PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 63 



as 74 1' lat. (Ibis, 1907, p. 345), 1 while specimens have been obtained in lat. 66 S. 

 beyond New Zealand, and off the coasts of Peru, Chile, and Brazil in S. America. 

 [F. c. B. j.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor. In spring migrants are seen passing 

 north along the coast of Kent from mid-April onwards (cf. Ticehurst, Birds of 

 Kent, p. 503). A few early arrivals are generally recorded from Lancashire in 

 the last week of April (cf. B. 0. C. Migration Reports). In 1911 the first arrivals 

 reached the Fames on April 21 (H. A. Paynter). The usual time of arrival 

 for the majority of the birds is the end of April and early May ; in Scotland 

 later. The date given for the Outer Hebrides is mid-May (Harvie-Brown and 

 Buckley, Fauna of Outer Hebrides), and for the Orkneys May 14-18 (Annals 

 Scot. Nat. Hist., 1904, p. 23). The departure extends from August till October, but 

 precise records are lacking. A passage along our coasts of Arctic-terns summering 

 farther north may be presumed to exist, but there is no information on this head 

 either. An Arctic-tern marked as a chick on the Fame Islands on July 17, 1909, 

 was caught at the Barns Ness Light, East Lothian, on August 23, 1909 (cf. Country 

 Life, October 16, 1909, p. 543). A young Arctic-tern marked on Sylt (North 

 Frisian Islands) on June 27, 1911, was picked up near Pontefract, Yorkshire, on 

 August 20, 1911 (cf. Weigold, quoted by Witherby, British Birds, vol. v. p. 130). 

 [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The breeding colonies of this species are sometimes 

 to be found on sand-banks or shingle-beds, at other times on bare rocks, and occasion- 

 ally near the shores of lakes on ground covered with a scanty vegetation. In the 

 Orkneys it has been found breeding on grass and in cornfields (Annals of Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1892, p. 78). Sometimes no nest whatever is made, the eggs being laid in 

 natural hollows of the lichen-covered rocks or in scratchings in the sand. At other 

 times a little grass, blossoms of thrift, a few bents or bits of seaweed and wrack are 

 used to line the nest hollow. Some Shetland nests are described as thick structures 

 of broad herbage : one built of seaweed was 8 inches across. (See also article by 

 F. B. Kirkman in British Birds, ii. p. 78, on variation in type of nest, and photos.) 

 (PI. XLHI.) The eggs vary in number from normally 2 to occasionally 3 ; in many 

 localities 2 are almost universally found. Thus T. E. Buckley states that in the 

 Orkneys the clutch consists of 2 only, while on the east Sutherland coast 3 are 

 frequently laid. Clutches of 4 eggs are the produce of more than one hen. They 



1 Richenow (Ornitholog. Monntsber. 1907, p. 107) holds the opinion that these birds are 

 Sterna antistropha, a closely-allied species, or more probably sub-specific form, whose breeding 

 grounds are unknown, but apparently exist somewhere in the southern hemisphere. See also 

 Deutsche Siidpolar-expedition, 1901-1903. Vogel des Weltmeeres, p. 463 (A. Reichenow). [F. c. R. j.] 



