294 
LARIDiE. 
found. On the 25th of June, 1836, an ornithological friend 
visited some of the islands of Strangford Lough, and shot many 
arctic and common terns, about four of the former to one of the 
latter ; he did not see any of the roseate species. I was much 
pleased to hear that the farmer who rents these islands, and on 
whose invitation my friend visited them, wrote to him that this 
was “ the last week of the terns/' meaning thereby, that it was 
the latest period at which they should be killed, in consequence 
of their just commencing incubation. Two arctic terns shot in 
this lough, southward of Kirkcubbin, on the 6th of June, 1850, 
came under my notice. When about Horn Head, county of 
Donegal, in the last week of June 1832, I saw some terns appa- 
rently of the arctic species, and the low rocky islands off that 
coast, between the headland just named and Bloody Poreland 
Point, appeared, from the mainland, most suitable localities for 
their breeding — resembling the Skerries off Portrush, and the 
Earn Islands off the Northumbrian coast.* In Clew Bay, county 
of Mayo, we, on the 28th of June, 1834, shot one of these birds 
near Minish Island, and saw several others, both on wing and on 
little heaps of stones rising above the waters of the bay : they 
doubtless breed on some of the many islets there. At the Hards 
islands, Galway coast, arctic and common terns were observed on 
the 1st of August, 1844.f I was informed by Mr. T. P. Neligan 
(in 1837) that the arctic tern is common on the coast of Kerry, 
in summer;J and on the 7 th of July, that year, six fresh speci- 
mens sent thence to Dublin by my informant, came under my 
inspection. This is the only species of tern known to Mr. B. 
Chute on the coast of Kerry, where it breeds on a small island in 
the Blasket Sound called Beginish; on the Magharee Islands 
* Sir ‘William Jardine remarks that this species “ seems to prefer the shingly 
beach to rocks” ( c Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. p. 279), but on the latter it has chiefly occurred 
to me, and seemed more partial to them than S. hirundo. 
f Rev. Gr. Robinson. 
| In the Appendix to Ross’s Second Voyage, it is stated, at p. 33, that the arctic 
tern “ has lately been found abundantly on the west coast of Ireland in the winter 
season.” From Capt. Sir James C. Ross, I learned that this information was de- 
rived from the late Joseph Sabine, Esq. Mr. R. Chute has never known this species 
to be on the coast of Kerry in winter (1850). 
