163. COMMON TERN. _Sterna fluviatilis_, Naumann. French, "Hirondelle de mer," "Pierre garin." The Common Tern is a regular but not numerous spring and autumn visitant to the Islands, some remaining to breed. I do not know that it breeds anywhere in Guernsey itself, but it may do so, for in the Vale in the summer of 1878 I saw more than one pair about the two bays, Grand Havre and L'Ancresse, all through the summer; some of them certainly seemed paired, but I never could find where their nests were; some of the others apparently were non-breeding birds, as they did not appear to be paired. These bays and along the coast near St. Samson were the only places in Guernsey itself that I saw the Terns; there were some also about Herm, but we could not find any nests there; but Mr. Howard Saunders and myself found a few pairs breeding on one of the rocky islands to the north of Herm; when we visited them on the 27th June, 1878, we only found four nests, two with two eggs each and two with only one egg each. Probably these were a second laying, the nests having been robbed, as had everything else on these Islands; there must have been more than four nests there really, as there were several pairs of birds about, but we could not find any other nests; these four were on the hard rocks, with little or no attempt at a real nest. This was the only one of the small rocky islands on which we found Terns breeding, though we searched every one of them that had any land above water at high tide; the others, of course, were useless. I had expected for some time that Common Terns did breed on some of these rocks, as I have an adult female in full breeding-plumage, which had been shot on the 29th June, 1877, near St. Samson's, which is only about three miles from these Islands, and which certainly showed signs of having been sitting; and Mr. Jago, the bird-stuffer, had one in full breeding-plumage, killed at Herm early in June, 1878; but several of the sailors about, and some friends of mine who were in the habit of visiting these islands occasionally, seemed very sceptical on the subject; but Mr. Howard Saunders and I quite settled the question by finding the eggs, and we also thoroughly identified the birds. The Common Tern seemed to be the only species of Tern breeding on the rocks; we certainly saw nothing else, and no Common Terns even, except on the one island on which we found the eggs. The autumnal visitants are mostly young birds of the year, some of them, of course, having been bred on the Islands and others merely wanderers from more distant breeding-stations. No young Terns appeared to have flown when I left the Islands at the end of July; at least, I saw none about, though there were several adults about both Grand Havre and L'Ancresse Bay. The same remark applies to Herm, where my last visit to the shell-beach was on the 22nd of July, when I saw several adult Common Terns about, but no