THE ARTIC TERN 229 



venturesome birds swoop closely round our head. The ex- 

 citement and noise is kept up until we finally reach the shore 

 again and push off to sea ; but long afterwards we can observe 

 the troubled birds hovering above their nests, and their cries 

 come gently down the wind. Sometimes the nests are made 

 near the water's edge ; and I have occasionally seen the eggs 

 lying on the bare rocks with only a few bits of grass and 

 withered seaweed round them. I am of opinion that the 

 Common Tern usually makes a nest, and breeds much farther 

 from the beach than the Arctic Tern generally does. 



The eggs of the Common Tern are two or three in number, 

 and vary from buff to grayish-brown in ground colour, spotted 

 and blotched with dark brown and pale gray. They vary 

 considerably in size and markings. Some eggs are very 

 handsomely blotched ; others are only sparingly marked, and 

 very often the spots form a zone round the larger end. The 

 Common Tern only rears one brood in the season, and both 

 parents assist in bringing up the young, which are covered 

 with down and able to run and swim shortly after they are 

 hatched. The young are fed on shrimps and various small 

 marine animals ; as they get older they take to small fish, 

 which the old birds are most assiduous in catching for them. 

 In autumn, when the young are strong upon the wing, the 

 Common Tern unites into enormous flocks, which gradually 

 wander southwards to warmer seas, flying leisurely along, 

 often staying a few days here and there where food chances 

 to be plentiful. 



The Arctic Tern is by far the commonest of its family in 

 this country, and is very widely dispersed, especially in the 

 more northern districts. Like its congener, the Common Tern, 

 it arrives here late in April or early in May, and frequents 

 much the same localities. It is just as gregarious, perhaps 

 more so than its congener, and its slenderer form and propor- 

 tionately longer wings and tail make it even more elegant 



