THE ARCTIC TERN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20110, 31 March 1928, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE ARCTIC TERN

A GREAT TRAVELLER The tern is a beautiful, graceful bird, and from its skimming, darting flight is sometimes called the sea swallow- There are several varieties, including the black, common, roseate, least, sooty, bridled, and Arctic terns. The lastnamed is about 15 inches in length, greyish above and pearly below, with red bill, deeply forked tail, and wide wing-spread.

The Arctic tern is a great bird traveller, its migrations extending from the Arctic regions to the Antarctic (says the Christian Science Monitor). Over the thousands and thousands of miles of space their graceful wings carry them, from polar regions at :he north, over north temperate, torrid, and south temperate lands and seas, to polar regions of the south. In midJune the bird appears in the Arctics, nesting as far north as land has been discovered. It keeps near to the shore, for much of its living is garnered from the waters. Through the time while the eggs are hatching and the young birds growing, the Arctic terns enjoy the perpetual day of mid-sum-mer in that northern “land of the midnight sun.” For weeks, althc-gh the sun dips near the horizon, it never sets. When the young birds are fullgrown and have gained strength for travelling, the flight southward begins. Thousands of terns from along the northern coasts depart by the first of September. No ornithologist has been able as yet to trace their full flight, so their route if, like most migrating i birds, they have regular routes —is not wholy known. Arrived in far southern lands, time has passed, and the sun now shines on the Antarctic regions, while ut the north which they have left beI hind them day disappears in the long i night of winter.

Thus it may be seen that the Arctic tern enjoys more hours of daylight during the year than any other living creature. Is it love of light that prompts them to take the long journey twice yearly? If so, how do they know that the changing seasons will shift the weeks of daylight from one pole to the other? The wonders of nature are many, and not the least among them is this knowledge possessed by these beautiful birds, the Arctic terns, or sea swallows.