LARID^. 359 



Arctic Tern. Sterna macrura, Naiimann. 



[Pearl Gull.] 



A passing visitor in spring and autumn, much more numerous in some 

 years than in others. 



On May bth, 1842, great flights of this Tern visited the Exe, and 

 hundreds were killed ■with sticks and stones, heing in an exhausted state 

 (F. ^Y. L. 11., MS. ' British Laridse '). Ahout the same date great 

 numhers of Terns, both Common and Arctic, but mostly the latter,, 

 appeared after a gale in Kingsbridge estuary and along the coast. 

 Thousands were seen and many were killed in the same manner as we have 

 described already. They remained about a w^eek and departed as suddenly 

 as they came (H. X., MS. Notes ; J. Gr., Zool. 1872, p. 3260). Mr. Ross con- 

 sidered that young Arctic Terns were more numerous than any other kind 

 on the Exe, but we have not ourselves found this to be the case. Cer- 

 tainly the birds that visit us in autumn are mostly immature, and were 

 xeY\ numerous on the coasts at the beginning of October 1871, and at 

 Plymouth October 1S8(J (Zool. 1887, p. 377). A male and female were 

 killed between Bantham and Thurlestone in May 1878, and many Avere 

 seen at Beesands in October 1891 (E. A. S. E., MS. Notes). An adult 

 was shot at Exmouth at the end of August 1891 after southerly gales. 

 This species was plentiful on sandy parts of the North Devon coast in 

 the autumn of 1859 (M. A.M., Zool, 1859, p. 6761); and many flocks 

 were seen on the Taw and Torridge in May 1S7-4 (0. F. M., Zool, 1874, 

 p. 4134). 



The Arctic Tern is a common spring and autumn visitor to our estuaries, 

 where in September it may be seen in company with the Common Tern, 

 and can hardly be distinguished from it when the birds are wheeling 

 about and fishing. Although it is a more northern bird than the Common 

 Tern, breeding at stations which are beyond the northern range of that 

 species, it is iievertheless, according to Mr. Kodd, more numerously repre- 

 sented on the Scilly Islands, where it nests commonly. There appears to 

 be no ])lacc on the south coast of England whei'e the Arctic Tern breeds, 

 for Mr. Maiisel-Pleydell declares that it does not nest anywhere on the 

 Dorset coast, in spite of Mr. Cecil SmitlTs assertion that he himself took 

 its eggs on the Che.sil lieach. After reading ^[r. Cecil Smith's very inter- 

 esting account in the 'Zoologist' for 1883, p. 454, of his visit to that 

 locality, it is (juite plain to us that he may have been mistaken, as it 

 ■would be impossible to separate the eggs of the Arctic and Common 

 Terns unless the old birds were actually caught on or shot off the nest, 

 and this cruel method of identification was not adopted. The Arctic 

 Tern deposits its eggs, which are generally two but sometimes three in 

 number, in a liole scratched among the pebbles on the beach, sometimes 

 with a scanty lining of grass, but most often without aiiy lining at all. 

 The young when first hatched are covered with a greyish down, and, like 

 those of the liing Dotterel, are very difficult to detect upon the ground. 



