52 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



doubtless because of their greater safety. We 

 cannot class this bird as an elaborate nest builder, 

 a mere hollow, scantily lined with a little withered 

 grass or weeds, being the only provision. The two 

 or three eggs vary from buff to grayish-brown in 

 ground colour, blotched and spotted with several 

 shades of rich brown and gray. But one brood 

 is reared, and as soon as the young are strong upon 

 the wing, the nesting places are deserted, and the 

 movement south begins. 



Terns migrate leisurely in autumn, often re- 

 maining a day or so here and there, on and off 

 the coast, and are then seen in localities which 

 they never frequent during summer. 



THE ARCTIC TERN. 



This Tern, widely known to systematists as the 

 Sterna arctica of Temminck, was unaccountably 

 confused with the preceding species, until the 

 German naturalist, Naumann, appears first to have 

 pointed out their specific distinctness. The Arctic 

 Tern is par excellence the Tern of our northern 

 coasts, say from the Fame Islands and Lancashire 

 onwards to the Orkneys and the Shetlands. I am 

 not aware that it breeds anywhere on the English 

 coast between Spurn and the Scilly Islands, but 

 there are a few scattered colonies on the west coast 

 of England and Wales. This pretty Tern may be 

 distinguished from its near ally, the Common Tern 



