262 The Irish Nahiralist. November, 



Great Increase of Arctic Teins in Killala Bay. 



A ver}' remarkable iucrease in the numbers of Arctic Terns visiting the 

 bay and estuary has taken place this season, while their change of 

 breeding haunt from the Inch and Rosy sands across the channel to the 

 island of Bartragh is no less so. When I visited the breeding haunt four 

 years ago, some ten or twelve pairs of Common, with a few of the Lesser 

 and Arctic Terns bred on the Inch, a low, gravelly island at the entrance 

 of the little channel leading up to the quay of Killala, while the main 

 flock of the Lesser and Arctic as widely scattered over the Ross sands, 

 extending from the Inch nearly up to the Coastguard Station. At the 

 time of my visit I estimated the numbers of the Lesser Terns at fifty to 

 sixty pairs, and the Arctic at a hundred, or a hundred and fifty. A few 

 pairs of both species had crossed over to the end of Bartragh, laying their 

 eggs on the bare sand, while up to that date (except in March, 1895, 

 when two pairs had eggs), no Tern had ever been known to breed on 

 the island. 



The increase in the numbers of the Arctic within the four years since 



my visit in June, 1899, is astonishing, for, on visiting the breeding haunt 



on the i6th of last July, I found that nearly all the Lesser and Arctic had 



deserted the old haunt on the Ross sands, crossing the channel over to 



Bartragh, where at least 800 to 1,000 pairs of Arctic Terns had eggs or 



young, the breeding-ground extending from the end of the island, fully 



a quarter of a mile along the outer side, where they laid their eggs in 



shallow depressions in the bare sand just above high-water mark, but in 



no instance did I see any trace of a nest-lining. This great flock of birds 



rising from their eggs and young in vast clouds, looking like a shower 



of snow, was a most interesting sight, while their shrill cries were almost 



deafening as I walked along the sand among the eggs and j^oung birds; 



the latter, although only in the down, running about the sand like 



chickens, while the stronger ones tried to hide in the bent grass of the 



sandhills. All the young of both species were in the down, and many 



nests had eggs and newly-hatched young, while in one nest I saw three 



eggs of Arctic and one of the Lesser Tern, the owner of the latter being 



probably driven off by the stronger birds. I was surprised (though so 



late in the season) at seeing neither fledged, nor half-fledged birds, and 



the probable cause of no fledged birds being met is, that the first clutches 



of eggs were destroyed by a storm, the eggs being buried by the loose 



sands, and by a gale of wind, blown out of the shallow depressions in 



which they were laid. Scores of eggs are lying scattered about over the 



sands, and many that I broke showed no signs of being incubated, all 



appearing fresh. Although I was about the breeding haunt for hours, 



I never heard the call of a Common Tern, only the shrill cries of the 



Arctic and Lesser. Now as the Terns have migrated to Bartragh, 



there is every probability of their numbers increasing, for they are 



perfectly safe from disturbance of either dogs or boys, which they were 



always liable to on the Ross sands, and on that end of the island there 



are [no vermin to destroy either eggs or young, and the proprietor, 



Captain Kirkwood, strictly preserves them. 



Robert Warren. 



Moy View, Ballina. 



