PLATE I 

 ARCTIC TERN. Sterna macrura. 



4///, 1895. This nest was photographed on Staples Island, one of the 

 Fame group, off the coast of Northumberland. The drift-weed at high-water 

 mark was covered with their eggs, and in some places it was very difficult to 

 avoid stepping on some of them. We saw hundreds of nests, and the varieties 

 of colour were most wonderful. I took two perfectly white eggs, and one of 

 a beautiful dull green, absolutely spotless ; the other eggs in each case were 

 perfectly normal in colouring and size, so I was at a loss to account for their 

 peculiarity. 



All the time we were at this colony the whole air was filled with thousands 

 of Terns, both Common and Arctic, all shrieking at once, so that the Babel 

 was tremendous. The Black-backed Gulls were constantly attempting to rob 

 the nests, but were almost invariably driven off by the pugnacious little 

 Terns, before they could achieve their intention. The larger Sandwich Terns, 

 however, were not so brave in defending their nests, and their eggs were 

 destroyed wholesale. 



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