150 The Irish Naturalist. [June, 



one of the larger species rose off eggs at my feet, and uttering 

 the sharp cry, kept soaring round out of shot. While doing 

 so, the unusual length of its pointed tail feathers, and its ex- 

 cessive wildness (so unlike the habits of the Arctic) caused 

 me to think that it might be the rare Roseate Tern, and being 

 very anxious to identify the bird, or shoot it, I lay down be- 

 hind a little hillock, about 50 yards from where the eggs were 

 laid on the bare sand, and though after a time the bird 

 returned to her eggs, yet, whenever I attempted to move, or 

 stand up, she always got up quite out of shot, soaring about 

 in wide circles ; several times for over half an hour all my 

 attempts failed in obtaining a shot, and her great wildness 

 made me feel so confident that she was a Roseate, that I was 

 more anxious than ever to shoot her. So trying another plan, 

 I put her off the eggs, and then lay down behind the hillock 

 on the chance of obtaining a shot as she circled round ; re- 

 maining quite still, she lowered her flight, and in one of her 

 circles, coming within range, I brought her down, and to my 

 great disappointment she proved to be an Arctic Tern. 



When at the summer assizes of Sligo in July, 1894, ^ friend 

 told me of a large breeding-haunt of terns on Horse Island, 

 near Raughly, off Brown's Bay, about 12 miles from Sligo, 

 and I gladly accepted his offer to drive me there. Reaching 

 Raughly, we stopped on our way at Artarmon to call on Mr. 

 C. Jones Henry, who very kindly took us in his boat to the 

 island. It is seven or eight acres in extent, and all in pasture. 

 The terns lay their eggs all about the island on the grass, and 

 on the rocks and stones above high-water-mark, all round the 

 island. On landing we were soon surrounded and mobbed by 

 the largest flock of terns that I ever saw. At the least esti- 

 mation fully 500 to 700 pairs were flying about us, and from 

 their sharp cries all were evidently Arctic Terns. I did not 

 recognise the note of a single Common Tern, and all the 

 specimens we shot were of the first-named species, and the 

 only evidence we had of the presence of Common Terns, was 

 two or three young birds we found running about the rocks. 

 This great flock of Arctic Terns was to me one of the most 

 interesting sights I had witnessed for a long time, and Mr. 

 Henry told us that when he visited the island some three or 

 four years before, the number of birds was far larger, and that 

 when walking on the island, he found it almost impossible to 



