568 LARIDiE. 



THE AECTIC TERN. 



STERNA ARCTICA. 



Bill slender, red throughout ; under plumage ash-grey ; tail much forked, 

 longer than the wings ; legs orange-red, in other respects very like the 

 last. Length fifteen inches. Eggs as in the last. 



This bird, as its name indicates, frequents high northern 

 latitudes, to which, however, it is not confined ; since in 

 the Orkneys and Hebrides it is the common species. It 

 breeds also on the coast of some of the northern English 

 counties, but is of rare occurrence in the south, though 

 several instances are recorded of large flocks making their 

 appearance in different places at the season when they 

 were probably on their way from their winter quarters — 

 far away to the south — to their breeding-ground. In the 

 rocky islands which they frequent from May to September, 

 they form colonies and lay their eggs, generally apart from 

 the alUed species. The eggs closely resemble those of the 

 Common Tern, but are somewhat smaller. In its habits 

 and general appearance the Arctic Tern comes so close 

 to the last-named species, that the birds, even when 

 flying together, can only be distinguished by the most 

 practised eye. 



THE WHISKERED TERN. 



STERNA LEUCOPAR^iA, 



Bill and feet red ; head black, with a white stripe from the base of the bill 

 below the eyes to the ear-coverts : upper parts dark grey ; uudei-, white ; 

 tail slightly forked, dark grey ; irides black. Length eleven inches. Eggs 

 unknown. 



Of this Tern a very few isolated specimens only have 

 been obtained in diff'erent parts of the Old World, and 

 among them one was shot in the year 1836, on the coast 

 of Dorsetshire. Owing to its extreme rarity, little is 

 known of its habits. 



