Outer Fames. 43 



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 for- 

 wards 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 impossible 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, if harassed during 

 the breeding-season, changes its nesting-place, often 

 quite deserting an island. A few years ago the bird 

 was much more plentiful than it now is on the Fame 

 group ; but happily the colony on the Wide-opens 

 shows as yet no sign of early extinction. 



Within a few hundred yards of us was the House 

 Island, with its historic buildings ; but a fine day, 



E 2 



