THE LITTLE TEEN. 
301 
approach — two nests containing eggs were found on the shingly 
beach. I have not learned any other particulars respecting this 
bird about Strangford Lough with sufficient precision for notice 
here, excepting that a pair were seen about the islands off Ard- 
millan, in the last week of June 1849. When at Dundrum, on 
the coast of the same county, on the 23rd of August, 1836, I 
was assured by a shore-shooter, that two kinds of tern, one much 
smaller than the other, and evidently, from his description, S. 
minuta, breed on the coast there. We saw many terns that day 
(though not S. minuta ), in flocks by themselves on the sand, 
and also mingled with kittiwakes, black-headed and lesser black- 
backed gulls. 
In summer and autumn, the little tern still occasionally ap- 
pears in Belfast Bay. In the middle of June 1839, seven were 
seen together, off the Long Strand, for about an hour, and admitted 
of a very close approach, as one also did about that place on the 
14th of September the same year. In 1841, three appeared 
there on the 10th of June, and one on the 5th of August. In 
September 1843, again, four, in that locality, and about the same 
time six, at Holywood bank tvere observed. In the autumn of 
1844, six appeared seated on a large stone off the Long Strand; 
and perched on a small buoy of the harbour five birds admitted 
the approach of a small boat within about eight yards of them, 
on the 26th of August, 1845. 
A specimen, shot near the Giant’s Causeway, in September 
1831, came under my inspection. The species is said to be com- 
mon on the northern coast of Donegal.* 
By the late Mr. John Nimmo, of Boundstone, I was informed 
that two species of tern, of which one is the S. minuta , breed on 
the islets of the Galway coast ; and both in quantity on Deer 
Island, and one or two others. They are said to appear on wing 
together, and to breed in company : they have come when preying 
on sprats within two or three yards of the boat in which he was 
fishing. Dr. Barran gives an interesting account of this species, 
as seen by him and Mr. Nimmo, at the Hards Islands, off the 
* Mr. J. V. Stewart. 
