274 LARiD^:. 



the number required for the purposes of science were obtained, 

 and the result proved very different from that on former occa- 

 sions, as of the six killed to-day, three were roseate, two com- 

 mon, and one arctic.^ Of terns generally, I perceived a great 

 diminution of numbers since 1827 ; but the roseate, which, 

 as before, I readily distinguished by the call, &c., was, com- 

 pared with the numbers of the other species, much more common 

 than in 1827 and in 1832 ; we could to-day have shot many 

 more of them than of the others : they seemed principally con- 

 fined to one part of the island. t Being aware of Mr. YarrelFs 

 opinion that the egg of the roseate tern is in general form longer, 

 narrower, and more pointed at the smaller end than that of the 

 arctic or common species, I looked with this view to aU the eggs 

 which I saw in nests on the island ; — if nests they should be 

 called, as all the eggs seen to-day were laid on the short pasture, 

 owing perhaps to tlie birds being more than usually disturbed, and 

 changing their place of laying. There were more cattle on the 

 island than I had before seen, as well as more seekers after eggs. 

 I examined also those collected by one member of a boat's crew, 

 that landed just before us for the speciaL purpose of gathering 

 them ; and out of about fifty, only one would be called by Mr. 

 Yarrell the egg of the roseate, and all the others be considered 

 those of the common and arctic ; yet, from the number of terns 

 of that species which we saw to-day, from their flying much 

 nearer' to us, and being a great deal more vociferous than the 



* Their stomachs did not exhibit the remains of tiny food : the three roseate birds 

 were males. 



t This reminds us of what Mr. Selby has observed at the Parn Islands on the 

 Northumbrian coast. In the ' Zoological Journal' for January 182(5 (vol. ii. p. 462), 

 he states that : — " About fourteen years ago the keejier of the outer lighthouse first 

 noticed this as a new and distinct species. Infonnation was given me of the circum- 

 stance, and I went over to ascertain the fact ; and, having killed several, found them 

 to be the Sterna Bouf/al/ii, Mont. Since that period they have greatly increased, 

 and now form a numerous colony, which occupies a large space of ground near to 

 that occupied by the arctic species ; and they have a second station upon one of the 

 Walmseys." 



Dr. M'Dougall, who discovered the roseate tern on the Cumbrae Islands, Frith of 

 Clyde, considered that there was not more than one of them to two hundred of the 

 common tern, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, of the conmion and arctic, the 

 latter not being distinguished from the conmion at that period. 



