for the bird completely to immerse itself; usually it flutters on the surface for a moment, then rises again. Small fish and crustaceans form the principal food of this species. Its note is very similar to that of the preceding Tern—a shrill and monotonous _krick_, often prolonged into two syllables. The nesting season of this Tern begins in June, and fresh eggs may be found throughout that month. Rocky islands seem everywhere to be preferred for nesting places, and the same habit of changing the exact hatching ground prevails in this as in the preceding species. The Farne Islands are, or used to be, a great breeding station of the Arctic Tern, and there I have taken great numbers of its eggs. The bird probably pairs for life. It differs somewhat in its nesting arrangements from the Common Tern, inasmuch that it never makes any nest. No lining of any kind is placed in the hollow which contains the eggs, and this hollow is generally selected ready made. Another peculiarity is that the eggs are far more generally laid nearer to the water; and this applies not only to the Farne Islands, but to every breeding place of this Tern that I have visited. The two or three eggs are laid in any little depression in the coarse sand or shingle on the line of drift, or amongst small pebbles, or even on the bare ground or rock. These eggs vary from buff to olive, and even pale bluish-green in ground colour, heavily blotched and spotted, especially at the larger end, with dark brown, paler brown, and gray. They are decidedly smaller than those of the Common Tern, more elongated in shape, and are much more olive in general colour. When disturbed from their eggs the Arctic Terns become very noisy, and rise in fluttering crowds above the sacred spot, continuing to fly to and fro, screaming anxiously until the intruder retires. ROSEATE TERN. It is with some hesitation that I include this species, the _Sterna dougalli_ of Montagu, in the present work, because if it really does visit our coasts now to breed, it is so exceedingly rare and local, that any ordinary observer of bird life by the sea could scarcely hope to meet with it. It is interesting to remark that the Roseate Tern was first made known to science from a skin that was sent to Montagu, from the Cumbrae Islands, in the Firth of Clyde. It was subsequently found breeding on the Farne Islands by Selby; it formerly bred on the Scilly Islands, as well as on Foulney and Walney; but so far as I can ascertain there is no direct evidence that it breeds at any of these places now. It may be distinguished from the Common Tern by its rosy under plumage; but as this is very apt to fade, a still more infallible distinction, according to Mr. Saunders, is the white inner margin to the primaries.