520 Mr, H. J. Pearson on the Birds observed 



Several birds were always to be seen in the harbour, but 

 the species was not abundant. 



59. Sterna antillarum (Less.). 



Sterna superciliaris Vieill. ; Cory, B. Bahamas, p. 213. 



Sterna antillariim (Less.); Cory, Cat. W. Ind. B. p. 83. 

 S ad. Nassau, 10th May, 1898. 

 ? ad. „ 18t.h June, 1898. 



Several pairs of this little Tern visit the island in summer, 

 and I think that they breed by some of the inland tidal 

 lakes. 



XLIV. — Notes on the Birds observed on the Northern Parts of 

 the Murman Coast, Russian Lapland, in 1899. By 

 Henry J. Pearson. 



The winter of 1898-99 and the spring of the present year 

 have been the worst in the North of Europe for more than 

 forty years ; only the oldest inhabitants can remember any 

 season when so much snow fell and remained unmelted till 

 so late in the summer. This has caused serious loss to many 

 industries in Norway and Russia, and disturbed the domestic 

 arrangements of the multitude of birds which resort to the 

 Arctic regions every year for the breeding-season. The 

 following account of a visit to Russian Lapland must give 

 a very imperfect picture of the bird-life to be observed there, 

 and I feel sure the same districts would yield better results 

 during a normal year. 



Accompanied by my brother, Mr. Charles Pearson, I left 

 England on May 11th, and arrived in Tromso on the 18th. 

 The country was buried in snow down to sea-level, and the 

 main streets of the town were encumbered with four to five 

 feet of snow, compressed into a solid mass by the winter 

 traffic. On the islands off the coast, where at the same date in 

 1896 thousands of eggs of Gulls and other birds were to be 

 seen, only a few Great Black-backed and Herring-Gulls had 

 commenced to lay, and their nests were often surrounded 

 by snow four inches deep. Leaving Tromso on May 20th, 



