S90 LARID.E. 



summer visiter here, appearing in spring and departing in 

 autumn, after having reared the yearly brood. Of this spe- 

 cies in Ireland, Mr. Thompson remarks that it is annually 

 shot upon the coast, and may perhaps have breeding- haunts 

 in some of the islets that are rarely visited by the naturalist. 

 It has been noticed in Cornwall and Devonshire. Mr. Plom- 

 ley says it breeds on the shingle banks about Romney marsh 

 in Kent ; and I have seen it on Sandwich Flats and at 

 Ramsgate. Mr. Parsons has taken the eggs near some 

 salterns at the mouth of Blackwater river in Essex. The 

 birds are not uncommon on the coasts of Suffolk and Nor- 

 folk ; I possess both old and young birds killed near Sunder- 

 land in the second week in August ; and Mr. Selby has par- 

 ticularly noticed their annual visits to the Farn islands, and 

 to Coquet island, a few miles to the southward. " Here a 

 station is selected apart from otlier species, generally on a 

 higher site, and the nests are so close to each other as to 

 render it difficult to cross the ground without breaking the 

 eggs, or injuring the unfledged young. Upon this coast it 

 is called, par excellence, ' the Tern,' all the other species 

 passing under the general name of ' Sea Swallows.** Its 

 habits strongly resemble those of its genus, and it subsists 

 upon similar kinds of fish, the sand-launce and young gar-fish, 

 forming the principal supply, and upon which it precipitates 

 itself as they rise near to the surface of the ocean. Its flight 

 is strong and rapid, making a great advance at each stroke of 

 the pinions, and, except when engaged in incubation, it is 

 almost constantly on the wing, uttering at intervals a hoarse 

 and grating cry, which can be heard at a very great distance, 

 and gives notice of its approach long before it is discoverable 

 by the eye. If much disturbed by being fired at, or if the 

 eggs be repeatedly taken at the commencement of the season, 

 it deserts the station first selected, and retires to some other 

 place, less liable to molestation. The eggs of this bird are 



