THE ARCTIC TERN. 
295 
(plentifully), and Muckalaw Hock, Tralee Bay (1850). On the 
8th of May, 1837, I saw two fresh specimens which had just 
been killed on the North Strand, Dublin Bay ; and on the 5th of 
June of the following year, as I crossed from Malahide to Lam- 
bay Island, this species, and S. hirundo , appeared flying in com- 
pany over the water. On the 11th of May, 1842, an arctic tern 
was shot on Dollymount Strand, coast of Dublin; from all of 
which circumstances there can be little doubt of the species 
breeding in that quarter. I have since ascertained that the 
Rockabill is a breeding-haunt, as noticed under the roseate species. 
Of many terns shot during the months of August and September 
1850, in Drogheda Bay, nearly all were arctic : they outnum- 
bered all the other species by at least ten to one.* 
This tern is more a marine bird than the common species, dif- 
fering indeed in a striking manner from it in this respect ; and, 
so far as my own observation extends, selecting for breeding- 
places only maritime localities. This is a remark which I am not 
aware of having been made before ; but, on looking to the sites 
named by Mr. Selby, Sir Wm. Jardine, Mr. Yarrell, and several 
other authors, in Great Britain ; by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Au- 
dubon, in North America ; I find they are all marine. I should 
not, however, be disposed to characterize the species positively, as 
breeding only in marine localities, for all the nesting-places of 
Sterna minuta known to me in Ireland are also marine ; but so far 
up the Rhine as the neighbourhood of Basle I have met with it 
in the the middle of July (1841), and felt well assured that its 
breeding-haunts were on the wild sandy banks of that great river. 
At maritime stations only have I known the roseate tern breed 
in Ireland. The Sterna hirundo breeds abundantly about our 
fresh-water lakes as well as on the sea-coast. 
Yery rarely have I known the arctic tern to be even seen 
inland. On the 13th of June, 1832, a remarkably fine and large 
specimen (not exhibiting any external injury) was found dead at 
Springfield, near Belfast. Distant above eighteen English miles 
* Mr. R. J. Montgomery. 
