THE COMMON TEEN, 
291 
day of the 11th of October, 1838, -a flock of from forty to fifty 
terns was seen flying close to the land over Conswater Point, in 
a southerly direction, when they were believed to be on migra- 
tion. The description of them applies to S. hirundo, S. arc- 
tica, or S. Dougallii , with their young, as there were “ two sizes ” 
of them the young birds now appear much smaller than 
their parents, from not having the long tail-feathers. Terns 
sometimes ascend the river Lagan in autumn, following its mean- 
derings for above ten miles inland ; about Lambeg they have 
frequently been seen. At the end of August 1838, a youngs 
S. hirundo was found dead on a mountain, about a mile from 
Clonmel.* 
Sir William Jardine Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. p. 277) remarks 
respecting the common tern — “ We do not trace it with authen- 
ticity northward to the islands of Scotland, except that it is men- 
tioned by Mr. John Macgillivray on the Outer Hebrides.” When 
at Islay, in January 1849, 1 learned that a tern, either S. hirundo 
or S. arctica (as none with the black bill of S. Dougallii had ever 
been observed), bred in great numbers annually on Kinrevock, or 
the rabbit-island, which is rocky, with a good deal of short pas- 
ture. It was considered by P. Mackenzie, head keeper, that 
about 500 pair bred in 1848, and several previous years, on that 
and a closely adjacent islet. He pointed out to me in the mu- 
seum of native birds, &c., at Islay House, a specimen of the tern 
which breeds there ; — it was S. hirundo , and no other species of 
Sterna was in the collection. When the island was visited by 
my friends for the purpose of seal-shooting, in May 1848, the 
terns had not commenced laying, and annoyed them very much 
by their cries alarming the seals, so that not a shot could be had 
at them on the rocks. In May 1849, there were considered to be 
about twenty terns here for one in 1848, The number of their 
eggs taken will be found mentioned under the Common Gull. It 
would be interesting to ascertain whether the tern found breeding- 
in the islands of a loch amid the woods of Altyre, five miles from 
* Mr. R. Davis. 
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