;302 LARIC-E. 



Galway coast, in the summer of 1 838. He observes, thnt, " on 

 turning into a small ravine, there appeared within twentj^ yards a 

 cloud of the lesser terns, plunging incessantly into a pool, which 

 the receding tide had left filled with water : a flock of swallows 

 preparing for migration gives but a faint idea of their numbers ; 

 but what surprised me more, was their permitting my near ap- 

 proach without exhibiting the slightest fear or distrust, still con- 

 tinuing, although now not a yard from me, plunging and scream- 

 ing as if I were but a shadow. My curiosity was greatly excited, 

 and, stooping down to examine the pool, I found it to be almost 

 a living mass of herring-fry, each about an inch and a half in 

 kngth : this fully explained the cause of such a congregation. 

 Tor a moment I could have imagined myself placed on one of 

 those beautiful isles described by Mr. Darwin in his ' Zoology of 

 the Voyage of the Beagle,^ where the birds exhibit no fear on the 

 approach of man, and where a perfect confidence reigns. I was 

 determined not to give my unsuspecting friends, the terns, any 

 cause of regret for the unlimited confidence placed in me, and 

 endeavoured to assist them in their pursuit by putting my hands 

 together, and commencing to bale out water and fry ; but in this 

 I lost both time and labour, for not a single fry would they take 

 when thrown out and exposed on the rock ; but if by chance it 

 fell into a crevice containing a little water, it was instantly seized 

 and swallowed. The Hards Islands are composed of granite, 

 much intersected by dykes of hornblende : the latter, being much 

 fractured, is constantly wearing away, by the action of the heavy 

 Atlantic surges, thus leaving alleys or ravines, faced on both sides 

 by perpendicular walls of granite, which, seeming to be stratified, 

 present a singular appearance.'^ They w^ere mere visitors to these 

 islands, and not one was to be seen there at the same period of 

 the year in 1844.'^ 



The little tern is mentioned by Colonel Sabine, as seen by him 

 in July 1833, about the caves of Ballybunian, on the coast of 

 Kerry. Small flocks of six or eight birds occasionally appear in 



* Eev. Geo. llobiiisou. 



