LARIDJE. 571 



on the inner web ; all the under parts are white ; 

 legs, toes and webs brownish orange. 



The eggs are somewhat about the size of those of 

 the King Dotterel, but not nearly so pear-shaped ; 

 the ground is a pale cream-colour, but seems to vary, 

 one of my specimens having a much richer colour 

 than the other : they are all much blotched with 

 dark brown and dull purplish grey. 



ARCTIC TERN, Sterna arctica. The Arctic Tern, 

 like the last-mentioned species, is only an occasional 

 spring and autumn visitor to our shores : it is so 

 much like the Common Tern, especially the } T ourg 

 birds, that it is perhaps difficult to say which of the 

 two is the most common, as they get confounded 

 with each other, and if they are only seen on the 

 wing the difficulty of distinguishing them is con- 

 siderably increased. 



In the 'Zoologist' for 1864 (p. 9312), there is a 

 very interesting account, by Dr. Saxby, of the nesting 

 habits of the Arctic Tern. This account is the more 

 valuable as Dr. Saxby says that in Shetland, where 

 his observations were made, there was no other 

 species of Tern, so there could be no mistake as to 

 identity. The eggs, he says, are usually deposited 

 on a sandy or gravelly beach, or on a ledge of rugged 

 bank which has been broken by the winter gales : in 

 such places the eggs are merely laid in a hollow 

 scraped out by the bird ; but if the soil of the bank 

 happens to be wet a small quantity of gravel is some- 



