ARCTIC TERN. 
481 
NA TA TORES. 
LARIDjE . 
ARCTIC TERN. 
Sterna arctica. 
PLATE CXXXIII. FIGS. I. AND II. 
The Arctic Tern, which is the most abundant of this 
genus, breeds, together with the Sandwich tern, in great 
numbers upon the Fern and Coquet Islands — on the 
latter especially, where they are protected from destruc¬ 
tion by the Duke of Northumberland. The two species 
seem to be very sociable; and though they breed to¬ 
gether, as it were, and appear mixed, yet in passing over 
the Coquet Island, and examining the many hundreds 
of eggs that lay around me, in order to obtain con¬ 
trasting varieties, I found that they were generally in 
small distinct groups. The number of eggs, all laid 
within a small space, and confined to one side of the 
island, which is not altogether more than three or four 
acres in extent, could not be less than two thousand. 
Though fine, gravelly sand seems to be the favourite 
position for their eggs, there being no such beach upon 
the island, these were all deposited upon the grass, where 
the birds had usually scratched a hole, and lined it with 
a small portion of fine dry grass. The eggs, which are 
usually laid at the beginning of June, are always two or 
three in number, and, for the most part, so entirely like 
those of the common tern, that it is quite impossible to 
