240 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



of Other species, the flight has always appeared to me more 

 dehberate, and I have visited one colony several times ; in the 

 down-stroke they are not brought so far beneath the plane 

 of flight as in other terns. The black hood appears to extend 

 further on the neck than in the Common Tern. The alarm or 

 call of annoyance is a long aaack^ or a sharper agh j it has too 

 a long craak or C7'eee, The call note is a clearer chew-it. A 

 pair of birds sporting in the air at a great height, in what 

 appeared to be nuptial flight, varied the chew-it with a harsher 

 acht'r, as I entered it in my notes at the time. 



Persecution nearly exterminated our Roseate Terns, but pro- 

 tection saved the situation in some places. Colonies of this 

 and other terns were harried out of existence by plumage 

 hunters, and ^^% collecting has swept clean many a colony. 

 There are, however, other factors which make the Roseate's 

 position unsatisfactory, the worst being its competition with 

 more go-ahead species. On congested stacks the best sites for 

 nests are monopolised by the earlier breeding Commons or 

 Arctics, though I have seen Roseates, on the same stack with 

 the other three species, busily engaged in courtship without any 

 suggestion of interference. The Roseate arrives late in April, 

 nests often late in June, and seldom remains in British seas 

 long after the end of August. 



Most of the colonies are on rocky stacks occupied by other 

 species, but, except for occasional pairs, the nests are in one 

 area. Some of the now extinct colonies were on dunes or 

 shingle banks, and recently a few pairs have nested in Common 

 Tern colonies on the mainland. Very little nesting material 

 or lining is used, most eggs being laid on ledges, or in 

 cracks and hollows in the rock. Mr. Jourdain points out that 

 water often collects in these hollows and chills the eggs ; I 

 have seen many swamped clutches of eggs of the Arctic Tern. 

 Either one or two eggs (Plate io8) are laid, but a single 

 ^%% is more common than two, and from observations made 



