BIRDS. 



333 



Sterna macrura, Naum. Arctic Tern. 



Uncommon and local on this coast, A.D. 190-i. 



Col. Drummond Hay, who believed at one time in the Arctic 

 Tern being the Common Teni of this coast, when replying to 

 certain inquiries that I made as to this, wrote to me under date of 

 March 22, 1886: "I have altered my opinion about Arctic Terns 

 and Common Terns, which latter I now believe to be the common 

 species found breeding. The Arctic Tern I never shot (i.e. on 

 Tents Muir), and my information regarding it entirely depends upon 

 Mr. P. Henderson. Sometimes I have been at Kinshaldy since 1881, 

 and have paid particular attention to the Terns ; and I cannot say 

 positively that amongst the lots I saw there, there was a single 

 Arctic Tern. All I have ever shot were Common Terns.'' 



Mr. Milne quoted Col. Drummond Hay, speaking of the Common 

 Tern, "less abundant than the Arctic'' — a statement I doubted at 

 the time. This, as I found later, ought to have been " less maritime 

 than the Arctic." 



Such is still its value on this coast ; but Mr. W. Evans identified 

 a colony of Arctic Terns on the coast of Tents Muir, consisting of 

 about twelve pairs in 1885. He snared a bird on its nest, and 

 identified the clutch of eggs. But Mr. Evans informed me that 

 he had known of this colony for a period of some twenty or more 

 years. 



Thus, while the Arctic is the commoner species on the west coast 

 and islands, seldom penetrating to inland localities, the Common Tern 

 is the predominant species on the sandhills of the east coast, and is 

 known to nest at a good many inland places, such as on the gravelly 

 reaches of Tay and Tummel, and of the larger rivers. 



I have no undoubted evidence of the Arctic Tern nesting at any 

 inland localities frequented by Terns anywhere in Scotland. 



Sterna fluviatilis, Naum. Common Tern. 



As we have just seen, this is the commonest species upon the east 

 coast, and within our area. It is "really less maritime than the 

 Arctic," and so finds many more inland localities suited to its habits. 

 But it is a "pushful" bird, and appears to be the "coming race" 

 even in the west, if our chronological statistics show anything. (See 

 also under last-mentioned species. The treatment of these two 

 species becomes so intimately connected, that it is almost impossible 

 to speak of the one without mentioning the other.) 



