I20 The I nsh Naturalist. June, 



But perhaps the most striking instance of the direct effect 

 of protection is afforded by a visit to the nesting place of the 

 Common and Arctic Terns at Malahide Island. A long strip 

 of sandbank runs parallel to the Golf I^inks shore, from which 

 it is separated at high tides. This bank is said to have been 

 first formed by drifting sand collecting round a seaman's straw 

 niattrass which floated on to the shore. It is now some 

 hundreds of yards long, partly covered with grass, and at the 

 sea end numbers of sand}" hillocks have been formed, and bear 

 a covering of bent grass and weeds. A few years ago my 

 brother the late Edward Williams found a couple of pairs of the 

 Common Tern nesting here, and latterly both species have 

 bred here and on one of the islands at Skerries, County Dublin^ 

 But the thanks of everyone interested in bird life are due to 

 the Irish Society for the Protection of Birds, who some 

 time ago appointed a watcher w^hose duty it is to see tliat 

 visitors do not molest the birds or take their eggs. It gave 

 myself and my brother, W. J. Williams, the keenest pleasure 

 to pay a \isit to this ideal spot on the 7th of July last year, a 

 beautifully fine da}'. Some egg-collecting boys provided with 

 pill boxes had just come over for a raid on the nests and the 

 watcher had been doing his duty, greatly to the disappoint- 

 ment of the young naturalists. As we approached the colony 

 the birds collected in a great white flock and w^e found it im- 

 possible to calculate their numbers. They kept hovering over 

 the bank for a little and then took themselves higher up in the 

 air, crossing and recrossing and keeping" up their incessant 

 screaming of ski-r-r-r. 



We soon found nests in plenty scattered about where the 

 vegetation was thin and small patches of sand showing, and 

 we found them often placed close to a Sea Holly or other fairly 

 large plant. Some were on the sandy slopes among the bent 

 grass, and as we walked toward the widest part of the breeding 

 ground, which is here about 40 yards across, the number in- 

 creased until we counted nine nests in sight of where we 

 stood. There was great variety in the colouring of the eggs ; 

 some had a pale green ground, whilst in others the tone was 

 brownish-olive, and one beautiful clutch of three eggs had a 

 vStrong greenish colour with only a few markings at the small 

 end and a closely dotted ring of very dark spots and blotches 



