ARCTIC TERN. 248 



October, being seen on migration in the other parts of 

 the county, and occasionally being driven inland by 

 storms. The eggs are two or three in number, and are 

 laid about the beginning of June, often in slight de- 

 pressions scratched in the sand or shingle, though 

 sometimes a few bents are collected together, and the 

 favourite situations are either the hollows of the sand- 

 hills, or along the shore just outside. [The late] Mr. 

 John Hancock {Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Xoytluonh. and 

 Durham, vol. vi. p. 142) says, under EoseateTern (though 

 he has since written to me, in December, 1882, that 

 he is now more inclined to think the specimen was a 

 young Arctic Tern) : — "While on an ornithological tour 

 to the west coast (on July 27th, 1840) my attention was 

 arrested by a Tern on the sands at Morecambe Bay ; it 

 was making the most extraordinar}- movements, and was 

 evidently in trouble ; so intent was it on rubbing its 

 head from side to side upon the sand, that it allowed 

 me to approach within gun-shot. I killed the bird, and 

 to my surprise found a cockle firmly fixed on the upper 

 mandible, which was inserted nearly half an inch be- 

 tween the valves of the shell, and was indented by its 

 grasp : a rather strange example of the biter bit." 



COMMON TEEN. 



Sterna fluviatilis, Naumann. 



Local Names — SparUn(j, Keh, Shrike, Sca-SiraUoir. 



The present species and the one last described are not 

 easily to be distinguished on the wing, except by a 

 practised eye, and at pretty close quarters, and there is 

 little doubt that mistakes in identification are often 



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