1 20 The Irish Naturalist. 



are also a few bushes. On landing, we found that the nests 

 had been lately robbed, upwards of twenty being empty, and 

 a few in which the Gulls had begun to lay again. The nests 

 were large and substantially constructed of the dried grass 

 left by the floods on the shore of the island, and were 

 generally placed between the rocks and large stones or near 

 bushes, and when we were leaving a Merganser rose from her 

 nest, under a bush, containing ten eggs ; and standing on the 

 extreme end of the stony point, we were surprised at seeing 

 a Turnstone in the dark-coloured immature plumage of 

 winter, a strange sight at that time of year, so far from the 

 coast, on an inland lake. 



A heavy thunderstorm with torrents of rain and high wind 

 coming on drove us from the island, and it was with great 

 difficulty that we gained the Ballinrobe side of the lake under 

 Creagh, taking shelter within the walls of Grace O'Malley's 

 castle on the island. After the storm passed off the wind 

 continued so high as to raise such a sea on the lough, that it 

 put an end to any further explorations that day, and we had 

 to content ourselves with searching the woods of Creagh for 

 Warblers, but as usual only the common ones appeared. 



Next day we returned to the lake, and although still blowing 

 hard we ventured on a visit to the Terns' island, taking advan- 

 tage of the shelter of Cushlough Island until opposite that of 

 the Terns, to which we had a hard pull aerainst a head wind and 

 sea. On landing we found a large colony of Terns hovering 

 overhead, for like the gulls, their nests had been nearly all 

 robbed previous to our visit ; we saw a large number of 

 empty nests, but in a few they had begun to lay again, 

 several having one and two eggs, and but very few having the 

 full number of three, and only three or four nests with newly 

 hatched young birds. We remained for a long time on the 

 island watching the birds on the wing, and trying to distinguish 

 between the Arctic and Common Tern, but failing to do so a 

 few were shot and found to belong to both species. I took 

 the eggs from two nests, which from their being similar in 

 size and colour to some brought from the Sovereign Islands 

 off Cork Harbour, and being a size smaller than those of 

 undoubted eggs of the Common Tern taken off the Inch at 

 Killaloe, and from an island in Lough Conn, I have no doubt 

 of their being the eggs of the Arctic Tern. 



