EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 105 



THE SMALLEK SOOTY TEKN. 

 (Sterna ancestheta.) 



Plate 31, Fig. 6. 



An example of this species was obtained on one of the light- 

 ships at the mouth of the Thames in September, 1875 ; it is now 

 in the collection of Mr. Edward Bidwell. 



The eggs of this species resemble those of the preceding, but 

 are smaller. 



THE NODDY TEKN. 

 (Sterna stolida.) 



Plate 31, Figs. 4, 5. 



Two specimens of this Tern were obtained off the coast of 

 Wexford, about the year 1830. It is an inhabitant of the seas in 

 the tropics, and has much the same distribution as the Sooty Tern. 



It builds a nest of grass or bits of seaweed and twigs, which is 

 placed on a branch of a tree or on a mangrove-bough, or even 

 on rocks. 



Only one egg is laid, and the markings vary considerably, as is 

 the case with the eggs of other Terns. Two types are figured 

 on the plate. 



SABINE'S GULL. 



(Lams sabinii.)* 

 Plate 3G, Fig. 8. 



This bird may fairly claim to be regarded as a rare straggler to 

 our islands on autumn migration. Sabine's Gull is a circumpolar 

 bird, breeding on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It is not 

 uncommon in various localities in Arctic America, from Alaska 

 to Greenland. In the Old World it has been found on the 

 Siberian side of Bering Straits ; Middendorff found it breeding 

 in considerable numbers on the Taimur Peninsula; and it has 

 occurred in Spitsbergen and Jan Mayen. 



The nests, according to Middendorff, were mere depressions in 

 the moss, lined with a few dead grass-stalks. 



* Xema sabinii — Saunders, Manual, p. 641. 



