THE COMMON TERN. 285 



and with the aid of a telescope observed them feeding their young 

 on the rocks in the vicinity. When at Dundrura, also in that 

 county, on the 23rd of August, 1836, 1 was told that two species 

 of terns, one much smaller than the other, and probably 

 S. minuta, breed about there : the larger is, I have Httle doubt, 

 S. hvrundo. We saw a great number of terns, about the size of 

 the latter, flocked together that day on the sands, or in company 

 with kittiwake gulls. 



It breeds on the sea-shores of Donegal ; — at the Rockabill off 

 the Dublin coast, and on the beach of this county at Malahide 

 (1837), and Sutton. When crossmg from the former of these 

 two localities to the island of Lambay, on the 5th of June, 

 1838, we saw both the common and arctic terns in company 

 flying over the sea. On the bare beach of the Wicklow coast, 

 near Bray,"^ tliis species nidifies, as it likewise does on the 

 Wexford coast, where it is remarked that the bhd " makes no nest, 

 merely depositing its eggs in a small hollow, probably formed 

 by a revolution of its body. It also lays on the decayed stems 

 of sea-campion." t It visits the coast of Waterford. Smith, 

 in his ' History of Cork,^ includes in the' list of birds " The sea- 

 swaUow, called with us spirres," remarking that " they flock 

 together, and breed on islands uninhabited near the sea-shores." 

 That, written more than a century ago, is applicable at the present 

 time. About the islets of Bantry Bay, amid the enchanting 

 scenery of Glengariff, 1 saw numbers either of this species or 

 the arctic tern (but not near enough to be distinguished) in July 

 1834, and eggs procured there came under my notice. In 1850, 

 I learn that they are still very plentiful, and have various breeding- 

 haunts, including bare rocky islets, about that noble bay. On the 

 Sovereign Islands, off the coast of Cork, my correspondent has 

 found their eggs laid on the short grass without any attempt 

 having been made at the formation of a nest. When mackerel- 

 fishing in Cork harbour at the end of July and early in August 

 1848 and previous years, he has also seen terns in such flocks or 

 * Mr. R. J. Montgomery. t Mr. Poole. 



