THE ARCTIC TERN. 297 



arctic tern was shot at Lough Ncagh,"*^ when, I presume, on its 

 way to some marine breeding-haunt. 



Very rarely, arctic terns — doubtless late birds of the preceding 

 year — are shot at the breeding-stations before having attained 

 full adult plumage. I have met with two such, killed on the 

 13th and 18th of June, in different years, at the Mew Island. 

 They had the forehead and fore part of the crown of the head 

 pale greyish-white; feathers of the hinder part of the crown 

 white, tipped with black ; back of the head and nape, black ; 

 bill, wholly black ; tarsi and toes appear blackish, but on close 

 inspection may be termed dark reddish-purple ;t upper surface of 

 webs reddish-purple, under surface vermilion-red, a little clouded 

 with dark purple ; tarsal joints and under surface of toes bright 

 vermilion-red. These birds differed much in size, one of them 

 being the largest of the species that has come under my notice. 

 Its length, from the point of the beak to the end of the longest tail- 

 feathers, 1 7 inches, being 3 inches longer than several specimens 

 of S. aretica killed at the same time ; but this difference was cliiefly 

 in the superior length of its tail-feathers ; bill 2 inches from rictus 

 to point, 1 inch 1^ lines from forehead to point ; wing, from carpus 

 to end of first quill, 1 1 inches. The differences between this bird 

 and the other arctic terns obtained on the same occasion led me at 

 first to consider it a distinct species, and a minute description 

 was drawn up from the recent specimen : — this was exhibited at 

 a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, and is briefly 

 noticed in the "Proceedings " of that body for 1833, p. 33. 



Although the arctic and common terns may daily appear 

 very far up Belfast Bay after the breeding-season, they are com- 

 paratively seldom seen previous to that period : a specimen of the 

 former, shot near the Long Bridge at Belfast, on the 3rd of May, 



* Rev. George Robinson. 



t It appears singular to me tliat they should ever assume this dark colour, as 

 the tarsi of the young birds shot in the autumn of their first year are of a deep flesh, 

 or very pale salmon hue, and 1 should have expected tlicm, like those of the Lams 

 r'ulihundus, to become gradually of a deeper tint of J'cd, until tliat of maturity were 

 attained. Captain Sabine remarked of arctic terns, shut during Parry's voyage, that 

 the legs were changing from black to red. I have seen tliis colour only iu birds 

 when iu the next stage to maturitv. 



