THE COMMON TEKN. 289 



the island. The observation as to the localities enumerated will 

 equally apply to the roseate, arctic, and other terns. 



Sir "William Jardine has remarked of the common tern, that, 

 " in its breeding habits, it differs from the roseate, and resembles 

 more nearly the lesser tern, seeming to prefer a shingly beach or 

 low-lying ground to rocky islands.'^'^ My observation agrees with 

 this as a general remark, but it is far from being of universal ap- 

 plication. The few localities known to me on the Irish coast in 

 which the S. mimita breeds, are near to the haunts of S. hirundo. 

 On the rocky Mew Island, where S. hirundo, 8. arcfica, and S. 

 Dougallii nidify, the habits of the three species are in all respects 

 similar. Its nests have already been noticed on other rocky, as 

 well as gravelly, sandy, and grassy, islets. The common tern is 

 more cosmopolite than any of the others ; breeding in locaHties 

 of various kinds, and, as we have seen, both about fresh- water 

 and the sea. 



Terns of the common and two closely- allied species visit the 

 coast of Ireland at the beginning of May. In 1846, seven or 

 eight were then observed in Dublin Bay.t On the 9th I saw seve- 

 ral fishing close to Belfast Quay, in 1847; and in 1849, they 

 were first noticed about Drogheda, on the 7tli of that month. J 



The common tern, or indeed any species, is very rarely seen 

 far up Belfast Bay previous to, or during, the breeding season ; 

 but at a favourite locality of this genus — Conswater Point — where 

 a stream flows into the bay, several were observed for some days, 

 about the 6th of June, 1843.§ From birds killed here, I have 

 taken the fifteen-spined stickleback {Gasterosfeus sp'machia, Lin.) ; 

 a fish which they also feed on at the Copeland Islands. They 

 are occasionally seen for some time throughout the bay early in 

 August, when the breeding season is over. On the 8th of that 



* ' Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. p. 277- t Mr. Darragh. 



\ Mr. R. J. MoHtgomery. 



§ The ouly example of the roseate tern known to Mr. Tenipletoa and Mr. John 

 Montgomery was killed here. 



VOL. III. U 



