SANDWICH TERN. 503 



be repeatedly taken at the commencement of the season, it 

 deserts the station first selected, and retires to some other 

 place, less liable to molestation. The eggs of this bird are 

 three or four in number, for the reception of which a 

 shallow hole is scratched among the sea-campion, or other 

 plants that may happen to grow on the selected place. 

 The eggs are two inches in length, by one inch five lines 

 in breadth ; of a yellowish stone colour ; thickly spotted 

 with ash grey, orange brown, and deep red brown, but 

 subject to considerable variation in the markings. As 

 soon as the young birds become tolerably fledged, but be- 

 fore they are altogether able to fly, they frequently take 

 to the water, swimming off to the smaller rocks, where 

 they continue to be fed by the parents until capable of 

 joining them in their fishing excursions. The time of the 

 arrival of the old birds is about the middle of May ; in- 

 cubation commences in the first week in June, and nearly 

 the whole have again taken their departure for more 

 southern latitudes by the end of September." Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray, in his Manual, mentions having obtained this 

 species in the Frith of Forth, and it was seen by the natu- 

 ral history party in [Sutherlandshire, upon the Friths of 

 Tongue and Eribol. 



M. Nilsson says it is seen in the southern parts of 

 Sweden occasionally; it is included among the birds of 

 Germany, and M. Temminck says it is abundant in North 

 Holland. It is found on the coast of France, and is said to 

 breed on some islands off Ushant ; it visits some of the 

 lakes of Switzerland, is seen at Genoa, and goes eastward 

 to Italy. It is found in various parts of Africa, and speci- 

 mens were in the collection brought by Dr. Andrew Smith 

 from the Cape of Good Hope. 



Mr. Audubon, in his Birds of America, says the Sand- 

 wich Tern is seen from Texas, during spring and summer, 



