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
young ones with them; all these were probably birds which had been
robbed of one or more clutches of eggs.

Professor Ansted includes the Common Tern in his list, but only marks it
as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen in the Museum, a young
bird of the year.

164. ARCTIC TERN. _Sterna macrura_, Naumann. French, "Hirondelle de mer
arctique."[31]--The Arctic Tern is by no means so common in the