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land, is annually tenanted by vast numbers of the Arctic Tern and a few Common Terns. The 

 eggs are there deposited early in June, on the bare ground, in any slight indentation, but often 

 protected from the north-west by tufts of long grass. Mr. Barclay remarks that he never found 

 more than two eggs in each nest. Dr. Saxby states that it is very common in Shetland during the 

 summer season. 



Our friend Captain Feilden found it numerous in the Faeroes, and we give below a few 

 notes which he has sent us on its habits there. He remarked that St. fiuviatilis does not occur 

 on those islands ; for amongst thousands of individuals he failed in observing one single Common 

 Tern. 



Throughout Scandinavia it is common, in the far north taking the place of the common 

 species. Godman observed it along the whole of the west coast of Norway ; and Mr. Robert 

 Collett writes that it breeds numerously on the Norwegian coast to beyond the Russian 

 frontier, and on Lofoten appears to have quite taken the place of St. fluviatilis. In Ostfin- 

 mark, Lapland, this species alone occurs, and breeds far inland. In the south it was in 1843 

 found breeding in numbers on Grip, outside Christiansund, though it is not now known with 

 certainty to occur there ; but it undoubtedly does occur on the southern coasts of Norway. 



Nilsson speaks of it as common in Skane, in Southern Sweden. Mr. Lowenhjelm found 

 large numbers breeding on a lake near Gellivare, in the far north of Sweden ; and it is probably 

 found throughout that country ; for Dresser has himself shot it on various parts of the coast as 

 high up as Tornea. Mr. Ludwig Holtz found it breeding on Gottska Sandon, off Gottland, and 

 says that he observed it chiefly near Ref, on the northern coast, between Kyrkoudden and 

 Soderref, on a point called Tarnudden, or the " Tern point." 



Dresser found it plentiful on the coast of Finland, and at Uleaborg it was about as numerous 

 as the Common Tern ; and Mr. Sabanaeff informs us that it is common in the Gulf of Finland, at 

 Lake Onega, and on the White Sea. According to Schatiloff large numbers breed on the Sevash ; 

 and Meves found them breeding numerously near Archangel. Mr. Gillett, writing on the birds 

 of Novaya Zemlya, speaks of it as tolerably numerous both on the western and eastern coasts. 

 Professor Newton records it as " tolerably common in Spitsbergen, breeding as far as lat. 80° N., 

 where Dr. Malmgren found it in countless numbers in July and August. In Ice Sound it was 

 not very plentiful ; but on the 15th of July Professor Nordenskjold kindly sent me two eggs 

 which he had himself found that day at the entrance. Among the Thousand Islands it was 

 numerous ; and the eggs are, of course, looked for by the Walrus-hunters who resort thither. 

 Old Frederick Marten mentions the excellence of their edible qualities ; and the regular visitors 

 to Spitsbergen have naturally not lost knowledge of the fact since his time." 



Dr. Malmgren, who also observed it in Spitsbergen, writes as follows : — " It breeds nume- 

 rously on the low islands on all the coasts of Spitsbergen. I saw innumerable multitudes on the 

 Depot Island, with their newly hatched young, on the 30th of July, and on an island called 

 M often, 80° N. lat., where on the 28th of August the young could fly. We first observed 

 them on the 10th and 11th of June in Treurenberg Bay." Passing again southward to the 

 Baltic, we find it occurring, though by no means so numerous as the Common Tern, on the 

 coasts of the Baltic provinces and North Germany. Pastor Boeck procured it from Riigen ; 

 and Mr. Benzon, of Copenhagen, writes that it breeds on the coasts of Denmark. De la Fontaine 



