12 Mr. R. Hall on the 



divisions, closely associated. These were early breeders. 

 At 8.30 P.M., ill company with Skuas, they would pass our 

 anchored ship in their wanderings over the waters of tlie 

 harbour, and until the sun set they showed little inclination 

 to retire to slumber. 



The Tern is very watchful of its egg, and I have seen two 

 Skuas driven away by it, first one and tlien the other being 

 attacked. Our captain, Steensohn, shot a Duck which fell 

 dead into a lake, and the Terns kept on pecking at its body 

 until the wind carried it beyond the vicinity of their nests. 

 I found them breeding upon high ground, several hundred 

 yards from a beach, as well as only a few yards from high- 

 water mark, and they not only place their nests in different 

 positions but construct them in different styles. These are 

 commonly placed upon a flat bed of sand and rocky ground, 

 more rarely upon a sandy part of the beach, but on one oc- 

 casion among the Acaena plant without a nest (February 7th). 

 The sandy and rocky ground afforded hollows for the single 

 egg, in each case; while on the shelly beach the nests were 

 of dry stalks of seaweed. A saucer-like nest of this descrip- 

 tion had a full diameter of 4 inches, with a depth of 1 inch. 

 Fresh eggs were gathered up to January 18th, on which date 

 seven specimens were obtained ; and on this day I observed 

 eggs iu place of those taken by me on December 30th. On 

 January 4th I saw the first mottled young one flying with a 

 flock; its call was different from the harsh treble note of the 

 adult, and was a pleasant short trill. On Januury 25th in 

 Greenland Harbour I noticed a young bird that had lost all 

 its barred feathers, and had the head, bill, and feet black ; 

 otherwise it was much like the parents, and by next spring 

 the "soft parts'^ would be red. The second officer of the 

 ship assured me he had just seen (January 27th) a black bird 

 in many respects like this Tern and associated with it. Its 

 plumage was lustrous black, and so were its bill, legs, and 

 eyes, but such a bird I did not meet with. 



DiOMEDEA CHioNOPTERA Salvin, Cat. B. XXV. p. 443. 

 This great Albatross is whiter and even more elegant than 

 D. exulans. My first observation of it was in a harbour. 



