THE ABCTIC TERN. 293 



Audubon (vol. iv. p. 77) describes this tern as ascending the 

 Mississippi, uud frequenting large lakes bordering the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



THE ARCTIC TERN. 



Sterna macrura, Naum. (1819) 

 „ arctic a, Temm. (1820) 



Is a regular summer visitant, 



As recorded in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lou- 

 don, in 1833. This species, noticed in connection with the 

 roseate tern, came under my observation in June 1827, at which 

 period, from being undescribed in any work on British birds, it 

 was unknown to me, and believed to be an ornithological trea- 

 sure, for its specific difference from S. hirundo was at once appa- 

 rent. A little research, however, showed that the species was 

 known to Mr. Selby, and included in his very interesting paper 

 on the 'Birds of the Earn Islands,^ (published in Jaimary 1826, 

 in the second volume of the ' Zoological Journal,') and with the 

 additional information of Temminck, who had described the 

 species in 1820, all was clear."^ Following the example of Mr. 

 Selby, I drew up and read to the Belfast Natural History Society, 

 in July 1827, a paper on the Birds of the Copeland Islands, ofi" 

 the coast of Dowji, in which the Sterna arctica, with the allied 

 S. Jiirtmdo and S. Boiigallii, were fully treated of: — some addi- 

 tional distinctive characters to those given by that author were 

 then pointed out, but now that the species is so much better 

 known, it is unnecessary to repeat them here. 



Under the Roseate Tern, particulars of S. arctica at the Mew 

 Island, Down, and the Skerries, off the north of Antrim, will be 



the observation that—" They I'requeut rivers far remote from the sea, as for example 

 tlie Rhene, about Strasburgh, where they were taken, described, and painted by Ltio- 

 uard I3ultner, by the title of Eiti ISjK'urer, who tells us also that they build in gi'avelly 

 and sandy places by the bank of the river, so that if it happen there be a Uoud in their 

 breeding time, their eggs are marred, and their nests destroyed." — p. 353. 



* Nauuumn, it appears, indicated the species in the Isis, in 1819, under tlie name 

 of 6'. maciunt. 



