THE LITTLE TEEN. 
303 
Cork harbour. At the Keroe islands,, on the south coast of 
Wexford, they and their eggs have been obtained, the latter 
placed in a mere hollow of the sand or gravel : in a few in- 
stances the number in a nest was only two.t So early as the 
26th of April, 1850, above thirty of these terns were seen on 
the Grey Stones, coast of Wicklow. J In the preceding year, 
on the 6th of May, eight were observed together • at the South 
Wall, Dublin Bay;§ and on the 8th of that month, the first birds 
of the season were noticed in Drogheda Bay.|| 
In 1836, one of these birds was shot at the island of Lambay, 
on the 9th of June, and three at Portmarnock on the 19th of 
July ; — when proceeding from Malahide to the former locality, 
on the 5th of June, 1838, 1 saw four of the S. minuta in company 
flying over the sea. About the year 1840, from sixty to a hun- 
dred little terns have been seen during a forenoon on the coast 
between Malahide and Portrane, where they had nests on the 
sand and shingle, several of which, containing eggs, have been 
discovered without much search being made. They have greatly 
decreased there since that period.^ 
The little tern was not observed on any of the rocky marine 
islets frequented by the larger species, that I have visited ; nor am 
I aware of any fresh -water breeding-haunt in Ireland. Its ap- 
pearance at least, inland, is thus noticed by the Eev. Mr. Lub- 
bock, in his f Pauna of Norfolk*/ — “The lesser terns are very 
engaging little birds : in the summer-time they will fly backward 
and forward over a boat moored for angling. I have often been 
attended by them at Hickling and Horsey. They approach 
within a very few yards, and are highly delighted with a very small 
fish — on one or two occasions, wLen I had minnows with me, they 
came close to the boat to take them. All these birds [the various 
species of tern] are now with us hardly to be called more than 
visitants ; their nesting-places have been broken up the incursions 
of man” (p. 122). 
This bird may be considered equally common in Ireland as in 
* Mr. Wm. Crawford. f Mr. Poole. | Mr. J. Watters. 
§ Mr. It. Ball. || Mr. R. J. Montgomery, Mr, T. W. Warren. 
