The terrestrial mammals and birds of North-East Greenland. 



169 



I photographed the nest with eggs before we left the island. 

 Nests of terns in abundance were found around and close to the 

 nests of Sabine's Gulls These are very like those of the Arctic 

 Tern, but a little larger and lined with a few withered twigs of 

 Salix arctica and big pieces of straw. On the whole they are more 

 carefully formed than the nests of Arctic Terns, which in these re- 

 gions are almost always without any nesting materials. 



Not far from the two nests of Sabine's Gull I finally found one 

 more, which I supposed to be an old nest of the same species. Sa- 

 bine's Gull has probably nested here in former years. 



Fig. 14. Nest of Sabine's Gull. 



In the summer of 1907 I several times visited Renskæret and 

 stayed here and on the near lying little island Maroussia from July 

 13*^^ to 17'>\ Neither Arctic Terns nor Ivory-Gulls nested here in 

 that summer on account of the unfavorable ice conditions, which 

 would probably also have prevented Sabine's Gull from nesting; 

 this undoubtedly accounts for the fact, that neither Ivory-Gulls nor 

 Sabine's Gulls were recorded in 1907. 



Renskæret is a little island of elongated form, stony and sprink- 

 led with low rocks ; its eastern coast is facing the pack-ice. The 

 vegetation is in most places exceedingly poor. The northern part 

 of the island, on which Sabine's Gull nested is covered with barren 



