THE COMMON TERN. 
285 
and with the aid of a telescope observed them feeding their young 
on the rocks in the vicinity. When at Dundrum, also in that 
county, on the 23rd of August, 1836, 1 was told that two species 
of terns, one much smaller than the other, and probably 
S. minuta, breed about there : the larger is, I have little doubt, 
8. hirundo. We saw a great number of terns, about the size of 
the latter, flocked together that day on the sands, or in company 
with kittiwake gulls. 
It breeds on the sea-shores of Donegal ; — at the Rockabill off’ 
the Dublin coast, and on the beach of this county at Malahide 
(1837), and Sutton. When crossing from the former of these 
two localities to the island of Lambay, on the 5th of June, 
1838, we saw both the common and arctic terns in company 
flying over the sea. On the bare beach of the Wicklow coast, 
near Bray,*' this species nidifies, as it likewise does on the 
Wexford coast, where it is remarked that the bird “ makes no nest, 
merely depositing its eggs in a small hollow, probably formed 
by a revolution of its body. It also lays on the decayed stems 
of sea-campion.” t It visits the coast of Waterford. Smith, 
in his ‘ History of Cork/ includes in the list of birds “ The sea- 
swallow, called with us spirres,” remarking that “they flock 
together, and breed on islands uninhabited near the sea-shores.” 
That, written more than a century ago, is applicable at the present 
time. About the islets of Bantry Bay, amid the enchanting 
scenery of Glengariff, 1 saw numbers either of this species or 
the arctic tern (but not near enough to be distinguished) in July 
1834, and eggs procured there came under my notice. In 1850, 
I learn that they are still very plentiful, and have various breeding- 
haunts, including bare rocky islets, about that noble bay. On the 
Sovereign Islands, off the coast of Cork, my correspondent has 
found their eggs laid on the short grass without any attempt 
having been made at the formation of a nest. When mackerel- 
fishing in Cork harbour at the end of July and early in August 
1848 and previous years, he has also seen terns in such flocks or 
* Mr. R. J. Montgomery. f Mr. Poole. 
