148 The Irish Nattiralist, [June, 



spirit of a true naturalist, strictly preserved it, and did not 

 allow either Gulls or Terns to be disturbed or molested, and 

 had the long grass and weeds, and some bushes cleared off it 

 to give more space to the birds for their nests, so that now 

 from being so well protected, this beautiful tern has increased 

 in numbers, so largely, that Miss Knox-Gore told me that 

 when visiting the island in 1886, she counted 150 nests of 

 Sandwich Terns, and as the present owner preserves the lake 

 as strictly as the former, there is every probability of this 

 breeding-haunt continuing for many years. 



This tern is the earliest of our spring visitors, sometimes 

 appearing in the estuary as early as 20th March ; and appears 

 to be little affected by cold, for during the unusually cold 

 weather of March, 1892, they arrived in the estuary on the 

 27th, when there were four inches of snow on the ground, and 

 the thermometer indicated six degrees of frost. Up to the 

 present date, Rathrouyeen is the only breeding haunt of this 

 tern in Ireland, of which we have any record, except the 

 deserted ones of Rockabill and Cloona, though of course there 

 may be others unnoticed on some remote and unfrequented 

 parts of the coasts or lakes. There is ver)^ probably one on 

 the North Sligo coast, somewhere between Raughly and 

 MuUaghmore, for when I visited Horse Island (that great 

 haunt of the Arctic Tern) in July, 1894, I saw several Sand- 

 wich Terns flying about, but saw no trace of their breeding 

 on the island with the Arctic Terns. 



When the pairing season commences it is very amusing 

 watching the absurd antics of the males trying to attract the 

 attention of the females. When the tide is out, at low- water, 

 the terns generally assemble on a sandbank to rest after 

 fishing, and there the males strut about amongst the females, 

 with their heads thrown back and wings drooping (almost 

 touching the sand), but after a time if there is no response 

 from the females, who generally look on the performance with 

 the greatest unconcern, one goes off for a little and returns 

 with a Sand-eel in his bill, and commences again strutting 

 about with wings and head in same position and moves about 

 amongst the females, offering the Sand-eel from one to'another 

 as he passes along unnoticed, until at last he meets a hen who 

 accepts his offering, and then sits down alongside of her to 

 settle their future arrangements. 



