THE ROSEATE TERN. 
277 
And never stays to greet him ; Ay, quoth Jaques, 
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens ; 
’Tis just the fashion : wherefore do you look 
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there ?”* 
Mr. J. R. Garrett has supplied the following note, under date 
of $th of August, 1849 : — “ Terns were in great abundance at 
the Mew Island to-day. I endeavoured to estimate their number, 
and considered that there were not less than two thousand within 
sight. So long as we remained on the island they continued to 
hover over us, uttering their shrill screams, and showing much 
anxiety, many of them having small fish in their bills, intended, 
no doubt, for the young birds which had been hatched. On 
making a careful search we found a considerable number of eggs, 
the majority of which were addled. A few were, however, quite 
fresh, notwithstanding the advanced period of the season, and in 
four of them were young birds, whose cries were audible through 
the chipped shells. A boy, who resides on the neighbouring 
island, told me that he had taken from the Mew Island eleven 
dozen and three terns' eggs, on one day at the commencement of 
this season. Being desirous of procuring a few terns for preser- 
vation, we shot half-a-dozen at random — two of these were of the 
roseate, and the remainder were of the arctic species." 
On the 16th of July, 1850, 1 visited the Mew Island in company 
with the gentleman last named, and others. We were equally as- 
tonished and annoyed to find that therfe was not a tern of any kind 
on the island ; nor did we see one when going to or returning from 
it to Groomsport, the distance between the two places being about 
five miles. We were told by different persons that the birds 
came as usual at the commencement of the breeding season, but 
from being much fired at, and robbed of their eggs very soon after 
arrival, they all left the island, and not one had since been seen 
* A fallow-deer which. I saw in October 1888, had met with an accident in the 
deer -parlc at the Cave-hill, near Belfast, probably by having fallen down some of the 
precipitous cliffs, and his fore-legs were much bruised, though the hones were not 
broken. But he was put an end to by his companions, of which there was sufficient 
evidence from the wounds of their horns in his rear. The gamekeeper here stated, 
that whenever any deer in the park are unable to keep pace with the herd, the latter 
are sure to destroy them. 
