1 66 The Irish Naturalist. September, 



line with the lifeboat house, and protected the White or Shelly 

 Bank from the waves ; they also served as a background to 

 the artillery targets, and w^ere high enough to prevent the 

 shells <roincr out to sea when the Roval Horse Artillery were 

 practising with the guns on Irishtown strand. On public 

 holidays numbers of people used to spend the day on the 

 sandhills, picnicing and indulging in various sports. The 

 larger portion of this fine range has completely disappeared 

 owing to the incursions of the sea, leaving only a small green 

 island away out on the Shelly Bank, and now, during very 

 high tides in storni}^ weather, the waves are driven over the 

 intervening space. The lifeboat house, now unroofed and 

 useless, stands a long way seaward, and the coast has to be 

 protected by wooden piling and immense quantities of loose 

 limestone blocks placed along the shore to break the force of 

 the waves and prevent further encroachment or damage to the 

 South Wall, wdiilst the remains of the old targets ma}^ be seen 

 loo 3'ards seawards of the new high-water mark. 



Few people would realise that on the Shelly Bank, three 

 miles and a quarter from the General Post Office, as the crow^ 

 flies, a colony of the Lesser Tern {Sterna minuta) has existed 

 for many years in varying numbers, nesting under man}^ 

 difficulties. Visitors can hardly fail to admire those exceed- 

 ingly graceful little birds, with silvery plumage, black heads, 

 and long tapering wings, as they dash from a height into the 

 shallow waters in pursuit of fish. Their eggs, placed in a 

 slight hollow in the sand and shingle and resting on bits of 

 broken shells, have to depend for protection on their remark- 

 able similarity of colouring to their surroundings, and they 

 often have the companionship of the Ringed Plover, both species 

 nesting closeh' together. Unfortunatel)^ in recent 3'ears 

 bicyclists in increasing numbers and youngsters have found 

 their way to the bank, chiefl}' on Sundays, often accom- 

 panied l)y dogS; and the nests have been frequently raided. 

 However, owing to the success attending the protection of the 

 Terns at Malahide Island b}^ the Irish Society for the Protection 

 of Birds, arrangements have been made to place a watcher on 

 the Shelly ]^>ank, and it is hoped that the birds may now have 

 a better chance of their numbers increasing, especially since 

 the flattening down and spreading-out of the sand-banks have 



