THE ARCTIC TERN. 295 



(plentifully), and Muckalaw Eock, Tralee Bay (1850). On the 

 8tli of May, 1S37, I saw two fresh specimens which had just 

 been killed on the North Strand, Dublin Bay ; and on the 5th of 

 June of the following year, as I crossed from Malahide to Lam- 

 bay Island, this species, and S. hirundo, appeared flying in com- 

 pany over the water. On the 11th of May, 1842, an arctic tern 

 was shot on DoUymount Strand, coast of Dublin; from all of 

 which circumstances there can be little doubt of the species 

 breeding in that quarter. I have since ascertained that the 

 RockabiU is a breeding-haunt, as noticed under the roseate species. 

 Of many terns shot during the months of August and September 

 1850, in Drogheda Bay, nearly all were arctic : they outnum- 

 bered all the other species by at least ten to one.'^ 



This tern is more a marine bnd than the common species, dif- 

 fering indeed in a striking manner from it in tliis respect ; and, 

 so far as my own observation extends, selecting for breeding- 

 places only maritime localities. This is a remark which I am not 

 aware of having been made before ; but, on looking to the sites 

 named by Mr. Selby, Sir Wm. Jardine, Mr. Yarrell, and several 

 other authors, in Great Britain ; by Dr. Ivichardson and Mr. Au- 

 dubon, in North America ; 1 find they are all marine. I should 

 not, however, be disposed to characterize the species positively, as 

 breeding only in marine localities, for all the nesting-places of 

 Sterna niimita known to me in Ireland are also marine ; but so far 

 up the Ehine as the neighbourhood of Basle I have met with it 

 in the the middle of July (1841), and felt well assured that its 

 breeding-haunts were on the wild sandy banks of that great river. 

 At maritime stations only have I known the roseate tern breed 

 in Ireland. The Sterna hirundo breeds abundantly about our 

 fresh-water lakes as well as on the sea-coast. 



Very rarely have I known the arctic tern to be even seen 

 inland. On the 13th of June, 1832, a remarkably fine and large 

 specimen (not exhibiting any external injury) was found dead at 

 Springfield, near Belfast. Distant above eighteen English miles 



* ]\Ir. li. J. Moiilgomcry. 



