592 Mr. A. Trevor-Battye on the 



Arctic Teru^s nest. Our pairs of Terns in Advent Bay did all 

 the fishing in the neighbourhood of the nest, and the appear- 

 ance of a Skua within half a mile was the si gnal for attack. 

 Neither an Arctic nor a Buft'on's Skua has a chance with a 

 pair of Arctic Terns. 



The Arctic Terns have a habit whicli I have elsewhere 

 described * of Sterna minuta as observed in Norfolk ; but 

 the account so exactly fits the Arctic Terns that I may be 

 forgiven perhaps for repeating it here : " Returned from its 

 quest the bird, with a fish in its bill, circles round and round 

 and lower and lower over its mate, and presently drops down 

 beside her. Then he begins a scries of extraordinary evolu- 

 tions. With head thrown back, wings drooping, and tail 

 cocked straight up, he struts — no other word expresses it — 

 about in front of his mate. The attitude, a most comical 

 one, is exactly that assumed by the ' Laughing Jackass ' 

 Kingfisher when laughing. He jumps at his mate as if daring 

 her to take the fish. Then he will fly round for a bit, only 

 to settle again and repeat the play.^^ 



I think this bird feeds largely on pteropods : the stomach 

 of one I dissected was full of these. 



- 18. Pagophila eburnea (Phipps). Ivory Gull. 



The presence of ice has some attraction for the Ivory Gull. 

 It may be said indeed to go and come with the ice. To-day 

 if the sea near your camping-ground is clear of ice, not an 

 Ivory Gull will be seen; if to-morrow brings the drift-ice, 

 with it come the Ivory Gulls. I expect the explanation will 

 be found in the fact that this truly arctic species is greatly 

 dependent upon seals' " leavings " of different sorts. 



I did not at any point of our landing find a breeding- 

 place of the Ivory Gull j but of course several such places 

 have been recorded. Thus Dr. Malmgrcn, quoted by Prof. 

 Newton (Ibis, 1865, p. 587), describes a colony on the north 

 shore of Murchison Bay and Hinlopen Strait; Mr. Eaton 

 mentions colonics in Wijdc Bay and Lomme Bay ; while 

 Prof. Robert Collett contributed an interesting paper (Ibis, 



* Paper called " In Norfolk by the Sea," in ' Pictures in Prose,' 1894. 



