THE COMMON TERN. 291 



day of tlie lltli of October, 1838, a flock of from forty to fifty 

 terns VTas seen flying close to tlie laud over Conswater Point, in 

 a southerly direction, when they were believed to be on migra- 

 tion. The description of them applies to S. Idrmuh, S. arc- 

 tica, or 8. Bougallii, with their young, as there were '^ two sizes " 

 of them := — the young birds now appear much smaller than 

 their parents, from not having the long tail-feathers. Terns 

 sometimes ascend the river Lagan in autumn, following its mean- 

 derings for above ten miles inland; about Lambeg they have 

 frequently been seen. At the end of August 1838, a young 

 S. hirundo was found dead on a mountain, about a mile from 

 Clonmel.^ 



Sir William Jardine ('Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 277) remarks 

 respecting the common tern — " We do not trace it with authen- 

 ticity northward to the islands of Scotland, except that it is men- 

 tioned by Mr. John Macgillivray on the Outer Hebrides." When 

 at Islay, in January 1849, 1 learned that a tern, either S. hinmdo 

 or S. arciica (as none with the black bill of S, Bougallii had ever 

 been observed), bred in great numbers annually on Kiurevock, or 

 the rabbit-island, which is rocky, with a good deal of short pas- 

 ture. It was considered by P. Mackenzie, head keeper, that 

 about 500 pair bred in 1848, and several previous years, on that 

 and a closely adjacent islet. He pointed out to me in the mu- 

 seum of native birds, &c., at Islay House, a specimen of the tern 

 which breeds there ; — it was S. hirundo, and no other species of 

 Sterna was in the collection. When the island was visited by 

 my friends for the purpose of seal-shooting, in May 1848, the 

 terns had not commenced laying, and annoyed them very mucl^ 

 by their cries alarming the seals, so that not a shot could be had 

 at them on the rocks. In May 1849, there were considered to be 

 about twenty terns here for one in 1848. The number of their 

 eggs taken will be found mentioned under the Common Gull. It 

 AA'ould be interesting to ascertain whether the tern found breeding 

 in the islands of a loch amid the woods of Altyre, five miles from 



* Mr. R. Davis. 

 U 2 



