LESSER TERN. NODDY. 249 



one occasion we received their eggs from Galway, where, on 

 the authority of our informant,* they were well known in the 

 neighbourhood by the appropriate appellation of u fairy - 

 birds," received from the fishermen of the locality. 



Singularly buoyant in flight, and active in its motions when 

 engaged in fishing, the little tern is also as pugnacious in 

 habits, as on two occasions we have remarked two birds of 

 this species give chase to an intruding window martin which 

 had the presumption to skim in the vicinity of their feeding 

 station ; and on another occasion, when a gray wagtail had 

 occupied a large stone upon the beach u wagging" and call- 

 ing while making the circuit of its surface, three lesser terns 

 flying from the sea to occupy their favourite resting-place 

 at once dashed towards the wagtail, and pursued it nearly a 

 hundred yards along the side of a rivulet entering the sea, 

 chattering the entire time similarly to sparrows. The undu- 

 lating flight of the wagtail, and the quick, buoyant wing- 

 sweeps of the pursuing terns, were highly amusing. On the 

 wagtail perching, the chase terminated, as the three birds 

 turned slowly and glided silently and sedately to the sea, ap- 

 parently as if their dignity was insulted by being led away to 

 pursue a mere land-bird. 



Habitat Southern Europe. 



SPECIES 238 THE NODDY. 



Sterna stolida. Linn. 

 Hirondelle de mer noddy. Temm. 



THIS tern is of great rarity in occurrence, and similar to the 

 white-winged black tern, has been twice obtained : both spe- 

 cimens were shot between the Tuscar Lighthouse, off the 

 coast of Wexford, and Dublin Bay, and came into the pos- 

 session of William Massey, Esq., of the Pigeon House, by 

 whom one was presented to Mr. Warren of Dublin. 



Common in North America, a few specimens have been 

 procured upon the French coast, f which, with the present 

 birds obtained in Ireland, are the only recorded instances of 

 its occurrence in Europe. 



We should have said instances noted by the ornithologist, 

 as Byron had recorded,}: ten years before, the bodily ap- 

 pearance of " two boobys and a noddy," in seas where to the 

 present day their occurrence is unknown. 



Habitat North America. 



* T. Williams, Esq. t Temminck, Manuel de Ornithologie. 



t Don Juan. 



