BIRDS OF THE SEA 463 



or it may be that the grey mottled little ones will 

 make for the water and swim boldly into the open 

 with the old birds in anxious attendance. 



Out on the loch, on the grass-grown islands, the 

 Terns gather, chiefly the Arctic, for in North 

 Britain the Arctic form largely takes the place of 

 the common variety so w^ell known on the English 

 coasts. The points of difference in the two species 

 are not very clearly marked, and by the earlier 

 writers the two birds were treated as identical. 

 The Arctic, however, may be distinguished by his 

 more slender form, longer tail-feathers, and by the 

 fact that on his coral-red bill the black tip is largely 

 lacking. Like the Common Tern, the Arctic makes 

 hardly the semblance of a nest, and the two to 

 three brown mottled eggs are usually laid in a mere 

 depression in the herbage. 



If the island where the colony are nesting be 

 approached, the birds fly excitedly around the in- 

 vader, uttering their incessant cries, " tee-e-e rac, 

 tee-e-e rac," and like the Skuas, will at times 

 actually strike at him as they pass. 



Of the other species of Tern, the Sandwich and 

 the Lesser, both nest in certain localities on the 

 shingle of the English coast as well as in Scotland, 

 whilst the remaining races, the Black, White- 

 winged Black, Whiskered, Gull-billed, Caspian, 

 Roseate, Sooty and Noddy, although examples of 

 all have been obtained in one or other part of Great 

 Britain, must be regarded as English mainly by 

 courtesy. 



About one of the islands, flat and covered with 

 tall-growing vegetation, w^ith many little grassy 



