346 Mr. W. Eagle Clarke on the 
when off Coats Land, in 74° 1’ S., 22° 0’ W., many were seen 
along with McCormick’s Skuas, Giant, Antarctic, and Snowy 
Petrels, when the ‘Scotia ? was locked in the pack. 
It seems very remarkable that the far-off ice-fields of the 
South Polar Ocean should be visited during the northern 
winter season by this boreal species. That it is only a 
winter visitor does not admit of doubt, for the bird certainly 
does not breed there ; nor is any other Tern, so far as we 
know, a native of the Antarctic Continent. During the 
southern summer (the northern winter) there is an extra- 
ordinary abundance of marine life, especially of surface- 
swimming crustaceans, and so this elegant bird is tempted to 
seek retreats which can otherwise only be regarded, even in 
summer, as inhospitable in the extreme. 
The finding of this Tern in the seas off the South Polar 
Continent must be regarded as one of the most important 
ornithological discoveries made by the Expedition, for, as 
has already been stated, no Terns appear to have been 
previously captured within seas girdled by the Antarctic 
Circle. 
The ‘ Scotia’ collections include some interesting specimens. 
An adult female obtained on March 28rd, 1904, in 68°32’ S. 
and 12° 49’ W., has already assumed full breeding-plumage, 
and shews no signs of moulting. Another (a male) is 
assuming its summer hood, leaving the head a mixture of 
black-and-white feathers; this specimen still retains the 
dusky upper wing-coverts of youth. In addition to gaining 
the black head for the first time, it exhibits further evidence 
of moulting, inasmuch as neither the primaries nor the 
rectrices are quite fully grown, the first primary being still 
shorter than the second by about half an inch. I am inclined 
to think that we have here a bird about twenty-one months 
old. 
The series also includes two immature examples in the 
plumage known as the S. portlandica stage. These have the 
forehead and crown nearly white, the rest of the head 
blackish, the lesser wing-coverts conspicuously dark, and 
the bill and feet black. They are in deep moult so far as 
