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following notes on the habits of this Tern: — "The Arctic Tern usually arrives in Fsero about 

 the middle of May ; but, owing to the extreme cold of this spring, the first I saw made their 

 appearance in Sudero on the 25th of May. On their first arrival they assembled in large 

 flocks, which rested together on the rocks, and fished in company ; and often at night I found 

 them settled roosting on the hill-sides 400 or 500 feet above the level of the sea. In about 

 ten days they had all paired; and then the entire line of the coast was fringed with them; 

 every few yards a pair had taken up a position on some rock ; and on the not very acces- 

 sible detached holms and on the lake-islets they literally swarmed. The first eggs I found 

 were taken on the 21st of June ; and then hardly any of the nests had more than one egg in 

 them. I have noticed the Arctic Tern hovering in flocks over the small grass-fields surrounding 

 the villages ; they floated over the meadow with the same airy flight as when hovering over the 

 sea ; but when they seized their food, which appeared to be insects, they alighted with the most 

 graceful motion imaginable. I can only liken it to the movement of one of those coloured air- 

 bladders which children play with, descending in a room, or, perhaps more aptly, to soap-bubbles 

 falling in a perfectly calm evening ; but for all that the rapidity of their movements was so great 

 that I never once detected them in the act of snapping their insect prey, the motion being too 

 quick for my eye." Eespecting its breeding-habits in Spitsbergen, Dr. Malmgren writes that it 

 there " invariably breeds in colonies, and is scarcely ever seen alone. In a small depression in 

 the ground the female deposits two or three eggs without any nest under them, except a few 

 straws, feathers, &c. She defends her nest with fury. If any one comes too close to the colony, 

 the whole swarm meet the intruder and fly round him, uttering fearful cries ; and the nearer he 

 approaches, the bolder and more angry do they become. Some fly at the intruder as if to strike 

 him with their beak, and approach so close that they may almost be caught ; or at least one can 

 knock down as many as one wishes with a stick. These attacks are accompanied by such loud 

 cries from the rest of the flock that any one who inadvertently stumbles upon their sanctum is 

 glad to get away as soon as possible. This Tern feeds on all small animals found on the surface 

 of the sea, such as crustaceans, Clio, Limacina arctica, &c." 



This Tern usually breeds in colonies, often consisting of a very large number of individuals. 

 Dresser found them breeding in large numbers on the islands outside Uleaborg, in the Gulf 

 of Bothnia. The nest is a mere depression in the sand, sometimes with a straw or two 

 inside it ; or occasionally the bird makes use of a piece of dried grass or sea-weed left high and 

 dry at some spring tide, in which it works out a hollow to contain its eggs. These latter, 

 generally three in number, closely resemble the eggs of the Common Tern ; but we quite agree 

 with our friend Mr. Harvie Brown that they are, if any thing, slightly smaller in size than the 

 eggs of that bird. In both colour and shape they are subject to great variation. We have now 

 before us a large series from Dresser's collection, chiefly from Greenland, amongst which are 

 varieties from almost pure unspotted white to a rich greenish colour thickly blotched with dark 

 umber, and from light stone-grey, spotted here and there with brown dots, to almost coffee- 

 brown with thick blackish brown smudges. One peculiar variety is pale bluish green thinly 

 spotted with small light-red dots; and another is bluish with one or two large reddish brown 

 spots. In size they vary from 1\^ by 1^ to Iff by 1^ inch respectively. Our friend Mr. A. 

 Benzon, of Copenhagen, informs us that he has in his collection eggs from Denmark, the 



