90 
STERNID.E. 
TA TORES. 
STERiVIDjR. 
PLATE CCXCIII. 
ARCTIC TERN. 
STERNA ARCTICA. 
The Arctic Tern is a summer visitant in Great Britain, 
particularly on the Northumbrian coast, and it annually 
breeds in great numbers on the Fern Islands, This species 
has only of late been distinguished from the common tern 
on account of the shape of its beak, and shorter tarsi; but 
it has other points of distinction, vhich are equally worthy 
of notice. 
The Arctic Tern inhabits, as its name properly indicates, 
the Arctic regions during the summer months, and is gene¬ 
rally found considerably further north than the common tern. 
It inhabits periodically Greenland, Spitzbergen, Baffin’s 
Bay, and Davis Straits, even among the mountains of ice; 
the arctic region of Siberia and Kamtschatka. In the 
northern countries of Europe and America it is known on 
many coasts, besides Great Britain; also in Denmark, 
Norway, the Hebrides, and Orkneys, the Shetland and Faro 
Isles, and in Iceland. On the soft muddy flats of Schles¬ 
wig and Holstein it is frequent, whereas the common tern 
