244 STERNIDJE. 



it is a lovely sight to observe, by some sequestered shore, a 

 number of these joyous wanderers, arrived from other seas and 

 brighter skies, congregated as in a silvery cloud, their plea- 

 sure evinced in loud and incessant clamoring, whilst each 

 instant white forms glance downward, and are lost to view 

 for a second under the glittering waters of the bay. Some 

 leave the flock, and with attention search along by the surfy 

 line of the advancing tide, their vociferous and clamorous 

 cries chiming in unison with the loud roar of the snow-white 

 breakers. 



Regarded with pleasurable sensations as are the terns by 

 the fishermen and dwellers upon the coast, as being the har- 

 bingers of a good and prosperous fishing season, it is gratify- 

 ing to find their appearance similarly appreciated centuries 

 since by the sagas of the Norse Vikings.* 



" Now let the steed of Ocean bound 



O'er the North Sea, with dashing sound ; 

 Let nimble tern, and screaming gull, 

 Fly round and round, our net is full." 



Habitat Eastern Europe. 



SPECIES 233 THE ROSEATE TERN. 



Sterna Dougallii. Mont. 



Hirondelle de mer Dougall. Temm. 



Skirr. 



THIS beautiful species is extremely local in its distribution, 

 and is seldom found exceeding the range of the eastern coasts 

 of Ireland. The most attractive of the terns, equally for the 

 chaste simplicity of its plumage, as the elegant and exquisite 

 proportions which so much distinguish it from all others, 

 none of the birds in this family, beautiful as are all, both 

 in their interesting habits and the similarity of their plumage, 

 can at all equal the present species. Indeed, whilst regarding 

 this bird, we can well enter into the enthusiasm of the natu- 

 ralist who bestowed the appellation of Paradiseaf upon it ; so 

 beautiful, that we involuntarily recall that region where birds 

 of a like species were fabled, from their roseate-tinted plu- 

 mage, to have been harnessed to the sun, and from the bright- 

 ness of whose beams they alone obtained the peculiar tint 

 which overspread their plumage. Discernible at once from 

 the elegance of its frail form, we require no history of its ha- 



* Laing's Sea Kings. t Brunnick. 



