sometimes ' keeer! Its food is chiefly composed of small fry, little fishes, 

 small crabs, shrimps, sand-eels, and other marine creatures. 



The breeding-season commences in the end of May, and from that date 

 till well on in June fresh eggs may be obtained. The favourite situations 

 for its nests are among the long lines of broken reeds, dead grass, bits of 

 cork, wood and seaweed which mark the limit of the high storm-tides of 

 winter. Sometimes the eggs are laid on the bare sand, or amongst the 

 coarse pebbles and shingles close down to high-water mark ; very little 

 trouble is taken, as a rule, in the construction of the nest. A few scraps of 

 dry grass, or pieces of seaweed, straws, or feathers are deposited in the hollow 

 prepared for the reception of the eggs. In one place only I have seen large 

 bulky nests ; this was on the huge beds of coarse gravel on the outside of the 

 old Bar in Morayshire. Here I have seen large collections of dead seaweed, 

 sticks, dead grass and feathers of Gulls. 



The eggs of the Arctic Tern are from two to three in number, and go 

 through the most extraordinary varieties of colour and markings. They may 

 have the ground-colour any shade of buff or buffish brown, and olive greens 

 and browns, sometimes reaching quite a rich dark brown. They are blotched, 

 spotted, and streaked with rich dark brown and purplish black surface-markings 

 and large inky grey underlying spots. As a rule they are more boldly blotched 

 than those of the Common Tern. One most beautiful variety has the ground- 

 colour pale pea-green. Its surface-marks are few in number, large, and of a rich 

 reddish brown, and there are large irregular underlying markings of purplish 

 grey. They vary in length from i "58 to i '47 inch, and in breadth from i '22 to 

 1*05 inch. 



Young in down are greyish brown on the upper parts, mottled with black ; 

 the throat, forehead, and sides of the head are dull black, and the under parts 

 are pure white suffused with a brownish tinge on the flanks and vent. 



The Arctic Tern guards its breeding-haunts most jealously, and should 

 some Gull or Skua come too near their colony, it is mobbed by the entire 

 community and hastily driven off. I watched with great interest a tremendous 

 battle between three or four Arctic Terns and a Richardson's Skua, on a small 

 island in Shetland. The Skua eventually settled on the ground ; but the little 

 birds swooped down on him so fiercely, one after another, that the robber had 

 to beat a hasty retreat. 



