THE BIRDS OF THE OUTER FARNES 127 



were a constant anxiety to the monks on the neigh- 

 bouring island. 



We were received ourselves with screams as we 

 landed, but of a note less alarming than those which, 

 night after night, kept the good saint's successors 

 awake. The sunshine was broken by clouds of Terns, 

 perhaps the most exquisitely graceful forms of bird-life ; 

 and, as we looked to our feet to avoid treading on their 

 eggs, which lay thickly strewn on the ground, little 

 black shadows with forked tails and wings crossed and 

 recrossed, circling backwards and forwards on the sand. 



Four kinds of Terns the 'Common' and the 'Arctic,' 

 from which it is scarcely distinguishable ; the ' Roseate/ 

 and larger, black-billed, 'Sandwich' Tern breed in 

 numbers on the Wide-opens. We had met with a 

 few stray eggs of the Common or Arctic species 

 without catching the bird on the nest, it is quite im- 

 possible to say to which of the two an egg belongs 

 on the other islands ; but they were nothing compared 

 with the numbers we now saw. It was the eggs of the 

 Sandwich Tern which we wished more particularly to 

 see. They are very large for the size of the bird, and 

 unusually boldly marked. Though there is no difficulty 

 in recognising them at a glance, they vary infinitely, 

 no two being painted exactly alike. We found them 

 collected together (probably to the number of several 

 hundreds) among the sand and shingle-heaps on the 

 higher grounds, usually two or three in a nest. The 

 Sandwich Tern is said to be much more easily 

 frightened than either the Common or Arctic, and, 



