THE BLACK TERN. 305 



served specimen which had been killed in Belfast Bay some years 

 before that time. Another, respecting which no precise date can 

 be given, was subsequently observed there at the indentation of 

 the coast, called Adams' Bay. One shot either on the quay or 

 Long Bridge of Belfast, on the 28th October, 1831, came under 

 my examination : it was a young bird of the year, as was another 

 that I saw, which had been killed about the river Lagan at 

 Lisburn, on the 4th or 5th of the same month. 



A bird of this species is stated to have been obtained at Water- 

 ford in the year lb2>l.* In the middle of May, 1835, a tern, 

 shot at Clontarf, DubHu Bay (where three more were seen 

 at the same time), came under the notice of a friend, who de- 

 scribed it to me as "of a slate-colour, darkening to the head, 

 which is black, as are the bill and feet : it is 1 inches long, and 

 23 inches in expanse of wings.'" f This is the description of an 

 adult bird. A tern, described as " black," was once observed 

 near Bonmahon, county of Waterford. Li the possession of Mr. 

 H. H. Dombrain, I have seen a specimen of the Sterna nigra that 

 was shot from a boat in which this gentleman was, at the mouth of 

 the LifFey, on September 2nd, 1837; another was obtained at the 

 same time. (Its length to centre of tail is 9^ inches ; wing from 

 carpus 7 inches 11 lines ; bill above 1 inch ; tarsus 7 lines ; middle 

 toe and nail measured in a straight line 10^ lines; tail forked 

 for 7 lines ; forehead white, occiput and nape black ; bill black ; 

 legs and feet dusky.) One of these birds was shot in the autumn 

 of 1841 at Eingsend, Dublin Bay. J Mr. E. Chute procured for 

 his collection a black tern in full adult plumage, which was killed 

 when flying over a small lake in Kerry in the summer of 1841 (?); 

 and about the 1st of September, 1844, he shot an immature bird 

 as it was on wing above the lake at Castlegregory, in the same 

 county. A young bird, obtained at Lusk, county of Dublin, on 

 the 21st of September, 1846, has come under my inspection in 

 Mt. Watters' collection ; in which there are two other immature 

 birds obtained near Dubhn, and an adult, shot in the summer of 

 1847, inland, in the county of Kerry. 



* Dr. Burkitt. t Mr. R. Ball. % Mr. T. W. "Warren, Nov. 1841. 



VOL. III. X 



