38 [February, 



A VIvSiT TO THE COPKLANDS. 



BY C. B. MOFFAT. 



On August 2 1 St, Mr. R. M. Barrington and I visited the three 

 islands off Donaghadee which compose the Copeland group, 

 and are named respectively Copeland, Lighthouse Island,^ 

 and Mew Island. To explore Mew Island was our principal 

 object. This, the outermost of the three, is a spot well known 

 byname to readers of Thompson's "Natural History of Ireland." 

 It was in Thompson's day remarkable as a great breeding- 

 ground of Terns, chiefly Arctic, but intermixed to a considerable 

 extent with two other species, the Common and Roseate Terns ; 

 the best clue to their respective proportions being given in 

 the result of four expeditions made by Thompson to 

 the islet between 1827 and 1849, during w^hich he shot 35 

 Terns at random, and found that he had killed 21 Arctic, 6 

 Common, and 8 Roseate Terns, making the proportion of 

 Sterna macrtira 60, of 5". fliiviatilis 17, and of S. Dotcgalli 23 

 per cent. Though Mew Island still rears its annual multitude 

 of" Mews" (the local name for Terns^), it is to be feared that 

 such a census would now yield widely different results ; vStill, 

 in approaching so noted a former stronghold of the Roseate 

 Tern, one could not but " hope against hope " for the chance 

 of restoring this beautiful bird to our fauna. Any such hope 

 was, however, quickly dashed to the ground, when on reaching 

 the island we learned that the Mews had "yesterday" (as one 

 of the residents put it), taken their departure. 



A party of Turnstones at the water's edge presented the 

 most interesting ornithological sight witnessed on Mew Island. 

 But a list of all the birds observed by us on the three islands, 

 and inclusive of a few seen from the boat when nearing them, 

 will not greatly overcrowd the pages of the Irish Naturalist. 



' The Hgbthouse at present in use stands however on Mew Island. 



-Thompson (vol. iii , p. 271), questioned whether the name of Mew 

 Island was derived " from these ])irds (Terns) or gulls having formerly 

 frequented it." It therefore seems to me worth noting that at Donagh- 

 adee and on the islands we heard the Terns invariably spoken of as 

 "Mews," 



