THE ROSEATE TERN. 245 



bits to inform us of its inability to abide the rough blasts of 

 autumn and winter, but that, like our summer migratants on 

 the land, its appearance is limited to the time when the islets 

 and surrounding seas are prepared for its reception. To the 

 fisherman its grating cry is as welcome as the craking of the 

 land-rail to the farmer, and its buoyant form is hailed with 

 the same gratification upon the sea as the swallow upon the 

 land. 



To most ornithologists few birds have conferred more 

 pleasure in observing their habits than the roseate tern. 

 Congregated in small flocks, they form in a manner similar 

 to the gulls " a play" upon the water, wherever a " school" of 

 fish is swimming near the surface, each bird, attractive from 

 its changing and varying appearance, 



" Now poising o'er ocean thy delicate form, 

 Now breasting the surge with thy bosom so warm ; 

 Now sweeping the billow, now floating on high, 

 Now bathing thy plumes in the light of the sky." 



Yet beautiful as are those birds, they are too often ruth- 

 lessly condemned to suffer for those very attractions which 

 should preserve them, instances frequently occurring where 

 a breeding haunt is invaded by persons whose propensities 

 for slaughter find an outlet in the destruction of these unof- 

 fending birds. Equally unfortunate in its habits at this time, 

 the roseate tern forgets its usual timidity ; and when a bird 

 after being shot falls slowly through the air from its buoy- 

 ant lightness, the entire flock congregate and fly down 

 towards it as if wondering why it had left their joyous 

 troop. Flying in its vicinity, they scream notes of compas- 

 sion, which are changed into a requiem for themselves, for the 

 class who commit such an atrocity consider each pitiable 

 trait exhibited by the bird as at least a tribute to the skill 

 which they evince in destroying them. Thus an intelligent 

 boatman of Skerries (Hynes), whom we had engaged when 

 sailing to various islets to observe these birds, described, on 

 one occasion, seeing the water almost white with their plu- 

 mage, strewed round the boat which two persons, represent- 

 ing themselves as doctors from the city, had hired for the 

 occasion, so many being destroyed that the boatman begged 

 them not to kill all, but to leave a few birds to breed. The 

 effects of these barbarities were easily observed when we 

 visited the islet in 1850, when there were not more than 

 seventy or eighty roseate terns about it, where they had been 



