302 
LARIM. 
Galway coast, in the summer of 1838. He observes, that, “on 
turning into a small ravine, there appeared within twenty yards a 
cloud of the lesser terns, plunging incessantly into a pool, which 
the receding tide had left filled with water : a flock of swallows 
preparing for migration gives but a faint idea of their numbers ; 
but what surprised me more, was their permitting my near ap- 
proach without exhibiting the slightest fear or distrust, still con- 
tinuing, although now not a yard from me, plunging and scream- 
ing as if I were but a shadow. My curiosity w r as greatly excited, 
and, stooping down to examine the pool, I found it to be almost 
a living mass of herring-fry, each about an inch and a half in 
length : this fully explained the cause of such a congregation. 
Bor a moment I could have imagined myself placed on one of 
those beautiful isles described by Mr. Darwin in his f Zoology of 
the Yoyage of the Beagle/ where the birds exhibit no fear on the 
approach of man, and where a perfect confidence reigns. I was 
determined not to give my unsuspecting friends, the terns, any 
cause of regret for the unlimited confidence placed in me, and 
endeavoured to assist them in their pursuit by putting my hands 
together, and commencing to bale out water and fry ; but in this 
I lost both time and labour, for not a single fry would they take 
when thrown out and exposed on the rock ; but if by chance it 
fell into a crevice containing a little water, it was instantly seized 
and swallowed. The Hards Islands are composed of granite, 
much intersected by dykes of hornblende : the latter, being much 
fractured, is constantly wearing away, by the action of the heavy 
Atlantic surges, thus leaving alleys or ravines, faced on both sides 
by perpendicular walls of granite, which, seeming to be stratified, 
present a singular appearance.” They were mere visitors to these 
islands, and not one was to be seen there at the same period of 
the year in 1844.* 
The little tern is mentioned by Colonel Sabine, as seen by him 
in July 1833, about the caves of Ballybunian, on the coast of 
Kerry. Small flocks of six or eight birds occasionally appear in 
* Rev. Geo. Robinson. 
