54 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA 
a bank of shingle, etc., near the foot of Amherst island, Bay of 
Quinté; I found one egg in June, 1895, a solitary pair of birds 
being all that were left of the many that formerly bred there; I 
have not heard of any being met with since that date. Another 
locality a little below Kingston was the “ Spectacles,” three small 
islands in mid-channel. Many pairs also bred at the foot of 
Wolfe island, but all these localities have been deserted for some 
years. Further down the river, below Rockport, a few pairs still 
breed. They frequent some rocky islets near Chimney island. 
In 1893 there were about 30 pairs of birds, but since that date 
they have gradually diminished until in 1896 there were not more 
than 12 pairs, and in a few more years this locality also will be 
deserted by these birds. Two or three eggs complete a set. I have 
seen numbers of tern’s nests and never saw more than three eggs 
in the same nest. When the eggs are laid on rocks, a few staiks 
of grass or bits of bark are collected and formed into a nest. 
Sometimes there is no attempt at nest building at all, but the eggs 
are laid on the bare rock or ground, usually between the first and 
third weeks of June. On the Magdalen islands great numbers of 
these birds breed on the sand bars; in June, 1897 I found them 
abundant on Grosse isle, where on the 22nd June I saw about 60 
eggs, most of them recently laid. The nests were made in the 
short grass and on the.beaches near the sea. (Kev. C.J. Young.) 
Besides breeding in numbers in the St.Clair marshes, this species 
breeds on islands in Lake Huron, and in 1g00 perhaps 100 nests 
were found on an island off the Bruce peninsula. The fishermen 
called it the ‘‘ Lake Erie gull’ and said it had come there only 
during the past few years. The nest is on gravelly or rocky 
ground and built of slight material. Eggs, from two to four. (W, 
Saunders.) 
During July and August of 1899 the writer spent five weeks on 
Sable island, which is situated nearly one hundred miles southeast 
of Nova Scotia. The breeding season was nearly over, but com- 
mon, arctic and roséate terns were still incubating, though thous- 
ands of young birds were flying around, and still younger ones 
were hidden in depressions in the sand or behind any convenient 
cover, while the clamour of the parents overhead was deafening, 
The chief breeding ground was on the south side of the island, 
and this was a wide sand flat extending for ten miles or more in 
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