.) ; the 

 land at this date was covered with snow, and on the islet it 

 lay about three inches deep. In one nest I found a newly- 

 hatched tern ; it seemed quite well and lively in its snow 

 cradle. The parent birds had evidently thrown the snow out 

 of the nest as it fell ; for it was surrounded by a border of 

 snow marked by the feet of the old birds, and raised at least 

 two inches above the general level. The terns on this islet 

 were rather shy, none coming within range until I touched 

 the young one. There seemed to be abundance of fish in 

 the pools between the floes, as the old birds were flying 

 with them in their mandibles ; the stomach of the female 

 which I killed was empty, but that of the nestling contained 

 remains of fish. On June 16, 1876, three Arctic terns 

 appeared in the neighbourhood of the winter-quarters of the 

 4 Alert.' By the end of June pairs of these birds were scat- 

 tered at intervals along the coast ; and a nest, scraped in the 

 gravel and containing two eggs, was found June 27 about 

 three miles north of our winter-quarters. During the first 

 week in August we found a pair of young birds nearly ready 

 to fly in lat. 81° 50' N. 



12. Pagophila eburnea. — The ivory gull was not un- 

 frequently observed in Smith Sound, but not beyond lat. 

 82° 20' N. I found a pair nesting in a lofty and inacces- 

 sible cliff near Cape Hayes on August 16, 1875. On Sep- 

 tember 1 a single example flew around the ' Alert ' when she 

 lay moored to the ice in Lincoln Bay (lat. 82° 6' N.) On 

 August 2, 1876, I observed one of this species near Cape 

 Union ; on August 12 they were common in Discovery 



