110 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



localities on our southern coasts, and it is known to frequent 

 both Coquet Island and one or more of the Fame Islands for 

 the same purpose. It lays three or four eggs in a hole, or rather 

 cavity, either scratched or found ready-made in the neighbour- 

 hood of plants or herbage sufficient to afford some covert. The 

 colour of the eggs varies from yellowish white to a buffy stone- 

 colour, and they are thickly spotted with neutral tint, chestnut 

 and deep rich brown. There is, indeed, considerable variation 

 in the colouring of the eggs, but all are very beautiful. Fig. 1, 2, 

 plate XL 



292. ROSEATE" TERN. (Sterna Dougattii). 

 This bird is now known to be a regular but not abundant 

 summer visitor. Unlike many of onr recognised British Birds, 

 this Tern seems rather to increase in numbers than to diminish. 

 They associate with other and infinitely more common species, 

 and closer observation only has distinguished between them and 

 their eggs and those of their more numerous associates. The 

 eggs of the Roseate Tern are two or three in number, and vary 

 among themselves to some small extent. They are usually of a 

 light yellowish stone-colour, spotted and speckled with dark-grey 

 and dark-brown. 



293. COMMON TERN (Sterna hirundo). 



Sea Swallow, Tarney or Pictarney, Tarrock. Pirr, Gull-teazer, 

 &c. Although distinguished by the epithet of Common, this Tern 

 is really not much more numerous, and in that sense common, 

 than one or two other species with which it customarily consorts. 

 It is very generally diffused however, and in that sense is common. 

 It usually builds on the ground in marshy localities near large 

 sheets of water, or on islands low and fiat not far from the sea. 

 Sometimes, though more rarely, it builds upon low rocks or 

 slightly elevated sand-banks. They lay two or three eggs, and 

 are exceedingly and noisily restless and uneasy when they, or 

 especially their young, are too nearly approached. Their eggs 

 vary a good deal, but most of them are of a medium stone-colour, 

 blotched and spotted with ash-grey and dark red-brown. The 

 buoyancy and power of flight exhibited by these birds is very 

 observable. Fig. 3, plate XI. 



ARCTIC TERN (Sterna arcticd). 



This Tern, until a comparatively recent period, was confounded 

 with the Common Tern, but a clear specific difference was pointed 

 out by M. Temminck, and it is now acknowledged that, in many 

 of the more northerly localities especially, it is a much more 

 numerous species than the Common Tern. It breeds plentifully 

 in Shetland, Orkney and some parts of the Hebrides, and in great 

 numbers on Coquet Island and one or more of the Earnes. Ifc 



