3 
spontaneous nature of these alarms, However one ©ay by chance 
notice one of the first bird a to become alarmed, On these 
occasions It seems that It Is the behaviour of the frightened bird 
and the calls he utters which infect his neighbours^ who in 
turn spread the panic to the rest of the colony. There is* 
indeed no need to suppose some telepathic Influence slaruldaneously 
affecting the behaviour of ©any birds at once. 
The earliest Arctic terns see® to arrive at Budl® Bay 
toward® the end of April, At first for a few days we did 
not see® than around the islands but ones and twos soon appeared 
and very quickly the birds could be -seen flying fro© the west 
towards Knox* e Reef and settling there, tape daily in the 
r;j o mi mg. Later in the day the fleck there seemed to become 
smaller and odd bird# and little group® would be seen cm their 
way back to Budl© Bay, These morning visits would involve 
quite a lot of aerial dig pity but the birds rarely cam® over 
the colony are© at first. In 1 "54 the AXCiabB case rather late 
and the first bird, a Common tern as it happened, was se-sn to 
land on the colony area two days after the first Arotlc/Co®»on 
had been seen in the Kettle* The p&os beeoae suddenly much more 
frequent as the first birds begin to touch clown but only a few 
land before all gradually move away ©at over the Kettle again 
end the day*® activity at the colony is over. These momlnf visits 
become longer and longer, beginning earlier and ending later. 
There is no trace of any evening visit. Although the visits 
become longer the tern®' do not roost on the island until shortly 
before the eggs are laid, 
Let us turn now to the behaviour of the individuals. 
Because of the difficulty in following Individuals in flight 
for ©or® than € few minutes at a time, it is not sure how long 
two birds which perform trial display together remeian in 
company. Probably they don t because the first birds to lend 
on the ground are visited by others (presumed f ©sales) who 
don’t seen to stay with them lout nay visit several of the "nales* 
in turn. F^r these reasons I think it is lively that the sire 
do not remain together in winter. Pairs ©re some Uses reported 
in company on migration but they my only be temporary partners. 
In one instance I knew two males who were colour ringed fro© an 
earlier year. Each had bred the year before with a ©at® who® 
I had also colour ringed. The names of the two pairs were 
William A H&ry and Dick A Pot, On 1*5 Hey 105* I saw William, 
Blok and Dot for the first ties that year (and I think it likely 
that they didn’t visit the colony before). Dot ■ no 
immediate attraction for her old sate, Dick:. On the contrary 
she made an aerial display with William of a type which I 
suppose to bo. an early step in pair formation. However la ter in 
the day she stayed near Dick and did the same aerial die lay with 
hiss. In the end she rejected bo th ©ale® and m . ted with quite 
a different on© some yards away. Late in th; season Dick had 
still failed to get a mate but age in and again would bring a fish 
which he would carry about for several siautee. This is a part 
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