190 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



marked as occurring in Guernse}^ There are 

 three sj^ecimens, an adult and two young, in the 

 Museum. 



163. Common Tern. SteDiaJiuriatilis, Naumann. 

 French, " Hirondelle de mer," " Pierre garin." 

 The Common Tern is a regular but not numerous 

 spring and autumn visitant to the Islands, some 

 remaining to breed. I do not know that it breeds 

 anywhere in Guernsey itself, but it may do so, for 

 in the Vale in the summer of 1878 I saw more 

 than one pair about the two bays, Grand Havre 

 and L'Ancresse, all through the summer ; some of 

 them certainly seemed paired, but I never could 

 find where their nests were ; some of the others 

 apparently were non-breeding birds, as they did 

 not appear to be paired. These bays and along 

 the coast near St. Samson were the only places in 

 Guernsey itself that I saw the Terns ; there were 

 some also about Herm, but we could not find any 

 nests there ; but Mr. Howard Saunders and myself 

 found a few pairs breeding on one of the rocky 

 islands to the north of Herm ; when we visited 

 them on the 27th June, 1878, we only found four 

 nests, two with two eggs each and two with only 

 one egg each. Probably these were a second laying, 

 the nests having been robbed, as had everything 

 else on these Islands ; there must have been more 

 than four nests there really, as there were several 



