THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 



whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the subject, 

 says of this bird: 



" It deserves its title of 'arctic' for it nests as far 

 North as land has been discovered; that is, as far 

 North as the bird can find anything stable on which 

 to construct its nest. Indeed, so arctic are the con- 

 ditions under which it breeds that the first nest 

 found by man in this region, only seven an^ one-half 

 degrees from the pole, contained a downy chick sur- 

 rounded by a wall of newly fallen snow that had been 

 scooped out of the nest by the parent. When the 

 young are full grown the entire family leaves the 

 Arctic, and several months later they are found skirt- 

 ing the edge of the Antarctic continent. 



"What their track is over that eleven thousand 

 miles of intervening space no one knows. A few 

 scattered individuals have been noted along the 

 United States coast south to Long Island, but the 

 great flocks of thousands and thousands of these 

 Terns which range from pole to pole have never been 

 noted by ornithologists competent to indicate their 

 [73] 



