KOSEATE TEEN 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. Eecently, however, it is known to have 

 nested in Wales, while Mr. Oswin Lee appears to have 

 identified it as breeding in the Moray Eirth (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. 



Kockabill, an island off the Dublin coast, was also 

 known to Thompson as a breeding-station. Here numbers 

 of Koseate Terns used to congregate. But they were 

 ruthlessly shot 1 down in the nesting-season, and their eggs 

 were pillaged to such an extent that in less than half 



1 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, hi 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. 



