AMONG THE WATER FowL 
left the New England shores, though some linger 
later, and I once saw a Tern—of the common 
species I took it to be—on Christmas day. 
The common or Wilson’s Tern is our most 
abundant species, very similar in habits and appear- 
ance to the Aretic (PernJ lt was years before 
could tell them apart, and no one can always feel 
sure. The former kind has a paler bill, with black 
at the tip, while the bill of the Arctic is all of a dark 
coral red, and its breast is usually darker than that 
of its relative. What a delightful panorama it brings 
to my mind to recall the various breeding colonies 
of this species that I have visited! Some were on 
various rocky islands of the coast of Maine, and 
suggest scenes of sunshine and fog, breeze and 
storm, wave and calm; others were at the Magda- 
len Islands—small groups of a dozen pairs or so 
on numerous lit- 
tle islands in the 
ponds, and es- 
pecially. onte 
great areaven 
sand between 
the outer beach 
and the lagoon, 
ee Bee ee eee §=§©6where nests were 
ea Oh RN a ec ae a Fe gh ee) Gi oy 
LBe'S Ba re) PU pe ies silica) TN, sea RR scattered along 
“CONSTRUCTED WITH ALL GRADES OF MECHANICAL ‘ 
ART, FROM A BARE HOLLOW IN THE SAND.”? NEST for miles, con- 
OF COMMON TERN, MAGDALEN ISLANDS structed with all 
grades of mechanical art, from a bare hollow in the 
sand to a substantial bed of grass or seaweed. 
Along the beach at this locality were feeding im- 
mature Herring, Great Black backedt Glanens: 
142 
