ARCTIC TERN. 555 



wind had been blowing hard for many days from the east 

 and N.E., but suddenly changed to the westward, continuing 

 to blow hard. Some of the specimens had not acquired the 

 perfect black head peculiar to the breeding- season, but all 

 were on their route to their northern summer quarters, their 

 intended course having been interfered with by the prevailing 

 strong winds. 



The Arctic Tern is abundant in the Faeroe Islands, 

 Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, also along 

 the entire coast of Norway, Sweden, and Russia. It is said 

 to breed up to the extremities of the deep fjords which 

 indent those countries, and even on the fresh-water lakes, 

 but such is not its custom in our islands, in which its 

 habitat is exclusively marine. Its summer range can be 

 traced along the coast of Siberia to Bering Straits, and 

 across them to the American mainland ; thence by the 

 shores and islands of the Ai'ctic Sea, the Great Bear Lake 

 and the Fur countries to Hudson's Bay. It goes as far 

 north as human foot has trod, for Parry's expedition met 

 with it breeding in numbers to the north of Spitsbergen 

 in 81f ° N. lat. ; and Major H. W. Feilden, when in 

 H.M.S. ' Alert,' found, on 21st August, 1876, eight or ten 

 pairs breeding on a small islet off the north end of Bellot 

 Island (lat. 81° 44' N.), the land at this date being covered 

 with snow about three inches deep. In one nest lay a 

 newly-hatched Tern, which seemed quite well and lively in 

 its snow-cradle, and this, the most Arctic of specimens, has 

 been kindly presented to the Editor. The parent birds had 

 evidently thrown the snow out of the nest as it fell, for it 

 was surrounded by a border marked by the feet of the old 

 birds, and raised at least two inches above the general level 

 (Ibis, 1877, p. 408). On the east coast its breeding-range 

 extends at least as far south as Massachusetts; and in winter 

 it can be traced to Bahia in Brazil, and to Tumbes in Peru.* 



Crossing the Atlantic, the Arctic Tern visits the Canaries 



* Sterna piled, Lawrence, appears to be an immature example of this species 

 from California ; and .S'. portlandica, Ridgway, is a bird of about twelve months 

 old, obtained just before commencing its moult. 



