92 
STERNIDA'. 
The Arctic Tern is not much in the habit of running 
about on the ground, and can only proceed in a shuffling 
manner a couple of feet from where it alights, and its 
capacities of swimming are equally slender, but its flight 
is light and elegant, and can be continued for an incre¬ 
dible length of time; the bird alights with great ease, 
and with equal facility takes wing from the ground or 
from the surface of the water, a circumstance that forcibly 
struck us when in pursuit of the young specimen before 
mentioned. Sociability is one of the virtues of the Arctic 
Tern, as it is rarely found otherwise than in parties of its 
own species, and during the breeding season generally 
in company with divers other sea-birds. ' 
The present species is also gifted with a great curiosity, 
for if a person turns up the ground, or. drops a piece of 
paper or handkerchief, the bird is almost instantly on the 
spot for the purpose of investigating, by hovering over the 
object, and soon is accompanied by as many of its own 
species as are near at hand. 
This bird is harmless and confiding to a great degree, 
and in the breeding localities this creates great surprise 
to the observer, who is thereby enabled to admire it very 
closely; but this only occurs while the bird is on the 
wing, for no tern remains on the ground within gunshot 
on the approach of man, although it will immediately after 
skim through the air close by the intruder. 
The call-note of the Arctic Tern differs also very con¬ 
siderably from that of the common tern; it sounds like 
g-eer, greer, or give, give, uttered in a soft melancholy 
tone. 
Fish, aquatic insects, their larvae, small Crustacea, and 
worms constitute its food; the fish it catches on the 
wing, the insects it finds on the shore, and the Crustacea 
