ARCTIC TERN. 645 



times deeper than that of the back, and often with a slight 

 purplish hue. The bill is often more or less dusky at the end. 



Habits. — The Arctic Tern appears on our coasts in the 

 beginning of May. It is very abundant in the outer He- 

 brides, in Shetland and Orkney, on the northern and eastern 

 coasts of Scotland, on the Isle of May, the Bass Rock, the 

 Fern Islands, and in many other localities ; but is unfrequent 

 on the coasts of England. Northward, it extends to Norway, 

 Iceland, and Greenland. Mr. Audubon found it in Labrador ; 

 and the arctic voyagers met with it abundantly on the shores 

 of the Frozen Ocean. It is only in the summer season, how- 

 ever, that it frequents these northern tracts, for in autumn it 

 disappears even from our own somewhat temperate seas. M. 

 Temrainck supposes it to belong permanently to the north, 

 and to represent the common species in the regions of the 

 arctic circle. 



Its habits differ little from those of the Common Tern ; 

 but its flight is more bounding, and its cries shriller. Fre- 

 quently the two species are found mixed at their breeding- 

 places, though they often also keep separate ; and in neither 

 case could a person who had not paid considerable attention 

 to them distinguish them Avith certainty until shot. They 

 nestle on the bare sand, or among small pebbles, in which 

 case a slight hollow receives the eggs ; but also on low rocks, 

 or in craggy places, when a kind of nest is often formed of a 

 little dry grass and herbage. The eggs, generally three, 

 sometimes two, rarely four, are scarcely, if at all, distinguish- 

 able from those of the Common Tern, though mostly some- 

 what smaller, measuring about an inch and from five to eight- 

 twelfths in length, and an inch and one or two-twelfths in 

 breadth. They are light yellowish-brown, brownish-yellow, 

 brownish-grey, or pale bluish-green, blotched and spotted 

 with umber-brown. An undoubted specimen in the Edin- 

 burgh Museum, brought by Mr Fisher from Parry's second 

 expedition, is broadish-oval, one inch and six-and-a-half- 

 twelfths, by one inch and two-twelfths, pale greyish yellow, 

 irregularly blotched with light umber and very pale purplish- 

 grey. 



