ROSEATE TERN 387 
Scattered pairs and small parties may still be seen along 
the east and south coasts of England, but on the opposite 
shores the bird is rare. Such islands as Foulney and 
Walney, off Lancashire, formerly breeding-stations, are 
seldom visited. Recently, however, it is known to have 
nested in Wales, while Mr. Oswin Lee appears to have 
identified it as breeding in the Moray Firth (Saunders). 
In Ireland this bird once had several breeding-resorts 
on the east coast. A large colony frequented Mew Island, 
one of the Copelands, off the coast of co. Down, and was 
well known to Thompson. 
After 1850 its numbers greatly diminished as a result of 
persistent molestation. Mr. Ussher is of the opinion that 
this colony may not be quite exterminated, but at present 
it can be represented only by a few pairs. However, it is 
probable that this species frequented the above neighbour- 
hood many years after Thompson’s time; on August 14th, 
1890, I observed three of these birds in Belfast Lough. 
They were busily fishing and were remarkably tame. They 
passed within a few yards of the bow of my boat, so that 
I could discern their long forked tails and black beaks quite 
easily. 
Rockabill, an island off the Dublin coast, was also 
known to Thompson as a breeding-station. Here numbers 
of Roseate Terns used to congregate. But they were 
ruthlessly shot’ down in the nesting-season, and their eggs 
were pillaged to such an extent that in less than half 
' The wholesale butchery of certain birds for millinery purposes 
cannot be too strongly deprecated. I have seen Terns slaughtered by 
the score in the space of a very short time. A boat containing two 
men, each armed with a double-barrelled gun, was sculled into the 
thickest part of a Tern-colony. The fearless birds, trustful and inquisi- 
tive by nature, seeing their haunts intruded upon, collected into a brave 
and clamorous throng which rapidly advanced until, with quivering 
pinions, many of them poised overhead. The collectors waited until 
the members of the flock were closely clustered, so that more than half a 
dozen of these beautiful pearly-plumed birds fell at the first discharge of 
the guns, and were floating lifeless on the surf, save one or two which, 
with shattered pinions, were struggling to rise off the crest of the breakers 
on which they were miserably tossing. Their brave comrades hovered 
over them with eyes filled with enquiry, as though anxious to succour 
them in distress. These also dropped, one by one, in rapid succession, 
like white stones into the water, as the plunderers, seizing each oppor- 
tune moment, discharged cartridge after cartridge in quick succession. 
And not until every available bird was shot and the sea studded with the 
dead and wounded, did the gunners desist from their disgraceful task. 
