THE COMMON TEEN. 
289 
the island. The observation as to the localities enumerated will 
equally apply to the roseate, arctic, and other terns. 
Sir William Jardine has remarked of the common tern, that, 
“ in its breeding habits, it differs from the roseate, and resembles 
more nearly the lesser tern, seeming to prefer a shingly beach or 
low-lying ground to rocky islands.”'* My observation agrees with 
this as a general remark, but it is far from being of universal ap- 
plication. The few localities known to me on the Irish coast in 
which the 8. minuta breeds, are near to the haunts of S, hirundo. 
On the rocky Mew Island, where 8. hirundo, 8. arctica , and S. 
Dougallii nidify, the habits of the three species are in all respects 
similar. Its nests have already been noticed on other rocky, as 
well as gravelly, sandy, and grassy, islets. The common tern is 
more cosmopolite than any of the others ; breeding in localities 
of various kinds, and, as we have seen, both about fresh-water 
and the sea. 
Terns of the common and two closely-allied species visit the 
coast of Ireland at the beginning of May. In 1846, seven or 
eight were then observed in Dublin Bay.f On the 9th I saw seve- 
ral fishing close to Belfast Quay, in 1847 ; and in 1849, they 
were first noticed about Drogheda, on the 7 th of that month. J 
The common tern, or indeed any species, is very rarely seen 
far up Belfast Bay previous to, or during, the breeding season ; 
but at a favourite locality of this genus — Conswater Point — where 
a stream flows into the bay, several were observed for some days, 
about the 6th of June, 1843.§ Prom birds killed here, I have 
taken the fifteen-spined stickleback ( Gasterosteus spinachia, Lin.) ; 
a fish which they also feed on -at the Copeland Islands. They 
are occasionally seen for some time throughout the bay early in 
August, when the breeding season is over. On the 8th of that 
* e Brit. Birds,’ vol. iv. p. 277- f Mr. Darragh. 
t Mr. It. J. Montgomery. 
§ The only example of the roseate tern known to Mr. Templeton and Mr. John 
Montgomery was killed here. 
YOL. III. 
U 
