BIRDS. 227 



"never seen to arrive, always coming when the weather is 

 thick. This year, instead of leaving in August, a large flock 

 was seen to pass over Kirkwall, going to the south-west, on 

 October 5th. This bird being so long in leaving, it is predicted 

 by old men as a sure sign of fine weather for some time." 



Sterna macrura, Naum. Arctic Tern. 

 Ore. = Pickatarre. 



A very abundant summer visitant, breeding more abundantly on 

 the smaller uninhabited holms than on the larger islands. 



From a number of notes sent us by Mr. Irvine-Fortescue, 

 the terns appear to arrive with remarkable punctuality between 

 the 15th and 17th May, there being only one record as early 

 as May 6th. They rarely commence to lay before the first 

 week of June, and our experience of these birds in Orkney is 

 that they oftener lay two than three eggs. But out of seventeen 

 nests found by Mr. Irvine-Fortescue on the "Barrel of Butter " 

 nine contained the full complement of three. Their nests in 

 many places are so constantly harried that the young birds can 

 scarcely get off before the first week in August. The largest 

 colony we saw in 1888 was in Glimpsholm, and, on July 5th, 

 few nests contained more than one or two eggs. 



As is now well known, terns are very " shifty " as regards 

 their breeding-places. Not far from the house at Melsetter is 

 a flat, on which, twenty years previous to 1888, no Terns had 

 bred. About that time a colony took possession of it, and bred 

 for fifteen successive years, when they deserted the place. 

 While on a visit there in 1881, Mr. Heddle told us this about 

 these terns, but on visiting the place together on May 30th, to 

 his astonishment, we found a few pairs had returned to their old 

 quarters, and, on a subsequent visit, their numbers had largely 

 increased. This is probably the only colony in the whole of Hoy. 



In Sanday, terns breed commonly all over the wet and 

 uncultivated parts of the N.E. of the island, less'so in colonies, 

 than in most other places. 



