228 BIRDS. 



Sterna fluviatilis, Naum. Common Tern, 



Orc.=Pickatarre. 



From what we can gather, either from our correspondents or 

 from books, the first undoubted record of the true Common Tern 

 from Orkney is that by Crichton, in 1860, who, in his Rambles 

 in the Orcades, page 81, expressly mentions killing both species 

 of tern at the Loch of Stenness. 1 



Mr. E. S. Cameron informs us that the Common Tern 

 breeds both on Eynhallow and the island of Damsay ; there are 

 also smaller colonies on the holms in the loch of Ground water, 

 in the parish of Orphir, at which place Mr. Cameron has pro- 

 cured both the birds and eggs. Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie found this 

 species breeding in 1890, at Holland Head in the east of the 

 Mainland. 



Sterna minuta, L. Little Tern, 



[Obs. The statement by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle that this 

 species is not uncommon in Orkney, and is often observed in 

 Sanday in the breeding season, has not been confirmed by any 

 of our correspondents except Mr. Spence, who states that he 

 took eggs of the Little Tern on an island in Damsay Sound. 

 We ourselves have never seen this Tern there.] 



Sterna cantiaca, Gm. Sandwich Tern, 



On June 14th, 1888, Buckley paid a visit to the island of Damsay, 

 near Finstown, and, amongst many Arctic Terns and Black- 

 headed Gulls, he distinctly recognised a pair of Sandwich Terns, 

 being attracted by their note ; he was, however, unable to find 

 their nest, which, it is quite possible, may have been robbed by 

 some men who had landed on the island, without the proprietor's 

 leave, and gathered some eggs a day or two previously. The 

 birds were not seen by us the following year. 



1 In a note under " Common Tern " the late Robert Heddle remarks, " Mr. 

 Dunn is right ; the Arctic is the commonest Tern in Orkney. " No doubt Heddle 

 was misled by the word "common," which he applied to the commonest species of 

 tern he met with, i.e. the Arctic. The adjective "common" has, we think, in 

 several cases been wofully misapplied in other cases than this. Witness the "Com- 

 mon Skua," certainly not the commonest species of its genus in the British Isles. 



