68 



HISTORY OF 



ARCTIC TERN. 



Sterna Arctica. TEMMINCK. 



UNTIL of late years this Tern has been confused with the 

 common one. M. Temminck, in his " Manuel d'Ornithologie," 

 was the first naturalist who distinguished and characterised it ; 

 since which it has been found, by Mr. Gould, to be common in 

 the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and by ourselves in the Skerries, 

 a group of bare rocks about nine miles from Holyhead, where 

 we obtained several specimens of this Tern, together with the 

 common one ; but did not observe, probably from not being 

 aware of the fact at the time, that the two species do not 

 associate. We gathered also a number of the eggs of both 

 species, which greatly resemble one another, those of the Arctic 

 Tern, however, being rather the smallest. 



The man who attends the lighthouse on the Skerries states, 

 that the old birds continue to feed the young until the second 

 year. 



