Bygone birding (3): Arctic terns breeding at Gib

From The Zoologist journal, 1843

On 15 July, 1843, I visited the Skegness coast, and was much gratified in discovering, at a place called Gibraltar Point, several nests and eggs of different species of tern, as also in procuring two beautiful adult specimens of the arctic tern with their young.

This species, of which Mr. William Yarrell has given an excellent figure and description in his History of British Birds, a work which ought to be in the possession of every ornithologist, appears to be rather plentiful than otherwise in the above-named locality, associating with the common and lesser terns, amongst which it may readily be distinguished whilst on the wing by its rather slower and more stately flight as well as by its peculiar note which is a single harsh scream, repeated at short intervals, being a marked contrast to the clamorous cries of the other species of tern.

The nests of these birds consisted merely of a slight depression in the sand of the open beach, just beyond reach of the tide, scantily lined with small fragments of bleached or glittering shells, and contained in every instance but two eggs.

S. Willoughhy
Bratoft
near Spilsby

August 17, 1843.