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the number required for the purposes of science were obtained, 
and the result proved very different from that on former occa- 
sions, as of the six killed to-day, three were roseate, two com- 
mon, and one arctic. - * Of terns generally, I perceived a great 
diminution of numbers since 1827 ; but the roseate, which, 
as before, I readily distinguished by the call, &c., was, com- 
pared with the numbers of the other species, much more common 
than in 1827 and in 1832; we could to-day have shot many 
more of them than of the others : they seemed principally con- 
fined to one part of the island. t Being aware of Mr. YarrelFs 
opinion that the egg of the roseate tern is in general form longer, 
narrower, and more pointed at the smaller end than that of the 
arctic or common species, I looked with this view to all the eggs 
which I saw in nests on the island ; — if nests they should be 
called, as all the eggs seen to-day were laid on the short pasture, 
owing perhaps to the birds being more than usually disturbed, and 
changing their place of laying. There were more cattle on the 
island than I had before seen, as well as more seekers after eggs. 
I examined also those collected by one member of a boat's crew, 
that landed just before us for the special purpose of gathering 
them ; and out of about fifty, only one would be called by Mr. 
Yarrell the egg of the roseate, and all the others be considered 
those of the common and arctic ; yet, from the number of terns 
of that species which we saw to-day, from their flying much 
nearer to us, and being a great deal more vociferous than the 
* Their stomachs did not exhibit the remains of any food : the three roseate birds 
were males. 
f This reminds us of what Mr. Selby has observed at the Tarn Islands on the 
Northumbrian coast. In the c Zoological Journal’ for January 1826 (vol. ii. p. 462), 
he states that : — “About fourteen years ago the keeper of the outer lighthouse first 
noticed this as a new and distinct species. Information was given me of the circum- 
stance, and I went over to ascertain the fact ; and, having killed several, found them 
to be the Sterna Dougallii, Mont. Since that period they have greatly increased, 
and now form a numerous colony, which occupies a large space of ground near to 
that occupied by the arctic species ; and they have a second station upon one of the 
Walmseys.” 
Dr. M'DougaU, who discovered the roseate tern on the Cumbrae Islands, Frith of 
Clyde, considered that there was not more than one of them to two hundred of the 
common tern, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, of the common and arctic, the 
latter not being distinguished from the common at that period. 
