GAYI JE. . LA R IB JE.
Sterna cantiaqa/. Gmelin.*
THE SAND WICH^fEKN. ’
-u-Ste^na BaysU.‘ ■
„ The Sandwich Tern was firstjoJis^RTO<i and obtained in
this country “at Sandwich,"in 17‘^4, by the late Hr. Boys^ who
sent specimen's to Latham,’ by 'whom the particulars respecting
it were published in the sixth -ynJLuing, of his General
j|mopsis, vp. 356.' Attention being , thus drawn »Jo this
^pecie^jitjWas ase.eijaiped to 'bn a^e^uiaC, summer-^«itor
harp, appearing in. s-pnflgjand' departing in auhjiran,» after
hayipg? reared itsbTOod ^ ^ mng- jjb persecution %by Egg-
collectors, and to^othej causes, it has been.driyfp from'several
localities where it formerly bredj and ip others.jts numbers
* Syst. Nat. i,. p. The -pa me o f SJboyut was -not ccnferredKb’y
Latbam la Supp. Ji'to'Tbe General pjaopsis/p... 296 Sf&Z):,.'he calls
it Sterna sandvicensis, but it seems'jmdesirable-to adopt this name.
have „undergone eonsiderabfesdiminution. A' few pairs nest
in the Scilly Islands, but the Editor has no positive knowledge
of the .existence of any colony ton/the- south or east
coasts of England ,shorh.,of- the -Fame Islands, although ip
■fortner years .it bred aLthe mouth, of. the Blackwater in
Essex, and abundantly on Coquet Island off i>Alnwick. Beyond
the Scottish border-, there are several breeding-places :
one of .them, on the Firth of rTay; ft i t seems- probable-there
is .anothèr, in iSuth^tedsbiBe?; land', it' also nests cm Loch
Lomond, and on some other döchs' on .the west coast, of
Scotland. There does not appear to be any authenticated
feeding-plaee 'unrthe-eoast öf Wales?: bttt a few pairs ne^t
jannually in .a earefully preserved locality on Walney Island
off the epast ;,of Lancashire; and th ere is a i small- colony-dn
Cumberland.
In Ireland, the Sandwich Tern is 'annually’observed, upon
the coast, and has a few'bre.edin^haunts in sóme-öf-the islets
that 3fare rarely visited, by-the naturalist. ' The Editor has
yisited one colony, „which'was discovered-‘by- Mr. B. Warren,
who desoribedtit in e The' Zoblogi-stykl877, p. 101. g -dtpvto
3^5.8 the. Terns nested' p®„a small lough near Ballina, on a
low flat mudvbank -close to-a colony of Black-headed Gulls ;
bu,t. th ishank-heing submerged •'/during a wet .summeiy'the
Iper-ns moved to'a largerhaoorland lough where there-is also a
breeding-place pf th.erBlack-headed Gulls on andsland, among
• éhe reeds* The Terns, make* thdiarhests on a h are 'pa rt oft the
island, a little way from thoseof’th e G u lls; and th e proprietor,
'Sir, Charles Knox Gore; who .strictly? preserves 'both* species;
has had the encroaching'hushes- and long grassbe ut off the
island in order .tQ-giymthe^Terns moie s p a c e ^ r their. nests,
jjfltey usually- arrive?; in April, ’although Mr. Warren* -has
Observed them >as early ’ as • the 20 thiqoL March:., and-they
breed-earlier than th e s^alleuTirh^th-e^ggéhei-ng frequently
ready to- hatch. ;by the- end, of May. ' On thébeast. coast
gijkigland .they -are: seldom seen, on their - migration-northward
b e fo re May,.and thereturnLpassage commences in- August.-^
^?The range.of thev-Sandwich Tern hardly1''extends to -th e
; north -of the Danish Islands, and dt-is very rare in the Baltic,