384 



A well-known colony, of considerable numbers, frequents 

 the Fame Islands. 



In Ireland, the Sandwich Tern appears to be very 

 locally distributed. The first record of its occurrence was 

 made known by Thompson, from a specimen procured on 

 Belfast Lough in September, 1832 (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 

 1833). From that time little was known of the bird until 

 April, 1851, when Mr. Warren observed it in Killala Bay. 

 In May, 1857, l he found limited numbers breeding on a small 

 lough near Ballina. Kecently, viz., July 12th, 1900, the 

 same observer discovered twenty pairs of 'old birds flying 

 about an island in Lough Erne, co. Fermanagh. All the 

 young were apparently hatched out and " had either fled 

 out on the lake with the young Black-headed Gulls, or 

 concealed themselves among the weeds growing in dense 

 thickets about the island." A young bird, a day or two 

 old, examined from this colony, ejected from its gullet a 

 sand-eel, which was, in all likelihood conveyed from the 

 sea-coast at a distance of some fifteen miles. Mr. Warren 

 states that he did not note these Terns fishing on the 

 fresh-water lakes. Two newly-laid eggs and three some- 

 what incubated, were found in this locality ( ' Irish Natur- 

 alist,' 1900, p. 222). 



On May 24th of this year on an island in Lough 

 Conn, the same observer discovered " on a little space of 

 about four yards square," .... "thirty-five nests with 

 eggs, and two more a little apart from the group of nests. 

 Most of the nests had only two eggs, while several had 

 only one, evidently showing that the full clutches of three 

 had not been laid yet, and also that probably many more 

 pairs had not begun to lay so early in the season " 

 ('Zoologist/ 1906, p. 278). 



Mr. Warren further writes me that " there were on the 

 same island a few nests of Common Gulls, which was 

 surprising, for the Common Gulls keep away from all the 

 others, nesting by themselves on separate islands or on 

 isolated rocks." 



This bird is not exclusively marine in its habits, though 

 decidedly partial to the sea-coast. Compared with the Com- 

 mon, or Arctic Tern, it is much larger and of heavier build. 

 To fishermen it is known as the ' Tern,' the several smaller 



1 But the late Mr. J. J. Watters, of Dublin, appears to have been the 

 first to discover it breeding on the Irish Coast, viz., on Rockabill Island, 

 July 17th, 1850, where he found a broken egg, and saw three birds. 



