56 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Alaska, both on the coast and in the interior, and on the islands 

 in Bering sea and on the Aleutian islands. {Nelson^ Fannin has 

 seen it off the Pacific coast of British Columbia, and reports it 

 from Dease lake in Cassiar and south to Okanagan. Two speci- 

 mens seen by Rhoads on Upper Arrow lake, B.C., were thought 

 to be this species. 



Breeding Notes. — On July .15th, 1895, ^r. Dicks collected 

 some clutches of this tern for me on Green island. Sandwich bay, 

 Labrador. Nests in a hollow in the rocks, containing two or three 

 eggs each. This bird also breeds on the islands of Mackenzie 

 bay, Arctic ocean, where eggs were collected for me on June 20th, 

 1894. Nests, holes in the sand. {Raine.) Nesting everywhere 

 on the sand on Sable island with a preference to sand bars and 

 lake shores. {W. Saunders.) 



The arctic tern is one of the earliest birds to arrive at St. 

 Michael, Alaska. They become very abundant by the middle of 

 May. They breed on the low grounds, preferably on a low, damp 

 island, such as those at the northern end of the " canal." On this 

 place hundreds of nests were discovered in 1876. The nest is 

 merely a bare spot on the ground; sometimes only a few blades 

 of grass surround the margin of the nest, but these seem to be 

 more the result of cleaning off a bare spot than an attempt to con- 

 struct a nest. The eggs vary from one to two, never more. 

 ( Turner^ 



On June 12th I found a nest upon a small wet islet near St. 

 Michael. The island was covered with short grass. The nest was 

 lined with a few dry grass-stems and contained two eggs, and the 

 female bore another ready to deposit. Another nest similarly 

 situated was lined with material procured within a few feet, and 

 the ground was turned up in small spots all about where, the birds 

 had uprooted the grass, many small bunches being half uprooted 

 and left, the task proving too heavy. {Nelson.) 



72. Roseate Tern. 



Stertia dougalli Mo^t AG. 18 13. 



Rare on the coast of Nova Scotia. {Downs.) Recorded on the 

 authority of Col. Thomas Egan, who assures me a specimen was 

 lately obtained and is now in the possession of Mr. John Rowe of 



