IIL] 
THE ARCTIC TERN. 
123 
more slender build and two very long tail-feathers, and it is 
much more common farther to the east than on Spitzbergen. 
I have not had an opportunity of making any observations on 
the mode of life of these birds. 
As the skua pursues the kittiwake and the glaucous gull, it 
is in its turn pursued with extraordinary fierceness by the little 
swiftly-flying and daring bird taernan, the Arctic tern (Sterna 
macroura^ Naum.). This beautiful bird is common everywhere 
on the coasts of Spitzbergen, but rather rare on Novaya Zemlya. 
It breeds in considerable flocks on low grass-free headlands or 
islands, covered with sand or pebbles. The eggs, which are 
laid on the bare ground without any trace of a nest, are so like 
lichen-covered pebbles in colour, that it is only with difficulty 
one can get eyes upon them; and this is the case in a yet 
higher degree with the newly-hatched young, which notwith¬ 
standing their thin dress of down have to lie without anything 
below them among the bare stones. From the shortness of 
their legs and the length of their wings it is only with difficulty 
that the tern can go on the ground. It is therefore impossible 
for it to protect its nest in the same way as the tju^o.” In¬ 
stead, this least of all the swimming birds of the Polar lands 
does not hesitate to attack any one, whoever he may be, that 
dares to approach its nest. The bird circles round the disturber 
of the peace with evident exasperation, and now and then goes 
whizzing past his head at such a furious rate that he must every 
moment fear that he will be wounded with its sharp beak. 
Along with the swimmers enumerated above, we find every¬ 
where along these shores two species of eider, the ranliga eidern, 
common eider (Somateria mollissima, L.) sjudi praktejdern, king- 
duck {Somateria spectabilis, L.). The former prefers to breed on 
low islands, which, at the season for laying eggs, are already 
surrounded by open water and are thus rendered inaccessible to 
the mountain foxes that wander about on the mainland. The 
richest eider islands I have seen in Spitzbergen are the Down 
