12 
Mr. R. Hall on the 
divisions, closely associated. These were early breeders. 
At 8.30 p.m., in company with Skuas, they would pass our 
anchored ship in their wanderings over the waters of the 
harbour, and until the sun set they showed little inclination 
to retire to slumber. 
The Tern is very watchful of its egg, and I have seen two 
Skuas driven away by it, first one and then the other being 
attacked. Our captain, Steensohn, shot a Duck which fell 
dead into a lake, and the Terns kept on pecking at its body 
until the wind carried it beyond the vicinity of their nests. 
I found them breeding upon high ground, several hundred 
yards from a beach, as well as only a few yards from high- 
water mark, and they not only place their nests in different 
positions but construct them in different styles. These are 
commonly placed upon a flat bed of sand and rocky ground, 
more rarely upon a sandy part of the beach, but on one oc¬ 
casion among the Acaena plant without a nest (February 7th). 
The sandy and rocky ground afforded hollows for the single 
egg, in each case; while on the shelly beach the nests were 
of dry stalks of seaweed. A saucer-like nest of this descrip¬ 
tion had a full diameter of 4 inches, with a depth of 1 inch. 
Fresh eggs were gathered up to January 18th, on which date 
seven specimens were obtained; and on this day I observed 
eggs in place of those taken by me on December 30th. On 
January 4th I saw the first mottled young one flying with a 
flock; its call was different from the harsh treble note of the 
adult, and was a pleasant short trill. On Januury 25th in 
Greenland Harbour I noticed a young bird that had lost all 
its barred feathers, and had the head, bill, and feet black ; 
otherwise it was much like the parents, and by next spring 
the “soft parts ” would be red. The second officer of the 
ship assured me he had just seen (January 27th) a black bird 
in many respects like this Tern and associated with it. Its 
plumage was lustrous black, and so were its bill, legs, and 
eyes, but such a bird I did not meet with. 
Diomedea chionoptera Salvin, Cat. B. xxv. p. 443. 
This great Albatross is whiter and even more elegant than 
D. exulans . My first observation of it was in a harbour. 
