LARID^. 



645 



THE ROSEATE TERN. 



Sterna dougalli, Montagu. 



This slender and elegant species was discovered on the Cumbraes 

 in the Firth of Clyde by Dr. MacDougall of Glasgow, who sent a 

 specimen to Montagu. Selby subsequently found it breeding in 

 some numbers on the Fame Islands, which were afterwards almost 

 deserted, but of late years several pairs have again been noticed, 

 and there is now a prospect of efficient protection. Foulney and 

 Walney Islands on the Lancashire coast, as well as some of the 

 Scilly Islands, were formerly frequented by the bird, though latterly 

 it has seldom been observed in any of those localities. On the 

 other hand, it is known to have nested recently in Wales, and a few 

 pairs have been seen in Norfolk and Suffolk ; while Mr. Oswin Lee 

 appears to have identified breeding birds on the Moray Firth. Its 

 temporary disappearance may have been due in some measure to 

 the increase of the larger and stronger Common Tern, before which, 

 as Dr. Bureau informed me of his own knowledge, three colonies 

 of the Roseate Tern had successively given way on the coast 

 of Brittany within a few years. Indiscriminate egging on the 

 part of fishermen has also been prejudicial, especially as regards 

 some former settlements in the north of Ireland; and the gunners 



