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LIST or IRISH XA3IES,
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INTRODUCTION.
Ireland being the outer island of the British group is most
strongly affected by the influence of the ocean and of the prevail-
ing south-west wind, and these causes produce a greater amount
of wet and a moi'e equable temperature here than are found in
Great Britain. The result has been the growth of vast tracts of
peat, which cover not only the mountains in which Ireland
abounds, but large portions of the lowlands, Avhile in the extreme
West the moors extend down to the very coast.
The land surface of Ireland is divided approximately as
follows : —
In cultivation Statute acres 4,625,000
Grass 10,575,000
Woods and plantations 300,000
Turf-bog, marsh, barren mountain land, water, &c. 4,800,000
Total . 20,300,000
or, roughly speaking, half the country is under grass, one quarter
under tillage and woods, and nearly one quarter is unreclaimed
wilderness.
Extending as Ireland does over only some four degrees of latitude,
and enjoying so eciuable a climate, there is in it but little differ-
ence in the distribution of birds resulting from climate alone, such
difference as there is being chiefly observable in some winter-
visitors which frequent the shores of Ulster and Connaught rather
than those of the South. An instance of the want of climatic
distinctions in Ireland is exhibited by the Red-breasted Merganser
and Great Crested Grebe. Both of these birds have an extensive
breeding-range in this island, though in Great Britain the former
is confined to Scotland in the breeding-season. (Mr. C. B.
Moffat.)
The most striking contrasts in the bird population of diff'eront
inland districts are between the species that frequent mountains
and bogs on the one hand and those which inhabit the cultivated
and wooded parts on the other.
h
XVni INTRODUCTION.
The lu-eediug-range of some of onv summer migrants does not
appear to lie in those parts of Ireland first reached l\y them,
for the Whinchat and Yellow Wagtail, which presumably arrive
cm the East or South-east of Leinster, have their chief breeding-
grounds in the North and West of our island ; but others like the
Blackcap, the Chift'chaff and the Nightjar are decidedly more
numerous in the East than in the West and North, and this
applies also to several resident woodland birds.
The eastern side of Ireland is more cultivated, more fertile and
less humid than the western, and is also nearer the sources of
migration from G-reat Britain and the Continent ; so that the
greatest amount of dissimilarity in land-birds is exhibited by those
of the East and those of ihe West of the island. Consec[uently in
referring to the counties of Ireland in connection with distribution,
it is more convenient to take them in grou2:>s, such as those formed
by the four provinces.
After carefully considering the county-numbering of Babington
and that more recently proposed by Mr. Praeger (" Irish Natural-
ist," 1896, p. 29), these schemes, however convenient for other
branches of Natural History, seem unsuited to the facts of our
ornithology. We have, however, harmonized with their general
plan so far as to commence with the southern province, taking
Leinster next, then Connaught and Ulster.
The shores of Leinster, the eastei-n province, are flat and but
little indented, favouring the landing of migrating birds, while
the coasts of the other three provinces are deeply cut up by bays
and irregularities, and oppose to the ocean a vast extent of rocky
cliffs. The West of Ireland, like that of Great Britain, possesses
numerous peninsulas surmounted by mountain chains, and this
mountainous character attaches to most of the maritime counties,
while the greater part of the interior is an undulating ])lain with
many lakes in some portions of it and great turf-bogs in
others.
As might be expected from the position of this island, its
avifauna is less rich in species than that of Great Britain, just as
the latter is deficient in many of those found on the Continent.
But, though comparatively poor in species, Ireland is rich in
1>ird-life, for which extensive and varied haunts are provided ;
moors, lakes, estuaries, and precipices harbour a bird-population
not familiar to the greater part of the sister island ; while the
woods, though of comparatively small extent, are the breeding-
haunts of many Siskins. Redpolls, Crossbills and Woodcocks.
Vast sea-bird colonies cover some of the coast-cliffs and islands.
INTKODUCTION. XIX
and the j^rincipal resorts are specified below in the several articles
on Gaunets, Gulls, Auks, and Petrels,
There are uaany lakes of great beauty having shores and islands
adorned with natural wood or covered with indigenous herbage.
On and around these breed Gulls and Terns, Ducks (five species),
Waders (four species), Grebes (two species), Warblers (six species),
while Cormorants nest on some lakes in company with Herons.
On some of our liogs many thousands of Black-headed Gulls
breed, and there are colonies of smaller extent of the Lesser
Black-backed Gull on moors and lakes. Curlews nest in numbers
on the great red bogs, and Golden Plover on mountains and on the
bogs of Connaught, though most of the western moors are com-
jDaratively destitute of life.
As regards migration a great mass of immigrants arrive from
Great Britain on the shores of Leinster and to a less extent on
those of eastern Munster, the Wexford route being apparently
that which is chiefly used ; but some of the birds which come
from Northern Eui'ope at the beginning of winter strike the
north coast as though they arrived from the direction of Scotland.
Arctic-breeding species, like the Snow-Bunting and the Barnacle
Goose, arrive on the north coast and spread down both our eastern
and western shores ; while the Greenland Falcon, the Snowy Owl
and Bewick's Swan when they visit Ireland are found on the coasts of
Donegal and of Connaught, the Falcon and Swan reaching Kerry.
The latter county thus receives winter-visitors from the North via
Connaught and from the Continent and Great Britain via Leinster,
A special feature of our avifauna is the number of northern
breeding wildfowl, chiefly Anaiidie and Cliaradriidsi, which winter
in many of the bays, estuaries and lakes near the coast. For a
description of these great winter-resorts we may refer to the
" Fowler in Ireland" by Sir E. Payue-Gallwey and to the many
articles in the FieJd and Zoologist by Roliert Warren, in which he
has described the bird-life of Killala Bay and the Moy Estuary.
Another leading feature of the ornithology is the influx in autumn
from Great Britain, and probably also from the Continent, of vast
reinforcements of species resident in Ireland to pass the winter
in this mild and equable climate. This is more especially observ-
able in the East and South. Hosts of Song-Thrushes, Blackbirds
and Starlings are accompanied by innumerable Redwings, Field-
fares, Sky-Larks, Meadow-Pipits, Goldcrests and Chaffinches.
Each access of severe cold, whether before or after Christmas, sets
up a fresh westward movement toward the milder seaboard of
Kerry, which seems to be the ultimate resort.
h -1
XX INTRODUCTION.
Certain species show a greater disposition to winter in Ireland
than they do in England. The Quail did so habitually, before it
became altogether rare. The Corn-Crake has been often found
here in winter, and the number of Hen-Harriers is not known to
diminish during that season. The Black Redstart is an autumn-
visitor in small numbers to the eastern and southern shores, and
instances are frequent of summer migrants like the Blackcap
passing the winter in Ireland. A communication on this subject
was made by the late Dr. Kinahan to the Dublin Natural History
Society, 13th June 1840 {Zoologist 6961 [1860] ).
Besides the external migration, there are the annual local
movements of S])ecies that breed on inland lakes or moors, and
betake themselves to the vicinity of tidal waters, when the business
of rearing their young is accomplished. This fact is very notice-
able in Ireland, where there are such ample breeding-grounds for
Plovers, Curlews, Redshanks, Gulls. Ducks of several species,
Grebes and others, which are to a great extent summer-visitors to
inland districts and winter-visitors to the coasts.
The increase of certain birds as breeding species deserves specia
mention. The Magpie, first reported to have been seen in Ireland
towards the end of the seventeenth century, has overspread the
whole country ; so has the Mistle-Thrush, which is believed to have
first appeared about the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The increase of breeding Starlings and Woodcocks is still going
on, while the Stock-Dove and Tufted Duck have spread rapidly
within the last twenty years, and various woodland species appear
to be on the increase.
Of species that have ceased to be residents, Giraldus in the
twelfth century mentioned the Crane as numerous. The Great
Auk, whose bones occur in kitchen-middens both in Antrim
and Waterford, was probably exterminated later. The Caper-
cailzie, once numerous in Irish woods, survived until late in the
eighteenth century and the Buzzard bred in Ulster within twenty
years.
Our people do not usually molest birds excej^t in the pursuit of
game, and the Irish peasant-boys are not given to bird-nesting
for its own sake. The species most persecuted or nearly exter-
minated are Eagles, Harriers, and Ravens ; while Woodlarks and
Goldfinches are greatly reduced in numbers hj bird-catching, and
Kingfishers are unmercifully shot.
The following pages treat of 288 admitted species, exclusive of
those in the Apjiendix. Of this total number there are 134 which
have bred in Ireland within the century now concluding, and these
INTRODUCTION.
comprise 104 residents and 30 suninier-risitors. It is estimated
that 37 other species visit Ii'eland annually, either on migration or
to winter here ; while the Occasional or Irregular Visitors number
117, of which 56 have not been recorded in as many as six
instances and 61 are of more frec[uent occurrence.
Additional notes or corrections will be found at the end of the
volume (pp. 406—410) relating to the following birds : —
Song-Thrush.
Black Redstart.
Whitethroat.
Lesser Whitethroat.
White Wagtail.
Yellow Wagtail.
Pied Flycatcher.
Hawfinch.
Goldfinch.
Eose-coloured Starling.
Hoopoe.
Short-eared Owl.
Montagu's Harrier.
Rough-legged Buzzard.
Heron.
Night-Heron.
Common Bittern.
Whooper Swan.
Bewick's Swan.
Garganey.
Long-tailed Duck
Eider Duck.
Spotted Crake.
Kentish Plover.
Lapwing.
Woodcock.
Sandwich Tern.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF BIEDS "WHICH HAVE BRED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
* The counties iu which a species is ascertained to breed are marked by au asterisk.
r The counties where exceedingly few of the species breed.
H The counties where tlie bird formerly bred, but has ceased to do so.
* ? The counties where the bird has bred, but proof is wanting that it does so regularly.
? The counties where the indications of breeding fall short of proof.
>>
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XXll
DISTEIBTITION OF THE SPECIES OF BIEDS WHICH HAVE BEED
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DISTEIBUTION OT THE SPECIES OF BIRDS WHICH HAVE BRED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CEl^^TVBY— Continued.
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DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF BIRDS WHICH HAVE BRED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CEl^TV^Y— Continued.
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Buzzard
Golden Eagle
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Eagle
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Common Gor-
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IMute Swan
DISTEIBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF BIEDS WHICH HAVE BRED
IN lEELAJ^D m THE NINETEENTH CENTURY— Co«fm?iefZ.
>>
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*
)ISTRIBUTIOK OF THE SPECIES OP BIEDS WHICH HAVE BEED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CEl^TJJUY—Contmued.
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XXIX
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF BIRDS WHICH HAVE BRED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CE^T\JBY—Contmuecl
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A-ater
*
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I
XXX
>ISTKTBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF BIRDS WHICH HAVE BEED
IN IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY— Co//^//;«e(7.
s
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Galway
Roscommon
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Storm-Petrel
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I\[anx Shear-
water
-
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r * '".
1
XXXI
ERE AT A.
Page 19, line 28, for 11 scruples read 2 seruplos.
,, 4G, before Spotted Flycatcher insert Family MuscicapidD?, instead of on
page 47.
,, 47, head line,/o;- Ampelidfc read IMuscicapidaj.
„ 92, line 11, for Clouhrook read Clonbrock.
,, 121, ,, 42 left column, after and insert this nest.
,, 171, ,, 3, for Pelagdis read Plegadis.
,, 236, /or Arrau read Aran.
,, 250, line S, for Endromias read Eudromias.
,, 281, ,, 27, /oc platyrhynca 7-(?afZ platyrhyucha.
Right hand pages 313 to 847, head lines, for Gavite read Laridie.
Page 328, line 20, for its read their.
„ 332, ,, 9, /o)- Lapwing-Gull 7-m(Z Peewit-Gull.
,, 348, ,, 28, /o?- whiter 7YY«Z white.
,, 348, before Great Skua insert Family Stercorariidte.
Pages 349, 351, 353, 355, head lines, for Gavise read Stercorariidas.
Page 35G, before Razorbill insert Sub-family Alcinte.
Pages 357, 359, 3G1, 363, 365, 367, 369, 371, head lines, /or Alcte read Alcidae.
THE
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Order PASSERES.
Family TURDID.E. Sul)family Tuedix.^.
THE MISTLE-THEUSH. T>rrJ,is vlscivonis, Linnanis.
Though now resident, common, and widely distributed, this bird was
apparently unknown in Ireland before the nineteenth century.
A Mistle-Thrusb, shot early in 18U8 in the eo. Antrim, was
the first Irish example that Thompson had heard of. During the
first half of the century the sjiread and increase of this s]»eeies
was noticed throughout Ireland, the Western coast being
apparently the last reached. Thus Mr. W. Sinclair remembers
it in Tyrone in 1820, but it arrived in Western Donegal ten years
later. Up to 1860 it was unknown in Achill, l>ut now In-eeds there.
In Western Connaught it is scarce, but is lielieved still to be on
the increase throughout Ireland in general.
Flocks occur from June to the end of autumn, and may l)e seen
in the same locality for days together. These perform local
migrations, but disperse before winter. In November there is an
immigration from G-reat Britain, though on a much smaller scale
than that of the Song-Thrush or Blackbird. Some Mistle-Thrushes
visit Eathlin Island in frosts, and Valeiitia is another winter
resort.
The Mistle-Thrush is a welcom^^ addition to the song-birds of
Ireland. From Octol)er onwards it may be heard in our mild
climate ; at first rarely, Imt more frequently and fully as each
winter month passes, until the full song is delivered in February
and March ; while even frost and snow will not always silence it.
I have heard one uttering its notes in short snatches l)etween each
triple stroke of its wings while it flew.
Dr. Benson mentions an instance of its daring. A Sparrow-
Hawk was just alujut to seize a Chaffinch which it was |»ursuing,
L!
2 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
when a Mistle-Tlivusli darted down right ou the Hawk's bact.
For a moment giauciug winsrs were seen, and the Chaffinch dropped
into the grass in safety, while the disconcerted Hawk flew off.
The breeding of the Chaffinch close to the nest of the Mistle-
Thrush has been repeatedly observed in Ireland ; and in one case
I saw a Long-tailed Tit's nest in the same tree as that of this
Thrush. A pair V)red ou a bleak headland near the Aranmore
Lighthouse, co. Donegal (Migration Reports 1889) ; and Mr.
Brooke found a nest among rocks on a hill near Killybegs, where
trees were scarce and there were only a few hazel-bushes.
Mr. Pentland found one in a hole of a gate-pier near Clogher
Head, no trees lieing near ; Init such cases ai'e exceptional. La.te
nests are uncommon. When deficient in brown colouring the eggs
are blue, like those of a Song-Thrush, but paler. Frequently five
eggs are laid. The Mistle-Thrush varies to white oftener than do
other Thrushes.
THE SONG-THRUSH. Tirrdus mnslcus, Linnteus.
Resident and common. Breeds in every county. Its numbers increased
in winter by immigration.
One of our 1iest-known songsters, the Song-Thrush is numerously
distributed, and it breeds throughout Ireland, even on points of
Western Donegal not quite devoid of trees, as well as on the islands
of Valentia, Laml>ay, Rathlin and Achill. Some bare coast districts
must, however, be excepted, as those of Dunglow in Donegal,
Belmullet in Mayo, and Carna in Gahvay, though these are visited
by numbers of Thrushes in winter. Thus the Song-Thrush is a
winter-visitor to many districts near the coast, where it finds among
the sand-hills a plentiful supply of snails. The shells may often
be seen strewn round a stone, used by this bird as an anvil.
I have been referring to the local migration, which results in
this species becoming scarce or absent after the breeding-season,
and through the winter, near Belfast and in Tyrone and Donegal.
Its scarcity in July and August has long been noticed in Ireland.
On the other hand, there is a general increase in winter in
Waterford and Cork, and along the West. During severe frost or
snow Song-Thrushes, with allied birds, are seen flying westwai'ds,
and visit in the last resort the islands of Kerry, Galway and Mayo.
But more important than the local is the transmarine migration.
In October, and still more in November, the British or foreign
TURDID.^. 6
flocks come over to pass the winter in our milder climate ; their
returu journey being observed chiefly in February. These visitors
from beyond the channel cross for the most part by Wexford. This
route is indicated by the proportion of legs and wings in Mr.
Barrington's collection taken at light-stations round Ireland.
There are none of these from Cxahvay nor Mayo lighthouses,
except three from the Arran Islands.
The song has been noticed exceptionally in Septeml)er and
October, and is more frequently heard on mild days from Novem-
ber onwards, but it does not attain its full jiower until spring.
I have heard it at 7.30 a.m. and at 4- p.m. in the December twilight,
and in May it has been noticed before 3 a.m.
This bird has been seen building on the 14th February at
Cappagh, but it usually commences in March. Young birds al)le
to fly have been found on the 10th <>f April. I have seen a nest in
a fir thii'ty-five or forty feet fr(:)m the ^-rouud. Another nest was
built in a dee}> watering-can. In Achill, owing to want of trees,
the Song-Thrush builds in gorse or even in ferns.
White variations have occurred in Ivelaml.
THE REDWING. T>n;J».ril such flocks may be
seen about the same place for days together, especially when an
inclement spring delays their departure. They often stay until
about the end of that month, less frequently until the first week in
May. Mr. Barrington has usually observed Fieldfares to frequent
some ivy-covered ashes in ISTorth Wicklow until the 6th or 8th of
May. Thompson mentions some seen near Lough Neagh on the
31st of May, a singular case.
This species resorts to open and upland districts rather than to
those which are rich in timber and cultivation, but, in hard frosts,
Fieldfares suddenly appear with others of the Thrush family in
sheltered places. Being berry-feeders they endure frost better
than the Eedwing. Thoni}»son found them roosting on heath-clad
hills. They are fond of wandei-ing, and are uncertain visitors. In
some winters I scarcely see one, while in others they are common.
Though the full song is unknown in this country, one may hear
in February and March a flock of Fieldfares '* recording " in the
tree-tops.
WHITE'S THRUSH. Tnnhts varlus, Pallas.
Three occurrences are on record.
An example was shot near Bandon, co. Cork, early in December
1842 (Thompson). More states in his List, 1890, that this specimen,
which had lost its head, was in Trinity College Museum.
Mr. H. Blake Knox has stated that a second was seen by
him (luit not in the flesh) at a Ijird-stuft'er's in Dublin, and that the
Hon. King Harman, of JSTewcastle, co. Longford, had informed
him that it was shot by his gamekeeper in the spring of 1867
(Zoo?., 1870, p. 2060).
A third was shot at the Colonel's Wood, near Westport,
CO. Mayo, on 9th January 1885, by Captain Ruttledge Phair, and
presented to the Dublin Museum, where it is preserved. It rose
from thick underwood which was being beaten for Woodcock.
There is no record of its sex, but the wing measures 6j inches,
which corresjionds to that of the male.
For American iligratory Thrush, see Appendix.
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE BLACKBIRD. Turdus meruJa, Linuajus.
Resident, common, and still more generally distributed than the Song-
Thrush. A large immigration takes place in winter from Great
Britain.
The Laixly constitution of the Blaeklnrd enables it to survive
severe winters better than the Thrush, as well as to inhabit more
exposed districts in summer, consequently it is not only found
breeding commonly in every Irish county, but there are few
lowland districts where it does not do so ; the treeless disti-iet
near Dungiow in Donegal and ^"alentia Island being among
these exceptions, though even there it is a winter-visitor. It bi'eeds
on Lambay, Rathlin, Achill, the Counemara islands, and the
Arran islands, where I have heard it singing on rocks and
walls in manv places. Owing to the absence of trees in Arran
it IS said to build in l:)anks and loose stone fences. Its breed-
ing-range is i>r()bably extending, for in 1890 Mr. Eichai'ds
first noticed it breeding near Belmullet, and in 1893 Mr. Delap
noticed it in Valentia, while Mr. Sheridan remembers the time
when it did not breed in Achill. In districts W'here moors and
mountains prevail, as in Western Connaught, it is naturally
scarcer, but throughout Ireland generally it is more numerous than
any other bird of the Thrush family. In July innumerable Black-
birds devour our small fruit, and often take it thi'ough the nets.
In August and September I remark a great scarcity of them in
Waterford, and Mr. Blake Kuox has noticed this in the co.
Dublin. It is time to modify Seebohm's statement that there is
no reason to think that the Blackbird is migratory in the British
Islands. In October and November immense numbers, in com-
pany with their congeners, are observed migrating to our shores,
principally to Wexford, often on special nights, in " rushes " which
occur at different lighthouses simultaneously. These observations
are corroborated by the multitudes of the species that make their
appearance through the country at that season, the hedges and
])lantings becoming alive with them towards the end of October.
Their abundance then contrasts with their scarcity during the
previous warm weatlier. Mr. Pentland has noticed such a sudden
influx in Novemlier near Drogheda ; and from almost all parts of
Ireland, even Western Donegal, I am told of the winter increase of
Blackbirds. They seem, however, to leave Northern Donegal in
some winters. In February and March there is an increase in the
specimens obtained at lighthouses (Mr. E. M. Barriugton), which,
TURDID^. /
however, are far fewer than those iu late aiituinii. The song-
may be heard ou mild days from Oetober through the winter, but
not usually before February, and this bird oeeasionally sings at
night. The Rev. C. Irvine has uotieed one building in Tyrone
on 25th rel)ruary, but I have no note of a Blaclvljird doing so
before 8th Mareh. Laying eommeneed in this ease alx>ut the 15th.
Two successive broods are sometimes reared in the same nest.
Sir Douglas Brooke found a nest on the level ground in
Fermanagh, andthe Jr/.s7i. Natumlist (1897) contains an illustration
of a Blackbird hatching t)n a greenhouse shelf. In 1890 more
than one bird near Cappoquni produced eggs with a white, not a
green, ground, and I have a similar set taken about a mile frc>m
Cappoquin in 1885.
White and pied examples of this bird are particularly frequent.
In the Field of 20th February 1875, Grleunon mentions twenty-
nine pied Blackbirds preserved by him since 1st January 1874. I
have seen a pure white specimen, while another in my plantations
was of a tawnv-bufp, a variation that has occurred elsewhere.
THE EING-OUZEL. TMrdits torqnatus, Linnteus.
Summer-visitor, frequenting in limited numbers the higher and wilder
mountain districts in every quarter of Ireland. Stragglers have
occurred in winter.
I can find but four counties, viz., Meath, Westmeath, Longford
and Ai'magh (which are not mouutaijious), from the avifauna of
which the Ring-Ouzel can be excluded. In all, or nearly all, the
other counties this species has breeding-haunts. I may specially
mention the higher mountains of Kerry, Waterford, Ti}>perary,
Wicklow, G-alway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Down, but
in many other counties it is not uncommon in suitable haunts.
In Waterford it is only found above the thousand-foot line, but iu
Donegal, where it is probably more common than in any other
county, I have twice met with it near Doocharry Bridge, among
rocks and heather, very little above the sea-L.'vel. I have alsD
heard the i>iping cry or song far down the seaward face of
Croghaun Mountain in Achill, and have met with a young liird
unable to fly, attended by its mother, near the edge of the rliifs
of Horn Head in Donegal. Ring-Ouzels formerly frequented
Howth Head and Lambay Island in co. Dublin.
A})ril is the usual month of arrival. Individuals have l)ren
8 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
seen on the Skelligs on the 5th of that mouth, and on Blackrock,
Mayo, on the 26th March. In September and October these birds
assemble in small flocks and leave Ireland. Thompson mentions
their collecting to feed on mountain-ash berries before they depart,
and Mr. Pike, who lived at Achill Sound, spoke of them as most
destructive to fruit.
Thompson and Kinahan have mentioned irregular occurrences
in winter, and other instances of this have Ijeen known since, but
such are decidedly rare.
THE WHEATEAR. Saxicola oniauthe, (Linngeus.)
Summer-visitor, widely distributed, breeding in nearly every county.
The Wheatear finds congenial l»reediug- haunts in many
portions of Ireland : at the same time it does not frequent
districts furnished with trees and bushes, nor the bogs of the
central plain. It is tlie most consjdcuous land-bird in the tree-
less portions of our western counties bordering the ocean, as well
as on the marine islands generally, breeding commonly on most of
them, for example on the rocky and precipitous Blaskets. It is to
be found nesting both near lofty cliffs and among sand-hills near
the beach on many of our coasts. After losing sight of it in the
cultivated country we find it again far up the mountains, where
large masses of stone have fallen from the cliffs or been left by
ancient glaciers.
Wheatears are not uncommonly seen in March, and sometimes
early in that month, especially on the coasts ; but it would appear
that the majority arrive in April, for more than half the specimens
received by Mr. Barrington from light-stations were taken in that
month, and again more than half on the Wexford coast. On Dulilin
Bay, Montgomery ol:)served the arrival of Wheatears in March in
five years when the wind was south-east, but in three other years,
when the wind was westerly at the time, they were not seen before
April. They usually migrate in Septemljer, but often remain
into October. In autumn they gather together and draw down
to the neighbourhood of the sea, where they remain for days before
leaving. In several instances this species has been recorded in
Ireland in the depth of winter.
Mr. Pentland, when going to Canada in August 1883, observed
two Wheatears come on board the day after he had sailed from
Irelaiid, and they stayed on or about the ship until she reached
America.
TUEDID.E . 9
These birds liave beeu noticed in Ireland, as elsewhere, singing
on the wing, and taking flies after the manner of Flycatchers.
They nest in rabbit-holes and in holes among stones, or under
sods tni-ned uj) by the plough.
THE WHINCHAT. Pratincola ruhetra, (Linnaeus.)
Summer-visitor. Local, and not numerous.
The relative abundance of the Whinchat in England, compared
with that of the Stonechat, is reversed in Ireland. Though I have
observed birds here nearly all my life, I have but once seen the
Whinchat in the South of Irelajid, and I know of no instance of
its breeding in Munster. True, Thompson stated, "Mr. Neligan
considered this bird common in Kerry," but though I have several
notes of the occurrence of Whinchats in Cork, Waterford and
Wexford, I cannot say that these were more than stragglers.
The most interesting fact connecting this bird with Wexford is
that out of twelve examples obtained from light-stations by Mr.
Barrington, seven were from the Wexford coast, to which the
migration-i'oute of so many species princi])ally leads.
The Whinchat breeds very locally in the counties of Wicklow and
Dublin, both inland near the mountains and also near the coasts.
Mr. Hart observed a pair near Durrow in Queen's County, and
others l)y the Nore near Kilkenny. It is found on the mountains
in the north of Louth; while in Longford, Roscommon, Leitrim and
Sligo it nests, probably naore commonly than elsewhere in Ireland ;
and it extends westward into North-east Mayo. Throughout
Ulster it occurs locally, breeding in almost every county, as it does
in North and West Donegal.
April is the usual month of this bird's arrival in Ireland, l)ut
examples have beeu met wath as early as the 17th of March. It
often remains until October, and Kinahan has shot it in December,
January and February.
The Whinchat haunts low-lying marshy meadows, and old cut-
away bog which is in an untidy state of cultivation and full of
weeds, also the half-reclaimed lands round the base of mountains,
a.s well as sedge-lauds near the coast. It will pei'ch on low trees
and telegraph wires, but it does not take to the furze on the hills,
as the Stonechat does'.
10 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE STONECHAT. Pmthicola rubicola, (Liuufeus.)
Resident and widespread, breeding in every county.
The Stunechat is a couimou bird in Irelaud, owing probably to
the great extent of the country which abounds in furze ; but
tliough plentiful in many counties it is scarce in others, especially
in those parts of our midlands where the Whinchat is found.
Both, however, occur in some districts. The Stonechat breeds on
the larger islands round Ireland and delights in the maritime dis-
tricts, where it is equally common in winter and summer. This
may be said of Munster generally, the province in which it is most
abundant ; but iuLeinster and Connaught, and more especially in
Ulster, several obseiwers have noticed a diminution, almost an
absence, of Stonechats in winter. Thus the Eev. C. Irvine, writing
from the co. Tyj-one, says : " They seem to leave this cold, exposed
parish in severe winters for warmer localities. I met with
numbers in winter near Bundoran, Donegal Bay."
English writers have noticed a statement of Mr. Blake Knox
made in 1866, that there is a scarcity of Stonechats in this
country from June to October ; but this must have been a local
matter, for other Irish observers have not found it so. The short
attempt at a song commences the first week in April and ceases
before the end of June. I have seen a Stonechat rising and
falling like a hall on a fountain, while singing on the wing, which
it often does. It lays in April, and broods are often hatched in
that month. A second clutch is laid in June, and I have obtained
eggs in Julv.
THE REDSTART. liidiciUa jJtceiitcurus, (Linuteus.)
Rare summer-visitor, but probably increasing. Breeds in at least two
localities in co. Wicklow, and in one or more places in co. Tyrone.
Previously to 1885 the Redstart was regarded as a rare
occasional visitor to Ireland. Montgomery in 1852 could only
mention six occurrences, including those recorded l\v Thompson
(Proc. D. N. H. Soc, May 1852, p. 89;. Kinahan enumerates
Belfast, Queen's Co., and Dublin, twice, as localities in which it
has occurred in winter (Ibid., 31st Jantiary 1861, p. 18).
Mr. Barrington has sixteen specimens obtained at light-stations,
chiefly in April and May, but some in September, vno in October
TURDID.E. 11
and one in November. Of these seven were taken at Eoekabill,
oft' the Dublin coast, all in spring. Two are from Wexford, one
from Waterford (Duugarvan), two from Cork (Fastnet), one
from Mayo (Blackrock), and three from Donegal (Killybegs and
luishtrahull) . Those from the three latter coTiuties occurred in
autumn. An immature male in the Dublin Museum was found
dead at Tramore, co. Waterford, by Mr. Spencer, after a storm
in October 1889, and Mr. Moft'at records two seen in co. Wexford
on 8th August 1885. Miss More observed one near Dublin on
the 17th of May 1891.
In 1885 the pleasing discovery was made of two pairs breeding
at Powerscourt, co. Wicklow. and the species has nested thei-e ever
since. In 1890 a pair bred at Luggela Mountain, and in 1898
Eedstarts were observed at Glendalough, both localities in co.
Wicklow.
In May 1888 the Rev. G. W. Peacocke saw a Eedstart
repeatedly and heard him sing, in Rash Wood, co. Tyrone. In
1894 a keeper named McLean at Barouscourt, co. Tyrone, showed
me a pair, which had young, nesting in a broken hollow branch of
a birch, and informed me that he had seen them breeding for
several years in the old trees in the demesne. In 1895 another
nest was found at Baronscourt containing seven eggs.
In June 1898 Mr. Carey, an Englishman acc[uainted with this
bird, told me that he had repeatedly seen a male Redstart about a
spot near Lough Conn in Mayo, and I was informed that other
persons subsequently saw it there.
THE BLACK REDSTART. ENticiIIa fifi/s, (Scopoli.)
Irregular winter-visitor in small numbers, chiefly occurring on the
coasts.
Many individuals and family parties of this European summer-
migrant find their way to our south and south-east coasts in
October and November, and a few of these api>ear to remain until
March.* It is startling to find the Black Redstart reversing the
habit of so many allied birds which visit us in summer, but
it should be remembered that the Wheatear, Whincliat, Redstart
* Two have readied Mv. Barrington from Wexford light-ships in ^March
1890, namely, one from the Blackwater Bank taken on the IGth, and the
other from Coningbeg on the IStli.
12 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
and several War1»lers have repeatedly occurred, and remained, in
some cases, in Ireland in winter.
I liave records of above sixty occurrences of the Black Redstart
(some including several birds) from Dublin round the south-east
i;oasts to theBlaskets, west of Kerry, besides several others indicated
without particulars. A few of these were in inland portions of
maritime counties.
If we now search for instances from Dublin northwards round
Ulster and the west coasts to Kerry, we find Ijut six ; and only
three in midland counties, namely, a bird which was shot near
Thurles, another that entered Leap Castle, Kino's Co., and another
in Queen's Co. (Montgomery collection). Mr. Barriugton has
sixteen specimens, included among the above, from isolated light-
stations, and others not taken have been re^Jorted there. Black
Redstarts have l)een taken on the same day ou the Skelligs and
Blaskets, indicating a migration round Western Kerry.
These birds pursue in Ireland their hal»it of darting into the air
after flies, with which the stomachs of specimens have been found
filled, even when the ground was covered with snow. They are often
unsuspicious and enter houses, like two which I found in my study
in October and November 1895. Mr. Williams mentions one
that lived up in the glass roof of a Dublin store for two months.
Females and l>irds of the year occur in Ireland much more
frequently than adult males. On many occasions several Black
Redstarts have l)een met with together.
THE REDBREAST. Erlfhacm nihectda, (Liumeus.)
Resident, common, and widespread.
Though this species does not extend to some l.)leak districts
and islands where the Hedge- Sparrow and the Wren find a home,
it is very generally distributed through Ireland. It is most
numerous in sheltered and cultivated parts, Init may be met with
on moors and mountains in smaller numbers.
Thus I have met with the Redl^reast in the Comeragh Mountains,
eighteen hundred feet above the sea. and on the bleak moorlands
between Ballynahinch and Kilkieran in Counemara, where we saw
specimens of a greyish tint on the back. It inhabits the islands of
Rathlin, Aranuiore, the Arrau Islands and Achill, but is scarce in
the latter and in most of the Barony of Erris.
Specimens have been taken at isolated light-stations off the
turdid.t:. lo
coast of Li'luster, and have lieea often noticed from sneli stations
all round Ii'eland at various seasons, except in May and June.
The song may be heard at any time of year, except in July and
the first week in Aug-ust, though instances have been noted at
these times too. Kinahan used to notice it on frosty, moon-
light nights in winter, beginning at 12 and ceasing at 2 a.m.,
for this bird is so persistent a songster that it may bo heard
at the most unlikely times, and it sings sometimes in its first
plumage.
A Redbreast has been seen darting repeatedly into the air after
gnats like a Flycatcher, and another has been met with leaving a.
drain with a stickleback it had just caught there.
It is an early breeder. I have seen one building in March, and
have known of voung ones hatched here on the 7th April ; l)ut
Mr. T. B. Gibson records young Redbreasts fully fledged on
7th February, near Ferns. A nest was built in a watering-can
hung up in a jDorch that opened into a garden at Lismore.
A white variety was noticed at Knockdrin with only a slight
tinge of brown on the l:>reast-featliers, and a farm near Cappagh
was frequented on successive seasons by a male whose back was
ash-coloured and under-])arts white, while only the face was reddish ;
its mate was of the ordinary colours, and young were produced.
Subfamily Sylviin.^.
THE WHITETHROAT. Stjlrla cinerea, Bechstein.
Common summer-visitant, generally distributed.
Few birds are more wides]tread in Ireland than the White-
throat. It may be said to be common in every part of the
country where there is anything more than bare mountain or
moor. I have noticed that it did not frecj[uent the wild tracts of
Erris in Western Mayo, but as soon as any 2:)asture or arable land
was reached I found it. It breeds commonly in every county, and
we meet with this species not only in the wooded and cultivated
parts, but in many treeless districts, such as Connemara and
Western Donegal. Throughout the countrv round Dunglow, from
which so many species are absent, I have found it aluindant. It
visits Lamliay and Rathlin Island regularlv, and ]\Ir. Sheridan
says: "This bird did not visit Achill in my young days, but is
now very plenty." I have not, however, found it on the stony
isles of Arraii.
14 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Many Whitethroats arrive in April, except in the extreme North
and West, and I have notices as early as the 5th of that month,
but the £?reater number arrive about the 12th of Mav (Barrington).
The stay of this species is longer than that of the Sedge-
Warbler, Septeml^er being the montli when Whitethroats principally
depart. Some remain until the end of September. Instances
have occun-ed in Octol^er, November, December, January and
February, Init these are very exceptional.
Out of sixty-eight occurrences at lighthouses, illustrated by Mr.
Bari'iugton's specimens, thirty-nine, or UK^re than half, are from
the Wexford coast, and only one from the coast of Connaught,
but some arrive on the eastern shores of Ulster.
In the Field (6th November 1875), it was stated that an
observer crossing from Bristol to Cork the first week in April,
noticed, a little after dawn, some small liirds. including the White-
throat, which were migrating. These came from the direction of
Cornwall, and they were heading for the south-east of Ireland.
This Warbler often displays itself fearlessly, especially when
singing. I have repeatedly noticed it sitting on a telegraph wire.
The Kev. Allan Ellison, a very oliservant field - naturalist,
has invariably found the male to lie the nest-builder. He will
continue thus employed for hours, without assistance from his
mate, singing constantlv, often with materials in his mouth.
THE LESSEK WHITETHROAT. Sylvia cnrnica, (Linnaeus.)
Has once occurred, on the autumn migration.
A s}iecimen, which Mr. Seeliohm considered to lie adult, was
shot on the 1st of October 1890 on the Tearaght, co. Kerry, the
most western island in Europe. It is in the collection of Mr.
Barrington.
This is one of those instances of a straggler to Ireland on the
autumn migration. Many such instances have occurred in the
case of the Blackcap, and the Reed-Warbler is said to have been
once shot in December by Montgomery.
A. G. More suggested that, like the Yellow-browed Warbler, also
shot on the Tearaght in Octolier 1890, this Lesser Whitethroat
had come from a more eastern source than Great Britain ; but
Seebohm decided from the wing-formula that it was of the
western race {Ibis, 1891, p. 586).
tlTlDID-t:. 15
THE BLACKCAP. S>jlrin nfru-apilU,, (Linna?us.)
Summer-Yisitant, local, rare in most counties, but increasing.
The Blai.-keap has uow a wiJe ran^-e in Ireland, there lieing
few counties in which it has not been observed, thoui,di in most of
them it is still scarce, and even rare. Its frequency in the county
of Wiclvlow, which is its great stronghold, has been noticed bv
many since 1886. In the counties of Dublin and Waterford, and
probably in many others, it has also inci'eased. It is much more
generally distributed than the Clarden-Warbler. I have met with
it at Eockingham, co. Roscommon, where the latter species was seen
on the same day, and it also breeds near Lough Erne, another
resort of the Garden-Warbler.
The Blackcap arrives in April, the earliest notice I have being
for 5th April, and several for the 12th, but later dates are more
usual. A nest with four eggs, found by Mr. Johnston on 9th May,
was considered early. Blackcaps have been several years observed
in East Wexford in July and August, not previously (Moffat).
A most singular fact about the Blackcap in Ireland is the
frequency of its winter occurrences. These have not been confined
to any part of Ireland, but have been reported from all quarters
of the country. Of thirty-six instances under my notice which
have occurred since 1830, eight were in October, four in JS^ovember,
ten in December, five each m January and FeViruary, and four in
March, the last having evidently remained through the winter.
On one occasion six or seven were seen together in December
(Thompson). The mildness of the Irish climate may be con-
nected with these cases. Adult males have occurred in winter
as well as females and young birds. The Kev. A. Ellison has
observed the male bird building the nest, singing from time to
time while so employed. The song is not so loud and full as in
England, our Irish Blackcaps Ijeing decidedly more shy.
In the following table : —
* Signifies that the nest has been found.
.S' Signifies observed in the summer half-year, April-September.
IF Signifies winter occurrences, October-lMarch.
I Signifies occurrences at light-stations, chiefly September-December.
Kerry, S. Caragh Lake, I. Carlow, .S'. occurs regularly, locally.
Cork, ir. repeatedly, I. Wexford, S. in August, W. 1. Tuskar.
Waterford,* S. increasing, 11'. re- Wicklow,* .S. locally common, IT.
peatedly. Dublin," .S'. locally common IT. re-
Tipperary,*-S'. several places, ir.twiee. pcatedlj-, /.
Kilkenny, S. occurs regularly, locally. Kildare, S. Breeds at Lyons,
16 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
Queen's Co., S. Cappard, Portarling- Sligo,* Hollyhrook, S. Lissadell.
ton, TT. Eynn. Leitrim, .S'. Aughrey Wood.
Westmeath, .S'. Lough Twy. Fermanagh,* Islands Lough Erne,
Meath, .S'. Oldcastle, Slane, Beauparc. ,S'. Castle Coole.
Louth, ir. Beaulieu. Cavan,* ^lountnugcnt River.
Galway,* iS'. Clonhrock, Portumna, Armagh, S. (Belfast Nat. Field Club).
ir. Dunmore. Down, .S'. several places, TT'. Palace
Roscommon, pearance the first Aveek
in May, and continues in full song until June. Its song then
begins to decline, though Mr. Parker has heard it as late as the
20tli of August. The Avaruing note is like the sound of a clock
being wound very slowly, c[uite unlike that of the Whitethroat or
Sedge-Warbler.
It is remarkable hoAv a Garden- Warbler may be heard year
after year in the same spot, each male seeming to have his
favourite haunt where he sings through the season. lu Ireland
we have no sweeter sons-ster.
THE BARRED WARBLER. Sylvia visoria, (Bechstein.)
Has twice occurred en the coast in September.
The first example of this l)ird in Ireland Avas obtained at Brl-
mullet, in the west of Mayo, on the 24th September 1884, by the
late Dr. Burkitt, who during his long life collected so many rare
birds in Waterford. The specimen in question was pronounced
to be a young bird in first jdiuuage (Seel)ohni in Ihis, 1891, ]>. 58o).
Dr. Burkitt Avas so generous as to give it to me, and it is now in
the Dublin Museum In August ant('iiilM'r of tlie sanicycai-,
t.'
18 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
188-4. oue was obtained in iSTorfolk, one in Yorksliire, and one in
the Isle of Skye, all four specimens having occurred on or near
the coast. Twelve years afterwards, on the 25th of the same
month, September 1896, a second Barred Warbler was caught
wounded at the Rockabill lighthouse, off the co. Dublin coast,
and sent in the flesh to Mr. Barrington, in whose collection it is
BOW preserved.
THE GOLDEN-CEESTED WEEN. Reytdas cristatus,
K. L. Koch.
Resident and common. Breeds in every county. In autumn numbers
of winter immigrants arrive.
This tiny l)ird is found breeding wherever there are trees, and
in sheltered wooded districts the numbers of its nests are sur-
prising. As a resident it appL'ars to be more common in Ireland
than in England, and holds its own in remote districts. Thus it
now breeds regularly in plantations on Achill Sound, though it
Avas only a winter-visitor there in 1875, and previously unknown.
However, its spread to such ]ilaces is not surprising when it is
considered how habitual a migrant the Gold-crest is. Its migra-
tions ai"e annually observed round all our coasts, even on the
Arran Islands, at Slyne Head, where so few migrants occur, and
on the isles of Donegal, e.(j. luishtrahuU. Though a large pro-
](ortion occur at the seven Wexford light-stations, yet this species
when on its travels is far more generally diffused round Ireland
than are the summer-migrants. September and October witness
the largest arrivals, and the return migration commences in March
and increases in April. In some autumns there are great rushes,
as in Octolier 188-1, when they were seen at Eockabill all day
and night and fell in scores (Migration Eeport). But Gold-
crests are on the move at unexpected seasons. Some have been
noticed at lighthouses in the summer months, chiefly in August.
The Gold-crest is only an occasional winter-songster. Its
legitimate time for song is early spi'iug, commencing in January
and ending in the beginning of June. On frosty days, however,
it mav be heard as early as the 18th November (Kinahan).
I have known of several nests in March, and in one four eggs
had been laid by the l-4th. The numbers Ijreediug increase up to
May, but as eggs may be found until the end of June, there can
be no doubt that a second brood is often reared. In sheltered
localities the nest is usually among pendant sprigs of conifers or
TITRDID.E. 19
ivy, but Mr. Peutland has uoticed in L()uth tiuit iu exposed places,
where the wind would be likely to blow the branches about. Gold-
crests prefer to nest against an ivy-covered tree, or in a furze
bush, and in such places their nests are not nearly so neat. I
have repeatedly found nests in the drawD-u]) furze of plantations,
or built in ivy against a tree-trunk. Mr. Pentland found a nest
with eggs, under and almost touching that of a Hooded Crow, in
the top of a lofty silver-fir. One nest, abnormal iu not being-
pendant, stood in the branchy to]) of a young silver-fir that had
lost its " leader " ; this nest was four-and-a-half inches high,
with a shallower cavity at the t()p than usual. The number of
eggs is usually nine, sometimes fewer, occasionally ten. and the
Rev. A. Ellison has found eleven. In some varieties, grey under-
shell specks supplement those of the usual colour round the
larger end of the eg^y.
THE YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER. Fhi/IIoscnj.us
siJijercUlosK'', J. F. Clmelin.
Has once been obtained, in October.
The only Irish-killed specimen of this Sil>eria.n species was shot
on the 14tli (>f OctoVier 1890, on the Tearaght rock oft Kerry, our
most western point. It was sent in the flesh to Mr. Barrington
(who has preserved it), by Mr. W. H. James, lightkeeper. The
latter wrote as folLiws : " I forward a very small bird shot by my
son at 10.45 a.m. ; wind light N.N.W., blue sky, detached cloud.
It was first oliserved on a mallow-bush (Lavafera arhorea), as if
seeking for insects. It then flew to some rocks, where it was
shot. It only weighed 1 drachm 11 scru})les."
THE CHIFFCHAFF. Phylloscopus rvfu.?, Bechstein.
Summer-visitant, breeding commonly in wooded districts in every
county.
This is a l)ird of the woodlands and not of the wilderness ;
consequently it is not nearly so wides]>read as the Willow- Wren,
though where trees abound it is often more numerous than
the latter. Indeed the Chiffchaft" swarms in many a wood and
demesne throughout the country. Still, from the restricted
c 2
20 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
nature of its haunts, it cannot be so numerous in Ireland as the
Willow- Wren, which finds a home in desolate wilds. It is, how-
ever, an increasing s])ecies. Fifty years ago Thompson could only
cite seven counties where it was known, and in 1864, Newman
failed to hear it in more than two places.
The first recorded arrival of the Chiffchafi: in Ireland is usually
from east of the Shannon, during the last weeh in March, luit earlier
reports of it are frequent, and Mr. Barrington noticed it at
Fassaroe on 8th March 1872. A couple of days after the first
is heard the woods will be full of Chiffchaffs. The spring
migration continues strong in April. Out of eighteen received
bv him from lighthouses, Mr. Barrington has ten specimens
taken in April, and eleven were from "Wexford. Near Ballina
Mr. Warren has (july once heard it before April, and in some
seasons not at all.
The renewal of the Chiffchaff's song in September is a fact
commonly observed, though I have then remarked it to sound like
" Cheef, cheef," without the " chaff." This l)ird remains later
than the Willow-"Wreu, commonly until late in Septeml^er, and
has often been noticed in October.
I have records of ten instances of the Chift'chaff's occurrence
from November to February. Five of these were in the mild
climate of co. Cork, luit Mr. "Warren mentions one in co. Sligo
which frecjuented a manure-heap, amid hail and snow, on
•2-itli January, and Mr. Williams mentions a similar instance in
December. The note is uttered even in cold, wet, stormy weather,
and has l)een heard in winter.
The nest of this bird has repeatedly been found three and four,
even five, feet from the ground. I saw one at Currygrane about
three feet above the ground in the top of a holly which had been
clipped into an umbrella shajje. I do not remember any case where
it was quite on the ground. Mr. Pentland, however, mentions a
nest in a mossy bank of whicii nothing could be seen but a little
round hole in the moss. He returned in a week, but the hole was
not to Vie seen. After a long search he found tlie nest. The l)ird
was in it, and the hole was stojiped hy a plug of moss. I have
seen a Chiffchaff's egg taken from this nest. In Seebohm's state-
ment, that " the nest of the Chiffchaff does not differ from that of
the W"illow-Wren." I cannot concur, as I Jiave usually found
dead leaves and other coarse materials used in the former, and hay
in the latter.
I have seen a Chiffchaft's nest, largely composed externally of
o-reen moss, bttilt in a branch of long stray-yiing furze.
TUEDID.E. 21
THE WILLOW- WREX. Phijllo^^cupus trochilu^. (LiuuLfus.)
One of our commonest summer-visitants, breeding in every county.
This is a very numerous auJ widespread species iu Ireland,
iuhabitiug uot only the fertile and wooded districts, but
extending' through the country generally. It is connnon round
many a lake, and in many a desolate district. Along the
lonely reaches of the Shannon which How thrc^ugli vast un-
inhabited bogs, the few willows by the river resound with its
song. I have found it common between Glenties and Xaran,
l)ut uot in other parts of Western Donegal, such as the bare
country round Duuglow. Iu Connaught it is jilentiful as far
west as tlie basins of Loughs Corrib, Mask and Cunu, as well
as near Ballina ; l)ut further west it is very scarce. It seems
to avoid bare moorlands, as also the storm-swept western sea-
board of that Province, Init when une reaches a grass country
it usually reappears.
Of sixty-two specimens sent to ]\Ir. Barriugton from light-
stations, thirty-five, or more than half, were from Wexford. Nune
came from the counties between Kerry and Donegal, round the
west coast. Forty-eight occurred in A}iril and May, none in
June, and only fourteen in the next three months.
The Willow- Wren is our earliest Warbler except the Chiffchaff.
It arrives about the 10th of A}a-il, but I have many earlier notices
of it, especially from the eastern counties, and a few entries of its
appearance in the end of March. In Western Sligo Mr. Warren
has seldom observed it before the 15th uf April. Early in Sep-
tember parties of Willow- Wrens, then vt'iy yellow, appear before
departing, aud they leave us Ijefore the end of the niuiith. A
bird was seen on the l-5th of November in cu. Wicklow, and
Montgomery recorded one in winter in co. Louth.
The song is discontinued after July, and nut usually resumed
in September, like that of the Chiffchaff, though Thompson heard
it on 2'lth September and on loth October.
The Willow-Wren has been stated to eat fruit (Ogilby, in Field,
4th December 1875), but this is evidently mentioned because it
was exceptional.
I have seen a nest of this l)ird constructed in a clump of Fer-
ndt'iu, t£uite off the ground like ll (Jliiffchaff's, Init uot so loosely
built.
22 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE WOOD-WEEN. Phi/Uoscojjus sihilatric, (Bechsteiu.)
Rare and local summer-visitor.
Though the repeated oliservatiuu of the Wood-AVreu in the
CO. Wicklow leaves uo doul »t that it is an annual visitant there, yet
it is the rarest of our Warl>lers of whieh this can be said. Po"^vers-
court, the Dargle, the Cllen of the Downs, the Devil's Grlen,
Derrvbawn Wot>d, and Glendalough, are localities in that county
where it has l>een met with repeatedly, especially the first-named.
Mr. H. B. Murray lielieves that he has heard and seen it near
Clonmel in 1867 and 1869, and Mr. Moffat describes the song
heard l:)y him at Ballyhyland, co. Wexford, on the 1st July 1892,
the Redstart and Blackcap (birds which also resort to co.
Wicklow) having been similarlv met with at Ballyhyland on
passage in July and August.
In CO. Dublin Mr. H. Blake Knox recorded one killed at Glen
Druid (Field, 6th May 1871), and Mr. Eathborue states that he
saw one at AbbotstowD in the month of July.
In Queen's Co. Mr. John Young showed me a spot at Brockley
Park, in the pleasure-ground near the house, where he found a
nest in 1872 or 1873. It was on the ground, overshadowed by lofty
beech-trees, and was placed among beech-seedlings and tufts of
coarse grass. It contained no feathers, and the seven eggs (three
of which he has given to the Dublin Museum) were preserved
and shown to me. At Clonbrock, co. Galway, the Hon. E. E.
Dillon has repeatedly met with the Wood-Wren in the fine old oak
woods. He has the skin of a Wood- Wren as well as an egg,
which, in different years, he obtained at Clonbrock ; while a bird
was caught there in the house on another occasion, in June 1894,
and carefully identified before it was liberated.
In Sligo the late Colonel li'olliott said that he had seen several
at HollyV)rook, though not every year. He cai'efidly examined one
which he caught in his greenhouse.'
The only occurrence at a lighthouse was at Blackroclc, Mayo,
in the extreme west, Avhere a Wood- Wren was taken on the 27th
May 1890, and sent to Mr. Barrmgton.
In Fermanagh the late Sir Victor Brooke observed a pair
frequenting some beech at Colebrooke in May 1870. He shot one,
which is in the Dublin Museum. None have been since seen there.
Mr. H. C. Hart shot one in lu'ceh woods at Glenalla, co. Donegal,
on 1st June 1878, and sent it to the same Museum. On 8th May
TUKDIDJ..
O'A
1896 lie again observed three ^Vood-Wreus singing at Carra-
blagh, in the same part of Donegal.
A bird of this species Tvas observed l:ty I\Ir. E. Patterson in the
Bog Meadows near Belfast, co. Antrim, on the 5th May 1839.
Mr. Hart has once heard the song in Wicklow on the 7th May,
which he considered unusuailv earlv.
THE EUFOUS WAEBLEE. Acdon ycdadodes, (Temminck.)
Has once occurred, at a co. Cork lighthouse, in September.
A specimen of this rare southern species was shot by Mr. F. E.
Eohu, then a light -keeper, at the Old Head of Kinsale, in Sejit em-
ber 187H, the wind being from the south-east. He subsequently
presented it to the ^Museum of Queen's College, Cork, where it is
now jireserved.
It was believed to be a Nightingale, and as such was referred
to in several publications, but at my suggestion Professor Hartog,
of Queen's College, took it to Loudon for comparison in January
1899. On his showing it to Mr. Howard Saunders, the latter
recognized it as the true Western Eufous "Warbler, not the Eastern
Aedon familiar is.
This bird has now been ol^tained in the British Islands on four
occasions, the first near Brighton on 16th Septemlier 1854, the
second at the Start, Devonshire, on 25th September 1859. Our
Kinsale bird was the third, and on the 14th October in the same
year, 1876, a fourth was obtained near Slapton, Devon, not far
from where the specimen (.if 1859 occurred. This last was very
possibly impelled to British coasts by the same causes to which
we owe the Irish example, taken the previous month.
The Eufous Warl)ler is common from Aprd to September in
Portugal and Southern Spain, Init is seldom found further n the Rev. A. Ellison saw, as he
believed, this s]»ecies iu the woods of Coollatiu, co. Wi(;lvlow. He
described it as very like the Willow-Wren, but somewhat larger,
having a longer tail, and the under-parts of a mucli more decided
yellow, very restless, darting at inserts on the wing and singing all
the while. When it gave forth its full song it would remain still,
8weiling its throat as it ]M>ured forth the notes. It sometimes
introduced harsh sounds and often began with a sort of chattering
noise. Its full nntes were as loud as those of a Thrush, aud for
(•learness, volume and distinctness of execution surpassed any
song known to the oljserver. A similar bird is said to have been
seen and heard about the same time in Pembrokeshire. [Zool.,
1886, p. 333 j. Mr. Aplin suggests that both these Inrds may have
been Melodious Warblers {H. poJyijJoita).
THE SEDGE-WARBLER. ArroccpJialv^ jJimgmitis, (Eechsteiu.)
Common summer-visitor, breeding in every county, but unevenly
distributed.
This is oue of our commonest Warlilers, and iu most counties in
Ireland its note may be heard by the sides of lakes aud rivers,
aud is continued into the night.
It has been met with iu Rathlin Island, the Mullet, aud Achill.
but though abundant iu so many localities it is seldom or never
found in many where we should ex{)ect it. Thus I have lieen
surprised at its scarcity in the Shauuou Valley, and on many of
our Midland lakes. It is not frecj^ueut in the great wilderness of
the west, as it is in the richer counties of the east and south. This
is oue tif the species most numerously represented from light-
stations in Mr. Barringtou's collection. His one hundred and
eleven specimens occurred on seventy-seven occasions.
Cork ...'■] Wicklow . . '2 Antrim . . -i
Watevf(n-d . 7 Dublin . . 7 Donegal . . 2
Wexford. . 48 Down. . . 3 Clalway . . 1
It is true that Wexford has seven light stations, but still the
number of Sedge- Warblers it sinews greatly exceeds that from all
the other counties, and only oue specimen was received from the
eutire west coast. Many have occurred simultaneously at the same
liyhthouse. Thus on the IDh August 1890 fourteen were taken at
the Tuskai-. Sometimes several occurred on the same night along
For Eeed- Warbler, sec Appendix.
TUKDID.E.
25
a pai'tioular coast, showing that the species was migratiug. The
Sedge- Warbler frequeiitly appears towards the eud of April, and
has beeu noted hy Dr. Patten and Mr. Johnston on the 5th
April, but the bulk of the arrivals are in May, as the lighthouse
reports show, and there is a return migration in August and
Se]iteniber, the latest occurrence being on the 9th November.
Kinahau recognized the song as imitating that of the Black -
liird, Whitethroat, Wagtail, Titlark and Bunting, and others
have noticed that it mimics the Reed-Bunting, which is so comnujn
on Irish lakes. Though May and June are the usual mouths of
its song, it has beeu heard repeatedly in July, and once ;is lati- as
the .5th September.
It breeds with tis in the end of May. throughout June, and in
the early part of July.
THE aRASSHOPPER-WARBLER. Locustellcf ;uevia,
(Boddaert.)
Summer-visitor. Common in many places. Almost too widespread to
be called local, but liable to be overlooked.
I have evidence of this species in twenty-iive counties, and
these are su scattered throughout the provinces as to warraut the
expectation that the gaps will l)e filled up when information is
more complete. In some counties, as Antrim, Dublin, Wexford and
Waterford, it occurs in so many localities and varieties of situations
as to denote it a common bird. Several pairs are frecj[uently found
about the same haunt, and were it not for its crepuscular and
skulking habits the Ijird would l)e far l)etter known.
I have no record of it from the marine islands nor from the
western sea-board, though iu co. Waterford it sometimes breeds
not far from the coast.
I have two entries of its occitrrence here at Cappagh, on the
11th April, ]>itt it is usually first heard the last Aveek in that
month.
From Mr. Moffat's observations in co. Wexford, it ;ip]ie;irs to
sing into the first week of August, when it abrujitly ceases
altogether.
Of seven specimens in Mr. Bai'rington's collection, five are from
Wexford light-stations, one from Wicklow, and one from Dowm.
Three occurred in April, three in May and one in August.
This species frequents a. variety of haunts, such as mountain
heaths, thick furze, young plantatiuns intermixed witli coarse
26 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
herbage, sedgy marsh-lauds aud river sides, aud fences overgrown
with briars aud long grass in the cultivated country.
It usually utters its trill in the early morning and in the shades
of evening. Init I have heard it at midday in broad sunshine as
well as after dark. I have seen it while so engaged sit on the
top of a Inish, while a Nightjar was churriug not far from it.
The trill has l»eeu heard over three hundred yards away by an
acute ear, but to some persons it is quite inaudil)le. The male
sings in thf:" vicinity of the nest. When its nest is approached it
will sometimes show itself, uttering an alarm note which is like the
noise of two pebbles knocked together.
Whi'u distiu"bed from her eggs, I have seen the female ruu in
and out among the herbage, jumping like a mouse. I have then
seen her stand looking at me within two or three yards, like a
creatuiv waiting to lie fed.
I have often observed Grasshopper- Warblers fly across a ride
in the plantations, and even over a fence of tall furze, when feeding
their young.
Two clutches are laid in the season : the first in May or June,
the second in July or the beginning of August. The eggs, usually
six, often five, are sometimes spotted with Avarm i-eddish-browm.
Sometimes tliey have so many lilac specks as to give them a
purplish tint. J have a set with })ure white ground and bt)ld red-
brown spots.
The nest is composed of dry grass aud moss, with a few" dead
leaves ontside, no feathers or hair. It is placed on the ground,
always overshadowed, among ling, furze, liilberries or grass, some-
times on the top of a stone-faced bank overgrowu with lu'iars, or
at the foot of a dwarf willow in a marshy spot. I once knew of a
nest iii the middle of a grass fiehl, like a Lark's.
Sul)faniily Accentoein,'?<:.
HEDGE-SPAEKOW. Accexhu- modoJari^, (Liuufeus.)
Resident, and one of our most generally distributed species.
This modest, confiding little bird is found commonly; not only
about homesteads and in sylvan scenery, but also in bleak, treeless
districts, aud on some islands where there are scarcely any land-
birds. It lu'eeds freely in eveiw coiiDty and on such islands
as Kathlin, Tory Island, Aranmore, Achill, the Arrau Islands and
the Saltees, but I was certainly sur]:)rised at receiving a Hedge-
Sparrow's nest and eggs from that precipitous rock, the Tearaght,
which is the outermost of the Bhtsket group, off Kerry. This
shows that the Hedge-S]>arrow may almost rival the hardiness
of the Wren.
Mr. Barrington has received specimens killed in OctoV)er at
Rathlin O'Birne lighthouse, off; Western Donegal, and another
killed in September at the North Arran Island, Galway. In
Northern Donegal it is much commoner in summer than in winter.
Its sweet, simple song may be heard from October (inwards,
though seldom in December, but after the beginning of the year
it soon becomes common and is one of the first indications of
spring, while it may be heard as late as July.
For an insect-eating Inrd the Hedge-Sparrow endures fr(^st
wonderfully well, though in winters of great severity it is some-
times found dead. In such seasons it will eat grains of wheat.
There is a record of one sitting on eggs on the 17th of March,
but this is unusually early.
Among the heathery wastes of Achill I have seen a Hedge-
Sparrow with the head and nape almost grey. White specimens
are extremelv rare.
Family CINCLID.E.
THE DIFPEE. Chtclas aqindici's, Bechsteiu.
Resident, common on streams.
Much of Ireland being mountainous, it is not surprising that the
Dipper is common and widespread, a series of pairs often inhabit-
ing the course of the same trout-stream. It breeds in every
county except Longford, and in many counties it is very common.
but in Westmeath and Armagh, which are low-lying, it is st'arce.
Frequenting the mountain streams up to a. great elevation, it also
extends far into the valleys below where the streams have ceased
to be rocky, and in such districts it inhabits the same haunts as the
Kingfisher. It has been observed on the shores of Loughs Can-a and
Mask. Where suitable ravines run down to the sea, its nest may l)e
found very near the latter. In winter Dippers are more frequently
seen in the lowlands. Mr. Barrington has one which was shot
on Rathlin O'Birne, on 18th December 1889.
The Dipper sometimes builds in February. It often lays early
28
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
m March, and a second brood is jtroducL-d in the season. The
number of eggs in Ireland is usually four, sometimes five. Great
attachment is shown to the nesting-site, in which, after the first
nest has l)ceu removed, a second is sometimes biiilt the same
season. An iron railway -bridge near Cappagh was thus resorted
to annually, the nest being built on an inner flange over the river.
Holes in stoue bridges are often used, and there the domed cover-
ing is impossiljle. A Dipper once built on a rock or stone in the
centre of a stream. The nest resemliled a mossy part of the stone,
and the orifice vv^as not eaved, nor inclined downwards as usual.
Nests have been found on branches over the water, the entrance in
each facing along the branch. A large nest, annually occupied,
stood on the top of a post driven into the river-bed under a
bridge, and attached to a cross-l)ar. Another was in a tussock of
rushes and rank weeds growing against a bridge on the ground
(Ellison, Zool., 1890, p. 315). I visited a nest in a bank over-
hanging tli(^ puol of a mountain Avaterfall. On my approach
the young Dippers, which were fledged, but had evidently never
quitted the nest, precipitated themselves into the pool, rowing
themselves away from me with their wings under water, and only
crept out when they got behind the waterfall.
This liird obtains its food beneath the water, and will sing
joyously, perched on a stone in the stream, when other birds are
mute and dying through severity of frost. It seems to sing best
from Octolier until s})ring, being most silent in July. It is also a
night-songster. Its mode of alighting on, or dropping into, flowing
Asatei-, disappearing, remaining subinerg 'd, reaj^pearing gradually,
leaping out and floundering in it, and tlie use of its wings under
water are characteristic of this strange creature. I have never
seen it elevate its tail as shown in YarrelTs woodcut. It does jerk
its body when alaimied, l»ut the m »vement is like a curtsey,
ami the tail is dejnx'ssed for the moment.
Family PAF.ID.Il
THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. Arrednia caudata,
(Linm-eus. )
Resident. Numei'ous in many places. Breeds in every county.
From Thompson's statements this species seems to have been
much less numerous and widespead in the eaidy part of the
century than it now is. It is a common woodland-bird throughout
the greater part of Irelan'al,
near Ballina, and Castlebar in Mayo, and has been taken in Aehill
Island, while on Lough Corrib in Cxalway, and in the Killarney
district, it is very common. Though not usually oee-urring at
light-stations, a flock of seven visited Inishtrahull on the 24th
October 1895, out of which two were shot. This wild, rockv
island is nine miles north of Donegal. Some observers notice
this species more in summer, and others are struck by the extra-
ordinary numbers in our woods at times in winter. I cannot sav
that there is any regular loctil migration, but the biixl seems
sometimes to absent itself irregidarly for mouths touether
(Moffat).
Kiuahan says the Long-tailed Tit has more pretensions to a song
than any of its congeners, commencing it about the middle of
February and ceasing in June. The song is delivered on a l>ush,
and may be heard even in frost.
It often flocks with other Tits and allied birds in their
winter hunt for insect food among the Ijrauches, but ]>arties of
one or more broods of this species more usually pursue their
own way.
I have noticed nest-building commencing on the 17th of March,
but the work takes about a fortnight. In the South the 9-11 eggs
are laid in April, and the young sometimes fly before Mav. The
sites chosen are very various, sometimes high up c)n tlie branch of
au elm, or in a lichen-covered apple-tree, where the nest resembles
a knot of the branch, or on the lateral branch of a spruce, with
the entrance placed transversely, between two stems of spruce
branches, one beneath the other above it. It is often in a furze-
bush. Sometimes it is attached only at the base, standing like a
peaked l^eehive with the hole near the top. One in my collection
is spangled with white scale-sha])ed spiders' nests. I have seen a
nest in the saine apple-tree as that of a Mistle-Thrush.
THE GREAT TITMOUSE. Parns major, Linnajus.
Resident and common. Breeds in every county.
The Great Tit is widely distril)uted through Ireland, bi-ing
the most common of the family after the Blue Tit, except in
wooded districts, where the Coal-Tit and Long-tailed Tit are uku-c
numerous. Being fairly hardy it frequents many localities vcrv
poor in trees. It may hv seen in the S(|uares and gardens of cities.
30 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
There is uot sufficient evicleuce to conclude that it miy'rates to any
great extent, but Mr. Moffat observes an increase of this species
in September in co. Wexford, and a specimen which was taken in
October on a Wexford lightship has been sent to Mr. Barrington.
The song, or a repetition of various strange notes which take
the iilace of a song, has been heard in August. September and
Octolier, but this usually commences iu January if the weather be
mild, and may be heard until the middle of June. In February
and Mart-h the Great Titmouse will begin to sing some hours
before sunrise and keep it up for three or four hours. ISTor
does it then cease, being the most indefatigable songster of the
faniilv. It occasionally utters its note at an elevation, and while
in pursuit of food (Kinahan). It will mimic the call-note of
the Chaffinch.
Mr. ISToonan, gardener, ISToan, states that this species will perch
at the entranc^e of a lieehive and rap aAvay until a bee appears,
when the Titmouse will take it to the nearest a]>ple-tree, and, after
eating the edible portion of it, return to the hive, repeating this
over and over again. Mr. Longfield has found that Great Tits
can be accustomed to take cheese from the hand in winter, and will
remeinlier and repeat the practice in subsecjuent years.
The nest of the Great Tit, usually ln;ilt in the hole of a wall,
is composed largely of hair and rabbit's fur, filling the floor of
the chamber that contains it, though the nesting-cavity is only
large enough for the l):rd to sit in. When, however, the brood
increase in size they find their capacious matti'ess of hair very
convenient. The eo-gs are usuallv found here iu Mav.
THE COAL-TITMOUSE. Poms aier, Linnreus.
Resident and common. Breeds in every county.
This Titmouse is commoner than the Great or Blue Tit in many
of the timbered districts in which it is resident throughout
Ireland, but being more of a woodland species it is not so generally
distril)uted. Along with several other birds, its range has kept
pace with the increase of plantations, and it is wonderful how
Coal-Tits find out isolated l)its of planting in the remotest places.
Thus, within the memory of residents in Achill it has taken up its
abode in the plantations of Glendarary, and has even been obtained
at Dugort. We have no evidence that it migrates, the light-
keepers not having distinguished it.
PAEIDJ.,
31
The clear repeated cry whicli represents its souy is suinetiiiies
commeueed in the end of Janiiary, and may he heard every mouth
until the end of June, though it is improl)able that the same bird
continues it so long, as the business of feeding the young must
stop it.
Coal-Tits feed on the alder, and during the winter they frequent
those trees in company with other Tits, Gold-crests, Creepers and
Lesser Redpolls. But the plantations of iir are their great resort.
I have seen a Coal-Tit attack the huge cone of a Plcea iiohilif!
and make the scales fly, soon leaving nothing but the main stalk.
This species does not resort to the vicinity of houses in hard fi-osts
like the Great and Blue Tits, its haliit of eating berries and seeds
probably making it more independent. It lays in April or May,
usually building in the hole of a stone-faced l)ank, and after
making the foundation of green moss it lines it with a thick bed
of rabbit's fur. Tliis latter is sometimes mixed with cow's hair,
feathers being few and exceptional. The male assists the female
in making the nest.
THE MAESH-TITMOUSE. Pam:^ indnsfrls, Linna:-us.
Rare. No specimen known to have been obtained since the time of
Thompson and Kinahan.
Thompson states : " In a very few instances has this bird
occurred to me around Belfast. It was observed at various
seasons. The Marsh-Tit has been seen l)y R. Ball, Esq.,
only about Ballitore in the county of Kildare."
Kinahan says : " The rarest of the Tits. It has only come
under my notice at Donnylu-ook (co. Dublin) in four instances
On one occasion I shot a hen and her three young bii-ds at one
shot (Proc. D. N. H. Soc, 25th Nov. 18-54).
Kinahan also noted under the head of this species " Drogheda,
12th April 1854."
I have never seen the Marsh-Titmouse in Ireland, nor do I know
of any Irish-killed specimen in existence, but I have a note of a
Titmouse killed at Castle Bagot in co. Kildare about 1895-6,
which may have been of this species. We have no proof that it
now exists at all in Ireland.
32 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE BLUE TITMOUSE. Panis aendeus, Liunseus.
Resident. The most common and widespread of the family. Breeds in
every county.
ThoiiLi'li the Coal-Titmouse may be more numerous in mauv
wooded districts, the Blue Tit has by far the widest range, being
found frequently in open as well as enclosed localities. It seems
even h^ss confined in its distributirjn than the Great Tit, and is
prol;>al»ly the most numeruus of the family in Ireland. It has
spread to Achill, where I have seen it, and occasionally visits
Rathlin. Init seems al>sent from the Arran Islands, except on
migi'ation. Reports of the migrations of " Tits" from light-stations
are uusatisfactory. There is usually no evidence to identify them
with this or any other species of Parus fBarrington), but a Blue
Tit has been identified on the Tearaght.
Kinahan descrilied the song-notes as commenced towards the
end of January and cDiitinued until late in Jidy. The Eev. C.
Irvine has lieard them on the 25th of September.
In winter, both Blue and Coal-Tits flock with Clold-crests,
Creepers, Lesser Redpolls, Siskins, and sometimes with Long-
tailed Tits, in search for insect food among the trees.
I have usually found the eggs in May. The nest is begun in
April, and contains feathers, which distinguishes it from that of
the Coal-Tit. Holes in walls and stone-faced banks are more
frequentlv used in Irir'land than hollow trees, probably owing to
the com})arative sc-arcity of the latter. Among the strange nest-
ing-places of this bird was a human skull, placed in a recess in
the wall vi a ruined church ; the bird entering it through the
occipital foramen, and there it l>rought out its la'ood. Another
bird buih regularly in the hollow of a metal gate-pillar, at
Brocklev Park. Mr. Baker mentioned a nest with young on the
to}> of ;i l)roken pojilar. not under cover, but visible from the
road. He saw the female (:>n the nest and noticed she seemed
busv arranging something. On going up only the head of one
vouug bird was visil)le, all the others having l)een covered liy the
]>arent.
TROGLODYTID.i:. 33
Family TBO&LODYTlD.l^l
THE WEEN. Ti-oijlodytex parviilns, K. L. Koc-li.
Common and resident almost everywhere. Found on the remotest
islands.
No bird is so uuiversally distrilnited in Ireland as tlic Wrear at the remotest westei'u rocks and at light-shi]>s. The
name " Wren " has, however, been sometimes misapplied to the
smaller spring migrants.
Of its song, Ivinahan Avrote in 18-53: "The Wren, though
commencing later than the Robin, is m^;ire regular in the jieriod of
(•(-)mmeucement of its song ; once oulv during the last five years
did he commence earlier thau the beginning of November. He
sings more vigorously during frosty weather, but is not so regular
a daily singer as the Robin. During frost, I have oftenest heard
his song. ... His song ceases about the middle of June."
(Proceedings Dublin N. H. Society.)
Mr. Barrett-Hamilton notices a Wren's nest with eggs in
February, l)ul I have not found one liefore the beginning of
A]>ril. The construction of the nest sometimes begins with
the domed top. In another case where a Wren built in an
orifice of a peat bank there was n() dome, as the l>auk overhung
the nest. Another contained inculcated eggs, while ;i forsaken
clutch that had not l^een tiat on were buried in the materials at
D
34 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
the bottom. A uest built iu a whorl <>f dead fir-brauches was
composed externally of dead ivy-leaves, wliich appeared as if
lodged there naturally.
A white Wren has been received by Messrs. Williams and Sou,
and a white-winged example has been noticed by Rev. A. Ellison.
Family OERTHIID.E.
THE TREE-CREEPEE. CerihUi famUlaris, Linnseus.
Resident and common, but nowhere numerous. Breeds in every county.
In thuse parts of Ireland which are n<:»t destitute of large trees the
Creeper is to be found throughout the year, and from its singular
habits seems widely observed and better known than more numerous
species. We cannot expect to find it on the treeless western seaboard,
nor, as a rule, on the marine islands, but it has occurred even in
Rathlin, where there are scarcely any trees. It does not, however,
appear to migrate to any extent, and there is no evidence of its
having occurred at a light-station.
Its song, uttered from March to May, sometimes iu January or
Feln'uary, is not frerpiently repeated (Johnston). It has been
syllabled ticka-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-ticka-ticka, being usually uttered
as the bird makes a pause in its progress up the tree-trunk, and
holds its head sideways in a languishing attitude (Moffat).
During the winter months a Creeper or two may usually be met
with in company witli a flock of Tits and Goldcrests, though
pursuing its search in so different a way.
When the Creeper is suddenly alarmed, or when it finds itself
closely watched, it will remain motionless, unless the observer
advances, when it takes flight. Thompsim notices that it does the
same thing when the tree it is on is struck with a stone.
Its eggs are laid in April, or moi'e frequently in May, but I
have seen a bird building on the . 30th Marrh. Creepers here
frequently nest iu holes of walls, or piers, under the roofs of
houses, as well asiu cleft tree-trunks. A pair Iniilt at Cappagh in
the dense mass of an old (ypi'ess, auKmg the crumbling matter
lodged in its broom-like growth. Another pair bred for successive
years between the wood- work of the verandah and the wall of
Comragh House.
Miss Fairholme has observed a family group of young, that had
just left the nest, and which roosted clustered together on a tree-
trunk, like a liug-e scale of loose bark.
MOTACILLID.E. 35
Family MOTACILLID.^.
THE PIED WAGTAIL. Motacilla Imjuhrix. Temmiue-k.
Resident and common. Breeds in every county. Partially migratory.
This is a very generally distributed bird, and the only ])art of
Ireland where it is not very common is the extreme west of
Connaught and the Arran Islands. It is observed to visit Belmullet
in winter and depai't in spring ; but it is resident on Eathlin
Island and breeds there, as well as on Tory Island. Thompson
remarked that it was permanently resident in the northern
counties of Ireland, but Mr. Hart observes that though common
in summer near the north coast of Donegal, it comes further
inland in winter.
The tendency of the Pied Wagtail to shift its quarters after
rearing its young, and from season to season, is observable in
Ireland as in Great Britain, and the assemblages formed in spring
and autumn have been noticed not only on the coast, but stjme-
times in the heart of the country. That numbers arrive in Ireland
in September is evident from the light-keepers' reports, and this
movement is continued in October and extended to the most
western points like the isles of Connaught, where so few migrants
occur. In winter the influx of these birds is observed in the Avest
of Cork. In March the return movement sets in, and lasts in the
north and east through April and May ; but the stray occurrences
at light-stations at other times show how very restless this species
is, except perhaps in January and June (Migration Reports).
The song is uttered occasionally all through the winter on fine
days, and may be heard more or less in every month of the year.
Early in the season this bird often sings on the groitnd, but later
on it sings on a bush, wall, or house-top, or during sallies in the
air (Kinahan).
The eggs are laid in A})ril, l)ut may lie t)btained as late as July,
so that a second brood must sometimes be reared. Mr. Pentlaud
describes the artifices of a Pied Wagtail to elude observation when
returning to her nest. After running about for some time she flew
to the ditch where she was nesting and went into a liole in the
bank. In two minutes she came out and watched him. Slie then
flew back and entered another hole. This she rei>eateil several
times, visiting a different hole each time. Finally she flew to the
nesting-hole and remained there.
D 2
36 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE WHITE WAGTAIL. MotaciUa nlha. Liunteus.
Has been occasionally obtained on, or near, the coasts of Mayo,
usually in April or first week of May, when small flocks have
been observed ; it may be of more frequent occurrence, but has
probably been mistaken for the Pied Wagtail, M. lugubris.
Mr. R. "Warreu writes as follows : — " So little was known of the
visits of this bird to Ireland, that Thompson mentions only one
specimen as having' 1 )eeu ol3served by the late Dr. Robert Ball in the
eo. Duldin on the 1 9th of June 1846, and remarks : ' As the bird was
not obtained, its ocenrrence would not be inserted here without
my perfect reliance on the knowledo-e and acute observation of my
informant.'
" Nothing more was heard of this Wagtail until the 25th of
April 1 851, when I oliserved a solitary bird feeding in a barley-
field on the island of Bartragh, co. Mayo: l)eiug attracted by its
light -coloured l)ack and sedate, quiet movements, I shot the
specimen, and considering it to be the true M. aJha. I sent it to
my old friend, the late Dr. Harvey, of Cork, whose opinion agreed
with mine as to its identity.
" On the 17th of August 1891 Mr. Good of Westi)ort, co. Mayo,
shot three young l:)irds, his attention being attracted by the light -
coloured plumage ()f the [nirent bird feeding there, and on sub-
mittinu' <>ne of the specimens to the late Mr. A. G-. More for his
opinion, he considered it to be the M. alba, ami was confirmed in
his opinion l>y Mr. Dresser; and Mr. Howard Saunders, who lately
examined one of the specimens, is also of the same opinion.
•• The next oceurreuee recorded is that of the 19th of Ai>ril, 1898,
when I met with a pair on Bartragh. and oV^tained a fine male
specimen, now in the Dublin Museum. The birds were feeding
on a wet flat at the huso of the sand-hills, about 300 yards from
where the specimen of 1851 was obtained.
"In x\pril 1898 Mr. Sheridan obtained an adult male on Achill
Island, CO. Mayo, Avhich is now in the eollection <)f Mr. R. M.
Barrington.
"Mr. A. C. Kirkwdod, of Bartragh House, on the 80tli of April
1898, met with a party of five Inrds on the ishmd, feeding in an oat-
field, three of w^hich he ol)tained. Again, on the lOth of May follow-
ing, he observed a flock of fifteen birds on Bartragh ; of these he also
obtained three specimens, and presented two of them to the South
Kensington Miiseum. After this floclc of birds left, they were suc-
ceeded by a little party of five, whieh remained until the 19th of
May. when another specimen was obtained for my collection.
motacillid.t:. 37
" Ou the 9th of June 1898, when driving in the (•ompauy of Mr.
Howard Saunders and Mr. R. J. Ussher, from Behuullet to Port-
acloy, ou the North Mayo coast, a Lird was observed i.m the bog
eh:)se to the side of the road collectiug the down of the cotton rush
as if ft)r its nest, aud before it flew away was identified 1)y Mr.
Saunders as Motacilla alba.
"All the birds observed by Mr. Kirkwood and myself on the
island of Bartragh were mxich quieter and more sedate in their
movements than the M. luguhris, evidently shovring fatigue after
their long flight from their winter quarters."*
( Roliert Warren.)
THE GEEY WAGTAIL. MntacUJa uttJaunjj^, (Pallas.)
Resident, frequent and widespread, but nowhere numerous. Breeds in
every county.
This bird, too often misnamed " Yellow Wagtail." is in many
counties more common as a breeding bird than the Pied Wagtail.
It is to be found in almost every part oi Ireland, an exception
being the Dungiow district in North-west Donegal. It is scarce in
Western Connaught and Western Donegal generally, also in the
flat parts of King's County, of Westmeath. aud of Longford, where
great bogs prevail. In Achill it is said to l>e a spring aud
autumn visitor. It has been observed in summer on Ratliliu
Island, aud, though less inclined to migrate thau the Pied Wagtail,
specimens liave twice been sent to Mr. Barringtou ivo\\\ isolated
light-stations in October, while others, if correctly named, have
been observed from time to time during winter, even on the most
western island rocks of Connaught. I have, however, never
kno^A'ii tliis species to form flocks, a family party lieing tlie only
assemblage seen. C4rey Wagtails are given to shifting their
quarters after 1)reeding, but either they or <;ithers reappear
from September onwards, for they are frequently seen in
winter aliout houses and yard.s. In tlie west of Cork the
numbers of this species as well as of the Pied Wagtail increase
in winter.
Tlie G-rey Wagtail loves haunts suitable to the Dipper, in whose
close com}iany it is sometimes found to breeil, but it l)y no means
■' In 1899 one was obtained on Bartragh, by ^Ix. Kirkwood, on -iTtb April,
and a pair were obH:ervcd there on a niaunre heap on 1th ^lay.
38 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
eoufiues its range to sequestered gieus, uor to trout-streams rush-
ing over stones. It commonly breeds on the Dodder even in the
suburbs of Dublin, and in winter it resorts to Trinity College and
the quays in the lieart of the city. 1 have found its nest in a
bank at the top of a low cliff flanking a tidal cove which formed
the mouth of a small river, and have seen one of these birds
pecking on a rock barely uncovered by the tide ; but as a rule this
species does not frecjuent the sh(>re like the Pied Wagtail.
Its simple twittering song is very familiar to me. I have heard
it in Novemljer and February, and have known it to be uttered on
the wing. Kinahan has recorded it in every month but August
and SeptemV)er. Though less <:)btrusive than the Pied Wagtail,
this is n<:it a shy liird with us. It comes close to our do(n'S and
runs alony the cornices of the h<;>use in winter, and when feeding
its young it will sit perched on a tree or bush uutil aiiproached
very closely.
It usually biiilds near running water in a hole of some
wall or building, such as a mill, or among luxuriant ivy, some-
times in a horizontal rock-tissure. (Irey Wagtails have bred in
the walls of my outside buildings and yards for over forty years,
liut not alwavs near the stream that turns our water-wheel. One
vear the nest Avas in an empty joist-hole, close above a farm boiler
in daily use. A plant of Geranuim roherfiavum concealed this
nest. Another nest was in the trailing ivy on the wall of the
stable-yard, beside the main thoroughfare and low enough for the
hand to reach it. The nest <.f this l)ii-d is smaller and neater than
that of the Pied Wagtail and is lined with white hair, not with
feathers. The first clutch is laid early in April, Imt this is succeeded
by a second. The eggs are usually five in numl)er, l)ut six are not
rare. Mr. Palmei- has ol 'Served a clutch of five eggs not cj)mpleted
till the ilst April. The young were liaiched on the 4th May, and
left the nest on the 16th of that month.
The eggs vary mucli in coloiu'ing. Some are of an almost
uniform pale yellowish-buff, but usually they are spotted or
freckled with yellowish-lirown. and have often a darlv hair-like
streak. In some there is an undefined undershell zone of a livid
greenish hue. I have a set almost white, and another with white
ground and very distinct markings of deep reddish-lirowu ;ind
undershell-grey. Successive clutches of this very peculiar type
Avere laid on my }>remises, Init the parent bird was i)robably
killed, and later in the season eggs of the ordinary type were laid
in the same cornin- of tlic lanndrv-roof.
MOTACILLID.K. 39
THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. MutariUa rail, (Bouaparte.)
Summer-visitor. Remarkably local, breeding on Lough Neagh in Ulster,
and Loughs Corrib and Mask in Connaught.
This beautiful species is unknown in the <4reater pari of Ireland.
Its two colonies are separated hj more than a hundred and twenty
miles, and its haunts in each are dissimilar. From the north of
Lough Mask to near the south of Lough Corrib it breeds on
uninhabited islands, chiefly of stones or rocky, where among the
short sedgy grass I have found its nest. The late Lord Lilford
discovered a nest lieside the River Corrib al>ove Cxalway in 1858
or 1854 (Zoo/., 1892. p. 389). l)ut it was Mr. W. H. Good who led
Mr. Warren and me to search for it on the Conuaught lakes.
The Lough Neagh colony, so long supposed to be the only
one, seems divideil. I found the Inrd common at Toome
Bridge, and thence down the Ban to Lough Beg, and again along
the south shores of the lake in the counties of Armagh and
Tyrone, but could not trace it on the east side near Antrim town.
The Armagh shore is a peat district, where turf-cutting is done
extensively, and the nests are often placed beside lianks or sods
of peat, shaded perhaps by a jdant. I saw one among young oats
under a thistle. Though the bird was abundant near the lake
I saw none at any distance from it ; but the Yellow Wagtail is
stated tc» range inland in co. Armagh two miles, and to arrive
about the 10th April.
The only recorded instanc-e of this bird lu'eeding in another
}>art of Ireland was in 1868. when Mr. E. Williams found a nest
wdtli young on the western side of Dulilin. Kinahan had noted it
as an occasional sumnier-visiti;>r tc* the D(_»dder on the S(mtli side
of Dublin, and others have observed it there as well as near
Malahide and Bray in summer, while in September it seems to
occur regularly about Malahide and Baldoyle.
Thompson noticed Yellow Wagtails in July and August about
Belfast Bay (in. 438).
In South Wicklow the Rev. Allan Ellison has noticed stragglers
in A|)ril and May.
The only county from the light-stations of which spi'uimens
have come to Mr. Barrington is Wexford. He has three from
the Tuskar, one taken in May and two in September, also one
from Hook Head in September, all in different years. " Golden
Waytails" have also been notice*! in autumn near the town of
40 BIRDS OF lEELAND.
Wexfurd. The Wexford miuratiou route takr-n hy so inanv other
species would thus seem to be used by the Yelktw WagtaiL We
have littl' clue as to its subsequent courses towards the two
distant l:ireedini;--localities, l>ut Mr. Neligau considers the Yellow
Wagtail to be a regular visitaut Xo the neighboiirliood t»f Tralee.
though he never had reason to l)elieve that it nested there. There
is a specimen in his collection at Tralee : and Mr. Parlcer of Castle
Linigh, (in Lough Derg. has one that was sliot in March
near his place while feeding in a tield where oats were being
sown. In Achill Mr. Sheridan obtained a female on the loth
May 1892. This bird lias twiee been observed in Donegal and
twice in Western Tyrone, while reci.)rds from some other northern
€i:iunties await C'.u'ri'il;)oration.
THE MEADOW-PIPIT. Anflms i^r.d.n^h, (Linmeus.)
Resident, abundant, and distributed everywhere. Numbers arrive in
Ireland in October.
This is one of our comnii^nest and most generally distributed
l)irds. It l)reeds in all sorts of localities from the mountaiu-to})S
to the remotest islands, and freqtients the desulate moors of Mayo
as well as the [lasturedand of the richer counties. The only
district where I have not observed it is the conntry round Dunglow.
,s<> detici"nt m land-birds. Yet it al)onnds in the neighboni'hood
of the coast, and nests even among the Blaskets and <.in Tory
Island. On Ireland's Eye it outnumbers the Roek-Pipit.
In winter its numbers diminish in the extreme north of Ireland,
and the same observation has been made in South Wicklow.
Dublin, and in Kildare. Mr. Bai-rington's collection from light-
stations shows that thei'e is an increas'.* of occurrences in Mandi.
No examples have been taken there in -Tunc or July, V>ut in
Oetolier the largest numbers occur, nearlv two-thinls of those
capturi'd having lieen from the Wexfi.ird C(_>ast. Mr. H. Blake
Knox states that at Dalkey, on the Dublin coast, during the
autumn months, and as late as December, flocks may be seen
crossing tht' channel from the east. During winter tiocks are
common in the south geuerallv. Thev vi>ir the west of Ci^rk in
great nuinljers hi autumn and remain during the wintvr. Mr.
Warren, on a Sejitember morning, m the Island of Bartragh.
Killala Bay, obsei'ved a ti.)ck of two hundred whidi took flight
towards shore.
IMOTACILLID.T,. 41
Kiualiau i-emurked : " TIil' Titlark is truly a suininer-sou^ster.
Its 8uug is bardh' ever rdinun'iicL'd lictVirr Feliriiarv. auil erases
before the eud of July. You seldom Ib'ar it in early spriui;' unless
the day be soft and open, though it niay sometimes l)e heard on
raw frosty mornings. The females of this Viird sing, as I proved
l)y dissection. It rarely sings on the ground."
The Meadow-Pipit breeds, with us, in A])nl, May, and June.
I have one set of its eggs of a decidedly green hue.'"'
THE KOCK-PIPIT. .!///////..• uhscvr^is, (Latham.)
Resident in limited numbers all round the Irish coasts and islands.
This bird, though less cununun vii the flat parts the Shannon <:'stuary
as far as Grlyn in the co. Limerick.
I have no evidence of the migrati(>n of the Rock-Pipit furtlier
than that it l)ecomes more common in winter on the fiat part of
the coast. The few specimens in Mr. Harrington's collection are
from island rocks, whei'e the bird has prohaljly been resident, and
it is a significant fact that none have l)eeu sent him from any
liglit-ship.
A liglit-keeper on Blackroi-k, Mayo, wrote in 1890: — "The
Titlarks here were off the rock from the l»eginning of December till
early in February. I never saw them driven away liefore, aud I
am eighteen years on the rock and islands."
On the cliffs of the mainland the Rock-Pipit usually bn.'eds in
s})ots difficult of access, as in nmnHHof Asj^ileni/nii luariniini growing
in a recess high above the sea, or in a miniature <-ave, or hole under
a large stone with a ]'lant in front to hide it ; luit on uniuhal>ited
islands I have seen it much lower down, in a hole under the margin
of vegetable soil surmounting the rocks, at the extreme end of a
little narrow cave above the lieach. aud on a shelf of a small marine
cavern into which the sea flowed. Along the top of the cliffs at
* " The Tree-Pipit is tliought to have been observed at r.allitere, ttalieeiiy,
Portmarnoek, and Irishtowii, l)ut no specimen has been obtained in Ireland "'
(Pi„t ef Irish J;irds by A. G. More).
42 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Inishmore, Arran Islands, is a raised lieacli of huge stones thrown
u]) Iw the tremendous Atlantic rollers, luit some yards from the
ed;4-e. Fnun these masses of stone I saw a Roek-Pipit's nest
taken with eggs in the beginning of June.
Laving takes plaee in April or May, usually in May. The eggs
may l.e distinguished from those of the Meadow-Pipit by their
larger size, and are more distinctly freckled and spotted. Some
are heavily marked with warm reddish-brown : others are french-
white or greenish-white, with greyish-brown specks, and not much
darker than eggs of Pied Wagtail ; while others are speckled thickly
with ilark l^rown or boldly sjiotted with same and with undershell-
grev, a colour wliich frequently occurs. I twice g(^t from the same
island off Kerry eggs of a pinkish-ground with specks of red and
lilac: resembling, in fact, a variety of the eggs of Tree-Pipit.
Family ORIOLIIlF.
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. Or!o]„^ gaJlnda. Linna3us.
A casual visitor in spring and summer of not very frequent occurrence.
()t about forty-seven instances, seven are stated to have occurred
in April, seventeen in May, one in June, and four in " summer."
Several birds have been picked up dead at different times, and
others taken alive. In some cases small flocks wer.' seen, in others
]»;iirs. Nearly all the occurrences took place in maritime counties,
twelvi' in the county Cork, seven in Waterford, and six in Down.
Kerry. -One uUtaiiu-d in a valley (Ibid. I: one obtaiaed by Mos.s near
above one of tbo bays, suninior 1830 Youghal Ijefore 1858; cue caught
(Thompson) ; one taken near Ventrv alive. Barnabrow, (Jloyne, 3 May 1862
lltli May 1881 (E. INL. in Flchh 4tii (Hackett.in Field, 27di I\Iay 1876) ;
June iNNi?)) ; a young male shot near- a female caught alive near Oyster-
Ventry loth ilay 1881 (Ibid.): one haven, Kinsale, 15th ]May 1867 (Ibid.) ;
shot iu the north of the county about one obtained near Roscarberry -Ith
1886 (Hon. E. de jMoleyns). A female ]May 1809 (Ibid.) ; a male shot near
killed at the Skelligs, 23rd :\Iay 1890 Castlemartyr 21st .\pril 1870 (Ibid.) ;
(Barriugton). a female shot at Friendly Cove,
Cork. — One observed between P.antry. 23rd April 1870 (Ibid.) ; five
IMiddletou and ("astlemartyr fiir seen same locality 23-27 April 1870
inouths in summer 1817 (?) (Thomp- {Zuul.. 1870, p. 2222) ; a male found
son); one shot near Bantry, presented dead near Bandoil 1st ]\Iay 1876
to the Cork Institution 1823 (Ibid.) ; (Hackett. in Fichl, 27th May 1876);
one oliserved for some time at Caher- one taken alive near Goleen April
more near Roxborough about 1838 1891.
For Kulbul or Clold-vented Thrush, see Appendix. .
ORIOLIDJ..
43
Waterford. — One shot at Balliua-
moua in 1824 or 1825 (Thompson);
a male shot near Woodstown 14th
June 1839 (Burkitt) ; remains of one
found, Tramore Bay, alxmt 1848
(Ibid.) ; one shot near Flower Hill,
before 1858 (B. Drew) ; a pair, male
and female, shot Dungarvan Bridge
1845 to 1847 (Thompson) ; one shot
in CO. Waterford before 1856 (D.N.H.
Soc.) ; one observed at Glenbeg before
1883 (Mr. E. Foley).
Clare. — A small flock seen near
Ennis about 1847 (D.N.H. Sec.) ;
two shot at Roxton, near Corofin,
years before 1862 (Ibid.).
Kilkenny. — One shot at IMullina-
bro, near Waterford, 3rd ]\Iay 1SC>2
(Ibid.).
Wexford. — One shot in the county
May 1823 (Thompson) : one shot
near Ferns, summer 1837 (Ibid.) ;
an adult male shot near Duncaunon
Fort 21st April 1850 (Ibid.). A female
found dead at Kilmore, 5th or Gtli
Ma\, 1S99 (Gibbon).
Wicklow. ■ - One olitained near
Arklow, sunmier 1827 (?) (Thompson) ;
a female near Bray, j\rayl8G2 (D.N.H.
Soc).
Kildare. — One in co. Kildare
(Sinclair).
Dublin. - - One frequented Glas-
nevin Gardens about 1871 (Zi«>l.,
1876, p. 4956; ; a female found dead
at Nutley 30th April 187G (Ibid.).
Galway. — Adult male, Rinvyle,
20th April 1891 {ZooL, 1891, p. 318).
Roscommon. — One seen some
years before 1893 (:Mr. J. W. War-
burton).
Down. — A female, Donaghadee,
11th :\ray 1824 (Thompson) ; a male
seen same place soon after (Ibid.) ;
one found dead 1878 (Lloyd Patterson,
in Field, 13th June 1891) ; a male
found dead, Dundouakl, April 1880
(Sheals) ; another male found dead,
Ballynahinch, May 1881 (Ibid.) ;
one near Belfast (Mr. H. Blake
Knox) .
Donegal. — One near Mount Charles
ISGG (?) {ZooL, 1891, p. 300); a female
near Dawross 24th May 1879 {ZooL,
1892, p. 129) ; one found on shore,
Burton Port, IMay 1891 (Field, 13th
June 1891).
Family LANTD/f].
THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE.* Lennui^ c^cvhitor. Liuua;us.
Casual visitor in autumn and winter.
This is the uuly Shrike that has ocrurred reiieatedly in Ireland.
We have tweuty-three records of its capture, aud if we include the
iustances in "vvhich it has l.)eeu seen l.)y ])resunial>ly cunipetcMit
<:)bservers the instances will amount to about thirty. The
majority of these took place in the northern half of this island,
and Cork and Sligo are the most western counties reached.
It has once been seen aud ouce oljtained in August ; the other
* Giraldus Cambrensis wrote: "The Irish crucriie are wliite. It is tbc
instinct of these birds to impale beetles on a tliorn," dc. It has been
inferred from this that the Great Grey Shrike was not unknown in Ireland
in the twelfth century (Z-n/., 1881, p. 437).
44
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
oecuiTt'Uces rauge fi'oin October to March, the most frequent
iustaiic;'S beinti- in December and January.
Cork. — One procured near Cork in
18^4, a second near Carrigaline in
October 1844, and a third obtained
in the same quarter early in August
1845 (Thompson, I. p. 112).
Waterford, Tipperai'y. Tliomp-
son states that it is said to have
been met with in botli counties.
Wexford.— One seen near Wilton
Castle in January 1897 by Dr. N.
Furlong of Enniscorthy.
Queen's Co.— One killed on the
18th December 1847 (Thompson, I.
112).
Kildare. — One received by ^Messrs.
Williams ct Son from I\Ir. II. E.
Joley, Cloubulloge, on 5th December
1891.
Dublin. — One procured on Shan-
kill INIouutain in 18:i:^ or 1S23 ;
another in Phoenix Park in 1831 (?) ;
one killed at Ballycorris Bog about
1830 (Thompson, III. 436) ; one seen
and followed by Watters on the
Dublin mountains 10th August 1850,
and another followed by INIr. Rath-
borne near Dunsmea in the winter
of 1891-2.
Westmeath. One obtained at
Knockdrin previous to 1834 (Thomp-
.son, I. 112).
Longford. — One obtained at Long-
ford on 28tli December 1887, no\v
in ^Iv. Barringtou's collection (has
only one wing-bar).
Louth.- -One shot by Montgomery
at Bcaulieu and exhilntod by him
on9th December 1853 (D.N.H. Soc),
is now in the Sci. and Art IMuseum.
It has one wing-bar.
Sligo. — One was killed at ^lul-
laghmore about 1831 or 1832
(Thompson).
Down. — The first mentioned by
Tlionrpson was shot in this county
about the beginning of the century ;
an adult male was shot at Kilmore
15th January 1845 ; a male was
obtained near Lisburn on 27tli
December 18S3 ; and a female at
\\'aringsto\vn on the lOtli 3Iarch
1885 ; a specimen iu the Science
and Art Museiun, Dublin, is labelled
Comber, which has one wing-bar.
Antrim. — Templeton observed one
early iu tlie century ; another was
shot at Echlinville late in the autumn
before 1S29 : an adult male was
killed at Beechmount near Belfast
November 1824 ; another Grey Shrike
accompanied it. •' In a neighbouring
locality " one was shot in January
1835. (These three last were seen by
Thompson.) A female was shot at
Carnmouev on loth January 1877
(ZooL. 1ST7, p. 107).
Londonderry. — An individual
which had been caught near Garvagh
and escaped was shot IGth November
184G (Thompson) .
Donegal. — Archdeacon Cox ob-
tained one shot near Dunglow in 1860
and gave it to the Dublin Natural
History Society.
THE EED-BAOKEl) SHRIKE.
Has once occurred.
rulb
Linnieus.
A male specimen, slill in the Belfast Museum, ^yas sLot on the
10th August 1878, at a glen near Castlereagh, co. Do\yn, about
three miles from Belfast. It \yas said to haye Ijeeu one of a party
of five or six (Zoul.. 1878. p. 4rni>< pnmeranvs, Sparmiau.
Has once occurred at a Wexford light-ship.
In 1893 Mr. Barvmo-ti;)ii reccivrd a Ic;,;- and a wiu*4' of a liird of
tliis s})eeies, which was killed on the night of the l(!tli of
Aiijj'ust liy striking the lantern of the Blaekwater Bank light-
ship, off the Wexford coast. It was subsequently identified by
Mr. Howard Saimders. who possesses the skin of a young male
Woodchat Shrike in precisely similar plumage.
This is the only known instance of the occurrence of the bird in
Ireland. It is the sixth species that has been added to the Irish
list by specimens sent to Mr. Barriugton from island I'ocks or
light-vessels {Ilns, 1899. p. 158).
Family AMPELID.^1
THE WAXWING. Ampdi. ,jarrNJn>^, Luiua^nis.
Rare and irregular winter-visitor. Has occurred nearly fifty times,
chiefly in the east and north.
The Waxwing has been met with most frequently in the couutips
of Dublin, Down, Antrim and Londonderry, Two or three Avere
obtained in the autumn, but the majority of those whose dates we
know C)cciu'red in January and Fela-uary ; a couple in Mari'h.
Of the seasons marked by the immigration (:>f this species into
Great Britain the winter of 1849-50 witnessed the c;ipture of
Waxwings in Kerry, Cork. Waterford, Wexford, Dublin, Longford,
Roscommon and Antrim ; whiL' in the first quarter of 189;5 eight
were taken in Wicklow, Louth, Galwuy, Antrim and Loiidondcn-y.
Somr of these visitors are stated to have fed vn brrries i.if
hawthorn, holly and mountain-ash.
Kerry. — Several instances (An- Clare. —BuiTen (Andrews, D.N. 11.
drcws) ; two seen and one shot at See 18 J7).
:Milltown, December ISl'J (Thomp- Tipperary. - -Ballybrado (Hai'vcy).
son). Cai'low. - - Near Burton Mall,
Cork.— Castle Martyr, about 1820 1822-3 (Thompson).
(Ibid.), three or four seen, one shot Wexford and Carlow IMountain^.
near Carrigaline, -Janviary 1850 — Tlnee instances, 1822 - 183'J
(Thompson, Harvey). (Tliompson),
Waterford.— March 1850 (Kina- Wexford. — 21st Jamiaiy 1850
ban). (Ibid.).
4G
BIRDS OP -IRELAND.
Wicklow. — Blcssington, autumn
18S2 (Scott in Field), Delgany,
January 1893 (Williams in ZooL).
Dublin.— Near Malahide, 1827 or
1S29, in Dublin Museum (Sinclair) ;
a male, near Dublin, January 1829
(Thompson) ; Ardtane, January 1829
(Ibid.) : Portmarnock, 1S35C?) (Ibid.),
four from the 19th to the 25th
January 1850 (Ibid.) ; of these one
was shot at Sandymount and one at
Crumlin(Kinahan) ; Castleof Timmon,
21st January 1851 (Watters).
Louth. — Dundalk, 30th :March
1893 (Williams).
King's Co. — Edenderry, 22nd
August ('.'), 1S75 (Longworth Dame
in Ficl'l).
Longford. — Two near Lanes-
boroitgh Jantiary 1850 (Thompson).
Galway. — Craughwell, 18th IMareh
1893 (Williams) ; Ballinasloo, 11th
January 1895 (Ibid.).
Roscommon.— Two near Rooskey,
January iSoO (Thompson).
Sligo. — Lissadell, before 1893
(Col. Irwin).
Armagh. — Xear Portadown, 10th
January 1895 (Thomas Quin).
Down. — Tollymore Park (Thomp-
soul; Castlereagh Hills, 1825-G (Ibid.);
Bally macarret, Gth Febritary 1835
(Ibid.) ; same place 7th February
1835 (Ibid.) ; Portaferry, immature
male, 28rd February 1894 (Paterson
in ZooL).
Antrim. — Colin Glen, 1820 or
earlier (Thompson) : Milltown, 1820
or earlier (Ibid.); a male, White Rock
quarry, 17th Janitary 1850 (Ibid.) ;
seyeral seen, one killed, near Bally-
mena, January 1850 (Ibid.) ; near
Craigs, January C?), 1893 (Barton) ;
Portglenone, January (?) 1893 (Ibid.) ;
Ballinderry, 22nd February 1893
(Patterson in Irisli Xat.).
Londonderi'y. — {^lag. Nat. Hist.,
Thompson) ; Newtown, Limavady,
Noyember 1831 (Thompson) ; Bally-
nagard, 31. st January 1893 (Campbell
in IrisJi Xaf.): near Londonderry
January 1893 (Ibid.).
Donegal. — Dunfanaghy, 1881
(Hart in ZooL) ; another in Donegal
(Williams in IMore's note).
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. M>i>ut several pairs
sometimes breed in the same locality. Partial as it is to the
vicinity of trees, this is by no means exclusively a woodland species
in Ireland, for I have se> 'u it about . a few elder-bushes beside a
solitary cottage near a lonely moorland lake in the Donegal
mountains, and have met with it elsewhere iu the western parts
of that county, as well as about the gardens i^m the Saltee Islands.
It is believed to be increasiug, and has extended to Achill Island
since the Cilendararv plantations have grown up.
It usually appears in the second weelv or middle of May,
though Mr. Moffat lias observed it in co. ^^'exford on the 20th
and •26th A]iril in different years, and Mr. Barringtou has a skin
of one taken on the Tuskar on the ll>tli April.
■ ampelid.t;. 47
lu autumn Flycateliers have been observed in our eastern
counties to collect together and draw down towards the sea. The
species does not d^^part until September, but the only ctccur-
reuces in October I can cite are of specimens received by Mr.
Barring-ton from Blackroclc, co. Mayo, and from the Tearagiit.
CO. Kerry, the most remote western rocks. In the end of
November 1897 another was sent him from the Tuskar.
I have seen the nest of this bird among the upturned roots of a
lareh l:)lown down in a lonely hill jdantation, and Flycatchers
frequent the natural wood on the shores and islands of Lough Erne ;
yet so indifterent are they at times to human presence that I have
noticed one on her nest in the branch of a creeper growing right
over the low doorway of a cottage. Probably no lurd will endure
the disturbance of her home in the same way. A boy lu'o'ught up
to my house two Flycatchers' nests containing eggs which he had
taken from the branches of fruit-trees on the garden walls. I
removed from each a cracked egg and made him re|»lace the
nests ; next day the Inrds were sitting in both nests, and hatched
their young in them. In another case a Flycatcher built inside
the deserted nest of a Thrush, and included the Thrush's eggs in
the base of her nest; a cat pulled down the douljle nest before
the Flycatcher had laid, but on its being loosely replaced on the
branch she took possession of it and laid there (Mi;)erau in
Field, 26th June 1886). This sjiecies has been known to l>rmg
out a second brood in the same nest and in the same reason
(Field, 24th August 1872).
In a cold, wet summer, when flying insects were scan/e, a
Flycatcher has been observed descending to the ground to pick
up an earthworm (ZooL, 1886, p. 295).
Family MUSCICAPID.E.
THE PIED FLYCATCHER. Muscicapa atricapiUa, Linmeus.
Accidental visitor. Has been taken seven times round the coast on
migration.
The first Irish specimen, an adult female, was shot on tin-
spring migration by Mr. Warren at Moyview, near Killala Bay,
CO. Sligo, on the 19th April 1875. It is in the Science and Art
Museum, Dul4in.
Mr. Barrington has since then obtained six specimens from
island rock lighthouses off the coasts of Kerry, Cork and
Wexford, on the autumn migration. These are represented in liis
48 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
collection either by mouuted skius or by leg's aud wiugs ; iu the
latter form specimeus first readied him in 1886.
An adult female, ^royview, co. Sligo, One, immature ('?), Tuskar, co-
19th April 1S75. Wexford, 28th September 1888.
One, probably immature, Tearaght, One, immature, Fastnet, co. Cork,
CO. Kerrv, 20th September 30th September 188S.
18SG. One, immature, Tuskar, co. Wexford,
One, a young male ("?), Fastnet, co. 7th Augu^^t 1890.
Cork, 5th October 1S8G. One, immature ('?), Fastnet, co. Cork,
8th September 1896.
. THE EED-BREASTED FLYCATCHEK. Muscicapa jxirm,
Beehsteiu.
Rare and accidental visitor on the autumn migration.
Has four times occurred (once on the 2-ith September, and thrice
neai" the end of October), at isolated light-stations in Kerry,
Wexford and Donegal. All the specimens were obtained by Mr.
Barrington. Three of them are immature.
The first was killed striking the lantern of the South Arklow Light-ship,
off the Wexford coast, on the 23rd October 1887. The entry made by the
lightkeeper, yiv. Wall, was : " Several small birds from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. about
lantern. Wind W.S.W., fresh, gloomy. Several killed and fell overboard.
Two sent by post." Of the two birds sent, one, whose skin is preserved, was
of tliis species ; the otlier was a Black Redstart {ZooL, 1888, p. 391).
Tire second was shot by 'Mr. James on the Tearaght Rock, off Kerry, on
tlie 20th October 1890, and is mounted {Ibis, 1891, p. 585: Zool, 1891, p. 180).
The tliird was killed striking at the Tory Island lighthouse, off the
Donegal coast, on the 2stli October 1894. Leg and wing preserved.
The fouvtli was killed striking the Blaclcwater Bank Light-ship, off
Wexford, on the 24th September 1898 : apparently adult, but only the leg and
wing were sent.
Family HIPtUNDINID.E.
THE SWALLOW. Hlnnnh nisfica. Liumeus.
Summer-visitor, the most numerous of its family ; generally distributed,
except on mountains and moors. Scarcer in the extreme west.
This welccime liird sjiends the summer half-year Avith ns, enliven-
ing almost every hai>ital»le }iart of the land with its active flight
and cheerful twitter. It is fonud everywhere excej^t on tracts as
desolate as the moi irs of Mayo. It is also absent or very scarce on
til!' Arran Islands, Inishbofiu and Achill, though it breeds in c)ut-
houses cm the Saltees and Eathlin Island. There are many
records of its a]i]>earance in March, but the first half of April is
the iisu'il time i)f its arrival; indeed, in the bleak counties of Tvrone
hirundinid.t:. 49
and Donegal, and also in Mr. Warren's district near Ballina,
Swallows are seldom seen before the latter half of the month. The
migration of this species appears to extend over several weeks, for at
favourable stations, like the Tuskar, Swallows have been noticed
passing west almost daily from the middle of April nntil the 12th
Jnne, but the great majority arrive in May (Migration Reports).
Towards the end of Septemlier there are great assemblages of
these and other Hirundiues at favourite trysting-places. The bulk
of the species then take the opportunity of any settled weather to
depart, nevertheless many are still seen tliroughout October, fresh
bands passing, after an interval, through districts which the usual
Swallow inhabitants have cpiitted. Exceptional instances occur in
JSTovemlier. Even Deceml)er is not without records, though these
ai'e exceedingly rare.
The song of the Swallow seated on the roof may be heard before
daylight. The bird usually breeds with us in any open buildings
like cow-houses, placing its nest on the horizontal roofing-timbers,
and it often resorts to a deserted house. In one respect, as
Thompson and Watters have remarked, the Irish Swallow Imilds
diiferently from the English bird. I have never known it to nest
within a chimney, though I have repeatedly seen Swallows' nests in
limestone caves which were apart from human abodes. The nests
in these places were never beyond the reach of daylight. On the
Lower Lake at Killarney there are numerous caverns in the lime-
stone shoi-es and islands. One of these is called "Swallow Island"
from the Swallows which breed in its caves. These birds have also
been found nesting in marine caves on the coasts of Duldin and
Cort (Kinahan and Barrett-Hamilton). I have found a nest under
the arch of a In-idge in a mountain-district; while another nest was
found in Mayo under a low arch beneath a road, and was placed
on a jutting stone, within six inches of the water. Another nest
was in a hole in a wall, the orifice Iieiug partially built up with
mud (Darling, in Zool., 1883, p. 340).
White or cream-coloured Swallows have often been obtained.
Such individuals are apt to be chased by other birds of their
own species.
THE MARTIN. Chelhlm, ,n-lnra, (Linuffius.)
Summer-visitor. Breeds in every county, but is more local and less
numerous than the Swallow.
The latter half of Ajtril is the most usual time of the arrival of
the Ma.rtin, which comes later than the Swallow, but there are
50 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
records as early as the 25tli March (Iri^h Nat., 1894, p. 115).
Thompson gives the middle of April as the ordinary time of its
appearance near Belfast. The majority leave in Sejjtember, Imt
Martins are frequently ohsei-ved in Octolier. Mr. Moffat has
noticed the species in that, month for six years between 1885 and
1897 in CO. Wexford. It has been several times recorded in
November, and once on the 13th December, when a House-Martin
was oliserved for hours at Annerville near Clonmel.
The Martin in Ireland is seldom numerous, except in the vicinity
of its breeding-colonies, or in the autumn gatherings before
migration. Throughout the country its resorts are few and far
between, but sometimes a few suitable houses in a wild district,
a battlemented castle, or the cornice of a bridge will be used by
several pairs for a breeding-]:)lace. Thom]ison found a numerous
settlement under the arches of Toome Bridge. The larger
buildings in towns are usually resorted to, but the most noticeable
colonies are in the inarine cliffs in places where these overhang, as
at the mouth of a large cavern. Martins frecpiently nest in
haunts of this kind along the coasts of Munster, Leinster and
Ulster, and on some of the islands, as Lambay and Rathlin. In
the vicinity of precipitous coasts they keep to these places,
and no houses in the neighl)onring districts are resorted to. I
have not heard that any l:)reed in those cliffs of the west coast
which face the great swells of the Atlantic. I think not, 1 >ut I have
seen Martins building under the balcony of Tarbert lighthouse
in the Shannon estuary. At Howth lighthouse, when the Starlings
finish breeding in the ventilator-holes of the tower, the Martins
succeed them there (Migration Reports). Mr. Jameson found
a Martin's nest inside a deserted house among rafters. Thompson
relates an instance observed bv one of his informants in which
Martius built up a Sparrow in their nest of which it had possessed
itself. A cream-white Martin has been noticed, the parts
ordinarily white showing by contrast with the rest of the
plumage.
THE SAND-MARTIN. CoWe riparia, (Linua^us.)
Summer-visitor. Breeds in every county. More frequent than the
House Martin.
This bird is somewhat local from the nature of its breeding-
haunts, yet its colonies are well distributed through Ireland,
both in the sand-banks of the coast and inland. It is to be found,
hieundinid.t:. 51
oftener tliau others of the family, in Western Counaiight and
Donegal ; but I have no record of its nesting on any of the
marine islands, although it is occasionally noticed as a wanderer
to these.
It comes l)efoi-e the Swallow, and its appearance has lieen
noticed as early as the 20th of March, but it usually arrives
towards the end of that month or early in April. These seasons
seem to hold good for most of Ireland, but in Queen's County the
observations of Mrs. Croasdaile indicate that it reaches that countv
more frequently after the middle of A}iril, and there it generally
disappears before the end of August. Nearer to the coast,
it remains until the end of September, and has on many
occasions been observed in October ; I have seen it as late as
the 20th of that month, while others have noticed it a few davs
later.
The breeding-places of the Sand-Martin are selected irrespective
of their vicinity or remoteness from human haunts ; the lonelv
drift-caj^ped islands of Loughs Corril> and Mask, the railwav-
cutting, the sand-cliff l)y the sea, the low river-l;)aulv, and the face
of a i^eat-bank from wliich turf has been cut, are all used to form
its burrows in. I do not find any records of its nesting in
peat-banks, but six coimties can be named where such is the case,
and probably others exist. Standing close to the face of a wall of
peat, an old excavation some twelve feet high, in the co. Tvrone.
one may watch the numerous Sand-Martins fly in and out of
their holes in it. Mr. G. H. Kinahan states that these
Martins build in a rotten granite cliff near Hacketstowu, Carlow ;
but a more unusiuxl l>reediug-place was discovered bv Mr. Warren
on an island in Lough Cullen. co. Mayo. He there found the
ruins of a circular castle or fort some sixty feet in diameter and
twelve or fifteen high, the interior being filled up with rublush
and overgrown with grass and nettles. Sand-Martins were passing
in and out of the crevices of the walls where the mortar had
fallen out. He pulled out part of a nest with a rod. Mr. Blake
Knox has found, in a liank near the sea, nests composed of damp
sea-weed lined with drier but still coar.se sea-weed. The Rev. A.
Ellison foiuid one nest composed of a large handful of drv
lirown scales from the expanding Inids of the beech, though
neighbouring nests were, as usual, built of straw and white
feathers.
White varieties of the Sand-Martin have been several times
obtained in Ireland.
FoL- Purple ^lartin, sec .\pponciix.
E 2
a .,.. ILL UR
52 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Family FRINGILLID.'E. Subfamily Feingillin^.
THE G-REENFINCH. Llgvrbuis Moris, (Linna?us.)
Resident and very common. A migration takes place into Ireland in
winter, when Greenfinches resort to the western coasts and
islands.
This is one of those species which In-eeds commonly in every
coniity tmd remains in its breeding localities through the winter,
except in exposed inland districts. In such it is rarely found after
the birds have formed into their autumn flocks and moved away.
From the bare coast districts of Western Gralway, Mayo, North-
west Donegal, and Rathlin Island, it is usually absent in the
breeding-season, but is there known as a winter-visitor in flocks.
Such flocks, accom]ianied by Chaffinches and Linnets, have been
observed in Achill from November to March (Pike, in Zoologist,
1875). A few also now remain to breed there (Sheridan). The
increase in winter is decidedly marked in the west of Cork.
Light-keepers' reports show that large numbers of Greenfinches
come to us from Great Britain in autumn. They are observed
arriving on the coasts of Leinster. and less nuinerously on those of
Down and Antrim, while the movement along the southern coast
is frecpiently noticed at the Fastnet off Cape Clear, and flocks
sometimes frerpient the Tearaght for months together, from
Novemlier until Mai-ch. What they find to eat on that barren
rock it is hard to say. Tlic Arran Islands are less frequently
visited. At Broadhaven, the north-west corner of Ireland,
about eighty were observed going south on 23rd September 1886
(Migration Reports).
Both Ivinahan and Rev. C. Irvine state that the song is heard
from the end of February to the end of June or first week in
July. It is occasionally renewed in August or September. The
hal>its of the Greenfinch in Ireland do not differ from those
described in the standaixl works on British Birds, but an
exceptional case of early breeding in Wexford is mentioned bv
Thompson, when a nest was completed by the 26th March. A
nest in my collection, from a district near this coast, is partly
compos'Hl lieneath of a jiiece of fishing-net. Bents and fine roots
come next, with a lining of lilack horsehair. Six eggs are rarely
found in this country.
In the Dublin Museum is a specimen which is believed to be
a hvbrid between the Greenfinch and tlie Linnet.
FEINGILLID.E. 5^
THE HAWFINCH. Cnrr,jthrau:eated for a series of
years, but Cork stands third in frequency of occurrences. Three
examples were taken at Wexford lighthouses in Octol)er and
Noveml^er 1897, and one at a Waterford lighthouse (Mine Head)
in Novemlier 1898 (Migration Reports). These are the only
instances from light-stations, Ijut Mr. Sheridan obtained a male in
beautiful plumage at Achill in October 1897.
In certain seasons Hawfinches have occurred at places very
far ajiart. Thus in January and February 1890 specimens were
taken in Carlow, Queen's Co., Dublin, Leitrini and Monaghan,
and in the last quarter of 1897 in Wexford, Achill and Down.
The fluctuation of the numbers of Hawfinches in different seasons
has been observed in the Phcenix Park, Dublin, which is more
constantly visited by them than any other locality known in
Ireland. Mr. Grodden, the head-keeper there, wrote to me in 1894 :
" Many years ago they came every winter to the park, then they
seemed to Cj[uit it for about twelve years, until six years ago
I noticed them return, and five birds stopped in the park. The
year following I counted twenty-five together. That was the
largest number I ever saw. Last year three birds, and this only
one. They come about the end of November, but the bird that
stopped with me this season came on the 4th October. They leave
about the end of February. I noticed one to stop two years ago
until April and then disappear. They certainly do not build here
or I should notice them. One thing I could not understand was —
when I did not find them in their usual haunts they were certain
to be on the groimd where any furze was burnt a short time
before, but never on ordinary ground. When we have a good crop
of haws then we have many finches." Their usual haunts in the
Phoenix Park are the groves of ancient hawthorns which are such
a feature of the place.
Mr. H. B. Murray, when living at Hey wood near Clonmel, noticed
Hawfinches there year after year from 1860 to 1868, usually but
one or two birds. A male was frequently observed from January
25th to March 31st 1868, when he had assumed full summer-
54 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
plumage. M()st occui'rences have taken place from Kovemlier to
March, but a Hawfinch was obtained near Naas, co. Kiklare, about
20th July 189-4.
Watters stated that he received from Meath an egg similar to
Continental sjiecimens of this bird's eggs. His collection has
perished, and there is nothing to show that the Hawfinch has bred
in Ireland.
THE GOLDFINCH. CardneUs eleirds, seeming to bouud through the
air with a cry of delight, and to proclaim its feelings liy everv
note and movement. The Sdug is not loud, l>ut it is exceediugiv
sweet, voluble, aud varied. The bird usually utters it in April.
May or June, on the topmost spray of some tall tree, but he
frequently takes a circuit on the wing, pouring out his strain with
passionate delight. He will repeat his song several times l^efore
alighting, always changing his direction of flight when he re-
commences to sing. Mr. Moifat has observed that after alighting
the bird will sometimes continue the song while floundering about
among the branches, coming gradually lower till at last he drops
in a sort of ecstasy to the lowest branch, and the song terminates
with a long-drawn creaking note. When a party of Siskins
suddenly take flight they utter a note like " tut, tut, tut."
In winter the favourite food is the seeds of birch and alder,
and I have seen Siskins extracting seeds from the cones of the
Douglas fir, which hang down, aud the birds may frequeutlv be seen
turning heads down, like Tits. Ellison believes that they feed their
young largely on aphides which abound on the leaves of the alder,
where he has seen the old birds searching for food. Thev are
unsuspicious, and permit one to watch them closely when feeding.
The Siskin is the earliest of our Finches to breed, laying its
first clutch in Waterford and Wicklow early in April. A voung
brood that had quitted the nest has been seen on the 29th April.
A second clutch is laid in June.
In spring this bird frequents the upper parts of tall conifers,
usually Scotch aud silver firs in which it breeds. We have several
tall grou]>s of the latter about the demesne in which Siskins aunuallv
breed, sometimes towards the top of the tree and alwavs far out on
the branch, sometimes twelve feet from the trunk. The nest is
placed on the central stem of the l>ranch which helps to conceal
the tiny oliject from l)elow, and a fan of tlic braucli often over-
58 LIRDS OF IRELAND.
shadows it from above, so that its lofty position does not expose
it to marauding birds. Mr. Ellison has found a nest only twelve
feet from the ground, and another built against the central stem
of a s])ruce near the top, but these were exceptional cases, forty
to fifty feet being the more usual elevation.
All the nests which my informants or I have seen were in
coniferous trees — -Douglas, spruce, silver or Scotch firs or larch.
Mr. Barrington has found one in a deodar.
The accounts of Siskins breeding in furze or juniper bushes
near the ground are quite foreign to our experience, and are more
in keeping with the habits of the Lesser Redpoll. There is a nest
from Wicklow in one of the life cases at the Natural History
Museum, South Kensington.
The nest measures from an inch and three-quarters to two
inches wide internally, and an inch and a quarter deep. It is not
so compact as that of the Goldfinch, the light being sometimes
visible through it. A number of small dead twigs of spruce-fir are
usually incorporated with its base and sides, in one case making
it lo(jk from beneath like a miniature Kook's nest. These twigs
often have tufts of grey lichens attached to them. The body of
the nest is of green moss with a few dry bents, and the edge
bound round with sheep's wool or horsehair. So much of the
latter is sometimes used as to make the edge quite black, the long
hairs being carried round and round, skilfully interwoven.
The interior is of the finest fil)rous roots, sometimes mixed with a
few soft feathers, rabliit's wool, cow's hair, or thistle down ; but
the presence of these materials is not constant like that of the
green moss and fibrous roots.
The eggs, four or five in numlier, are of a clear pale blue,
not so deep a blue as those of the Lesser Kedpoll, but with
more gloss. The pale red spots and streaks are the most
numerous ; the outer spots are of the deepest i-ed-brown,
approaching black.
The parent Siskin when feeding her young alights at a little
distance from the nest and then creeps to it along the l)ranches.
When the lirood leave the nest, the old birds may be seen feeding
them on the upper branches of elms, which are then covered with
seeds in a green state, and these are greedily eaten. Young-
Siskins are very noisy, sometimes taking flight and performing a
circuit on the wing in a close body, while they call vociferously all
the time.
I'hotoKitiphid hy C. Kent tun
SISKIN'S NEST IN A SILVER FIR.
Fr.ixGiLLiD.i:. 59
THE SERIN. Seyhnis liortalonus, K. L. Kucli.
Has once occurred in January.
lu the Zoologist for 1893, p. 1U8, Mr. E. Williams auuouuced
that ou the 2ud of the previous January, a local bird-catcher had
brought him a Seriu in adult winter-plumage, which, as he informed
me, was taken south of Dublin. The specimen is now in the
Dublin Museum of Science and Art.
THE HOUSE-SPAEEOW. Passer chnutsticus, (Linmeus.)
Resident and numerous, breeding in every county, but local in some
districts.
This ubicjuitous species is spread throughout Ireland to the
remotest coasts, and delights in the " congested districts," where
the numerous thatched calkins afford it comfortable homes ; it also
breeds on all the inhabited islands of the north and west. I have
found it aljundant on the exposed seaboard near Dunglow and in
Western Majo wherever there are cottages, also on the Aran
Islands, while ou Tory Island and Eathlin it is also resident-
Mr. Witherby met with a large colony of Sparrows nesting in
the ivy-covered cliff by the harbour on Inishturk, olf Mayo, which
storm-swept and barren island contains about a score of houses.
The numbers of this bird vary greatly in country parts of Ireland.
In some counties, as Fermanagh, Armagh and Antrim, it is
abundant. In others, as Waterford, it is absent from many if
not from the majority of farmsteads, but though local with us I
find it increasing and spreading. In some exposed })arts of
Ireland, as in co. Tyrone, Sparrows frequently forsake houses in
the open country during winter (Irvine). Cox observed them to
disappear from Dublin after the young were grown and to return
about the end of October or lieginning of Novemlier, fresh from
their harvesting trip {Zool., 1879, }>. 4-53).
We do not, however, in Ireland, see the huge flocks, far from
towns, that may be met with in the wheat-growing counties of
England. Sparrows have often occurred, singly or in flocks, at
light-ships and rock-stations all round Ireland. Their visits take
place most frequently in March, none in January, February
or August, showiiiii' that the l)ird wanders at times more than
60 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
one might expect l"i\)in such a stay-at-home creature, tliougli
these flittings have not the character of migration.
The Rev. C. Irvine has seen Sparrows " dusting " themselves
m the freshly fallen snow.
Near the coast, where trees were scarce, three nests of this bird,
containing eggs, have been found in the same tree with Rooks'
nests.
Mr. Norman relates that he saw a Sparrow fluttering in the air
two or three feet from the ground and pounce down time after
time on the shrewrnouse, which made a squeaking noise, and was
foiind with l)lood on its head, quite incapacitated by the Sparrow's
blows.
THE TREE-SPARROW. Passer movianns. (Linnieus.)
Resident in one district north of Dublin Bay since 1852, and increasing
there.
The tirst Irish specimen was exhibited by Montgomery before
the Dublin Natural History Society iu 1852. Since then the
species has evidently increased and spread over that part of the
county between Dublin Bay and the Malaliide estuary. Dr.
Patten, writing in October 1898, remarked : " The Tree-Sparrow
seems to be extending its range in the co. Dublin. This year I
noticed douljle the number about Baldoyle, and I ol)tained a
specimen from Crumliu (eight miles from Baldoyle), caught by
a bird-catcher." The latter ]ilace is on the south-west side of
Dublin.
A male shot at Sandy mount was presented to the Museum in
March 1865, and Mr. H. Blakc-Knox gave Dalkey as a locality
for this bird as well as Baldoyle {ZnoJ., 1870, p. 2018). Both
these localities are on the south side of the bay.
In December 1890 a specimen was. obtained near Bray on the
borders of Dublin and Wicklow.
On the 22Dd October 1896 a Tree-Sparrow, now in Mr.
Barrington's collection, was caught exhausted on the Tuskar rock,
off Wexford, in the route of migrating birds.
I have notices of this bird from the counties of Wexford and
Fermanagh, which I have no wish to discredit, l:)ut the corroboration
of specimens is wanting, and until such are ol)tained tho.se localities
cannot be admitted.
Mr. H. M. Wallis stated that he identified a pair which
FRINGILLID.E. 61
frequented the roof of a cabin on Arauniore Island, co. Donegal
{Zool., 1886, p. 489). The si^ecies cannot have established itself
there, for in 1896, when I visited Aranmore with Rev. A. Ellison,
we passed an honr inspecting the Sparrows abont the calnns (_»n the
island, without meeting with a Tree-Sparrow.
THE CHAFFINCH. FriiKjiUa ccelebs, Linna?us.
Resident. The commonest land-bird throughout Ireland. A winter-
visitor to the treeless western border. A large immigration
from Great Britain takes place in winter.
The Chaffinch is conspicuous by its abundance in all parts of
Ireland that are not c^uite destitute of trees, and especially so in
the- inland parts of Kerry, Couueniara and Donegal, where wood-
land-birds are few. It now breeds regularly in Achill, though
only a winter-visitor there till 1875, as it still is to the Mullet in
Mayo, the Dunglow district in Donegal and Rathlin Island. In
the latter and in similar coast and moorland tracts its absence in
summer is striking, but when one reaches the first attempt at trees
it is usually met with.
The general annual immigration from beyond the Channel is at
its height in October, but continues in November and is i-enewed
in severe frosts even into February. It is most observable on our
east coast, especially at Wexford stations, but is continued west-
wards along the coast of Cork, in the west of which county there
is a decided increase in the flocks of Chaffinches during the winter.
The October arrivals frequently extend to the Tearaght, off Iverrv,
our most western rock, but the extreme points of Conuaught are
more usually visited in severe winter weather. The spring exodus
takes place in March and is continued in April, the birds l)eiug
then seen flying from Ireland as they are seen to fly towards our
shores in autumn.
Flocks of females have been often noticed in co. Dulilin. in
northern counties, and once, at least, on the Tearaght, but in
January 1877 Mr. Palmer, then at Lucan, co. Dublin, met with
thirty or forty males to one female during several days, and Mr.
Hart during one winter observed the same thing in Donegal {Zool.,
1891, p. 336). In co. Waterford I have failed to find these
exclusive flocks, though the species is abundant at all seasons.
In Kinahan's talile (Proc. D.N.H. Soc, 1853. pj). 100, 10]),
August and November appear as the only mcmths when this bird's
G'2 EIDDS OF IRELAND.
song is hushed. It sings occasionally in si^ft mornings during
■winter, but does not usually begin regulaidy until February, and
the full song is not uttered at first. It has been heard persever-
ingly repeated on the 3rd March, while snow was falling lightly,
and has also been uttered on the wing.
In severe frosts flocks may be seen pecking among the droppings
in the streets of our cities.
Others in Ireland besides myself have noticed the nest of the
Chatfinch in close proximity to that of the Mistle-Tlirush, which
bears out observations of the same fact in England and France
(Dresser). A white Chatfinch has been preserved by Messrs.
Williams A: Son.
THE BRAMBLINCI. FniujiUa motitifriiKjilla, Linnteus.
Winter-visitor in varying numbers to all quarters of Ireland, but
rare in the west generally.
The Brambliug visits Ireland in the same irregular manner as it
does Great Britain. In some winters it is even frequent, and almost
every winter we have some. This applies to so many counties in
Munster. Leinster and Ulster that the bird must l)e considered an
uncertain and wide-spread rather than a rare and local visitor.
In special seasons very large flocks have occurred, as in co.
Armagh, where thousands remained for about a week at Elm
Park iu March 1844 (Thompson).
Cork has numerous records from so many districts as to
compare favourably with most other counties, and the species
frequents more or less regularly the maritime counties up the
east coast to Londonderry, as well as Tipperary, Queen's County,
Carlow, Fermanagh and Tyrone. From other midland counties
mv records of it are decidedly scanty, but it is in Western
Munster and Connaught generally .that the Brambling would
appear to be rarest. This paucity of notices from that part of
Ireland is not entirely due to absence of observers, for Mr. Warren
has only once met with the bird near Ballina ; it visits Achill,
however, in hard winters (Sheridan), and Mr. E. Williams saw
many Brambliugs there in October 1898.
The idea that it occurs chiefly in the north and middle of
Ireland should therefore l^e modified. Of the ten specimens that
Mr. Barrington has got from light-stations five are from the
Wexford coast, where most other niio-rants arrive. Two are from
frixgillid.t: . 63
Cork, and two from isles off Western Kerry. The remaining one
only (from Donegal) eomes from a station north of Wexford.
Thus the statistics of migration, coupled with inland records,
show that Bramblings arrive on the eastern side of Ireland, spread
inland and ahmg onr south coast, bnt that few reach the western
counties.
I have no record of this bird earlier than September, nor later
in spring than April ; October being the more usual month for
arrival, and March f(^r departure. In 1890, however, Mr. Williams
observed Bramlilings in co. Dublin until the end of April, when
they had assumed the breeding-plumage, some specimens having
C[uite black heads.
In severe winters these birds sometimes appear in unexpected
numbers and in unwonted localities, but their regular visits are apt
to be overlooked, owing to their shyness and general resenil)lance
to Chatfinches. Thus it was not until my coachman had caught
one' that I became aware of their visits to Cappagh, where I after-
wards noticed their appearance during a series of years.
Wooded localities are usually preferred. Bramblings roost
with Chaffinches among our laurels, and feed with them and with
Yellowhammers in the daytime. In Wicklow and Carlow, how-
ever, they are said to frecj^ueut cultivated areas among the
mountains.
THE LINNET. Linofa cannahimi, (LinuEeus.)
Resident and common in the open districts, breeding in every county.
The Linnet is one of the most common birds wherever furze
abounds, especially in the coast districts. It breeds on islands
like Lambay, Rathliu, Aranmore and Tory Island ; but it is also
cornnnjn in the treeless tracts of the central plain, on the lower
slopes of the mountains, and through almost every part of Ireland
that is either unreclaimed or that has run wild. In the cultivated
and planted districts, on the other hand, it is usually scarce or
absent ; still Mr. Warren thinks that it is more numerous in
Cork than in Mayo and Sligo. No species is more given to tiocl;-
iug, and the migration-re})orts yield notices of it all round
the Irish coasts and at all times of the year. Even in the spring
and sTunmer months Linnets sometimes visit the light-stations in
flocks; thus at Eathlin Island, on the 12th May 1884, there were
flocks going west all dav, an instance of the manv irreunlar and
64 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
unaccountable movements of this species. JStlll the mouths of
March, April, September, October, November and December are
those iu which alone the occurrences are numerous, chiefly
October. The Wexford coasts, too, are richest in records, but
Slyne Head, the Arrau Islands, and other western stations (so
unfrequented by other migrants ) are visited by Linnets very fre-
c|uently. At two of our most western islands. Rathlin O'Birne and
Eagle Island, Linnets have repeatedly been observed flying west-
wards, while at Tory Island they have been seen arriving from the
west — the direction of the open ocean — and then making for land.
The great majority observed at isolated stations are apparently
flying towards land both in spring and autumn. The great move-
ments, however, at those seasons show that there is a large immi-
gration, and the increase of Linnets in flocks is observed in many
parts of Ireland — -for instance, in West Cork.
The chanting together of Linnets iu flocks takes place from
Januai'v until March ; then the proper song liegins, which usually
ceases in July, l)ut has been heard in August.
Furze-bushes are the almost invariable nesting sites, the eggs
being laid in Mav, June and Julv.
THE MEALY REDPOLL. Lhrdu Jlmn-in, (Linuieus.)
Very rare winter-visitor, chiefly taken on the western islands.
Following the arrangement of Mr. Howard Saunders, the Mealy
Redpolls obtained iu Ireland are here placed under the head of
L. litiaria, though several have been referred to L. vast rata, whatever
the specific value of the latter may idtimately prove to be.
The first specimen recorded iu Ireland was shot at Levitstown,
CO. Kildare, on the 9th February 1876 while feeding on alder trees
with Lesser Redjiolls (Field, 19th February 1876). It was identified
l>y Mr. Harting. Seven specimens have been received by Mr.
Barrington from the Tearaght, off Kerry, in the autumns of four
years: the first on the 19th September 1889, the second on the 14th
September 1890, three on the 25th and 26th September 1892, and
a sixth on the 18th October of the same year. The seventh was
obtained on the 15th November 1893. Two of these, submitted to
Dr. R. B. Sharpe, were considered l\v him to lie L. rosfrata, a
Greenland form. In February l89o Mrs. Harvey obtained two out
of a flock of eight Mealy Redpolls at Olendarary, Achill. One of
these, in the Duliliu Museiim, was found by Dr. Sharpe to be the
feixgillid.t:. 65
typical L. Unaria. In Octolier 1897 Mr. Sheridan obtained a
beautiful specimen in Achill, whicli ayain was referred by Dr. Sliarpe
to L. rostrata. Another was obtained in Achill in October 1898, and
set up by Mr. E. Williams who was staying there, and who saw
Mealy Redpolls every day from the 14th to the 21st, \isually
"in little flocks of about half-a-dozen."
The only example recorded from Ulster is one sent to Mr.
Ban-ington, obtained on the island of Inishtrahull the first week in
January 1898.
From the above it appears that (with the exception of the
Kildare Inrd) all our Irish specimens of the Mealy Redpoll were
obtained on the islands of Kerry, Mayo and Donegal, on that side of
Ireland where the Greenland Falcon and Snowy Owl have chiefly
occurred, and whicli is most frequented by the Bernacle Goose,
though comparatively deficient in Passerine migrants.
THE LESSER REDPOLL. Litmta rufesceus, (Vieillot.)
Resident and common, widely distributed.
The Lesser Redpoll is proliaVily an increasing species, being now
known to nest in every county except Kerry, but as it does so in
West and North Cork, the gap will be, doubtless, filled up. It
breeds commonly in AVaterford, as it does in most counties, and
in none moi'e numerously than those of Ulster, including Western
Donegal, where it nests even on Aranmore Island. It has been
found breeding of late years in Achill, and is not uncommon in
Connemara. The Rev. Allan Ellison describes it as more
numerous in summer than in winter in Wicklow and Down, and
Watters noticed the same thing in co. Dublin.
Mr. Barrington has not a single specimen from any light-
station, and there are but three records of "Redpolls." which
may be of this species, in the Migration Rejioi'ts. Its migration
across our seas, therefore, wants proof.
Few seem to know how common this little bird is, but, though
it is not so easily recognized by sight, its twittering churr, as it
flies overhead, will indicate its jiresence.
Flocks of a hundred or more may sometimes be seen in the
open country in winter, but smaller parties, which are found still
together in April, are more frequent. They are often engaged
feeding on the seeds among the branches of Ijirch and alder with
Siskins, Tits, and their compauious. On the North Bull bank
F
66 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
iu Dublin Bay large flocks feed on wart-wort, and other barren-land
plants, whose seeds are eaten 1\y the Snow Bunting (Mr. H. Blake
Knox).
With us the Lesser Eedjioll is a late breeder, the latter part of
May or the mouth of June being the usual time for the eggs. It
builds in a great variety of situations, but not on bare mountains
nor along coast- cliffs like the Twite. It is more a bird of wooded
and cultivated districts, though it often breeds near the sea, as
in the Mullaghniore ]>lantations among sandhills in Sligo, and
about Killvbegs in Donegal, where I have seen it nesting in a
willow 1)V the roadside. It sometimes builds forty feet from the
ground in a lofty ash, and sometimes in a furze or currant-bush,
honevsuckle, or even liriars. It has been known to breed in cypi'ess,
Scotch fir, larch, alder, apple, lime, hawthorn, laurel or other ever-
greens, or on a ]iollard stump. I have found a nest built against
the trunk of a tir, and another on an outer spray of a hawthorn in
a ]iosition suitable for a Goldfinch.
I have preserved a nest built right in the midst of a whorl of
shoots which grew on the top of a young Scotch fir that had lost
its leader. Another nest is built of yreen moss, entwined with a
few bents, and is lined with fowls' feathers, the tij^s of which
stand up high above the brim all round, curving inwards so as to
cover the hatching bird. When in an apple-tree, the base is com-
posed of the same grey lichens which grow on the branches and
make the little structure look like an excrescence of the tree. I
have watched a Eedjioll lining her nest. She pressed down the
forepart of her breast and worked herself r(^und, her tail sticking
up and twirling like a shuttlecock.
THE TWITE. Llnofa J^arlrostrls, (Linuffius.)
Resident, locally common, breeding in all the counties except those of
the central plain.
Wherever mountains and elevated rocky coasts occur, as they
do so largely iu Ireland, the Twite breeds in greater or lesser
numliers, and this applies to all the provinces. It is a common
and characteristic liircl of such wild and exposed parts of our
island, and the wilder these are the more the Twite seems to love
them, especially when they overlook the sea. Even the precipitous
islands of Kerry, Inishturk and the lofty cliffs of Achill and
Rathlin are not too exposed for l)reeding resorts. The nature
FEINGILLIDJ.. 67
of its haunts reuders the Twite litth? hiaown, though it is the
commonest of the Linnets in its favourite districts, as Mr. Warren
remarks in connection with the neighbourhood of Killala Bay.
This bird is not reported to me from the flat midland counties,
even though they contain great bogs, such as Kildare, Westmeath,
Longford.
Twites have been observed at the Tuskar and the Copeland
Islands, crossing the sea towards Ireland in October and November;
but such records are not numerous in the Migration Reports.
Like the Linnet, this bird rarely strikes the lighthouses. In
winter, flocks visit the more distant islands, the Tearaght, Eagle
Island and InishtrahuU, and remain there some time. Mr.
Teesdale, when off the shore of Connemara, near Carna, on the
31st October, saw at dusk two large flocks of Twites flying alwut
five feet above the sea towards the outlying islands, where they
were probably going to roost. Diiring winter this species may be
found in flocks on low and sandy pai'ts of the coast, and visits
some lowland districts which are open or moory. In the west of
Cork, for instance, large flocks are observed at that season. From
the enclosed and timbered parts the Twite is usually absent at all
seasons, but in North Donegal Mr. Hart has noticed flocks of
fifty or so coming t(^ roost in his plantations. He remarks that
this bird is not unfrecjuent in m(>st of those parts of Donegal where
there is an upland of peat.
On the heath-clad parts of the hills near Cappagh, I have
listened to this l)ird in May, while, on a low bush, it uttered its
song in passages or exclamations, the longest of which seemed like
" Lazy Jenny."
Twites In-eed numerously on our elevated coasts, much more so
than on the inland mountains. I have often obtained complete
clutches the first week in May, but not earlier. Thenceforward
through June these l)irds breed in increasing numbers, and I have
seen eggs in July and August. A typical breeding-place is the 1 )r(„)w
of a hill or headland overlooking the sea. In such a situation I
have seen the nest slightly sheltered l)y a projecting point of rock,
or in a low furze-bush shaped by the blast to the contour t^f the
storm-swept hill ; but taller furze is sometimes used, and at other
times the nest is on the ground among heather. One was founjrrhuJn ez/ro^wv, Vieillot.
Resident, common except in bare districts. Breeds in every county.
This is another of those woodland birds which is gaining ground
in Ireland. Thompson descrilied it as rather scarce, and stated that
iu many of the artificially Avooded districts it was not found ; while
Dr. Burkitt was not acquainted with it round "VVaterford until
about 1840, although from that time up to 1855 he found that it
had liecome plentiful in all directions. "Within my memory it has
decidedly increased here, not only abounding in the yovmg larch
and fir [)lautations, Init lieing met with along the country hedges,
far from woods. lu West Cork and in Armagh its increase has
also been noticed, and in fact one has now-a-days to inquire where
it is not common. This, I am tcykb is the case about Londonderry,
in Western Donegal, and in Mr. Warren's district near Ballina.
Naturally the Bullfinch is absent from the coasts and islands, and
fi'om the treeless tracts of Western Connaught. It is, however,
common as far west as the basins of Loughs Corri1> and Mask,
and is occasionally seen at Ballynahinch in Connemara.
In the Migration Reports there are some twelve notices of the
Bullfinch from isolated stations on various parts of the coast, but
u(me of these have ever been confirmed by the pu'oduction of a
specimen.
FKINtilLLID.E. 69
Mr. Warreu noticed, iu the autumn and winter of 1880, an
\musual influx of Bulltiuches into liis district both on the Mayo
and Sligo sides of the Moy.
I have seen tliirty or more ft.'eding at the same time on the
berries of a mountain-ash, others eating daisies on a pasture, and
Mr. Bhike Knox has watched Bullfinches feeding on blackberries.
The song has been heard in December by Mr. Palmer.
The Bullfinch is a late breeder here, the eggs being laid in May
and June, and I have a set taken in July. The number of eggs is
four or five, and I have never known six in Ireland. In one instance
I found the nest lined with white cow's hair ; a very exceptional
case, for root-fibres usually form the interior of the cup.
THE CEOSSBILL. Loxla curviro^^ira, Linn^us.
Resident, but local. A few breed in the conifer woods of each province.
Thompson quotes several occasions in the last century, and early
iu the present one, when Ireland was visited by flocks of Cross-
bills, then an unusual sight. Professor Newton remarks, in con-
nection with their appearance here in 1821, that many also overran
Great Britain in that year. U}> to Thompson's time the Crossl)ill
had been regarded as an autumn- and winter-visitor, with a few
exceptions. He mentions reports that it had bred in Wicklow,
Meath and Down, and in 1838-9 a small flock was observed to
remain through two breeding-seasons at Ballybrado in South
Tipperary, whei'e they produced young. It was not, however,
until 1867 that in co. Kildare nests were found, which contained
young on the 10th of March (Zool, 1868, p. 1133). In 1868,
according to Sir Vic^tor Brooke, the Crossbill bred at Colebrook,
CO. Fermanagh, and it continues to be a resident breeding-species
in demesnes in that county. I have heard of it in King's County
nearly every year since 1881 ; also in Westineath for twelve years
commencing 1883.
In 1887 Crossbills became unusually numerous in the north-
west of England, and in June and July 1888 a great movement of
these birds was recorded from Spain, Portugal, France, Heligoland,
the Humber district, and the Inner Hebrides. They increased
suddenly in Ireland in , 1888, when Mr. Crosbie Smith knew of
thirteen nests near Monkstowu, Cork. In that year thev were
observed close to my house, and have never been long alisent from
Cappagh since. In 1889, 1890, 1891 they were rejiorti'd from 15,
70 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
16, and 17 cuiinties respectively, l»ree(Iing iu several. In 1894
they were announced from 18 counties, and have now estab-
lished themselves in varying' numbers in most of the large plan-
tations of conifers in Ireland. They often fluctuate from year to
year, frequenting or forsaking a locality according to the abun-
dance or absence of cones on the trees.
A Crossbill was obtained as far west as Acliill in Februaiy
1894, and Clare is the only county ivora which I find no
notice of this l)ird. A light-keej^er on the Tuskar observed
and caught a few about the middle of the century. Mr.
Barrington received a young bird caught on the Conningbeg
light-ship, 4th Septeml>er 1898, the only example sent him
during fifteen years.
I will give the results of my ol)servations of this now familiar
bird at Cappagh since its settlement in 1888. I have been much
aided by John Power and others here.
The Crossbill is more easily recognized in flight than almost any
small bird, for it haliitually announces itself by its loud rattling
call-note, " jip, jip," which draws one's attention when the bird is
but a speck against the sky, and its flight is usually above the
level of the tree-tops. The measured flight of a flock, as they
perform a circuit on the wing, all calling together, is a striking
sight. The deliberate series of wing-strokes, interrupted by
pauses, is characteristic of the Crossbill's manner of flight, though
I have seen a flock perform antics in the air, like Kooks when
they tumlile. When perched on a tree-top the Crossbill holds
itself erect, its large head separated from the hodj by a distinct
neck, and its long crossed mandibles looking as if it held some-
thing in its liill. It consorts in flocks and parties with its own
species only. The call-note is modified into " yep, yep," or " yup,
yup," when uttered by the hatching female from the nest, a trait
of this fearless bird ; and it is then probably a call for food. The
song may be heard in February, even when snow is on the
ground, but more usually in Mari-h and April, occasionally by
moonlight, but ordinarily in the morning. It is delivered as the
bird sits on the leader of a fir-tree, but sometimes while he takes
a circuit on the wing liefore he alights. It is mai'ked by the
repetition of the leading notes " chit, chit," delivered like a trill,
followed by a loud creaking note, " chwee, chwee," which the
Crossbill repeats with special gusto. The saw-shar])ening note,
less loud than that of the Grreat Tit, is often nttered, but indi-
vidual l)irds vary as to the note they dwell on most. Then there are
some low, sweet notes, not so often heard, but I should never call
FRINGILLIDiE. 71
a Crossbill's song "low warblino-." I have heard (juo utter a
singular twirriug sound like a tighteue-d chord Til»rating against
something that chafed it, suggesting the syllables " -whirl u'ig."
This probably was merely a variation of the singular song, which
we must allow is usually harsh. I have heard a young brood
calling after their parents for food: " chit-oo, chit-oo, chit,
chit." I do not know that thei-e is any special warning-note,
the " jip, jip" being uttered excitedly when intruders are at the
nest.
The absence of fear of man is remarkable in this species, but
let a Sparrow-Hawk appear and they ai'e immediately on the wing-
performing lofty flights, with angry call-notes. A flock will ron-
tiuue to feed on trees while peo^^le are walking and talking and dogs
are barking beneath, and sometimes even when the spectators are
tiwing to scai'e them with shouts and stones. When I touched a
hatching female with a stick she bit the stick. I then raised her
with it, to see if she had eggs, but she held on to the nest with
both feet, and when the stick slipped away she sank back into
it. Less tame individuals will sit on the same tree, or the next,
while the nest is being inspected. A nestling, which we caged,
when taken in the hand did not struggle, but tried to bite. Its
parents came to feed it at the cage h>r nearly a fortnight. Cross-
bills will habitually alight on the eave-shoots and drink from
them, and a brood, recently flown, perched on the balcony railings
and entered the door at the Giant's Rock house to drink water
from a tuij. In sjjring and summer mornings we see them fly
down from the woods to the sti'eam. They avoid the lakes, but
seek running water to drink.
The seeds of conifers, their natural food, are now their staple
diet ; but before the larch and fir were largely planted in Ireland
these birds resorted to the then numerous orchards to feed <>n the
apple -pips. This was my father's experience in or aliout 1798,
when the presence of Crossbills was often betrayed In- the sound
of splitting and falling apples. Of this we never hear now-a-days.
They will eat beech-nuts, immature ivy-l)erries, and buds of ash,
beech and lai'ch. I have watched a Crossbill that had young feed
on the larch branches when the buds were sprouting, and then
fly to the nest with the gathered food. A flock has lieen seen
picking on the ground under a willow covered with catkins,
evidently feeding on the debris of the blossoms. This is unusual,
as they scarcely ever perch on the ground, except when drinking
or gathering materials for their nests. It is a pretty sight to
see a V)ird swaving, head downwards, at the end of a branch, bite
72 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
off a cone, fly to a firmer iierc-li, lirJd it pressed there -with one
foot and pick it to pieces. Mr. Moft'at observes that it commences
at the base of each cone, that each scale of a larch-cone afterwards
exhibits two longitudinal gashes, but that the scales of fir-cones
are completely loosened. When not feeding, this bird sometimes
uses its beak in climbing, like a Parrot.
Our Crossbills lay in February or March, sometimes in April,
and in 1899 young broods had left their nests before the end of
March ; and the first late brood 1 have heard of was in July 1899.
The favourite nesting-sites are in old Scotch firs on hills. One
nest was on the summit of a hill 566 feet high, but for the past
ten years the chief haunt of these Ini-ds, near Cappagh, has been
another hill-top, called the Giant's Rock, where a house stands
surrounded hj masses of fir and larch trees. Three and four
nests have been built in the season near this house, and near the
offices where animals are kept. A pair of birds once Irailt in
a larch, another in a si)ruce, but all the rest in Scotch firs.
Usually the structure is ] dared near the top of the tree whei'e
the shoots form a little chamljer fui- it, less frequently near the
extremity of a large upturned branch. One nest on a steep,
elevated slope was Init fifteen feet up a small tree, but the height
above the ground is generally twenty-five to forty feet. The
foundation of larch or fir twigs is characteristic, being very much
wider than the nest, which is of dried grass mixed with sheep's wool
and sometimes with moss and roots. Occasionally there is a strip
of inner fir-bark or a tuft of lichen, exceptionally a feather or two ;
finer gi'asses form the lining, not usually hair. The diameter,
exclusive of the projecting twigs, measures two-and-a-half inches
internally, five inches externally. I have never found more than
four eggs. (In 1866, out of four nests (Uily two young birds were
produced, all the remaining eicgs proving infertile and forsaken,
though not disturbed. J Wliile the female was hatching, the male
has been seen shuffling and flapping his wings with delight, flitting
through the trees near the nest, or singing while flying in a circuit.
The hatching female may be seen to rise from her crouching
position, wriggle and turn round in the nest. When the male comes
to feed her she sometimes leaves her post immediately and joins
him. One nest was being built on the loth April; on the 20th the
bird was sitting in it ; while on the 11th May it contained young,
which had left it on 18th Mav. These are at first covered with
grevish-black down, and the enormous \ipper mandible overlaps
the lower on both sides and does not cross it, but the twist in the
mandililes is soon developed. The jiarents cannot carry away the
rrJNGILLID.E. 73
droppings regularly, for the exterior of the iiest is soinetimes
covered with them. Family parties after leaving their nests soon
unite, forming flocks, and in June and July they wander to other
2>arts of the country, while it is about this time of year that they
usually settle in new localities.
The group which I presented to the Museum at South
Kensington exhibits an instance of the male breeding in golden
yellow plumage, aud I know of two other such instances. In one
case the yellow male was decidedly a most wary Crosslnll ; he
was large and active, with long mandibles conspicuously crossed,
leaving no doubt that he was an old bird.
The reds and greens in the Crossbill's jilumage maybe regarded
as protective colouring, the former harmonizing with the russet-
liark of the Scotch fir and the latter with the foliage.
The larger form, called the Parrot-Crossbill, was obtained in
King's Co. in 1889 (More, in Zool, 1889, p. 181), and in 1891-2
(.)ther specimens were procured in different jiarts of Ireland.
Three infertile eggs taken here in 1896 were larger than eggs
attributed to the Parrot-Crosslnll. They measure from '96 to '92
in length, by "68 to -67. Mr. E. Williams records {^Zool., 1889,
p. 266), under the sub-sjiccilic name of Loxia rnbrifasciata, a
specimen from Edenderry in Avhieh the tips of the wing-coverts
were hnft, foi-ming two bars. It is now in the Duldin Museum.
THE TWO-BAREED CROSSBILL. Luxia bifasdata,
(C. L. Brchm.)
Extremely rare and accidental visitor.
The first known instance of this bird in the British Islands took
place at Grenville, near Belfast, on the 11th January 1802, and
was recorded by Templeton (Trans. Linn. Soc, vii., p. 309). A
coloured representation of the sjiecimeu, which enabled Thompson
to identify it, showed that it was olive and yellow, with dark
sti'eaks beneath, and, in addition to the two white wing- liars, the
wing feathers generally were tipped with white.
In 1867, or earlier, Mr. H. Blake Knox received from Mr. Sheals,
of Belfast, a bird said by the latter to have Ijcen killed at Tem])le-
patrick, co. Antrim. I have recently examined this specimen, which
is in olive plumage with yellow rum]), the two white wing-bars
being very conspicuous, and the tertials and under tai]-<'(ivcrts
7-1 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
also broadly tipped with white. It corresponds with descriptions
of the female of this sjieeies in the standard works.*
Ou the 17th February 1895 Mr. Charles Langham shot an adult
male in red plumage at Tem[)o Manor, co. Fermanagh, while
it was singing on the top of an ash, and a small flock of Crossbills
were flying over, calling at the time; Tempo being a breeding-resort
of the common species. This example, which has been seen by
Mr. Howard Saunders and Dr. Sharpe, is preserved at Tempo.
Subfamily Emberizix/E.
THE CORN-BUNTINCI. Eniheriza miliaria, Unnseus.
Resident. Generally common in coast districts, local elsewhere.
All round Ireland this Inrd may be commouh' met with on the
small holdings near the coasts where the fences abound in briars.
In such districts it is conspicuous and commonly distributed,
esjjecially, for example, in the Dungiow neighbourhood in Donegal,
so deficient in many land-birds. It also breeds on the Saltees,
Lambay, the Copeland Islands, Eathlin, Tory Island, Araumore
and Achill, less commonly on the Arrau Islands, and it is common
enough in some inland districts which are open and full of small
cultivated farms on the borders of the moorland, as in the Swine-
ford Union, CO. Mayo ; but, as a rule, in inland counties it is
decidedly scarce and local, frequently al)seut, and it avoiils wooded
places. From Leitrim and most of King's County, I have no record
of it, and in Longford, Westmeath and Fermanagh it is rare, while
it is said to be decreasing in several districts, as near Dingle in
Kerry, west of Bandon in co. Cork, in King's and Queen's Counties
and Roscommon. There is no proof that it migrates across channel,
but individuals arrive occasionally on distant islands like Inish-
trahull and remain some time, and there are bleak inland localities
which it almost entirely leaves in winter, as observed by the Rev.
C. Irvine in Tyrone. It l;»ecomes more numerous at the same
* I\Ir. Blake Kdox states that, liaviug received tlie above as a Common
Crossbill, lie boxed it up and did not recognize its species for several years. It
is not to be confounded with a bird which he obtained in the co. Dublin, and
which he described as a specimen of this species {Zool., 186S, p. 1376).
Without questioning his determination of the latter, I have abstained from
enumerating it, as it perished in a conflagration of benzine, so that further
information about it is unavailable.
FRINGILLID.E.
75
season near Bautrv. where ihe climate is mild (Newburgli ) . It
forms flocks in places, but these do not wander like the flocks of
many small birds, and they keep together until late in spring, when
the birds sing in company. I have repeatedly in April seen such an
assemblage, amounting once to fifty or sixty Buntings, on a hedge
by a farmhouse in an upland locality near our Waterford coast.
The vociferous chorus they uttered w^as remarkable. A group of
these birds seated on a bush will take wing together, and after
performing a circuit return to their perch.
McSkimmin stated that this bird sings occasionally at all seasons.
I have repeatedly listened to it in November and December, and
it may be heard with very little intermission from the begin-
ning of February until the end of August. The female sometimes
hatches near the foot of the bush where her mate utters his loud
tittering notes every day the whole season. Near Dunglow the
Eev. A. Ellison pointed out to me that Corn-Buntings commenced
their song with notes similar to those of the Yellow-Bnnting.
Our Corn-Buntings rarely lay in May, usually in Jime and July,
occasionally in August. Four is the usual number of eggs, Ijut
three are often sat upon, while five are uncommon. The boldness
of the streaks and l)lotches that adorn them make these eggs
conspicuotts among those of other species.
THE YELLOW BUNTINCI. Emherha citrinella, Lmnceus.
Resident, very common and distributed all over Ireland, breeding
regularly in every district.
This is one of our commonest and most wide-spread species, for
itfreqtients those parts of the country that are wild and open, qtiite
as much, if not more, than the rich, sheltered districts. It is
eqvially common on the coast and inland, and is resident on the
islands enumerated in the case of the Corn-Bunting, with the
addition of others, e.;/. Inishbofin and luishturk. In some dis-
tricts, as about Carraroe in Galway, its place is said to lie taken
by the Corn-Bunting (Palmer), but I have generally found l)oth
species together.
In severe winters Yellow Buntings assemble in flocks about
farmsteads, l;)ut do not usually leave any part of the country, and
although the Rev. C. Irvine remarked their absence from the oj^en
district about Omagh in the severe frost of 1S78-9, he regarded this
as exceptional. They rarely strike lighth':uses, Init have often lieeu
76 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
observed at islaud-statioiis aud liL,dit- ships. These oeeuiTenees,
however, take phice round the whole coast, aud at such various
seasous as to suggest desultory straggling, rather than regular
migratiou. They are, however, more frequent in November, while
none are noticed in August.
The Yellow Bunting siugs from the beginning of February
until the end of August, and has been heard singing exception-
ally in the dusk of the evening both in February and June
(Irvine).
It lays with us in May and June, Init eggs have Ijeen found in
Septeml)er, and I have seen a Yellow Hammer carrying building
materials on the I4th August. The ordinary number of eggs is
three or four, five I leing unusual, and sometimes only two are pro-
duced (Ellison).
A male performing his love-dance on a road is a cj^uaint object.
He flops altout with wings spread out touching the ground, his
crest and other feathers erect, and seems regardless of clanger.
The Cirl Bunting {Einheriza cirlus) has not been obtained in
Ireland.
THE REED-BUNTINCI. Euilierlzn ^chnmidn^. Liuuieus.
Resident, and breeds in every county. Common on lakes, rivers, bogs
and moors.
This is a truly charactfristic bird of the wilds in Ireland. In
June I have often found it to lie the only land-l)ird on lonely
lakes, where every islet then has its pair or two of Eced-Buntings.
It is wide-spread in Connemara, through the peat-buried tracts
of Western and Northern Mayo, on the l)ogs and moors of Achill
and Rathlin Islands, and also throughout Western Donegal. On
the larger rivers, the Shannon and the Barrow, it is frequent. In
the more cultivated counties it is to be met with about waters and
marshes, though less commonly than in the districts before men-
tioned. It occurs in winter in small parties on mountains and other
wild places far from water, sometimes eommg about farmsteads
with Yellow Hammers, or pecking among the droppings on roads.
In March flocks of ten to twenty birds may be seen in places, e.g.
near Carrick-on-Shannou. Where it is plentiful one winter it is
sometimes absent the next, and r'n:e rt/v-'. It has twice occurred
on light-ships, and once on Inislitrahull ; the rarity of these
instances showing how indisposed it is to migrate by sea.
FRINGILLID.E. II
It seldom sings before March, aud niav hf heard until the end
of July. Kinahan has noticed the song at night. This I can
only compare to the syllables "chit, chit, chatter " ; the latter word
ciuickly uttered, and the song (if we must call it such) being-
repeated every few seconds. This is very different from the notes
described as uttered in England.
I have more than once seen a Eeed-Bunting with a large white
butterfly in its bill.
On the islands of lakes I have found numberless nests of this
species in tufts of coarse grass and rushes, in one of which latter
the nest was placed high up. On Lough Mask there were two
nests between boulders, of which the islands are largely composed.
One of these was well under a 1)oulder. Mr. H. Leyliourue
Popham found nests two ov three feet from the ground in tall
heather on some of the Connemara lakes, and Mr. Witherby
found one several feet up a tree.
In Ireland the eggs are laid from the 20th of May, through
June and sometimes in July. Four is the usual number, five are
often laid, and sometimes only three. I have a clutch of a snioke-
.grev tint, devoid of purple, with slender streaks.
Birds that have young, es]:>ecially the males, will spread them-
selves out on the ground, like pen-wipers, to divert attention.
THE LAPLAND BUNTING. Calcrin»s Japponicus, (Linnaeus.)
Has once occurred on the autumn migration.
A female Lapland Bunting and a Sky-Larlv were ])icked u\t dead
at the Fastnet lighthouse on the 16th October 1887, and the
former is now in Mr. Barrington's collection. The night of the
15th Octol)er had been hazy, and several Sky-Larks and Starlings
had struck the lantern. Among them this rare wanderer met with
its death (ZooL, 1889, p. 76 ; Migration Reports, 1887, p. 32). The
Fastnet is a small rock seven miles south of the Cork coast, near
Cape Clear, and many interesting birds have reached it and been
recorded l\v Mr. Barringtou in the Migration Reports.
For Ortolan Bunting, sec Appendix.
78 BIRDS OF IRELAND,
THE SNOW-BUNTINCI. Pledrophenax nivalis, (Liuufeus.)
Regular winter visitor to maritime counties in tiie nortliern part of
Ireland ; more of a straggler to those of the south, and usually
rare inland.
The Suow-Bunting is a common wiutei' visitor iu varviug
numbers to the coasts and islands of Ulster, coming annually as
far south as Dublin Bay on the east and Aehill on the "west. As
we proceed further south its visits are found to be less regular
and its nimil)ers greatly diminished. Special winters are marked
by its appeai'ance on the coasts of Muuster and Southern Leinster,
but it is there looked upon as decidedly unusual.
The occurrences of this species in inland localities are scattered,
and, as a rule, exceptional ; yet I have records of it, sometimes in
flocks, from nearly every county. On the Curragh of Kildare (a
great, open common) flocks are often met with in severe winters,
though absent at the same time from the surrounding country.
October to March is the ordinary season of this bird's appearance
in Ireland, less usually Se]itember to April. Cox twice saw it on
Dublin Bay on the 1st May. On the islands of the west and
north it has occurred iu May or Liter, as the following entries
show :— Tearaght, Brd May 1887; Slyne Head, 17th May 1889;
Aranmore. first week in May 1883 (when two were shot almost in
full summer plumage) ; ditto, 28th July 1898 (an adult male sent
to Mr. Barrington) ; ditto, 18th August 1883 (noticed by Mr.
Henry Williams). Aranmore, a large island on the Donegal
coast, wiiere the last three occurred, is bare and elevated, and the
Snow-Bunting is a common bird there during winter ; so it is on
Toi-y Island, luishtrahull and Eathlin Island ; l)ut even on those
northern islands large flocks sometimes arrive in mid-winter
(Migration Report).
The movements of the Snow-Bunting in Ireland, as elsewhere,
are to a great extent uncertain, being much influenced by the
severity or mildness of the winter, and l)y the erratic character of
the bird itself ; thus its numbers vary greatly from yeai- to year,
even in the localities most regularly visited.
The long stone piers and the sandhills on the Dublin coast are
favourite resorts ; so, to a less extent, are mountains near the sea,
like Brandon in Kerry and Knocknaree in Sligo.
The hardiness of the Snow-Buntiuy- was illustrated in Januarv
FRINGILLIDJ.. 79
1886, when twenty never left the Black Ruck. Mayo, duriut,^ nine
days that the spray was tlyiuti; over the rock.
This hircl is sometimes found feeding in company with flocks of
Larks and other Passeres.
Family STURNID^.
THE STARLING. Sfm-uus vulgaris, Liunteus.
Now nests in every county ; but though the number of those which
breed is increasing, the hosts of winter immigrants are vastly
more numerous.
The steady extension of the Starling's summer range in
Ireland is of a piece with w^hat has taken place in Scotland.
Informants in various parts of the country speak of its having
commenced to hreed in more or less recent years, and there is a
general concurrence of testimony as to its increase in numbers.
Near Killybegs, in Western Donegal, it commenced to breed in
1890, and about Glenties in 1893. Throughout the mainland of
Kerry and Western Cork it seems to l)e still unknown in summer,
while in Waterford and Wexford only a few scattered pairs build,
having been first noticed in my district in 1887. That Wexford
should lie so little resorted to for reproduction is the more remark-
able, as it is the county where the chief immigration arrives
in autumn. This shoAvs how disconnected these two facts are.
Many islands — as Rathlin, Aranmore, the Arran Islands, and
Valentia — contain long-estal)lished breeding-stations, though the
neighliouring parts of Donegal, Gralway, and Kerry are not thus
resorted to.
No feature of Irish l>ird-life is more obvious than the numbers
ut the strangest observations made at this, the most
western island of Donegal, and at Eagle Island and Blackrock,
west of Mayo, are of flocks flying west, as though to perish in
the Atlantic.
Starling-roosts, where the flocks that roam over the country
assemble on winter nights, are too numerous to be recounted.
There was one here in grounds covered with tall laurels extending
round the lakes, and the sky used to seem covered with the
moving hosts performing their lieautiful evolutions every evening.
But after the frost of 1854-5 they almost disappeared, and now
Starling-roosts are established in other places miles away, usually
in groves of laurels. Reed-beds round lakes are, however, resorted
to in other localities, as near Carna in Connemara, an unreclaimed
country destitute of trees (Teesdale). But a more singular
roosting-place is the roof of St. Patrick's Cathedral in the heart
of Dublin, to which flocks of Starlings amounting to about 2,000
have habitually resorted.
Starlings breed in the marine precipices on various islands
and various parts of the coast. Between Sligo and Bundoran
I have seen them nesting in the roofs of thatched cottages, an
unusual sight in Ireland, though there is no want of such cottages.
Slated roofs or hollow trees are the sites commonlv selected. A
stuknid.t:. 81
2)air of Starlings used to build twice every season m a hollow
apple-tree at Brook Lodge, Waterford. The tree was split open
by a storm, when a mass of nesting-materials two feet deep was
disclosed that had filled the cavity. The bottom, which repre-
sented the earliest nest, was nearly four feet from the orifice.
The Dublin Museum contains a white specimen of this bird,
and a clutch of pure white eggs has been obtained by Dr.
Blake Knox.
THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. Pastor roseus, (Linnaeus.)
Rare and irregular visitor in summer and autumn.
This bird has been obtained in about twenty-six scattered
instances distributed thus : — in Munster, eight ; Leinster, seven ;
Connaught, one ; Ulster, ten. It has occurred rejteatedlv in
Western Kerry, Clare and Donegal ; once in the Arran Islands
(the only instance iu Connaught) ; as well as in Dublin and
elsewhere on the east coast. The months of its capture, when
mentioned, were as follows : — June, four instances ; July, seven ;
August, three ; September, two.
Thirteen occurred from 1830 to 1840, including four in 1838,
three iu 1833 and three in 1836. In several instances the birds
taken were feeding on cherries, raspberries, or other fruit in
gardens. It is remarkable that though so many visited Ireland
iu Thompson's time, we seem to have no record of the capture
of the Rose-coloured Starling between 1879 and 1899.
Kerry. — Oue near Keumare, 12 th Viccary in Wexford (as stated by
August 1S3G ; oue at Ballyheige Higginbotham in 1882).
Castle; one at Waterville ; one at Dublin. — A female near Dublin,
Derryquin in July 1841; an adult 2nth July 1833; one at Newbarron,
sijecimen, probably one of the above, near Ficldstown, 7th or 8th July
is still in the Chute collection, near 183S ; one at Ball's Bridge about
Tralee. 1856 (Proc. D.N.H. Soc. 12th De-
Clare. — One at Roxton about cember 1856, p. 35) ; one at Black-
1808 ; one in same county about rock, about 1864 (Science and .Art
1830. Museum Register).
Tipperary. — One captured alive Meath. — One near Ashbourne,
at Ballylmido, June 1833 ; one at about ten miles from Dublin, June
Longfield, Cashel, 7th June 1834. 1S38.
Wexford. — One near ' Wexford Galway. — One shot among Star-
town in 1820 ; one shot on the Tuskar lings on the Arran Islands, August
in November 1854 or 5, by William 1837.
Higginbotliam, and sent to INIajor
82 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Monaghan . — An adult near Donegal. — One atWoodhill, Ardara,
Carrickmacross, August ISoo (Proc. July 1S25. (Proc. D.N.H. Soc. 1838,
D.N.H. Soc. 14th March 1856). p. C, and letter from Mr. W.Sinclair);
Down. — An adult male, near one at Fintragh near Killybegs, July
Donaghadee, July 1S3G ; one at Hills- 1833 (Mr. \V Sinclair) ; one, near
borough, July 1836 ; a male, Bangor Ramelton, 1879 (Mr. Sheals) ; one
Castle, 1st September 1838. five miles from Londonderrj-, on 9th
Londonderry. — A male at the June 1899 (Campbell, in Irish Xat.,
Umbra, Magilligan, about 10th 1399, p. 186).
September 1838 ; two often seen at Unless otherwise stated the
the Umbra, Magilligan, during above particulars are taken from
summer 1846, " very fond of fruit." Thompson.
Family CORYID.E.
THE CHOUGH. Pyrrhocorax gracuhis, (Linnseus.)
Resident on most of the precipitous coasts and Islands, as well as in
some mountain-cliffs.
Xo bird is more characteristic of the cliff-scenery of Ireland
than the Chough. In no country probably does it flourish in its
natural strongholds more undisturbed. Its withdrawal from
certain districts cannot usually be traced in Ireland to the
interference of man ; yet on the whole it is a diminishing species.
Though the Chough has disappeared from the coasts of Dublin
since 1852, and more recently from Wexford and the eastern parts
of Cork, it breeds regularly in the sea-cliffs of "VVaterford, where
there are some twenty nesting-places, but from the Comeragh
mountains it has long since vanished. In the western parts of
the c<». Cork, especially on the promontories and islands, it again
becomes common, but is probably nowhere more numerous in
Ireland than on the Kerry coast, where flocks of a hundred have
been seen. It is found in Clare and Connemara, while in the Arran
Islands it is quite common, as it is in Achill and the interven-
ing islands, and the Rev. W. S. Green saw sixty-four fly over
Inishbofin. We find it along the lofty n<:)rth coast of Mayo,
round Donegal generally, and in a few places in Antrim, chiefly
on Eathliu Island. In Down, whose coasts are low, it bred in the
Mourne mountains since Thompson's time, but I cannot ascertain
that it does so still. Its chief remaining nesting-places in
mountain-cliffs are in Donegal and Sligo and the Mamturk
mountains, Connemara, Ijut it bred much further from the sea in
the mountains of Fermanagh within tho memury oi my informants.
Thus it is found generally along the west coasts, partially on the
CORVID-E. 83
south and north, and is absent from the east coasts, which are
generally low.
The Chough and the Jackdaw do not apparently molest one
another ; nay. I have known of a Jackdaw's nest which was l:)uilt
beneath that of a Chough in the same chasm. Still the increase
of the Jackdaw has been observed in many places to coincide with
the diminution of the red-billed bird, which is called ' Daw ' or
' Jackdaw ' in districts where the true owner of that name is still
unknown. In the extreme west, where the Chough abounds, the
Jackdaw is usually absent. Mr. Hart attributes the disaj^pearance
of Choughs in his locality to the Grey Crows, but I have seen
the former chase the Crows, as well as the Eaven. 1 once saw two
Choughs energetically attacking a pair of Ravens ; they shot up
into the air and darted down on the latter, whose heavy flight
made them helpless against their agile tonnentors. I have not
foiind the remains of Choughs near any of the Peregrine's eyries I
have seen, though the bones of Rock-Doves are common there.
Yet the Rock-Dove continues to be a more numerous species.
I know no bird that wanders less from its home than the
Chough. Though one of the most restless of birds, and possess-
ing an ease and buoyancy of flight far beyond any of the Crows,
and delighting to disport itself on the wing, yet it contents itself
here at all seasons with its mile or two of sea-cliffs and with
excursions into the neighliouriug fields in search of its insect-food.
In Mayo and Donegal, however. Choughs betake themselves in
winter to lower parts of the coast, like the Mullet and Dunglow.
The Chough may be detected at a considerable distance by its
clear, shrill scream, so unlike that of other Corvida\ This is
usually uttered on the wing, but when the Ijird delivers it on the
ground it is accompanied by an upward jerk of the wings and
tail. When the cry is prolonged it ends in a second note. I
have heard one Chough when chased by another utter an unusual
sound like mewing, or the l)leatiug of a young lamb. The principal
food is unquestionably insects and their larvae, for Choughs are
fond of l)eetles, caterpillars, and worms, and with their jiointed
beaks they pick up tiny insects ; but they also eat corn at times,
for I found that some castings in one of their nests held scales of
cei'eal seeds as well as matter like wood-shavings, while others
contained elytra of beetles. It has been said that Choughs eat
various animals obtained on the shore, but, familiar as I am witli
these birds for forty years, I have never remarked tlieni feeding
there, although my attention has been directed to this subject, nor
have I tbe least reason to think that they feed on carrion.
G -2
84 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
It is surprising that tlie graceful and Imoyant fliglit of the
Chough should be compared to the heavy, luiuhering flight of the
Rook, from -which it mar be so easily distino-uished. A pair of
Choughs, when flying from place to place, often perform a series
of curves in the air, rising each time with a scream, and then
dropping with almost closed wings, only to re-expand them
suddenly with another cry, and ainother upward sweep. I have
seen six performing simultaneoiisly a series of swoops or summer-
saults, and parties of Choughs will occasionally go through won-
derful gyrations at a great height, while they scream in wild
excitement.
Choughs at times associate with Rooks when feeding. In the
fields they will sometimes amuse themselves bv running rapidly
here and there. Mr. Wallis remarks : " The cock courts the hen
in a very pleasing manner, caresses her and rubs the back of her
head with the under-side of his bill, digs up a worm and puts it
into her bill."
The Chough in Ireland has not much fear of man. It has been
known to perch on the roofs of houses, and, having selected an
apparently inaccessible site in the cliffs for its nest, it will enter by
dropping suddenly with closed wings, and then dart into its cave
regardless of persons in a boat beneath. Another indication of
fearlessness aliout their nest, which Choughs share with Ravens and
other clifi^-birds, is that rocks at the entrance of their nesting hole
are sometimes whitened by droppings. The Chough, moreover,
lays year after year in the same nest, and sometimes lays there a
second time the same year after the first clutch of eggs have been
taken, while even when the nest has been wholly removed it will
construct another the following season in precisely the same spot.
Its attachment to a well-chosen site is remarkable. I know a chasm
tenanted by a ])air of Choughs, or their descendants, since 1858.
When it is stated that the Chough, like the Rook or Jackdaw,
lives in colonies, this can only be applied to the flocks that form
after the young are flown. Unlike the Rook or Jackdaw,
the Chough selects a solitary breeding-place. Along favoured
parts of our Waterford cliffs the nests occur on an average a mile
apart. On the west coast, where these birds are (ommon, more
than one pair sometimes breed in a chasm if suital)le sites are few,
but even in the west I have usually seen each pair breeding alone.
Nor is the Chough's home a crowded haunt of sea-birds fit
shuns such spots), nor yet where the cliffs descend sheer to the
ocean, nor on open sjairs of rock, notwithstanding text and illus-
tration to the contra rv.
COKVID.E. 85
The choice of the Chough usually falls ou a shelf, fissure or
cavity over or in the roof of a cave into which the tiJe flows.
Sometimes it is at the vertex of the cavern's mouth, sometimes
quite within, shrouded in gloom. Thus the Chough is more truly
a cave-dweller than any of our birds except the Rock-Dove. Even
when a fissure in the cliff is selected there is probably a cave some-
where beneath it, and such fissure will usually be found to have its
mouth pai'tially blocked by lodged fragments. Low down iu a
lofty cliff I have found a nest in a narrow cave which descended
by an open fissure to the sea, and at the inner extremity of this cave
was a large stone, behind which in the darkness was the nest with
four eggs. Sometimes the In-eeding-cave is vast and lofty, at
others small and low, and in an escarpment scarcely to be distin-
guished as a cliff. Oue such site is in a little rocky creek, close
beneath a high-road and a coastguard station. But not confiuiug
itself to the vicinity of the beach, the Chough often breeds at a
great elevation. The disused slate-quarries of Valentia are on a
uiouutain about five hundred feet above the sea. There is a large
tunnel in which a cistern was once erected on massive beams, about
ninety feet from the floor, and in oue of the joist-holes beneath this
cistern a pair of Choughs were feeding their screaming brood
when I visited the spot in 1887. Where the cliffs are exposed to
the full sweep of the Atlantic rollers Choughs dare not breed
low down, and therefore on the isles of Kerry and the Arran
Islands they breed in upper cliffs overlooking the interior of the
islands, or in a fissure behind a split portion of the cliff that is
leaning to its overthrow, which forms a protection against surf
and storm. But still more singular sites are chosen. Mr.
Warren wrote, after a visit to the North Mayo coast : " There
was a large cave running under the land from the sea for over a
hundred yards, ending iu a circular opeuiug up into a grass field.
This was like a great caldron, with a good depth of water when the
tide was in. In the sides were several Jackdaws' nests, and oue
Chough's in a hole, about six or eight feet below the edge. While
we were there, the Choughs fed their young several times."
I saw a similar sight iu an island off the G-alway coast, a pair of
Choughs having their nest in the side of a " puffing-hole," up which
the spray came betimes like smoke. A poor Chough was shot
sitting on her eggs in the side of a " swallow-hole " of great depth
and surrounded by hollies in the top of the limestone mountains
of Sligo. The overhanging side of a deep, narrow gorge? is some-
times choseu. In Donegal we visited a little port with sandy
shores, and, seeing Choughs, we wondered where they could I)r('ed ;
86
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
but above the village a river traversed a rockv tract, and there, in
the side of a small canon through which the river flovs^ed, a pair of
Choughs annually nested, a mile and a half from the open sea. In
the Antrim mountains, four hundred feet above the neighbouring
sea, Mr. Praeger discovered a Chough's nest in a narrow gorge in
a chalk cliff. It was in a deep bnt wide-mouthed recess, some
fifteen feet above the stream, and the same depth below the
surrounding hill-side. The Chough builds occasionally within
ruined castles near the coast, in a joist-hole of the upper floor, or
on a ledge of masonry ; and the Eev. A. Delap has known it to
breed in a ruined house.
The nest, when jDlaced on an open shelf or in a wide cavity, is
large for the size of the bird and neatly built. Some coarse sticks
of furze or blackthorn form the foundation ; l)ut the composition
of the body of the nest is characterized by fine heather-stems,
though on the Tearaght, where these are absent, withered stems of
annual plants are used. Within these materials is a little dried
grass, the nest being always thickly lined with sheep's wool and
cow's hair.
Five eggs have been found on the Blaskets on the 10th of April,
but the earliest date on which I have found a full clutch was the
].8th. They are generally laid d^^ring the last week in April, or the
first week in May. The number of eggs is usually four, frequently
five, not unfrequently three, and in several cases I have known a
Chough to sit on two only. The yolk of the fresh egg and the
skin of the unfledged nestling are quite as red as the bill of the
adult bird, differing in intensity of colour from the yolk of any
other bird's egg I know, except that of the Black Guillemot,
which has a deep orange yolk. Irish Chough's eggs measure from
1-68 to 1-4 inch in length, by 1-15 to -97 inch iu breadth; but
one in my collection, a monster as compared with the rest of the
clutch, is 1-8 by M2 incli. The average size is 1-54 by 1-06
inch.
The larger and more richly marked varieties are oftener found
in the Avest of Ireland than in Waterford. I have only seen two
eggs zoned at the smaller end, but zones of spots at the larger
end are frequent. In more than one set a pale, yellowish zone
interrupted the darlv markings. Strong contrasts sometimes
occur among the eggs in the same nest, one having the remarkable
black streak sometimes seen in Chough's eggs, one or two others
having the markings chiefly confined to a cap or zone, and another
having longitudinal markings scattered over it. Some are miniitely
speckled all over, others show a few bold spots. The most beautiful
C0RVID.1:. 87
variety I kuow, only got iu one place, has the ground of a pure
white, with a few bold, deep brown sj^ots. Some eggs are rich in
lilac iindershell markings. The ground, usually white, is some-
times of a warm cream-colour, more rarely with a rosy bloom, and
sometimes it is yellowish or brownish ; but a rare variety, which
occurs in Ireland as well as in Cornwall, has the ground-colour
tinged with green. This seems a reversion to the green ground
common to eggs of the Crows, and if we would account for its
general absence iu those of the Chough, let us reflect that this bird
breeds in caves and dark fissures to a far greater extent than any
of the family. The white eggs of the Pufiin, also laid in dark
holes, sometimes exhibit brown and grey streaks as if reverting
to the Grviillemot type.
Small parties of Choughs which are not breeding may be
observed in May, associatmg in the fields or roosting in chasms,
and a pair frequenting a favourite cave Lave been know^n to cease
to breed, possibly owing to the age of one of them ; but, from what-
ever cause this took place, the pair remained together in the
locality for years.
THE JAY. Garrulus glcuidarius, (Linnaeus.)
Resident in those counties watered by tlie Suir, the Nore, and the
Barrow ; wanders more or less from these to neighbouring
counties. Unknown in the rest of Ireland.
In 1812, according to Dubourdieu, the Jay was still found at
Shane's Castle, co. Antrim, having been a more frequent species
before the woods of Portmore were cut down. It seems to have
disappeared from Ulster before Thompson's time, for he tells us that
it bred near Youghal in 1837 and was common about Bandonin 1839,
while I have the testimony of several persons that it was formerly
found in the Blackwater Valley in the same county (Cork). It was,
however, exterminated there for the sake of its wing-feathers, Avhich
are used iu making salmon-fiies, and it is not now found i"esident
anywhere in co. Cork. At the present day it breeds commonly in
the woods of Northern Waterford along the Suir Valley, and iu
the counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Queen's
County, King's County and Western Kildare in the Barrow Valley.
It is not however common in all parts of those counties, e.g. North
Tipperary and East Wexford. On the other hand it is known to
be increasing in the counties of Wexford, Carlow and Waterford,
b« BIRDS OF IRELAND.
and it is decidedly spreading. It will thns l)e seen that its breeding-
range is confined to one part of Ireland, which is contained in the
Province of Leinster and the adjoining part of Munster.
It wanders, or occurs irregularly, in the counties of Cork,
Limerick (near Bruff ), South Waterford. East Galway, Westmeath,
Wicklow, Dublin, Meath and Louth. In the last county I have
heard of but one pair in 1894—5 (Mr. Pentland), but in Dublin
Jays were believed to have nested in the woods near Balbriggan
in 1850, and three pairs of fresh wings were shown to Mr. Gr. H.
Kinahan ; while birds were seen near Malahide in 1857, and a
pair previously in Stillorgan Park (Proc. Dublin University Zool.
Assoc, 25th November 1854). The occurrence of the Jay in co.
Dublin should be the less incredible, as Rutty enumerated it
among the birds of that county in 1772. It has been obseiwed at
several places in East Galway, but not elsewhere in Connaught.
Wandering flocks of thirty or thereabouts have lieen noticed in
autumn. The reported occurrences of much larger flocks in
Dublin and elsewhere must be received with caution, as the Jay is
an vmfamiliar l:)ird to most people in Ireland, where the Mistle-
Thrush is often called "Jay."
Mr. McCuaig, Clonmel, had a tame Jay which imitated one of
his shop-assistants calling his companion. It also barked like a
dog, and mewed when it wanted food, as it heard the cat do for
the same object.
Mr. E. Williams, who has preserved a great many examples,
thinks that the Irish Jay is of a warmer colour than the English
bird.
THE MAGPIE. Pica rustica, (Scopoli.)
Resident, common and increasing. Breeds in every county, but scarcer
in the extreme west.
Various old writers on Ireland, from Cliraldus down to Fynes
Moryson in 1617, testified to the absence of the Magpie; but
Robert Leigh of Rosegarland, co. Wexford, writing in 1684 on the
Baronies (^f Forth and Bargy in that county, remarked : " About
eight years ago there landed in these parts ... a parcel of Magpies,
which now breed," etc. Another contributor to the same writings
speaks of this flight as " under a dozen," which, as he remembered,
came with a strong easterly wind (Barrett Hamilton, in Zool., 1891,
p. 248). The hel]ilessness of the Magpie in a storm at sea
is shown by a notice from Rockabill, 7tli January 1889: "Two
corvid.t:. 89
Magpies arrived on the Bill aud made several attempts to reach
the mainland, but were driven back by a stmng wind from W., aud
died after four days " (Migration Report;.
The Magpie, thus introduced, spread rapidly, and is now to
be seen everywhere through Ireland, except on the barest moor-
lands. It becomes scarcer in the treeless districts of Western
Kerry, Connemara, Mayo and Donegal, but some breed on the
Arran Islands, Achill and Rathlin. It is by no means confined to
the wooded parts of the country, lieing very common in many
exposed localities, where hawthorn bushes form its only retreat.
Though usually seen in pairs or small companies, a large flock some-
times occurs in winter, when these birds assemble in some favourite
roosting-place, such as a plantation. Mr. Moffat has seen thirty fly
out of one tree, and Mr. G. H. Kinahan, writing from co. Donegal
in December 1882, said : — " A flock of three or four hundred
visited us the other day." The light-kee])er at Hook Tower, at
the end of a long rocky promontory, wrote, 18th October 1893: —
"Mag^iies very numerous close to station, probably one hundred
and fifty to two hundred" (Migration Report/). Though the visits
of the Magpie to isolated light-stations are rare and irregular,
there are some such instances nearly every year.
The boldness of this bird in Ireland is in 2:)roportion to the
degree of security it enjoys. The peasantry do not molest it,
though it builds its conspicuous nest close beside their dwellings ;
for they have a l)elief that, so long as they let it alone, it will not do
injury near its nest, but that if they rob it of its eggs their chickens
will be made a prey. It hops about openly on the roads and among
the cattle, but is exceedingly vigilant and difiicult to approach. It
is very pugnacious, for a Magpie and a Kestrel fighting on the
ground were taken, one in each hand, both torn and bleeding, while
on being placed in a cage, the Magpie immediately attacked the
Kestrel again. On looking out of the house of a friend who
protects these birds, I saw two gripping one another in a
tierce combat on the lawu, while six others danced round them
chattering. I have, however, seen a Magpie sitting Cjuietly in the
same bush with a Hooded Crow.
This bird will conceal itself in the top of a lofty fir-tree in the
early morning, and from this look-out will watch the small Ijirds
to their nests and plunder them.
The Magpie sometimes busies itself about its nest as early as
February, working only in the early h^mrs ; but it usually lays in
April. Where suitable sites are few, it will build year after year
in the same tree, and Dr. Blake Knox has found two old nests with
90
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
a new oue ou top coutaiuing the Magpie's eggs, while the lower
nests were occupied bv a pair of Starlings and three pairs of
House-Sparrows. In plantations, however, a different tree is
often selected each year, old nests being often seen near the
occupied one.
But the favourite site is the top of some tree near a farm-house
or cottage, where the huge dark ball this bird constructs is con-
spicuous. In default of trees the " Mag," as it is called, builds in
any dense bush or hedge beside a cottage, of which it is a usual
accompaniment. In the Arran Islands and Eathlin Magpies some-
times build in the ivy on rocks, and the Eev. A. H. Delaj) has
noticed them do so in a steep bank in Donegal ; while near the coast
of Clare I was shown a large deserted house, ou the chimney of
which a Magpie I saw close by was said to build.
On lake-islands the nest is placed in any low bushes. I have
seen it but two feet from the ground on Lough Ilion, in Donegal.
Briar stems and hay are used where sticks are absent, as in the
Arran Islands. Within the mass of sticks a cup of clay is foi'med,
the bird working herself round and round to shape it. This is
lined with root-fibres and dried grass. The number of eggs is
usually six, but sometimes five, and not unfrequently seven.
White and buff coloured birds have been obtained.
THE JACKDAW. Corvvs moneclida, Linnaeus.
Resident, common and increasing. Breeds in every county, but not as a
rule in the western islands.
The Jackdaw is more local and far less numerous than the
Eook, but its growing colonies are to be found in nearly every
town, as well as in ruins, cliffs and rabbit-warrens. It breeds on
the Saltees, Lambay and the Copeland Islands, but not on the
isles of Kerry, Galway, Mayo or Donegal (except Tory Island),
nor on Eathliu. As regards Achill, indeed, Mr. Sheridan has
noticed a pair or two breeding in the church near Achill Sound,
but from the majestic cliffs of this island (the favourite haunts
of the Chough) the Jackdaw is absent. It has, however,
settlements in the cliff's of Moher in Western Connemara, at
Crohy Head, Horn Head and elsewhere on the Donegal coast,
at the Giant's Causeway, Howth Head, and in our Waterford cliffs,
where it is numerous.
COEVID-E. 91
From the Migration Reports we find that, though much k^ss
frequent than the Eoolc, the Jackdaw visits the remotest ishinds
and rocks in the same desultory manner, only to leave them again
speedily ; while a few accompanied the remarkable flights of Rooks
that arrived at the Skelligs and Tearaght from the south-west in
ISTovember 1884, and on other occasions.
The Jackdaw does not do extensive damage to crops like the
Rook, but most large flocks of Rooks in winter are accompanied
by some of this species. These breed in many rookeries, among
the dense masses of nesting-materials that accumulate from year
to year. The Jackdaw will also occupy the deserted nest of the
Rook or Magpie, and has been known to make use of that of the
Heron. Dr. Blake Knox has found Jackdaws, Magpies, Starlings,
House-Sparrows (and a Long-eared Owl higher up), all breeding
harmoniously in dense growths of branches roimd the trunk of
the same tree, where sticks and rubbish had accumulated. In
sea-cliffs. Jackdaws will breed in crevices close beside the nests of
Cormorants, and when near the nest of the Chough the two
species do not seem to be hostile. Still, a keeper has told me that,
in the cliffs of the Sligo mountains, when a colony of Jackdaws
had been established, the Choughs diminished, though I have no
proof that the latter event resulted from the former.
In clitfs, narrow fissures ai-e chosen, instead of the roomy cavity
or shelf preferred by Choughs. The ivy on cliffs (Warren) and
hollow trees are sometimes used as breeding-places. Sir Douglas
Bi'ooke had seventy-three eggs taken from the same tree at
Colebrooke, Fermanagh, where the Jackdaws pull the hair olf
the backs of the Red Deer kept in the park and line their nests
with it. But trees are not so largely used as rabbit-holes, and I can
cite many cases in which colonies of Jackdaws breed in these,
both on islands and inland. In one case the holes used were in a
fiat meadow, the l)irds preferring them to the trees, of which
plenty were within reach. The Jackdaws, in their attempts to
build, block the holes with sticks and leave many outside which
they fail to pull in ; and the loft of a church-tower has been found
covered many inches deep with the sticks which the Daws had
dropped, for they do not pick them up again. In our cliffs.
Jackdaws do not lay until the latter half of April.
White specimens of this bird have occurred in Wicklow and
Cavan.
92 BIRDS OF lEELAND.
THE RAVEN. Corvus eoracc, Linnjeus.
Resident, breeding in the wilder cliffs, usually on the coast, also in a
few mountains. Has become rare, except in the extreme west.
Kuttv, in 1772, mentiouecl that Ravens frequented in numbers
the neighbourhood of great towns and were held in some veneration
for devouring carcases and filth ; but it is far otherwise nowadays,
and within the last fifty years the Raven has rapidly diminished
throughout Ireland. It has been driven from most of its inland
breeding-places, such as cliffs over rivers, and lofty trees in
demesnes, like those of Curraghmore and Clonbrook and the
islands of Lough Erne ; while keeper and shepherd have waged war
against it with gun and poison — though not so successfully as
against the Eagles and Harriers — and it is now a much rarer species
than the Peregrine or Chough, although it nests in some districts
unfrequented by the latter. The coasts of Kerry, Clare and
Western Cork are among its most frequented haunts, whence it
visits the remoter islands without breeding on them. Two or
three pairs still nest on our Waterford coast, and others in the
mountain-cliffs of this county and of Tipperary. It has for many
years ceased to In-eed in Kilkenny and on the Saltee Islands, but
several pairs build in the inaccessible cliffs of the Wicklow
mountains. It nested on Lambay Island, co. Dublin, until 1883.
In the west it still breeds undisturl:)ed on the Arran Islands,
High Island, and the Twelve Pins of Connemara, while the cliifs
of Mayo and of Achill Island are among its chief strongholds.
The Raven formerly bred in the mountains of Sligo, Leitiim and
Fermanagh, but in Donegal it maintains itself at many points
in the cliffs of mountains, coasts and islands. Prom Tyrone and
Londonderry it appears to be banished, though formerly resident
there, but it still has homes in the mountains of Antrim and Down
and on Rathlin Island.
Ravens frequently visit the islands of the west coast. On May
23rd 1882 thirty-six were seen on Blackrock, Mayo. The
vicinity of their lireeding-haunts often brings this bird into
collision with the PeregTine, which fiercely attacks it. The Raven
Avill try to slink off, skirting the cliff as closely as possible, or
betake itself to trees if within reach, or crouch upon the ground
if no concealment is available. In these cases the Peregrine can-
not freely deliver its deadly stoo]) ; but if the Raven incurs this
terrible onslaught in the air and cannot rise above its enemy, it
corvid.t:. 93
is said to turn on its back and present its feet to tbe Falcon.
The Hooded Crow and Chongli will pursue it, but, on the other
hand, I have seen a pair of Ravens pursuing a Golden Eagle,
with loud croaking, stooping at it repeatedly, although dis-
regarded bv the nobler bird.
Ravens love to build lieside a colony of Cormorants, round
whose nests they continually fly. I have seen one of them
alight, with croaks and menacing attitude, in front of a hatching
Cormorant, which responded by croaking in return, extending its
head and neck and erecting its crest at the Raven ; the chalky
eggs are, however, often carried off. Ravens come down from
the mountains to visit heronries, when all the Herons take flight in
wild alarm.
The Raven is our earliest bird to breed, except the Hei'on, and
often lays in Februarv. I have descended an exposed headland,
on the 16th March, between showers of snow, and found in a
Raven's nest four little naked young, evidently hatched several
days previously. The nest is sometimes jdaced in ruined t()wers
and castles, and an instance occurred in 1868, in Londonderry, of
Ravens breeding in the tower of Magee College. A lofty Scotch
fir was sometimes used, and the to]) of a tall, fractured ash is
mentioned as a breeding-place. I have always found the nest in a
mountain or sea-cliff, occupying some spacious ledge or wide recess,
and usually well overhung by the rock above. It is a very large
affair ; sometimes quite a cartload of coarse, crooked stems of furze,
lined with dried grass and roots and a profusion of wool, and as
it is built large enough for the five young when fledged, the eggs,
or newly- hatched nestlings, look small in the middle of it. Points
on which the Ravens perch near their nest are much soiled hy
them. When their home is visited by an intruder the old l)irds
approach with shuddering wings, croak in a low tone and tumble
in the air, and if the eggs are hatched these gestures are intensified.
Young are seldom seen on the wing before the first week in
May. Their parents afterwards take them long excursions into
the country, leading the way, and returning every evening in a
long, straggling line to their breeding-cliff; but should the young
retiirn to their home in September the old ones buffet them with
their wings wherever they set foot, pursuing them in the air and
filling the locality with angry croakiugs (Hart). Mr. Corliet told
me that about 1857 two pure white young were found in the
same nest.
94 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE CARRION-CROW. Con-xs corone, Liuuseus.
Of such rarity, and so little known, that its footing in Ireland is
probably fluctuating and precarious.
Writers from Giraldus downwards have concurred as to the
absence, or great rarity, of the Carrion-Crow in Ireland. Thomp-
son, who was the first to give definite information about it, states,
on the authority of an English game-keeper, that one paired
with a Hooded Crow at Grlenarm, co. Antrim, and that others were
subsequently killed there, while he also tells us that this species was
sometimes met with near Belfast, feeding on carrion. His infor-
mants from Clonmel and Kilkenny believed that they had met
with Carrion-Crows, but it does not appear that they had obtained
specimens.
I have never seen the bird in Ireland, and I know of but four
Irish specimens in existence. One, now in the Dublin Museum,
was presented liy Mr. Hardy, of Owens College, Manchester, who
obtained and preserved it in Kerry in 1863 or 1864. It was shot
in the Gap of Dunloe, not far from Killarney. Mr. Hardy states
that at about the same time he took eggs in Tork Wood, and saw
several of the birds nailed to a keeper's rail. Another specimen
in the South Kensington Museum is from co. Cork. In that
county, as the late Mr. William Corliet wrote to nre, he had met
with both old and young at Trabolgau, outside Queeustowu
Harbour. Mr. A. J. P. Wise informs me that in March 1884 he
shot a Carrion-Crow and a Grey Crow, apparently mated, near
Rostellan in the same locality, and that he had shot others there
in previous years, as well as in Kerry.
A third specimen, from co. Clare, was formerly in the Warren
collection, and is now in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin.
From Mayo young birds, evidently reared there, were obtained
in 1890, and one of these is in the collection of Mr. Barringtou.
A large Black Crow, which took a number of chickens, is mentioned
by Mr. Richards, of Barnagh, Belmullet.
In Down several persons mention the Carrion-Crow as a
straggler to the district of the Mourne Mountains. Mr. J.
Anderson reports that a brace are seen every spring. Mr. A.
G. More was inf(.>rmed by Mr. B. Kane that one had mated with
a Hooded Crow near Rostrevur. On an estate near Lough
Neagh a pair have come every March, usually in the first week,
for twenty-five years, staying a week or a fortnight (More's Life
COKYID.E. 95
and Letters, p. 591). A nest near Belfast attributed to this
siDecies turns out to have belonged to a Hooded Crow, and the
supposed Carrion-Crow in the Belfast Museum is a Rook
(Barrington) ; but a recent specimen, found dead on the beach at
Murlough Bay, co. Antrim, by Messrs. Harvey and Standen, was
examined by them and its distinctive characters noted (Irish
Naturaltst 1896, p. 319). Less definite reports of others from
different localities may be omitted, but rewards long offered for
an L'ish-killed specimen have failed in result.
It is not meant to ignore the question as to the specific identity
(_)f C. corone and C. comix, but they are treated separately for
convenience.
THE HOODED CROW. Corvus comix, Liuufeus.
Resident throughout Ireland, breeding in the sea-cliffs and in trees
inland.
In the twelfth century Giraldus Canibrensis wrote of Ireland :
" There are no ])laclv Crows in this country, or they are very rare ;
they are all parti-coloured." He then mentions their common
habit of carrying shell-fish into the air and letting them fall on
rocks that they may be thus fractured. The same statements
hold good to-day, this grey-backed Crow, or " Scald Crow " as it is
usually called, being our common Irish species. It breeds in everv
county, being more common in those where game-keeping is
neglected, and on the precipitous coasts ; it also nests on all the
principal islands, especially those on which sea-birds' eggs are
])lentiful, the Skelligs, Blaskets, Arran Islands, Inishbofin, Achill,
the Donegal islands, and Rathlin Island. At Headborough,
l»y the confluence of the Blackwater and the Bride Rivers,
two hundred and eighty Hooded Crows were killed in twelve
years, 1868-79; and as they are exceedingly wary birds this
number indicates how common they are beside rivers. In
parts of Ireland, however, as in northern Leinster, southern
Ulster, and Sligo and Leitrini in Connaught, this species has been
so greatly reduced by game-keepers as to be often cjuite rare, while
in the wilder parts, especially on the coasts, it seems to l)e
increasing.
Though no migration of the Hooded Crow is usually observed
in Ireland, I am of opinion that some do visit us in winter. I
have twice seen in co. Waterford a flock flvinir westward as immi-
96 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
grants do. One occasion was on the lOtli December 1891, wlien
I observed fifty or sixty flying up the Suir. Small flocks, indeed,
occur irregularly at all seasons round the coast, even at the smaller
and remoter rocks.
This Inrd will wade into the water in search of food until its
legs ai-e quite covered (Palmer).
After the dry summer of 1887 I saw an assemblage of Hooded
Crows on the site of a dried- up mountain pond in the end of
October. They continued to arrive there in tlie evening twilight.
Hooded Crows evidently eat earthworms which, come up out of
flooded ground and are drowned, as they resort to sucli places.
Beetles of all sizes are favourite food, and the bills of parents shot
when feeding their yoiiug may be found full of them, and so are
the pellets cast up by the nestlings.
The eggs are usually laid in April, but often in the end of
March, and have been taken as early as the 15th of that month
in West Cork, where as many as fifteen nests have been found in
a peninsula of three miles and a half by two.
In marine clitt" s the nest is placed not very far from the top, though
well shielded by the rock above it ; not in a fissure or cavity like
the Chough's, but cpiite visible from beneath. It is luiilt of bare
crooked furze-sticks, dead briar stems, and the dried caudex of
bracken, lined with wool and hair of various sorts, sometimes with
ravelled cordage and bits of paper, &c.
When inland the favourite breeding-site is a fir-tree, not on the
edge of the plantation but near it. This often overlooks a lake,
river, or bog, where the birds search all day for eggs of waterfowl.
They luiild high up next the main stem, and exceptionally
on a lateral branch ; but often in a tall hawthorn bush, and
several nests have been found in such Inishes along a river flat
(Rev. W. W. Flemyng). I have seen a Hooded Crow hatching
in a hawthorn aboiit eight feet from the ground beside a mountain
road, in full view of passers-by, who, bent on their journey, did not
care to rob her. Another nested in a bare i>oplar, on the far side
of a stream which flanked another road. But the nest is rarely
so exposed. In the treeless districts near the west coast. Hooded
Crows habitually breed in any low bushes they can find on lake
islands, a lake in Connemara beiug called Lough Phenogee after
this bird (" Phenoge " in Irish). They will also build in the
ivv growing on a rock over a lake. In mountain-cliffs I have
found a dwarf tree used, growing out of the rock, but have never
found the nest placed as in the sea-clift's, and never on the
srround.
cortid-t:. 97
A couple of Crows will chase tlie unresisting Raven from their
breeding- haunt.
The eggs are four oi- five, but I can refer to three cases of six
in the same nest.
They exhibit great variety, some are almost covered vrith the
olive-brown markings, others are }iale blue with grey and blackish
spots. Specks of black are not uncommon at the large end.
Some are zoned at the smaller end. A clutch nearly equally
rounded at both ends contained three with these " Antarctic "
zones or caps, sustaining the theory that eggs so shaped are most
sul)ject to markings at the smaller end.
Mr. Palmer has observed that the Hooded Crows in Achill have
the grey parts lighter in colour, and of a more bluish tinge than
those further east, and I have noticed the same variation in birds
west of Dingle, co. Kerry. A Crow seen near Eathlin light-
house, by Mr. M'Gouagle, was all black except a collar of grey.
It was in company with four Grey Crows.
THE ROOK. Corvus frugihgns, Liunteus.
Resident and numerous. Breeds in every district tliat is not destitute
of trees and bushes.
This abundant species is believed to be increasing in various
counties, and as its increase is practically unchecked, it has very
much its own way in Ireland. It breeds throughout the country,
in rookeries of all sizes, from a few nests to those huge colonies
whei-e woodland scenes resound in the lireeding-season with the
din of an innumerable host, and to which columns of Rooks
converge in winter evenings from all points of the comj^ass. In
Rash Wood, co. Tyrone, the seat rif Lieut. -Colonel Ellis, the nests
have been computed at ten thousand.
Rooks do not resort in the breeding-season to the bare UKior-
land districts, nor to the islands, unless these contain trees, like
Lambay. They visit the western sea-board and islands in a
desultory way from July onwards, usually up to ISTovemlier, and
again in early spriug. Their movements round the coast are
frequent, but bewilder the reader of the Migration Reports by their
irregularity. A certain number certainly arrive on our sliorcs in
a tired condition frOm Wales and Scotland. These arc chictiy
observed in late autumn, but also in March and Aprih making
for the Irish coasts. A most surprising fact is tliat flocks arc
II
98 EIRDS OF IRELAND.
often seen departing westwards at various seasons fi'om sueli
extreme points as Slyne Head and Eathlin O'Birne. But more
unaccountable are those immigrations arriving from the south-
west which have been observed at the Kerry Islands. Such were
seen simultaneously from the Skelligs and from the Tearaght,
which are over twenty miles apart, and they lasted through most
of November 1884. The lairds were flying at a height of 700 to
800 feet. These immigrations were renewed in October and
November 1887, and November 1889, while similar facts were
noticed at Blackrock, Mayo, in 1881. The Rooks which arrived
there were so exhausted from their ocean journey as to allow
themselves to be caught (Barrington in Field, 17th March 1894).*
Great as the services of the Rook may be in destroying injurious
insects, and eating the stems of couch-grass, its destruction of crops
is undoubted. When the young have left the nest they will live
among the potato-drills, and poke out the potatoes wholesale.
^Vhen the turnips are thinned a Rook will walk along a drill
pulling up every plant, and in this way I have had acres ruined.
Once the crop has recovered from the thinning, the Rooks neglect
it. It is not easy to have one's crops Avatched at midsummer for
eighteen hours, from dawn till dark.
In Louth the decrease of Partridges is attributeil to the destruc-
tion of their eggs by Rooks. In Donegal Mr. W. Sinclair has
observed them assembling to feed on the small shell-fish which are
exposed at low water, when the sea-weed is cut for manure.
These are swallowed whole, and the ground is strewn with the
Rooks' castings containing the shells.
The carnivorous habits of the Rook in hard frost are sometimes
carried to such an extent that three have been seen to pursue an
enfeebled Curlew and devour it. Mr. Parker has observed one
jiursue a Sparrow-Hawk, and take from it a Redwing which it
was carrying off. Herons often breed in company with Rooks,
and are attacked by the latter whenever they take wing, and Rooks
also love to pursue the Kestrel.
With us they breed in March, but' in Mayo frost and sleet so
delayed them in 1866 that they were only bixilding in April.
In the treeless west they nest in any low bushes where they are
safe, as on lake-islands, or in hawthorns round a house where they
are protected. A pair hatched out their young during seven years
on the top of a tall isolated chimney-stack of Kilkea Castle, co.
* A flight of 5,000 or 6,000 passed over the Scilly Islands towards the north-
west in October 1893, and in the November following some 4,000 or 5,000
visited the Island of Lewis [Field, 3rd :Mareh, 7th April 1S94).
CORVID.E. 99
Kildare, and several i>airs built on other eliimneys, the uests being
placed between the chimney-pots. lu old rookeries the dimen-
sions of some nests, annually added to, are enormous. Mr.
Saunders describes a mass of sticks at Malin Hall which measured
six feet four inches wide, and was built r(,)und seven or eight
stems of considerable thickness.
White varieties have been repeatedly preserved by Messrs.
Williams and Son. Buff and brown Eooks have also occurred.
Family ALArDID.?].
THE SKY-LARK. Alauda arvensis, Linnaeus.
Sesident. Very widely distributed. Breeds commonly in every county.
Numbers increased in winter by immigration.
Every tract of Irish ground where trees do not grow seems to
afford a home for the Sky-Lark. Mountain tops, moors, pastures,
arable land, sand-hills, marme islands, on all of them this bird
breeds, though not in equal numbers. It prefers the open country to
that which is much planted and enclosed, and dislikes nesting in
narrow and deep valleys. It is the only bird commonly seen on the
most desolate moors, as in Connemara and Western Mayo. I
found it very frequent in the Dunglow district. Western Donegal,
and it breeds commonly on Rathliu, Tory Island, Achill, the Arran
Islands, and even on the Blaskets.
The Sky-Lark does not seem to leave any part of Ireland in winter,
but there is a great immigrati(ju from l)eyond the sea in October,
which diminishes in November, but returns in February, as Mr.
Barringtou's catalogue clearly shows. Thompson remarks upon the
flocks that ai'rive in the north from Scotland, even in mild winters.
Mr. H. Blake Knox has desci-ibed the immense numbers that come
from the eastward to the Dublin shore, Init it is by Wexford tliat
the great majority of these visitors pass into Ireland, as is evident
from the specimens sent from lighthouses. In Cork and Kerry
the winter increase of the sj^ecies is very noticeal.)le. In snow a
fresh immigration sometimes takes place en masse, a tide of birds
flowing into Ireland in tens, hundreds and thousands (Zool., 1868.
p. 1190), while down the Shannon lakes flocks speed towards the
south (Parker). During intense frost with snow the streets of
Dublin are invaded l)y them. No bird is more constantly on the
move in winter, both inland and round the coasts, thouuli the
100 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
notices from Couuanglit light-stations are insignificant in number
as compared with those of the east coast (Migration Eeports).
The song seldom commences until the beginning or middle of
February, and it may be heard late into July. After becoming
silent in August, the Sky-Lark often sings again in September,
October and November, lu June it will sing at 2 a.m., and also
in the evening twilight. Female's have been shot in the act of
singing.
I have found five eggs in a nest, but four is the usual number.
They sometimes vary greatly in colour. I have a set in which both
the ground and markings have a green tint.
THE WOOD-LARK. AJcmda arborea, Linnaeus.
One of the rarest and most local of our resident birds. Formerly
found in Munster, Leinster and Ulster.
Thompson stated that in his time the Wood-Lark was to be
found in Cork, Waterford, Armagh, Down and Antrim, and that
in the two latter counties it might be heard singing in itsfavoiu'ite
localities almost daily from September till June. He fjuotes
Rutty, 1772, as placing it among the l>irds of Dublin, and Kiuahau
met with it near Donnybrook in 1851, and heard it singing from
February until June. Watters in 1853 mentioned a locality in
CO. Wicklow where it had been repeatedly observed, while singing
on a branch, by Mr. Lamprey. This gentleman exhilnted a pair,
captured during the ensuing winter, before the Dublin University
Zoological Association. It is most interesting to be able to quote
the recent experience of Mr. Barrington, who, on 21st April 1894.
saw a Wood-Lark's nest in the same district where Mr. Lamprey had
found the l>ird forty years liefore, and which it doubtless had con-
tinued to frequent unobserved. This nest contained three young
and an addled egg, which latter I have examined. It was found in a
semi-wild district, full of small dry valleys with some plantations,
brows of furze, jmtches of dead lirackeu, with cultivation here and
there. It was placed imder a broken lu*acken, which concealed it.
Five Wood-Larks had been observed about the place since the
previous October, through the winter of 189o-4. On the 3rd
September 1898 Dr. E. Blake Knox met with a small flock in
another part of Wicklow, and shot one bird.
]\Ir. H. Blake Knox, referring to his mention of the Wood-Lark as an
abundant winter-visitor, wishes tliis to he witlidrawn. (Zoologist, s.s.,
p. 2018 [1870].)
ALAUDID.E. 101
The late Mr. Corbet of Rathcnnnaek, co. Cork, ulit-aiued two
sivcimens there in January 1887, which are in the Dublin Museum.
He said, that he usually met with them in snow, Ijut that they
used to breed at Doneraile and near Castle Hyde, Fermoy, \There
I heard that a nest had been found about 1887 in a meadow. Old
people recognized the bird as having bred there years before. Mr.
Corbet had caught five at Trabolgan on the coast near Queenstown.
Several persons living in Cappoquiu, co. Wateriord, have told
me that they used to take Wood-Larks in that district in the
autumn and had them in cages, but they place the time as far back
as 1870. The vicinity of Lismore was another haunt mentioned.
The bird thus seems to have inhabited the Blackwater Valley from
Cappoquin to Castle Hyde, the practice of bird-catching haviug
led to its disappearance.
I have notices of Wood-Larks obsex'vod at Straffan, Kildare,
about 1874, near Banagher, King's Co., about 1850, and near
Rynn, Queen's Co., where Mrs. Croasdaile, in June 1874, observed
one twice rise from a tall tree and float round in a wide circle,
singing as it descended.
The "Belfast Guide" (1874) stated that this bird then occurred
very sparingly in three localities in the co. Down. 1 have no more
recent record of it in the north.
A specimen sent to Mr. Barrington was shot on the Tearaght
Island, oif Kerrv, on the 20th October 1887.
THE CRESTED LARK. Ahmda crhtata, Linnaeus.
Has been once obtained in Ireland.
Thompson mentions the descrijition and figure of this bird m
the DiMin Penny Journal, of February 27th 1836 (Vol. IV.,
p. 276). The writer, who signed himself " W. R.," stated that
he killed it near Taney, co. Dublin.
Sir W. H. Russell, the celebrated War Correspondent, favoured
me iu December 1897 with the following information : —
"The notice and figure of Alatida crisfafa were sent hy me to
the Dublin Penny Journal in 1886. 1, then a boy of fifteen, was
out shooting Larks in the stubble. I brought home a miscellaneous
collection, and my grandfather ])icked up one Lark with a large
tuft, which I had remarked where 1 picked it up, and asked if
it was among the other Larks. He told me to take it to a Mr.
Colville, a member of the Roval Dublin Society, to wliom 1 was
102 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
accustomed, to take any birds I did uot know, aud he immediately
almost declared that it was a Crested Lark. He got dowu a
volume of Buffou, illustrated, aud with the plate compared my
bird, and found it identical with the Alauda cristata. I made a
tracing of the bird and filled it in aud sent it to the Dublin Fenny
Journal. I can only remember my pride and pleasure at seeing
the reproduction."
THE SHORT-TOED LAEK. Alanda brack ydadyla, Leisler.
Has once occurred on the autumnal migration.
An adult Short-toed Lark was shot by Mr. K. Widdicombe on
the 11th October 189t), at the Blackrock Lighthouse, on the most
western isle of co. Mayo. It was sent in the flesh to Mr.
Barringtou, who has preserved it m his collection. It was
inspected by Seebohm {Ibis, 1891, p. 586).
During the same mouth, October 1890, four other rare birds
were taken ou the Tearaght, the most western island of Kerry,
viz., Eed-breasted riycatchei-, Lesser Whitethroat, Yellow-browed
Warbler and Mealy Redpoll. All but the last were easteru or
southeru species, of very great rarity, or unique, in Ireland.
Order PICARIiE.
Family CYPSELID.E.
THE SWIFT. Cypsehs ajv^s. (Linnaeus.)
Summer-visitor. Very common about towns and suitable buildings,
even in the west.
The Swift has evidently extended its breeding-range consider-
ably in Ii-cland since Thompson's time, when it was a rare l)ird
in Kerry and Donegal, so that he spoke of it as but partially
distributed. It is still local in Kerry, where it is not commoa
except about the towns, but I have seen it at the Great Skellig.
In Donegal it is more wide-spread, aud breeds in nuiuy localities
as it does in Galway and parts of Mayo ; but while it has colonies
in the towns, aud ranges widely over lakes aud country parts, it is
seldom met with on the moors and mountain districts of Western
Kerry or of Western Conuaught. Though common in its season
throughout Ireland generallv, aud breeding in everv couutv, the
CYPSELID.E. 103
Swift is of uucertaiu oceurrenL'e.at a distance from its nestiug-places,
unless insects are on the wing. Occasionally it ranges over lofty
mountains and visits marine islands. If cold weather occurs after
its arrival it suffers severely. In the Field of 29th May 1886 it is
stated that in the previous week, which was very cold, two Swifts
were found dead in New Ross, and one of these had a piece of
paper tied under its tail, bearing the inscription, " Mary Elsam,
Suakim, Egypt, 10-3-86."
The Swift appears in this country the last week in xA.pril or more
usually at the commencement (jf May, but it may commonly be
seen about its chief breeding resorts, like Dublin, a week or more
before it spreads to other districts.
Along the east coast Swifts are seen tiying northwards in May
(Migration Reports). The great majority leave in August, but
stragglers sometimes oc(,-ur in September, and more rarely in
October. I have seen one here on the 4th October with a great
assemblage of Swallows prepai'ing to migrate. In co. Armagh
Mr. Jameson observed on the 2nd August iifty to seventy Swifts
which were gliding with motionless wings, unlike their mode of
flight when feeding, and were flying towards the south or south-
west at a great height. I observed Swifts about Cappagh during
the first week in August 1895, moving day after day westwards,
contrary to the direction one might expect.
The Swift can take flight from a perfectly level floor, as I have
proved.
The numbers of this species that breed in Dultliu has been
alluded to, but Swifts are conspicuous by their abundance in many
towns, and nest under the eaves of workhouses, in both ruined
and modern castles, under the arches of old bridges, sometimes
six to ten feet above the water, sometimes in the crown of the arch
in company with Jackdaws and Starlings. More than one pair
breed beside a public road here in the gable of a cow-house onlv
twelve or fifteen feet above the ground. Others resort to sea-cliffs
annually — for example, the clitt's of Rathlin Island, where the Swift
nests abundantly (Saunders in Zool., 1867, p. 621). The nests of
House-Martins are sometimes appropriated by this species. Oak
catkins and the scaly sheaths of pine-l;)uds are used in building
besides straws and feathers, and the Rev. A. Ellison has found a
nest consisting of a mere ring of materials, the eggs within it rest-
ing on the bare stone. He confirms my own experience that three
eggs are found too frequently in the same nest to l)e the produce
of more than one bird ; indeed he thinks three are oftener laid
than two. I have no record of a white or jiarticoloured Swift.
104 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE ALPINE SWIFT. Cyp^eJa^^ melba, (Linuteus.)
Four Irish occurrences are on record. The last took place in 1866.
The first Alpiue Swift claimed as a British-taken IjirJ was shot
at sea, oft" Cape Clear, some eight or ten miles from laud, about
midsummer 1829.
Another was seut iu a fresh state to Mr. T. W. Warren ou the
14th March 1833, and was said to have been killed at Rathfarnham,
CO. Dublin. It is now in our Science and Art Museum.
A third was shot near Doneraile, co. Cork, in June 1844 or 1845.
Thompson records the three foregoing specimens.
Mr. Howard Saunders mentioned (ZooL, 1866, p. 389) that,
when he was in Belfast, in May 1866, Mr. Sheals, the taxidermist,
showed him an Alpine Swift which had been picked up dead near
Lough Neagh. This specmieu was not offered him for sale. I
cannot find that any writer has noticed it since.
Family CAPEIMULGID.F.
THE NIGHTJAK. Cajirimnhjus europieus, Linnaeus.
Summer-visitor. Breeds in nearly every county, but scarce in Western
Connaught and most inland parts of Ulster. More numerous in
Munster.
Considering that this is a nocturnal bird which haunts
unreclaimed uplands, and is seldom noticed, we have a great mass
of evidence about it from all the provinces. It is probably most
common in Munster, extending to Eastern Clare and to Keumare
and Caragh Lake in Kerry. It breeds ou the mountains and
waste lands of Leinster, though from Westmeath I have no notice
of it, nor from Cavau in Ulster ; Fermanagh with its moiuitains
being the only inland couuty in the latter })rovince from which I
have many reports of it. It is found in Down, Antrim, and many
parts of Donegal, these maritime counties being mountainous.
It is also found through most of Connaught, chiefly in the
eastern counties, while on the west coast and the adjacent vast
moorlands it is decidedly rare ; I know, however, of one sent from
Clifden, and of another having lieen heard at Blacksod Bay.
Most of the lighthouse observations come from the Tuskar, where
CAPIIIMULGID.E. 105
six Nightjars were ou the reck a]] day ou tlie 11th May 1888 (Migra-
tion Eeports). It is usually noticed early iu May, but sometimes
in the last week of April, at least in Waterford. It was observed
in two parts of this county on the 24th April 1893, these being
the earliest records I possess. We see the last of it in September,
and it has been noticed as late as the 30th of that month, which
is unusual.
The Nightjar is called here in Irish " Toor-an-leen " (spinning-
wheel), from its song, which may also be compared to gas bubbling
through water. This is usually uttered after sunset, but I have
heard it distinctly, though briefly, at 4 p.m. on a summer's day.
It is sometimes commenced before the Nightjar has alighted, and at
other times it is concluded after the bird has taken wing, but it is
usually produced on a solitary tree. I have seen the male descend
in a spiral course from his perch, with his wings and tail out-
spread to where the female was on the ground, and utter there
a subdued churring. The song is recommenced before daylight.
When listening for Shearwaters on the Saltees, the late Mr. Seebohm
and I heard a Nightjar strike up at 2 a.m. on the 24th May. The
cry produced in flight is a clear " wheep," rendered by Mr. C.
Dixon " co-ic," which seems to express exhilaration i-ather than
fear ; nevertheless it is used when the l>ird is flitting round
the intruder and ti-ying to decoy him from the eggs. The
sound uttered by the female on such occasions is a hollow,
guttural cackle, resembling the sound of walnut-shells being struck
together.
The loud clap, made by smiting the wings together over the
back, seems to me to be a freak of the male, as I have seen him
pei'fonn it when gyrating round the female in a playful manner.
I have known him after churring to take flight and clap his wings
several times. In this act, which is always performed on the
wing, " the bird slackens his pace and gives a kind of convulsive
start or jump in the air, at the same time straightening the wings
and striking the backs of them together vei-y smartly over the
back. He then resumes his j>lace " (Bradshaw, in Dultlin N.H.
Soc. Proc).
The antics of this l)ird ou the wing are singular. Once, on my
entering his haunt the male Nightjar immediately flew past me
uttering his "wheep," and sailed along with both wings uplifted
and tail spread out awry. In this attitude he not only progressed
for some distance with an undulatory movement, but wheeled
round and went in another direction without flapping his wings.
The liird will flutter over one's head, jxiisiug itself fc>r a moment
106 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
there, eviuciug a strauge absence of fear ; again, it will throw
itself about in tlie air as if its wings were broken.
The Nightjar loves low, scrubl>y woods on hill-sides, and heaths
bordering plantations. In such jilaces several may be heard
C'hurring at the same time ; but the liird also frequents unre-
claimed lands on the coast, e.g. the Saltee Islands, sand-hills
on The Wiclvlow coast, and the Hill of Howth.
It uses the same spot year after year for laying. In 1882
a female was shot off her eggs, and in 1883 another laid within
two yards of the same spot on an open mountain, while in 1886
this i^lace was used again. An abrupt hollow is sometimes
selected, the eggs being placed close under the side and sheltered
in front by growing bracken fronds ; Imt they are sometimes laid
on a stony hump with hollows beside it, sometimes on a moss-
grown boulder, and I have found them on a bare, fiat stone, with
nothing but a few dead stems that had fallen across it which
prevented them rolling off. Others have found the eggs laid on
stones or on the trunk of a felled tree, two or three feet off the
ground. No materials ai'e ever l>rought l)y the bird.
The sitting Nightjar resembles a rotten stick covered with lichens
and scales of bark. I have seen her with neck outstretched and
eyes open wide before she perceived me, but as soon as she saw
me she retracted her h jad, throwing her beak up, and nearly
closed her conspicuous eyes, the wings and feathers being tightly
compressed. This attitude of the liead is customary with the
Nightjar for conci^almeut when ]ierched, and makes it look very
unlike a bird. The nestling in down will throw back its head
and close its eyes like the mother when alarmed, just as the little
Stone-Curlew will adopt its parents' attitude of squatting, with its
chin laid out flat on the ground.
The uuder-parts of the nestlings are much better covered with
down than the upper, which jirotects them from the cold ground.
They look like stumps of furze. The irregular markings t)f brown
and grey on a white ground cause the eggs at a little distance to
resemble rough quartz ]»ebl)les, or those lumps of whitish dung-
found about this bird's doziug-places. In very rare instances the
eggs are zoned, and in others streaked. I have an abnormal pair,
on each of which the colouring is almost confined to a large blotch,
one of which resembles an Arabic monogram in blackish-brown.
The rest of these eggs is ppre white, but while fresh one was
zoned with pale rose-colour, and the other had a large blotch of
this ciilour, which occasionally tinges Nightjar's eggs.
picid.t:. 107
Family PICID.E. Sub-Family lifNGiN.i^.
THE WRYNECK.* lynx foyqnllla, Liuuoeus.
Has been obtained in six cases on islands or near the coast; once in
May, and five times in autumn.
The Wryneck's wanderings are shown by the fact that the
species figures four times in the Migration Reports, having
occurred on the autumn migi-ation at such isolated spots as the
Fastnet, the Arran Islands, Rathlin O'Birue and Rockalnll, while
in the remaining two cases it was shot not far from the coasts
of Waterford and Wicklow.
The Wicklow instance is the only case where it occurred in May,
among woodlands. While the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has
not been obtained for over half a century, these Wrynecks have
all been taken since 1877.
The first was shot uear Uumnore, tioii. The fourth was shot on a tree
CO. Waterford, ou 5th October 1877, iu Ballycurry demesne, co. Wicklow,
by Mr. Ernest Jacob, who presented on the 29th May 1895, and is in the
it to the Science and Art Museum. possession of the proprietor, Colonel
The second was shot on Kathlin Tottenham. A fifth waskilledagainst
O'Birne Island, Donegal, in or about Ilockabill lighthouse, co. Dublin, on
October 1878, and stuffed there, 8th September 1896, and preserved
though it subsequently went to loss ; for ]Mr. Barrington ; it was an adult in
but Mr. Tottenham, light-keeper, who beautiful plumage. The sixth, a male,
informed ]Mr. Barrington about it in was found dead on the Fastnet Rock
1892, was able to identify it from the off Cape Clear ou the 17th September
next specimen which he saw, taken 1898, and was sent to Mr. Barrington
in 1886. The third, a male, was killed in the flesli.
striking the lantern of Aran Island Besides the above !Mr. Kane believes
North lighthouse at 2.30 a.m., on that he saw one climbing up a tree
6th October 1886. It was very fat, at Markree, co. Sligo, in September
and is now in Mr. Barrington's coUec- 1886.
Sub-Family Picin.e.
THE GREEN WOODPECKER. Geeinus vlndls, (Linnseus.)
Has been obtained in three instances.
Thompson mentions a Grreen Woodpecker which was taken at
Kilshrewley near Oranai'd, co. Longford, l>ut was not preserved.
Watters had iu his collection au adult male which was obtained
at Sally mount, co. Kildare, on 27th Se]>tember 1847.
* The Irislt, Naturalist for 1896, p. 16, contains details of the first five
occurrences by ]\Iiss Gyles, now ]Mrs. Barrington.
108 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
A third was exhibited before the Dublin Uuiversity Zoological
Association by Dr. Ball, on 21st January 1854, having been
forwarded to him l>y Mr. Thomas Ball of RuthmuUen, co.
Donegal.*
THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. Dendrocopus major,
(Linnaeus.)
Rare casual visitor, October to February, chiefly In the last quarter of
the year, and on the eastern side of Ireland. The most fre-
quent of the Woodpeckers.
Neither this nor any other Woodpecker has been known to
breed in Ireland, but of the visits of the present species in autumn
and winter we have some thirty-nine instances, which have occun-ed
in widely separated districts from Kerry up the eastern side of
Ireland to Londonderry. We know of but three examples in Con-
naught (two in Sligo and one in Mayo), which, with the further
exception of one shot at Gflencar in Kerry, furnish our only
records from the west of Ireland — indeed, most of the western
counties of Munster, Leinster and Ulster are blank, Down seems
to have been more favoured V)y this Woodpecker's visits than any
other county. In certain seasons several have been taken in
various parts of the country. Thus for the last quarter of 1845
we have four notices ; for the winter of 1849-50 three : for that of
1886-7 four; and for the three last months of 1889 eight; five of
these being from Eastern Ulster, while the other three occurred in
Cork, Kildare and Meath. A ninth bird was shot on the 12th
January 1890, in Kerry, as stated. Thus the flight spread itself
that winter from the northern to the southern limits of Ireland.
This fact has been erroneously quoted with reference to the Green
W(^odpecker. Several of the V)irds shot in 1889 were in a poor
state of plumage.
Thompson records one taken in counties have heen : — Kerry, 1 ; Cork,
Londonderry in August 1802, on the 2; Waterford, 1 ; Tipperary, 1 ; Kil-
authorityofTempleton, butas wehave lienny, 1; Carlow, 1; Wexford, 1;
no other summer occurreuceonrecord Wicklow, 2; Kildare, 1; Queen's
we may treat that ancient case with Co., 1 ; Dublin, 2 ; ]\Ieath, 1 ; Louth,
reserve. The instances given for 1 ; Sligo, 2 ; Mayo, 1 ; IMonaghan, 1 ;
other months are : — October, G ; Xo- Armagh, 1 ; Down, 9 ; Antrim, 3 ;
vember, 8 ; December, 5 ; January, Londonderry, 1.
2 ; February, 4. In one case two and in another
The numbers killed in the several three individuals were met with.
* Some recent works on Natural History (Swan and Aflalo) have spoken
erroneously of an immigration of Green Woodpeckers into Ireland in 1889.
The species referred to should have been the Great Spotted Woodpecker.
picid.t:. 109
THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
DetidrocopKf! minor, (Liuuseus.)
Very rare visitor. Since the six or seven instances mentioned by
Thompson, we have but one doubtful record in 1857, none more
recently.
We fiud in Thompson's Appendix : — "Mv. Glenuon of Dublin
(taxidermist) states that in the course of many years he has pre-
served at least six or seven of these birds, sent to him from
various parts of Ireland." Of these Watters examined two, an
immature female shot in the co. Wicklow in the autumn of 1847,
and an adult male, obtained in the same coiuity on th? 21st
September 1848. It is not known what became of these specimens,
and none have been obtained since ; but Mr. E. G. Bulger has stated
{ZuoU p. 5680 [1857] ) that on the 14th April 1857 he observed a
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on a beech-tree about two miles from
Fermoy. in the co. Cork.*
In his Natural History of the county of Dublin, 1772, Rutty
mentions without comment " Picas varius minor, the Lesser
Spotted Woodpecker;" and Watters argues, merely from this
mention of the species, that it was once indigenous to Ireland
when the country abounded in forest. We shall do well to await
further proof as to the avifauna of those times.
Family ALCEDINID^.
THE KINGFISHER. Alcedo ispida, Liuuteus.
Resident. Breeds, or has bred, in every county, though scarce and
local.
The Kingfisher is so shy a bird, and frequents such secluded
])laces, that few ai'e aware how wide-spread it is in Ireland.
Careful inquiry shows, however, that no county in Ireland can be
excluded from its lireeding-rauge. In most of them it is a very
scarce bii-d, but in some which afford suitable streams with
alluvial banks it is more frequent. I may name Limerick, Antrim,
and Armagh. On a river in the latter county a boy is said to
have taken twenty-one clutches the same season ; some of them
doubtless second layings. When the In-eeding-season is over the
* Admitting that the above was a Spotted Woodpecker, there is notliing
to show that the observer may not have mistaken one of tlie lar er species
for the lesser.
For Belted Kin.utisher, sec Appendix.
110 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Kingfisher Avandei's very mueli, especially in frosts, when it betakes
itself to tidal estuaries, and is then commonly shot, not only for
salmon flies, but more frequently from the mere idle love
of bagging so beautiful a bird. This wanton habit keeps the
species scarce and shy. It seldom wanders far from land, if we
may judge by the very few instances in which it has been noticed
at the island rocks and light-ships (Migration Reports).
A habit of the Kingfisher when waiting for its prey has thus
been described by Mr. Bradshaw of Bansha, who used sometimes
to watch it at a distance of only two yards : " When sitting on a
branch watching for fish it has its head drawn back upon its
shoulders, but every five or six seconds, with the most perfect
agility, the Kingfisher projects its head forwai'd, alternately giving
it half a turn to each side, and letting it fall back on its shoulders
after each movement. The creature has a most grotesque appear-
ance, the long bill and lai'ge head looking too heavy for the almost
tailless body, and seeming to require rest after the exertion of
looking about. The real use may have been that the bird has a
habit of using each eye alternately to examine the water."
In those few instances where the dates have come to my know-
ledge the Kingfisher did not lay until Mav, but it will at times
lay a second clutch in the season. Mr. Cameron took five fresh
eggs from the bank of the Blackwater on the 5th July, out of the
same hole from which a young brood had flown about a month
previously.
Family CORACIID.E.
THE ROLLER. Cnracias go mil 11$, Linnaeus.
Bare and accidental visitor, to all the provinces, on the autumn
migration.
We have ten instances of the occurreuce of the Roller in
Ireland at widely separated dates and places, and of these we only
have information when six of them occurred, two in September
and four in October. The three cases C[Uoted by Thompson are
not regarded by him as unquestionable, not having " come under
the inspection of the naturalist." In some cases the stomach was
filled with small coleoptera or other insects.
South of Ireland.— One (?), years a male, immature, near Skiljbereeu,
before 1S49 (Thompson). 29tli October 1884 (:More's List).
Cork.— One near Dummanway, Clare. — One near Riverstown
formerly in the collection of Dr. about 1855, in collection of Col.
Harvey (^^lorc's List, Jidc \Yarreu) ; Paterson, Corroflu.
CORACIID.E.
Ill
Wexford. — IMale adult, Courtown
Gtli Octoher 1849 (Thompson, II., 8,
Watters) in Science and Art^Iuseum.
Kildare. — One seen (?) Carton,
September 1831 (Ball in Thompson).
Leitrim. — Female, Corry on Lough
Allen, October 1876 (Williams in
Zool.), in Mr. Neligan's collection.
Sligo.-Onc (?) years before 1849
(Thompson).
Antrim. — One, Randalstown 29th
September 1891 (Paterson iir
Zool).
Donegal. — Burt Slob Level, Lough
Swilly, 10th October 1891 (Pater-
son iu Zool.).
Family MEEOPID^.
THE BEE-EATER. Memps apiaster, Liuuceus.
Rare and accidental visitor, on some eight occasions, usually in
spring, but once in November.
The Bee-eatei* lias visited, at wide intervals, vai'ioiis parts of
Ireland, chiefly the maritime epears to
visit Ireland most years, either on the spring or the autunui
migration, and sometimes occurs six or seven years in succession.
J 12 BIP.DS OF IRELAND.
Ill certain seasons, e.g. 1888 and 1894, Hoopoes have been taken
at widely-separated x)lac'es, suggesting a simultaneous movement.
Out of one hundred and seventeen instances I find that seventy-
six, or nearly two-thirds, occurred along the south coast between
Wexford and Cape Clear. The valleys leading from the principal
bays, and the ]»romontory called the Old Head of Kinsale, have been
many times visited. Other Hoopoes have been met with on almost
all the other parts of the Irish coast or counties adjoining the
same, also on several of the island rocks, such as the Blaskets,
the islands of Mayo, Inishtrahull off Donegal, and the Tuskar.
Some light-shi]js, too, have been visited (Migration Reports).
Very few specimens have occurred in inland counties, least of
all in those of the northern half of the island.
The spring migration must be very early, several Hoopoes having
been taken in February, while March yields the longest list of any
month. The records diminish for April and May, anoes have been known to frequent the same locality for weeks
together, sometimes in pairs, but no instance of their attempting
to nest in Ireland is known. If they were not so usually shot we
might have better chance of adding tliis lieautiful species to the
list of those that have bred in this country.
When two Hoopoes occurred together they are treated as one
instance in the followintr tables : —
Kerry
. 4
Kilkenny .
3
rtalway . .
2
Fermanagh .
1
Cork' . .
. 34
Wexford
23
Roscommon
1
Donegal . .
2
Watcrford
. 19
Wicklow
^layo . . .
3
Londonderry
3
Clare
. -2
Duhlin
Sligo . .
2
Antrim . .
3
Limerick
. 1
Queen's Co.
1
Down . . .
5
Tipperary
. 1
King's Co. .
Westmeath
1
1
Armagh . .
1
]\rnnster . Gl Leinster . 33 Connaught . 8 Ulster . . 15
Total for all Ireland, 117, of which the month of capture was only recorded
in 70 cases.
January . 2 April. . . July ... 1 Octoher . . 11
Fehruary . G* ^Tay ... 7 August . . — Novemher . —
^Lxrch . . 19 June ... 1 September . 12 December . 2
* Of the i'ebruary instances one took place on the Cork coast in 1862, and
another occurred in the same year in the co. Kilkenny. Thompson gives the
remaining four, the word "Feb." in the first case being repeated in the
following three cases by double commas. Those, unless introduced in error,
complete the six February occurrences.
CUCULID.E. 113
Family CUCULID^.
THE CUCKOO. Cua(J>i.<< eanorus, Linua?ns.
Summer-visitor. One of our most widely-distributed birds. Breeds in
every county.
The Ciictoo is to be g-enerally found, not only in the cultivated
and planted districts, but on the bare mountain sides and in the
wilderness of the extreme west. It is a noticeable bird in
Connemara and on the Arran Islands, in Achill, Western Donegal
(including Araumore), and Rathlin Island, where it breeds. While
crossing the vast moor of Western Mayo, however, I did not see
the Cuckoo. It occasionally visits the remoter rocks, the Skelligs,
Tearaght, Tory Island and luishtrahull, though it does not
remain on them. It occ-urs during migration at the Wexford
light-ships and the Tuskar.
The ordinary time of its arrival is from the 16th to the o(Jth of
A]u-il, but it has frequently been noticed in the first half of that
month, from the "ind onwards. In Tyrone and in the Ballina
district it is often not noticed until the first week in Mav.
Instances have been repeatedly annoimced in the newspapers of
its occurrence in March or even earlier, and several people are
convinced that they have heard or seen it before April. No
specimen, however, has lieen ]iroduced in the flesh at that early
season, and until this can be done naturalists will continue to
r^'gard these reports as mistakes. The young have i-epeatedlv
been noticed as late as Septemlter, and one was killed at the
Tuskar on 2nd Novemlier 1883 (Migration Reports).
In the bare moorlands of the west and on the Arran Islands,
Cuckoos assemble after dark wherever a few trees or Imshes
afford shelter ; often round a house, the occupants of which thev
disturb all night by the babbling notes which are attributed to
the female. By day they roam over the wilds, and are conspicuous,
perching cm walls and rocks, and flying across land and water.
Though the Cuckoo's note is heard here daily in May and June,
very few of its eggs have ever l)een lu'ought lo me, but I can give
instances of their l>eing found in the nests of the Willow- Wren,
Corn-Bunting and Reed-Bunting. A Cuckoo's eg^ which showed
but the first trace of iucul>ati(>n was found here in a Meadow-
Pipit's nest, which contained one hard-set vg^ of the latter and two
young Pipits just hatched. Thompson gives an instance (Vol. III.
For Yello\v-l)illGcl Cuckoo, Black-hilled Cuckoo, sec Apiicndix.
I
114 BIRDS OF IP.ELAXD.
442), the earliest recorded in onr islands, in whieli Kinalian shot a
Cviclvoo with its eo-g in its throat. I have no new facts to add to
the voluminous literatuiv^ that has illustrated the breeding-habits
of this bird.
THE GKEAT SPOTTED CrCKOO. Coccysfes glanclarius,
(Liunseus.)
Has twice occurred on islands off the west coast.
The first example of this southei'n species was taken on the
island of Ouiey (not '' Omagh " as it has been spelt), off the west
coast of Connemara, having been pursued to the shelter of a wall
by Hawks. It appeared to be weak from fatigue. It was
announced in 1843 h\ Ball, who obtained it for the Trinity College
Museum. Mr. Howard Sauuders, who examined it in 1878, found
that, from its chestnut-coloured primaries, it was a liird of less
than a year old. Some uncertainty surrounded the date of its
ca])ture, but Thompson assigned it ti:> March 1842. In the last
edition of More's List, 1890, tliis specimen is stated to be still
pi-eserved in Trinity College, Init in 1896 I failed to find it there.
Ml". Barrington received from Mr. T. King, lightkeeper on the
Great Slvcllig, co. Kerry, a veiw detailed descrijition of a bird he
had exanuned with a telescope u]:)on that rock on 30th April 1897,
and althoitgh it was not obtaiiied, the particulars of form and
plumage given are so full that they can apply to no other species,
and indicate, as Mr. Saunders remarks, that the specimen Avas in
nearly adult jdumage. When first seen it was coming from a
south-west direction and appeared tired, for it repeater! ]y per-
mitted itself to l:>e ajijiroaehed within twenty yards (Barrington^
in ZnrdiVjht. 1897. p. 574).
Order STRIGES.
Family STEIGID.E.
THE BAPtN-OWL. Sirlv flmrn)ien, Linna?us.
Resident and widely distributed, breeding in every county.
Thoiigh nowhere numerous the Barn-Owl is to be met with in
every district in Ireland, being deeidedly common in the counties
of Leinster, and the coiuity Tipperary in Munster. It is certainly
more frequent abovit the vicinitv of towns than in lonely country
districts, of which fact the suburbs of Dublin afford a strikincf
STRIGID.E. 115
example. It preys almost exclusively ou rats ami mice, ami seems
to be a sort of folloAver of the liumau race. In this it is unlike
the Long-eared Owl, which loves wooded solitudes.
Owing to the increase of the latter species we can no longer agree
with Thompson, who considered that the numbers of Sfrix faminea
prevailed in his time.
This bird establishes itself even in remote islands, as Eathliu and
the Arran Islands. It has been found asleep in rock-fissures at
Malin Head and Mine Head.
In Ireland, as well as in England, the eggs are not laid until the
latter part of A]>ril or the month of May. I have known a hollow
tree to be used by Barn -Owls, but a chimney, a pigeon-hole, a roof
or a ruin offer themselves more frequently in this country as
breeding-places.
The Barn-Owl is the most useful of all wild birds to man, ou
account of the vast numliers of mice which it destroys ; nevertheless
its slaughter in Ireland seems to be not only common but
increasing. This does not arise so much from the efforts of the
gamekeeper to destroy everything with talons, as from the mere
impulse to kill a strange-looking bird ; and in some of our towns a
set-up s])ecimen is so common in houses as to be apparently con-
sidered a conventional ornament.
THE LONG-EARED OWL. As!o ofus, (Linnaeus.)
Resident and widely distributed. Breeds in every county in Ireland.
This is our commonest Owl, the extension of planting having
doubtless led to its increase. It is pi'<»bal)ly absent only from
districts which are destitute of trees like the western sea-board ;
but where there are trees (as at Ballynahinch ) it is found even in
Counemara.
It seems equally common in summer and winter, and there is
little evidence of seasonal migration in Ireland, but one was
taken on Rathliu Island, and auotlier, on the loth Noveml)er
1887, at the Tuskar (Barrington).
It breeds early. I have seen a young one with feathei's showing
through its down on the 31st of March, and Mr. Warren s]»eaks of
broods leaving the nest the first we(dc in Aiu-il, though more usually
the young are not hatched until April. The Long-eared Owl uses
the old nest of another Vurd, generally that of a ]Magpie, though
sometimes that of a Kook or Heron. From three to six eggs are
laid, commonly foiu- or five, six lieing exceptional.
I 2
116 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
The seasonal call of the male may he heard as early as December.
At night, from the depths of a dark Jonely wood this moaning call
sounds most unearthly, the long-drawn "oo, oo, oo," is exactly like
dying moans (Warren). The warning-note resembles the word
"quack" repeated from three to five times, and is usually uttered
l\v the female Avhen an intruder approaches her young, whose
mewing call for food is at the same time discontinued. According
to Mr. Warren, the young commence on dark days to call at noon,
and thev continue until next morning. For weeks after leaving the
nest they keep up this piercing "mew." seated on a tree, while the
parents range in search of prey.
The Long-eared Owl has repeatedly been observed to catch bats,
and has been seen hunting for tlaem over the surface of a pond ;
liut it also preys on beetles, rats, mice, pigmy shrews and small
birds. The Eev. C. Irvine, however, states that one killed a
pigeon close to his vicarage. It may be seen flying along the
canals in the outskirts of Dulilin in quest of prey (Moffat).
THE SHORT-EAEED OWL. A^io acdjnfrlmi.^, (Pallas.)
Winter-visitor in varying numbers, and of irregular distribution. It is
not known to have bred in Ireland.
This syiecies usually arrives in Oct<)l)er and (]e]>arts in February,
but 205 birds of which I have records occurred in the following
order: — August 2, September 11, October 38, November 49,
Deceml)er 49, January 33, February 16, March o, April 2.
Thompison's earliest record is 5tli Septemlier. and his latest 3rd
April.
The Shoi't-eared Owl appears to occur irregularly, for in some
seasons Messrs. Williams and Son have received for preservation
two or three specimens only ; while during others from twenty to
thirty have passed through their hands. The same thing has
been observed in Belfast, where Messrs. Darragh and Sheals received
twenty-six or moi-e during the winter of 1883-4. A corresponding
increase was observed at the same time in Dublin.
This species seems to be most common in the county of Dublin,
and the adjoining counties of Loutli, Kildare and Wicklow. but it
is not Tmc<^nimon in districts about Belfast. The same may be said
of the county of Wexford, where Thompson was informed numbers
had occurred on the mountains of Forth, and where Mr. G. H.
Ivinahan has found the s])ecies very common in its season. Mr.
Higginbotham, a light-keeper who has lieen on the Tuskar, told
STRIGIDiE, 117
me that after a night when many migrating birds liad been
observed he used to see au Owl (m the rock next day.
These facts we might exjiect, as the counties above-named lie
nearest to Great Britain, the immediate source of migration ; Ijut
it is more remarlcable that so many of tliis species should occur m
the extreme west. Out of 169 of which 1 have noted the localities
throughout Ireland, Sb occurred in the cotmties of Kerry,
Oalway and Mayo. In Thompson's time, too, this bird was well
known in Kerry, as many as thirteen having been re^iorted as seen
together. Mr. Warren states, with reference to Mayo and Sligo,
that the Short-eared Owl is sometimes met witii in small flocks by
Snipe-shooters. Possibly the extensive moors in these w'estern
counties may offer attractions which cultivated counties do not.
Harvey (1845) spoke of this Owl as not rare in the county of
Cork, a statement more recently repeated to me by Mr. iiohti, who
has preserved specimens there. In Waterford, Tipperary, and in
several of the inland counties, it is an uncommon bird.
Mr. H. Blake Knox states that old males are ofti'n cream-
coloured instead of tawny.
THE SNOWY OWL. Nydea scandiaca, (Linnaeus.)
A rare and uncertain winter-visitor.
We have records of the occurrence of some thirty individuals.
The available dates of these range from November to March,
except in one case wdiich took place in April. Tliompsou mentions
five of them, which all occurred in the spring of 1835 in Mayo,
Longford, Tyrone, and Antrim. Ten have occurred in Mayo at
different times.
Cork. — One tired at, on lucliigeela Roscommon. — One preserved for
Mountain in 1827 (Tiioinpaon) . Mr. Jonesof lioseoinmon(E. Williams
Tipperary. — Kinahan noted two in above letter),
seen on a bog at Annagli Inch 2(jth Leitrim. — One shot about 1873 or
December 1853 (Nat. Hi-^turij lievicic, earlier at Larktield, where it is still
Vol. I. p. 22). preserved.
Wextord.— One shot on the south Mayo. — One shot in [March 1835,
coast in 1812 (Thompson). seen by Thompson; one obtained
Dubhn.— A female obtained alive near Ballim'obe winter of 1839 (Zoo/.,
at Swords early in 1862 (Kinaliau in 1861, p. 7116) ; one reported by IMont-
Proc. D.N.H. Soc.) ; one seen on the goniery killed in 1850 (Proc. D.N.H.
North Bull winter 1880-1 (E.Williams Soc., 7th March 1862); one shot at
in letter, 2nd September 1881). Suimnerhill near Killala 26th Janu-
Longford.— < )ne received by a ary 1856 (Warren) ; one taken alive
Dublin bird-preserver 5th April 1835 near Ballycroy late in tlie autumn of
(Thompson). 1859 (Proc. D.N.H. Soc, 4th January
118
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
1861) ; one seen at Summerhill
November 18G0 (Warren) ; a female
shot at Dovein IStli ilarch 1871
(Ashhy in Field, 8th April 1871) ; one
shot near Belmullet in ISSS (]\Iore's
List) ; a female in first year's
plumage shot by Captain Harvey at
Keel, Achill, Gth December 1892
(Irish Nat., 1893, p. 25) ; one shot
near Belmullet 13th December 1893
(Ir/.s/i Xat., 1891, p. 21).
Fermanagh.— One seen on moun-
tains near Lack in February 187G liy
'Mr. H. B. Murray, who showed me
one of its feathers which he had
l^icked up.
Tyrone. — One shot near Omagli
about 1835 (Thompson).
Donegal. — One shot near Killybegs
November or December 1837 (Thomp-
son); two seen, apparently in succes-
sive seasons, by Rev. A. H. Delap near
Templecrone Rectory, between 1870
and 1872 ; one shot on Inishtrahull
19tli November 1882 by :Mr. W. 11.
James, who presented it to the
Science and Art Museum, Dublin.
Londonderry. — A male noted by
Darragh as shot near Limavady about
3rd December 18C2.
Antrim. — An immature Vurd shot
about 2Gth :March 1S35 near Port-
glenone (Thompson) ; a similar bird
seen at Bruslee about twenty miles
south-east of Portglenone on 21st of
same month (Thompson).
Down. —A male, described by
Thompson, shot on Scrabo Mountain
2nd December 1837, still in Belfast
INIuseum ; another male shot at Dun-
drum 18tli January 18S9 (More's
List).
Armagh. — One shot near Lurgan
on 22nd February 1850 and sent o
Trinity College Museum (Thompson,
HI. p. 135).
A specimen captured in Ireland in
December 1S7G was jiresented to the
Zoological Society of London {Zool.,
1877, p. G3).
A male Snowy Owl alighted on a
vessel during a snow-storm in Novem-
ber 1878, about three hundred miles
south-west of Cape Clear, and was
broiight to Mv. Rohu of Cork for
preservation. This occurrence,
coupled with Thompson's mention of
a remarkable flock of Snowy Owls
which fell in with a vessel two hun-
dred and fifty miles from Labrador,
suggests that some at least of our
Irish-killed specimens reach us from
Northern America.
THE SCOPS-OWL. Scojjs i>^, (J. F. Gmelin.)
Has once been obtained in Ireland.
The particulars of this oecurreuce are given by Yarrell, who
was informed by Admiral Bowles that in the autumn of 1843,
when visiting Lord Shannon at Castle Martyr, he saw a
Vulture. It had been caught by a youth on the rocks near
Cork Harbour in the sj^ring of that year. The bird Avas full-
grown and the plumage was perfect. It was very wild and
savage, and being in perfect liealth was kept in confinement for a
while, l)ut on its death the late Dr. Ball obtained it from Lord
Shannon for the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, where it is
now preserved (Yarrell's "British Birds," 4th Ed., Vol. I. p. 2).
Mr. Howard Saunders, who examined this specimen in Dublin
in 1878, and again in 1898, has no hesitation in saying that it is
immature ( "Manual of British Birds," 2nd Ed., p. 311 J.
Family FALCONID^.
THE MAESH-HARRIER. Circus ;erughiosus, (Linnaeus.)
Still resident in a few midland and western localities ; formerly wide-
spread.
Thomjtson stated that in his time the Marsh-Harrier was found
in suitable localities over the island, and, among the counties in
which it l)red he mentions Kerry. Cork, Tipperary, MonaghaD,
Tyrone, Down, Antrim and Londonderry.
120
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Waiters, writing- in 1853, speaks of it as the most abundant of
our larger birds of prey, and widely distrilnited. Since then it has
been exterminated in most of its former haunts, its low, easy flight
making it an irresistible marlc to the wanton shooter, as well as
to the gamekeeper, It still maintains a precarious existence on
the midland bogs and in parts of Galway, and is preserved on one
estate in Queen's County. It strays from its breeding-haunts in
August, and wanders during the autumn into other parts of the
country to lakes and rivers where water-liirds are plentiful ; and
it is then that it is most frequently shot.
Cork.— Besides the Youghal district
mentioned by Thompson, the ]\Iarsh-
Harrier bred near Ballycottiu, where
Mr. Corbet observed it down to about
1870. One frequented Castle ^Martyr
during the winter of 187'J-SO, feeding
on Water-hens.
The species has been occasionally
seen west of Bandon in winter by Mr.
Longfield.
Water ford has no extensive
marshes, but an old gamekeeper of
the Marquis of Waterford told me he
had formerly seen "Kites" with white
heads. Major Hely states that this
bird formerly bred on the great bogs
between Tipperary and Kilkenny,
and that it is still seen occasionally
in winter, a statement that ]Mr.
Purefoy i-epeats concerning Western
Tipperary. In the north of that
county "Slv. G. H. Kinahan used to see
both young and old birds frequenting
the Brosua Valley in September,
perching on the hay-cocks, especially
when the fog lay on the low lands.
Queen's County.— The great bogs of
the central plain are its chief resort.
In April 1S'J8 I saw three :\Iarsh-
Harriers soaring in circles at a con-
siderable height over the extensive
marshes of Lord Castletown at
Granston. They are seen there all the
year round, and Lord Castletown, who
preserves them, informed me in 1896
that he believed there were then eight
pairs in different parts of his estates,
and that he had seen five birds on the
wing at once. This is a pleasant
contrast to the monotonous tale of
extermination from other places. On
the great tracts of bog in North
Queen's County, King's County and
West Meath, where the ]Marsh-
Harrier has habitually bred, it is
found in diminishing numbers. Lough
Iron in West Meath, which abounds
in wild fowl, lias been always a
favourite resort of this bird between
August and October, and a long series
of specimens have been shot there, as
well as near Edenderry.
Galway has always been a great
stronghold of this Harrier. On two
occasions in June 1897 I met with it
on the bogs at each side of a great
lake, where it is stated to breed still.
Mr. Young tells me he has observed
it regularly when shooting in Western
Conuemara, and its nests have been
found among lakes south of Recess.
Along the Shannon Valley it appears
to be now only a wanderer. It will
beat along the river until it drives
out a Coot. The latter seeks to
escape by diving, but the Harrier
pursues it each time it comes to the
surface until the Coot is drowned or
taken.
Mayo. — The ]\Iarsh-Harrier appears
to have bred on Lough Mask, and
used to be seen about Cong up to
1859. In Western Sligo, as Mr.
Warren states, it has been occa-
sionally seen, but not of late years.
One was shot by Colonel Wood
[Martin in 1889. It was accompanied
bv another.
FALCONID.E.
121
Leitrim. — Mr. Macpherson, game-
keeper, has usually seeu the INiaisli-
Harrier in August ou the Shannon
near Dromod. He sent two for pre-
servation to Mr.Sheals in August 1884.
It visits Lough Rynn in winter.
Fermanagh.— Tiie Kev. C. Irvine
writes : — " Previous to 1840 this bird
was a constant frequenter of Lough
Erne. It abounded there, and its
nests were found on the waste and
scraggy places adjoining the lake,
built on the ground. But about 1840
the ganrekeepers destroyed them all
by poison." Since then ~Mv. Irvine
noticed the Marsh-Harrier once in
1852, and once in 1872.
Donegal. — Mr. William Sinclair
states that it used to breed in small
numbers in Donegal, but that he had
not seen one there since about IbTO.
The late Sir Victor Brooke, in 1S90,
mentioned a former breeding-haunt
in the south of Donegal.
The " Belfast Guide," 1874, speaks
of this species as not very uncom-
mon on the moors; but it seems
now to have disappeared from Ulster
except as a straggler. In the latter
character it has been met with in
several other counties besides the
above— t'.f/. in Clare, at Oak Park in
Carlow, in different parts of Kildare,
at Lough Broad in Wicklow, and
there is a notice in Butty's work
(1772) that it had been shot in the
Co. Dublin.
There is a pied example from the
CO. Kildare in the collection of Mr.
Barrington, and another parti-
coloured bird at Brittas, Queen's Co.,
which was shot on Lough Iron.
THE HEN-HAEEIER. Circus vtjanei's, (LinuEeus.)
Still resident, but decreasing in numbers, in many mountainous districts.
Appears to have ceased to breed in other localities where it
used formerly to do so. It is to be met with in winter as well
as in summer.
Kerry is one of its chief strong-
holds. It breeds on the mountains,
both north and south of Dingle
Bay, and on the iNIuckross estate
near Killarney.
Cork. — Frequently seen on the
mountains south of the IMallow and
Killarney line. A straggler to other
parts of the county.
Waterford. — Probably still resi-
dent on the Knockmealdown ]\Ioun-
tains, where on 2Gth INIay 1882 I
found a nest with six eggs on a atecp
slope surmounting the escarpment of
a lonely ravine, and was entirely com-
posed of heather among tall plants of
which it was placed. • It formerly
bred on the Comeraghs (Davis in
Thompson). I see Hen-Harriers occa-
sionall}", chiefly wanderers in winter.
Limerick. — Not uncommon on
Slievefelim.
Tipperary. — Resident on the
Keeper ^fountain, and not uncommon
ou the hills north of Cappawhite.
Wicklow. — I cannot say that it is
more than a straggler now to this
county, though in the time of Watters
(1853) it bred on the Wicklow Moun-
tains ; again, in 1871, ^Ir. Blake Knox
stated tliat it bred there.
Dublin.— Still occurs un the moun-
tains adjoining Wicklow. In 1852
Kinahan recorded it as a winter-
visitor to Donnybrook near Dul)lin.
King's and Queen's Counties. —
The Slieve Bloom Ihiiige lias Ijcen
the chief home of this species in
Central Ireland. On 12lh June 1884,
in these (^Uieen's Co. mountains, a
122
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
male and female were shot at their
uest, which coutaiued four young and
an addled egg.
Galway. —The western portion of
this county, Connemara, is one of
the chief homes of this hird. It
breeds on the mountain heaths, and
on islands in the bog lakes.
Mayo. — The Hen-Harrier seems to
be little known. I\Ir. Warren men-
tions liut one occurrence in his
district.
Fermanagh. — Bred in the moun-
tains near Lack in the fifties. Still
occasionally met with there, hut
rare.
Donegal. — The same remarks apply
to the mountains near Lough Derg
north of Pettigoe. In Inishowen it
used to he common in the sixties, and
a pair are believed to have nested on
Lord Leitrim's estate in 1893. In the
rest of Donegal it appears to be a rare
bird.
Londonderry. — It bred on the
mountains adjoining co. Tyrone in
Thompson's time.
Antrim. — Still resident on the
mountains in the north of the county.
Down. — Scarce, but Mr. Kane,
gamekeeper, knew of a nest on the
mountains near Ilostrevor in the
nineties.
In other counties this species is met
with as a wanderer when not breed-
ing, and in such cases it is found on
moors and flat bogs, as well as on
mountains.
MONTAGU'S HARRIER. C
I reus c I II era ceil >
(Moutagu.)
Rare casual visitor, eight having occurred on seven occasions from May
to October, and in every case in or near the county of Wicklow.*
The first, a female, was shoj near
Bray, on the Isi October 184.S
(Thompson, I., p. 4-27). This specimen
has perished.
A second, supposed to have been a
female from its plumage, was shot at
the Scalp, co. Wicklow, on the 1st
October 1849, and was procured for
Trinity College ]\Iuseum (Thompson,
II., p. viii). This, too, has dis-
appeared.
An immature bird, with breast of a
rich l)uff-colour, was shot on 1st
September 1874 by ]Major Barton,
near Enniskerry, not far from the
two previous localities. Its stomach
contained grasshoppers and beetles
(Field, 2Gth September 1874).
An adult male was shot on the
Wexford side of Croghan Kinsella
* The statement made in the Zuohujii
jMontagu's Harrier had bred in Kerry
publications in 1898.
^Mountain, borders of Wicklow, on
the 14th :May 1890, and is in the
Science and Art ^Museum, Dublin.
Its stomach contained remains of a
Sky-Lark [ZunL, 1890, p. 275).
A male, in the second year's
plumage, was shot at Glenasmole,
CO. Dublin, borders of Wicklow, on
3rd Jul}' 1893, and was preserved by
Williams & Son for Mr. Talbot
Power {Iriah Naturalist, 1893, p. 253).
A female, in the Science and Art
jNIuseum, was obtained from Messrs.
Williams & Son, who inform me that
it ^vas shot near Arklow on the 21st
August 1893.
Two soft immature birds, male and
female, were killed on 13th and 14th
August 1899, near Ballynasti'agh in
North Wexford (Mr. E. Williams).
;/ and IrisJi Xatiiralist for 1897, that
, has been corrected in both those
FALCONID.E. 123
THE COMMON BUZZARD. Bideo vnhiaris, Leach.
Now only a casual visitor in autumn, winter and spring. Very rare in
Connaught and Kerry.
In Tlionipsou's time this fine bird was a resident in Ulster, and
he gives ns vahiable partieuhirs of its breeding- in the i'uur
maritime counties of Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim and Down,
both on inland cliffs and in trees of wooded demesnes. These
details, beginning with 1832, were published in 1849. Mr. J. V.
Stewart had spoken of the Buzzard in 1882 as common and
resident.
lu 1852 Mr. R. J. Montgomery noticed the increasing scarcity
of the Buzzard, and stated that though he had looked for it in its
former haunts he had only seen two instances within the previous
hve. years.
Watters (1853; speaks of it as chietly confined to the north of
Ireland, and states that the very few which Mr. Grleniion had
received for preservation had come from northern counties.
Mr. H. C. Hart stated in 189-i that for the past twenty years
he had noticed in Donegal the ever-increasing scarcity of the
Buzzard ; but it probably bred until 1883, in the July of which
year he saw five on the wing together, at the south end of the
Mourne Mountains, besides several in Donegal.
Mr. CamplK'll, on visiting Magilligau in Londonderry, in 1891,
where Thompson found this species breeding, was informed by two
farmers residing there at the foot of the cliffs that they re-
membered the Buzzards well until about five or six years
previously, when gamekeepers had shot them. All the notices
we have of this liird in summer relate to the north of Ireland,
previous to its extirpation as a breeding-species. Mr. Montgomery
in North Antrim speaks of it as not having been seen since about
1885. It is now probably a mere straggler from Grreat Britain,
appearing occasionally in Octul)er, and thrimgh winter and spring.
It is rarest in the west of Ireland.
Cork. — Two were shot neai- Kil- note of one, Annagii Inch, 1853.
hrittain Castle before September Another was obtained near Thurles
188G. In November 1891 one was 9th February 1892.
seen west of Bandon. Wexford.— Mr. G. 11. Kinahan
Waterford. — Dr. Burkitt preserved sliot one at Somerton abuut 1877
three (one on 27th February 1838, One was cauglit exhausted at Stokes-
and one in January 1854). town on 29th October 188(3. Two
Tipperary. — Kinahan made a trapped at Ilosegarland in Marcli
124
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
1892, were presented to the Dublin
Zoological Society. One was obtained
near Gorey 29tli October 1893.
Wicklow. — Dr. Cox observed one
between Annamoe and Lara in
April 1875. A specimen was shot at
Glenart, Arklow, on 22nd November
1891 ; and another, same place, on
4th December 1893.
Queen's Co. — Mr. Young, Brockley
Park, obtained one on 15th December
1886.
Kildare. — A Buzzard was obtained
at ^iageney Bridge, on the Barrow,
on 3rd December 1887.
Dublin. — There is one from Rush
in the Science and Art Museum, and
another trom the same locality in
*\lr. Barringlon's collection.
Westmeath. — A very grey speci-
men, shot near Lough Iron, is
preserved at Brittas, Queen's Co.
Louth. — One was shot near
Drugheda on 22nd October 1891.
Koscommon. — ^lessrs. Williams A;
Sou received a iemale trom Carraroe
Park in 1897.
Sligo. — A Buzzard was seen by
Mr. Warren at Moyview on 30th
December 1870 ; and there is another
preserved at HoUybrook, shot in the
same county.
Down. — Canon Bristowe saw one
between Newcastle and Dundrum
about 1888. IMr. Kane, a game-
keeper, residing near Eostrevor since
1891, stated in 1897 that he had
occasionally met with the Buzzard
in autumn there (Palmer).
Antrim. — In the Zoologist for 1871
]Mr. Bruuton noticed one shot near
Glenarm, whose stomach contained
remains of a rabbit. It was the
fourtli lie had shot in that neighbour-
hood. On Kathiin, one was taken
alive on 28th February 1815, and a
second was found dead in ]March 1879.
Londonderry. — An adult specimen
was trapped in a warren at Castlerock
about lt)95.
Tyrone.— In woodland districts
Rev. C. Irvine observed one on 11th
Jul}- ly7G, and another on 26th
August 1877 (when they still bred in
Ulster).
Donegal. — Besides the Buzzards
observed by Mr. Hart up to 1883,
one was sUot on the moors near
Pettigue, and is preserved at Glas-
luugli, CO. Monaghan.
THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. Buteu hujopHs,
(J. F. Gmeliu.)
Rare visitor, chiefly to the northern maritime counties, and usually
in October and November.
Wicklow. — One killed at Powers-
court towards the end of 1837 ('.')
(Thompson, 1., p. 7G).
Kildare. — Une purchased for
Trinity College ^Museum. Seen and
recorded in 1853 by Watters, p. 17.
Galway. — The only western record
is of a bird shot, when apparently
weary, by ^Ir. Henry Redmond, light-
keeper at Slyne Head, in the autumn
of 1866. It was presented by him in
1881 to the Dtiblin IMuseum.
Down. — One, believed to have been
an adult male, knocked down with a
stick when gorged, at Dundonald, in
October 1831 (Thompson) ; two seen,
one of them shot at Killinchy about
the same time (Ibid.) ; one was
described to Tliompson as having
been shot in Castlewellan demesne,
probably about the same time as the
two pi'evioixs records (Ibid.) ; a male
was sent to ^Ir. Sheals, Belfast,
for preservation, on 9th November
FALCONID.'R. 125
1895, which was shot at Portaferry rock on the 15th November 1891 hy
House. INIr. Duggan, who preserved it in the
Londonderry. — Another specimen, form of a fire-screen,
sent to ]\rr. Sheals, was shot at Donegal. — Another was caught in
Garvagh on the 10th February 1883, a trap baited with a rabbit at Horn
and is the property of Lady Garvagli. Head on 26th November 1891. and
This is the only instance I can quote is in the collection of ]Mr. H. Becher,
which did not occur in the late Beechwood, Dalkey.
autumn ; one was caught at Castle-
THE SPOTTED EAGLE. AqulJa macnlaia, (J. F. Gineliu.)
Has been obtained once in Ireland.
In January 1845 two wore shot on the estate of tlie Eai'l of
Shannon, near Youo-hal. One of them, an immature bird,
fortunately fell into the hands of Samuel Moss, of Youghal, who
presented it, and it is now in the Museum of Trinity Colleii;e,
Dublin. It was preyina; on a rabbit when it was killed. Its wino;
measures nineteen and three-quarter inches. The two Eagles had
been observed for several weeks frequenting- the neighboui'hood
in which they were killed, aud were noticed sweeping over the
low grounds there.
The locality was in the valley of the Cork and Youghal Railway.
This terminates towards the east in a wide flat l)ay, an inviting
resting-place for migrant and wandering birds that have shunned
the cliff- girt coasts of Waterford in their westward flight.
Accordingly no part of Ireland has yielded more examples of
occasional visitants, the Heron family lieing specially well
represented. TIk:- ]iresci-vation of several of these rarities was
due to Samuel Moss.
Other birds met with in Indand at different times and jdacrs
were conjectured to have belonged to the above species, Imt of
this we have no proof.
THE GOLDEN EAGLE. Aqulh, cln-ijmei,ii<, (Linua'us).
A few pairs are still resident in the west, but the species is
approaching extinction.
Seven hundred years ago Giraldus Cambrensis wrote of Ireland :
" Eagles are as numerous as Kites are in other countries."
Within the last fifty years the Golden Eagle bi-ed extensively on
the hiy-her ranges of Munster, Connaught and Ulster, but within
126 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
the last fiftv years gamekeepei's and sheplievds have so successfully
employed gnu. trap aud poison, while the eggs and young of the
remaining birds have been so systematically tahen, that this noble
species has been nearly swept off the land. The few that linger
are still persecuted, the collector destroying what the keeper has
left. Could proprietors of mountains in Donegal, Mayo, Conne-
mara, Sligo, or Kerry be induced to protect the Eagle, as is done
in the Scotch Highlands, it might yet be saved from extinction.
Among the tales of the peasantry rer<>rded in the " Fowler in
Ireland " is the stateinent of an old Achill man, that early one
morning he saw Eagles endeavouring to force young horses over
a cliff. They lashed them with their wings and stuck their claws
into their backs. O'Elaherty wrote (H-Iar Connaught, 1684) :
"There is a kind of V)lack Eagle which kills the deer by grappling
him with his claws and forcing him headlong into jDrecipices."
Concerning the Eagle's mode of hunting, Mr. Pike, of Achill
Sound, wrote : " G-enerally two hunt together, a hare being the
favoTU'ite prey. When the hare is started one of them follows it as
near the ground as possible ; the other poises in the air or waits on,
and watches intently. If a rock or anything else intervenes and the
bird in pursuit loses sight of the hare, the other at once stoops and
takes up the running; the first then waits on. The hai'e has little
chance of its life unless there is a hole in which to hide." He
further stated (Field, 14th July 1877) that he had seen a flock of
wild Swans on Keel Lake. Achill, attacked Ity two Golden Eagles,
wIk'U they all rose and flew round at a great height. Some time
after the dead body of one, partly eaten by the Eagles, was found
close In'. Thompson describes how an Eagle carried off a hare
three ov four hundred yards in front ()f the hoiuids which were
pursuing it. Repeated statements have been made of this bird
carrying away and then dropping a fox in the co. Waterford
mountains. Colonel Vernon, when shooting with a small red
setter near Killary Harl)our, saw an Eagle hover close over the dog
as if to pounce on it, ujion which ho fired at the Inrd; aud Dr.
Kane liad a similar experience in co.' Kerry.
While travelling in co. Mayo in 1898, Mr. Saunders noticed a
Heron soaring in circles to a tremendous height ; and its conduct
was soon ex])lained, for we shortly saw two Eagles similarly
soaring, with steady otttstretched wings. A shepherd on Mount
Dart, CO. Tyrone, stated that he had saved a lamb from an Eagle
which made persistent attempts to carry it off, but was kept at
bay by the ewe.
While the Eagles were at Powerscourt in 1839 Mr. Anton,
falconid.t:. 127
the keeper, and his son watched one of. them for a lono- time.
It seemed as if plavino- with a fox on the chffs : the fox
would sidle np, ajiparently intent on capturiuy the Eagle, while
the bird, whenever he approached, tunil)led him away with a
stroke of the wino-.
Mr. Pike had a tame Eagle at Achill Sound for twenty-six
years. In 1875, at the age of twenty-two. she laid two eggs,
and the following year four. In the Field (•23rd June lb" 7)
it is related how this bird hatched out and fostered young-
goslings, feeding them with torn flesh. Eventually one of these
goslings lived with the Eagle on the best of terms ; and Avhen this
lurd brought out a clutch of her own, the Eagle always seemed to
look on the Goose and her family as her own property. It is also
told how one morning a wild Eagle was found to have forced its
way into her cage.
The only nest I have closely inspei-ted was one that had
been robbed of its single egg the ])revi()us A^^ril. It was on
the north side of a mountain seventeen hundred feet high sur-
mounting a deej) lake, far below which a range of cliffs looked
down on the sea. On being lowered over a canopy of rock,
I came to the nest beneath it, a lu-oad platform of large
heather-stems which had been built into the foundation of the
structure for years. There was no cavity, luit on the to]» was
a bed of dried tufts of wood-rush, with an Eagle's feather and
the skull of a hare. We saw an Eagle fly across this mountain
with an occasional flap of its enormous wings, regardless of the
}iursuit of two Kavens which made repeated stoops at it.
apparently striking it at times, while a vicious little Merlin made
more rapid descents at it from above. I ha^e other rec(.)rds of
the Peregrine, Ravens, Choughs and Hooded Crows pursuing the
Golden Eagle.
An eyrie that contained young was described to me as having
on it six hares and a Grouse. In another a half-grown liadger
was found.
In Kerry these birds used to Ijreed made in a very liigli cliff over-
commonly in the mountain ranges of hanging a mountaiu4ake. They
tlie three peninsulas this county hred there every year within reeol-
contains. As to the northern one, lection, wliich would go l)ack one
Dr. Kane, an old resident, wrote to hundred years. This year a pair
to me in 188S : " A few years since returned to their former breediug-
a pair could he seen in every grounds.
mountain-range in this locality. In As to the Recks and adjacent
my shooting excursions I have seen mountains, Chute wrote in 1S41 :
twelve in a dav. Their nests were " Eight of these magnificent birds
128
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
have their eyries." Thompson in
1R49 stated that tliis species had
hecome very scarce in Kerrv, hut
inany observers testified to the fact
that they bred in tlie Reeks and
mountains west of them until about
1883, when the visit of two gontle-
men is remembered as the close of
the history. They took the co',^s from
one evrie, and the young from
another. In 1880 or 7 a pair
n.ttempted in vain to breed again at
the Eagle's Nest, Killaruev. Another
attemnt was inade to build near the
Long Range in 1891, but a pair of
Peregrines took possession of the
evrie and breed there still. Oolden
Eagles, however, still visit these
breeding-places in April, Init arc dis-
turbed.
The mountains that divide Cork
and Kerrv, soutli of the Kcnmare
River, long continued to he a breed-
ing-haunt of these birds, but in 1804
both the old Eagles were caTight
above Lougli Tnchiquin in traps set
beside their young.
In Waterford the eyrie above
Ooumsbingaun in the Comeragh
^Mountains is mentioned bv Thomp-
son as having been robbed in 18.37.
It was certainlv used up to 18,54 or
1855, if not Inter. I am informed
til at there was a second at Coumeag
in t1ie same range.
The Knockmealdown "Mountains
were inhabited on the Tipperary
side by Eagles, which I heard in
1858 were then breeding there. The
r^altees and the Keeper IMountain
in the same county were also inhab-
ited by them.
Though I have no records of these
birds breeding in Leiustcr, thcv have
occurred frequently about Powers-
court in Wicklow, two of them in
the consecutive springs of 18^0-90.
Turning to Connaught, Thompson
mentions eyries among the Twelve
Pins, CO. Galway, but states an
instance in which a pair of Golden
Eagles nested in the level part of the
country, selecting a small island in
the moorland - lakes. They bred
in the ^Maam ]Mountains until the
end of the eighties, but I know of
none l)reeding in Galway now.
In Mayo they have been driven
from some of their old resorts. Their
eyrie in the ErifT Valley was last
used in 1895, but they are srill to be
found in the sea-cliffs as well as the
inland ranges. When visiting that
county in 1898, with ISIr. Howard
Saunders, we saw Golden Eagles in
three localities.
In Sligo they had formerly breed-
ing-places both in the Ox IMountains
and the Benbulben range, while the
same may be said of the Leitrim
mountains. It is sad to read of their
frequent attempts to re-establish
themselves in these districts, in the
neighbourhood of Glencar for in-
stance, where they are regularly shot.
Gentlemen residing in Enniskillen
inform me that there were Eagles in
Fermanagh between 1870 and 1880.
In Donegal this species was resi-
dent in the jirincipal groups of
mountains. .\round ]\Iuckish and
Errigal it had its principal strong-
holds, where more than one pair
were to be seen in 1866 (ZooL, 1867,
p. Gl'2) ; and I ain happy to hear that
in 1898 Eagles have re-appeared in
that part of the country.
Five were formerlv seen in one day
near the head of Glenbeagh by Rev.
A. H. Dclap, who states that Eagles
were not uncommonly seen in the
]mrish of Templecrone from 1868 to
1878. They were repeatedly shot
from the nest in the Lough Easke
district, probably over Lough Bel-
sliade, where they bred for many years.
In 1862, and again in 1865, eggs
were taken from the Sperrin Range
between Londonderry and Tyrone.
Golden Eagles bred in Glcnariff,
CO. Antrim, until about 1850, as INIr.
Barton has informed me.
FALCONID.E.
129
The "Belfast Guide " (1874, p. 9G)
states that about lS3i this species
had breeding-places in the IMourne
Mountains, co. Down.
Isolated occurrences up to recent
years have been recorded from the
counties of Cork, Limerick, Wex-
ford, Kildare, King's County,
Westmeath, Meath, and many of
the counties named as their former
breeding-haunts. For instance, a
Golden Eagle was seen by Sir
Douglas Brooke in Fermanagh from
December 189i to I\Iarch 1895, and
the Hon. R. E. Dillon got close
to another on the ruined castle at
Clonbrock in January 1895.
THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. Haliaetus alhicUla, (LiDus?iis.)
Still breeds in one or two localities, but has become rarer than the
Golden Eagle.
Until the middle of the ceutnry or later the White-tailed Eagle
bred in the marine cliffs of Munster, Connaught, and Ulster, and
at a somewhat earlier date in those of the W^icklow mountains. It
is now on the point of extinction, its last resorts being in the most
remote j^arts of Kerry and Mayo. The exterminating canse has
been human agency, chiefly through the use of poison, as in the
case of the Golden Eagle.
Pike states that the Sea-Eagle is a foul feeder, and will, more-
over, eat all kinds of fish, and often watches the fords over which
Salmon leap, and makes them its prey (Zool., 1877, p. 103).
Thompson relates that, in June and July of the years 1835-8
successively, birds of this species used to visit the Galway side
of Lough Derg in order to prey on the dead or sick fish which
had been affected Vjy the heat in shallow water. He also quotes
statements that this Eagle will take fowls as well as cai-rion.
Individuals have been captured alive when gorged ; for instance,
one was driven into the Lower Lake, Killarney, while feeding on
a dead sheep on a sand-bank.
Thompson stated in 1849 that the
White-tailed Eagle ^yas then found
in suitable localities throughout
Ireland (referring chiefly to the
coasts), and that there was an eyrie
in the cliffs of Moher, co. Clare.
This is confirmed by ^Ir. INIacnamara,
proprietor of the place.
Kerry contained favoiu'ite abodes
of this Eagle (Thompson). :\Ir. W.
Corbet obtained three young from a
nest in that county about 187G, and
in 1889 an English collector took a
clutch of three eggs, also in Kerry.
In 1870, and probably later, a pair of
Ernes used to breed on the Blaskct
Islands, but they had ceased to do so
in the next decade.
In Cork, Thompson said that this
bird had several eyries, and Harvey
mentioned Sheep's Head and Berc
Island as breeding localities. In
1854 or 1855 Mr. G. H. Kinahan ob-
served a brood which ^vcrc reared on
130
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Crow Island, Dursey Sound, and he
knew the mountains of the Berehaven
peninsula to have been a great haunt
of Eagles of both si^ecics prior to 1855.
Thompson mentions a White-tailed
Eagle seen on Knockmealdown, co.
Waterford, in 1837. The late Lord
Lilford informed me in 1S9G that he
still had a female of this species,
procured through Lord Waterford' s
keeper in 1854 from a nest in the
Comeragh mountains. He recollected
to have been told that the nest was
in a high cliff over a mountain lake.
As the only mountain lake on Lord
Waterford's property was Coum-
shingaun, it is possible that this
species bred there latterly and not
the Golden Eagle, whose young was,
however, taken there in 1837
(Thompson, I., 9). Eagles are said
to have bred in the Ballycurrcen cliffs
near INIine Head.
In Wexford, Thompson stated this
l:>ird frequented the Saltee Islands
and the burrow of Ballyteigue.
In the counties of Dublin and
Wicklow, Wattcrs states there were
eyries within the last century at
Lambay Island and Bray Head. The
former haunt was mentioned by
Rutty in 1772. Thompson heard of
another breeding resort, sixteen miles
froin the sea at Lugnaquilla, the
loftiest of the Wicklov/ mountains ;
and among eggs that belonged to the
Dublin Natural History Society is
one marked " White-tailed Eagle "
from Lough Bray in the same range.
The caretaker at that place informed
Mr. Hart that the "Grey Eagle"
bred above the upper Lough Bray
until about 1832, when the eggs were
taken and the birds forsook the place
{ZooL, 1883, p. 156).
In or about 1875, a bird of tliis
species was obtained at Portraine,
CO. Dublin, by Frederick Knee, who
winged it. It survived for some
time.
White-tailed Eagles used to breed
liefore 1831 in the IMourne Moun-
tains, CO. Down, where Thompson's
informant had seen three or four
pairs and visited a nest containing
eggs. Mr. Lloyd Patterson informs
me that an adult female was shot at
]\Iount Stewart on the 30th January
1891, and is still preserved there.
Tliompson, on visiting Fairhead m
Antrim in 1839, saw a pair of these
Eagles which bred there at that
time. Another pair nested on Rath-
lin Island ; but though protected by
IMr. Gage, the proprietor, these Eagles
had been killed on the mainland
l)efore the visit of Mr. Howard
Saunders in 1866.
Canon Bristowe mentions having
frequently seen a pair on mountains
in Londonderry between 1850 and
1870, and was shown an island in
the midst of a bog where they were
said to have nested two years in
succession, and wliere one of them
lost its hind toe in a trap. This
Eagle was afterwards shot, and
Canon Bristowe had it preserved.
John Vandeleur Stewart stated in
1832 (Mag. Nat. History) that this
bird was very common in Donegal.
At Horn Head, Thompson saw two
nests tenanted in 1832 and five adult
Eagles, and the gamekeeper informed
him that he had killed some thirteen
of the species during the preceding
four years. On my visit to Horn
Head in 1891, the proprietor, Mr.
Stewart, told me that a pair of
Eagles had bred there about 1880 ;
Ijut he remembered when three pairs
bred at different points along those
cliffs, and one year four pairs had
bred there. He showed me a site
where liis father had seen an Eagle's
nest, capable of near approach. A
long chasni west of the Campbell
conducted the sea into a cave. On
one side of this the cliff was higher
than on the other, and just below its
top was a recess which held the nest
that could be seen at close quarters
FALCONID.E.
131
across the chasm. Au old nest of
later date shown me in the higiier
cliffs, east of the Horn, w!vvri(s, (Linnaeus.)
A rare and casual visitor in summer and autumn, occurring on the
eastern side of Ireland, never on the western.
Waterford. — Au immature speci- ucar Gorey in the summer or autumn
meu, preserved at Camphirc ou the of 1841. On 27th June 1890 a male
Blackwater was shot there by the was shot near Tiuteru Abbey, Bannow
late Christopher Ussher previously Bay, and presented to the Science and
to 1879. Art Museum, Dublin, by tlie late Cap-
Wexford. — Thompson (I., p. 78) tain Biddulph Colclough. In October
mentions one which was obtained 1892 another male (now in the collec-
For Black-winged Kite, sec Appendix.
FALCONID.E .
135
tion of ]Mr. Barriugton) having the
white phimage of a dark chocolate-
brown, was shot in a wood near Gorey.
Carlow. — On the 23rd September
1885 ^Messrs. Williams & Sou received
a specimen for preservation from
Mr. Hardy Eustace, Castlemorc.
Wicklow. — Thompson (I., p. 77)
records one shot in the grounds of
Kilruddery House in the summer of
1838, when another accompanied it.
Kildare. — Williams & Son state in
the Zoologist (1882, p. 74) that an
immature bird, now in our Science
and Art Museum, was obtained the
previous autumn, 1881, near New-
bridge.
Westmeath. — A male is recorded by
Thompson (III., p. 435), as killed the
beginning of April 1849 at Baronston
b}' poison set in a dead Coot.
Down. — A male, still in the PjcI-
fast iluseum, was shot on the
lltli June 1833 at Annadale. It
was accompanied by a similar bird
(Thompson).
Armagh. — In the end of September
1868 a Honey-Buzzard is stated to
have been shot near Lurgan (Blake
Knox in Zoologist, p. 1478 [1868] ).
Antrim. — On 7th June 1839 an
adult male was shot on the strand
of Belfast Bay (Thompson) .
The food found in the stomachs of
some of the above was earthworms,
wasps and their larvte, grasshoppers,
caterpillars, and pupffi of the Burnet-
moth.
THE GEEENLAND EALCON. Faico candicavs, J. F. Gmelin.
Rare and uncertain winter-visitor, from September to April inclusive,
chiefly on the coasts of Kerry, Mayo and Donegal.
It is remarkable that this moi-e northern species, rather than
the Iceland Falcon, should be the one more frequently recorded
from Ireland. Nineteen specimens have been obtained and
identified ; and if we include similar Falcons, seen or obtained
but not determined, on the presumption that they belong to this
species, we find thirty-one instances claiming notice.
Eight or ten of these Falcons were met with in pairs. Three
birds were taken alive, and others were killed (one with a stone)
under circumstances denoting a considerable absence of wariness.
We have six records for April, twice as many as for any other
month, but each of the seven months (September to April) has its
records. In the Avinter of 1883-4, eight were obtained (one in
Cork, two in Kerry, two in Mayo and three in Donegal), besides
others which were seen the same season.
Tlie above thirty-one Ijirds were distributed as follows : —
Kerry . . 7 Kilkenny 1 Galway . . 1 Donegal 9
Cork . . 2 , Meath . 1 Mayo . . 8 Antrim 1
Watcrford 1
Munster 10 Leinster
ConnauEfht 9
Ulster 10
136
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Kerry. — William Higginbotliam,
liglit-kcepcr, when a youth (in the
thirties ?), shot on the Skelligs a
" Hawk," larger than a Peregrine,
which was white, with dark bars;
a female was shot on the Tearaght
23rcl March 1884, and a male on the
2nd April 1884. Both are in the
Dublin INluseum, presented by Mr.
E. McCarron, light-keeper ; two more
were seen on the Tearaght on the
7th April, and one on the 21st April
1884, which pounced on a Puffin
(Migration Report). ]\Ir. A. J. P.
Wise informs me that during winter
between 1880 and 1887 a Greenland
or Iceland Falcon frequented sand-
hills and bogs on the shore of
Castlemaine Bay. It may have been
one of the above, so I do not count
it. An adult male, the whitest I
ever saw, now in Mr. Barriugton's
collection, was shot on the Skelligs
on 28tli September 1887 while feed-
ing on a rabbit. A " Jer-Falcon "
was observed by the light-keejjcr on
the Tearaght on the 16th April 1890
(Migration Reports).
Cork. — An adult female was
captured alive in the River Lee,
above Blackrock, near Cork, on 23rd
November 1883. It was sent alive to
England the following spring. A large
" Hawk," almost white, or very light
grey, was seen at theFastnet on the 5th
December 1888 (^Migration Reports).
Waterford. — An adult female, in
my possession, was shot near Annes-
town on the coast of this county in
the winter of 1893-4.
Kilkenny. — Kinahan noted in his
copy of Jardine, under the head of
Jer-Falcon — " Kilkenny about 20
years ago, Mr. Butler, 1831."
Meath. — One shot near Gormaus-
ton Castle, Drogheda, on 27th De-
cember 1851, is mentioned by Watters
as a " Gyr-Falcou." It is also noted
by Kinahan.
Galway. — A " White Hawk" was
seen at Slyue Head on 2nd Decem-
ber 1SS3. This or another was met
with at Clifden the same winter, as
appears hj a note of our late friend
A. G. More.
Mayo. — Watters states that he had
in his collection, afterwards burned,
an immature male "Gyr-Falcou"
shot at Ballina in December 1847.
A male, shot near Belmullet, is
recorded as a gift in the Proceedings
of the Dublin Natural History Society
for March 1863 (Mr. Warren informs
me that this capture has been erron-
eously assigned to 1868). An adult
female was shot near Killala on the
3rd April 1875, and preserved by
Colonel Knox, who gave it to his
brother in Sussex (Warren). An
adult male, shot on Eagle Island by
INIr. Henry Williams on the 14th April
1879, was preserved by him. An adult
female was killed with a stone on the
neighbouring mainland, a few days
later, while feeding on a rabbit. (We
are not to infer from the " Fowler in
Ireland," p. 311, that these birds
were killed on the Copeland Islands,
a place from which we have no
records of the Greenland Falcon.)
On Black Rock one was shot on the
9th November 1883, and a female, now
in Mr. Barriugton's collection, de-
scribed as much smaller than the last,
on the 10th ]March 1884 (IMigration
Reports). A " White Hawk, some-
thing larger than a Peregrine," was
seen on Black Rock by Mr. Jeremiah
Traut on the 23rd November 1891,
and on the 12th December 1891 Mr.
Williams received from Achill for
pres.ervation a male Greenlander,
probably the same bird.
Donegal. — Thompson mentions an
adult male killed on the wing over a
rabbit-warren near Dunfanaghy, pre-
vious to 1837, and an immature bird
obtained about 1842, by the same
informant, from Drumboe Castle. A
female,which INIr. Glennon announced
in the Field (20th February 1875) as
a Jer-Falcon, was received by him for
FALCONID/E.
137
preservation, from Malin Hall, iu
January 1875. There is now iu the
Natural History IMuseuni, South
Kensington, a sjjecimen -which was
caught alive after it had gorged itself
with a rabbit at IMoville, in the same
part of Donegal, about the 1st Novem-
ber 1877. Another individual was
captured alive at Glenmore on the
13th September 1882. The butler of
Mr. Dames Longworth, when out
fishing, was crossing a deep dyke,
when a bird of this species, which he
described as quite fatigued, flew up
and he knocked it down with his
landing-net. It was kept alive for
nearly five years, and is now preserved
at Glynwood, Athlone, where I have
seen it. After its capture, a companion
bird frequented the locality and
hovered over the cage that contained
the captive. A young female was shot
at Horn Head on the 29th November
1SS3, and an adult female was also
killed at Horn Head on the 1st
January 1884. Both these specimens
are in the collection of Mr. H. Becher,
who stated {ZooL, 1884, p. 115) that a
third had been seen about the same
place. An immature female was shot
near Letterkenny, by I\Ir. Domhnal
Kinahan, on the 13th January 1884,
and presented to the Dublin Museum.
Antrim. — A Greenland Falcon was
shot on Rathlin Island on the 9th
IMarch 1865, and was seen by ^Ir.
Howard Saunders, who was told that
it had a companion which escaped.
THE ICELAND FALCON. Falco island us, J. F. Gmelin.
Very rare visitor. I only know of two Irish specimens in existence.
This bird is very much rarer in Ireland than the preceding, but
it is possible that some of the eleven cases of so-called " Jer-
Falcons," or " Great White Hawks," which have not been identi-
fied, may have been of Iceland Falcons. One can, however, only
compare the actual numbers of those duly determined.
An immature bird, which from its
size may have been a female,
was shot by the late ]Mr. Garrett of
Belfast, in the CO. Donegal, in 1859 or
1860. It is now in the iDossession of
Mr. Alexander Garrett, at Ealing,
where Mr. Howard Saunders inspected
it in 1897.
Another undoubted Iceland Falcon
was shot at Termoncarragh, near
Belmullet, co. Mayo, in September
1877 (Williams and Sons' books). It
was lent to the Dublin IMuseum by
the owner, Mr. Richards (More, in
ZooL, 1881, p. 488).
In the Migration Reports (1888,
p. 10; it is stated that an Iceland
Falcon had been obtained at Westport
that year, and there is a private note
made by More to the same effect.
138
BIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. FaJco peregrinus, Tunstall.
Resident and frequent along the sea-cliffs which bound Ireland, as well
as in the higher mountains.
More fortuuate tliau the Eagles, there Sive comparatively few
of its breeding-resorts in which the Peregrine has been exter-
minated, and the bird fairly holds its own wherever cliffs afford
it suitable haunts.
There are but few such places
along the east coast of Ireland, but
Peregrines breed still on the islands
of the CO. Dublin, though they have
ceased to do so on Howth or Bray
Head. It is believed that there are
six eyries anrong the lofty mountain-
precipices of Wicklow. In South
Wexford Peregrines breed on the
Sal tee Islands and on the cliffs of the
mainland. On the Waterford coast
there are eight breeding-places, and
three more in the Comeragh 3Ioun-
tains, while in Tipperary there is
one in the Knockmealdown Range
and another resort in the Galtees.
Along the coasts and islands of Cork
and Kerry a long chain of eyries may
be traced, ^-one on each precipitous
island. In Clare there is a breeding-
place iu a cliff far up the Shannon
estuary, others in the cliffs near
Kilkee and the cliffs of Moher. The
Arran Islands, High Island, and the
Twelve Pins are among the breeding-
sites in Galway. Then the cliffs of
Achill in Mayo, and a cliff not far
from there about forty feet high,
are homes of the Peregrine. Mr.
Warren informs me that along the stu-
pendous cliff-line of the North Mayo
coast there are eight or nine eyries.
There are others in the mountains of
Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Fer-
managh. The extensive county of
Donegal, abounding in mountains
and lofty peninsulas with attendant
islands, affords this Falcon numerous
breeding- places, among which may be
mentioned Slieve Leagiie, Tormore,
Dunmore near Portnoo, Aranmore,
Tory Island, Horn Head with its
nriles of cliffs, in which two or three
pairs breed, and the lofty inland
precipices of Muckish and other
mountains. In Londonderry there
was an eyrie (now deserted) at
Magilligan, but Peregrines are still
found iu the Sperrin Range between
that county and Tyrone. In Antrim
there are several eyries along the
marine and inland cliffs, and two on
Rathlin Island. In the Mourne
Mountains, co. Down, three pairs
are reported to breed.
The Peregrine being a great
wanderer in search of prey, has
probably been obtained in every
county in Ireland, IMonaghan, Long-
ford and Carlow being the only
blanks in my list of records. On the
decoy-lake at Longueville, near
iMallow, far from coasts or mountain-
cliffs, I have seen a great commotion
created among the ducks by its
appearance in winter.
Dr. Kane has frequently seen this Falcon follow a sportsman
during the day on the Dingle Peninsula, and take away game just
shot or wounded.
Mr. Warren writes : " During winter Peregrines are often to be
seen hunting along the shores of the Moy estuaiy, feeding chiefly
FALCONID.qj. 139
on wild-fowl, Curlews occasionally, but Lapwings appear to be their
favourite prey. I one clay witnessed the finish of a splendid
flight ; when the Lapwing found she could not keep above the
Falcon she dropped close to the water, and tried to escape by
flying close along the surface. The Falcon, after several stoops,
cleverly avoided by the Lapwing, was so near clutching that the
poor bird, quite worn out, dropped into the water, and the Falcon,
after rising from her stoop, poised a moment on her wings, and
then quietly lowering herself with extended legs, lifted the Lap-
wing from the water and bore her off. On aiiother occasion I saw
a flight of a Greenshauk from Eosserk Abbey across the river tu
the Moyview shore. This bird had no chance of escaping by
flight, so, screaming piteously at every stoop of the Falcou, and
dropping into the water, it would dive for a few yards, and then
emerging, take flight again until another stoop of the Falcon
caused it to take refuge by diving. This 1 saw repeated several
tiines, until the Greenshank reached the shore, where it attempted
to hide in the sea-weed, and I hastened down and drove the Falcon
away. Some short time afterwards I saw the ending of another
flight, when a Lapwing was so exhausted that it dropped into the
water and swam ashore just where I was standing, and allowed
me to take it without atteinpting to fly. The Falcon was so tierce
and determined that after I had taken up the Lapwing it waited
on, flying round me and following me for some distance, and when
I held up the flutteriug Lapwing the Falcon used to stoop at it
close to my head, sometimes coming within a yard of me.
" The terror shown by the wild-fowl on the appearance of a
Falcon flying over the sands is extraordinary. Large flocks of
Wigeon resting or feeding on the banks immediately take to the
water. The Golden Plover and Lapwings rise and keep flying
about at an immense height, sometimes for hours. The Curlew
and other waders move about from ])ank to bank, and all the birds
become so frightened and restless that there is very little chance
of obtaining a shot for the day."
Mr. Sheridan relates in the i'ieM (Uth May 1887) that on May
3rd a flock of Brent Geese Avas observed flying towards Achill
Head. A Peregrine singled out one, and brought it down. A
lad ran to secure the Goose ; the Hawk let go, and the Goose
recovering itself took flight again. The Falcon then gave chase
and knocked the Goose down a second time.
When breeding in marine cliffs, the Peregrine's eyrie is
frequently found in the midst of some great colony of sea-birds.
I have seen the Kazorbills and Guillemots sitting' on their eggs
]40 BIRDS OF IRELAND,
around the recess that eontaiued young Peregrines. lu fact, no
great clift'-lDird colony seems to be complete without its pair of
Falcons. Here Puffins are the favourite prey, but this varies
according to locality. I have had frequent opportunities of
inspecting the Peregrines' larder when visiting their eyries.
Rooks are by far the most usual quarry in co. Waterford, but
small rabbits and Rock-Doves are also largely taken. Occasionally
the Magpie, Jackdaw, Corncrake, Waterhen, Curlew, Whimbrel,
Dimlin, or Partridge form the victims, and, in the higher
mountains, Grouse. One spring ray first evidence of the arrival
of the Cuckoo was afforded by the plucking-j^lace of the Peregrine,
where I found the feathers, and even the remains of a Wagtail
have been found in a similar place. I have met with limbs of
hedgehogs near the Peregrine's breeding-haunt on the Saltee
Islands, and elsewhere the leg-bones of a sheep, which shared the
plucking-place with remains of birds. These may exjilain the
sheep-bones found by Wolley (Yarrell, 4th Ed. Vol. I., p. 58).
This is the only indication I have found of dead meat being used
by Peregrines, whose habits seem usually to safeguard them
against the poisoned food which has proved so deadly to the
Eagles. Though subsisting mainly on wild creatures, they
occasionally kill domestic fowl. A Donegal cottager comjilain-
ing of the loss of his chickens, declared that the bird of prey
on one occasion went off " with one in each fist." Thompson
quotes a story uf a Peregrine which took a Corncrake, and then,
seeing another started, pursued and secured it with its second
foot without letting the first victim go.
I have found in an eyrie castings which, though consisting
chiefly of feathers, contained a good many fragments of various
beetles.
The Raven and the Peregrine, breeding as they do in similar
situations, frequently come in each other's way, and wlien they
do there is an inevitable battle, which sometimes is carried on for
an hour. Being a Ijird of comparatively slow and cKimsy flight,
the former is no match f(jr the Falcon ; nevertheless it manages
to hold its own, and will sometimes breed on one side of a moun-
tain while its foe does so on the other.
I have various evidence confirming the statement that when
one of a pair of Peregrines is killed its place is soon filled, but not
until it has been fought for by rival suitors ; the laying, however,
may be delayed, as occurred in a case I knew, when light-keepers
.reported a contest of four Peregrines in April, and no eggs
appeared to be laid that season.
falconidyE. 141
The hereditary attachment of this species to its eyrie is shown
bv one of their j^resent haunts being named in Irish " Peregrine's
Cliff" (Foil-na-Showk). or " Hawk's Cliff" in the Ordnance maps ;
but a more remarlvable instance is that of High Island, off
Connemara, still inhabited by these birds, where OTlaherty
wrote in 1684 that " yearlie an ayrie of Hawkes is found " (H. lar-
Connaught, p. 115). An eyrie in the Wieklow mountains is
annually occupied afresh, though the birds are always destroyed.
In 1890 two females were ti-apped in it, and afterwards the
male.
The eggs are usually laid year after year in the same recess in
the cliffs, but if the first clutch is taken, a second is laid about
a month later in another spot some hundreds of yards distant.
The bird has often two or three alternative breeding-places in
the same locality, and gives a preference to one of them. One
long-used breeding-place is within half a mile of thirteen inhabited
houses. The eyrie is always far above the bottom of the cliff,
though sometimes far also from the top ; but I have known one
near a cliff-top 400 feet above the sea. In rare cases, as on
marine islands, the eyrie can be apj^roached on foot. Two
gentlemen and two ladies lauded on such an island, and seeing
a Peregrine hatching, set out to reach the spot by different routes.
The ladies got to it first. But the eyrie is, as a rule, so overhung
by the rock above and so inaccessible from below that it can onlv
be reached and inspected by means of a rope. This may account
for the misconceptions as to the so-called " nests " which have
lieen perpetuated in some of our standard works. I hapj^en to
have examined a great many eyries, for I live within a day's drive
of ten of them, and during the years when I collected eggs I did
my own clifting. I have never found any building-material
whatever brought by a Peregrine, though she will sometimes lay
in the deserted nest of a Eaveu or Hooded Crow, and an instance
is reported in which a pair took possession of an Eagle's nest
in 1891 and breed in it still. I have invarial>ly found that, unless
some such old nest is used, the Peregrine selects a ledge or shelf
covered with earth, peat, or gravel, sometimes with grass ; and
having simply scratched a hollow which shows the marks of her
claws, she lays in it ; and she does not always clear out small stones.
These, with the castings of the l:)ird, occur sometimes among the
eggs. So fond is she of laying on the same favourite bench, that on
one occasion, when a piece of slaty stone had fallen into the nesting-
hollow and could not be removed l>y scratching, the Peregrine laid
her four eggs around it ; I found them resting against the sharp
14'2 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
edges of this fragment, whielilay between them. The stone, now
before me, measures 5 inches by 3|. This is not the only case
in which I have fcmnd sharp-edged stones between the eggs.
The j>rey brought for the yonng from year to year gradually
accumulates a lot of bones and dust, in which a hollow is scratched
before the next laying. Frequently wild flowers grow and bloom
around, but these are all trampled and soiled during the feeding
of the young. Sometimes the eyrie is visil)le from the opposite
cliff, and sometimes it is not overhung by the rock above, biit
these are exceptional cases. What the Peregrine loves is a
beetling-cliff above, an over-arching niche, an oven-shaped recess,
or, best of all, a miniature ca"\'ern with an earthy floor. Here
I have found the bleached and addled eggs of a former year, still
capable of being blown, simply pushed aside from the new laying.
The eggs are frequently disposed in a straggling, untidy manner,
so that they do not all touch each other. In this they differ from
the eggs of every other bird I know. In the county of Waterford
thev ai'e laid during the first half of April. The earliest egg
I ever heard of was seen on the 3rd, but at least one of a set that
I took early in April must have been laid before the end of March.
The earliest date on which I found young hatched was the 25th
April. In a sheltered eyrie laying takes place earlier than in an
exposed one. I have never known more than four eggs, which
is the usual number, but frequently three only are laid. I have
on several occasions found Init two, and even one egg or young
l>ird, but I suspect accidents in these cases. Hooded Crows will
suck or steal Peregrine's eggs, and the bi-eeding-shelf is some-
times so insecure that eggs may roll off. After carefully
measui'ing all the Irish eggs available from time to time, I
find the average length slightly exceeds 2 inches by 1*59 ; but
those from the county of Waterford exceed in size those from
Wexford, Tipperary, Cork and Kerry which I have examined.
One evrie in the first-named county contained year after year eggs
of such exceptional size as averaged 2'IG x 1"66, the largest
(now in mv collection) attaining the remarkal)le dimensions of
2-32 X lv6. And here I may c^uote a remark of Dr. Charles
Smith (1746): "In the sea-cliffs of this county (Waterford)
there are eyries of excellent Falcons, which were formerly of great
repute among our antient kings and British nobility, as appears
from the tenure's of some lands and estates being held by
presenting Hawks from this county."
In their colouring, our Irish Peregrine's eggs exhibit many
beautiful variations. The ground of some is white, of others
^hototirapJuii hy C Kcait^n
PEREGRINE'S EYRIE.
FALCONID.E. 143
yellowish ; of others, pink ; and of others, vivid brick-red. The
markings vary both in intensity and colour, from the palest
yellowisli or reddish lirown, to crimson-brown, orange-ln'owu and
brownish black. Sometimes l^lack spots and sometimes white spots
occur on red-brown eggs. One biixl produced eggs with occasional
crooked lines of deep, crimson brown. Other eggs have a pink
ground, with markings of purple, reddish brown and dark brown.
Purple, lilac, or lead-coloured under-shell markings occasionally
occur. One variety has pale yellowish freckling all over, like eggs
of the Iceland Falcon. Some are of a leather-colour, with scarcely
any ground visible, and others are covered all over with specks,
spots, blotches, and dashes of the darker hues. The colour is
frequently massed intensely at the smaller end. Sometimes it
appears to have been wiped off, leaving only the stain, with fresh
spots super-added. One egg has a yellowish ground, but its
larger portion covered with blackish brown. Ovate eggs, with the
small end pointed, occur, but the common type is l:)luut and
rounded, at times almost globular. (See Frontispiece.)
A Peregrine brooding on her eggs j)resents a very remarkable
appearance. She crouches, with wings resting on the ground,
the tip of each elevated and turned rather outwards, her neck
close to the ground, and the face, with its black marks, turned
slightly upwards. The duty of incubation is, as a rule, performed
by the female. The male is usually on some look-out point near,
and when alarmed takes flight, with outcries which are taken up
in a different key by the female so soon as she is rouseil. from her
eggs. Both birds then fly in wide circles, with rapidly-lieating
wings, uttering a bitter, |iiercing " hek, hek, hek." Much excite-
ment is occasioned hy the young being approached, and swoops
are made towards the intruder, but he is never attacked. I have
known a mountain Peregrine to quit her eggs and disappear
almost in silence, but this is a very uncommon thing.
When the young are able to stand, the female feeds them by
holding up the bits she has torn from the prey. These the
young take from her beak. Her superintendence of them lasts
a, considerable time after they have flown. This they do about
the middle of June, and they may afterwards lie seen following
her on the wing.
144
BIRDS OF lEELAND.
THE HOBBT. Faico suhhuteo, Linngeus.
Rare and casual summer-visitor,
the South-east of Ireland.
Has occurred ten times, chiefly in
The teu instances here meutiouecl were thus distributed: —
Cork one, Tipperary two, Wexford five, Dublin one, Leitrim one.
One has occurred in Api'il, three in May, three in June and one in
AuLmst.
Cork. — The first trustworthy notice
of the Hobby in Ireland was furnished
to Tliompson by Harvey. A coloured
drawing was made of a bird shot in
the summer of 1822 at Carrigrohan,
and this enabled Harvey to recognize
it as a Hobby.
Tipperary. — In the Field of 15th
June 1SG7, Mr. H. B. Murray an-
nounced the capture of another shot
at Marlfield, Clonmel, on the 6th June,
while it was hawking for flies over the
river. Its stomach contained the re-
mains of small beetles and large flies.
This specimen, a male, as ]\Ir. Murray
informs me, was presented to the
Royal Dublin Society.
I have the authority of the late
IMr. William Corbet (a gentleman
who long kept Falcons and many
other birds) for stating tliat he shot a
male Hobby near Bird Hill about the
year 1810 [Zool, 1883, p. 122). He
skinned it, but a cat spoiled the skin.
Wexford.^ A female was killed
near Newtownbarry in May 1862, and
was inspected by Newman (Field, 21st
February 1863). A second Hobby is
said to have been with this bird when
she was shot.
In the Field of 3rd June 1869, the
occurrence of another Hobby at New-
townbarry, a few days previously, is
recorded by Mr. Hall Dare, who sent
the skin to the editor. On the 23rd
]May 1890 another specimen was taken
alive on the Lucifer Shoals lightship
off the Wexford coast, and is now in
the collection of Mr. Barrington {Zool.
1890, p. 357).
On the 17th ilay 1895, a Hobby
was found dead, in an emaciated state,
in the garden of Loftus Hall, near
Hook Head, and is in Mr. Barrington's
collection. Again, on the 16th April
1899, an adult male was obtained
at Loftus Hall and sent to Mr.
Barrington.
Dublin. -In the Zoologist (s.s. p.
■1537 [1S75] ) ]Mr. John Sclater records
that an adult male was sent to
him which had been shot on the 7th
June in the town of Balbriggan. Its
stomach contained the skulls and
wing-bonos of two bats.
Leitrim. —Mr. Sheals, of Belfast,
informs me that a male was received
by him for preservation from Glen-
farn in August 1893.
THE MEELIN. Falco semlon, Tunstall.
Resident in small numbers in the many mountainous counties of Ireland,
as well as on some of the great red bogs of the central plain.
The haunt of the Merlin l)eini;- unreclaimed moorland and
mountain, it is chiefly confined to the mountain ranges, on which
it breeds in every county of Muuster and Connaught (if we may
FALCOXID.E. 145
include Clare); as to the Wexford Mountains I can only say tliat it
is met with there, but through the extensive range of the Dublin
and Wicklow Mountains Merlins breed in many places, three nests
having been found on Kippure in one year. Turning to the mid-
land counties, we find these birds breeding not only on the Slieve
Bloom Rauge, but also on the flat bogs which cover so much of
Queen's County, King's County, "Westmeath, and Eastern Ualway
with their tracts of moor. Then on the Carlingi ord Mountains in
Louth, the mountains and moors of Cavan, Fermanagh and
Tyrone, the mountains of the maritime counties of Ulster, Down,
Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal — on all these the Merlin has
its breeding-resorts — being probably more widespread in Donegal
than in most other counties, owing to the great extent of the
mountain wilds, while the same may be said of Western Connaught.
Yet, though it is so widely dispersed, this species is generally far
from, numerous ; in Waterford it is apparently less so than the
Peregrine Falcon, and it is but little known owing to the lonely
nature of its haunts, which are seldom left in summer. From
August, through autumn and winter, it wanders over the culti-
vated districts and down to the coasts, having even been shot two
miles from land ; and to Dublin Bay it is an autumnal visitor,
appearing in September and feeding on Dunlins. The Merlins
bred on Irish moors and mountains seem sufficient to account for
these occurrences, though it is not im}>robable that some birds
come in winter from Britaiu, especially to Leinster.
Mr. H. Blake Knox has been, when out Snipe- shooting, followed
by one of this species, which never struck a Snipe on the ground,
but if the latter Avere shot or wounded would seize it, if possible,
before it had fallen, and carry it off.
Chaffinches are often taken, also Skylarks, Yellow-hammers and
Blackbirds, but not G-rouse of any age, to my knowledge. On Eathlin
Island a Merlin was caught when pursuing a bird into a house.
Mr. Campbell when watching Lapwings near Lough Swilly saw
a male Merlin fall on one like lightning, and on missing its mark,
with a sudden, upward sweep and turn it struck the bird dead to
the ground ; the Merlin tried to carry off the quarry, Ijut soon had
to drop it (Irish Naturalist, 1894, p. 187;.
Mr. Warren has seen most exciting flights at Dunlins and
other small waders in winter, but states that the finest flights were
at Skylarks. On one occasion, while looking at some men with a
horse and cart removing timber cast up by the sea, a Lark dropped
down beside them, and ran under the cart : one of the men drove
it out, when a Merlin, that had evidently been waiting overhead,
L
146 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
dasliecl down at the Lark, and in a few moments fhej both
disappeared far to seaward.
The Snipe, when pressed hard, will fly straight np, to defeat
the Merlin's attempt to rise above it.
I have seen one of these birds making most vicious swoops on
a Golden Eagle, without, however, appearing to strike it; and
Thompson mentions a Merlin attacked by Swallows, which
retaliated so furiously as C[uickly put them to flight.
At Colebrooke a male and female are preserved, with this in-
scription : " Breeding in a tree on an island in Lough Erne."
On a moorland lake of Conneiuara I have been taken to a
very small, steep island on the top of which a Merlin had bred,
and which was covered with tall heather, dwarf rowan, juniper,
bracken, osmunda, and wood-rush ; and Mr. H. Leybourne Popham
informs me that he thrice found Merlins' nests on such islands in
Connemara lakes. The Merlin builds no regular nest, but selects
a slight hollow in the ground, where, in May, the eggs are laid,
sometimes on a broken sprig or two of heather, or on some
withered mountain grass, but not Tinusually on the bare soil ;
this bird is also said to lay on a tussock of heather near the
edges of the inland l)0g. A mountain lirow, or the top of an
escarpment, backed by tall heather, and having a good view in
front, is a favourite site.
THE RED-FOOTED FALCON. FaJeo vespertinm,J^mn^\\s.
Accidental visitant, having been obtained but once in Ireland.
A specimen, now in the Science and Art Museum. Dul^lin,
and formerly in the collection of Mr. T. W. Warren, was shot
in the county of Wicklow, in the summer of 1832, just as it
had pounced at a Pigeon of at least its own size.
THE KESTREL. Fah-o th, tun, cuius, LinuEeus.
Resident throughout Ireland, but in winter becomes scarce in part
of Leinster and Ulster.
There is no bird more widely distributed in Ireland than the
Kestrel (unless it be the Wren). It breeds in the precipitous
sides of the higher mountains, as Avell as in the cultivated and
wooded districts, and also commonly in the sea-cliffs, extending
falconid.t:. r47
its range to sueli islands as the Blaskets, the Arran Islands. A chill,
Aramnore and Eathlin. but it is nowhere numerous, and I have
never known two pairs to breed near each other.
Though I have failed to discover any part of Ireland from
which the Kestrel is absent in winter, several informants agree
in stating that at that season its numl)ers sensibly diminish.
This applies to Northern Donegal, the neighbourhood of Belfast,
the counties of Armagh, Longford, Queen's County, Wicklow,
and perhaps Wexford, but not to the provinces of Munster nor
Connaught. Doubtless some individuals change their quarters
without leaving Ireland in winter, for a few fi-equent church
towers in Dublin at that season.
Some works on ornithology have left us in doubt whether the
Kestrel does not build a nest of its own, and a " life-case " has
been arranged representing Kestrels with a fresh-looking nest in
a rock, but inspection of a great number of breeding-places has
invariably shown me that this species, like the Peregrine, never
brings any building materials. It will appropriate the deserted
nest of a Hooded Crow or Magpie, which indeed is its usual
habit in wooded districts, and in the bare west of Ireland such
birds build in very low bushes on islands in lakes. In the case
of an old Magpie's nest the fibrous lining is removed and the eggs
are laid on the bare clay of the cup. When the Kestrel breeds
in cliffs or the sides of quarries, (where its domicile becomes the
miniature of the Peregrine's eyrie,) an earthen bed is chosen for
the eggs, in a recess more or less deep and overhung by the rock,
and there the bird scratches a little nesting-hollow, if the nature
of the materials admit of so doing, but never lays on the bare rock.
In one case I found the eggs in a little chamber at the end of a den
so long that it took a sis-foot pole-net to reach them ; and in another
they were laid on the eai'th that covered the brow of a c[uarry
close to the edge aud backed by tall heather, somewhat like a
Merlin's breeding-place. The niche containing the bright ruddy
eggs is sometimes surrounded by a mass of luxuriant verdure, aud I
once found the clutch laid in grass that grew on the breeding-shelf.
A recess in a lofty ruin is frecj^uently selected, and occasionally a
hole in a tree; thus the Eev. Allan Ellison found eggs lying on a
bed of rotten wood in the flat bottom of a hollow which was al)out
a foot in diameter, aud ran down some two feet into the large limb
of a beech. The eggs are laid at intervals of two days or so ;
accordingly the first nestling hatched may be more than a week
older than the last, the number being from four to six. As in tlie
case of the Peregrine, the eggs lose their freshness of colouring aud
L 2
148 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
their markings become blurred during incubation ; in some
varieties purplish or lilac uuder-shell markings occur. They are
often laid in April in the south of Ireland, more usually early in
May, this bird being an earlier breeder than the Sparrow-Hawk
or the Merlin.
The poor Kestrel has often to fight vigorously for its eggs
against the detenuined attacks of the Hooded Crows so common
in our sea-cliffs. I have seen it hunted perseveringly by Rooks,
but its deadliest enemy is the gamekeeper, who generally seems
incapable of distinguishing l^etween this harmless bird, which is
commonly called " Sparrow-Hawk " in Ireland, and the true owner
of that name.
In illustration of the sort of ]>rey Kestrels will take, I may
mention having watched a family party hovering quite low over
our coast, and pouncing frequently on the ground, which was
covered with very short herbage ; on examining the ]ilace, I found
it abounded in grasshoppers. Kestrels will eat dead animals, for
I have more than once found, to my sorrow, that they had died
from eating poisoned rats left for Mag])ies ; Mr. Sinclair, too, had
a dead goose dusted with strychnine and put out in a field, and
next day two Kestrels were found dead beside it. Dr. Burkitt
described to me one which was taken, with its claws entangled in
the fur of a stoat, which fiercely defended itself, and a Kesti-el in
Mr. Barrington's collection was taken in the act of killing a Star-
ling. The regular visit of this bird to each place on its daily beat
in quest of prey has been observed in Ireland as elsewhere.
A specimen was described, shot in the co. Wexford, in which the
whole of both wings, the lower breast and abdomen, were white,
and the claws pinkish-white (Irislt Sjiortsman, 16th January
189-2).
THE LESSER KESTREL. Fah-o ceuchrls, Naumann.
Accidental visitor. Once obtained in winter.
An adult male of this beautiful little Falcon was shot near
Shankill. county Dublin, on the 17th of Feliruary 1891. while
feeding on earth-worms in a ploughed field. The bird had been
noticed as far back as the 8tli or 10th November 1890 at Glen-
amuck in the same neighbourhood. It used to folloAV the
plough like a Gull, walking along the farrows ; then it would
rise and quarter the ground until it saw a worm, on which it
would immediately drop. It appeared to disregard small birds.
FALCONIDvE. 149
numbers of which frequented the same field. At first it was
very tame, but after it was fired at it became wary of persons
with guns, though it would still feed close to the workmen.
It was thus repeatedly seen during three months in the same
locality on the borders of Dublin and Wicklow (More, in ZooL,
1891, p. 152). The specimen is now in the Dublin Museum.
This is an instance of a European summer-migrant, which,
having wandered to Ireland towards the end of the year,
remained for the winter.
THE OSPEEY. Pandlon haUaetus, (Linnaeus.)
A casual visitant which occurs chiefly in autumn. Not so rare as
has been supposed.
In the time of Giraldus Cambrensis the Osprey could not have
been very uncommon iu Ireland, for he wrote : " There are many
birds here of a twofold nature, called Ospreys. It is wonderful
how these birds — and I have witnessed it myself — hover in the
air over the waves, and when they discover fishes lurking, they
pounce upon them from on high with headlong speed, and diving-
come to the surface," &c.
There is no record of the Osprey ever breeding in Ireland.
Sir E, Payne-Gallwey states : " It is yet to be met with now and
then on various parts of the Irish coast. I have several times been
interested in observing one of these birds fishing " (" Fowler in
Ireland," p. 305).
We have fifty-one notices (some relating to more tlian one Osprey) in which
localities are given, and which are thus distributed ; —
Kerry
. 12
Wexford
3
Galway . .
3
Fermanagh
Cork . .
9
Wicklow
1
IMayo . .
3
^lonaghan
Waterford
o
Dublin . .
2
Eoscommon
1
Armagli .
Clare
. 1
Queen's Co.
1
Sligo . . .
1
Down .
Limerick
1
Kildare . .
1
Antrim
Tipperary
2
]\Ieath . .
1
Munster
. 27
Lcinster
9
Connaught .
8
Ulster . .
The absence of any records from Donegal and Londonderry is
remarkable, while Cork and Kerry have been so frequently visited
as to suggest that Ospreys, like many other birds, arrive chiefly
along our south-east coast, and pass south-westwards round
Munster.
G150
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Thirty occurrences of the Osprey in Ireland, whose dates are forthcoming
took place in the following months :—
January
February
. 1
April .
May .
. . 1
2 or 3
July . . .
August . .
3
3
October
November
. 8
. 4
i\Iarcli .
. 1
June .
•2 or 3
September .
5
December
. —
Thus, although examples have been recorded during spring and
summer, this bird visits us most frequently during the autumn
migration.*
Kerry. — Thompson saw an Osprey
fishing on the lower lake,Killarney, on
the 13th July 1834. About ISTSone
was obtained in the same locality and
preserved by ^Messrs. Williams & Sons
(Field, 8th August 1874) . Mr. Eoss,
former gamekeeper on the ^Nluckross
estate, told Sir R. Payne-Gallwey
that Ospreys were often seen hover-
ing about the lakes of Killarney ;
and ]Mr. Chisholm, his successor, has
informed me that one was seen there
in the winter of 1896-7. A specimen
in the Science and Art iluseum was
obtained by the late ^Ir. Andrews,
from Kerry. ]\Ir. A. H. Bowles
stated to Sir R. Payne-Gallwey that
he had seen the Osprey in Kerry ;
one, probably that now in possession
of Judge Neligan, was shot near
Tralee Bay about the end of Septem-
ber 1870 {Zool, s. s., p. 240G). Be-
tween 1880 and 1887 :\rr. A. J. P.
Wise found this species on Dingle
Bay, in August and in November,
and one passed across Caragh Lake ;
its occurrence on Dingle Bay is
mentioned in the " Fowler in
Ireland." In Land and Watcf,
'2ud ]\Iarch 1895, the capture of an
adult bird at Killorglin the previous
February is recorded.
Cork. — A specimen in Queen's
College, Cork, was shot at Lakelands
in that county on 14th October 1848,
and Dr. Harvey mentions another
shot on the Bride River in 18-52 ;
another, recorded in the Field of
6th July 1867, was shot the week
before on the Blackwater above
^Mallow. In October 1881 three were
shot in CO. Cork, one of them at
Castle IMartyr, and another at
Bandon Park ; ]Mr. Rohu, who pre-
served them, showed me another shot
near IMacroom in September (?) 1885.
He preserved a fifth, shot at old
Dromore, co. Cork, on 11th ^lay
1893 (Irish Nat., 1893, p. 201).
Waterford. — A specimen was ob-
tained near Dunmore East in Septem-
ber 1875 ; another, presented to the
Cork ]\Iuseum by Mr. P. Smyth in
1879, was shot some years previously
on the Bride in the same county.
Limerick. — The Science and Art
iluscum, Dublin, contains one
obtained at Castleconnell in Novem-
ber 1864.
Tipperary(?). — IMr. C. Homier
describes one ho saw fishing on
Lough Derg in ^lay or June 1890
(Dr. Morton). A female, which was
in company with another, was shot
near Cahir on 10th October, 1899
(^Messrs. Williams & Sons).
Wexford. — A fine specimen, shot
on Wexford Harbour in November
1880, was preserved by Whelock. An
immature bird was shot at Courtown
on 17th September 1885, and another
in tlie same locality in 1890.
Wicklow. — A female, a bird of the
year, was shot on the river near
Glcndalough on 15th October 1896.
Dublin. — Two were procured at a
* In the autumn of 1881 twelve are stated to have been shot within one
month, according to Sir R. Payne-Gallwey. These would increase our
autumn records bv eight.
FALCONID.E.
151
pond near the Dublin and Kings-
town Railway on 19tli October 1839
(Thompson). An immature Osx^rey,
now in the Dublin Museum, was shot
at Clontarf in November 1881 ; this
or another bird had been observed
towards the end of October iive
miles south of Dublin mobbed by
Rooks.
Kildare. — One was obtained at
Garristown on 23rd October 1837
(Thompson) .
Queen's Co. — One was killed
previously to 1833 (Ibid.) .
Meath. — One was captured near
Kells on 20th July 1874 (Williams, in
Field) .
Galway. — One was seen at
Oughterard, on Lough Corrili, in
August 1835, in which district
others had been shot (Thompson).
In 1895 I learned that a Mr.
Geohegan in Oughterard possessed a
specimen.
Mayo. — One was seen fishing on
Keel Lake on 12th ilarch 1880 by
Mr. Sheridan, who preserved another,
which was also met with on Keel Lake
on 15th April 1892. (These two are
the only records I have for I\Iarch
and April.)
Roscommon. — ^Major King-
Harman described to me an Osprey
that he had seen fishing on Lough
Key, between 1850 and 1860.
Sligo. — Colonel Cooper mentioned
another seen at Lough Arrow about
1888.
Fermanagh. — Dr. Patten saw an
Osprey sweeping over Lough Erne
on 23rd August 1889.
Monaghan. — One was shot on
Castleblaney Lake the second week
in ]\Iay 1878, and another at Glas-
lough in October 1879, which is
preserved at CTlaslough House.
Armagh. — An Osprey was shot on
Lough Neagh, near Lurgan, on 11th
July 1888 (Sheals).
Down. — A specimen in the Belfast
]Museum was obtained by Thompson
on the IMourne Mountains in the
autumn of 1851 ; one was shot at
Straugford about 1877 and preserved
by jMr. Sheals.
Antrim. — Another was shot near
Ballymoney on 30th IMay 1891
(Lloyd-Patterson, in Field).
The vignette below, from a photograph l\y Mr. CI. E. H. Barrett-
HamiltoD, represents S\-l>il Head in Kerry, from the south.
152 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Order STEGANOPODES.
Family PELECANIDJ^.
THE COEMORANT. Thnlacrocorax carlo, (Linnaeus.)
Resident and common. Breeds en many precipitous parts of the coast,
and on inland lakes in Connaught.
The Coi-moraut is a frequenter of fresh waters, and on most
parts of the Irish eoast it undoubtedly exceeds the Shag in
numbers ; but as it comes more under human observation its
comparatively greater abundance is liable to be over-estimated.
On the wilder coasts of the west, however, and especially on the
coasts and islands of Connaught, it is decidedly scarcer than the
Shag, which is abundant there. Between the Saltees and the co.
of Antrim the Cormorant's only breeding-places are Wicklow Head
and Lambay, the east coast being deficient in cliffs, but on the
south and north coasts it has nvimerous colonies. It In-eeds on
islands in Connaught lakes, and on rivers in the south, a long
wav from the sea, e.g., the Laune at Beaufort House, co. Kerry,
the Blackwater above Eermoy, and possibly the Suir and the Nore,
but such breeding-settlements are few in Munster and Leinster.
All the Irish lakes and larger rivers where fish are plentiful are
more or less frequented by the Cormorant, even in the summer
season, when the non-breeding birds resort to them; while in winter
much larger ntmibers visit some of the lakes. Thus an island on
Lough Coole, Fermanagh, is called " Cormorant Island," from
the numbers which frequent it from September to April. In
summer they come every morning at day-break to Lough Derg,
flving verv high, and descend at a rapid rate in a spiral course,
making a loud noise. On the other hand, an island in Lough Fern,
Donegal, is the night-resort of a number of Cormorants, which fly
overland in V formation from Lough Swilly every evening. A
bare tree beside a river is a favourite perch, and the birds alight on
the branches gently, l;>ut a new-comer has been observed to topple
over time after time, and either perform summersaults in the air as
it fell or catch the branch in its beak, and hold on fluttering and
dancing beneath for several minutes (G. H. Kinahan). Cormorants
often have a bad time at sea in stomas, when they have been known
to keep to the Tuskar, coming into the stores, and remaining on
the rock until they starved. They often frequent such rocks
between Sej^tember and April, after which they leave them.
^.:^..
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PELECANID^.. 153
In CO. Waterf ord Cormorants coraiuence to lav in April ; and on the
4tli of April 1896 several nests contained from one to three eggs,
which was exceptionally early. In exposed situations the birds are
later, and they lay at different times until July, on the 23rd of which
month I have found eggs. In a large colony one sees fresh and
incubated eggs, blind young just hatched, and others of all sizes
up to the birds resembling plucked geese, which move before one
in a throng and fall over the rock if still followed. Young may
be seen sometimes on the breeding-ledges as late as August. The
site occupied by a colony for a few years, though undisturbed, is
apt to be changed, and a neighbouring cliff resorted to instead.
The nests are placed on open ledges and spurs of rock in elevated
and exposed spots, not overshadowed like the nests of Shags ;
they are composed beneath of furze sticks mixed with seaweed,
then briar or ivy stems from the chffs, lined with plenty of
grass, and are often garnished with wreaths of ivy having
fresh green leaves ; burnt heather-sticks with moss for lining are
used in Donegal (Hart). On Lough Cutra, co. Galway, and
Lough Tawnyard, Mayo, numbers of Cormorants breed in trees on
islands in company with Herons, and I have seen a similar colony on
an island in Lough Key, Roscommon, the nests being from thirty
to forty feet high in ash-trees. When built in trees they are more
compact structures than Herons' nests, which are large and
straggling. Lough Attymas in Sligo contained a dense colony
of seventy or eighty nests, built as closely as possible, on
bushes, on walls, and on the ground (ZooL, 1882, p. 67). Another
lake-island at Carrowmore, co. Mayo, has some thirty nests on
the ground among tall weeds (Warren), and ruined castles on
islands in Loughs Corrib and Carra are also breeding-places of this
bird. The summit of the Makestone Rock at the Saltees is the site
of a large colony,* where we watched the birds building. One
of the pair would arrive with materials while its mate remained
ou the nest, and the latter used them if they reached her, though
this was to some extent prevented by the Ijirds on neighbouring
nests snatching ihemfrom the bearer in transit.
On crowded bird-cliffs Cormorants do not leave their eggs
exposed, but if the parent birds are driven off, the Gulls imme-
diately steal their treasures, or a pair of Ravens nesting close hy
continue to flit about the nests and pick up exposed eggs.
It has been supposed that the white patch ou the thigh is lost
by the female before nesting commences, but Mr. P. Gough, who
had a colony of Cormorants under daily observation, iuforms uie
* Sec Kearton's " With Nature and a Camera," p. 251.
154 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
that there is no appreciable diminution in these white spots until
incubation is nearly finished, and that they do not disappear until
the young come out. On the 28th of May I have seen some
Cormorants with the white patch, others without it, in co. Water-
ford, and one bird exhibited it in co. Mayo on 6th June 1898.
THE SHAGr. PhalacrocorcLr (/mcnhts, (Linnseus.)
Resident. Breeds on precipitous coasts of the four provinces. Is the
more numerous Cormorant in Galway, Mayo and Donegal.
The Shag, being an exclusively marine bird, is not seen on
inland waters like the Common Cormorant, nor does it love
estuaries or flat coasts as much as those that are rocky. It is,
indeed, to be found round Ireland generally, but between the
Saitees, oft' Wexford — where numbers breed — and Antrim, I only
know of Wicklow Head aad the co. Dublin islands as breeding
resorts of a few. From Wexford and Antrim westwards the Shag
nests in beetling cliffs and caves ; and it becomes abundant round
the western coasts, delighting specially in those awful cliffs against
which the Atlantic rollers break with unchecked fury, where it
may be seen swiftly winging its way over the turmoil to its
breeding-cave. It is far hardier and more at home in a rough
sea than its congener, and great flocks of Shags may be
sometimes met with on the shores of Conuaught, either fisshing
in such inlets as Broadliaven, or sheltering themselves in stormy
weather in the Moy estuary, where Mr. Warren estimated that
there were two thousand in December 1890, though that was
exceptional. This species becomes more numerous on the Dublin
coast in winter.
The Shag does not perch so easily as the Common Cormorant
on a pole or buoy, but prefers a rock. Thompson cj[Uotes two
instances of storm-driven bu'ds which were taken in Cavan and
Fermanagh, while a similar instance took place in King's County,
fifty miles inland, as related by Mr. Digby (Field, 3rd February
1894), when a Shag fell down a kitchen-chimney on the evening
of 12th January, during a southerly gale.
The Shag, like most birds wliich lay in sheltered nooks, is an
early breeder, earlier than the Common Cormorant ; just as the
Razorbill lays before the Guillemot. I have seen an egg on the
6th April ; three in a nest on the 8tb ; and taken a clutch slightly
incubated on the 15th ; but, as in the case of the Cormorant, eggs
PELECANIDiE. 155
maj be found in some nests, while others contain large yonng
ones which are able to leave them and escape from the observer ;
this was noticed on 22nd May ou the Saltees. The Shags there
breed in dens in the boulder clay that overlies the rocks, and
where there is a series of these, with a Shag standing at the
entrance of each above the throng of Alciche, they remind one of
police guarding a public place. They also breed there under
fallen masses of rock, and on uncovered ledges, but not near the
toj) of the clift's. A good examj^le of a Shag's nest luider a
beetling clift" is illustrated at p. 33 of " Wild Life at Home " ; the
photograph was taken by Mr. C. Iiearton on ourWaterford coast.
This bird, however, loves a sea-cave, on the ledges of which several
pairs may be seen nesting close together. Though usually breeding
in small colonies, Shags often Ijuild apart from others of their
species, the choice of locality lieing very much determined by the
existence of a suitable site. The more frequent number of eggs is
three, but four are not at all uncommon ; they are more apt to
approach to the elongated shape than those of the Cormorant.
The persistence with which this bird will sit ou her nest and
bob her head in the face of attempts to scare her away is
amusing, and I have almost touched one on a crowded l:)ird-clift'
while she menaced me by croalcing, snapping and shaking her
ojDen lower mandil:)le.
On 2nd June a Shag on the Skerds, Conuemara, had remains
of the crest, while other birds had lost it, and on the 9tli we saw
another with a crest on the North Mavo coast.
THE GANNET. Sula lassana, (Linn^us.)
Occurs off the coast at all seasons, but not commonly in winter.
Breeds only on two lofty rocks in the extreme south-west.
The Gannet rarely lands except on its breeding-stations, which
are islaud-rocks several hundred feet high, though it occasionally
alights on similar rot-ks. Elsewhere round our coasts it seems to
live chiefly on the Aving, and is a great wanderer. From the volu-
minous entries in the Migration Reports we gather that a seasonal
movement takes place in spring and autumn; and this commences
sometimes as early as January, is in full swing in Eebruarv,
March and April, and often lasts to some extent into May and
June. l>uring these mouths the Gannets pass northward, often
continuously for a month or two together, Ixith up tlie coasts
156 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
of Leiuster and of West Counaught. A light-keeper on the North
Arklow lightship remarked that they were going " to Scotland
for the breeding-season," a very probable suggestion. From
Carnsore Point, however, to the Fastnet we find the general
direction of the G-annet's flight during spring is south-westwards
towards their Irish breeding-haunts, though it is evident that
many do not stop there, but continue to move on northwards past
Slyne Head and Black Rock, as before stated. The return move-
ment is observed in autumn, though not so regularly.
The large nu.mbers, mainly adults, seen on the north coast
during summer, come from Scottish breeding-stations to fish.
Mr. Howard Saunders has watched from the top of Rathlin Island
a continuous stream of Gannets from Ailsa Craig in the early
morning. Great, however, as is the Gannet's power of wing, birds
breeding t»ff Kerry can hardly fish on the coasts of Connaught or
Wexford, where some occur through the summer, and this suggests
that many do not breed. Immature birds seem to be specially
noticed in summer off South Wexford.
The colony of the Skelligs arrives there in February and departs
in October, but a Ganuet has been seen on the rock as late as
7th November 1887 ; fresh eggs are to be found there and on the
Bull Rock early in May. The Little Skellig was the only breeding-
place known to Smith, who published his volume on Kei'ry in
1 756, and in 18-50 the number breeding there was computed at five
hundred pairs (Thompson, III., p. 204). I visited this island
in 1887, where an increase in the numbers had taken place owing
to the building on the Bull Rock having driven many from thence.
The Gannets nest on the eastern ridge of the Little Skellig and
its slopes, and they crowd some of the elevated platforms, so that
miles away they look like a flock of sheep lying on a hill. I have
walked among them, and some will sit until they are caught.
I again passed close under this island-mountain in 1897, and
observed fresh tracts on the north side occupied by the Gannets.
Other parts of the island and its cliffs swarm with Gulls and
Auks.
The first mention that appears of the colony on the Bull Rock
(seventeen miles south-east of the Skelligs) was made in 1868,
when Caldwell stated that he had obtained eggs there (Proc.
Dublin N.H. Soc). Mr. Hutehins visited it in June 1868 and
found many hundreds of Gannets ; when I went there in 1884
with Mr. Barrington and Mr. White, Ave found them, probably in
increased numbers, breeding on the elevated ledges at both
ends of the island. Though the btiilding of a lighthouse in
PELECANID.55,
157
1884-5 disturbed and diminished tliem for a time, they have
again much increased of late years, and in 181^9 their nests num-
bered several hundreds. This colony, however, probably never
approached in size that on the Little Skellig. -which covers nearly
seventeen acres, as against one acre covered by the Bull Eock,
besides which the height of the Little Skellig is 440 feet, while
that of the Bull is only 302. The Fastnet never could have been
a breeding-place of the Gannet, as it is but 52 feet high, and it
seems very doubtful whether this bird ever bred on the Stags of
Broadhaven, which I saw in 1898.
The nest of the Grannet is composed, as on the Skellig, of grass
and other herbage if available, otherwise of seaweed ; but such
articles as rags and paper, the straw of wine-bottles and pieces of
cork are used.
Thompson was informed that over a hundred Gannets were
caught in a train of nets which were sunk to the depth of thirty
fathoms.
Gannets, like other sea l)irds, are sometimes driven far inland
by storms. One was seen on the Shannon, near Carrick, for some
time before it was shot ; it used to sleep with its head under its
wing, letting boats pass close to it. While thus asleep on the sea
Gannets have occasionally been taken alive.
The view of the Little Skellig is from a photograph by Mr.
G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, and kindlv lent In- him.
158 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Order HERODIONES.
Family AEDEIDiE.
THE COMMON HERON. Ardea chierea, Linnseus.
Resident and common, breeding in every County.
The Heron inhabits the whole of Ireland from its centre to the
ends of its farthest promontories ; and as it has a power of
adapting itself to different local circnmstances, it is even more
common in Connemara and other districts of the extreme west
than it is in the most cultivated counties. As a proof of this,
it may be mentioned that ninety Herons have lieen shot in one
day bv the tenant of a Connemara fishing or his men, and five
to six hundred eggs are said to have been destroyed in a season.
Herons may be seen fisliing on the remotest rocks, as well as on
the lakes, marshes, and rivers of the interior. They often fly
miles out to sea, for thei-e are reports from every rock-station
and light-vessels of Herons visiting or passing those places.
Sometimes they are ol;>served flying still farther out to sea, and
sometimes returning from it, but the only record of seasonal
migration that I can quote, is Thompson's mention of Herons
crossing from Scotland in the autumn.
Besides their onliuary diet of fish, frogs, etc., Herons will eat
rats and young birds. The parent birds seem to know this, for
Lapwings and Terns make vigorous attacks when their breeding-
grounds are invaded, and I have heard vehement oiitcries littered
by Wild Ducks while a Heron was sailing over a reed-bed, and
examining it closely for young flappers. In hard frost exhausted
Snipe are devoured, and a Heron has been seen to come down
upon and carry off a screaming Water-hen. It is said that if an
eel too large to be swallowed alive is captured, it is carried off and
disposed of on dry land. Herons may be seen in August, with
their young, picking among the sand-hills of the coast.
When the inhabitants of our heronry return from fishing, they
fly at a consideralde height, and on arriving over their home, they
precipitate themselves swiftly towards their nesting-trees with
expanded wings, first turning one uppermost and then the other.
This being a bird of heavy flight is very liable to attack on the
wing, and the Rooks, which often bi'eed around the Herons,
habitually attac'k them whenever they show themselves in the
air ; but when a })air of Ravens come to raid a heronry, all the
occupants take flight. I have seen a Heron soaring to an immense
AEDEIDJ.. 159
height to avoid a C-foldeu Eagle, and decided alarm has been caused
even by a Kestrel, the Heron, though much larger, crying out as it
rose in circles to avoid the little Windhover.
Though Ireland formerly contained many large heronries, there
are few nowadays which can boast of from thirty to a hundred
nests, five to twenty being much more frec[uent ; and one or two
nests are often found quite apart from any others. Lofty trees
are chiefly resorted to, especially those whose trunks are shrouded
in ivy, rendering it difficult to climb them; Scotch firs are preferred,
but beech and larch are also used ; the same tree rarely holds
more than one, or at most two, nests. In the bare western parts
of Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and Donegal, the heronries are on
the low trees or bushes which sometimes cover lake-islands,
these being often the only wooded spots in the country. Hollies,
which grow to a. great size, are the Heron's favourite trees in
those districts, but sometimes the nests are in sallows or on the
ground ; on an island in a Donegal lake an absurdly small tree
held a nest that had been added to for many years, until it
measured four feet nine inches in diameter, though but six feet
from the ground. In a neighbouring lake, exposed to view from
all the cottages on the hill-side, a Heron had built on the stony
brow of a crannoge, or artificial island, while low hollies behind
held two other nests. On islands in Lough Cutra (Galway), and
Lough Tawnyard (Mayo), Herons breed in trees in company with
Cormorants ; in the later spot the nests of the Herons are in hollies
in the centre, while the Cormorants occupy the marginal belt t»f
various trees. There are several small heronries in cliffs on the
coast, for instance on Bere Island, Bantry Bay, at the end of the
Dingle Peninsula and above Anascall Lake in Kerry, and near
Belmullet in Mayo, while a similar colony existed at Island, co. Water-
ford, until the l)irds were shot ; a solitary nest was found in a cleft of
the precipice on one of the Blasket Islands (Turle, in Ibis, 1890,
p. 7), and an ivy-covered ruin has been vised as a nesting-place.
Herons are our earliest breeding birds, assembling on their
nesting-trees here towards the end of January, when building-
commences, and the heronry resounds with screams. Laying takes
place early in February, unless it is arrested liv frost and snow,
and in a sheltered heronry at Salterbridge nearly every nest
contained young on the 1st March. Four eggs are most commonly
laid, but often five, and I have found three which were sat upon.
The young are able to fly in May, and the old liirds frequently lay
a second clutch in that mouth or early in June. Mr. AVarren has
seen a Heron, while engaged in l)uilding its second nest, imjior-
160
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
tuned for food by its first family, which the parent encountered
with scolding sounds. One bird, presumably the female, remains
on the nest, and builds it with the sticks brought by her mate ;
the structure is large and cup-shaped, lined with twigs, or some-
times with dried stems of deciduous plants or a little grass, but I
have never found wool.
A cream-coloured Heron, mottled with pale brown, was pre-
served by Messrs. Williams & Son (ZooL, 1881, p. 468), and a
similar bird is in the Dublin Museum.
Irish Heronries.
In the followiug list of places where Herons breed it is sought to give the
estimated number of nests, excluding those places where that number is less
than four, though of the latter description there are a great many in Ireland.
From the length and difficulty of the inquiry, and the fluctuating character
of many Irish heronries, complete accuracy seems unattainable, but correc-
tions up to date will be always acceptable.
Kerry. Beaufort (large), Caragh Court, 6 ; Newmarket, 4 ; Oakmount,
12 ; O'Donovan's Cove, Pallastown,
6 ; Rathduane, 5 ; Rathmore, 4 ;
Reenroe Wood, 12 ; Rostellan, Rye-
court, G ; Seafield, 4 ; Shippool, 20 ;
Timoleague, Vernon ]\Iount (large),
Whiteliall (large).
Waterford. — Ballynatray, Cap-
pagh, 6 ; Cloncoskoran, Coolnagour,
Dromana, 12; Faithlegg, 6; Gurtcen,
•30 ; Kilmanahan, 15 ; Mount Con-
grove, 88 ; Salterbridge, 20 ; Shana-
kill, Strancally, Tallow Hill, 6.
Limerick. — Ballynagarde, Beach-
mount, Curragh Chase, Foynes,
Kilballyowen, 40 : ]\Iellon, ^Nlount
Coote, Tanavalla, Tower Hill.
Clare. — Ballynahinch, Bunratty,
Carnelly, Clifden, Dromore, Eden-
vale, Knockalough Lake (on a ruin),
12-20 ; Rathlaheen.
Tipperary. — Cahir Park (Kil-
common), Castlelake, Dundrum,
Kilboy, Kilcooly Abbey, 15 ; Kil-
shane, 24 ; Kiltinan, 4 ; Mobarnan, 5 ;
New Inn, Rathronan, Shanbally,
Sopwell Hall, Templemore, Yougbal.
Kilkenny. — Castletown, G ; Chapel-
izod. Desert Court, 4; Kilfaue,
Lyrath, ^Nlulliuabro, Snow Hill.
Carluw. — Ballykealy (large) , Borris,
12 ; Kilconner, 12 ; Oak Park, 14.
Lake, Chute Hall, Clonee Lakes,
Derryquin 10; Eask (cliffs), Kilcol-
man, Kilmakilloge Harbour, Lough-
anscaul (cliffs). Lough Guitane,
Lough Illaniana, 12 ; Lower Lake
(Killarney), 12; Sallow Glen, Sybil
Head (cliffs), 8; Upper Lake
(Killarney) .
Cork. — Air Hall, 5; Ahenesk, Ard-
nagashee, 4 ; Ballyedmond, 4 ; Bally-
giblin, Ballylickey, G ; Ballymagooly,
4 ; Ballyrisode, 5 ; Ballywalter, 4 ;
Bantry House, Bear Island (cliffs),
4 or 5 ; Blarney Demesne, 4 ; Bowens-
court, 5 ; Bunalan, Cappyaughna,
Carrignamuck, 10 ; Castle Freke,
IG ; Castle Harrison, Castle IMartyr,
Castle Mary, Castletownsend, 10 ;
Church Hill, 8 ; Clashads, G ; Court-
macskerry Wood, 5 ; Creagh, Don-
eraile Court, Drishane, 20 ; Dromo-
rone, Drumleena, 5 ; Dunboy, 4 ;
Eastgrove, 12 ; Foat} , 7 ; Frankfort,
5 ; Garretstown W^ood, 5 ; Glauatore,
Glanduff Woods, Glengarriff, 10 ;
Glyntown, 14 ; Gouganebarra, Gurt-
nagrough, 4; Inishannon,Kilbrittaiu,
Kilmurry, 4 ; Kinrath, 4 ; Lisnagar,
4 ; Little Island, Longueville, G ;
Lougli Hyne, 4 ; IMacroom, 10 ; ]\rill
Crittle, 4 ; Myross Wood, 40 ; New
ARDEID.E.
161
Wexford. — Artramon, Ballycross,
9 ; Bargy Castle, 17 ; Butlerstown,
30 ; Castleboro, 10 ; Courtown, Kil-
mannock, 6 ; Macmine Castle, 20 ;
Merton, 4 ; Rosemount, Rosslare, 49 ;
Saunderscourt, 30; Stokestown, 6;
Tashmon (beech-wood), Tinteni, 12.
Wicklow. — Ballinglen (large),
Ballynure, Ballyward, Blessington,
4; Donard, 6; Glenealy, Grangecon,
12 ; Kilmacurragh, 4 ; Kiltegan, 20 ;
Laragh, 5 ; Lisheens, 4 ; Luggala,
Powerscourt Demesne, 14 ; Powers-
court Deerpark, 4 ; Russborough,
Stratford (Saunders Grove), 10 ;
Tankersley, 8 ; Woodstock, 5.
Dublin. — Malahide Castle, New-
bridge, 18.
Kildare. — Oldtown, Carton.
Queen's Co. — Abbeyleix, Enio Park,
Kellyville, 20.
King's Co. — Ballinaminton, 10 ;
Charleville, 8 ; Coole, 9 ; Gloster, 20 ;
Green Hill, 4 ; ParsonstowTi, 15.
Longford. — Castle Forbes, S ;
Derrycassan, Edgeworthstown, Erne
Head, ]Mosstown House.
Westmeath. — Ballynagall, 5 ;
Baronstown, 30 ; Hyde Park, 6 ;
Clonlost, 9 ; Cromlyn, 14 ; Deerpark,
5 ; Mear's Court, 4 ; ^Nloninstowu, 5 ;
Higginstown, 5 ; Rockfield, 20.
Meath. — Arch Hall, Drewstown
Lake, 20 ; Lagore, Swainston.
Louth. — Beaulieu, 24 ; Bellurgan,
10; Corballis, 15; Dunleer (largo),
Rokeby.
Galway. — Castlegrove, 4 ; Garbally,
20 ; Garumna Island (lakes) , Glen-
turkan, Gowla Lake, Lettermuckoo
(upper lake), Lismore Loughanillauu,
Lough Athry, Lough Bolard, Lough
Boliska, Lough Cutra, Lough Naw-
eelaun. Lough Pibrum,20; Monivea,
4 to 6 ; :\Iount Bellew, 12 ; Mount
Shannon, ^Muckanagh (lake), Por-
tumna Castle, 8; Rinville (Oranmore),
80; Tully Lough, 3 or 4.
Roscommon. — Castle Strange, G ;
Carraroe, 15 ; Johnsto-wn, 4 ; Lough-
glinn. Lough Key, ]\Iote Park, 8 ;
Thomastown, Strokestown.
Mayo. — Ballinamore, Bellmullot
(cliffs near), Castlemagarret (large),
Loughafinna, Lough Carrowmore,
Lough ^lask(islandnearGlantreague),
Lough Tawnyard, 9 ; IMilford, 20 ;
Newport House, Old Head House, 10 ;
Ross Hill (large), Westport Demesne,
20 to 30.
Sligo. — Annaghmore, Portland,
Hazlewood, 20 ; Hollybrook, iloy-
view, 13 ; Xewpark, 6 ; Tanrego, 30 ;
Templehouse.
Leitrim. — Cullinboy Lake, 4 ; Lake-
field, 5 ; Lough Rynn, ^Meenaphuhill
Wood, 4.
Cavan. — Farnham, Lough Ramor.
Fermanagh. — Castle Archdall,
Inishfovar (Lower Lough Erne),
Upper Lough Erne (islands), 20.
Monaghan. — Castleblayney, Cool-
derry, 12 ; Dartrey (large), Lough
Fea, Blount Louise.
Armagh. — Castle Dillon, 20 ;
Drumbanagher, 25 ; Lough Feder-
nagh, 10.
Down. — Castleward (large) , Clande-
boye, G ; Drumantine, 30 ; Finne-
brougue, 15 ; Greyabbey, ^lourne
Park, :Mount Panther, G ; :Mount
Stewart (large). Narrow Water, 21 ;
Portaferry, Rostrevor Dilountain, 4 ;
Tyrella South, 20.
Antrim.— BallyscuUion, 4 ; Glynn
(large), :Magheramore (large). Park
Mount, 20 ; Shane's Castle, 30 to 40.
Londonderry. — Bellarena, 40 ;
Boomhall, 4 ; Carrickhugh, 20 ;
Knockan, 5 ; Walworth, Wills-
borough, 4.
Tyrone. — Augher Castle, Barons-
court, 4 ; Caledon, Rash Wood, G.
Donegal.— Ards (large), Ashfield,
Ballvmacool, Boyoughter Lake,
Camlin, 4 : Carralena, 5 ; Castle
Grove, Castle Wray, Clonleigh, 16;
Cratloe Wood, G ; Donaghmore,
162
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Doohulla, Duulewe}', 5; Dunmore 30 ; Lough Aniica, Lough Derg (Kelly's
and Carrigans, Fahan, Fort Stewart, Island), Lough Derryduff, 15 ; Lough
30; Glengollan, 10; Inver Eiver, 6; Lack, Lough Veagh House, Malin
Kilderry, 14; Lough Aderry, Lough Hall, 7 ; Mountcharles, Oakfield,Port
Alickmore,Loughanillanowenamarve, Hall, Saltpans, 10; Wood Hill.
THE PURPLE HEPtON. Ardea jmrjmrea, Umneus.
Has once occurred.
The only specimen recorded as Irisli was announced by
Tliompsun in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" (1834,
]). o<>). It was stated to have been shot at Carrickmacross in
the south of co. Monaghan, and it still exists in the Science
and Art Museum, Dublin ; from its occipital crest and elongated
plumes at the Ijase of the neck and sca}»ulars this bird appears to
have been adult (Mr. A. R. Nichols).
THE LITTLE EGRET. Ardea garzetfa, Linnaeus.
Three instances from Kerry, Cork, and Wexford are on record, but none
in recent times.
This is another species for the occurrence of which in Ireland
we must refer to Thompson. The first was presented to Trinity
College Museum, in December 1?88, by Rev. J. Elgee, Wexford,
and that museum still contains a Little Egret, with crest, and
plumes on the breast and liack. Templeton mentioned a second
specimen, shot in Cork Harltour in 1792, as being "in the Dublin
Museum," and from Harvey's " Fauna of Cork " we learn that the
museum named was that of the Royal Dublin Society. A third
example, obtained in Kerry in a fatigued condition, was recorded
many years before Thom])son wrote by Dowdeu, who received it
for the Cork Institution. The two latter specimens have dis-
appeared, and all that can be said about the Trinity College bird is
that it bears the " Yarrell " label used for the Irish Collection bj
Ball ; as however some specimens there, which cannot be Irish,
bear that type of label, and none have any data (except the
Creat Auk), it cannot be jtroved that this is the Wexford bird.
As we have now no Irish examjle of the Little Egret to identify^
and as other small Herons have so much white in their plumage,
we cannot say that all the above were correctly determined.
The counties mentioned have been marked by the occurrence of
mauv other rare birds of the Heron familv.
ARDEIDJE.
163
THE SQUACCO HERON. Ardea mlloides, Scopoli.
Rare visitor in summer and autumn, chiefly to the south coast.
There are eight notices of the occurrence of this little Heron
including Thompson's record, and seven of these relate to the
counties of Kerry, Cork, and Waterford. The earliest instance
took place in the end of May, and the latest on the 24th of
November. They were distributed thus : — Kerry 2, Cork 4,
Waterford 1, Londonderry 1 ; none from any inland county. In
seven cases the months are mentioned : — May 1, June 1, July 1,
September 2, October 1, November 1. and the eighth specimen
was said to have occurred in summer.
Kerry. — One was shot on 10th
June 1875, on the River Laune, by ^Ir.
Arthur Bowles, Temple Court, Guild-
ford, who preserved it ; it had been
seen about the place for some time
previously, and exhibited but little
fear {Zool., 1877, p. 571. A young
male, in the second year's plumage,
was shot at Waterville, on 17th
September 1895 ; its stomach was
filled with remains of small Crustacea
(Williams, in Irish Nat., 1896, p. 56).
Cork. — The first Irish specimen on
record was obtained on Killeagh Bog,
on 26th May 1849, and preserved by
Moss (Thompson, II., p. 158) ; Mrs.
IMoss has lent it in recent years
to the Dublin Museum. Another
Squacco Heron was shot on the bog
behind Ballycottiu strand in the
summer of 1850 ; ]\Iosf^ preserved it
for the Rev. J. W. Hopkins, who
sent it to a friend in France. A third,
from the same part of the county,
was shot on a' lake in Castlemartyr
Demesne, on 26th October 1860
(Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, .3rd June
1861, p. LS3j ; it is now, marked
" Youghal," in the Dublin ]Museum.
A female was shot on the 15th July
1S77 beside a lake at Castle Freke,
near Galley Head, and is preserved
at Castle Bernard, Bandon ; its
ovary contained eggs the size of
ordinary shot. I am informed by ]*Ir.
E. Williams, who preserved it, that
this was the bird announced as a
King's County specimen in the Field
(4th August 1877) and in the
Zoologist (1877, p. 388) ; there is also
a Castle Bernard in tliat county,
and the confusion arose from this
circumstance.
Waterford. — A specimen was shot
at Ballynacourty, on Dungarvan Bay,
on 12th September 1896, and is in
the collection of IMr. Barrington ;
it doubtless belonged to the same
flight as the Waterville specimen,
shot five days later in Kerry.
Londonderry.— A young bird, be-
lieved to be a female, was shot on
a small bog, two miles from London-
derry, on 24th November 1881 (Field,
8th July 1882;.
164
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE NIG-HT-HERON. Nijctlcom.v grlseus (Linnaeus).
Rare and irregular visitor, a large proportion of the birds being
immature.
Moi'e than twenty Niglit-Herons have been recoi'ded since 1834,
only one of which can be assigned to the West of Ireland ; and
thirteen of these were immature. Of the above, seven were obtained
in Cork, a county in which so many rare birds of the Heron family
have been taken ; and from the dates which are forthcoming it seems
that some examples occurred on the spring migration, and others
from August to January ; while in October and November 1865 one
was shot in Cork, a second in King's Co., and a third in Dublin.
Cork. — An adult male was shot at
Castle Freke, previous to 1845, by
the Rev. J. Stopford (" Fauua of
Cork," p. 12). An immature male was
shot in a bog a few miles from Cork,
on 13th October 1865 (Hackett, in
Field, 21st October and 2nd December
1865). Another immature bird, taken
alive on board a steamer near Cork
Harbour in May 1873, was presented
by Harvey with his collection to
Queen's College, Cork. A specimen
was shot at Doneraile on 16tli INIay
1877, according to Mr. F. R. Rohu,
who preserved it. An adult bird was
obtained for Lord Shannon on his
estate near Youghal in the winter of
1878-1879 (]\Ir. F. R. Rohu). An im-
mature specimen was obtained on
the Blackwater near Fermoy by
Mr. F. Lucas, in March 1894 (ZooL,
1896, p. 382). A male was shot at
Shanagarry, on 31st IMay 1899 (IMr.
W. B. Barringtou).
Kilkenny. — A young male was
captured at Silverspring, and sent to
the late Dr. Burkitt on 1st November
1854 ; he preserved it.
Wexford. — An adult male, with a
long white crest, was shot at Killy-
nick on 21st April 1899, and is now
in the Science and Art Museum,
Dublin.
Queen's Co. — An immature bird,
said to have been obtained in Queen's
Co., was purchased by Ball for Trinity
College ]\Iuseum (Thompson, II.,
p. 173). That Museum now contains
an adult Night-Heron with the
" Yarrell " label.
King's Co. — An immature male
was shot at Castle Bernard, on 16th
November 1865, and is preserved at
Brittas, Queen's Co. (Proc. Dublin
N.H. Soc, 1st December 1865).
Dublin. — An adult female was shot
near Clondalkiu, on 8th November
1865, while perclied on a hawthorn,
and permitted of approach within
fifteen yards ; its stomach contained
remains of shrimps and water-beetles
(Ibid.). An immature specimen was
obtained in Bullock Harbour, in
August 1876, and is preserved at
Beechwood, Dalkey. Another im-
mature bird was sliot in a quarry at
Rathgar on 31st December 1888, and
its stomach contained frogs [Zool.,
1889, p. 110).
'Louth. — A young male, approach-
ing maturity, was observed, after a
gale from tlie east, to frequent the
reedy margin of a lake, and was killed
at Beaulieu on 1st jMay 1848. It passed
witli the TMontgomery collection into
the Dublin ]\Iuseum.
Monaghan. — A j'oung male was
obtained at Inniskeen in January
1855, and is still in the Belfast
Museum [Zuol., s. s., p. 5429 [1857]).
AEDEID.5:. 165
Mayo. — One of the specimens of the collection of Mr. H. Blake Knox,
which Thompson was informed by Another young bird in sjootted plu-
Glennon was said to have come from mage was shot in the People's Park
Westport (Thompson, II., p. 173, on 2Gth October 1893 (ZooL, 1893,
note). p. 459).
Armagh. — A specimen in the first Donegal. — One which Thompson
year's plumage was shot between saw with Glennon, the taxidermist,
1881 and 1838 near Tollbridge and in ^larch 1834, was said by the latter
presented to the Belfast Museum to have come from Letterkenny.
(Thompson, II., p. 173). Beside the above, one or two more
Down. — A bird of the year was unrecorded instances are mentioned
obtained in the People's Park, Bel- by Thompson, and some four others
fast, apparently in September 1866 by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey.
{ZooL, 1866, p. 457) ; it passed into
THE LITTLE BITTERN. Ardetta minuta (Linnsens).
Rare and irregular visitor in spring, summer and autumn.
The Little Bittern has been recorded in Ireland on some thirty
occasions, from March to November, chiefij in the southern and
eastern maritime counties ; but occurrences have been noted in
the midlands, and one in co. Galway, the only western instance.
Several adult males have been obtained, but many of the birds
have been immature.
A male was kept alive by Captain Poe, near Nenagh, and its
characteristic attitudes were watched. When unc(jnscious of ob-
servation it would walk about the cage with neck retracted, the
head resting on its shoulders, or, if minnows were placed under its
perch, it would shoot out its long neck, reaching down and cap-
turing them with dexterity ; but when approached it used to stand
still and begin to elongate itself slowly, and while it stood
previously about ten inches high, it now assumed a height of
sixteen or more ; its bill was then pointed upwards, its eyes being-
directed straight towards the intruder, and its neck and body
stretched and compressed. In this position it looked so unlike a
bird, that visitors, standing a few feet from it, have asked where
it was. Its croak was represented as resembling the word " grack "
(Dr. Morton).
Kerry. — One was said to have and with another, also obtained by
been sliot in 1831 or 1832 (Thompson, Harvey, is in Queen's College
II., p. 159). IMuseum. One was killed by the
Cork. — An adult male was shot at Rev. Joseph Stopford previously to
Woodside in the summer of 1842, 1845 (" Fauna of Cork"). One shot
166
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
near Youglial was preserved by INIoss
before 1858. An immature bird was
picked up dead, having been chased
by a hawk, in a bog near Youghal,
and exliibited on 3rd June 1864 before
the Dublin Nat. Histy. Society. A
female obtained near the Baudon
River on 6th June 1868 is preserved
at Longueville (Field, 20th June
1868). One was shot near Rath-
cormack in 1869 or 1870 (Field, 23rd
October 1875). An immature speci-
men was taken on a steamer near
Cork on 20th IMay 1873 (Harvey).
A male, killed with a stick near Pas-
sage, on 30th jNIarch 1897, is in the
collection of Mr. Barriugton. Another
was obtained near Skull on 8th
November 1897 (Irish Kat., 1898,
p. 51). One, labelled " Youghal," is
in the Neligan collection, Tralee ; it
appears to have been preserved by
Messrs. Williams & Son.
Tipperary. — Captain Poe's speci-
men, an adult male, was caught
near Nenagh on the 19th April 1891
(Land and Water, 10th May 1891).
Wexford. — A Little Bittern was
obtained on the Tuskarby Mr. Henry
Williams, probably in the "seventies."
An adult male was shot on the River
Slaneyon 26th April 1870 (Zool, s. s.,
p. 2224 [1870] ). Another adult male,
now in the Dublin Museum, was
caught by a dog on Drinagh bog on
2nd October 1887. A fourth Wexford
specimen was killed near Taghmon
some time in 1897 (Iiisli Nat., 1898,
p. 152).
Carlow. — One was shot on the
Barrow at Carlow on the 19th ^lay
1895 (Land and Water, 1st June
1895).
Dublin. — A l)ird of this species
was obtained at jNIerrion some years
before 1837 (Thompson, II., p. 160) ;
more than one was stated by Gleunon
to have been killed in the marsh at
Sandymount (Ibid.). Mr. H.B. Rath-
borne informed me in 1894 that he
had an old record of one shot by his
uncle on the Tolka River. A speci-
men, shot at Skerries, was presented
to the Science and Art ]Museum,
Dublin, by j\[r. E. J. Johnston, but
it bears no date.
Louth. — A Little Bittern was shot
by ilontgomery on a bog between
Newry and Dundalk (possibly in
Armagh) about 1st j\Iay 1849
(Thompson, II., 160) ; this, or another,
was referred to by Montgomery as
having been seen by him fresh killed
in CO. Louth (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc,
3rd June 1SG4).
Westmeath. — -An adult male, shot
in the district, is preserved at Glynn-
wood, Athlone.
Longford.— A specimen obtained
iu this county, about 1833, was in
the coiloction of T. W. Warren
(Tliompson, II., 159).
Galway. — One was shot as far
west as Galway previous to 1853
(Waiters, p. 137).
Armagh. — The first recorded from
Ireland was shot in co. Armagh in
November 1830 (Tliompson, II.,
p. 159).
Antrim. — Thompson tells us of
one supposed to have lieen shot at
the " Bog-Meadows," Belfast.
Glennon mentions, without locality,
a Little Bittern preserved between
1st August 1874 and the date of
notice (Field, 20th February 1875);
while Sir Ralph Payne - Gallwey
states that he twice shot examples
of this bird (" Fowler in Ireland,"
p. 251). •. ..
ARDEID.E. 167
THE COMMON BITTEEK Botaurus stellaris (LiuuKusj.
Scarce and irregular visitor, though probably occurring annually ;
formerly resident and then not uncommon.
Like the Buzzard, the Bitteru has ceased within the uiueteenth
ceutury to breed in Irehxnd, but whereas the former appai-ently
continued to do so down to the " eighties," and its breeding-range
was confined to Ulster, we have no record of the latter species
nesting later than about 1840, though it was resident early in the
century in Munster, Connaught and Ulster. Its Irish name,
" Bunnan," is found in names of places in various counties. In
Cork Mr. Smyth, of Eathcoursey, informed me that his father
when young used to hear Bitterns on a bog there, long since
drained. An old man in co. Waterford told me in 1856 that in his
youth he used to hear the sound made by these birds, near the
confluence of the Blackwater and Bride, before the lowlands were
embanked, and that the lairds bred there. In Tipperary a female
was shot off her nest, with unfledged young, near Killenaule, early
in August a few years l)efore 1842 (Thompson, 11., p. 163). In
Eastern Galway the late Lord Clonbrock told nie of the Bitterns
he used to meet with regularly on Crit Bog from 1819, the first
year he began to shoot, until about 1830 ; up to 1845, or there-
abouts, they were seen there at intervals, but always in pairs, and
since tlien a single bird only has been met with occasionally. Lord
Clonbrock described how they used to annoy the grouse-shooters
by running for hundreds of yards and puzzling the dogs. At
Mantua, co. Eoscommon, the late Oliver Grrace, in the " forties " or
earlier, used to caution sporting visitors " not to shoot the
Bitterns," which then bred there. At the base of Nephin, co. Mayo,
a farmer, who had lived there for seventy years, told Mr. Hart in
1882 that he remembered when Bitterns, like bulls, answered one
another over the moors. They were " plenty enough " early in the
century on the low-lying lands about Upper Lough Erne, accord-
ing to old residents. Mr. W. Sinclair, an aged ornithologist,
informed me that, in his youth, he used to hear a noise on summer
evenings which he was told was from a Bittern ; the locality was
an extensive swamp between Strabane and Londonderry, and he
said that the bird was not uncommon then and bred in Donegal.
About the same time, 1820, the l)ooming sound u.sed to be heard
near Dungiven, co. Londonderry (Thompson) ; while in the
previous century Bitterns were common in the Lower Ards,
168
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
• CO. Down (Harris and Smith, 17-44) ; Rutty also, 1772, enumerated
this species among the birds of Dublin.
Within the last half-century at least, the Bittern has become a
straggler from other lands, and the only locality I can name,
where it occurs on an average about once a year, is the marshes of
Lord Castletown's property in Queen's County.
Since it ceased to breed in Ireland the Bittern has been an
irregular winter visitor in very small numbers, occun'ing from time
to time in almost every Irish county ; but the number of records
for Cork (36) is much in excess of those for Waterford (22) and
Down (21), which supply the next largest numbers; Wexford
affords eight, Roscommon and Donegal seven each, other counties
fewer, and from Leitrim, Cavan and Londonderry no notices
appear. We have included Thompson's records, and Bitterns
were more numerous in his time than they have been recently, but
certain seasons bring more of these lairds than others ; thus
Thompson cites the winters of 1830-31, of 1844-45, and of 1848-49
which were specially marked by their occurrence. Jn 1850-51
eight, and in 1855-56 nine Bitterns were sliot in different
counties, while in the winter of 1874-75 eighteen occurred, of which
twelve were obtained in various parts of Cork within about a
mouth, ending 9th January 1875.
Reviewing the months in which 105 Bitterns have been re-
corded, the following results are obtained : — August 2, September 2,
October 3, November 11, December 37, January 27, February 13,
March 10, and none between March and August. This shows
that before November the occurrence of the bird is excejitional,
and that it is most frequent in December and January. It is
singular that a species whose breeding-range is eastern and
southern rather than northern should not appear usually in
October, but chiefly in midwinter, when we might expect the
autumn migration to have ceased.
THE AMERICAN BITTERN. Botanrus lentujinosus (Montagu).
Very rare, accidental visitor, chiefly in October and November.
The American Bittern has been obtained eleven times in
Ireland, the instances being scattered through Munster, Leinster
and Ulster, but none have occurred in Connaught nor in any
western coiuity. It is remarkable that four should have been
taken in Leinster, and five in inland counties, far from where we
ARDEID/E.
169
might expect tliey would, have lauded from America ; aud still
strauger is it that two should have beeu shot iu Maddeustown Bog,
CO. Kildare, at au iuterval of more thau a year. Three occurred
the same season in co. Cork, while in October 1889 one was taken
in Kildare and one in Londonderry. Four were killed in October,
four iu November, two in December, and one in February : — months
which, as Mr. Howard Saunders remarks, coincide with the birds'
migrations. This species has visited Ireland more frequently than
any other from America, if we exclude the Grreeuland Falcon as
not coming from America proper.
Cork. — Au immature specimeu was
obtaiued near INIyross Wood, Glau-
dore, early iu October 1875 (Harvey,
in Field, ISth. December 1878). An
adult, uow in Queen's College
Museum, was killed on Anuagh Bog,
near the Kinsale Junction, on 25tli
November 1875 (Ibid.). Another was
obtained between Youghal and Cork
in December 1875 (tlditor's note,
Field, 10th November 1883).
Tipperary. — One is stated to have
been shot while walking among ever-
greens at Garryroan, Cahir, on 31st
October 1870 {Zool., s. s., p. 2408
[1870] ).
Wexford. — One is recorded to have
been killed by Captain Doyne, in co.
Wexford, iu December 1862 (Proc.
Dublin N.H. Soc, 10th April 1863).
Kildare.— One was shot on ]Mad-
denstown Bog on the 31st of October
1889, and is now in the Dublin
Museum (Scharff, in Zool., 1890,
p. 26). Another bird, a female iu fair
condition, was sliot, also on Maddeus-
town Bog, shortly before 20tli Feb-
ruary 1891 (Williams, in Zool, 1891,
p. 218).
Louth. — A female was shot near
Castleriug on the River Fane, on the
borders of Louth and Monaglaan, on
the IStli November 1868, aud was
presented by Lord Clermont to ihe
Dublin Museum (Zool., s. s. , p. 1517
[1869] ).
Armagh. — The first on record, still
preserved in the Belfast jNIuseum,
was shot near the town of Armagh
on 12th November 1845 ; its stomach
was empty, but it was very fat
(Thompson, IL, p. 169).
Down. — A male was shot iu a bog
near Ballynahinch, on 1st November
1883, aud is iu the collection of ]Mr.
H.Blake Kuox {Field, 10th November
1883).
Londonderry. — Mr. Robert Patter-
son has recorded a specimeu shot on
Ballyronan ^Moss, near ]\Iagherafelt,
in the end of October 1889 (Zool.,
1890, p. 24).
The Museum of Trinity College,
Dublin, contains a specimen with the
" Yarrell " label.
A specimen entered iu the liooks of
]\Iessrs. Williams & Sou as received
from Tullow, co. Carlow, was brought
from America. Unfortunately, I had
not asked them about the entry when
I informed ]\Ir. Howard Saunders
that this species had occurred iu
Carlow, as appears in his Manual.
170 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Fauiilj CICONIID.^.
THE WHITE STORK. Ciconia alba, Beclistein.
Extremely rare and accidental visitor.
The allusioDS of Cliraldus Cambrensis (1183-86) to Storks in
Ireland are as follows : " Storks are very rare throughout the
island, and their colour is black " (" Topography of Ireland,"
Part I., C. XIV.) ; however, in the same chapter he tells us that
*' throughout the winter they harbour about the beds of streams."
A MS. of Giraldns in the British Museum (Key 13, B. VIII.) is
illustrated at this chapter by a heron-like bird with long plumes
on the head, breast and over the tail; its ujqier parts are dark
brown, and it is white beneath, with red legs and feet. In his
" History of the Conquest of Ireland," Chapter XII., Giraldus
represents Dermitius, Prince of Leinster (Derniot MacMuri-ough),
as having written : •' We have watched the storks and the
swallows ; the summer Ijirds have come, and are gone again,"
&c. Thus the references of this ancient writer tantalize us by
their discrejiancies, and leave us at a loss to know Avhathis "black "
Storks were. It might be suggested that they were Cormorants,
if he had not spoken of their frequenting the beds of streams.
In recent times only three specimens of the White Stork are
known to have been obtained. The first, shot in the neighbourhood
of Permoy, about the end of May 1846 (Thompson, II., p. 175),
is now in Queen's College Museum, Cork ; two others were said to
have been seen with it ; Watters mentions (page 138) a second
Stork as having been obtained near the sea-shore in Wexford
during the autumn of the same year as the last, 1846. A third was
killed near Hop Island on the Lee, co. Cork, by an engine-driver
named Reed, on 7th August 1866 (Hackett, in Field, 22nd
Sej^tember 1866).
In the Field of the 27th April 1895, Mr. John W. Young gives
a detailed description of another White Stork, which he says he
saw on the wing between Athy and Stradbally in the Barrow
Valley, on the 20th of that mouth.
A White Stork in Trinity College Museum bears the "Yarrell "
label used bv Ball, but not exclusivelv, for his Irish collection.
IBIDID.E. 171
Family IBIDID^.
THE GLOSSY IBIS. Pelagdis falcinellus (Liunoeus).
Rare and accidental visitor, occurring chiefly in October and
November.
There are twenty-two or more records of the capture of this
bird, in various parts of Ireland, from Kerry to Antrim, including
some midland counties ; but only one instance, which took place
in Clare, can be given from beyond the Shannon. As might be
expected, the southern counties of Kerry, Cork, Waterford and
Wexford have each several records, but it is strange that
North- West Leinster should have been visited, and especially the
small county of Longford, where Ibises appear to have occurred
in four seasons ; two instances from Antrim can also be named.
Thompson mentions specimens said to have been killed in
Wexford in the summer of 1818, which w^as very warm ; but of the
cases in which dates have been given, we find that but one Ibis
occurred in September, ten in the two months of Octol.ier and
November, and one in January ; Vvhile there are no records for
any other month. In the late autumn of 1840 examples were
obtained in Wexford, Dublin, King's Co. and an unnamed locality,
but the most recent record is that of Sir. R. Payne-Callwey, who
wrote in 1882 that he had notes of five shot within a few^ years
("Fowler in Ireland," p. 238). Since then we have not heard of
an Ibis in Ireland, and, considering the fact that Thompson could
name eleven instances, the increasing rarity of this wanderer
seems to be evident. In several cases small flocks were met with,
and Thomjison states that the greater numl;)er of the captures he
records were birds of the year.
Clare. — The collection of E. seen together on the Blackwator,
Burton Eyre, of Clifden, contained evidently a long time hefore he
a specimen " captured about the wrote. Two, killed in co. Cork many
Burren " (Proc. Dublin IST.H. Soc, years before 1850, were sent to the
1st May 1857, p. 55). IMuseum of the Royal Dublin Society
Kerry. — One was killed at the Spa, (Thompson, II., p. 18:^). Eive were
Tralee, in January 1865, and another seen and one shot near Ballymacoda,
at Derrymore, also near Tralee, in in October or November in the
October 1872; both specimens arc in " seventies," b}' IMr. John O'Jvcefe.
the Neligan collection in Tralee, the Waterford. — One was shot at
catalogue of which pontains these Droniana in the middle of November
particulars. 1834 (Thompson, II., p. 18'2) ; another
Cork. — Sir 11. I'ayne-Galhvey was killed near Dungarvan before
stated that he had notes of eight 1850 (Ibid.), and passed in the
172
BIEDS OF IRELAND.
Warren collection to the Dublin
jMuseum.
Wexford.— Several were stated by
Wheolock to have been obtained in
the summer of 1818 (Thompson) ;
two were sent to Glennon from
Enniscorthy at the end of October
or in November 1840 (Ibid.) ; two
others were killed in co. Wexford
that season, and passed from the
Dublin N.H. Society to the Dublin
Museum (Ibid.).
Dublin. — One was obtained at
Balrothery, in October or November
1840, and was acquired in the same
way by the Dublin Museum (Ibid.) ;
and ]\Ir. H. Blake Knox stated that
he met with another on the IMugiiu
Eock, Dublin Bay, on 15th November
1864, but did not procure it {ZuoL,
p. 9452 [1805]).
King's Co.— A Glossy Ibis was
obtained in this county in November
1840 (Thompson).
Westmeath. — One was shot at
Tobergill by the late H. C, Lcvinge,
on the 5th October 1851 (Knockdrin
game-book), probably a bird of the
same flight as the co. Longford
specimen, killed the same season.
Longford.— Seven were stated by
Glennon to have been sent him from
CO. Longford in three different years
previous to 1833 (Thompson) ; one
was killed on Lough Dun, about 20th
November 1851 (Powys, in Zoologist,
p. 3477 [1852]).
Antrim. — Templeton mentioned
one as having been shot in the
bog-meadows near Belfast on 80th
September 1819 (Thompson) ; another
was shot out of a flock of six near
Bushmills in autumn, 1858, and was
preserved by Mr. W. Dogherty (Ball,
in Proc. Dublin Univ. Zool. Assocn.,
4th March 1854).
A specimen, of which Thompson
got no particulars, was sent to Glen-
non in 1840 ; and probably some or
all of the five " shot within a few
years " of the publication of the
'Fowler in Ireland" are additional
to those mentioned in the above
list.
Family PLATALEID.E.
THE SPOONBILL. Platalea Jeucordla, LiDua?us.
Rare and irregular visitor, occurring in the maritime counties, chiefly
in autumn and winter.
Of the members of the Heron family, which, unlike the Bittern,
have not bred here in modern times, the Spoonbill has occurred
most frequently ; some thirty-three instances being forthcoming,
while in several of these cases small flocks were seen,
There is no record from any inland county, and in nearly every
case the birds were met with on the coast. The distribution was
as follows : Clare (1), Kerry (5), Cork (12), Waterford (2j, Wex-
ford (4), Wicklow (1), Dublin (2). Louth (1), Galway (1),
Mayo (1), Antrim (1), Donegal (2). Thus the four southern
counties, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Wexford, yielded twenty-
three, or about 70 jier cent, of the entire ; Cork, the great Heron
county, having twelve records ; while only two appear for the
whole Province of Connaught, and three for Ulster.
Nineteen instances have occurred in the several months as
PLATALEID/E.
173
follows: — Fobruarv 1, Marcli 1, April 1, May 1, July 1, Septem-
ber 2, October 2, Novemlier 7, December 'S. The valley of the
Cork and Youghal railway has harboured six Spoonbills at
different times, besides many other rare birds.
Clare. — A Spoonbill shot in this
county some time ago by Mv. C.
Heaton Armstrong is in the Paterson
collection at Corofin.
Kerry. — Three were shot out of a
flock of five near Dingle in February
1832 (Thompson, II., p. 179). Twowere
seen and one, an immature bird, shot
near Castlegregory in November 1846
(Ibid.) ; another was killed on Ya-
lentia Harbour on 12th November
1885 {Zool, 1885, p. 7.3). An immature
specimen was obtained near Derry-
nane, on 27th September 1889, by
Mr. O'Connell {Field, 5th October
1889) ; and another was shot at
Tarbert about the 4th November
1889, which is preserved at Tarbert
House (Williams, in Zool., 1889,
p. 455).
Cork. — Three were seen together,
and one shot, near Youghal in
autumn 1829 (Thompson). One was
killed close to the town of You-
ghal on the 30th November 1843
(Ibid.); another, in the same locality,
shortly before 25th August 1845
(Ibid.) ; again, an immature Spoon-
bill was shot near Youghal on 8th
October 1845 (Ibid.). Harvey knew
of one shot in co. Cork in 1859
(Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 1st Feb-
ruary 1860). A flock of four were
met with on a marsh near the Ban-
don River below Inishannon early
in December 1860, one was obtained,
which is now in the Dublin Museum
(Ibid.) ; while a second out of this
flock was shot by a Mr. Quin (Ibid.) ;
another Spoonbill was killed about
the same time by the late Thomas
Hungerford, of Clonakilty, and is also
in the Dublin ]\Iuseum ; the three
last-mentioned birds were immature
males (Ibid.). Another preserved
by Miss Hungerford at the Island,
Clonakilty, was mentioned to me in
1881 as having been shot in that
locality many years before. Two other
old specimens were seen in 1883 at
Greenmount (J. ff. Darling). A
Spoonbill was obtained near Carrig-
tohill the last week in April, about
1864 {Mv. J. J. Smyth). One was
described to me by ]Mr. J. O'Keefe,
of Ballymacoda, as shot by him
there, early in September 1863 or
1864 ; and another, shot on the
bog south of Youghal, was sent to
Mr. Rohu for preservation within
1885-87.
Waterford. — One or two killed at
Dromana were seen there among
birds shot by the gamekeeper between
1830 and 1850 (Thompson). One was
shot near Tramore on 5th November
1891, and shown to me by the owner,
Mr. Bov {Field, 21st November 1891).
Wexford. — Seven are said to have
frequented a pond at Carrickmannon
in the winter of 1835-36 (Thomp-
son). Poole saw a Spoonbill several
times on the south coast in July
1840 (Ibid.). One was shot on the
Lake of Ballyteige on 12th November
1844 (Ibid.). A beautiful adult bird
was killed near Fethard on 7th May
1844 (White, in Zool., 1884, p. 342).
Wicklow. — A bird of this species
was shot, at a little lake, a quarter
of a mile from the shore, about the
middle of October 1844 (Thompson).
Dublin. — A female, accompanied
by a second bird, was shot on the
strand near Swords on 26th Novem-
ber 1841 (Ibid.). Mr. H. Blake Knox
wrote that he approached near to
four Spoonbills which alighted, much
fatigued, on an isolated rock, by tlio
shore, on 10th IMarch 1864 {Zool,
p. 9211 [18641).
Louth or Meath. One was killed
174
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
at tlie mouth of the Boyne about
1854 (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 1st
February 1861).
Galway. — A Spoonbill was received
by ]\Iessrs. Williams and Son for
preservation from Galway on IGth
December 1890.
Mayo. — One was shot at Westport
in 1854 (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 1st
February 1861).
Antrim. — The first recorded from
Ireland was killed at Ballydrain Lake,
near Belfast, about the beginning of
the century (Tliompson).
Donegal. — One was said to have
been killed in co. Donegal in the
winter of 18-37-38 (Ibid.) ; another
near Duufanaghy about 1850 or 1851
(Sinclair).
Order ANSERES.
Faiiiily AXATID.E.
THE GREY LAG-GOOSE. Anser clnireus, Meyer.
Local winter-visitor to parts of Eastern Leinster and the Lower
Shannon, rare in most counties.
This species is supposed to have heen referred to by "Rutty as
breeding in Leinster, whrn he wrote under the head of " Wild
Goose " : " There are two sorts, the one a bird of passage ... It
comes about Michaehnas and goes off in March ; but there is a
larger sort which stays and breeds heri:\ particularly in the Bog of
Allen " (" Nat. History of co. Duljlin, 1 772 "). In the " History of
the CO. Down " (Harris and Smith, 17-ii'), after a description of the
Bai'nacle and Brent Geese, Ave are told that the great red bog in
the Ards, near Kirlcistown, was a particular resort of the " Land
Barnacle," and that " in the same place is also found the Great
Harrow Goose" ; referring to this bog near Kirlcistown, Thompson
tells us that the nests of Wild Geese were robbed there before ] 775.
Now as the Grev Lag-Goose is the only Wild Goose known to
breed in the British Isles, it is probable that it was the species
which ]>red in Ireland in the eighteenth century.
A semi-domesticated colony of these Geese exists at Castle
Coole, CO. Fermanagh, where they were introduced by Colonel Corry,
about 1700 (More), and at times there have l:»een over a hundred
individuils. but they fluctuate greatly in numbers ; Lough Coole,
where they are established, is about forty acres in extent, and
contains pike which destroy many of the goslings, but Lord
Behnore informed me that twenty-three of these came to maturity
in 1892.
The l^est-known resorts of Grey Lag-Geese in Ireland are near
ANATID.E. 175
tlie east coast. The marsh lands along- the Wicklow shore, known
as the Murrough, are visited every winter by a flock of fifty to a
hundred, varying according to the severity of the season, and
remaining until late in spring. In calm weather they sit in flocks
on the sea, about 300 or 400 yards from land, and fly in to feed on
the bogs and swampy fields soon after dusk ; when the sea is
rough they rest on one of five or six well-known fields, where they
cannot be approached, but they allow the train to pass within
seventy yards without even looking up (A. B. Brooke, in ZooL,
s. s., p. 2524 [1871]). The late Sir Victor Brooke stated that he
had seen hundreds of Grey Lag-Geese and Barnacles in Dundalk
Bay,where some winters they are very comnion. and that both species
f.'cd in the day-time on large open meadows and bogs in Meath,
where he had often shot them, though this species is most difficult
to stalk ; there are five from co. Louth preserved at Colebrooke. He
considered this to be the commonest Goose on that coast, except
the Brent. Mr. Pentland informed me in 1892 that a great many
frequented marshy meadows at Aclare, near Ardee, every winter,
flying backwards and forwards to the broad sands at Dundalk
Bay ; the mouth of the Boyne is another favourite locality (More).
The Lower Shannon is a si)ecial winter resort, for Colonel L. H.
Irby informs me that when shooting, l^elow Limerick, during hard
frost in January 1867, he killed a good many Grey Lag-Geese, of
which he saw more on the Shannon banks than of auv other
species, though there were both Bean and White-fronted Geese
about in some numbers at the time. Sir E. Payne-Gallwey also
says : " From four to five hundred Grey-lags have, during present
memory, frequented annually throughout the winter certain low-
lying lands that border the estuary of the Shannon below Limerick.
I have made many shots at them witJi the stanchion-gun, and
have even known fowlers t(^ kill, in this fashion, forty to fifty at
one discharge" (" Letters to Young Shooters," 1896, p. ^(^, foot-
note). Mr. E. Williams also informs me that on one occasion he
saw two dozen of these Geese at a poulterer's in Dul)lin, obtained
on the Shannon by a punt-shooter.
This Goose does not appear to be a regular visitor to other
parts of Ireland besides those mentioned above. Everywliere else
it is much rarer than the White-fronted species, and occurs
irregularly and in small numl)ers, chiefly in hard winters ; but
under these conditions it has been taken, in many cases repeatedly,
in all quarters of the coiintry except the south-eastern counties of
Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, and Wexford, from which I have
no record of it. The bogs of King's and Queen's Counties seem.
176 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
indeed, to yield more notices of this hird than most districts, but
it has been obtained in Kerry and Cork, in the counties of
Connaught, and in Fermanagh, Donegal and Antrim in Ulster,
though it seems to be very rare in the latter province.
THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. Anser (dhifrons (Scopoli).
A regular and often an abundant winter-visitor to the great bogs, in
all the provinces.
The White-fronted Goose is the commonest " G-rey " Goose which
visits Ireland, and is more frequently seen in the Dublin markets
than all the other wild Geese put together ; while descriptions
from all parts of the country identify it hx its black-barred breast.
It is very widespread, and is a regular winter-visitor to Western
Kerry, localities in Cork, and the red bogs of Tipperary, Kilkenny,
Queen's Co., King's Co., Westmeath, Galway, Roscommon, Mayo,
Sligo, Donegal, and parts of Down and Antrim ; the callows, or
marshy meadows, of the Shannon, the Suck and the Barrow, and
the islets of several lakes, are also favourite resoi-ts. This species
frequents the Midlands, e.g.. King's and Queen's Counties, even
more than counties near the coast, Kiuahan has counted 250 in
a flock feeding on the river-flats of the Little Brosna in co.
Tipperary ; the Geese come to their grassy feeding-grounds about
10 A.M., and if not disturbed remain until 2 p.m. or 3 p.m., when
they fly off to the bogs, to come liack again at midnight, and
remain on the callows a few hours ; in stormy weather they
remain longer on these river-flats (G. H. Kiuahan). Mr. Warren
has observed that where their feeding-grounds were preserved they
left off retreating daily to the bogs near the Ox Mountains,
and became so free from fear that they would only fly fi'om one
part of a small lake to another, though disturbed three times.
Their numbers are much greater in certain seasons than in
others, and, when severe frost and- snow drives them from the
open bogs, they spread over the cultivated districts in flocks of
all sizes ; thus in the beginning of 1881 and the following winter
various parts of Munster were visited by uumei'ous flocks which
alighted on the open fields, and Sir R. Payne-Gallwey mentions
that nine of these Geese pitched in the main street of Tullamore to
feed on some refuse vegetables. There is probably no county in
Ireland which is not visited by wandering bands in severe winters ;
and when they resort to springs in hard frosts they are sometimes
anatid.t:. 177
cauglit with rabbit-traps. Their stay in this country commoiily
lasts from early in October until late in April, but excellent
obseryers in various localities have recorded them in September
and in May, and on Lough S^yilly sometimes until the third week
in the latter month.
An interesting description is given in the Irish Naturalist (1897 ,
p. 222) of a large migration observed early in May, passing
over Londonderry from SW. to NE. ; the hosts of birds, which
defied calculation, were composed of Wigeon, Curlew, Plover, and
other Limicolee, with Wild Geese forming the outside columns.
The black bars on the uuderparts sometimes become confluent ;
at Baronscourt there is a specimen which has the entire breast
and belly black.
THE BEAN-GOOSE. Anser segetum {3 . Y . Q^meWn) .
Winter-Yisitor, but not nearly so common and widespread as the
White-fronted Goose.
Thompson states that from November until March the Bean-
Goose was occasionally brought to Belfast market, and he gives
instances of its capture in co. Antrim. He then took it for granted
that the flocks of Wild Geese which were seen on the wing were
probably to be referred to this species, and others have followed
his inference, so that the name " Bean-Goose " has come to be
often misapplied.
On the subject of the relative numbers of the Bean-Goose in
Ireland, I have recently consulted Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, and
find myself very much in accord with his present views, as
modified by his later experience. When he wrote the " Fowler
in Ireland," three very severe winters had occurred, and there is
more evidence that it is in such seasons that the Beau-Goose visits
Ireland. Eor instance, there is a specimen in the collection of Sir
E. Payne-Gallwey, shot out of a large gaggle on the Shannon ; but,
as intimated in " Letters to Young Shooters, 1896," he has of late
years found the Wild Geese of the Shannon Estuary to be nearly
all Grey Lag-Geese, though commonly called "Bean-Geese." A. G.
More considered this species to be much less frequent than the
White-fronted Goose ; and Mr. Edward Williams, who has
frequently and for many years examined the wildfowl in the
Dublin markets, shot in various parts of Ireland, considers the
Bean-Goose to be the least common of the five species which
N
178 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
annually visit Ireland. The greatei- difficulty, however, of shoot-
ing it, owing to its extreme shyness, must be taken into account
in judging from market-returns. I can answer for its rarity in co.
Waterford, the only specimen I know of having heen preserved by
Dr. Burkitt in January 1841 ; and from several counties in Leinster,
Connaught and Ulster, I have no record of it, although a few are
shot occasionally in western Cork and Kerry. Mr. Warren finds it
so rare in his district about Killala Bay that the onlv specimen
he has seen came to his notice forty years ago, though for half a
century the ornithology of the north-west has been constantly
studied by that most careful uatui-alist and sportsman.
Montgomery stated that in 1850 he found the Bean-Goose in
great numbers in Mavo, but added that the White-fronted was
more numerous, in the pi'oportion of five to one ; while he noticed
that the two species fed together, but in distinct flocks. The Bean-
Goose is shot in Connemara, but in decidedly smaller numbers
than A. albifrons, and on the Shannon, l)eiow Limerick, Colonel
L. Howard Irby found it stood in the same propoi'tion to the Grey
Lag-Goose, when shooting there in January 1867.
Turning to Watters, we find that he says : " The -[irincipal and
well-ascertained haunts of the Bean-Goose are the bogs of the
interior," a statement which I find corroborated at the present
day by gentlemen who reside in Queen's County, King's County,
Westmeath, eastern Galway, and eastern Sligo, where they con-
sider this goose a regular wintei'-visitor, though less common than
the White- fronted Goose. Mr. Barton includes the counties of
Roscommon and Leitrim among those where the Bean-Goose is
seen frequently, and the late Sir Victor Brooke stated that it was
the common goose of all the north of Ireland. This certainlv
does not apply to the Lough Swilly district, so remarkable
for wildfowl, where this species is rare ; Init it is frequently seen
on Rathlin, where specimens have been obtained repeatedly.
The habit of feeding at night, coupled with its great wariness,
renders the Bean-Goose very difficult to observe or obtain, but it
must be more numerous in some seasons than others, from the con-
flict of testimony of men who have shot in the inland counties.
anatid.t;. ]79
THE PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. Anser hrachyrhijnchvs,
Baillon.
Has once been obtained in co. Donegal.
About the 19th of October, 1891, a Piuk-footed Goose was shot
ou Lough Swilly, and was purchased at a poultry-shop in London-
derry by Mr. D. C. Campbell, who presented it to the Belfast
Museum (ZooL, 1892, p. 38). That month of October was remarh-
able for what has been called the " Petrel storm," when Petrels
of two species were strewn across Ireland, and the first Irish
specimens of Wilson's Petrel were ol»tained ; the occasion also
brought us a visit from many Grey Phalaropes, and the first Red-
necked Phalarope on record.
On the 9th February, 1872, the late Sir Victor Brooke, who was
driving, came suddenly in sight of a flock of Barnacles and Gi'ey
Lag-Geese, feeding on a large marshy field iu Meath, and, on
examining them with a telescope, he distinctly saw two birds which
he identified as Pink-footed ; he stated that they were sombre,
dark-headed birds, that the shape, size and gait of the species is
characteristic, and that to an experienced eye the pink foot of this
species is easily distinguished on the ground.
Wild Geese in flocks have several times been reported from
Ireland in Jidy. The clearest descriptitm of such an occurrence
was given me by Colonel Malone, of Baronston, Westmeath,
who stated that when fishing with his keeper on Lough Iron, on
the 4th of July, 1892, they saw a flock of forty-seven Geese, which
flew towards them until within one hundred and fifty or two
hundred yards before they turned away. They were of the same
size as the Geese usually seen in winter (White-fronted), but
appeared to have slightly shorter necks, and seemed to be a little
darker in the plumage. They uttered a cry which reminded
Colonel Malone of that of the Lesser Black-backed Gull (which
is found on Lough Iron). He was cpiite clear that they were not
Ruddy Sheldrakes which visited different parts of Ireland that
summer ; a species to which it was suggested at the time they might
belong (Zoo]., 1892, p. 334).
In the Field (23rd August 1890) there is a notice by P. A. K.,
Athlone, of Wild Geese which had been observed the third week
in July; referring here to his former notice, of eleven se^u on
26th August 1881, the writer states that he had then followed
them up for some davs with a glass.
N 2
180 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE SNOW-GOOSE. Clien hyperhoreus (Pallas).
Extremely rare visitor on the autumn migration.
The occurrence of the Suow-Goose in Ireland was first made
known liy Mr. Howard Saunders (Proe. Zool. Soc, 1872, p. 519).
This took place on Tacumshin Lake, which adjoins the south coast
of Wexford, where two immature specimens were shot, early in
November 1871, and identified bv him in Leadenhall Market on
the 9th of that month ; wdiile a third was shot in Wexford Har-
bour about the same time, but was not preserved.
It appears that an earlier occurrence had taken place in Ireland,
for Mr. E. Bidwell has recorded the following facts concerning two
Snow-Geese {Zool., 1878, p. 453) : — These birds were in the aviary
at Knowsley, and on the sale of the collection, in 1851, Mr.
Castang, of Leadenhall Market, purchased them, and afterwards
sold them to Mr. W. Domville, of Santrj House, Dublin. Mr.
Castang was informed by Thompson, the superintendent of Lord
Derby's aviary at Knowsley, that he had bought them with a
third Goose out of a flock of domestic Geese running on a green,
when he was travelling in Ireland.
In the Zoologist, 1878, p. 419, the Editor, Mr. Harting, records
the appearance of seven Snow-Geese, which were seen on marshy
ground in Termoncarra, near Belmullet, co. Mayo, about the
end of October 1877 ; one was wounded and used as a decoy,
by which a second was trapped. The latter proved to be a gander
and was easily tamed; he then assumed the leadership of a flock
of domestic geese, taking tliem long distances in the mornings and
returning every evening to the yard where they Avere kept ; he
mated with one of them and goslings were reared ; but after he
had thus lived until April 1884, he was killed with a stone, when
the owner, Mr. J. R. Crampton, presented the specimen to the
Dublin Museum, where it is preserved. The bird that was
wounded in 1877 died after six weeks, and was not preserved.
In the end of September 1886 Mr. H. Blake Knox received
another specimen from a son of one of his tenants living near
Belmullet, who shot it as it flew past his house. Mr. Blake
Knox has preserved this bird, and has kindly lent it to me ; it is
of larger size than Mr. Crampton's specimen in our Museum. It
was exhibited by Dr. E. B. Sharpe at the meeting of the British
Ornithologists' Club on 22nd November 1899, and proves to be
of the larger race, Chen nivalis (Forster).
anatid.t:. 181
The peninsula of the Mullet, on which the two last occurrences
took place, is at the north-west corner of Comiaught, and contains
famous resorts of wildfowl. Specimens of the Greenland Falcon
and Mealy Redpoll have been repeatedly obtained on that part of
the coast.
THE BAENACLE-GOOSE. Bemida Jeucopsis (Bechstein).
Regular, but local, winter-visitor to the coasts and islands of Louth,
Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, and Galway.
The only regular resort of this species known to Thompson was
Lurgan Green, an extensive marshy pasture, adjoining Dundalk
Bay (not to be confounded with Lurgan, a town in Armagh).
Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey was informed that in this locality five
hundred Barnacles were seen in the winter of 1880-81, and that
up to that time they continued to visit it in large numbers. The
late Sir Victor Brooke informed me in 1891 that B. leucopsis is in
some winters very common in Dundalk Bay, and goes out to feed
on flat meadows in Meath every morning with the Greylags. He
added that he had shot many of both species, and had seen flocks
of two hundred Barnacle together. A far more extensive immi-
gration, which is noticed at Inishtrahull, passes down the west
coast of Donegal, and is continued along the coasts of Connaught
as far as Connemara and the Arran Islands off Galway Bay, where
the proprietor, Mr. Johnston, has described to me the white faces
and underparts of the Geese which frequent Brannock Island
until the end of April. I found a dead Barnacle in a recognizable
state on Frehill Island, off Killary Harbour, and on showing it to
Mr. Blake of Rinvyle, he told me that birds of this sj^eeies are
common every winter, not only on the neighbouring islands, but on
his pastures near the sea, and Mrs. Blake said she once had nine
of them in her larder. The Barnacle-Goose is a visitor to Clew
Bay and its islands ("Fowler in Ireland," p. 162), to Keel Bav in
Achill, and to the neighl)ourhood of Belmullet, where Mr. Moran
tells me that the sloping fields near Teruiuncarragh are annually
frequented by at least a hundred and fifty. On Killala Bay Mr.
Warren has only once seen this species, but it regularly visits
Drumdiffe Bay, north of Sligo, frequenting in some uuml;)ers the
pastures of Lissadell, and Sir H. Gore Booth shot one there which
he kindly sent me ; the neighbouring island of Ardbolinc is also
resorted to. Coming to Donegal, we find the grass-covered islands
of the west coast are frequented l)y these l)irds in winter — e.a..
182
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Inisliduif, Inislibarnog', Eoaninish, a flat island about a mile long,
Inishilintry, and especially Aranmore, where specimens have been
I'epeatedly obtained, and there Barnacles remain all the winter
in flocks of eighty or more, feeding on the banks of grass in the
valleys, and on the brow of the cliffs (Migration Reports). The
Aranmore lightkeepers, who observe the migration of these Geese
every year, say that they arrive sometimes in September, but usually
in October, and they are seen passing at intervals, day and night,
vmtil the end of that month ; they leave by the first week in May.
Lightkeepers' reports would be much more useful if they did not
make the common mistake of calling the Brent Goose the
" Btirnacle " as well as this species, though there are a few men
who distinguish them.
In eastern Donegal the Barnacle is considered uncommon on
Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle, its regular resorts being those
wilder parts of the western coast and islands where it can graze in
security, for it is not a frequenter of estuaries and mudbanks like
the Brent ; it seldom wanders far from the sea, and even in the
maritime counties, in nearly all of which it seems to have occurred,
it is rare outside its established haunts. In Eathliu Island Mr.
Patterson only mentions a single instance, but at Portrush Mr.
Ogilby recorded about five hundred as having passed on the
14th March 1876 (ZooL, s. s., p. 4905 [1876] ). Scattered inland
occurrences have taken place in Westmeath, Longford, Fermanagh
and Armagh, and Sir Henry Belle^y assures me that he has seen
a small flock of this species in eastern Galway and carefully
examined a bird that was shot there. He described the sharp line
of demarcation between the black neck and very white breast ;
while Sir E. Payne-Gallwey mentions the peculiar (toughing grunt
of the Barnacle, as well as the white patch near the eye and the
larger size of the bird as indications which readily distinguish it
from the Brent Goose.
THE BEENT GOOSE. Bernida hrenta (Pallas).
Winter-visitor, and our most numerous Goose after A. alhifrons ;
scarcer in the extreme soutli.
The Brent Goose, being strictly marine in its habits, must be
sought for in the bays and estuaries, where it feeds upon the
banks that are exposed by the receding tide ; not on grass-lands,
like the Barnacle. I do not know of any instance of this bird
coming far inland. It abounds in Tralee Bav, though it does not
ANATID.E. 183
resort to the estuary of the Shauuou, and though absent, as a rule,
from Kenmare River and Bautry Bay, it occurs in hard winters in
the harbours of Queenstown, Youghal, and Waterford, in the last of
which it was formerly numerous. It frequents — some seasuus in
large numbers — Wexford Harbour, Dublin Bay, Malahide Estuary,
Duudalk Bay, Carlingford Lough, Strangford Lough, Belfast
Lough, Larne Lough, Loughs Foyle and Swilly, Drumcliffe and
Sligo Bays, and those of Broadhaven and Blacksod. To Killala
Bay and the Moy Estuary it only comes on passage, never remain-
ing (WarreuJ ; Hare Island, in Galway Bay, and Mutton Island,
in Clare, are also spoken of as resorts ("Fowler in Ireland"). In
some of the above localities the flocks are described as consisting
of thousands, or covering acres in extent, but it is evident that
their numbers have greatly diminished since Thompson's time, in
Wexford Harbour for example.
Brent Geese begin to arrive in September, occasionally in
August, and become much more numerous in October and
November. In Dul:)lin Bay the great increase does not seem to
take place until January or February ; while April is the usual
month for the departure of these birds, but some linger on into
May ; at Malahide it is said that they will go with the first hard
east wind, but that if the wind holds from the west they stay a
long time.
Thompson records some interesting observations made by him
on the aspects, cries, and habits of the tiocks of Brent-Geese in
Belfast Bay, where he found that they came in to feed at sunrise,
and that in the afternoon tliey all rose to fly out to sea, where they
remained for the night. When the frost was so severe as to freeze
the banks between tides, they became starved and much tamer,
as all Geese do at such times. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that,
while a flock was feeding, one which acted as their sentinel dis-
covered him as he lay in his punt in a deep channel ; it walked
slowly back to the rest, and then sprang up and led them off sea-
ward. The same writer has seen the sentinel relieved by another,
and then commence to feed eagerly.
A coracoid bone of Bernicla, found in Shandon Cave, and pro-
visionally referred to the Barnacle-Goose, may possibly belong to
the Brent (Lydekker, in Ihis, 1891, p. 390).
184 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE WHOOPEE SWAN. Cyguus nmsicus (Beclistem).
Rare and irregular winter-visitor to all the provinces, most frequently
to Ulster.
This species, according to Mr. E. Williams, occurs in about the
proportion of one to twenty-five Bewick's Swans, and is therefore
a much rarer bird. The only locality which, as I am informed, it
visits in small numbers every winter is Lough Swilly, but it is
occasionally found on Lough Foyle (Mr. D. C. Campbell). There
are over thirty records of its capture, chiefly in hard winters, in the
counties of Kerry, Cork (several), Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford,
Dublin, Queen's Co., King's Co., Longford, Louth, Mayo, Sligo,
Leitrim, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and
Donegal, the last being richest in records. Though more appear
from northern counties, we have here a fair sprinkling all over
Ireland, including the extreme south. Sir E. Payne-Grallwey
remarks that he has seldom met with a dozen Whooj^ers together,
and the flocks of this species we hear of in recent times are
generally small. Thus Mr. Digby recognized by their whoop eleven
of these birds flying over Geashill un '2nd November 1893, and this
is the earliest date in the season 1 can find, for Whoopers more
often come in December and January, with the coldest weather,
and they leave in February or March.
Owing to the difficulty of determining the species on the wing,
it is impossible to say that many of the flocks of Swans seen in
Ireland are not Whoopers; but from the fact that these birds have
been killed in comparatively few cases, it seems safer to conclude
that undetermined examples are of the far commoner Bewick's
Swan.
The Whooper is said to weigh twenty-four pounds, and
Bewick's Swan about fourteen, while their lengths are five feet
and four feet respectively ; in the Whooper, too, the exjjanded
wings measure eight feet across, and a far larger proportion of
the beak is yellow. When the Inrds are on the wing their note
supplies a criterion ; Mr. Warren describes that of the Whooper
as being like " whoo, huo," while he renders that of Bewick's
Swan as " hong, hong, ong, ony-."
anatid.t:. 185
BEWICK'S SWAN. Cijgnus bewicl-i, Yarrell.
A regular, sometimes an abundant, winter-visitor to Ulster, Connaught,
and part of Kerry ; an occasional visitor to the rest of Munster
and to Leinster.
We owe to Thompson the discovery that this is tlie Swan which
visits Ireland in the greatest numbers, a fact which all sulisequeut
observations have confirmed. Though an exceedingly fluctuating,
and in most places uncertain visitor, there are some lakes near the
coast and estuaries where Bewick's Swan may be foimd more or
less every winter. The most southern is Lough Gill, near Castle-
gregory, on the north coast of Kerry, which was mentioned as fre-
c^uented by Swans in 1756 by Smith, who at the same time remarked
that they were rare in Cork and Waterford, as they are at present.
Dr. Kane informed me that, on the above lake, a number, varying
with the season, may be seen every winter, and Sir E. Payne-
Gallwey states that three to four hundred remained there during
the frost of 1878-79, while in January 1881 there were about
eight hundred. Keel Lake, in Achill, is another resort, and so are
the lakes of the Mullet in Mayo, which, as the late Dr. Burkitt said,
are usually frequented by from fifty to one hundred and fifty, in
detached bodies of about five to eight, but in the winter of 1892-93
upwards of a thousand were seen almost daily for weeks on the
lake of Cross, and flew, when disturbed, to Termoncarragh. The
fresh-water lakes mentioned are on some of the remotest parts of
our western coast, but Loughs Conn and Cullen are also frec[uently
resorted to, two hundred Swans having been seen on tlie latter on
] 7th December 1879, and Mr. Warren has a long list of observa-
tions of flocks, of various sizes up to thirty birds, seen on Killala
Bay and the Moy from time to time on their way to these lakes.
The Eiver Suck below Ballinasloe and the neighbouring parts of
the Shannon are often visited, as well as Lough Funshinagh in
Roscommon, localities where a large number, estimated at fotir
hundred, remained dttring severe frost in the early part of 186-4
(Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 1st April 1864).
In CO. Donegal the enclosed water of Lough Swilly at Inch, and
also a lake in Fanad, are said to be regularly visited in winter ;
and through Ulster generally this species is more frequent in its
occurrence than in other parts of Ireland, excejit those already
mentioned. This has been so for many centuries, as we are told by
Giraldus Cambrensis that Swans abounded in tlic noi-thern }iart of
186 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Ireland in his day. In severe winters, however, wandering flocks
visit every part of the island, as in the seasons of 1890-91, and
1892-93, when they were recorded from our four provinces, and
even occurred on the soutli -eastern coast, where Wild SAvans are
rare, and in such hard seasons they have been seen on the Arran
Islands off Galway Bay. Thirty to fifty Bewick's Swans in a
herd are not uncommon on the estuaries and lakes near the coast,
according to Sir E. Payne- Gallwey, but smaller parties traverse
the country on the wing, and, as stated, there are assemblages
of hundreds iu some exceptionally severe seasons ; thus we
read of live hundred having been seen on Lougli GruUion near
Lough ISTeagh in co. Armagh, and the same numVter (probably of
this species) have been seen on the Malahide Estuary, co. Dublin.
These Swans sometimes arrive about the beginning of October,
but generally early in December, the beginning of which month is
the customary time for them to appear in Achill, liut a sudden
frost at any period of the winter brings them with it. They depart
towards the end of February, but Thompson mentions two
occurrences in March.
THE MUTE SWAK Cygnus ohr (ameWn).
Resident in a semi-feral condition on lakes, rivers, and harbours in
the four provinces.
This long-ago introduced species maintains itself well on Irish
waters without attention from man, and has increased to consider-
able flocks in favourable localities. Among these maybe mentioned
the Lower Lake, Killarney ; Eostellan on Queenstowu Harl)our,
where the flock may be seen on the tidal water ; Ballycottin Bog,
which had formerly fifty or sixty swans on it ; Lough Inchiquin,
CO. Clare, iuhal)ited by a fl(.>ck of forty to seventy ; Wexford
Harbour, where there were thirty-eight nests on the north intake
in 1899 (Mr. Alfred Delap). The fowlers there do not molest the
birds, which have extended themselves up the Slaney as far as
Enniscorthy. Swans are generally common in the counties adjoin-
ing the Shannon, for instance, in Leitrim. On Lough Gara, between
Roscommon and Sligo, in 1896, I saw twelve together in one place
and seven in another, also more than a score on Lough Gill and
the Sligo River. On Lough Erne Swans multiplied to 150, but
many were killed by poachers ; while on Lough Eoyle Swans used to
be common, but have become rare, probably from the same cause.
ANATID.^. 187
When the resorts of these birds become crowded, small parties go
forth on the wing, not only to other lakes and rivers, bnt in many
cases to the coast ; thns Mr. Warren has seen seven adults on
Killala Bay, and Mr. Sheridan has met with others in Achill,
while six wei'e approached and one shot on Dundalk Bay a mile
from land. This occurs both in summer and winter — for instance,
Mr. Parker saw twelve in June, on the sea near Miltown Malbay,
which flew back towards Lough luchiquin.
The eggs are laid here in the end of March or beginning of
April, and the female usually sits on them, while the male keeps
guard on the water, but should an intruder ajiproach, the female
slips off, and the male takes possession of the eggs and defends
them. In doing this 1 have known him, in delivering a blow of his
wing, to break some eggs accidentally, when he immediately drank
the contents and carried off into the lake the broken shells and the
soiled portion of the nest. I have seen an uncompleted clutch of
five eggs nicely covered with down and rubbish when the bird was
off them. The young come out in May and immediately take to
the water, where they feed on the swarming insects in the tangles
of pond-weed, which their parents drag up and hold for their
offspring to pick. My Swans drive away their male cygnets in
October, but allow the females to remain until early spring, when
they, too, are expelled.
So-called "Polish Swans" have been repeatedly shot in Ireland.
THE COMMON SHELD-DUCK. Tadonm cornuta
(S. O. Omelin).
Resident, breeding in limited numbers on the coasts of the four pro-
vinces.
The Sheld-Duck is a particularly shy bird, and as, moreover, it
breeds underground, its distribution in Ireland has not hitherto
been well known ; but on nearly all parts of the coast where there
are sand-hills and rabbit-warrens, and where it is not much per-
secuted, this fine bird nests ; less commonly perhaps in the east
and north-east, owing to population. The estuary of the Shannon
on lx)th sides, and the islands of its tributary the Ferg>is, are
special breeding-resorts of the Sheld-Duck, as well as Inch in
Dingle Bay, inlets. of Queenstown Harbour, the Bays of Dungarvan
and Tramore,the extensive sand-hills and the islands of theAVexford
coast ; it also nests on one island at least, as well as the coast, north
188 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
of Dublin Bay, and again north of the Bovne, Lough Strangford (?),
the north Antrim coast, a locality on Lough. Neagh, the coast of
Londonderry (outside Lough Foyle), Lough Swilly, Roaninish
Island, and many jjarts of the Donegal seaboard down to the
mouth of the Erne ; on the l)ays of co. Sligo, Killala Bay (where
the species has increased on Bartragh under Captain Kirkwood's
protection), and AchiU Island. On all these the Sheld-Duck
breeds, and a specimen sent from Ballyconneely Bay, in Con-
nemara, points to that district as another resort.
Of the flocks which frequent Dublin Bay, Cox wrote (ZooL,
1879, p. 482) : " The Sheldrake appears in October in small flocks,
which generally remain until after Christmas, when their numbers
increase. I have observed the largest flocks in March and the
beginning of April, after which those that remain are generally
paired." Mr. E. Williams informed me in April 1881 that he
had seen about fifty of these birds in Dublin Bay diu'ing the
previous week ; and Mr. Warren states that on the estuary of the
Moy he has sometimes seen flocks numbering from ninety to a
himdred of late years. Individual birds are occasionally found a
long way up rivers in winter, but a more marked departure from
the ordinary marine habits of the Sheld-Duck took place in Antrim
Bay, on Lough Neagh, where a pair Ijred on that fresh-water lake in
the successive seasons of 1894 to 1897, and though the female
was taken, another took her jilace the following year. The par-
ticulars were supplied by Mr. H. D. M. Barton, to whom this bird
was brought, and also three young ones unable to fly, of which
he sent me the head of one ; he stated that the breeding-place
was in a bank of sand and gravel extending for two hundred yards,
with close grass upon it, and riddled with rabbit-holes, about one
hundred and fifty yards from the edge of the lake, a marshy
bottom intervening.
These birds do not always breed in sand-hills, for I have seen
one, day after day, close to a rabbit-warren among furze, on a
slope beside the Shannon in Kerry, where I concluded that its
mate was hatching, and I have heard of the eggs being found in
a ditch under dense furze over the cliffs of our coast ; while Sir
E. Payne-Gallwey has known the Sheld-Duck to nest in natui'al
holes and crevices on precipitous islands and rocks, and has seen
the young carried on the mother's back to the sea. The eggs are
not hatched until the latter half of May ; a young brood was
seen by Mr. Kirkwood, apparently unable to contend with the
rough tidal eddy in which they found themselves, and we picked
up one of them drowned on Bartragh. Mr. Warren has found
ANATID^E. 189
that tlie male takes quite as miicli care of the young as the female,
aud will use as many artifices to draw away the intruder from
them. While one parent bird is thus occupied, the little ones
scatter and dive, and the other old bird devotes itself to draw
them away in the opposite direction ; but, except young ones when
thus escaping, Sheld-Ducks are never seen to dive. If approached
by a punt they walk off, unless they are driven to take wing.
THE EUDDY SHELD-DUCK. Tadnrna casarca (Linnaeus).
Rare and irregular visitor, occurring chiefly in summer.
The doubts formerly expressed as to the Euddy Sheld-Duck
reaching our shores in a wild condition have lieen abandoned
since the emigration in the summer of 1892, when, as Mr. Howard
Saunders informs us, there was a great drought in southern and
and south-eastern Europe, and birds of this species were recorded
as wandering, not only to Scandinavia and the British Isles, but
even to Iceland and Greenland. So irregular a departure from the
breeding-haunts of the species, extending over so large an area, is
more like an invasion of Pallas's Sand-Grouse than an ordinary
migration ; and the analogy was increased by the fact that flocks of
the Euddy Sheld-Duck, up to twenty in number, as well as single
individuals, were met with that season from Cork to Donegal, and
from Louth to the Lower Shannon, as well as in the Midlands.
These birds did not breed, but disappeared after September. The
birds seen in 1892 were stated to have been very wild, and their
almost simultaneous appearance in so many widely- separated
districts proves the reality of the migration.
There was a previous visitation on a smaller scale, in June
and July 1886, when Euddy Sheld-Ducks occurred in small
parties, and sj^ecimeus were shot at Kinsale, in noi'thern Cork,
aud on the Shannon above Limerick ; in England, one was shot
at Aldborough, Suffolk, 8th July 1886 (Mr. J. H. Gurney) ; one
or two also out of the eai-lier occurrences of this species took place
in summer, the rest in March, none in winter.
As the times, when the several Thompson (III., p. G5) mentions
instances below took place, have the first recorded example which was
more significance than the localities, shot on the Murrough of Wicklow,
the usual arrangement by counties on the 7th July 1847, and eventually
is here abandoned for the chrono- passed into the Dublin Museum ;
logical order. another, shot on Clouea Bog, co.
190
BIRDS OF IRELAND,
Waterford, about 20th March 1871,
was presented to the same museum
by Dr. W. W. McGuire (Mere's List) ;
a male, in the plumage of the second
year, killed on a lake close to the
sea, near Ardfert, co. Kerry, on 17th
August 1869, is preserved in the
Neligan collection at Tralee ; it was
said to have been seen about the
district from the previous ]March,
and to have been very wild {ZooL,
s. s., p. 2105 [1870]).
In the migration of 188G a pair
were shot on the Shannon, at the
mouth of Cool River, near Bird Hill,
on 16th June (ZooL, 1S86, p. 25) ; six
were seen, and one, a female, shot on
the sea, at Kinsale, co. Cork, on the
26th of the same month (Ibid.) ;
three were seen, and a male obtained,
bv ^Ir. Greehan, near Banteer, on the
Mallow and Killarney line, on 16th
July 1886 (Ibid.) ; :Mr. R. Patterson
informed me that three were seen,
and one shot, on Strangford Lough,
CO. Down, in :March 188S.
The first we know of the 1892
migration is that a flock of about
twenty were seen, and one shot, on
the Sheskinmore, a marsh near the
western coast of Donegal, on the
24th or 25th June (Zoul., 1892,
pp. 311, 393) ; a flock of five (or seven)
apj^eared at Skerries, co. Dublin, and
three were shot there on the 26th
June, another bird at Droghcda on
5th or 6th July, while others were
said to have been seen on islands off
the same coast (Zool, 1892, pp. 359,
393) ; another was killed near Port-
arlington, Queen's County, also iu
June {Zool, 1892, p. 359) ; a female
was killed out of a flock of six, be-
tween Limerick and Foynes, on the
Shannon, on 7th July (Ibid., p. 393) ;
the late 'Mv. Levinge reported to me,
on 25th July, that a jjair were then
ou Ballynagall Lake, Westmeath,
where they remained unmolested
until the flapper-shooting commenced
on 1st August ; a female was shot,
out of three, on Cork Harbour on
4th August (^Ir. \Y. B. Barriugton, in
Irisli Xat., 1892, p. 147) ; three were
seen, about seventy yards off, near
Coolmore, co. Donegal, on 4th August
(Mr. W. A. Hamilton, in Field, 20th
August 1892) ; one was killed out of
a flock of six ou Burt Slob, Lough
Swilly, CO. Donegal, about 19th
August (ZooL, 1892, p. 359) ; two
were seen by Mr. G D. Beresford on
a small lake near the sea at Mullagh-
more, co. Sligo, about 24th August
{Land and Water, 26th November
1892) ; a bird, apparently immature,
was shot at Inch, Lough Swilly,
ou 8th September (Field, 17th
September and 1st October ls!92) ;
another specimen was sent up to
^Ir. Rohu, of Gt. Brunswick Street,
Dublin, from Parsonstown, King's
County (Irish SjMrf small, 15th
October 1892).
THE MALLARD. Anas hoscas, Linnceus.
Resident and common, breeding freely in every county. Numbers
increased in winter by immigration.
This is bv far the most uumerous of the Duck family as a breed-
in'y species, and vast numbers are reared in Ireland, chiefly in the
wilder parts ; while it is not confined to the mainland, for many breed
on such larcje islands as Eathlin, and Deer Island off Counemara.
ANATID.?:. 191
The lakes of Ireland abound with Wild Ducks and their broods
in summer, and as the season advances, many flock to the rivers
and estuaries, while rocky islands in the sea are used as restiog-
places in autumn and winter, and even as early as the 7tli of June
I have seen a large flock on the Keeragh Islands oft' co. Wexford.
On the approach of winter Wild Ducks assemble on inland
waters, and in December and January large flights of the foreign
birds arrive in Ireland ; at Kellyville decoy, Mr. Webber tiuds
the latter distinguishable from the home-bred birds by being
slighter in l)ody, tired after migration, and more easily decoyed.
When the fresh waters are frozen, as in the hard winters of
1878-79 and 1880-81, Mr. Warren has found this species on the
sands of the Moy Estuary quite as numerous as the Wigeon, an
unusual sight, for they genei'ally keep to inland feeding-grounds ;
though many large flocks seek refuge by day on the open sea, in
his district, they do not feed on the estuary with the Wigeon at
night, but betake themselves to tlie stubbles and potato-fields ;
they do much damage to the ripening corn, and if it remains
long in stooks, after it is cut. the Ducks feed on the outside
sheaves.
Where protection is afforded them on a piece of water. Wild
Ducks resort to the spot iu the winter mornings and jjass the day
there, resting in numbers on the banks, and become very tame ;
thus, when my cows go to drink where the Ducks are standing,
the latter merely move aside, and the presence of the cow-herd
at most causes them to fly out on the water ; but should anyone
approach with an umbrella, or even with black clothes, they quit
the lake.
At Kellyville, on the l;)orders of Queen's Co., is the largest
decoy in Ireland. This was started about 1840, and has been
much improved by the present owner, Mr. Thomas Webber, who
works it with dogs. The lake is near his house, and covers about
15 acres ; there are now nine pipes, l)acked in places bv tall trees,
and that part of the grounds is |irotected from intrusion by
canals ; the water may be seen in winter covered with a vast
multitude of wildfowl, chiefly Teal. Mallards and Wigeon, but
also including many Shovelers, Pintails, Pochards and Tufted
Ducks. One side of this lake is 0}ieii. and persons walking along
the approach, unless they stop to look at the Ducks, are disre-
garded by them. As dusk comes on flock after flock takes flight
with loud outcries, and disperses over the country to feed, return-
ing next morning to pass the clay in security. When the ].lace is
drawn, the huntsmen do not craek their Avhips, and the hounds
192 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
cause little disturbance ; a uumlier of Ducks have been seen feed-
ing on acorns under an oak beside the house.
At Longueville, near Mallow, the only other decoy in Ireland
is still maintained by Mr. E. E. Longfield. This lake is not so
large as the preceding, and there ai-e only two pipes, but it is the
resort of great numbers of Ducks of the above species eveiy
winter, though they are said to be fewer than formerly.
In the CO. Waterford Wild Ducks hatch in March, and in that
month I have counted nineteen drakes together on the Cappagh
Lake, as they leave their mates when hatching ; but in Mayo and
Sligo Mr. Warren finds that the usual hatching-time is the
beginning of May. On the preserved marshes of G-ranston, in
Queen's Co., the numbers of nests on some of the banks with
hardly any cover are astonishing. Of the Ducks which frequent
the Cappagh Lake in winter only a few breed among the sedges by
the water ; others nest among the heather in young j)lantations on
hills, four hundred feet higher and nearly a mile away, whence they
lead their downy little ones walking to the lakes, and Sir R. Payne-
Gallwey met with a Duck thus engaged by moonlight, in a village
street. In many parts of Ireland, Ducks select dry heather on
hills and slopes, often far from water, to nest in, and on the red
bogs they prefer heather to rushes for this purpose. Many cases
have occurred in this country of Wild Ducks breeding in trees of
various kinds, on towers and castles and on the tops of walls ; I
have seen a nest among a dense growth of small twigs proceeding
from the bottom of a lime-tree in a plantation. A Mallard
which I suddenly disturbed, on an island in Lough Derg in
June, flapped along before me as if his wing were broken, thus
evincing anxiety to lure me from his brood, like the female.
Pure white Mallards have been ol:»taiued in Ireland.
THE GrADWALL. Anas strepera, Linnaeus.
Scarce and irregular winter-visitor, occurring from time to time in
all the provinces.
Though the Gladwall probably occurs in some parts of Ireland
every year, one can never tell where to expect it, as its visits are
of a vagrant and fluctuating character, though at certain times,
as in January 1896, specimens have been killed in widely separated
parts of the country. Still, it never becomes a common bird, and is
visually met with singly or in pairs, or in small parties not exceeding
ANATID^. 193
five or six. The chief place which it has been known to visit,
year after year, is the Longueville decoy-lake, where Mr. Longfield
has taken specimens in the four winters between 1893 and 1897.
At Kelly ville decoy two were taken in the winter of 1897-98
and four in 1898-99.
The Gradwall has been obtained in the following counties : —
Kerry, Cork (in all parts), Waterford, Tipperary, Wexford, Dublin,
Queen's Co.. King's Co., Westmeath, Louth, Mayo (many times),
Sligo, Fermanagh, Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal.
From this it will be seen that hardly any large portion of Ireland
remains unvisited, the western sea-board between Kerry and
Achill being, however, without records of this species. It may
also be remarked that maritime counties where it has occurred
greatly outnumber those which are inland ; and this shows the
transitory and unsettled character of the bird's visits, for it loves
to lurk in quiet lakes which afford the cover of aquatic weeds, and
if it were inclined to settle in the country it might find plenty of
such resorts at a distance from the coasts. Mr. Warren has met
with Gadwalls on or near the estuary of the Mov on five occasions,
and has once noticed them feed nig with Wigeon, which is not
their usual habit, for they are inclined to keep apart from other
species. They also occur at times in Achill and Blacksod Bay, as
well as on the Dulilin coast, thougli doubtless more at home on
inland waters. Sir E. Payue-Gallwey has seen six in one winter on
Lough Derg, and others have been shot fi'om time to time on Lord
Castletown's marshes in Queen's Co.
The earliest arrivals noticed have been in October ; in December
Gadwalls have been more frequent, while in January the maximum
number have occurred; they then diminish in February and March ;
in April there have been two cases; and on 25th May 189-4 a female
was forwarded from Belmullet whose ovary contained eggs which,
Mr. Williams considered, might not have been laid for three weeks.
A remarkable hybrid between a Gadwall aud a Wigeon was
obtained on the Moy Estuary on 4th March 1895 by Mr. A. C.
Kirkwood, aud is in the collection of Mr. Barrington.
THE SHOVELEE. Spaiuhi dypeatn (LinuEeus).
Resident and increasing, breeding in every province in small numbers ;
more numerous in winter.
It is a pleasure to say that this handsome duck has extended
its breeding-range over Ireland, and appears to be on the increase
both in summer and winter. Thompson could only sj)eak of it as
o
194
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
a wiuter-visitor, of sufficient rarity for liini to mention special
occurrences. Mr. G. H. Kinalian first announced its breeding
in this country, near Portumna, in 1863 (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc,
4tb December 1863), while at the present day mox'e than half of
our counties can be named in which either the eggs or young have
been met with, or the males have been seen alone in the breeding-
season in suitable haunts where their mates may have been
hatching or tending their young at the time ; I have thus seen
male Shovelers, singly or in small parties, in May and June, on
lakes and marshes in many counties from Cork to Antrim.
Kerry. — Shovelers used to frequent
the Lower Lake, KiUarney, in ^May,
from 1870 to 1878, and were said to
have nested.
Cork. — Seven males and one female
were seen on the marsh at Kilcole-
man Castle, .3rd May 1899; while at
Longueville a male has been seen
about the decoy-lake until June.
Waterford. — Successive broods
were reared on a marsh near the
coast in 1893-1895 (:Mr. T. Spencer).
Clare. — A male was put up, near
Belkelly Castle on Lough Derg, on
31st May 1892.
Wexford. — Shovelers are stated,
by residents near Wexford Harbour,
to remain to breed (Barrett-Hamilton,
in ZooL, 1890, p. 104).
Queen's Co. — On Lord Castletown's
duck preserves at Granston a good
many pairs breed regularly ; and on
Lough Annaghmore I saw naale
Shovelers on 2nd June 1899.
King's Co. — On the side-channels
of the Shannon above Banagher, and
on the neighbouring River Brosna,
Shovelers are said to breed.
Westmeath. — AtBaronston several
pairs breed on wet grassy ground
beside Lough Iron ; the eggs were
taken beside Glen Lough in 1891,
and the following year the bird
nested there again (Mrs. Battersby,
in Zool, 1892, p. 311).
Dublin. — An adult male and two
young birds were killed near Baldoyle
on 24th July 1876 (More's List) ; IMr.
H. B. Rathborne states that this
species appears to be in that district
all the summer.
Louth.— Mr. H. D. M. Barton has
killed young birds on Lough Beg
!Marsh when flapper-shooting.
Galway. — At Clonbrock the young
have been seen in July, and near
Portumna, where the Shoveler was
found breeding in 1863, I started
a young brood with their mother
on an island in Lough Derg on
2nd June 1892; in the Field, 15th
October 1898, it was stated that
Shovelers had bred on this lake in
great numbers for some years.
Roscommon. — At Carnagh, on
Lough Ree, Mr. Levinge has shot
young Shovelers when flapper-shoot-
ing. On Lougli Key, a female, in
anxiety for her brood, on 11th June
1896, displayed the same agonized
antics as the bird I saw near Por-
tumna ; three males got up on the
same lake on 12th June 1891.
Mayo. — Shovelers breed on Lough
Conn, wlience I have seen their eggs
taken, and the birds have been seen
by ]Mr. Warren on Rathroeen Lake in
summer.
Sligo. — Colonel Cooper informs me
that young birds, with the unmistak-
able bill of the Shoveler, have been
shot in August on small bog lakes
three miles south of Dromore West.
Fermanagh. — These birds have
long been known to breed on the
marsh at Castle Irvine, and while
ANATID.15. 195
visiting Upper Lougli Eruo I saw Portmore Lougii, in tlie neiglibour-
six males in different places, only one hood of which the eggs have been
accompanied by a female, on 20th often taken.
May 1895, the high grassy islands of Donegal. — These birds have bred
this labyrinthine lake being most on tlie reclaimed slob-lands near
suitable for them to breed on ; I also Lough Swilly since before 1877
saw a male and female at Devenish, [Field, 26th May 1877), also in 1SS9
on Lower Lough Erne, on 7th June at Port Lough, and are increasing in
1891. the neighbourhood of Coolmore,
Monaghan. — On Castle Blayney Ballyshanuou, where a few pairs
Lake, Shovelers were seen on 28th breed near the coast.
May 1895. I have not quoted information
Tyrone. — A nest with eggs was from Longford and Leitrim, where
taken on an island in Lough Neagh there is some reason to think
in IMay 1896. Shovelers also breed.
Antrim. — I have seen Shovelers on
The Shoveler is a winter-visitor to all parts of Ireland, but is
scarce in most counties, though more plentiful in the great
central plain, with its liogs and lakes, and, to a less extent, in
Connaught, and on the inland part of Lough Swillj. Westmeath,
King's and Queen's Counties are, perhaps, more resorted to than
any others, and in several parts of these the increase of Shovelers
m winter has been remarked since 1889. This is evident from
the numbers annually taken at Kellyville, where Mr. Webber
states that several hundreds frequent the decoy-lake from
November to April ; in the winter of 1889-90 he took fifty-eight
of these birds, the highest number recorded up to that time, and
though they fluctuate from year to year, in 1895-96 sixty-five
were taken. Many similarly resort to the decoy-lake at Longue-
yille in the northern part of co. Cork.
The Shoveler, having small feet, is ill-adapted for tidal currents
or rough water, and is seldom found on such, though Sir R. Payne-
Gallwey has often met with it on the verge of mud-banks and in
narrow channels. It is rather a bird of quiet inland waters, its
peculiar bill being formed for surface-feeding among pond-weed,
accoi'dingly it resorts to lakes, marshes, and the quiet side-channels
of the Shannon, called " back-rivers." I have seen Shovelers feed-
ing intermixed with crowds of other wildfowl, but in the " Fowler
in Ireland " they are said to swim in close bunches of from seven
to fifteen, probably on estuaries, before they have reached their
inland retreats.
This bird does not nest in heavy cover, Imt prefers flat grassy
land near lakes, away from the reed-beds, and it lays in the end
of April or early in May, often under no better cover than a tuft
of grass. The male sometimes exhibits anxiety for the young as
o 2
19G BIRDS OF IRELAND.
well as the female, and utters a " quack " which is doubled, when
his alarm is increased, but this note is not so loud as that of the
Wild Duck.
THE PINTAIL. Bafila acuta (Linnseus).
Winter-visitor, but local ; rare in most parts of the country. There
are two records of its breeding in Ireland, but not recently.
The Pintail resorts annually to certain localities, outside which.
it is looked upon as a rare bird ; but its haunts are not confined to
any province, and are to be found on tidal waters as well as
inland lakes. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that he has seen it in
hundi-eds on the lake near Castlegresjory (Lough Grill in Kerry),
and he has ol)served one hundred to one hundred and fifty,
chiefly male birds, off Coney Island in the estuary of the Fergus,
CO. Clare. A small number annually frequent the decoy-lake at
Longueville near Mallow, where Mr. Longfield has seen thirty
to forty males ; a great many also visit the Keliyville decoy,
and the numbers taken there mounted up, in successive seasons,
to fifty-six in the winter of 1891-92, after which they gradually
declined ; Pintails are. moreover, frequently shot on the neigh-
bouring parts of the Barrow, and on Lord Castletown's marshes
near Granston. The estuaries on the north coast of Dublin
are resorted to at times ; so are the Shannon Lakes, excep-
tional numbers having been reported from Athlone early in
1864, when such numbers of Wild Swans were recorded. On
Lough Corrib the Pintail has been seen rather plentifully
(" Fowler in Ireland ") ; while to the Moy Estuary it is a regular
winter-visitor, increasing in hard seasons like that of 1878-79 ;
and since 1896 Mr. Warren has found it become more numerous,
as many as eighty having been counted on Bartragh. Drumclift'e
and Ballysodare Bays were given as localities by Captain Kinsey
Dover ; and Mr. W. A. Hamilton has seen Pintails every spring
on a piece of brackish water separated from Donegal Bay by a
sand-bank. At Inch, where a portion of Lough Swilly is enclosed.
Professor Leebody hiis seen very large numbers ; there, as he
says, the Pintail is plentiful in February and the beginning of
March, a few being present all the winter, but during the latter
part of Feln'uary their numbers increase gi'eatly. In co. Antrim
Mr. Barton tells me this bird is common, and the " Belfast Gruide "
savs it is obtained annuallv in very small numbers, but more
ANATID^. 197
frequently than the Shoveler. Though Thompson stated the Pin-
tail was an annual visitor to Wexford and Waterford Harbours,
it seems to have become rare in our time, and is looked upon
through Ireland generally as a bird to be recorded and preserved
when it is obtained. Thompson remarked that many had been
killed late in September and early in October, and Sir R. Payne-
G-allwey has shot immature birds which occurred in small parties
at that time of year, but there is an increase towards spring which
has been noticed above ; the birds usually leave in April, and
Mr. Warren has seen them late in that mouth, while Messrs.
Williams & Son received one on 10th May from Westmeath.
With regard to the Pintail breeding in Ireland, Lord Castle-
town has an egg, measuring 2'14 by 1-6 in., which he iuforms me
he took when a boy from a Pintail's nest near Grauston, and this
is the only instance I can cite of its breeding near Abbeyleix.
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that he has seen Pintails, on rare
occasions, with their broods, on the lakes of the west of Ireland.
To these cases I have not been able to add another, nor to trace
the bird further in the breeding-season in this country.
I have examined the handsome hybrid between the Mallard and
the Pintail shot, 1st January 1879, near Youghalby Mr. A. Lawe.
THE TEAL. Nettlon crecca (Linnaeus).
Resident, breeding in every county, except perhaps Dublin, in limited
numbers, which are greatly exceeded by the immigrants in winter.
The Teal is found more or less at all seasons throughout
Ireland, being the species of Duck which, next to the Mallard,
breeds most numerously in this country. The numbers of nesting
Teal, however, seldom approach those of the larger species ; though
in the Donegal mountain lakes Mr. Hart thinks they are more
numerous, and great flocks of flappers come down in August to
some lakes and tidal inlets in the north of Donegal. The winter
arrivals appear in the harbours and estuaries in great jjlenty
about the end of October or first week in November ; in a short
time they disperse, and the majority make for inland waters, but
Teal are found throughout the winter on parts of the coast,
though they do not again visit the tide in large numbers unless
the lakes are frozen (" Fowler in Ireland "). On a lake in the
Arran Islands Teal occur regularly in winter, but on the estuaiy
of the Moy they are seldom seen, though very numerous on
198 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
adjacent lakes at all seasons ; and at the lighthouses thev are
noticed irregularly. Turning to an inland locality, the decoy-lake
at Kellyville, Mr. Webber has written : — " Several hundred
Teal remain on the lake until May, and come in again, young
and old, in August and September ; the foreign ones come
in thousands from 1st to 20th November, and leave about 15th
March. I am sure that the fowl move on, and others come in
their place, all through the winter ; just now (5th January 1891)
the summer Teal have gone, and there are vast flocks of foreign
birds which have never seen a decoy ; they are sitting on the
ice, covering five or six acres, as thick as they can sit, sis or seven
thousand in all, and they will let you walk up to within one
hundred yards of them on the open side of the lake." This was
in a very hard winter, when an unusual concourse occurred at
Kellyville, but still the Teal is ordinarily by far the most numerous
species there.
Through the country this bird resorts to quiet shallow waters
of all sizes to feed ; while in summer it is to be found breeding,
not only in demesnes on sheltered lakes, whose banks are over-
grown with high, rank herbage, but also on marshes near the coast,
on the great inland bogs among heather, which affords favourite
nesting cover, and in which Teal breed on uplands and even on
hills. Elevated bogs near mountains are their special breeding-
resorts in Waterford, and in a place of this description I have come
on a Teal in a ditch with her downy brood, which first crowded
together, then stampeded at a wonderful pace across the heather,
and finally disappeared by scattering and squatting quite still. A
parent bird, flapping to lure one from her young, is a common
sight on the inlets of Irish lakes and on unfrequented ponds ; in
Achill a female has been known to follow her brood closely when
driven into a yard where there were dogs and people. Laying takes
place from the end of April to the beginning of June, being retarded
by the elevation and exposure of the locality ; the eggs at first
have a tinge of green, but this they seem to lose afterwards.
THE GtAEGATnTEY. Querquedida clrcia (Linnaeus).
Very rare visitor, chiefly in March and April, but has occurred in
January and February.
The Gargauey is stated to have been seen or taken in the
counties of Clare, Cork (four times), Carlow, Wicklow, Dublin
(thrice), King's Co., Westmeath, Mayo, Fermanagh and Down.
ANATIDiE.
199
Five of the instances given were in March, two in April, but one
bird is stated to have been obtained in " autumn," while one was
announced in Januaiy, and another purchased in February.
Some of the records of this bird by Thompson and others give
us very little information.
Clare. — An adult male was shot on
the River Fergus, as mentioned by
Watters (1853), and was in his
collection, since destroyed by fire.
Cork. — An adult male, seen by
Harvey, was killed in the county
(Thompson, III., p. 91). Another, in
the Dublin IMuseum, was obtained
at Castle Richard about 1863. Three
were shot on Queenstown Harbour
on 20th March 1878 (" Fowler in
Ireland," p. 63) ; and a fourth was
seen in the same place in IMarch 1880
(Ibid.).
Carlow. — One, now in the Dublin
Museum, was obtained on the
Barrow near Bagenalstown in INIarch
1888 (Dowling, in ZooL, 1888, p. 187).
Wicklow. — A male, preserved at
Colebrooke, was shot on Lough
Broad on 26th April 1870 (Brooke, in
Zool., s. s., p. 2284 [1870] ; a female
accompanied this bird.
Dublin. — An immature male was
obtained in the vicinity of Dublin
during autumn 1850 (Watters, p. 201).
Two were stated by Glennon to have
been shot in Dublin Bay in the
winter of 1880-81 ("Fowler in
Ireland," p. 62). A male was
obtained in the King's Commons,
near Balbriggan " at the close of the
shooting season" 1888 (Templer, in
Field, 5th May 1888).
King's Co. — One, shot at Eden-
derry, about April 1841, was in Dr.
Farran's collection, and seen by
Thompson (III., p. 91).
Westmeath. — One was said to have
been shot at Knockdrin in the winter
of 1S33-33 (Ibid.).
Mayo. — Mr. Sheridan stated that
he obtained two at Achill (" Fowler
in Ireland," p. 62).
Fermanagh. — A female was caught
alive on Lough Erne on 26th
January 1869, but was not preserved
(H. S., in Field, 6th February 1869).
Down. — One was stated to have
been seen on Strangford Lough in
March 1847 (Thompson, III., p. 91).
A specimen in the Dublin Museum
is labelled " Warren collection,"
and Ball informed Thompson that he
had seen fresh Garganeys on sale in
Dublin, wliich were evidently Irish-
killed.
THE WiaEON. 3Iareca psnelope (Linnajus).
Regular and abundant winter-visitor. Some are believed to have bred,
but the nest has not been found.
The Wigeon occurs r,_'gularly in winter, soni'tinies in enormous
numbers, and chiefly on the estuaries round Ireland ; but it is also
found on inland lakes, marshes and rivers, where these are
sufficiently free from disturbance, the larger slieets of water being
preferred to the smaller lakes, as the flocks can rest by day far
out upon the former. When, however, a small piece of water, like
that at Kellyville, is constantly pi-otected from shooting, Wigeon
200 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
resort to it in considerable numbers. Among the marine estuaries
frequented by these birds I may mention the bays and harbours
of Kerry, Corlv, Waterford and Wexford, Dublin and Dundalk
Bays, the Loughs of Straugford, Belfast and Larne, Loughs Foyle
and Swilly. Mulroy and Sheephaven Bays, the thi-ee bays of co.
Sligo, the Moy Estuary, and Broadhaven. Those bays which belong
to the north and north-west coasts appear to be visited by the
largest numbei's, but on^some, as on Belfast Lough, this species has
dwindled away through persecution.
Thompson has rejieatedly recorded the arrival of Wigeon in
Belfast Lough during the latter part of August, and birds have
been shot in Wexford Harbour on the 28th of that month, but
these were exceptionally early ; for though some arrive in September
even in the south-east, they are seldom noticed much imtil about
the 10th of October, after which they increase in numbers until
the middle or end of November. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says
that they leave between the middle of February and the end of
March, but that many may be seen on inland lakes until April,
while Mr. Warren has twice seen Wigeon up to the 20th, and
Thompson on the 23rd of April. At Inch, indeed, on Lough
Swilly, Wigeon, as well as Scaup, have been known to Imger until
the third week in May (Mr. D. C. Campbell). Like other wild-
fowl, they come in much greater numbers in those severe winters,
which occur comparatively seldom in Ireland, and which, moreover,
drive them from the frozen lakes to the coast.
The numbers taken in Kellyville decoy fluctuate from several
causes ; thus, when the neighbouring valley of the Barrow is
flooded, Wigeon forsake the lake to feed in the flooded fields
along the river. There are few of this species taken in the decoy
compared with the Wild Duck and Teal, the greatest number, two
hundred and ten, having been caught in the winter of 1890-91 ; but
during the six winters 1882 to 1888 none were taken, for though
three hundred or more frequent the lake, they are difficult to decoy.
Details of the habits of Wigeon in connection with punt-
shooting are given by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey from his personal
experience on Irish bays and estuaries (" Fowler in Ireland,"
pp. 36-48). He describes how they sit in dense comjjanies, and,
when they take wing, fly in dark sweeping clouds, the roar of
whose wings as they rise or piteli may be heard a mile off or more.
The marine food of these birds is Zostera marina, and as the rising
tide restricts the uncovered space the flocks huddle together into
packs. After feeding on the banks during the night, for security's
sake, they fly to sea at dawn, and rest there during the day ; when
anatidjE. - 201
they get the chance, however, they will feed with avidity during
the day, nibbling the short grass at high water on lonely shores,
and on the fields bordering quiet lakes. On inland waters they
may often be seen in company with Coots, and will watch the
latter diving for and bringing up pond-weed, when they rush in
and seize it.
Watters describes the cries of migrating flocks of Wigeon,
which were mingled with those of other -wildfowl, passing over
Dublin by night, and Mr. Campbell relates a similar circumstance
that took place in Londonderry {Irish Nat., 1879, p. 222).
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that he has searched at least fifty
lakes in Ireland without finding a Wigeon's nest or meeting with
a young brood, but that when fishing in early autumn he has seen
females and young birds on the Shannon lakes, and on the great
chain of lakes in Connaught. Moreover, Lord Castletown's
gamekeeper reported that he had seen a female with her brood
at G-ranston about 1888. On all the lakes I have visited, the
only instance in which I have clearly identified a Wigeon was
on the 3rd of June 1893, when as I was approaching a small
stony island in Lough Allen, co. Leitrim, a male got up in full
view, and a female in his company flapped away and hid. Sir
Douglas Brooke, however, has shot very young birds in Fermanagh
on 1st August, and Wigeon are said to have been seen or heard
in summer on Lough Erne or on the mill-dam at Castle Irvine.
These birds have long been believed to breed at Caledon,
CO. Tyrone, though on what this belief has been formed does not
quite appear ; but Lord Caledon informs me that he has occa-
sionally observed Wigeon there during summer. A pair were
seen several times in June 1892 on Lough Fern, co. Donegal, by
Dr. Patterson, and Mr. H. Leybourne Poi)ham observed a male
bird on several occasions, at the same lake in Connemara, during
the early part of May 1892.
There is some reason, therefore, to think that a few Wigeon
may breed in Ireland.
THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. Netta rufina (Pallas).
Has once occurred in Kerry, during a severe winter.
The only example of this handsome duck obtained in Ireland
was a male shot l)y Mr. Victor McCowen, aljout a qiiarter of a
mile from Tralee, early on the morning of the 18th January 1881;
202 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
it was quite alone, and rose from a spring in a marshy field. The
winter was one of severe frost, when flocks of White-fronted
G-eese and other wildfowl appeared through the south in unex-
pected localities. The above specimen was seen by Sir E. Payne-
Gallwey before it was skinned, and is now preserved in his
collection ; it was exhibited by A. G. More before the Zoological
Society of London on the 15th March 1881 (Pr. Z. S., 1881, p. 409).
THE POCHAED. FuUgula ferina (Linnseus).
Winter-visitor, sometimes in considerable numbers. Is stated to have
bred in several counties.
The Pochard visits every part of Ireland in winter, and is
chiefly to be found on the inland lakes, on some of which, as on
Lough Derg (Shannon), flocks of thousands have been reported.
Marine inlets, like the fiords of Kerry and Lough Swilly in
Donegal, are also frequented by this bird, but it flocks to the tide
to a much greater extent when inland lakes are frozen. Sir E.
Payue-Gallwey states that on some of the south-western estuaries
he has seen five thousand collected after a gale, and on Lough
Gill, near Castlegregory, fully three thousand, with Scaup and
Goldeueyes. Pochards visit Achill and Eathlin Islands com-
monly, but seem to be foud of small inland lakes, to which they
betake themselves for a while, in parties of a few individuals or
in large flocks, and then depart capriciously. On Lough Derg
Pochards make their appearance on certain bays overgrown with
weeds in August or September, and may then be found moulting
their quill-feathers and unable to take wing (" Derg," in Field,
25th August 1877) ; but they ai-e not generally seen, at all events
on the coast, before November, and I have chiefly noticed them at
Cappagh in the early months of the year ; while Mr. G. H.
Kinahan has observed them on lakes near Clifden in March and
April only. A flight of thirty or so will visit the decoy at Kelly-
ville in November, and then leave it if frost sets in, returning in
February; but, as Mr. Webber remarks, they do not hang on all
the winter.
The majority leave in March, but a pair or a single bird may
often be seen lurking on a c^uiet lake in April, and in cases where
birds have been reported in May and June it may fairly be
suspected that they were breeding.
The Pochard feeds in shallow water by diving, being miich
AXATID.E. 203
more persevering than the Tufted Duclc when so occupied. On
inland waters, for which it has a predilection, it eats soft green
pond-weeds, which it often brings to the surface, and seeds of
aquatic plants ; but on tidal water it scoops along the mud at the
bottom for shell-fish (Thompson). As long as the land only is
frozen it does not suffer, but when the shallows are covered with ice
Pochards are sometimes found dead beneath it, having got there
in their excursions under water, for they do not feed in deep places.
They are not so ready to take wing as the surface-feeding ducks,
but, when apprehensive, they sink their bodies so deep as to offer
little mark, A flock of Pochards, as well as of Scaups, when
approached by a punt, will divide and subdivide, and open out into
a string, which foils the fowler's attempt at a big shot. On small
lakes they are comparatively tame, and I have seen the com-
panions of a bird I had shot, after taking wing, return and alight
again near their dead comrade.
Pochards like a stretch of water before them to get on the wing,
and are disinclined to fly overland ; accordingly, as they must rise
against the wind, they never come near those pipes in a decoy
where there is an off-shore wind — the favourable condition for
taking other ducks. Mr. Webber assigns this as a reason why
they are so rarely caught in his decoy.
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey has met with a preponderance of adult
inales in an assemblage of Pochards, and remarks how different
this is from the case of the Goldeneye, adult males of which
species are few in Ireland ; while even among Scaups the females, he
tells us, greatly outnumber the males. On this subject Professor
Leebody remarks that he has frequently noticed the Pochards on
Lough Swilly to congregate in small flocks, all of one sex.
To the breeding of the Pochard in Ireland we have more
testimony than in the case of the Wigeon, though as yet unsup-
ported by the absolute proof of specimens. Among the cases
given are the following : —
Kerry. — ^Ir. Chisholm, the game- Spaight saw a "Red-headed Diver"
keeper, showed me a spot at Muckross with twelve young ones on Lough
where he said he had put a Pochard Derg in the summer of 1880 ("Fowler
off her eggs in 1897. in Ireland," p. 98).
Tipperary.— Mr. W. B. Purefoy Westmeath. — Mr. :Maxwell, the
informed me, in 1891, that a female keeper at Knockdrin, told me that in
Pochard, which he had winged in 1891 he saw on Brittas Lake a pair of
winter, remained on Marlfield Lake ; old birds witli seven young. He dc-
a male mated with her and she scribed the male as having a red
brought out a brood which I\Ir. head and grey back. The late ]Mr.
Purefoy saw several times. ^Ir. H. C. Livinge saw flocks of Pochards
204
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
and Tufted Ducks on his lakes rather
late in the summer of 1893.
Meath. — Sir John Dillon informed
me that he had repeatedly seen male
and female Pochards on the Boyne,
and on one occasion the duck was
accompanied by young ones.
Sligo.— Colonei J. J. Whyte stated,
in the Field of 2nd June 1877, that a
pair were then nesting on a small
lake in his grounds.
Down. — Thompson was " credibly
informed " that a pair bred at Clay
Lake in 1847 and in 1849.
Antrim. — Pochards as well as
Tufted Ducks bred on Portmore Lough
in 1882 according to Mr. Bland, the
agent of the estate, who informed
me that he had shot the young of
both species that season. Colonel
E. A. Butler wrote to me that he
had seen both Tufted Ducks and
Pochards on Portmore Lough in
May 1884.
Dr. Cox, who had lived for many
years near Lough Neagh, stated that
he had shot young Pochards nearly
every summer, from the 20th July
onwards, that these young usually
numbered from five to eight, and that
an old duck, sometimes an old drake,
was somewhere near, if not with the
brood. He added that these birds,
which he always found on Lough
Beg, had become scarcer, and that
the last time he was tliere, in August
1878, he shot young Pochards which
could fly about 200 yards {Zool., 1880,
p. 22-5).
In Queen's Co., INIouaghan, and
Donegal Pochards have been seen in
]\Iay or later. My own researches, in
many counties, have been unsuccess-
ful as regards the breeding of this bird.
THE FEKEUGINOUS DUCK. FnUrjula nyroca (GUldeustadt).
Has been obtained six times between November and March.
The first, a male, was shot from a
small flock of ducks off the Dublin
coast in March 1871, by Mr. H. Blake
Knox, in whose collection it is pre-
served {Zool., s. s., p. 2645 [1871]).
Another male, also preserved for
INIr. H. Blake Knox, was probably ob-
tained on the coast of Antrim ; it was
picked out of a lot of birds packing
for London in March 1871 (Ibid.).
Sir E,. Payne-Gallwey states that
he obtained on the east coast in 1879
two immature specimens, which he
found paddling about a creek with
some Tufted Ducks (" Fowler in
Ireland," p. 101).
An adult male was shot on the
Shannon near Athlone, on 21st
January 1893, as I am informed by
the Rev. P. A. Keating, who identified
it ; it is the property of Mr. Robert
English, of Athlone (Williams, in
Zool., 1893, p. 106).
An adult female was obtained at
Baronston, co. Westmeath, about
18th January 1897, by Colonel ^Malone,
in whose possession it is preserved.
On 27th November 1897 Mr. P.
Coburn purchased in the Birmingham
market a young male, received with
other ducks from the south of Ireland
[Zool., 1898, p. 25).
The Dublin Museum as yet con-
tains no Irish example of this duck.
ANATID.E. 205
THE TUFTED DUCK. Fuligtda cristata (Leacli).
Now resident in limited numbers in parts of each province, and
extending its breeding-range.
One of the most interesting of the recent facts of our ornithology
is the establishment and spread of the Tufted Duck in Ireland as
a breeding species -within the last quarter of the century, or thei-e-
abouts, though this is only of a piece with its summer increase in
Great Britain, especially in Scotland, a subject which has been
treated very fully in two papers by Mr. Harvie-Browu.* When
Thompson wrote (December 1849), this bird was only known as a
winter- visitor, chiefly to the north-east, east, and south-east coasts,
though Montgomery had found it common on the Mayo lakes, but
it was described as rare in north-west Donegal, and from Kerry
, only one specimen had been reported. Thompson found Tufted
Ducks much less plentiful in Belfast Lough than Scaups or
Pochards, but on one occasion as many as two hundred had been
seen there, and a like number on Carlingford Lough ; the only
instance he was able to give of the occurrence of this bird in its
breeding-season was that of an adult male killed on Lough Neagh
on 17th June 1884. Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson once saw as many as
two hundred on Belfast Lough on 21st January 1871, but on
other occasions from 12 to 30 (" Birds, Fishes and Cetacea of
Belfast Lough," p. 216).
The late Mr. J. C. Bloomfield related to me that when he lived
at Castle Caldwell, on Lower Lough Erne, he used to discuss the
habits of the birds found there with the late Sir Victor Brooke,
the well-known naturalist and sportsman. At that time the Tufted
Duck was a familiar winter-visitor to the district. One evening,
late in May, Mr. Bloomfield saw a pair fly up the lake ; he could
not be sure of the date, but placed it about 1877, and a couple of
years after that he saw a brood of young. The species rapidly
increased, until in the " nineties " I found it breeding commonly
on the islands throughout Lower Lough Erne, and was informed
that it nested on Upper Lough Erne in 1892.
Sir E. Payne-Gallwey mentioned, in 1882, the following breed-
ing localities : — Lough Neagh, and the neighbouring Lough Beg ;
Mount Louise, in Monaghan ; and the great Shannon lakes, con-
cerning which he intimates in a recent letter that he had seen
* "Annals of Scottish Nat. Hist.," January 1895, pp. 1-22, and Proc.
Eoyal Physical Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XIII., pp. 144-100.
206
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Tufted Duets in spring and summer on Lough Derg and ofher
lakes, long previously to 1882. For this bird to have settled in
such widely-separated places demands of itself a lapse of time that
would carry ns back further than Mr. Bloomfield's date of 1877;
and though Mr. Lloyd Patterson did not mention the breeding of
the Tufted Duck in his paper on Swimming Birds in 1875, we
cannot safely infer that it had not then nested, for in a country
where the very name of the bird is frequently unknown, per-
sonal exploration is needed to ascertain whei^e it breeds. I now
give the results of my investigations since 1890 : —
Kerry. — Dr. Blake Knox found
nests on Killarney Lakes in 1896 and
1897, while in 1898 I saw a female
with her youn^ on a separate pond in
the same district.
Cork. — On an extensive marsh,
beside the ruined castle of the poet
Spencer, in north Cork, I saw Tufted
Ducks on 3rd May 1899, and :\Ir.
Harold Barry afterwards told me that
the nest was found there.
Clare. — On a small lake, near
Corrofin, I observed a male and female
on 17th June 1895.
Tipperary. — Dr. Blake Knox states
that the Tufted Duck bred on Kings-
well Lake in 1890. A male and female
were observed at Castle Lough on
Lough Derg on 21st May 1899.
Westmeath. — On Lough Iron I
saw many males, seven in one group,
on 14th June 1891. On Lough Drin
the late ]Mr. H. C. Levinge saw nine
in July 1892, and flocks late in the
summer of 1893.
Longford. — On Lough Oughter I
met with two pairs, 10th June 1892 ;
on Lough Forbes (Shannon) two
males and a female on 2nd June 1893 ;
at the Black Islands, Lough Ree, a
pair on 1st June 1893.
Roscommon. — At small islands
near the western shore of Lough Ree
I saw four pairs, and found two nests
with eggs, 7th June 1892. On Lough
Key I found eggs and saw Tufted
Ducks paired in every part of the lake
on 12th June 1891, while on 11th June
1896 a great increase was observed
on this lake, for we could see at least
ten Tufted Ducks on each part we
visited, and there were numerous
nests with £ggs on the islands.
Sligo. — On Lough Arrow I saw a
pair, 11th June 1891, and on 10th
June 1896 nine nests with eggs were
found near the same place.
Leitrim. — On Lough Allen IMr.
C. C. B. Whyte has seen Tufted
Ducks in the breeding season, 1893-94.
Fermanagh.— Besides Upper and
Lower Lough Erne, above alluded to,
Tufted Ducks bred before 1891 at
Castle Irvine and St. Angelo.
Monaghan.— Mr. Evatt had yearly
observed l)roods of this species at
INIount Louise before 1882. I saw
a pair on Glaslough Lake, 18th June
1894, and others on Castleblaney Lake
on 28th May 1895.
Armagh.— The late Rev. G. Robin-
son saw old Tufted Ducks with young
ones on the southern shore of Lough
Neagh, before 1882 ("Fowler in
Ireland," p. 106).
Antrim. — Mr. Bland informed me
that he had shot young birds bred on
Portmore Lough in 1882, and the birds
were seen there by others in May 1884
and in 3May and June 1894.
Londonderry. — Lough Beg,
between this county and the last, was
known as another breeding resort to
Rev. G. Robinson before 1882.
The portions of Ireland where this
bird is not vet known to nest include
ANATID.E. 20
the province of Leinster, south and also the co. Donegal. On Lough
east of Westnieath, the co. Water- Gill and Lough ^Nlelvin I remarked
ford and eastern Tipperary, the the absence of Tufted Ducks, which
province of Connaught, west of the breed numerously on other lakes in
Shannon and Lough Arrow in Sligo, the same counties.
The winter arrivals of this species seldom appear before
December, and. they are more noticed after that month. Mr.
Webber has found the Tufted Duck remain on Kelly ville Lake
well into April, but always leave before the 1st of May.
Thompson remarks that the proportion of males of this species
seen in Belfast Bay was stated to he four to one female.
The Tufted Duck is to be found on tidal waters in winter,
though rarely in large flocks, as it decidedly prefers inland lakes,
and at that season is to be found throughout Connaught and
other parts of Ireland that are beyond the limits of its present
breeding-range. It is a quiet and comparatively unsus})icious
bird ; thus, when the nest is approached, the female, if she have
time, swims off and remains on the water with head erect watching
the intruder. The note, uttered on the wing, sounds like a croak.
Tufted Ducks and Pochards are taken in Lough N^eagh with nets
sunk in fifteen fathoms of water, in which these birds are entangled
when diving for food.
The nest is placed among coarse herbage, not far from the
water, usually on islands, but not among Trees or bushes. I
have seen nine nests, each in the centre of a large clump of rushes,
on a high grassy peninsula, with cattle, sheep, and horses grazing
between the nests. One of these had a web of this bird's sooty down
covering the eggs, and at first sight this looked like a cow-dung.
The eggs are laid at the end of May or beginning of June, and
I have once known the number to amount to fourteen.
The female feeds her young on the open water by diving for
their food, and lives harmoniously with the pugnacious Coots ; she
may thus be observed from the passing train, which does not
alarm her.
THE SCAIJP-DUCK. FvJuiuU marila (Linna?us).
Winter-visitor to the coasts ; numerous on those of the north, but not
common in the south, except in severe seasons.
Belfast Lough, chiefly on the Antrim side, is a notable i-esort of
this species, and Mr. Lloyd Patterson thinks that it was at least
as numerous when he wrote in 1881 as in Thompson's time, not
208 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
being killed by wildfowl shooters. Eaeli of these writers tells us
that flocks of several thousands were occasionally seen there.
Lough Swilly, too, and other northern bays, are frequented in
winter by great numbers of Scaup-Ducks, and Sir E. Payne-
Gallwey mentions also the bays of Kerry, the Shannon Estuary,
the Gralway Coast, and Dundalk Bay as localities in which he has
met with great assemblages, though he found the Scaup somewhat
rare in the south of Ireland. It is a regular visitor to Dublin
Bav, and is found in Aehill, but does not resort regularly to
Killala Bay, though Mr. Warren has met with a few there at
long intervals. On the whole, it is most abundant in the north
and west as far as Kerry, and most uncommon on the south coast
from Kerry to Wexford.
The Eev. G. Eobinson found the Scaup a regular frecjuenter of
Lough Neagh, on another part of which the Sheldrake has been
found breeding ; but the occurrence of the former on inland waters
is exceptional, and when the bird is so found it is generally only as
a straggler. I have a few notes of captures of this kind from
several points along the Shannon valley, and from an inland lake
in CO. Cork, while, in January 1857, I shot a male at Cappagh.
Three were killed six or seven miles up the Blackwater in
October 1880.
In the north Scaups sometimes appear in September, Thompson
having recorded their arrival in that month on seven successive
years, and once at the end of August. Sir E. Payne- G-allwey
also tells us that they arrive early in the season, and by the
middle of October are as plentiful as they will be for the winter,
while hard weather does not seem to increase their numbers ;
there are none to come then from inland waters, as in the case of
previous species. These birds often linger until the end of April,
and a few have been observed or shot on Lough Swilly, especially
near Inch, in May. June. July, and August, though very seldom
after May. The Scaup, however, has not been proved to breed in
Ireland, an alleged case in Kerry not being admitted.
On the water no fowl show thicker at a distance, or scatter more
when approached (" Fowler in Ireland"), each flock dividing and
subdividing like Pochards, and wheu wounded they can sink
themselves, often with only the bill from the nostrils exposed.
Thi'v are not to be obtained at flight-time, like the ducks that
resort to fresh water. When a large flock is approached the nearest
birds take flight over the others, which remain until they in turn
are left next the intruder, and follow the fugitives ; the continuous
noise thus produced has been compared to that of volley firing.
ANATID.E. 209
The Scaup, it has been said, disregards noise, such as the
ringing of a fog-bell wliieli drives away other birds, and on being
fired at will swim around a slain companion unless the shooter
shows himself (Ibid.)-
This bird feeds \)j diving like other ducks of this group, ehieflv
on molluscs and crustaceans, l>ut also partly on seeds of Zosfera
and on some other marine plants.
THE GOLDEN-EYE. CJamjuh glaucion (Linufeus).
Winter-visitor, occurring both on salt and fresh water in all parts of
Ireland, but not so numerously as the Pochard.
The Grolden-eye, though not so exclusively marine in its hal>its
as the Scaup, frequents the brackish v/aters of the estuaries and
bays round Ireland, as well as the lakes, ponds, and larger rivers
of the interior, being specially common on Lough Neagh. Though
it visits all the waters of Ireland more or less, it is more common
on those of the north, and less so in Munster.
It is late in its arrival in the greater part of Ireland, and
Thomjison mentions the 5th October as the earliest date known to
him ; thoitgh Mr. J. E. Palmer saw seven Golden-eyes on a
Connemara bay at the unusual date of 4th September. This
species is, however, most commonly seen from October onwards,
though not in any numbers — except on some northern bays —
until after the middle of December. Cox noticed an increase in
the number and size of the flocks in Dublin Bay at the end of
March and beginning of April. This was doubtless due to the
fact that birds dispersed over the fresh waters of the countrv
assembled on tidal estuaries previous to their departure, which
takes place in the months last named. Sir Douglas Brooke has
seen Golden-eyes in Fermanagh as late as the 5th May, and
Professor Leebody has noticed individuals in July at Inch, on
Lough Swilly.
Golden-eyes are mostly seen in small i)arties, and seldom in
large flocks, though cases of these are mentioned. Thus
Thompson speaks of 150 to 200 unmixed with other species, and
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey has seen a couple of hundred together,
without a f ull-pluinaged male among them ; a great preponderance
of females and yoUng over adult males which is a peculiaritv of
the Golden-eye in Ireland, as well as Great Britain. This species
does not often consort with other ducks, being less gregarious ;
P
210 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
little parties may be seen diving simultaueoiisly and remaining
for a very short time al)ove water when they rise. Being more
wary and restless than most wildfowl, they take the wing if
approached, and do not swim deep as a means of escape ; but if
fired at on the water, they will dive at the flash.
The Golden-eye can take wing directly it rises to the surface
after diving, and in flight it makes more whistling with its wings
than allied species do. It feeds in the daytime ; chiefly on
crustaceans, molluscs, and insect-larvae, but also on aquatic plants
and seeds, which it obtains by diving ; and it does not frequent the
banks exposed l>v the receding tide as a feeding-ground, neither
does it fly at dusk as other ducks do. Professor Leebody remarks,
however, that Golden-eyes resort to the enclosed water at Inch in
the daytime, and fly in the evening towards the outer part of
Lough Swilly, unlike other ducks. Mr. Warren observes a similar
habit on the estuary of the Moy, where the birds that frequent it
in February never seem to stay at night, but fly to the open bay,
where they remain until daybreak.
THE LONG-TAILED DUCK. Harelda (jlacialis (Linnaeus).
Irregular winter-visitor in small numbers.
The Long-tailed Duck is recorded more or less frequently from
nearlv all our maritime counties, but oftener from northern Ulster
and the north coast of Counaught than from the south of Ireland,
where it is rare. It has occurred od the Clare side of the Shannon
estuarv, in Dingle Bay several times, at Castletownseud and
Cork Harbour, Dungarvan Bay, Tacumshiu Lake and Wexford
Harbour, Dublin Bay about ten times, the Boyne mouth and
Duudalk Bay, Belfast Lough about twenty times, Eathlin Island
re]>eatedly. Loughs Foyle and Swilly usually once or twice each
winter, Killala Bay often {Irigh Nat\ 1898. p. 121), and at Achill
and Inishgort. Single individuals have also occurred on inland
lakes, several times on Lough Derg and on both sides of it, on
Lough Conn, on a mountain lake in Tyrone, on the River Bann
north of Portadown, and more than once on Lough Beg. In another
instance a Long-tailed Duck was olitained on a small pond at
Eathfarnham on the south side of Dublin.
This species does not apj^ear before October, but for that month
there are fifteen records, and nineteen each for November and
December. Afterwards, notices become very few, but there have
been cases of Long-tailed Ducks remaining until April, and even
anatid.t:. 211
into May, in wliich month Mr. Warrou lias observed tlie bird
on the Moj estuary, and Mr. Lloyd Patterson noticed three
mature individuals on Belfast Lough.
By far the greater number of those killed in Ireland are im-
mature, but adult males have been obtained in many eases.
Previous to 1868 Mr. Warren met with this species in his
district almost annually, but since that year its visits have been
rare and uncertain. This was unaccountable, for its feeding-
grounds were not disturbed, as they lay out in the bay close to the
surf of the Moy and Killala Bars, where in October 1856 he saw a
flock of about fifty birds, the largest ever recorded in Ireland ; while
those which come up the estuary are single birds or small parties.
Long-tailed Ducks are sometimes very lively and noisy, playing
about, taking short flights after diving, and when on the wing
uttering their wild musical cries, utterly unlike the calls of any
other of our native ducks. Mr. "Warren never found it difiicult
to get a shot at them if he let his punt float down towards the
birds ; for, instead of diving when thus approached, they would
rise and fly half-way round the boat, generally within shot.
THE EIDER DUCK. Somateria moUissima (Linufeus).
Rare and irregular winter-visitor ; has been obtained on the coasts of
all the provinces, and twice on Lough Neagh.
The Eider Duck appears in Ireland only as a straggler on rare
occasions, of which more than thirty records are extant. These
come from all sides of the island, but most frequently from the
north coast, especially Rathlin Island, where Eiders have been
shot on several occasions. It is only surprising that they do not
visit it more frequently, as the distance of Eathlin from Islay —
where the species breeds and is seen in large flocks — is less than
twenty miles. At Eathlin, Eider Ducks have been met with in
April and May, and once in Septeml)er ; but the bird is not known
to have occurred on the main Irish coast before Novemlier, the
month in which it most frecpiently visits this country.
In the winter of 1869-70 Eiders visited both Dublin Bay and
the Eiver Moy, as stated below : —
Kerry. — Tliompsou referred two tlic upper mauclihle extend half-way
birds in the Chute collectiou to tlie dowu to the nostrils, which proves
next species (King-Eider) from draw- them to he Common Eiders. They
ings of tlie hills, but on examining are iKith in hrown plumage ; one
them I find tliat in neither specimen was shot in the winter of 1S43 at
does the central line of feathers on Derrynane, and the other in that of
p 2
212
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
1845-46 on TraloeBay. Au example
of this species, shot near the Spa,
Tralee Bay, in November 1SG4, is in
the collection of Judge Neligau at
Tralee ; and a male, killed at the
same place a few years later, is
noticed in the " Fowler in Ireland " ;
anotlier male in adult plumage
was sent from Vcntry to IMessrs.
Williams & Sou in January 1900.
Cork. — A young female was shot in
Cork Harbour in December 1878 by
SirR. Payne-Gallwey (Ibid.) ; another
female, shot near Glenbrook on the
Lee in the winter of 1887-88, is in
the Queen's College Museum, Cork.
Wexford. — A specimen obtained
from Wexford previously to 1834 is
mentioned by Thompson ; a female
was obtained by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey
from a game-dealer in Wexford in
January 1S7G.
Dublin.— An adult male that had
been wounded was captured alive
near Balbriggan in ]\Iay 1840
(Thompson, III., p. 114). A flock of
Eider Ducks was reported to have
frequented Dublin Bay after the
middle of December 1SG9, and one of
them, an immature male, was shot
at Clontarf on the 27th of that month
(H.Blake Knox in Zc)o/.,s. s.,p. 20G4
[1870]). A pair were seen in Dublin
Bay on 4th November 187G by Dr.
Cox, who fired at the adult male
(ZooL, 1879, p. 483).
Galway. — In the Field of Cth
January 1894 :\rr. A. B. Walker states
that towards the end of the preceding
November 1893 he had met with and
killed four Eider Ducks near Shire
Head (Slyne Head?), Connemara ;
they were stated to have been un-
usually dark in colour.
Mayo. — In January 1842 the Rev.
H. H. Dombrain announced, at a
meeting of the Dublin Natural His-
tory Society, that he had just received
two specimens from the coast of
Mayo, one of which, a female, he
presented to the Society (Thompson,
III., p. 114). A pair of immature
nralos frequented the Moy river and
estuary during the winter of 1869-70,
and reinained through the following
summer until Gth October 1870,
when Mr. Robert W^arren shot one
of them on the Sligo side of the
river, and presented it to the
Dublin IMuseum ; while another,
probably the companion of the
former, was shot near Bartragh by
Captain Kinsey Dover in Decein-
ber 1870, and presented to the same
museum {ZooL, 1877, p. 50). On 2nd
November 1896, a female was sent
from CO. Mayo to Messrs. Williams
& Son for preservation.
Donegal. — The lighthouse - keeper
on Inishtrahull, the most northern
Irish island, reported to Mr. Barring-
ton that on 2nd February 1890 " two
Eider Ducks were on the water in
the vicinity of the station " ; " white
with black on top of head, rare
visitors " to Inishtraliull ; on oth
November 1890 three Eiders were
reported from this island ; again, in
the ]Migration Report fromKillybegs,
it is stated that " two white ducks
were going S." on 8th February 1894;
" rather large, never seen before. " A
female was shot near Carndonagh,
Inishowen, on 2nd November 1898
(Ml-. D. C. Campbell).
Antrim. — On Rathlin Island, as
]Mr. R. Patterson states. Eider Ducks
are not infrequently seen in winter;
more often on the east and south
sides of the island, and when thej'
depart it is always in an easterly
direction. Four came into Ushet
port, 13th September 1870, and a
young male was obtained ; an adult
male was shot 17th Slay 1872, and a
female on 10th November 1877 ; and
an adult male \vas seen in Church
Bay, 16th November 1882 (I»-/s/t Nat.,
1892, p. 72). In the Migration Reports
we find " 3rd April 1886, three Eider
Duck drifting W. ; 16th, seventeen
on the water." A female in the
ANATID.B.
213
Dublin jMuseum was procured from
uear the Giant's Causeway before 1890.
From Belfast Lough we have the
following notices : — A young female
.shot ofi Greeucastle 20th October
1877 (Mr. Lloyd Patterson) ; two
females were shot in February 1890
(Mr. Robert Patterson).
Armagh. — On Lough Neagh two in
brown plumage were obtained about
12th November 1882, and are in the
Armagh ^Museum. They were identi-
fied by the late Rev. G, Robinson,
who mentioned that another was
purchased from a woman who was
selling ducks (Belfast Xat. Hist. Soc,
Sth January 1881, p. 19).
Among the fossil bones found in
Shandon Gave by Leith-Adams, and
now preserved in the Dublin Museum,
is a left coracoid, which has been
referred to this species by Professor
Alfred Newton. This would connect
the Eider Duck with co. Waterford
in early times.
THE KING-EIDER. Somateria sjjedabiUs (Liuua?us).
Very rare winter-visitor.
This arctic duck has been obtained iu three or four iustauces,
from Dublin Bay northwards as well as iu Achill, ranging from
1st October to 11th March. These occurrences took place at long
intervals, and none of the examples was an adult male.
Dublin. — Thompson records a
female bird shot at Kingstown Har-
bour about 1st October 1837, which
was accompanied by two others. This
specimen was preserved iu Trinity
College Museum, but the King-Eider
wiiich that museum now contains is
an adult male, and. as in the case of
the other birds in the collection, is
without data.
Down or Antrim. — Another female
was obtained in Belfast Lough on
11th March 1850; it is still in the
Belfast INIuseum (Thompson, III.,
p. 116).
Mayo. — Mr. J. R. Sheridan shot an
immature male on Achill Island on
I2th December 1892 ; it was identified
by A. G. More and by Dr. R. B. Sharpe,
and is now, I understand, in the col-
lection of Mr. Edwin Baj^les in Bir-
mingham {Irish Nat., 189.3, p. 177).
The late Robert Gage recorded in
his list of Rathlin birds, made in
1889, that a female King-Eider was
shot at that island in November 1861.
The specimen is not among the
birds in the Belfast ilusemu, which
formed part of the Gage collection,
and the identification cannot now be
traced.
The two birds obtained in Kerry,
and mentioned by Thompson as King-
Eiders, are of the last species.
THE COMMON SCOTEE. CEdemUi >ugra (Linnaeus).
Regular winter-visitor to the coasts of northern Leinster, Ulster, and
northern Connaught ; scarcer round the rest of Ireland.
Except on Dingle Bay and north of Kerry, where a few occur,
the Common Scoter is little seen on the coasts of Munster, its
numbers being few and its visits irregular, but ou passing the
214
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
corner of Wexford (Carnsore Point) we find that Scoters, known
as " Black Ducks," are observed in flocks from time to time at the
liglitships ; to the bays of co. Dublin Scoters are more regular
visitors, while large flocks resort to the Drogheda and Duudalk
Bays, and still more to Belfast Lough. On the latter, Mr. Lloyd
Patterson tells us that he has seen acres of water covered with
these birds and with Scaups, both of which frequent the Antrim
side in enormous numbers from October to April. Scoters are not
considered at all common at Eathlin Island, but are met with in
winter on Lough Foyle and the outer part of Lough Swilly, as
well as on the north coast of luishowen (co. Donegal), and their
numbers greatly increase when a severe winter occurs. Mr.
Warren finds them frec^ueuting Killala Bay every winter, their
feeding-grounds being just outside the breakers, where neither
l>unt nor boat can approach them. To Achill the Scoter is also a
winter-visitor, though apparently by no means numerous ; it has
been observed at luishgort to mix with Long-tailed Ducks (Migr.
Keport, 13th February 1896), and a few visit Connemara.
In several instances single l)irds have l>een met with inland; ou
the Liffey at Chapelizod and Blessington, on the Suir near Thurles,
and on the Shannon near Athlone. Watters states that in one
instance small flocks occurred on the inland lakes, and that on two
occasions examjiles of this species have been shot whilst apparently
searching for food along the bottoms of wet ditches and other
drains, as at Beggar's Bush near Dublin. Another was caught in
a fishing net on the Blackwater, co. Waterford, more than twelve
miles from the sea ; others again have been shot on Lough Neagh.
Scoters liave been seen in exceptional cases in the north and off
the Wexford coast in May, and there are a couple of records froui
lightships off the latter county in April.
These birds seem able to ride on the roughest waves, floating like
corks, l)ut water-soaked individuals have been picked up in Castle-
maine Bay, co. Kerry. They feed on the mussels in Dundalk Bay,
and the practice of gathering these has greatly diminished the
Scoters, though they are unmolested by wildfowl shooters.
THE VELVET-SCOTEK. CEdemia fnsca (Liimseus).
Rare winter-visitor.
There are some twenty records of the Velvet-Scoter from various
parts of our coast, fully half of the number being from the bays
of Dublin and Louth, while the west coast seems to be verv seldom
ANATID^.
215
visited ; for the only definite records relating t(j it are of one
specimen obtained in Tralee Bay and a pair observed by Mr.
Warren near Killala. Other reports of Velvet- Scoters seen on the
coast of Connaught have not been supported by specimens. Sir
R. Payne-Gallwey states that he obtained a couple, and had seen
several others at some distance from land, but never on the west
coast.
The months of occurrence given below show that this bird has
visited Ireland in September, October, December, and more
frequently in Januai*y, while each of the succeeding months, to
June inclusive, has its record.
Kerry. — A specimen, shot in Tralee
Bay, was in the Neligan collection
(" Fowler in Ireland," p. 112).
Cork. — An adult male was shot
near Youghal lighthouse about 1st
■March 1850 (Thompson, III., p. 123).
Three birds were seen by the late
Mr. W. W. Lloyd in the harbour of
Castletownsend during December
1889, and remained there until the
16th February 1890.
One was received from Glengariff
on 26th October 1898 by Messrs.
Williams & Son.
Wexford.— " This species was pro-
cured in Wexford Harbour previous
to 1836" (Thompson).
Dublin. — One was shot at Clontarf
on 2nd December 1833, another on
the Lif^ey in the winter of 1837-38,
and a fine male at Portrane on 13th
January 1838 (Ibid.) ; an immature
specimen was obtained at Dublin in
September 1847 which, with the last
mentioned, was in the Museum of
Trinity College (Ibid.); another, in
the Science and Art Museum, was
obtained in Dublin Bay in January
1881.
Louth. — On Drogheda Bay Mont-
gomery obtained a series of Velvet
Scoters from time to time, showing
that the locality must be a favourite
one — viz., one in winder 1848-49 ; an
adult female on 10th INIarch 1849 in
Drogheda Bay (Ibid.) ; three were
seen about the first week in September
1850 (Ibid., III., Appendix) ; one, ob-
tained in 1852, was presented by
jNIontgomery to the Belfast Museum ;
and another was shot on the Boyne
in the winter of 1854-55 (Proc. Dublin
Nat. Hist. Soc).
Down and Antrim.— A female, shot
in Belfast Lough, was j)resented by
Darragh to the Belfast N. H. and
Phil. Society about 1886. A male
was shot by Mr. Eobert Patterson,
also on Belfast Lough, on 3rd
January 1889, and is in the collection
of ]Mr. Lloyd Patterson, who had
observed a pair off Green Island in
the same bay on 6th February 1879.
Donegal. — Three of these birds
remained on Lough Swilly with
Pochards for several days in January
1890 during stormy weather (Hart, in
ZooL, 1891, p. 461).
Mayo. — A pair were clearly identi-
fied by Mr. Warren among fifty
Mergansers in Killala Pool on 24th
June 1890 {ZooL, 1890, p. 354).
Others are mentioned by Thompson
and Watters on the authority of
Glennon, and in the Field for 13th
January 1872 Messrs. Williams
announced that two of these birds
had been left with them for preserva-
tion.
216
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE SURF-SCOTEE. CEdemla perspicillata (Linua^us).
'By Egbert Warben.]
A very I'are and accidental winter-visitor, of whicli only six specimens
have been obtained in Ireland.
Tlie first occurrence of this haudsome Americau Duck lias been
thus recorded by Thompson in his 3rd volume, p. 118 : " An adult
male was shot at Ballyholme, Belfast Bay, co. Down, on the 9th of
September 1846, by Snowden Corken, Esq. ; it was alone. Two of
these birds had a day or two before been seen in company in the
same locality." This specimen is now in the Belfast Museum.
The second occurrence was tliat of another " adult male, shot by
Mr. E. Hanks, in October 1880, at Clontarf, co. Dublin, and after-
wards presented to Mr. Bradshaw, of the Eectory " ( " Fowler in
Ireland," p. 112).
The third was that of aii immature bird (sex not ascertained),
shot by Mr J. Dunleavy, lighthouse-keeper of the Fastnet, on the
5th November 1889, in Crookhaven Bay, co. Cork ; recorded by
Mr. E. M. Barring-ton. who has the specimen in his collection.
The fourth, an immature female, shot by Mr. Sheridan, the 25th
October 1890. at Dugort, Achill Island, co. Mayo.
The fifth specimen obtained was an adult female 1 shot on the
19th December 1896. It was one of a pair I observed in the
Moyue Channel, near Killala. co. Mayo. I first took them to be
Common Scoters, but as they flew past, remarking the white marks
on the head of the male, I immediately recognized them to be Surf-
Scoters. After they 2)itched on the water I set my punt up to
them, and firing my big gun, killed the female and winged the
male, which 1 followed, and fired several shots from my cripple
stopper without effect, the bird escaping owing to his expeiluess in
diving and ducking the flash. On the 16th January following,
when down Wigeon shooting, I met the wounded bird in the
channel near where I had killed his' companion, and although I
fired my big gun at him. and three shots from my shoulder gun,
he again escajied by ducking the flash. Having failed in securing
such a prize liy myself, I arranged with Mr. A. C. Kirkwood, of
Bartragh, to come with me on the following Monday, the 18th,
bringing his punt and gun, and assist in the capture. Going
down the channel we saw nothing of the bird until the junction
with the bay was reached, and there, on the side of the bank,
we saw the bird resting close to the water, and Mr. Kirkwood,
ANATID.E. 217
jiaddling up, easily came within range, and firing, knocked him
over with a charge of No. 6 shot from his 4-bore, thus securing the
sixth specimen of the Surf-Scoter captured in Ireland.
The two last-mentioned specimens are now in the DuLlin
Museum.
THE GOOSANDEE. Mergns vierganser (L'mngeus).
Scarce winter-visitor, met with irregularly and in very small numbers,
but probably an annual visitant.
The G-oosander visits most parts of Ireland from time to time,
but no record appears of its occurrence in western Connaught, and
the few instances afforded bv that province have been east of the
chain of lakes between Galway and Ballina. The distribution of
Goosanders obtained in the several provinces has been as follows : —
Munster 24, Leinster 30, Connaught 7, Ulster 29. Taking the
several counties, Kerry affords the highest number, 10 ; Antrim
and Down 15 between them ; other counties fewer ; but the dis-
tribution seems very much the same as between north and south,
while it extends through the country undiminished as far as the
line of the Shannon. Few if any Goosanders killed off' the coast
can be mentioned, though many have been obtained in bays and
harbours and the tidal parts of rivers, but the majority have come
from inland waters. In winters of severe frost, when other wild-
fowl are numerous, Goosanders visit Ireland more than at other
times ; thus, in the severe season of 1880-81 they were taken on
the Rivers Blackwater and Suir, and in the counties of Kilkenny,
Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow, Kildare, Westmeath, and Galway.
They have been met with in small flocks of seven or eight, but
single birds or pairs are more frequent.
Goosanders very rarely appear before December, and reach
their maximum in January. Of 77 cases, the months of
occurrence have been: — October 1, November 2, December 24,
January 28, February 16, March 5, April 1.
218
BIRDS OF IKELAND.
THE RED-BEEASTED MEECIANSEE. Mergus serrator,
Liunasus.
Resident ; breeding commonly on the larger lakes and on several marine
loughs. Frequents the estuaries in winter, sometimes in consider-
able numbers.
This bird, locally called Shell-Duck, or Spear-Wigeon, has an
extensive and increasing breeding-range in Ireland, from Kerry to
Donegal and Down. It nests both on marine inlets and on the
islands of the larger lakes of the interior, where it is very common
in summer, and it may be accounted one of our most numerous
resident ducks. In the east and south-east of Ireland it is only
known as a winter-visitor, but I have received alive a young-
Merganser aljout the size of a Teal, which was doubtless bred in
this part of Ireland; it was taken on 2nd Aug;ist 1897 on the
Finisk River, co. Waterford. Breeding localities are given
below : —
Kerry.— Kihnakilloge Harbour and
islauds on Keumare River, Lough
Curraue.
Tipperary, &c. — Lough Derg,
wlieru this species has increased so
much tliat rewards are given for its
destruction by those interested in
fishing.
Westmeath, &c. — Lough
Lougli OweL
Meath.— Lough Sheelin.
Longford.— Lough Gowna.
Galway. - L. Corrib, where
more numerous than I havi
seen it elsewhere; L. Derryclare and
other lakes and inlets of Connemara.
Roscommon. — L. Key, L. Gara.
Rt
it is
ever
Mayo. — L. [Mask, L. Conn, Acliill
Sound.
Sligo.— L. Arrow, L. Gill.
Leitrim. — L. Allen, L. Melvin.
Fermanagh. — Lower L. Erne,
wliere it breeds commonly on the
islands ; Upper L. Erne, a few pairs
breed.
Down. — Carlingford Lough ;
Strangford Lough, on several islands,
on one of which six nests were found
(Belfast Nat. Hist. Club) ; marine
islands.
Tyrone. — Islauds in L. Neagh.
Donegal. — L. Derg, L. Eask, lake
near Burton Port, Ards Demesne on
Sheephaven.
In winter few Mergansers are seen on their breeding-lakes, for
they then betake themselves to sheltered bays, estuaries, and tidal
rivers on all parts of the coast, wliere their numbers are augmented
by arrivals from without. Thus Captain Kinsey Dover found them
common on all the bays he visited where Wigeon are numerous,
and on other bays besides. They are very plentiful ori Lough
Swilly and the marine loughs of Antrim, common on Dublin Bay
and the inlets of the south and south-west. On Queenstown
Harbour Sir E. Payne-Gallwey saw several hundreds swimming
ANATIDiE.
219
together in the severe season of 1878-79. Small parties may
indeed be seen during the winter on any sheltered tidal waters,
and Mergansers often wander a long way up rivers and have then
been shot far inland. On Dublin Bay this is the first of the
Ducks to appear in autumn and the last to leave in spring, being
sometimes seen before the end of August and so late as the middle
of May (Thompson, III., p. 166). The Merganser's note uttered
on the wing is not unlike that of the Wild Duck, but a female in
apprehension of an intruder near her nest will produce a sound
between the ciuack of a Duck and the croak of a Cormorant.
As this species feeds on fish and crustaceans it is independent of
vegetable food, and is found breeding numerously on some lakes
with stony bottoms, like Lough Corrib, which are not favourite
resorts of some other wildfowl, as well as on others, like Lough
Erne and Lough Key, which afford a paradise for many sorts of
water-birds.
. The Merganser can seldom be seen resting, being most active and
wary, diving incessantly for food, or swimming about, taking wing-
long before one ajiproaches ; it thus invariably escapes, not by
diving, but by flight, which is straight and rapid.
Though eggs have been found in the very end of May, yet June
is the regular breeding month of this bird, and of the many nests
that have come under my observation all but one were found in
the latter month. A favourite site is in the zone of rank herbage,
flags, nettles or meadow-sweet, intervening between the stony
shore of an island and the scrul> ; Ijut it is sometimes a depression
among rough gravel, with scarcely any nesting-material, and is
often among tangle and l)ushes, under masses of coarse ivy, or in
a nook or crevice under locks or the roots of a tree, but never to
my knowledge in a liurrow. A well-marked but very tortuous
path or run is made by the bird to its nesting-place, which is
a snug hollow overshadowed by sedge or other plants, and the
eggs are surrounded with the parents' grey down. These number
from eight to fifteen, and Mr. Parker has seen seventeen young-
following the mother on the water ; the pointed bills of the little
ones distinguish them readily from other ducklings. It is recorded
that a clutch of young Mergansers hatched l)y a hen used to jump
vipon her back, especially after coming out of the water, thus
soaking the wretched foster-mother ("' Derg," in Field, 2-tth July
1886).
When visiting this bird's l)reediugdiaunts in June, I have
repeatedly been surprised to meet with small flocks of from six to
thirteen Mergansers which sometimes took flight from an island
220
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
where others of their species were hatching ; moreover, Mr.
Warren has seen on KiHahi Bay, on. 17th June, at least a hundred
of these birds closely packed together, and swimmiug just outside
the surf, the majority of the flock being females or immature
males. Mergansers may be seen on the Moy in that month, though
they do not breed nearer than Lough Conn.
The heads of the males appear brownish in June. An old
female sent from Galwaywas examined l)y Mr. Dresser, who stated
that he considered it to be assuming male plumage.
THE SMEW. Mergus alhellus, Linna?us.
Rare and irregular whiter-visitor, which, liowever, probably occurs
annually.
The Smew is obtained much more frecpiently in Leinster and
Ulster than in Munster and Connaught, and appears to be least
known in the latter province. Though comparatively rarer in the
south than the Goosander, yet, like that species, the Smew is found
more frequently on fresh than on salt water, and has been often
shot on inland lakes and rivers, as well as on bays and harbours.
Like the Goosander, too, it is a midwinter-visitor, and from the
scanty data of 29 instance's in which the months are stated, we
learn that the numbers were — in December 7, January 12,
February 8, March 2, and none in any other month.
Both Glennon and Mr. E. Williams have stated that the Smew
is brought to Dul»lin nearly every winter, while in some severe
seasons it appears to be comparatively plentiful. Most of those
that reach the Dul)lin markets are from inland localities. Adult
males are rare as compared with females and immature birds, and
this fact may ])artially account for the meagreuess of the records,
as the small, inconspicuous females are not in much request for
preservation Avhere collectors are few.
Kerry. — Two instances (" Fowler Queen's Co. — A pair were shot at
in Ireland," p. 123). Granston and two ou L. Annagh, one
Cork.— A female shot near Eunis- of the latter in 1894 and the other in
keen 1st IMarch 1895, the only Cork 1897.
record (]Mr. J. E. Long-field). Westmeath.— Six were obtained
Waterford. — Tlie Smew has at Knockdrin at long intervals, one
occurred (Thompson, III., p. IGl). en L. Ennell,aud two near Athlone in
Wexford. — Two instances, in the different years,
latter of which four birds were ob- Meath. — A male was sent from
tained (Ibid.). Navan to Messrs. Williams & Son,
Dublin. — There are three records 12th January 1895.
of Tliompson and one of Waiters. Louth. — One was obtained at
ANATID.E. 221
Lurgau Greeu in winter 1832-33 was shot near Carrickmacross iu
(Thompson), and another on the December 1854 (Proc. Dublin Nat.
Boyne in 1854-55 (Proc. Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc, 14th March 1S5G).
Hist. Soc., 14th March 1859). Armagh.— Four notices in different
Mayo. — A male in the Dublin years all relate to the southern part
Museum is from this county. Col. of L. Neagli, near Lurgan.
Vernon informed me that when ho Down. — Thompson mentions two
was living on Killary Harbour he instances on tidal waters.
shot several male Smews in white Antrim. — A male, one of a pair
plumage from time to time. seen, was killed on a small river near
Fermanagh. — One specimen, at Doagh (Ibid.).
Belleisle. Donegal.— Two were shot at Inch
Monaghan. — An occurrence about in January 1891 (Leebody, in IrisJi
1831 is cited by Thompson. A female Nat., 1892, p. 175).
Besides the above, Thompson lueutions three Sinews sent from
the Shannon in January 1829, and a female was received bv
Messrs. WilHams & Son on 27th Feln-uary 1895, also from the
Shannon.
THE HOODED MEEOANSER. Men/u^ cncullatus, Linna?us.
Very rare and accidental visitor from America.
There are four or five Irish records uf this Trans-Atlantic
species. The first, as Thompson informs us, was shot in winter,
about the year 1840, at Dingle Bay, co. Kerry, by Dr. Chute ;
this specimen is stated to have been in the collection at Chute Hall
(" Fowler in Ireland," p. 121). 1 failed, how^ever, to find it there
in 1893, when I inspected that collection by Mr. Chute's per-
mission.
Watters stated, on the authority of Glennon the bird-preserver,
that an immature female, obtained on a lake near Knockdrin,
CO. Westmeath, was in the collection there ; but I also failed to find
this bird among the remains of Sir E. Levinge's collection, now
in the Christian Brothers' Schools at Mulliugar, nor does it
appear in the catalogue of that collection, or in tlie Knockdrin
Game-book, kept since 1837.
There is, however, a beautiful adult male in the collection of
Sir E. Payne-Grallwey, who killed a pair outside the mouth of
East Ferry, Queenstown Harbour, in the severe frost of December
1878 ; these he had previously seen there in company with Eed-
breasted Mergausei'S, but could not succeed in approaching until
he found them alone. He killed another in a still more severe
season, after a heavv north-west gale, iu Jauuarv 1881, in the
222 BIRDS OF IRELAND,
Shaunou estnarv. off Ballvlongfoi'd, co. Kerry ; this liircl was
shot, as well as the two former, with the swiTel-p;uii, and a number
of Diving-Ducks and M«n-gansers with it. Two of the examples
were females. Mr. J. G. Millais has another Hooded Merganser,
said to have heen killed in Tralee Harbour in 1880, but of this
statement he has lieen unable to obtain complete proof.
Sir E. Payne-Gallwey thought that the birds he afterwards
shot flew faster and with a more darting motion than other
Mergansers, and dived with equal facility ; but one which he
crippled made no effort to dive ; it swam low, like a wounded
Teal, with its crest laid flat and smooth, the head looking small
and black, not bushy as it usually does.
Order COLUMB^.
Family COLUMBID.E.
THE RING-DOVE. Cohnuha jx'himhus, Linnteus.
Resident, numerous and spreading, being now generally distributed,
except in tlie barest districts. Large flocks visit Ireland
irregularly in winter.
The Eing-Dove or Wood- Pigeon is one of our commonest and
most conspicuous birds, attracting attention by its powerful flight
or welcome cooing. It is iuci'easing in Connemara wherever there
are any plantatiiais. luit in Achill it is only known as a rare
straggler in autumn, while in the bare country round Belmullet
it seems to be unknown. As it is seldom distinguished in the
Migration Eeports from other "Pigeons," we depend, for proof of
the immigration of large flocks in winter, upon inland observations
made in the eastern and midland counties. These flocks vary as
to the localities they visit, the time they remain, and the seasons in
which they occur, being doulitless influenced by the rigour of the
weather in the countries whence they come, and also by the
abundance of beech-mast and other food here. They diminish,
but do not immediately disap])ear, in February and March, when
the resident birds have paired and commenced to coo, and in 1886
flocks were oliserved to hold together in the north until the
middle of April.
The cooing has been heard l)y the Eev. C. Irvine every
month in the vear, but is onlv usual from Februarv until Julv ; it
colu:mbid.^. 223
may be liearcl occasionally at uiglit. The Ring-DoTe has no alarm-
note, but the loud flapping made "when taking flight serves the
purpose, though the bird can fly from its nest as C[uietly as an Owl.
Mr. Blake Knox's observation of Kiug-Doves resorting to the
shore to eat sea-weed and to drink sea-water has been often
quoted, and Mr. Barrington has found that flocks do tlie same
damage to corn and turnips that they perpetrate in England ; the
complaint against them here chiefly relates to garden-produce. I
have seen several of these birds fluttering low about the Cappagh
lake, occasionally alighting in deep water, and taking flight after
a few seconds.
Mr. James Johnston found a nest on 15th February with two
eggs, and he shot a young bird about a month old on 24th
December, but Riug-Doves rarely breed before March or later
than September. They are found in summer on Lambay Island,
where they are said to build among ivy on the cliffs. In a bare
district near our coast a nest was discovered in an earth-cliif
flanking a small river-course, and Mr. Pentland has found another
nest on a bank at the foot of a thorn-tree. A yet stranger instance
was reported by Mr. Witherby {ZooL, 1895, p. 232), who was
walking round one of the islands of Lough Corrib, where Ring-
Doves commonly breed on the low trees or bushes, when one of
these birds rose from among some tall heather, in the midst of
which he found, on the ground, the nest, composed of a few sticks,
and containing one egg, while at the other side of the island he
found another nest, with a young Ring-Dove, in an exactly similar
position. As regards these cases it should be remembered that
several birds which ordinarily build in trees do so on or near the
ground on western lake-islands.
This species has been known to interbreed with the domestic
Pigeon, but the offspring were believed to be infertile (Mr.
Pentland). A white specimen has been noticed in successive
winters (Sinclair).
THE STOCK-DOYE. CoJumha cenas, Linnteiis.
Resident and increasing in parts of Leinster and Ulster ; a bird of
recent introduction.
The first Irish-taken Stock-Doves were announced iVom t'o.
Down in 1875 (Proc. Belfast N.H. and Phil. Soc, March 187t>) ; in
1877 a pair bred near Comber in that county, and the same
season others were found nestiuL;- in the mountains of Louth, and
224 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
brought oiit their yoiiug (Lord Clennout, in Zool., 1877, p. 383).
lu 1888 a bird was shot at Brockley Park, Queen's Co., where
another was discovered hatching in 1896 ; and in 1889 eggs
were found in Lord Massereene's demesne, co. Antrim (Zool.,
1890, p. 275), while in the same year, 1889, Stock-Doves were
observed at Glendalough and Powerscourt, co. Wicklow. In this
latter locality two successive broods were reared the next year, and
Powerscourt has since then been a regular resort of the species.
In 1890, also, the eggs were taken in co. Armagh, and the
l)irds noticed at Cleashill, King's Co., where the first nest was
found in 1897. At Oak Park, Carlow, Stock-Doves were seen in
1893, and were found breeding there in 1894. In 1896 birds
were ol)served by Mr. Hibbert on the borders of Clare and
Gralway, where he has noticed thmn since. This is the first
locality west of the Shannon the Stock-Dove is known to have
reached, but residents in intervening places have announced this
bird from Tipperary, King's Co. and Queen's Co., while in those
counties previously mentioned the species has increased, so that
Mr. Young has seen as many as twenty-five birds in a flock at
Brockley ; specimens have also been shot at Navan, co. Meath,
and at Malahide, co. Dublin, where a flock of twent}^ remained
for about a fortnight in November 1893. As the latter place is
on the east coast such a flock may have crossed from England.
Mr. Digby, of Geashill, thinks that the first individuals he observed
in King's Co. came with migratoi'v winter flocks of Ring-Doves,
and Mr. Barrington received a specimen on 19th October 1897,
which was obtained at the Tuskar Lighthouse. The present
range of the Stock- Dove as known in Ireland may lie said to
extend from co. Clare to co. Antrim, but new localities may soon
be heard of.
In the districts where this bird is found a very few individuals
are met with, associating with Ring-Doves, from which they
separate on taking flight, when their smaller size and more rapid
wing-strokes distinguish them; and, the peculiarity of the note
is also remarked.
In Wicklow and Louth Stock-Doves breed in crevices in the
mountain-cliffs, rind on the Mourne Mountains in or near rabbit-
holes or rmder furze-bushes at a height of eight hundred feet on
the steep slopes ; at Oak Park the nest was in an old ivied stump,
and at Emo Park hollow trees are used, while Mr. Parker has
found a pair nesting in the dense growth of a lime-tree at Castle
Louijh on Lough Derg.
COLUMBID.E. 225
THE ROCK-DOVE. CoJuinha Uvia, J. F. Gmeliu.
Resident in the cliffs on most of the rocky parts of the coast.
The Rock-Dove is indigenous to Ireland, breeding more or less
commonly in all the maritime counties excej^t Dublin and Louth ;
the coast of the latter is flat and unsuitable to the bird's hal;)its,
but on the Dublin coast it was exterminated in the time of
Montgomery, who remembered it to have nested in eonsideral)le
numbers on Howth, Ireland's Eye, and Lambay (Proe. Duljlin
KH. Society, May 1852). Bray Head and Wicldow Head, how-
ever, are still breeding-resorts, as well as the Saltee Islands off
Wexford, where the Rock-Dove nests in caverns in the boulder-
clay, as well as in the rocks. It is a common species along the cliffs
of Waterford and Cork, Imt among the tremendous precipices of
the west and north coasts and their islands we find this bird most
numerous. It does not seem to breed on the Tearaght, though
visiting that island in winter ; l)ut it nests on Inishtooskert,
another of the Blaskets, and is abundant about Sybil Head and
elsewhere on the Kerry coast. It also nests plentifully in the
clift's at the mouth of the Shannon, as well as in those at the
sides of Lough Swilly in Donegal, and still more so on many
exposed islands, such as High Island, Achill and Rathlin, and
even the caves of Inishtrahull are among its lu'eeding-resorts
(Migration Reports, 1886-87).
Thompson found Rock-Doves in mountain-cliffs in Down and
Antrim two miles from the sea, as well as in caves of the limeston''
tract between Loughs Corrib and Mask, near Cong ; no recent
case, liowever, of this species breeding inland has come to my
knowledge, and it has probably l)een driven from such localities,
as the Chough has been from most of its mountain haunts.
Rock-Doves nest indift'erently l)otli in high and low clift's,
provided these afford cj[uiet caves, but however lofty the cliff" may
be these birds prefer a low elevation to the upper part of the
precipice ; in the caves which they frequent they spend much of
their time and breed on ledges far within the gloom, sevei'al iiairs
in the same cavern.
On the Waterford coast two broods, if not three, are reared
in the season, the first eggs being laid in Ajiril; on 26th June
three clutches were' taken from nests that had contained young
on 12th May, and I have knowji a nest to contain eggs on l^th
September
Q
226 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Floclcs of Roclc-Doves, associating with domestic Pigeons,
frequent the cornfields in antumn, and at other times seeds such
as those of the hird's-foot trefoil are eaten. The Eock-Dove's
power of flight is illustrated l\v an anecdote thus communicated by
Mr. Philip Gough, a resident on our coast : — " I was leaning on
the cliff-fence looking out to sea, when I suddenly heard something
cleaving the air ; three birds glanced past me, and dashed down-
wards to the rocks below. In an instant a rock that ran into the
sea was reached, and one of the birds shot, as it were, into the
heart of the stone ; the other two skimmed the rock and rose into
the air ; then I recognized these two birds as Peregrines. Wishing
to know Avhat the third bird was and what had befallen it, I went
down to the rock ; in the centi-e was a fissure which terminated in
a crab-hole, and in this was a Rock-Pigeon panting heavily, and
with its eye-balls starting from their sockets."
THE TUETLE-DOVE. Tirdur communis, Selby.
Annual visitant in very small numbers, chiefly occurring in May and
June, and to a less extent in September ; most frequent from
Wexford to Kerry.
The Turtle-Dove can scarcely be enumerated among our regular
summer-visitors, for though one or two birds at a time may be seen
nearly every year in the southern maritime counties, they usually
disappear after a brief sojourn without giving evidence of breed-
ing ; some, however, are ol)served again in Sejitember or even
later in the autumn, and among these several cases of young
examples have occurred.
This species has often l)oen taken or observed on the Tuskar
and at other points on the south coast of Wexford, and that
county is evidently a customary landing-place on migration ; while
the instances of the laird's occurrence in Wexford, Waterford,
C(n'k and Kerry form about 60 per- cent, of those recorded from
the whole country. The frecpiency of tlie Turtle-Dove along the
southern fringe of Ireland, and the extension of its visits to the
neighl:)ourhood of Dingle, where it has repeatedly occurred, are
features which we find similarly in the distribution of some other
sccirce migrants, such as the Black Redstart, the Osprey, and the
rarer Herons. These liirds, on striking our south-east coast, seem to
wander south-westward until some of them reach the extreme
limits of the land in that direction; nay, some of the earliest
January .
. 1
April .
i
February
. —
May .
. 33
March .
. 1
June .
. 20
PTEEOCLID.E. 227
notices of this species, on '20tli and. :23rd April, liave been from
the Bull Rock and the Tearaght. The Turtle-Dove has also
occurred not infrequently in co. Dublin, less often in Down,
Antrim, Doaegal, Sligo and Galway, luit no maritime county,
excejjt perhaps Clare, is without its records of this bird ; it has
been taken, too, on such remote rocks as the Fastuet, Slyne Head
and Black Rock, Mayo, besides those mentioned above. It is rare
in inland counties, for these only yield 15 out of 140 instances, or
less than 11 per cent.
lu 84 cases the mouths of occurreucc have beeu as follows : —
July ... 3 October . . i
August . . 3 November. . 4
September 10 December . . 1
Besides the above cases, Turtle-Doves are repeatedly said to have occurred
in "spring," "summer," or " autumu."
. In one instance four birds were seen together, but Turtle-
Doves are usually met with singly or in pairs, and are very shy,
so that it is difficult to say that they may not have often evaded
observation while breeding. Thompson was informed that a pair
had bred at Derryquin in Kerry, and another pair near Down-
patrick, one of these having been afterwards killed as late as
I2th November ; Watters also stated, on Glennon's authority, that
a female, shot early in June in co. Wicklow, contained eggs in the
ovary, and Mr. Williams has obtained a young bird with vestiges
of down still adhering to it. For these reasons the Turtle-Dove
has been included among the birds that have bred in Ireland,
though it is far more usually a straggler on migration or bird of
double passage.
Order PTEROCLETES.
Family PTEROCLID.F.
PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE. Syn-haptes ijaradoxus (Pallas).
Rare and irregular visitor.
The visits of this liird to Ireland have Ijclonged to those
remarkable immigrations which have from time to time spread
from Central Asia to Western Europe.
The first occurrence on record was in June l8Go, when a few
of these Sand-Grouse were killed in the counties of I)ul)lin,
For Passenger-Pigeon, sec Appendix.
228
BIRDS OF IRELAND .
Fei'managli, and Donegal ; wliilo. in Octolier 1876, a i)air were
obtained in co. Kildare.
In May and June 1888 the inimigi-atiou was much more
numerous and widespread, extending through northern Leiuster,
Ulster and Connaught to Belmullet, at the north-western extremity
of Ireland ; a considerable flock, too, was met with in Clare, and
another flock was reported from Mallow (co. Cork). With
these exceptions none were announced from Munster, and some
that visited Wexford were the only Sand-CI rouse heard of in the
south of Leinster.
Dr. Scharff, in his valuable paper (Proc. Royal Dublin Society,
12th December 1888), points out that after the first visitation in
May and June had passed over, other birds occ-urred in July and
more in November; some of these may have been fresh arrivals.
The total numljer of liirds which were seen that year in different
places amounted, according to puljlished reports, to more than a
hundred, but this probal)ly rejiresents only a portion of those
that reached Ireland in 1888. There is nothing to show that any
of them l)red in the country, and l)y the end of the year they had
all disapjieared.
Immigration of 1863.— A Saud-
Grouse \Yas found killed near Bal-
brin.n'an, co. Dulilin, in June (Proc.
Dublin N.H.Soc, 4th DccomlierlSG?,);
two were seen, and nne of them, now in
Armagh IMuseuni, \\as shot at Ross
bake, CO. Fermanagh, on Kth June
(Lord Clermont, in Znnl., 18G4,
p. S934). A flock was observed, and two
birds were shot, at Naran.co. Donegal,
and soon aftei'wards thirteen or four-
teen birds, prol)ali]y of the same flock,
were observed im the mountains, and
then on the sands near Drumbeg,
Killybegs. (Jn this occasion two were
killed and one wounded Ijy I\Ir. W.
Sinclair, who presented the latter bird
to the Regent's Park Gardens.
In 1876 a male and female were
killed at Ivilcock, co. Kildare
(Williams, in ZnuL, 1877, p. 24).
In the migration of 1888 a good-
sized flock was seen, and two females
were shot, near Carrigaholt, on the
Clare side of the Shannon's nrouth,
on 20th j\Iay. In the same county,
which thus furnished some of the first
instances, a beautiful male was
obtained during the second week in
November (Williams, in ZooL, 1889,
p. 34) ; near IMallow about six were
observed in June (Dr. Scharff, fide
Afr. F. R. Rohu).
In Leinster one of three noticed
was shot early in June at Rosslare,
Wexford, and twelve or fifteen were
seen there soon afterwards ; near
Tulhimore, King's Co., five were seen,
orie shot, on 20tli Alay ; some were
noticed in Westmeath in June. In
CO. Dublin about fifteen frequented
the Portmarnock sand-hills for six
weeks ; and to this flock may have
belonged the three seen near ]\Iala-
liide on 4th June, and one killed at
Clontarf on 16th Jiine. Fourteen
were ol:)served and four killed at
Alornington, on the Aleath coast, oil
11th July (Dr. Scharff).
In Connaught sixteen were seen
and two shot at Woodpark, co.
Gal way, on Sth June (Rev. P. A.
TETRAONID.E. 229
Keating) ; another was shot near ^lay ; three on the Copeland Ishxnds ;
Portumna in the end of November while on 20th November four were
(Scharf!) ; four were seen, two shot, seen and two were shot at Kircubbin
near Athlone, in co. Roscommon, on in the same county, and another on
17th June ; in the neighbourhood of 3rd December in that locality. Dun-
Belmullet, co. Mayo, a male and gannon, co. Tyrone, afforded another
female were shot early in June and example, and one was shot in
two males in July, besides others co. Londonderry about the end of
which were seen there. ^lay, while Sir Douglas Brooke saw
In Ulster a male was shot near nine birds together in co. Fermanagh.
Killough, CO. Down, on 28th or 29th
Order GALLING.
Family TETRAONID.E.
THE RED GROUSE. La^jopus scoiicus (Latham).
Resident on the many mountain ranges and also on the red bogs of
the central plain, breeding in every county.
Though thus widespread on the heath-covered hinds of Irehind,
and fairly common from a naturalist's point of view, Grouse do
not abound on Irish moors as they do under stricter preservation
in Scotland. The letting of grouse-moors is by no means general
in Ireland, as j^i'oprietors more usually reserve them for private
use or neglect to preserve them effectively ; accordingly the
enemies of game-birds, such as Grey Crows and Magpies, are
common. The burning of gorse and heather on mountains, too, is
a very frequent practice, even in the spring, and where this does
not destroy the eggs or young it de2>rives the birds of shelter.
On well-preserved estates, however. Grouse have increased, as for
instance in parts of Connemara ; but iu Achill they are kept down
by numerous foxes and winged enemies.
Grouse are not confined to the higher lauds, but are found on
the great flat bogs of Queen's and King's Counties, Westmeath,
eastern Galway, and other similar tracts; the larger patches of
brown on the maps in this volume indicate in a general way the
haunts of this bird.
Mr. G. H. Kinahan informs me that he has seen large flocks of
Grouse, consisting of several packs, on the Munster and Conuaught
mountains, but not in Ulster.
In exceptional frost and snow. Grouse have been seen picking
on the manure-heaps at the cottage-doors in the mountains,
or have been found on low coast-lauds like the Warreu at
230 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Donagliadee and on the Copeland Islands ; and, tliough not given
to migrating round the coasts, stragglers have visited Black Eock,
Mayo, and Inishtrahull (Migration Reports).
It has been remarked that Irish Grouse are lighter in colour,
especially on the under-parts, than those of Great Britain. Some
striking variations have occurred ; thus a very light-coloured
bird, of which the c[uills were much paler than usual, was
received by A. G. More from Mayo and identified with the form
called L. jjersicu.^ by Gray ; then the Dublin Museum contains a
specimen from Roscommon in which the rufous colouring is
entirely replaced by white, the black markings remaining as usual.
Mr. Williams describes (ZooL, 1889, p. 393) an old male Grouse
of a bluish-white, through which the ordinary markings were
discernible ; while another from Abbeyleis, described in the same
notice, was snow-white, except two patches of the ordinary colour
on the back and naj^e. Mr. A. J. P. Wise informs me that he saw
a very dark old male, shot in Kerry, which reached the unusual
weight of two and a- half pounds.
The Capercaillie — Tefrao in-Ggallns, Linnaeus — abounded in
the woods of Ireland, according to Giraldus Cambrensis, a state-
ment borne out by Willoughby and OTlaherty in the seveuteeuth
century, but the notices we have of this fine bird in the following
century show that it then gradually became extinct. The Irish
Statutes, 11 Anne, ch. 7. recite, " that the species of cocks
of the wood (a fowl peculiar to this Kingdom) is in danger
of being lost." In Dr. Smith's volume on Cork he mentions
" urofialliis sive Tefrao major,'' and observes : " This bird is
not found in England and now rarely in Ireland since our
woods have lieeu destroyed." Pennant (1776) states that "about
the year 176^) a few were to be found about Thomastowu, county
of Tipperary " {British Zoology, L, p. 30-2). A Catalogue of the
Birds of Ireland, by Dr. Patrick Brown, who died in 1790, showed
that this bird still existed in his time ( Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc,
I8th December ISol) ; Imt though '■ Wild Turkeys " are subse-
quently spoken of we have no distiuct evidence that the Caper-
caillie survived here as late as the end of the eighteenth century.
The Black Grouse— Tt-frflo tetrix, Linnaeus — has been fre-
qiieutly introduced into Ireland, and Mr. Barrett-Hamilton gives
details of these attempts, made in the counties of Limerick,
Wicklow, Sligo, Tyrone and Antrim (Irish Nat., 1899, p. 37) ;
TETIJAONID.E. 231
while in " Dr. Pococke's Tour" (1752), as well as iu Tliouipsoii's
" Natural History of Ireland," the repeated introductit)n of this
bird into Antrim is mentioned. In none of these cases, however,
has the Black Grouse ever Ijeeome established in this country.
A right humerus of a Gallinaceous bird was found by me in the
superficial deposit iu the bone-cave of Ballynamintra, and was
considered by Mr. Lydekker to agree with a corresponding bone
of Black Grouse (Ibis, 1891, p. 392) ; but from careful comparisons
of the former, kindly made at my request by Mr. E. T. Newton
and Dr. Forsyth Major, this bone is found to resemble the
humerus of a small domestic fowl far more closely than that uf a
Black Grouse, and has been labelled in the Dublin Museum
accordingly ; it was ]>robably brought into the cave in recent
times by a fox. It therefore proves nothing as to the Black
Grouse in Ireland.
The Ptarmigan — Lagopiis mutus (Montin) — has also been
introduced without success into Ireland, some ten or fifteen l)irds
having been turned out in Inishoweu, co. Donegal, but they soon
disappeared (Hart, in Zool., 1891, p. 379).
Some bones of Grouse in the Dublin Museum, found in the
Shandon bone-cave near Dungarvan, have been regarded as proofs
of the former existence of Ptarmigan iu Ireland (Lydekker, in Ibis,
1891, p. 392), but Professor Alfred Newton said, after examining
them : "This last (example) is very small, and might be Layopn.'i
mutus, only I have uo evidence that this species was ever iu
Ireland, and I thiuk that a hen Grouse might be found as small,
though I do not possess one that is" (Trans. R. Irish Academy,
Vol. XXVI. Pt. v., p. 229). I have seen these bones submitted by
Dr. ScharfE to Dr. Porsyth Major for comparison with recent
bones of Red Grouse and Ptarmigan, and the conclusion then
come to was that nothing more could be said on the subject than
Professor Newton had stated above ; the bones were certainly
small for Red Grouse, but in some characters agreed better with
them than with those of Ptarmigan. We canuot, therefore, rely
upon these remains to prove the former existence of Ptarmigan in
Ireland.
232 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Family PHASIANID^.
THE PHEASANT. Phi>^lauus colchicus (Linnaeus).
Resident and breeds in every county, but maintains itself with
difficulty if not preserved.
Giraklus in the twelfth century and Higden in the fourteenth
mention the absence of the Pheasant from Ireland in their times,
but at the end of the sixteenth century it appears to have become
numerous from the statements of Payne and Moryson. At the
present day there are preserves in every county, and in them alone
it is jilentiful, but that it can maintain itself in favourable places is
shown by the experience of Mr. Kane in co. Mouaghan, who states
that Pheasants have bred in his oak-wood at Creaghan for forty or
fifty years without artificial interference. Pheasants when once
introduced into a locality may be found there many years after
they have ceased to be nurtured and fed, but under such circum-
stances they usually dwindle in numbers and wander away. This
wandering propensity has occasionally led birds even to Achill and
Eathlin. In " Smith's Kerry," 1756, it is stated that Pheasants
were then to be seen in that county in greater numbers than in
the more cultivated counties of Cork and Waterford, and Sir H.
Gore-Booth states that wild Pheasants do fairly well at Lissadell
on the Sligo coast at the present day.
Mr. James Dickson has observed a Pheasant, when under the
"point " of a, dog, hide its head among the withered leaves, as the
Ostrich is fabled to do in sand. I am informed by Mr. E.
Williams that there are now very few places in Ireland where the
old brown Pheasant exists uncrossed with the Chinese or Eing-
necked bird; one of these places being Castle Archdall in
Fermanagh, while another is Mount Louise in Monaghan. As
thousands of Pheasants have been sent for preservation to
Messrs. Williams & Son, taken from all parts of Ireland year
by year, no one is better qualified to speak on this point.
THE PARTEIDGE. Penlh- cinerea, Latham.
Resident and breeds in every county.
Though the Partridge has so extensive a range it is very unevenly
distributed in Ireland, being numerous in Tippei'ary, King's and
Queen's Counties, Kildare and Meath, but scarce in the west of
PHASIANID.E. 233
Conuauglit and Donegal, where moors and nicnmtains prevail.
Though fluctuating in numbers, according to the serenity or
wetness of the season at lireeding-time. Partridges have long been
said to be diminishing in Ireland. Two causes can Le easily
assigned for this : the discontinuance of wheat-growing and the
use of breech-loaders combined with poaching. In Louth the
decrease is attributed bv Mr. Pentlaud to the enormous numbers
of Rooks which rob the nests of game ; but apart from causes of
this nature, Ireland, owing to the wetness of its climate, is less
favourable to the increase of the Partridge than Great Britain,
and there are few districts in which it is easy to find more than
three coveys in a day's shooting, while these have often so much
furze and rough ground in which to conceal themselves that the
spoi'tsman suffers under disadvantages. Very large coveys are
rare in Ireland, where this species is evidently less prolific than
in the corn-growing parts of Great Britain, in which, also, \>re-
servation is maintained at so high a standard.
Though no transmarine migration of this species is known,
individuals have been reported from the Tearaght, the North
Arklow lightship, and several times from Rockabill ; but in
some of these cases Quails may possibly have been the birds
observed (Migration Reports). On Rathliu Partridges are never
seen except in very hard weather, as in December 1878, when they
probably took refuge there from the snow on the mainland.
The favourite haunts of these birds in Ireland are small
farms where there is always some untidy tillage, for instance,
potato-fields in which Persicaria and similar weeds are plentiful,
and they prefer such to fields of turnips ; but while the newly-cut
stubbles are still full of scattered oats the covey of the locality
visits these in the early mornings, and to find or trace them there
one should visit the ground from 6 to 8 a.m. In the middle of the
day they hide away and it is most difficult to find them, but in
the evenings they commence to call and fly forth again to the
stubbles, retiring at dusk to some furzy field, where they sleep in
a cluster. During October Partridges become very wild and
uncertain in their places of resort.
I have seen a Partridge face a dog in a menacing way to defend
her newly-hatched brood.
234 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE QUAIL. Cot II mix communis, Bouiiaterre.
Common until 1850 or later, when it was found at all seasons ; it then
diminished in numbers until it reappeared temporarily in 1892
and some subsequent summers.
The hiistun' of the Quail in Ireland is peculiar. Giraldus in his
" Topographia Hibernise," and other writers subsequently, stated
that it was found in considerable numbers in their times ; and,
possibly owing to the growth of wheat, Thompson found it to be
increasing in 1831, the greatest abundance Ijeing probably attained
before 1845. In co. Sligo, however, Colonel FfoUiott stated that
Quails were almost unknown in 1840, and that they became
numerous during the next ten years ; while five to ten brace were
said to l:)e a usual bag for a day near Easky in another part of Sligo.
The extensive growth of wheat, leaving stubbles full of weeds, in
the early part of the century, and the multiplication of j)otato-
gardens up to the time of the famine (1846-48), were facts iu
favour of this bird at that period, and bevies of Quails used to be
met with commonly through the winter months in every cultivated
district ; this species was then cousidered more numerous than the
Partridge, and apj^eared to be resident from its abundance at all
seasons. Several nests have been found in one field in those times,
and Thompson gives some statistics of the numbers sold in Belfast
in winter. The birds often frequented rough elevated ground full
of furze, but were particularly attached to the small holdings of
the peasantry, where they could feed on the seeds of various weeds
and lurk in the headlands and straggling fences. In such situa-
tions. Quails were to be met with on the edges of the bogs, but
did not resort to the latter; consequently their haunts were
circumsci'ibed in those western counties which are chiefly unre-
claimed, but whether in Kerry or in Mayo they were common on
cultivated ground. Maritime counties were frecjuented as well
as inland districts ; thiis northern Tipperary and the adjoining
counties al)ounded in Quails and so did Louth and Antrim, and
it would be hard to say whether they wei'e most common in the
province of Munster, of Leinster, or of Ulster.
After the famine, much of the tilled lands were turned into
pasture or reverted into moor; and about 1850—53 I heard
an old sportsman remark that Quails were then much less
frequently met with in co. Waterford than they had been, while
the Rev. C. Irvine dated their decrease iu co. Tyrone from 1848.
Still they continued common up to about lb60, and I can
PHASIANID.E. 235
remember their frequent calls duriug August 1858 ; but iu the
" sixties " there was a steady decrease, which advanced duriug the
" seventies," when the occurrence of a Quail became a fact to be
noted, excejDt in such favourite counties as Louth, where Mr.
Barton saw young Quails from 1870 to 1879, and in 1878 two
bevies were met with the same afternoon in co. Wexford.
After 1880 the Quail was generally looked upon as extinct in
Ireland, though there are a few notices of its occurrence in each
province, and Mr. Barton saw a young brood in the north of
Donegal in 1882, while in the southern part of co. Dublin
Mr. Williams knew of a nest in 1891.
The next two summers of 1892 and 1893 witnessed the reappear-
ance of the Quail in many parts of Ireland, and specimens were
taken in both these seasons at Wexford light -stations (Mr.
Barringtou) ; the visitation of 1892 was not numerous, but was
observed from the south to the north of the country as well as
in Great Britain. In 1893 the immigration was on a larger scale,
and was reported from eighteen counties distributed in all the
provinces, while the birds were known to have bred in Louth,
Fermanagh, and Antrim ; this comcided with a similar increase
rejiorted in the summer of 1893 from many counties of England
and Scotland, so that the movement embraced both islands. In
the two following summers of 1894-95 Quails were again very
scarce, but they appeared in some numbers in 1896, though not
to the same extent as iu 1893 ; in Cork, however, they were
reported to be pretty general in 1896, and quite a number were
heard in Antrim ; eggs were found in Dublin, and young killed in
Down. Since then few notices of Quails apjjear, but Mr. Moffat,
in CO. Wexford, heard them calling almost incessantly on the
evenings of 7th and 8th June 1899. while he was walking about the
country, and some of these l;)irds evidently remained there that
season. In his thoughtful paper on the Quail in Ireland (J/-/>7;
Nat, 1896, p. 203), Mr. Moffat draws attention to the smallness of
the rainfall in co. Wexford during the springs of 1892, 1893 and
1896, the years marked by the late visitations of Quails. It would
be interesting to know if those seasons partook of the same dry
character throughout Western Europe, as the causes of an unusual
migration are rather to be sought for in the countries from which
it originates than in those to which it is directed.
Though Quails have occurred often during the last dt'cade in
spring, summer and autumn, winter records for that period seem
wanting in Ireland, so that the s]>ecies appears to have lost its
I'esident character here, and even its siunmer visits have become
236
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
uncertain. The decrease of the Quaih which has gone on with
fluctuations for half a century, cannot be sufficientlv explained by the
conversion of tillaoe into pasture which has taken place, for plenty
of ground abounding in the weeds of cultivation still exists ; the
wholesale netting of Quails on the spring migration in Mediter-
ranean countries has doulitless more to say to their failure. I
found these birds used for food in enormous numbers in Rome in
May 1862, and at the present day the London and Paris markets
are largely supplied with them in spring, while on one occasion a
vessel arrived at Marseilles with 40,000 Quails on board.
Repeated attem]»ts have lieen made t(^ reintroduce Quails, and
many have been let out in different parts of Ireland from time to
time, but they disapjieared in every case. This species has been
found to revisit a favourite s]X)t with remarkable regularity year
after year.
Order GRALLJE.
Sub-order P" U L I C A R I .^ .
Family RALLID.^.
THE CORN-CRAKE or LAND-RAIL. CreA- pratensis,
B(^'('hstein.
Summer-visitor, common and widespread, remaining occasionally in
winter.
This well-known bird is fairly numerous in every part of
Ireland, except on the unreclaiuird moors and mountains, and its
breeding-range extends into every county and to many of the
marine islands ; among the latter I may mention the Keeraghs,
small islets off Wexford, where the Corn-Crake nests annually in
rank grass among the colony of Terns, and it also breeds on
Dursey Island, the Arran Islands, luishbofin, Achill, Inishtrahull,
Rathlin and the Copeland Islands, while it has often visited the
Skelligs and the Tearaght. Though the latter is our most western
l)oiut, a wing of a Corn-Crake, killed by a Peregrine, was ])icked
up so early as 19th April. This Ijird is common in the cultivated
portions of the western coast-lands, as in Connemara, the Mullet
Peninsula, and the district towards Naran in western Donegal,
showing that maritime localities devoid of trees are as well or
better suited to its habits than counties rich in timber. It is to
be found on flat, sedgy islands inj the larger lakes, where one
cannot walk with dry feet, and I have seen it quite at home
among the buildings and statut'S on Station Island in Lough
Derg, CO. Donegal, before the annual arrival of the pilgrims.
RALLID.E. 237
The Corn-Crake varies considerably in numbers from season to
season and from one locality to another. Its note is usually first
heard during the last ten days of April, but Mr. Warren has more
frequently remarked it near Ballina early in May, and so has the
Eev. C. Irvine in a high, exposed parish in Tyrone. There are
several records of this bird's arrival lietween the lUth and 20th
April, though only one for the first week in that month, when
Mr. Douglas-Ogilby was shown on 7th April a specimen that had
been sent from Stewartstown, co. Tyrone ; an earlier notice still
is furnished by the Migration Reports, where we find that a bird
was caught on the Tuskar on 28th March 1884. Among entries
in these reports we find that Corn-Crakes frecj[uently occur at the
Tuskar and other Wexford light-stations in the end of April or
the beginning of May; thus at the South Arklow Lightship, on
5th May 1888, "hundreds of Coru-Crakes were about the light
from 10.30 p.m. to 12.20 a.m., and went off IST.W., flying low " ;
again at the North Arklow Lightship, on 16th May 1893, a large
number were about the? shi}) from 9 p.m. until midnight. The
capture of these birds at isolated rock-stations oft" Ireland has
been thus alluded to in the Migration Reports, 1886, p. 5: "The
repeated occurrence of the Corn-Crake several miles from shore
— killed striking against lanterns between 100 and 200 feet above
the sea-level — must satisfy the most sceptical that this species
can fly at a high level with great power and velocity."
The following is a record of disaster on migration : — Mr. Norman
Thompson was returning from Bordeaux to Duldin about
1st May 1867, and after passing the Tuskar he observed a
number of drowned Coru-Crakes, which he estimated at fifty,
strewn in the water, from a point opposite Courtown IIarl:)our until
the vessel had passed Wicklow Head ; the weather had been foggy.
Our Corn-Crakes usually leave us by the beginning of October,
though in numerous cases they have been taken in November,
December, January, and February, but there is nothing to show
that any have remained until Mareh. These winter birds have
been found hiding in holes and chinks, but the torpid condition
attributed to them may have been that simulation of death which
the Corn-Crake is said to adojit when seized.
The craking note which gives us the first intimation of arrival
is continued into July, when it Ijecomes less frequent, and has
l)e'ni reiieatedly heard in August; it may l)e heard by day and l)v
night, and though usually uttered from a concealed position, 1
have seen a Corn-Crake standing opculv in a field before a house
in Donegal while it craked loudlv. Mr. H. M. Wallis remarks
238 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
li<;>w bold and frequently seen these birds are in western Donegal.
Another cry is sometimes uttered like the squeal of a trapped
rabbit, and in one ease the bird, which produced it in a suppressed
tone, was appi-oaehing its hatching mp.te. I have observed a
Corn-Crake jumping up and screaming in great excitement, as
though fighting with something, about a particular spot in a
meadow where I then found its nest with eggs and a newly-hatched
voung bird that a rat had just destroyed ; another Corn-Crake
witli young flew at a dog to defend them.
The eggs are sometimes laid in the end of May, more usually in
June, and occasionally in July ; they number eight to eleven, but
eighteen have been foimd in one nest in Fermanagh, probably the
produce of two females. In one rare variety, l^esides the ordinary
lilac and ruddy sT:>ots, are n number of short, red, haii'-like streaks
pointing in different directions.
A C(n-n-Crake shot at Ablieyleix was snow-white, with the
exception of two patches of the ordinary colour in the middle of
the back and nape.
THE SPOTTED CRAKE. Pm-zana maruetta (Leach).
Rare visitor, chiefly in autumn ; has bred in Roscommon and prob-
ably in Kerry.
Though rarely met with, the Spotted Crake is recorded from all
the provinces, most frequently from Munster and most rarely from
Connaught; while fourteen maritime and seven inland counties
vield notices of it as follows : — Kerry (7), Cork (9), Water-
ford (7), Clare (1), Tipperary (3), Wexford (3), Wicklow (1),
Dublin (3), Queen's Co. (3). Westmeath (1), Louth (3),
Roscommon (2), Mayo (I'r), Sligo (1), Fermanagh (3), Armagh
(1), Down (5), Antrim (o), Londonderry (1), Tyrone (2),
Donegal (2) ; the two records from Roscommon indicate
that it was formerly resident there, but the only other notice of
it further west in Connaught is fi-om Eagle Island, of a migrating
bird in April whose identification was not proved. The three
southern counties of Kerry, Cork and Waterford afford 36 per
cent, of the total records, and though the maritime couuties m
which it has been found are as two to one of the inland counties,
the latter are sufficiently numerous and dispersed to show that
the Spotted Crake is meov than a mere wanderer along our sea-
board like the Black Redstart ur Spoonbill.
KALLID.E. 239
Fortv-foiu" occurrences of this bird took place iu the following
months : —
1
January .
. —
:\Iay
February .
1
June
March
. 1
July
April .
1 or 2
August
September
. 11
October
. 13
November .
i
December .
This shows that Spotted Crakes are chiefly met with when the
breeding season is past, in August. September and Octolier, that
the numbers fall off in winter, Ijut that a very few occur in spring
months. The want of records for June and July cannot be taken
as conclusive proof of the bird's absence in those mouths, for the
eggs were found in one instance, and as this is a species which
loves to skulk in marshy herbage, and hates to show itself on the
wing, it may well escape notice in summer ; but with August
flapper-shooting begins, and from the time that the Spotted Crake's
haunts are invaded by the sportsman many records of it appear ;
these are most numerous for October, but there is very little
evidence that it winters iu Ireland.
The Migration Reports give- two instances of Spotted Crakes
taken at isolated lighthouses — the Fastnet (Cork), 'iOth August
1895, and the Tearaght (Kerry j. 21st August 1887. These
are sufficient to show that, like the Corn-Crake and the Water-
Rail, this bird takes long flights from land in its migrations
round the coasts ; and as the instances at the Tearaght and
Fastnet both took place in August, they strengthen the inference
to be drawn, from the monthly records that many Spotted Crakes
arrive on our shores in that month. The western position of the
stations named does not militate against this, for it has been
seen that many migTatiug species continue their flight along the
south coast until they reach the extreme west of Kerry.
In one case the Spotted Crake is proved to have bred ; Colonel
Irwin took a nest with nine eggs in a swamp near Castleplunket,
CO. Roscommon, about the year 1851 ; three of these he has
presented to the Dublin Museum, and retains a fourth. Watters'
mention of a second nest is not corroborated by Colonel Irwin,
but he says that at the period when he took the eggs these birds
w^ere not uncommon. This is confirmed by Mr. J. W. Warburton,
who used to shoot near Elphin, co. Roscommon, between the
middle of November and the middle of January up to 18(32.
This gentleman used not infrequently to meet with Spotted
Crakes in sedgy parts of swani])s where walking was dangerous ;
they were much mc>re shy than the Water-Rail, and they never
got up unless driven to do so by a retriever or almost trodden
'240
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
on. Being anxious to get a pair, he shot six before he could
obtain satisfactory specimens, and he believes that three or four
of these were killed in one day. Since then drainage and the
invasion of their haunts a])pear to have driven away these birds.
Thompson, on the authority of Chute, mentions that a young-
bird exhibiting some clown had been taken in August in eo. Kerry ;
and in the "Fauna of Cork" (1845) Harvey stated that Spotted
Crakes had been met with not infrequently in that county for
several years previously. Mr. H. D. M. Barton shot two in the
same marsh in co. Loath in August ; and a pair were shot at
Gleumalyre, near Portarlington, by Mr. T. Trench in August 1880.
Two or thre ■ were seen and one shot on Upper Lough Erne about
October 1889 by Mr. Ci-eorge Husliands. of Enniskillen. It there-
fore seems probable that the nest found liy Colonel Irwin was not
an isolated case.
The following view of the Tearaght Island oft' the Kerry coast
has been kindly supplied by Mr. Cr. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, from
a photograph taken by him.
THE LITTLE CRAKE. Porzana parva (Scopoli).
Has once occurred in Ireland.
The only ]•' 'i-lak.-n example of the Little Crake of which
there is any record was shot l;)y Mr. H. A. Hamilton at Balbriggan,
on the north coast of co. DubHu, (m 11th March 1854, and was
sent to Canon Tristram, in whose collection it was preserved
EALLID.T.. 241
{TiooJ., p. 4298 [1854]). It proved to be a male, and measured
7| iuclies iu length, and tliougb very fat weighed only 1 oz. 6 drms.
Mr. J. H. G-urney, who had seen this specimen many times, stated
that there was no doubt about its correct ideutitieatiou {Zool.,
1882, p. 151).
A second Little Crate was stated to have been obtained in
Queen's County ("Fowler iu Ireland," p. 252), but this proved
to be a Spotted Crate.
BAILLON'S CRAKE. Porzana halUoni (Vieillot).
Has twice been obtained in Ireland.
Thompson mentions the first known occurrence of Baillon's
Crake in this country : '• The specimen was procured in a bog at
Clay Castle, near Youghal, on October oOth 1845." It fortunately
fell into the hands of Samuel Moss, of that town, who preserved
it, and who stated its length to 1)e 7 inches, wings expanded
10| inches, and its weight 1 oz. It remains in the possession of
the Moss family, and was carefully examined by A. G. More (ZooL,
1882, p. 113). The bog where it was taken skirts the shore of a
bay that has intercepted many rare birds in their westward flight,
and these have either been obtained close to it, or along the valley
of the Cork and Youghal Railway, which extends inland from
Youghal Bay.
The second example was taken alive on Tramore Bay, further
east on the same coast-line, on 6th April 1858, after a succes-
sion of heavy gales which drove numerous Puffins and other sea-
birds on shore in a dying state. This specimen was sent to
Dr. Burkitt, who preserved it, and presented it in 1892 to the
Dublin Museum.
A small Spotted Crake, shot near Kanturk and preserved at
Longueville, was formerly supposed to be a Baillon's Crake, but
its species was ascertained by More, who examined it.
THE WATEE-PtAIL. Pallus aquatlcus, Liuuteus.
Resident, breeding in every county.
The Water-Rail is fairly common in marshy ground all (>ver
Ireland, both in summer and winter, but is more seen in the latter
season when the herbage dies down, especially when frosts drive
this bird to running water for food. Few people realize how
R
242 Bir.DS OF IRELAND.
extensively it l)reeds in this country ; it does so even in the
marshes of Rathlin ; but in Achill Mr. Sheridan only knows it as
a winter-visitor. The Rev. G. Robinson thought it was increasing
in North Ariuagh, near Lough Neagh, and there are districts in
each of the provinces where it is said to be common, though from
the nature of its haunts it is necessarily local.
The Migration Reports furnish us with numerous instances of
the occurrence of the Water-Rail at the most remote and isolated
light-stations, thus proving its migratory habits, and Mr. Barring-
ton suggests that those liirds which occur on the north and north-
west coasts late in autumn may have come from Iceland. These
autumn occurrences are not, however, by any means confined to
the north of Ireland, but take place more or less on all parts of
the coast ; thus, in November 1887, Water-Rails were taken at
lighthouses in Kerry, Wexford, Dublin, and Donegal.
The specimens in ]\Ir. Barrington's collection, sent to him hy light-keepers,
came from the following counties : —
Kerry .
2
Dublin .
2
Donegal .
. 7
Cork . .
2
Down
. 5
:\rayo . .
. 3
Wexford
. 14
Antrim .
2
Gahvav .
2
It may be seen from the above that this, like so many other birds, arrives
most frequently on the Wexford coast. These occurrences took place in the
following months : —
January ... 1 ]May
February. . . — June
September
. 4
October .
. 10
November
. 17
December
. 3
Llarcli ... 1 July
April ... 2 August .
The autumnal movement is here strongly marked, though it must be
remembered that birds are comparatively seldom seen when leaving the
country.
It is evident that numbers of Water-Rails visit Ireland in
winter, and it may he supposed that many of those which breed
here pass the winter further south, though of this there is as yet
no proof. No one would suppose from the slow and feeble flight
of this bird that it could traverse hundreds of miles of sea, as
it has been known to do.
Giraldus, when descrilnug the liirds characteristic of Ireland,
wrote : — " Quails are found in consideralde numbers ; raiuhe also,
with their hoarse cries, are innumerable." The translator was
puzzled with the latter name, but the description answers well
to the Water-Rail, w^hose outbursts of hoarse cries are startling in
suinmer, especially when a shot is fired : they give the idea that
the bird is hit and screaming with pain, though often uttered
kallid.t;. 243
without assignable cause. Its erics, indeed, give us much the most
frequent proof of the presence of this hu-king species. When not
excited, the bird produces a sound like continued grunting and
squealing, each grunt being prolonged and terminating in a
squeahng sound, though the latter is not shrill like that of a pig.
The Coot and the Water-Rail will perch in hedges and low trees
during frosts, and the lattei- can run with agility over the small
twigs of osiers (Jameson). The nest, which can seldom be
approached with drv feet, is buried among the sedge, sometimes
on the flat margin of a lake where there is a belt of marsh-herbage,
sometimes in a large tussock elevated above the swamp, bat always
well concealed \mtil the overhanging sedge is removed. In the
south laying often takes place in April, if not earlier (in one of the
nests at South Kensington, taken in co. Waterford, the young were
hatched on 17th April), but eggs are frequently found in May and
sometimes in June, so that possibly two broods may be reared ;
late layings may, however, be the result of the destruction of the
previous ones by rats which often oecurs. The eggs, seven to nine
in number, have a tendency to be pointed at the larger end, lound
which point the spots are more exclusively grouped than in eggs
of the Corn-Crake. A set was taken at Caj^pagh in each of which
the colouring matter is almost confined to one large blotch of
deep red-brown. The young, when hatched, are covered with silky
black down and have white beaks and pallid legs and feet, tinged
above and at the joints with lead-colour.
Messrs. Williams & Son describe a Water-Rail which was
white — except the long quill feathers, and had flesh-coloured legs
and feet {ZooJ., 1882, p. 74).
THE MOOR-HEN. Gallimda chlowpus (Linnseus).
Resident, common and widespread.
The Moor-hen, known in Ireland as the Water-hen, l)reeds
commonly in every c:)unty, as well as on the islands of Achill and
Kathlin ; while it not usually inhabits mountain lakes. Mr.
Witherby found a pair on a little lake on the elevated island of
Inishturk, west of Mayo, and another pair are resident on a piece
of fresh water in the Aran Islands. This species docs not appear
to increase or diminish at any season, though in cold, exposed
districts the birds that have bred in scattered localities gather to
the rivers in winter.
So few are rejiorted from lighthouses that it may be conclude
R 2
244
Lir.DS OF IRELAND.
the Moor-lien does not migrate to at all tlie same extent as the
Water-Kail, uor has it been reixn-ted from the Tearaght or
the Fastnet, like the latter and the Sj^otted Crake ; still, a iev,^
have been recorded from various parts of the coast, chiefly iu
autumn.
There is one habit of this familiar bird which I have not seen
described : — two males will tight in the water bv striking each
other with the feet like game-cocks ; their wings are then thrown
back and their hinder ]>arts immersed ; the vanquished bird
finally escapes by diving. On the Cappagh lakes Moor-hens nest
habitually in the rhododendrons overhanging the water, building-
year after year in the same spot ; the S])reading branch of a Scotch
fir thus situated has held a nest for a great many seasons. Some-
times they build on a bare stump ])rojecting out of the lake or
among watercress or stems of the Equisetum in shallow water. A
favourite site is the centre of a tussock of tall sedge, which radiates
from the nest and screens it on every side ; this forms an admirable
cradle in the midst of an impassable quagmire. The nest, usually
of sedge, is sometimes mainly composed of dried leaves, especially
when in a rhododendron. Thompson mentions that the eggs
were once laid in the deserted nest of a Magpie in a tree about
twenty-five feet from the ground in the vicinity of water. Mr.
Moffat has seen a Moor-hen sitting on seven eggs, one of which
lay in the centre, while six were disposed round it, and he noticed
on several occasions that when the l)ird left on his approach she
drew an oak-leaf over them so as to screen the central e^g com-
pletely and the others ]iartially. I have never seen this done, but
have always found the eggs uncovered, so that all Moor-hens do
not jiractise it.
The eggs, seven to ten in number, are often laid at the
beginning of A}»ril, and young may be seen by the middle of that
month ; l)ut as clutches of eggs are found in June, a second
brood is douljtless produced in the season.
THE COOT. FnUca afra (Linuceus).
Resident, breeding in every county, sometimes in great numbers, but
more local than the last species.
The Coot frequents quii't waters where there are large beds of
flags or horse-tails, and may be found in such situations in every
i^art of Ireland. A great many may be seen about the reed- beds
near Eoss Castle, Killarney, but not upon the open lake, and the
RALLID.E. 245
same local tendency may be observed on Lougli Dei'g, Lough Ree.
and elsewhere. On some preserved waters, like Lough Iron, in
Westmeath, there are vast numbers of Coots, and the}' are also
numerous on the Shannon between Banagher and Athloue, on the
inclosed portions of Wexford Harbour, and Lough Swilly in
Donegal, on all of which they breed. Mr. Gage first observed the
Coot on Eathlin Island in 1859, and by 1861 he stated that it had
become quite common. It does not a})pear to leave its breeding-
quarters in the south, except when the lakes are frozen, but in
the north, and even in Wicklow, this is otherwise.
The thousands of this species which resort to the inland water
of Lough Swilly in winter, and even congregate upon the open
portion, are far in excess of the birds that breed in the district.
The Coot is also a winter-visitor to Achill, and has l)een shot on
the Aran Islands. Mr. Barriugton has five specimens from light-
stations of the four provinces, taken in September, October and
'November, showing that a certain number of Coots take long
flights round the coast in the late autumn.
This bird, when alarmed, will sometimes submerge itself, show-
ing only the back and frontal plate above water, and can remain
thus for several minutes ; it will also endeavour to escape from
the Marsh-Harrier by diving, but the latter waits on imtil the
Coot is exhausted by repeated dives.
A pair will frighten away a Hooded Crow from their eggs by
angry cries and gestures. The eggs are laid in co. Waterford at
the beginning of April, but on the Shannon lakes in May or June.
On Lough Ree a rise in the water-level had flooded the Coots' nests
when I visited the place on 6th June 1892, and I found eggs —
in one case the body of a young Coot — imbedded in fresh nesting-
material used to raise the nests ; on this eggs were again laid.
I have found as many as eleven eggs in a nest, but only once.
A Coot with almost half the plumage white was obtained near
Enniskillen (Williams, in Irish Nat., 1896, p. 56), and a pied
specimen in the Dublin Museum is from co. Clare.
For Grocn-Backcd Galliuule, sec Appendix.
24G BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Order GRALLJE.
Sub-order GRUES.
Family GRUID.^.
THE CEANE. Gnis coinmHni.-^, Beclisteiu.
Fare and irregular visitor, having been obtained in nine or ten
instances within the century.
It lias been believed that tlie Craue was comiiion in Ireland in
the twelfth ceutuiy, from the statement by Giraldus de Barri
(Cambrensis) that a hundred of these birds (gnies) might then
be seen in a flock, and his chapter on the Crane in the British
Museum MS. is illustrated with an unmistakable coloured figui'e ;
Higden also, in the fourteenth ceutuiy, stated that Ireland
abounded in Eagles, Cranes, Peacocks (Capercaillies ?), Quails,
Hawkes, and Falcons. We cannot, however, be sure that these
ancient writers did not confound the Heron with the Crane, as is
done at the present day ; " Crane" being the name by which the
Heron is generally known in Ireland.
Smith, who describes the pecnliar breast-bone, mentions in his
History of Waterford (1746) as well as in that of Cork (1750),
that a few Cranes had been seen in these counties " during the
great frost of 1739, but not since or before in any person's
memory." One of those alluded to was taken in Cork Harbour
(Harvey. Notes). Dr. Patrick Brown, in his Catalogue of the
Birds of Ireland, enumerated '' Ardea ijrus, the Crane" and
'' Ardea cinerea, the Heron." His death occurred in 1790.
If the instances given to Thompson were correctly reported, this
species has been known to occur during the nineteenth century in
six different years, and ten specimens have been obtained, which
were scattered over the provinces of Muuster, Connaught, and
Ulster, and occurred at different seasons. On one occasion, in
Novemljer 1851, a small flock or flocks visited the coast districts
of Kerry and Cork, in both of which counties individuals were
shot. In 1896 a Crane was shot in Donegal in June, and another
in Tipperary in Septemljei*. The stomachs of some of the above
contained roots of grasses, pieces of ac^uatic plants, and shells
of water-snails.
Kerry. — Thompson was informed History Society (18th December 1S51)
by Chute, in 184G, that a Crane had a detailed account is given of Cranes
been shot on Tralee Bay about 182G which were met with in Kerry and
(Thompson, II., p. 132). In the Pro- Cork in October and November 1851 ;
ceedings of the Dublin Natural two adult specimens of these are in
GRriD.E.
247
the Dviblin ^Museum ; two liad been
seen about the end of October near
Derrynane Bay, Kerry, and on the
5th November one of them, the first
of the above, was shot. About a fort-
night afterwards five were seen on
Ballinslcelligs Bay, in tlie same
district, and a male was obtained,
which is probably the second of the
adult pair now in the Dublin Museum;
its length was 5ft. Gin., its wings
measured 7 ft. from tip to tip, and
its weight was 12 lbs.
Cork. — In the same month,
November 1851, three or four Cranes
were seen near Kinsale, and three
were obtained ; one of them, which
is now in Queen's College IMuseum,
Cork, was shot on Annah Bog by Com-
mander Douglas on 17th November
(Harvey, Notes). Subsequently five
were met with by ]Mr. Knolles of Oat-
lands, east of Kinsale, where they
were feeding on upland stubbles, and
one of them was killed ; it weighed
10 lbs. 8 ozs.
Tipperary. — An adult male, the
raost recent specimen recorded, was
shot at Sheskin, near Thurles, about
3rd September 1896, and became the
property of Mr. Carrigan, of Thurles
{Irish Nat., 1896, p. 51).
Galway. — In 1834 the Museum of
the Royal Dublin Society contained a
Crane, which was stated by Glennou
to have been shot in co. Galway about
1809 (Thompson, II., p. 132).
Mayo. — Two were observed on 1st
January 1884, in a stubble field near
Lough Mask, by ]Mr. John C. Hearne,
who shot one, an immature bird,
now in the Dublin Musemn. The
other was afterwards shot, but was
not preserved.
Down. — I\Ir. R. Lloyd Patterson
announced that a male with fine
plumes was shot on 10th May 1882
near Killyleagh (Field, 27th May
1882) ; it now belongs to Mr. Robert
Patterson.
Donegal. — A male bird, whose
plumes were very slightly developed,
was shot at Inch Slobs by Mr. J.
I\IcConnell on 23rd June 1896
(Campbell, in Irish Nat., 1896, p.
214).
Sub-order OTIDES.
Family OTIDIBJE.
THE LITTLE BUSTARD. Ofls ietmx; Liuuseus.
Has six times been obtained.
lu rare aud scattered instances the Little Bustard has occurred,
singly or in pairs, in different parts of Ireland, five times during
the colder months of the year, and once in August. One specimen
was obtained in Kerry, two on the eastern shores of Cork (at an
intei'val of twenty -three years), one in Wieklow, one in Longford,
and one in the extreme north-west of Mavo.
Kerry. — One (an adult female ?)
was shot on 30th December 1892 near
Ballyduff, Ballybunion, and was ex-
amined by A. Ct. ]More.
Cork.— A full-grown bird, probably
a male of the year, was killed on the
shore of Ballycottiu Bay on 24th
December 1800 during frost, and pre-
sented by Lord Clermont to the
Belfast ]\Iuseum, but is not now in
the collection there (ZooL, p. 7385
[1861]) ; another Little Bustard was
shot near Ballymacoda, on the south
of Youghal Bay, on 14th November
1883, and was deposited in the Dublin
:Museum bv IMr. H. F. Allin.
248 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Wicklow. — Two were seen and one Lawson Powell, who lias preserved it
shot on the Irog of Killough, about {Field, 9th March 1883).
five miles from the sea, on 23rd Mayo. — Two were seen and one
August 1833, when in company with shot in a bog near Belmullet in
Golden Plover. The survivor re- December 1887, and the specimen then
mained for some time about the obtained is in the Dublin [Museum,
locality (Thompson, II., p. 77). An adult male in Trinity College
Longford. — A female was sent to ]Museum bears the " Yarrell " label,
the Dublin market in a package of but it cannot be connected with any
game from co. Longford and recog- of the above records.
nizod on 13th February 1SS3 by ^Nlr.
N.B. — There has been no aiitheuticated occuiTenee of the Great
Bustard iu Ireland, althouLih Smith enumerates it among the
Birds of Cork; but as he has included the Hobby and the Black
Grouse among these without particulars, the statements may be
disregarded (" Antient and Present State of Cork," II., p. 329,
1750).
Order LIMICOLiE.
Family (EDICNEMID.^.
THE STONE-CURLEW. (Udlcnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmelin).
Rare casual visitor, chiefly in winter, but never in summer.
The Stone-Curlew has been obtained in Ireland iu ten cases.
Eight of these occurred along the eastern sea-board from Waterford
to Antrim, and but (me has been recorded from the west (co. Clare),
if we exclude the birds reported to have been seen in Kerry
(Thompson, II., p. 82) ; the locality of the tenth example was not
given further than that it was from Ireland.
The distribution of nine birds was as follows: — Clare (1),
Waterford (1), Wexford (1), Dublin (5), Antrim (1); these
facts plainly show that the species is a mere straggler on migra-
tion. The season of the year too when it has chiefly occurred in
Ireland indicates the abnormal character of these visits (as in the
case of those Stone-Curlews which have wintered in Cornwall). One
bird was said by Watters to have been shot in " autumn " ; there
were two instances in December, two in January, and two in
March. Dr. Kinahan, iu his very instructive paper, enumerated
the Stone-Curlew among the European summer migrants which
have visited Ireland in winter (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 31st
January 1860, and Zool., p. 6957 [I860]). If the birds reported
(EDICNEMID.E,
249
by Parker to have been seen by liim iu the west of Kerry in
August 1842 (Thompson, II., p. 82) -were Stone-Curlews, it woukl
merely show that they had wandered thus far along the south
coast after the breeding-season was over.
Waterford. — A specimen was ob-
taiuedat Brownstown, east of Trainore
Bay, about 1st March 1840 (Thomp-
son, II., p. 82).
Clare. — A Stone-Curlew which
passed into Watters' collection was
said to have been shot in co. Clare in
the autumn of 1844 (Watters, p. 172).
It may be remarked, however, that
Gleirnon, the taxidermist employed
by Watters, assigned the occurrence
of several rare birds to co. Clare, but
that since his time that county has
proved especially poor in such records.
Wexford. — Another was shot in
CO. Wexford about the beginning of
December 1844 (Poole, in ZooL,
p. 876 [1845] ) ; on the same page is
a notice of another in Cornwall in
December 1844.
Dublin. — The first recorded was
shot near Clontarf, Dublin Bay, on
27th January 1829 (Thompson, II.,
p. 82) ; another was shot on Clontarf
Island in 1849 (Kinahan, in Proc.
Dublin Univ. Zool. Assocn., 25th
November 1854) ; a third Dublin in-
stance is cited by Kinahan for 1853
(Proc. DublinN.H. Soc, 31st January
18G0) ; one was shot near Portmar-
nock on 4th January 1868 (Blake
Knox, in Zool., s. s., p. 1134 [1868]);
another, now in the Dublin ]\Iuseum,
was obtained on the North Bull,
Dublin Bay, on 3rd December 1884
(ilore's "List of Irish Birds").
Antrim. — The only occurrence in
Ulster took place on the Northern
Counties Railway near Belfast, when
a Stone-Curlew that had flown against
a telegraph wire was captured. It is
now iu the Belfast Museum.
Besides the above instances there
is a record of "Thick-Kneed Plover,"
presented by Edward Elliott, among
the Donations to the Dublin Natural
History Society (1839-40), and the
list dated April 1845 of Irish Animals
iu the INIuseum of the above Society
contains " CEdicncmus cyijiitcDis,"
doubtless the same specimen, of
which no data appear.
Family GLAREOLID^.
THE PRATINCOLE. GJareoJa jrmfhicoJa (Liunfeus).
Is believed to have been once obtained in co. Cork previous to 1814.
Thompson and Harvey included the Pratincole among Irish
birds on the authority of a description given to tlie latter by tlie
Rev. Joseph Stopford. He inform'_'d Harvey that he shot a bird
at Castlefreke a few years before 1844 (the year in which the
" Fauna and Flora of Cork" was written), and the mmute descrip-
tion that he gave left no doubt as to its having been a Pratincole,
though unfortunately it was not preserved.
The CO. Cork is a }iart of Ireland where several rare stragglers
from southern countries have been ol)tained, r.(/., Ilie Rufous
250
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Warbler, Squacco Herou and Little Bustard. With regard to
this species, Mr. Howard Saunders remarks that as it appears to
have reached British shores by traversing the western half of
France, its identification in the above instance was probably
correct ("Manual of Brit. Birds," 1899, p. 531).
Family CHAEADRIID^.
THE DOTTEREL. Endromias morineUus (Lmnseus).
Very rare visitor, chiefly on the autumn migration.
There are twelve records of the Dotterel in Ireland, eleven of
which relate to the following counties of Munster and Ulster only,
the locality of the twelfth instance lieing unknown : — Cork (1
instance), Waterford (4), Tipperary (1), Down (2), Antrim (1),
Londonderry (1), Donegal (1). The Waterford occurrences all
took place within a few miles of Clonmel, the only hills or moun-
tains near that town being in co. Waterford. Nine of the
instances took place before 1854.
There is but one notice of the bird in spring (April), when a
flock of about twenty were met with, one in June, three in August,
three in September, and one each in October, November and
January.
Tipperary. — Another, in company
with Golden Plover, was shot on the
summit of Slievenaman about 24th
June 1835, and obtained by Davis
(Thompson II., p. 94).
Down. —The earliest occurrence of
the Dotterel known in Ireland was
when three were seeii and one was
shot on a high hill near Finnebrogue
a few years before 1834 and, as it was
believed, in November (Ibid., p. 93).
A flock of about twenty, which ap-
peared tame, were met with in a
ploughed field near Ballywalter in the
Ards early in April 184S ; three were
killed at one shot, and two of them
preserved and examined by Thomp-
son. He remarked that this, the only
known occurrence in spring, took
place at the most eastern part of the
Irish coast.
Antrim. — Four were said to have
been seen and one procured in a field
Cork. — A female was obtained in a
fallow field a few miles to the west of
Cork city about the end of Septeniber
1844 (Harvey's " Fauna and Flora of
Cork," p. iv. Preface).
Waterford.— A male, at least a
year old, but in moult, was shot on
the mountains near Clonmel on 24th
August 1840 (Thompson, II., p. 94).
An adult and an immature bird were
seen by Davis in a shop in Clonmel
on 18th August 1841 ; they were
probably shot on the same mountains
(Ibid.). Davis again received a Dot-
terel on 30th September 1853, shot
on the hills near Clonmel (Dublin
Univ. Zool. Assn., 4th IMarch 1854).
An adult female, showing the bare
hatching spots, and an immature bird
of the year were shot on the Water-
ford hills in September 1886 by IMr.
A. St. George, of Clonmel, and are now
in the Dublin ^Museum.
CHARADRIID.E. 251
bordering Belfast Lough about the with some Golden Plover, was ex-
middle of August 18-il (Thompson, II., hibited by T. W. Warren before the
p. 94). Dublin University Zoological Asso-
Londonderry. — Mr. Sheals informs elation previous to 4th March 1854,
me he received for preservation a when Ball alluded to the occurrence.
Dotterel shot near Coleraine, in Besides the above, Mr. E. Williams
October 1878, the property of IMr. saw a Dotterel in a Dublin poulterer's
J. H. Houston. shop in January 1889, which had been
Donegal.— A specimen, shot on the sent, with other game, from some part
top of one of the highest niountains of Ireland.
in Donegal, while it was in company
THE RINGED PLOVEE. yE,ji,difis hiatlcoJa (Lmua3iis).
Resident and common on all low-lying coasts, where it becomes more
numerous in winter by immigration. Summer visitor to the
inland lakes, where it breeds as well as on the coasts.
The Ringed Plover is a familiar Inrd ou our sea-shores at all
seasons and breeds there in every maritime county as well as on
many of the islands, e.g., on the Copelands, Inishtrahull, Rathlin
O'Birne and Eagle Island East. It conies to the inland lakes,
often by the beginning of February, as observed by Mr. Parker, on
Lough Derg ; and he has found the full set of four eggs on the
7th of April, though I have met with ancompleted clutches
there ou 30th May. This species breeds ou the larger lakes from
Lough Derg through Leiuster, Connaught and Ulster, and on
banks in marshes in Queen's Co., as at Granston, where its nest,
lined with little pebbles, has been observed. Regarding the acces-
sion of winter immigrants Thompson says : — "All the Ringed Plover
produced in Ireland form, I conceive, but a small proportion of
those which frequent our shores for three-fourths of the year, and
as numerously in winter as at any other season." He found some
of the flocks of winter birds remained in Belfast Bay until late
in May or even the beginning of June, long after the resident
birds had commenced to breed. At other times it is difficult to
distinguish the strangers, but we find Ringed Plover numerous ou
our shores in autumn, winter and spring, both in flocks by them-
selves and also intermixed with Dunlins, Turnstones, Redshanks
and Sanderlings ; in hard frosts they frequent the mouths of
rivers and sometimes feed among the seaweed on rocks. Ou the
coast the first eggs are laid in April and a second clutch in June,
while early in the latter month, liefore the second eggs are laid, the
special haunts of this species are often alive Avith the first broods.
252
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Fresh eggs may, however, be found in May, and the birds which
breed on inland waters seem as a rule to be later breeders than
those on sea-shores.
The nesting-hollow is scratched in various situations, most
frequently in bai-e sandy or gravelly soil, sometimes in gravelly
shingle on the top of cliffs, sometimes in bare earth at a consider-
able distance from the shore; at other times, though exceptionally,
in the dry wrack or Zostent cast up by the sea above high-water
mark. I have found the eggs laid on the top of a rock on Deer
Island off Eoundstone, and under a willow-bush on an island in
Lcmgh Sheelin. Mr. Campljell says that at Inch, Lough Swilly,
many birds lay their eggs upon the grass, and a nest was found in
the centre of low brambles which formed a canopy over the eggs.
A Ringed Plover has been known to lay right in the course on
golf-links, where every liall whizzed over her head ; Init so general
was the interest felt in her eggs that they were not disturbed,
and she hatched them out (Pentland, in Zool, 18«9, p. 182).
This l)ird loves to line the hollow in which it lays with bits of
white shells or with white pebl)les, and in other cases it uses for
this purpose pellets of dried rabljits' dung, as the Oyster-catcher
often does.
In the remarks of Garrett, quoted Iw Thompson, it is said that
before the young are hatched the female alone is to be seen near
the eggs, and that she never utters a cry at that time, but, like
other Liwicohe, runs cj^uietly away from the eggs before she takes
wing ; when, however, the young are out, both the old birds are
in constant attendance, crying incessantly if alarmed for the
safety of their offspring. These I have found to run, before I
came near, when they scj[uatted among the pebbles, to which they
bear an extraordinary resemblance while in down.
Thompson describes a Ringed Plover which was white except in
those portions of its plumage which are normally black, and
these were of a pale yellowish white.
THE KENTISH PLOVER, ^^gialifts cantlana (Latham).
Extremely rare visitor to the east coast on the autumn migration.
The Kentish Plover has been obtained in Ireland in four or
more instances, of which the particulars now available are
imperfect ; aud we have no record more recent than 1852. In
considering this fact, however, it must be borne in mind that the
CHAPtADRIID.E,
253
smaller Limicolx receive exceeclino-ly little attention in Ireland,
and that tliey are very rarely sent to a taxidermist for preserva-
tion. The localities where the above instances occurred were all,
as far as is known, on the Dublin coast, and the season in three
cases varied from August to winter. The only specimen known
to exist is a male from the Montgomery collection, and is now in
the Science and Art Museum, Dulilin ,- it was obtained cm the
North Bull, Dublin Bav.
Eight are said to have been seen
and two shot in Dubhn Bay in the
autumn of ISiG, and Montgomery,
who saw these in the hands of the
shooter, oljtained one of them
(Thompson, II., p. 105). He subse-
quently exhibited this or another
before the Dubhn Natural History
Society in IMay 1S52, and he then re-
marked that he had procured the bird
after a violent gale from the east. An
adult male was killed with a stone
on the shore near the Clontarf Rail-
way Station in August 1851, by a
person who noticed its tameness ; it
passed into the collection of Watters,
which has perished by fire (Watters,
p. 179).
Several pairs are said to have been
seen on a small island near Clontarf,
during the winter of 1852, by "Slv.
J. H. Lamprey, and some of these
were obtained and preserved (Ibid.).
In ^lay 1S52 ^Montgomery, when
exhibiting his own specimen, men-
tioned another recently procured
for the Trinity College ^Museum by
Ball, and which was killed at Bal-
doyle, north of Dublin Bay (Proc.
Dublin N.H. Soc, May 1852, p. 89).
Other supposed examples men-
tioned by Thompson were not seen
by him and may be excluded, though
he seemed satisfied from the descrip-
tion of the persons who shot them
that they were Kentish Plovers.
These occurred on Belfast Lough
in August 1S4S.
THE GOLDEN PLOVER. Gharadrins pJuriaJis (Linnieus.)
Resident, breeding on mountains in many districts and on bogs in
Connaught. Large numbers arrive in autumn and winter, when
the species becomes widespread and roams greatly.
The lireeiliug-haunts of the Gfolden Plover are on louelv
mountain-tops in the four provinces, and are to l»e found in
Kerry. Cork, Waterford (?), Tipperary, Wicklow, Duljlin, Queen's
Co., King's Co. (y), Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Fer-
managh, Donegal, Down, and Antrim. In Connemara and Mayo
the lower slopes of the mountains and the great bogs around their
base and near the coasts are frequented in the breeding-season,
but in the more cultivated and populous counties, like Dublin and
Wicklow, one must at that time seek for the Golden Plover on
the desolate moors that cap the highest mountains. It does not
appear to breed on the flat bogs of the midland counties.
In Auuust the })areuts and the young reared in the country
254 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
"begin to flock, and Thompson lias seen forty together on the 12th
usly, and is an uncommon
l)ird iu the south of Ireland. To Dublin Bay and Belfast
Lough it is an annual visitor, arriving in the latter half of
Septemlier and leaving before spring. On the inlets of London-
derrv and Donegal it is considered uncommon, but is more
frequent on the estuary of the Moy and Killala Bay, where, as
Mr. Warren says, " it is met with iu limited numbers, one or
two lieiug generally seen at a time ; Imt towards the beginning of
April these birds commence to collect together preparatory to
leaving for their summer haunts.'' He adds : " On the 29th of
March 1877 I saw a flock of nearly thirty on the sands near
Bartragh, and shortly after saw eighteen flying past. They
frequently remain as late as June liefore leaving for their breeding
cpiarters. On the 29th June 1860 I saw thirteen Grey Plovers,
and only two showed the black breasts of summer. On their
return in autumn a good many are seen retaining the black
breasts, but very soon lose that colour.
'• 1 never saw Grey Plovers so abundant as during the migratory
season of 1887 ; late in September and early in October they
were to be seen everywhere about the shores of the estuary, iu all
the little bays and in places were I never saw one before ; from
their great tameness they were evidently young birds, for they
took no notice of my punt, often allowing me to get within fifteen
and twenty yards. This great invasion continued up to November,
when their numbers lessened, and by the end of the month only
the usual stock of Grey Plovers were to be seen about the shores
and sands."
To Achill and Blacksod Bay, also, this bird is a winter-visitor,
but to the bays of Galway, Kerry, Cork and Waterford it comes
less regularly, though at Wexford it has been at times plentiful.
Several informants have reported it from Leitrim, down the
Shannon Valley as far as the counties of Ti[iperary and Galway, and
owing to the Golden Plover being given the name of the " Grey "
in Ireland some confusion may have arisen, but I have been sent a
specimen of the Grey Plover by the Hon. R. E. Dillon, which was
shot near Clonbrock early in 1893 from among a flock that visited
CHARADRIID.E.
On 7
tliat neiglibourhoocT. This is the odIv iustaiire iu which I know tlic
species to have been obtained inhxud, l)ut as many sea-birds have
been known to traverse the valley of the Shannon on migration the
oceurrence of the G-rey Plover in its vicinity is the less surprising.
This bird is met with more frecpieutly from the time of its
arrival until the end of the year than it is afterwards, though
often recorded in January and February. Afterwards it becomes
rare on the eastern coasts, and does not seem to visit them on the
spi'ing migration ; no gatherings having been noticed in April on
Dublin or Belfast Bays, like those mentioned in the north-west by
Mr. Warren. As stated above by him, Grey Plovers, chiefly
immature birds, frequently linger on Killala Bay until June ;
individuals have also been obtained at Tralee in May, and on
Dublin and Belfast Bays in nuptial dress in June and July
(Thompson, Watters), while Mr. E. Williams has noticed birds in
that state of j^l^^^'^T^^g^ on 28th August and 2nd September.
Summer occurrences must, however, be rare, except in Mr.
Warren's district, as no other ol>server appears to have noticed
them repeatedly.
Thompson states that he used to find Grey Plovers feeding in
small numbers about the plashy spots in the banks of Zostera at
low water, but he observed that the advancing tide did not drive
them inland like the Golden Plovers and Lapwings, for they would
remain on some dry spot close to the water, or on floating sea-
weed, until the tide ebbed. He also believed that Grey Plovers
fed at night, from the fact that their protuberant eyes enabled
them at that time to detect the approach of the shooter before
he could distinguish them.
THE SOCIABLE PLOVEE. Vanellus gregarius (Pallas).
Has once been obtained, in August.
On the 4th August 1899 Mr. E. Williams received for preser-
vation a bird which he identified as the Sociable Plover (Irish
Nat., 1899, p. 233). It had been shot on 1st Aiignst, nearNavan,
CO. Meath, by Mr. Chandler, of Robertstown, whose ploughman
had perceived it as he was grubbing turnip-drills. It was
examined in the flesh by Dr. Scharff, and was exhibited by
Mr. Howard Saunders liefore the British Ornithologists' Club on
22nd November 1899. It is an immature bird, and a photograph
of it appears in the Irish Nafiiralisf (1899, p. 233), accompanying
a paper ui»on it by Mr. E. Williams, in which he says: "As far
S
258
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
as I cau make out by comparison the bird is a female, and I think in
the second year's phimage." The following is his full description :
" Top of head very dark brown, dappled with light buff; a broad
light-coloured band extends right over the eye from the bill to
the back of the head. Back ash-grey with a number of new
feathers of a dark brown tint, with a rufous edge coming out all
over, which I take to be the winter plumage. Lower part of breast
blackish, with a band of chestnut not very clearly defined, extend-
ing right across behind the legs. Vent and lower tail-coverts
white. Tail consisting of twelve feathers, two outer ones white,
the rest white with a band of black near the end, widest in the
middle ones and narrowing as it approaches the sides of the tail.
Primaries black, secondaries pure white, tertials and wing-coverts
ash-grey, with dark feathers coming out same as back. Tibio-
tarsus 6-5 cm., tarso-metatarsus 6-9 cm., hallux 6 mm., bill, 2-9 cm."
These measurements were carefully made by Dr. C. J. Patten.
THE LAPWING. Vanellus vulgaris, Bechstein.
Resident and locally numerous, breeding in every county. A large
immigration takes place in winter.
Throughout Ireland the Lapwing breeds on the flat moors
and marshy lands or islands of inland lakes, and by the coast
on sandy tracts, as well as on marine islands, such as the Saltees,
Lambay, the Cojielands and Rathlin. It appears to be more
numerous in the nesting-season in northern Leinster, Connaught
and Ulster than in the rest of Ireland, but wherever it finds a
safe and suitable liaunt, as on Lord Castletown's marshes in
Queen's Co., it breeds in numbers. It is rare on the mountain
bogs, as it is said to be in western Mayo, near Belmullet.
In the north, flocks of the home-bred birds may occasionally be
seen as early as the end of July or the beginning of August,
visiting Belfast Bay or the shores of Lough ISTeagh. Lapwings
do not, however, l)ecome common in flocks before September,
while it is in October and later that the cross-channel migration
is observed ; this is renewed at any period of the winter when
severe cold sets in. As far west as Kinsale the arrival of flocks
coming from the south-east has been observed to continue all day,
and at different points along that south coast and the coasts of
Leinster bodies of Lapwings have been seen making for the Irish
land on the approach of the culd weather ; this is most frequently
observed at the co. Wexford liy;ht- stations. In snowstorms and
CHARADRIID.E. 259
hard frosts Lapwings may l)e noticed moving- down the east and
south-east coasts towards the extreme south-west of Cork aud
Kerry and crossing Tralee Bay in the like direction. Avhile a few
birds have reached the Skelligs and Bkiskets. On the coasts of
Down and Antrim, however, the movement on such occasions
seems to be north-westward towards Donegal, where the western
climate is most speedily reached. lu March and April, and even
in May, Lapwings have been seen going north along the Leinster
coast and crossing from Ulster towards Scotland (Migration
Keports).
Mr. Warren attributes to immigration the great increase in the
flocks of Lapwings which he observes on the sands of the Moy
Estuary fi'om September onwards, and which on certain occasions,
when roused by a Peregrine, have apj^eared like swarms of
insects. If the mild season lasts these continue on up to
Christmas, but after that only a few small flocks frequent the
sands until the first severe frost drives them off ; then about the
middle of February or in March the home-breeding birds, as he
considers them to be, return to the estuary. Mr. Warren also
remarks that few, if any, come down to the tidal flats by day
while the nights are da,rk, keeping altogether to their inland
feeding-grounds, as though their only chances of obtaining food
at that time were during the daylight. Mr. J. E. Palmer has
seen immense flocks of this species during autumn, winter and
early spring in Roscommon and Mayo, "probably hundreds of
thousands of birds in the course of a day."
Lapwings are exceedingly sensitive to any bad wintrv weather,
of which their mewing cry is an announcement as they visit the
lowlands. In severe frost and snow they may be seen feeding with
members of the Thrush family, and then become so tame from
starvation as to be found about farm lands and occasionally close to
houses, while the remorseless Rooks will kill and devour them as
well as other birds. Dr. E. Blake Knox has remarked that these
birds occasionally lose their toes from frost-bite. The evolutions of
Lapwings, sometimes performed at a great height, are described
in the "Fowler in Ireland" (p. 176), aud by Thompson (II.,
p. 114), who notices their power of "drumming" in the breeding-
season as well as the graceful figures performed by a large winter
flock. They will rise and sink as if al:)0ut to alight Imt wanting
the resolution to do so. He also remarks their habit of retiring
inland at high-water and returning with the el>bing of the tide
like some sea-birds. Another trait of the Lapwing and Golden
Plover is that if a shot be fired Avhen they are flying overhead
s 2
260 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
they will swoop down almost to tlio ground as if tliey were shot,
though quite uninjured.
I have seen these birds resort in great numbers to flooded fields
where the earth-worms had been drowned out.
Plover-netting is carried on largely in parts of Ireland, and Sir
E. Payne-Gallwey has known one man to take twenty pounds'
worth in a week. This practice has much reduced the numbers
of Grolden Plover and of Lapwings in some localities, but the
taking of Plovers' eggs for the mai'ket is not common, small
delicacies being little sought for in this country.
The Eev. A. Ellison has seen the eggs in Wicklow and Down
by the end of March, Init April is the month when they are
usually laid in the south. The first plumage is brownish on the
back, and vrhen a fledgeling squats flat on a pasture-field it looks
exceedingly like a cow-dung, and thus often escapes observation.
The parents are very daring in driving away predaceous birds,
and I have seen both the Heron and the Hooded Crow chased by
Lapwings in defence of their young.
A dcU'k mouse-coloured specimen is described by Thompson.
THE TURNSTONE. Sfre_ps!la^ inierprcs (Liumeus).
Common visitor to all parts of the Irish coast in autumn, winter, and
spring. Small flocks have often been seen in June.
Of all our winter-visitants the Turnstone remains the longest,
July being the only month in which it is seldom seen, though
Thompson knew of a cou[»le killed on the 2oth, and Mr. Warren
saw eight un Ardboline Island, co. Sligo, on the 8th of that
month. In August it makes its a];)pearauce more or less
commonly all round Ireland, usually during the latter half, but
sometimes early in the month, the young birds being numerous
and tame ; and from that time until October it is most abundant.
Though Thom])son tells us that it winters on Strangford Lough
he found it scarcer after the autumn was past, and the diminution
in numbers on Dublin Bay is noticed in October by Mr. H. Blake
Knox and Dr. Patten. I have, however, observed a great increase
on Dungarvan Bay in the middle of November, and these birds
are said to be numerous in December on Danmanus Bay, co. Cork.
Turnstones may be found, especially in the south, all through
winter, an increase being observed in late spring on Dublin Bay ;
while on the Sligo and Douegal coast considerable flocks frequent
chaeadpjid.t:. • 261
the islands in May and the heginuing of June. These are chiefly
comjiosed of immature birds of the preceding year, but also
contain adults in full summer plumage, conspicuous in their black,
white, and brilliant chestnut colouring. Besides the counties
named, I have seen small flocks of Turnstones early in June on
the Connemara rocks, the Aran Islands, and the Keeraghs off
Wexford, the 15th of that month being the latest date when I
observed these birds, on which occasion six were met with on a
rock near Inishark. I have seen two separate pairs on a low
island off Donegal on 4th June, Init these did not evince the
anxiety of breeding birds. T. F. Neligan informed Thompson
that a bird had been shot by him in Kerry at the end of May or
beginning of June 1837, which contained an egg ready for exclu-
sion ; but it is not to be concluded that the Turnstone breeds in
Ireland.
From the numbers in immature plumage that are to be seen in
company in May and June it is evident that this species does not
breed when one year old, and from the mixture of a few adults
then found among the dnll-coloured younger birds it would seem
that the family groups continued together throughout the winter.
Turnstones are much more often met with in small numbers
than in large flocks ; they frequent the shingly beaches, but
specially delight in remote rocky islands, such as luishtralmll,
Avhicli is a favourite resort all through winter. They are very
common od the Irish coasts, especially in the west. A small party
of them will resort to a favourite roosting-place in the rocks,
which becomes whitened by their droppings, as we found on the
Skerds off Roimdstone in June ; on that part of the coast Mr.
Howard Saunders noticed surprising numbers in September 1878,
in comjmny with Oyster-catchers and Redshanks, so that the
bright colours of the legs of these three species quite enlivened
the grey hue of the rocks. A Turnstone has been captured ou
24th August seven hundred miles west of Ireland (G. D., in Field,
8th September 1877).
THE OYSTER-CATCHER. H^emcdojms osfralegi's, Linneeus.
Resident and common, breeding on the islands, especially on those of
the west and north coasts.
The Oyster-catcher is a common bird of the rocks and sands all
round Ireland. Its breeding-resorts ou the south-east and east
coasts are feAV, being confined to the islands of Wexford and
262 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Dubliu ; but in western Cort aud along the entire west and
north coast, round to the Copeland Islands in co. Down, it is
exceedingly numerous, being- found commonly nesting on innumer-
able rocky islands, even those so remote as the Skelligs, the
Blaskets, Slyne Head, Eagle Island, Rathlin O'Binie, and luish-
traliull. It is found in flocks and in small parties every month in
the year, but rarely in July, the flocks increasing in size in
autumn, and during winter aud early spring large assemblages are
met with on many parts of the coast, sometimes a hundred or
more together.
In reviewing the Migration Reports one is struck witli the
greater frequency of the Oyster-catcher on the western and north
coasts and its general absence from the records made at lightships,
for though no bird seems to be better known to light-keepers, who
call it " Sea Pie," it does not appear that it uses the Wexford
migration route. Though the Copeland Islands are much
frequented, so are the Aran Islands and others which lie outside
the area of cross-Channel movements. The winter flocks of
Oyster-catchers that frequent our eastern and southern bays
and shores may to some extent be accounted for by the
great numbers bred along the west and north of Ireland ; but
Professor Leebody thinks those seen in winter on Lough Swilly
vastly outnumber the birds bred on the coast, and there is
jjrobably an immigration during the cold season from the west
of Scotland.
A southward movement certainly takes place in autumn, for
large flocks may then be found on the bays of Waterford, a county
where none are known to breed. The Oyster-catcher does not,
however, leave the most northern part of the Irish area in winter,
for Inishtrahull and Rathlin O'Birue are frequented hj it all the
year round. It does, however, leave at that season the precipitous
western islands where it breeds, probably owing to the tremendous
seas that beat against them. On the North Aran Island, co. Gal-
way, and also on Aranmore, co. Donegal, flocks are observed in
January, February, aud March, and again from July to October,
while on the coast of Connemara Mr. Howard Saunders has met
with amazing numbers in Septemljer. The occurrence of Oyster-
catchers in flocks during the breeding-season, which is observed
on all sides of Ireland, indicates that large numbers, probably
birds of a year old, do not breed. In May and the beginning of
June considerable flocks have been observed passing Dungarvan
Lighthouse ; and Mr. Lloyd Patterson has repeatedly seen from
eighty to a hundred together in June or on 1st July at the upper
CHARADRIIDiE, 263
end of Belfast Lough; while on the Moy Estuary Oyster-cat ehers
are common in flocks in June.
The shrill crv of this bird is sul)ject to cousideral^le variations.
I have heard those which were breeding on the Saltees set up a
chorus of twittering or rippling sounds at night.
Oyster-catchers will mix freely with Curlews on the shore,
and when feeding on the sands at low water will keep poking
and prodding with their beaks as they slowly move along, and
when one has secured its prey another will run after it and
snatch the jmze, just as a chicken will do. They are busy
birds, continually searching for food on the rocks at the edge of
the tide except at high water, when they assemble in a compact
mass on some spit of shingle or low jutting rock with their heads
drawn in, perfectly still. Mr. J. E. Palmer has noticed several
hopping after the receding tide, and remarked that he had never
known any other wader to hop.
These birds lay early in May on the Saltees, and I have seen
young in down on the 28th of that month, but in the west of
Ireland eggs may commonly be found in June.
A gentleman accjuaintecl with the Oyster-catcher's habit of
breeding on shingle in England seemed surprised to find it nesting
on rocks or turf in the west of Ireland, but it rarely lays on
shingly beaches in this country ; when it does so, these are
usually on islands, to which it resorts for breeding purposes in
preference to the mainland. Its favourite breeding places on the
west coast are the rocky parts of the islands, where it lays in
some little depression in the rock with only a few bits of lichen
round its eggs. A pair thus bred on the rocks of the Great
Skellig, an island mountain-peak, surrounded on all sides by
awful precipices ; and Oyster-catchers' eggs have been found on
the Bills of Achill, as well as on the Skerds off Connemara. When
on rocks, the nesting-site is not at a great elevation, but well above
the reach of breakers ; it is sometimes in the centre of a clump
of thrift. Another favourite nesting-site is the grassy top of a
stack or of a hill or elevated jiortion of an island ; in such a
position the Oyster-catchers breed on the South Saltee, where I
have repeatedly found their nests, on a hill that rises to 200 feet,
among projecting knobs of the rocky surface, or in hollows of the
turf among l)racken. A few bits of bracken stems or dry pellfts
of rabbit-dung are used for lining. Such a nest is figured by
Mr. Kearton (" With Nature and a Camera," p. ll'o). It
contained the imusual number of four eggs, and where this occurs
I believe the fourth is laid by a second bird, as the type of its
204 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
markings disting-ulslies it, aud I find that this has been the
experience of Mr. Howard Saunders ; three is the usual number,
but two are sometimes sat upon.
On the north coast of Mayo Mr. Warren has found Oyster-
catchers nesting in the fields close to the cliffs as well as on the
rocks and islands. Mr. Barrett Hamilton met with the eggs among
sand-hills on the Wexford coast where rocks are scarce, and I have
seen a nest among the beans in a field on the Saltees ; the hollow
contained small pebbles, wliicli are not uncommonly thus used.
Oyster-catchers breed on some of the islands in Lough Strangford,
generally near their points, not on a straight stretch of shore.
Mr. Chichester Hart has taken eggs many years ago on an island
in Lough Erne, but this is the only inland breeding place I have
heard of, and the Oyster-catclier does not commonly stray inland
in this country as it does in parts of Scotland, though specimens
liave been obtained in various central counties at different seasons.
Both the ground-colour and the markings of the eggs are some-
times deep and rich, sometimes pale and deficient ; in one set the
ground is of a bufiish-white sprinkled over with minute brown
specks. Where streaks occur, these are usually tortuous, uniting
groups of spots and sometimes t\)rming a zone, but in other cases
they are extended and indejiendent of the spots. Mr. Turle
describes a clutch that he found on the Blaskets which were of a
pale greenish-blue {Ibis, 1891, p. 7). This variation, due to the
deficiency of brown colouring mattei- w'hich leaves the ground
exposed, is occasionally found in eggs of the Mistle-Tlirush and
sometimes also in those of Terns and Gulls.
THE AVOCET. Bee urr! rostra avocefta, Linuceus.
Rare and accidental visitor in autumn and winter, chiefly to the
south and east coasts.
The AvoCL't has been obtained in thirteen instances and observed
in four or five more, from August until Feljruary inclusive. All
of these occurred on the coast (_tr on tidal estuaries ; eigiit or
nine taking place in Cork ; one on the Blackwater, probably in
Waterford ; three in Wexford ; three in Dublin ; one in Galway ;
and one on the Moy, between Mayo and Sligo. In the last
instance Mr. Warren, in October 1875, met with a pair which were
very unsuspicious, remaining when the Grreeushanks, with which
For Slicatlibill, sec Appeudix.
CHARADrJID.'E.
265
tliey were feeding, took flight on Lis approaeli ; he -\vateheil their
peculiar mode of feeding by sweeping the bottom from side to
side with their bills, and he saw them, after alighting in shallow
water, swim boldly out against the wind, rising over the httle
waves with the buoyancy of Ducks. Some of these Avocets were
obtained in severe frost, and on four occasions pairs were met
with.
Cork.— Two were shot near Riuga-
skicldy previous to 1830 by the grand-
father of ilr. Warren ; one was
obtamed near Yougbal previous to
1840 by the late B. S. Ball (Thomp-
son, II., p. 220) ; one was killed near
Castletown, Berehaven, some years
before 1850 (Ibid., p. 221) ; a pair of
adult birds were shot in Cork Harbour
in January 1848 (Ibid.). (These are
possibly the specimens now in
Queen's College iluseum, Cork,
though Harvey, who presented them,
gave the date of their capture as
January 1869.) One was obtained
near Yougbal on 20th December ISGG
(Hackett, in Field, l-2th January
1867) ; another, shot by IMr. Row-
land, of Kilboy, Cloyne, was sent to
Hackett about the beginning of
December 1876 ; during hard weather
in November or December 1878
Hackett received another Avocet
(Field, 11th January 1879) ; one was
shot, while feeding in company with
a second, at Ringaskiddy on 15th
February 1895, and is in the
collection of ^Ir. Barrington (Ir/.s/i
Xat., 1895, p. IGG).
Waterford. — -An Avocet, which I
examined, was shot on tlie Black-
w-atcr before the end of 1880 and
preserved at Ardsallagh.
Wexford. — One was seen near
Bannow by Warriner previous to
1843 (Thompson). A pair ob-
served by ]\Iajor Walker on the
marsh of Castlebridge, wore very
wary, running on tlie mud, and
flitting away low under cover of the
banks like Kingfishers, and they
frequented the locality for some time
(Ibid.). A young bird of the year was
obtained, while feeding alone in
marshy ground near Wexford Har-
bour, by ]Mr. Gibbon on 24th August
1895 (Iiish Xat., 1895, p. 319).
Dublin. — One was shot in the Lots
near the North Wall in winter 17G7
(Rutty's " Nat. Hist, of Dublin,"
1772, p. 335) ; one was seen on the
coast of the county in January 1848
by IMontgomery (Thompson) ; another
was observed by ^Ir. E. Williams at
the North Buirin October 1897 (Dr.
Patten, in Irish Xat., 1898, p. 234).
Galway. — --Vn Avocet, in the
collection of Mr. J. W. Kincaid at
MuUaghmore, was stated by Glennon,
who preserved it, to have been killed
in the neighbourhood of the Shannon
in the co. Galway during a hard
winter, about 1880 or earlier.
Sligo. — A pair were oliserved by
IMr. Warren on the I\Ioy Estuary on
28th October 1875, and remained in
the locality until both were killed
with one shot from a pttnt-gun by
Captain Kinsey Dover two or three
days afterwards; one of these was
presented by him to the Dublin
I\Iu>-eum (ZooL, s. s., p. 47G4 ;i87GJ).
266
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE BLACK-WINCIED STILT.
Bonuaterre.
HtDia /itoj'ius ccmdidus,
Yery rare visitor. Has occurred six times, in Munster, Leinster, and
Connaught, but not recently.
Kerry. — A flock ^vas seen, and
one bird was shot, on Castlemaine
Bay previous to 1850 ; the observer
described their strange appearance
wlien standing, as if unsupported
by legs and swajing from side to
side (Thompson, III., p. 445).
Cork. — One was seen and followed
for some time by Ball near Youghal
in the winter of IS'23 or 1824 (Thomp-
son, II., p. 221).
Limerick. — Three were seen in
company with Lapwings by Fosberry
at Adare, some years before 1841
(Ibid, and Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc,
1841-42, p. 'J).
Dublin. — One was obtained at
Clontarf, Dublin Bay, and seen in a
fresh state by T. W. Warren previous
to 1837 (Ibid).
Westmeath. — A pair were seen and
one bird was shot, near Kilbeggan,
by the late Dr. Battersby, many years
before 1890 (More's List).
Mayo. — One was killed on the
River Robe, within six miles of
Lough Mask, in January 1836 (?)
and passed with the INIontgomery
collection to the Dublin Museum
(Thompson, IL, p. 222).
THE GREY PHALAROPE. Phalarn2m>^ fuJlcarius (Lmna?us).
Occasional visitor in autumn and early winter.
Though the Clrey Plialarope oecurs in esce]>tional numbers iu
particular seasons, it is a bird which visits Ireland with almost
sufficient frequency to be termed an annual visitant ; but it
appears here in the same uncertain manner as it does in Great
Britain, and in those years when it occurs in the one island
numerously it is often found in the other also.
It has been recorded from nearly all the maritime counties of
Ireland, most frequently from Dul)liu,. Drnvn and Antrim, where
it is more likely to be noticed than elsewhere and brought to
taxidermists in the principal towns. These three counties afford
fifty-one notices out of a hundred aud six from Ireland, but the
species has l)een often ol)served on the south and west coasts, and
iu Donegal ; it has occurred repeatedly at Slyne Head, a most
remote point, very little visited l\v stragglers, as well as at
outlying islands, like the SkeUigs and Rathliu O'Birne. The
Grey Phalaroj)e has also been taken at several lightships, and
has been seen swimming on the sea off the coasts, while six inland
CHARADRIIDX.
267
counties have l:)eeu visited : Tipperary ou four occasions.
occurrences have been distributed thus :
The
Kerry . . .
6
Kilkenny
1
Galway .
. G
Fermanagh . 1
Cork . . .
6
Carlow . .
2
Mayo . .
. 5
Monaghau . 2
Waterford .
5
Wexford . .
3
Down ... 20
Tipperary ,
. 4
Wicklow . .
Dublin . .
West Meath
1
20
1
Antrim . .11
Londonderry 1
Donegal . . 8
Munster . 21 Leinster . . 2S Connaught . 11 Ulster . . 4G
Ninety-one instances took place in the follo-^ing months :
January . . .3 April
February . — ^lay
March . . — June
. 1 July ... — October . . 51
. — August . . 3 ]S!'ovember . 13
. 1 September . 11 December . G
This bird's season for visiting- Ireland is therefore from August
'until January, though it appears very seldom in either of those
two months, but in October it has occurred more frequently than
in all the other months together. Thompson recorded the only
statement (made by Dr. Drummuud) of an April occurrence, and
Watters had a specimen in grey plumage said to have been shot on
20th June.
Of the years specially marked by the appearance of this bird in
Ireland, 1891 is the most memorable. In the October of that year
specimens were obtained in Wexford, Carlow, Dublin, Galway,
Mayo, Fermanagh, Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal,
small flocks being met with in the two latter counties. In that
October, as well as at the end of the previous September, Petrels
of different species, especially the Fork-tailed, were strewn over
Ireland in an emaciated state, an event attributed to the prevalence
of westerly gales. All portions of the country seem to have been
visited at that time by the Phalaropes or the Petrels, except the
CO. Cork and the adjacent parts of Munster.
Most of the Grey Phalaropes which visit this country in autumn
are immature, or in the transition state from the sununer to the
winter plumage.
Many observers in Ireland have noticed the rapid and buoyant
movements of this bird which swims and flies with great activity.
It sometimes sweeps round like a feather whirled by the wind,
quits with agility the pools of water where it has been swimming
to feed upon their banks, and rushes back to float with the
lightness of a c^rk u]>ou their surface. While feeding on the
water it continues to pick up objects to and fro with such rapidity
268
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
as to appear to be noddiug its head, aud it can also dive after its
food (Mr. H. Blake Kuox). The confidence of these beautiful
little birds in permitting the near approach of man results, no
doubt, from their being bred in the Arctic wilds.
THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. Fhalaropus hyperloreus
(Liumx'us).
Extremely rare and accidental visitor.
Though this species lireeds regularly (unless exterminated by
collectors) in some of the Scottish isles, the only Irish specimen
known was shot by Mr. Joseph A. Haire at Loughgilly, co. Armagh,
who noticed it spinning round on the water, aud shot it as it rose.
Messrs. Williams & Son received it for preservation on 13th
November 1891, the year in which so ma:iv Clrey Phalaropes and
Petrels occurred in Octolier in various parts of Ireland.
The specimen, a female, is now in the Science and Art Museum,
Dublin. I was informed in 1890 l)y Mr. William Sinclair, of
Drumbeg, co. Donegal, that his son, Major Sinclair, shot there
a Red-necked Phalarope out of tliree in August 1869, but I
have not l)een able to trace this bird, and merely mention the
statement in case Major Sinclair, who went to India, may here-
after have the specimen fully determined, if it still exists.
THE WOODCOCK. Scolopa.>^ rustknla, Linnaeus.
Breeds in the woodlands of every county, having greatly increased in
such localities in summer. The winter immigration, lasting from
October until March, is at its height in November and December,
and is both numerous and widespread.
The Woodcock has for centuries visited Ireland in large numbers,
for Giraldus wrote : " There are immense flights of Snipes, both
the larger species of the woods and the smaller of the marshes " ;
aud the abundance of the species in Ireland was thus alluded to
in Smith's "Kerry" (1756): "The woodlands near the River
Shannon abound with ]ir(xligious plenty of Woodcocks in their
season." Within living memory, however, these birds are thought
to have diminished in winter in the counties of Cork, Kilkenny,
and Donegal ; still their numbers tluctuato much from season to
season as well as from month to month.
CHARADrjID.T:. 2G9
The latter half of Octol^er is tlie orclinarv time wlien tlie first
migratory flocks arrive ou all sides of Ireland, and they may then
be met with resting- for a day or two among the sea-banks or
the heather-covered slopes above cliffs ; Mr. P. O'F. Johnston,
who resides on the Aran Islands, has shown me grassy hollows
above the huge cliffs west of Dun ^Engus, where he found fifty or
sixty in an emaciated state ; and, speaking from recollection, he
placed the time in September. The early arrival of "Woodcocks
on the north and west coasts has been reported by many ; thus
Thompson was informed by Jackson, Lord Bantry's keeper, that
he had invariably found them near Dursey Island, off the west
of Cork, before they appeared inland, and more recently (Field,
2nd February 1895) Mr. T. J. Denneliy mentions a promontory
in Kerry where Woodcocks have been frequently seen to land, even
in the daytime, arriving singly from a SW. or SSW. direction.
This may be accounted for by presuming that the birds which have
followed the southern coast-line turn northward when our land's
ends are reached. Some fail to do this and perish in the Atlantic,
for a passenger crossing to America has observed numbers floating-
dead upon the sea a long distance from land, and a similar occur-
rence was noticed oft' Cornwall (ZooL, 1848, p. 2023), as mentioned
in " Tarrell," 4th Ed., III., p. 325. Woodcocks have been rej^eatedly
observed during the three last months of the year at southern rock-
stations, luit especially at the Skelligs, and less frecjuently at the
Tearaght (Migration Eeports) . In the vicinity of the Aran Islands,
Woodcocks have been flushed on the hills near Kilkieran in
Connemara the second week in October, and Major Euttledge
Phair, who knows Achill well, has spoken of the early cock-shooting
there (Mr. T. M. Pike, in Field, 19th January' 1895) ; while
Thompson was told of birds that had been seen in Achill as earlv
as 10th October. Sir E. Payne-Callwey makes several suggestions
to account for the presence of large numbers of Woodcocks on the
western sea-board in early winter, such as that their flight is
continued until it is arrested by the ocean, in the vicinity of
which the mildest weather obtains in winter.
An instance of Woodcocks arriving in the North of Ireland is
given by Lieut. -Colonel Cuppage, who observed near the coast a
flight of about a hundred coming towards him, which alighted in
a wood in so exhausted a state that he caught some and found
them in poor condition, so that he released them (Field, 6th April
1872).
The evidence of the Migration Eeports (as I gather it from the
complete series, 1882-1897, generously placed at my dis}iosal hy
1270 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
Mr. Barrington) points to Ulster as the province in Tvhieli Wood-
cocks arrive in the greatest numbers, more than half of the notices
from the whole Irish coast being from Ulster lighthouses.
The extreme northern island of Inishtrahnll is decidedly the
richest in records, and this seems to show that it lies in the way of
Woodcocks coming down the west coast of Scotland or which
have crossed it by the "Great Glen." Snch an idea is sti-engthened
by the numbers reported from Aranmore, Rathlin O'Birne and
Killvbegs, on the western coast of Donegal, and accordingly the
birds w'hich arrive from Scotland appear chiefly to take this
direction ; others, however, in smaller numliers, strike the Maidens
and the Copeland Islands, off Antrim and Down. The earlier
arrivals, too, are in larger proportion on the Ulster coast than on
that of any other province.
When the paucity of the records fnnn Leiuster is compared with
their frecpieucy from the north, one is led to conclude that most
Woodcocks which visit Ireland come from the direction of Scotland
rather than of Wales ; even the Tuskar affording only a few
notices. There are, however, enough of observations and of
specimens from the Wexford coast to show that some of these
birds land tliere ; and this is corroliorated by a statement of
Mr. E. A. Gibbon, whcj lived at Rosslare, and who has repeatedly
met with Woodcocks among the sandhills near the shore in October
and November, especially after a south-east gale. At such a time
Woodcocks have l^c^'n found there entangled in the nets spread
out to dry on the Itent-grass.
The Migration Reptirts further show that Octol)er, November
and December are the chief months of the arrival and movement of
this species on the Irish coast, especially the two latter months.
After December there are very few of these birds noticed at light-
stations, except in Ulster, where the observations then diminish
and practicallv conclude with March, the departing birds being
seldom seen. An occasional Woodcock is, however, recorded by
the light-keepers, even through the summer.
For some weeks after their arrival, if the weather be mild or wet,
Woodcocks are scattered over mountain -heaths ; and they are found
during most winters on islands like Achill or Aranmore, as well as
on moors near the west coast of Donegal and Connemara ; but if
heavy westerly gales occur in November in the latter district, it is
a bad season for " Cock " west of the Maam Turk Mountains. As
frost comes on, these birds betake themselves to the covert of
wo(_»ils and deep glens 1 ly day, and this has led to the saying among
covert-shooters that WoudcoclvS come with the first snow-shower.
chahadriid.t:.
271
They are imcertaiu binls. for tliey may be plentiful in a place one
week, and the next scarcely one can be found there ; and the same
uncertainty applies to their apjiearance from year to year, except
in large and favourite coverts.
When severe frost and snow sets in. Woodcocks leave inland
districts, and even the east coast, to seek the western and southern
sea-board and the outlying islands ; while there is at the same
time an influx from Scotland into the North of Ireland (Thompson,
II., p. 238). Sir E. Payne-Gallwey describes the numbers that
were taken in Kerry and Clare during the frost of January 1881,
when he counted eight hundred laid out on benches on one
occasion ; they were not only shot, but killed with sticks and
stones in ditches and clumps of furze, and brought for sale by the
jDeasantry in sacks. At such times Woodcocks will resort to the
sea-shore and feed on shell-fish among the rocks and sea-weed ;
but though driven from their usual haunts they are said to retain
"their condition far better than other birds.
In several parts of Ireland the Woodcocks, which diminish in
January, reappear from the middle of Februaiy to al)out 7tli March.
Thompson was informed that this was the case in co. Wexford, in
Achill and the Ards, co. Down, and that in the latter locality a
strong easterly wind in spring detained them. In Kerry the same
thing has been observed, for these birds, preparatory to the spring
migration, again gather from the inland localities towards the
west coasts, as though they would commence their return migration
from the point at which they had arrived in autumn (Mr. Denneliy,
in Field, 2nd February 1895). Mr. Pentland states that he always
sees Woodcocks in co. Louth about the first week in April, but that
they are gone by the middle of that month ; while in Inish()wen,
the northern peninsula of Donegal, these birds arrive early
in autumn and linger in the heath until April is far advanced
(Thompson, II., p. 213). It will thus be seen that, as in the case
of other species, many Woodcocks which only winter in Ireland
are still in the country when those which are resident are already
breeding.
In its habits this is a nocturnal bird, loving to hide by day
under some holly, spruce, or other thick bush, and at times
creeping under briars or along deep drains, from which it has
difficulty in escaping when surprised. It is very adroit in evading
shot, and getting a tree or (.>ther obstacle between it and the
shooter as it flies off ; antl when it alights again it will run a con-
siderable distance befoi'e it can be overtaken. When issuing from
their coverts to feed. Woodcocks take the same course evening after
272 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
evenino-, and in the breeding'-season they follow regiilar beats in
their flight over the woods, which is taken np about an hour before
dark. In a largely frequented place it is no uncommon thing to see
from twentv to thirty flying about the woods and glades ; and at
such times they will chase each other and call excitedly (Pentland).
A Woodcock's approach on an evening in early summer is
usuallv announced by notes of two sorts which it then utters on
the wing ; there is a croak, often repeated thrice, which has aptly
been compared to the words " more rain to-morrow," uttered in a
ci'oaking voice, or by others compared to " croho, croho." I have
seen the l)ird's body deflected at the third croak while outlined
against the sky. The other note which often immediately follows
the croak is a chirping screech syllalded by Mr. Moffat " chizzic."
Both these notes are to be heard from the commencement of the
l:»reeding-season in March, Init most frecpiently in April, May and
June, and the shrill screech has lieen noticed in ISTovember as the
liird flew out at dusk ; Mr. Pentland believe.s that it is not alone
the males that croak and call, fur he remarks that when Wood-
cocks are flying about in summer, every one, without exception, is
calling, and that females as well as males must be on the wing.
Mr. Moftat, moreover, states that when they are thus playing about
two may frequently be seen to dart alongside each other for a few
hundred yards, chirruping loudly and excitedly as if in defiance.
A l)ird was observed here flying across the hill slope, uttering the
shrill note, when two others, that had been calling similarly in a
corner of the wood, flew up and followed it, when they were all
heard croaking ; the two birds may have been young ones, as it
was the loth May. The alarm-cries uttered in anxiety for the
young are alluded to below, but Ix-sides these several notes I have
heard a Woodcock when flush^'d in ISTovemlier utter a clucking
sound like " uk, uk, uk."
Thompson has shown that these birds vary their staple diet of
earthworms with vegetable matter, insect larvse, and beetles
mingled with small pebldes.
As to the former breeding of the Woodcock in Ireland. Mr.
Moffat in his paper in the Irish NnfiiraUst (1899, p. 109) points
out that in the Act passed l:>y the Irish Parliament in 1786 the
name of this species is omitted from the list of those game-birds
whose eggs are to be protected, an^l he ai'gues from this omission
that the Woodcock was not known at that time to breed in
Ireland. In support of this view it may be said that Eutty (1772)
enumerated the Woodcock among the winter birds of passage and
wrote : — " It comes about Michaelmas and disappears about
charadkiid.t: . 273
March." Moreover, in Sniitli's "Cork" (1750) it is remarked
that this bird had beeu " known to breed in England," as though
unknown to do so in Ireland ; but the same writer in his volume on
" Waterford" (1746), after stating that Woodcocks were birds of
passage, said: "they pair before they go "and " sometimes stragglers,
left behind when their fellows go off, remain in these countries
all the summer." Now, if this referred to Ireland, it may be
concluded that such " stragglers " sometimes bred here. There is
some reason to think that the Woodcock may have been known to
the Irish in summer for a very long time, as their name for it is
C|ie<^lj<<^|i (pronounced "Grower"), an imitation of the bird's
croak uttered in spring and summer ; and we may form some idea
of the antiquity of Irish names when it is considered that the
Magpie has had none given to it in our ancient language, though
established in the country for more than two centuries. The
earliest cases of breeding known to Thompson were in the follow-
ing counties : — Queen's County 1833, Wexford and Antrim 1834,
Down 1835, Wicklow 1837, Sligo 1838, Waterford (at Gurteen)
1841 ; thus, when he first became aware of the matter, the breed-
ing range of the Woodcock extended into each of the provinces,
but Mr. W. Sinclair, wdio remembered the earliest case at Lord de
Vesci's, in Queen's County, told me that it was considered at the
time very remarkable. A rapid increase was noticed in the number
of nests at Tollymore Park, the first having been discovered in
1835 ; in 1837 three nests were known there, but in 1847 to 1849
there were not fewer than thirty each year.
About 1860 the breeding of the Woodcock began to be a
generally recognized fact throughout Ireland, and since that date
the testimony as to its increase comes from all pai'ts of our island ;
while in some wooded districts, such as in Wexford, Queen's County,
and Fermanagh, the birds observed in summer are thought to be
more numerous than those met with in winter, nests being from
time to time reported from new districts ; the only county wdiere
they appear to be still few is Mayo.
Mr. Pentland, in the Field (29th September 1889), gives an
account of the breeding of the Woodcock at Glenstal, co. Limerick,
where, in 1870, the first nest found was looked upon as a curiosity,
but next year three or four were known, and from that time they
kept gradually increasing until, in 1889, fully a hundred pairs
were believed to be nesting there. This remarkal)le augmentation
has certainly been favoured within the century now ending In' the
extension of plantations, though the similar increase that has been
going on in Great Britain indicates a more deep-seated cause.
T
274 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
There can be no doubt that the Woodcock is double-brooded,
for the first laying is in March or April and young have been
repeatedly seen the first week in April ; but eggs are still met with
in June or July, and very young birds have been seen in August.
An exceptional instance in Donegal is related by Mr. R. W.
ISTorman of a Woodcock found sitting on eggs in November, when
woods were lieing lieaten. The eggs may indeed be found at any
time from March to July, and young in down from April to
August. The ordinary number is four eggs, but three are said to
be sometimes sat upon, and five have been found in a nest. They
are less pointed than those of most Limicolx ; some are heavily
zoned or blotched, their ground being of a decidedly brown tint,
while others have small rounded spots and specks on a very pale
surface. The nest is made on the ground on a high-lying dry spot
in a wood or among scrub, fi'equently near the foot of a tree and
overshadowed by the branches, if there be a clear space beneath
them ; but it is never in a thick tangle, as the bird likes to have an
open way of escape. A nest was once found among trees close to
Horn Head House, ovei'looking the sea. Woods of oak are no
doubt preferred, but I have seen Woodcocks' nests in plantations
of young Scotch firs or under larch or spruce. The nest is
sometimes a mere depression in the dry grass or wood-rush, but a
ring or edge is usually made of dead leaves, Ints of bark, fir-
needles, furze or any dry rubbish available, and is often lined
with dead oak leaves, in other cases not lined at all. The illus-
tration is from a photograph taken by Mr. John Malcomson
Murjihy and kindly jilaced at my disposal. The l>ird sits with
its tail to the neighbouring tree and with its neck drawn in.
It, will not only permit of near approach, but has sometimes
been touched before taking flight when the eggs were much sat
upon.
If an intruder approach the young, the i^arent bird will fly
round instead of away from him ; and when its alarm is strongly
excited, as by the presence of a dog, a Woodcock will utter out-
cries that have been compared to the screaming of a Hawk, and
tumble on the ground before the object of its apprehension. I was
informed by my late gamekeeper, Richard Wolfe, that when he
was walking with beagles through a wood where these birds were
breeding, one of them alighted in front of a dog and, running
forward, flaj^ped its wings at the animal with loud cries.
The Woodcock, however, frequently flies away with the young
one, not only when newly hatched, but even when it looks nearly
as big as an adult, and this is done both to save the nestlings from
in
w
CO
u
o
u
Q
O
O
CHARADrJID.F.. 275
danger and to remove them to the feeding-ground. A woodman
at his work has seen an old bird carry oft' the brood one by one
in the same direction without regarding him. Mr. Colgan, the
Brittas keeper, flushed a Woodcock carrying its young, when the
former flew a little distance and uttered vociferous croaking ; he
sat down and the bird came running back towards him. evincing
no shyness, and then began to flutter and throw out its wings
on the ground until it had succeeded in grasping with the feet
another nestling, with which it flew away. Many persons in
Ireland have seen this bird fly ofi: with its young, some asserting
that the latter was i:)ressed close to the breast of the parent
between the legs, and objection is made by these observers to the
plate in the Zoologist (November 1879). The bird seen by the
Hon. E. E. Dillon bent her tail down close to the body of the young
one, which was held clasped between the thighs and tarsi, and Lord
Clermont described a somewhat similar sight (ZooL, 1880, p. 258);
others, among whom is Mr. Moffat, describe the young as " seem-
ing to hang between the legs " of the old bird, " dangling from her
lowered legs," " not pressed against her body, but held with out-
stretched legs." The nestling thus carried in Mi*. Moffat's
presence was just hatched and more easily lifted, but a greater
effoi't would be required to lift such a bii-d as that seen by Mr.
Digby (Field, 30th May 1891), and such would naturally be held
in a closer grasp.
In several cases the bill has been seen, not pressed against the
young, as once described to me (ZooL, 1882, p. 306), but held in
the usual way. The brood leave the nest very soon and are said
to be fed by the parents, but confirmation of this is desirable.
Woodcocks are rarely seen in August, while towards the end of
that month and during September the records of their occurrence
are so few that most people believe they have then left the
country. However, Mr. Campbell, the keeper at Mourne Park,
CO. Down, wrote : — " They betake themselves to the sandy hills in
the outside coverts in August and September to moult ; and there
they can be seen in September " (Field, 14th June 1884) ; Mr.
James Johnston has also stated that in September he has, bv
means of a spaniel, found Woodcocks, unfit to shoot, moultin'u-
their feathers freely, and that until their quills are grown they are
as hard to flush as the Water-Eail (Irish Nat., 1893, p. 85) ; at tlie
same time he has found young birds of the year fit to shoot. It
would, however, be premature to conclude, until more observers
have detected them in different parts of Ireland, that all our
breeding W<;><;iJcoclcs remain in the ctiuutry ; some of tlu^ vouno-
T 2 "
276 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
certainly remain until winter, for Mr. Pentland stated that one of
nine which had been marked at Glenstal was shot there about
Christmas.
Statistics of i-emarkable bags are given in the " Fowler in
Ireland," by which it appears that on the Muckross Estate, near
Killarney, 1,250 Woodcocks were shot in the winter of 1863-64,
and that at Ashford, Lord Ardilaun's estate in Galway, six guns
shot 165 Inrds in one day in January 1880; since then 172 and
177 Woodcocks have l^een bagged there on single days in January
1884 and 1886, and Mr. A. J. P. Wise informs me that in the
severe winter of 1880-81 he got 560 in Kerry.
Pure white, partially white, and buff-coloured Woodcocks have
been obtained in Ireland.
THE GREAT SNIPE. GnlUiHigo major (J. F. Gmelin).
Very rare visitor, appearing during the last four months of the year.
The Great Snipe has l)een so often talked of and so seldom
authenticated in Ireland that it is difhcult to give an exact estimate
of its degree of rarity ; l>ut Thompson stated that he had never seen
one, and Messrs. Williams & Son had been preserving bii'ds in
Ireland for twenty-five years before they received a specimen,
though many large examples of the Common Snipe had lieen sent
to them in the belief that they were of this species.
It may be well to remind those who desire to distinguish it that
the bill and legs are shorter in proportion than in the Common
Snipe, and the underparts more barred, while there is more white
in the tail-feathers of the Great Snipe ; moreover, its weight is
from 7 to 10 ozs., and its tail-feathers number sixteen, the weight
of the Common Snipe Ijeing usually 4, exceptionally 6 ozs., and its
tail having normally but fourteen feathers.
Twelve instances, which are mentioned below, have occurred in
the following counties: — Cork (1), Wexford (2, or more), Kildare
(3), Galway (1), Mayo (2), Leitrim (2), Tyrone (1).
In nine cases the months are known, and are as follows : —
September (2), October (4), November (2), December (1).
Thompson mentions one instance in which a couple were met
with ; his informants described this bird's partiality for fields of
long grass in the vicinity of marshes, its mode of rising without a
cry. of flying more slowly and steadily than the Common Snipe,
holding its tail spread out.
CHARADRIID.K.
277
Cork. — A specimen which was sent
to the Editor of the Field was shot
near Clonakilty on 17th November
1879 by :Mr. Thomas Gilhnau [Field,
22nd November 1879).
Wexford. — ^lajor Walker, who
gave Thompson a very circumstantial
description of this bird, stated that
he had shot it on diiiereut occasions
before 1830 or 1831 ; a specimen in the
collection of Sir R. Payne-Gallwey
was purchased by him from a gun-
maker in Wexford in 1881, and was
stated to have been shot within a
few miles of that town.
Kildare. — A Great Snipe was shot
in CO. Kildare in November 1841, and
was seen by T. W. Warren in
Glennon's hands (Thompson, II.,
p. 259) ; two, which were described,
were shot near Sallins in October
1827, and were given to the Earl of
Errol (Ibid., p. 261) ; an adult female,
in the! collection of Watters, was
obtained in the same county in 1849
(Waiters' " Birds of Ireland," p. 148).
Galway. — The specimen in the
Dublin Museum was presented by
ilr. W. H. Perssc, of Glenard, and
was shot on 12th October 1SS8 (ZooL,
1889, p. 83, where his name is mis-
spelt " Reese ").
Mayo. — A bird of the year was shot
on Keel marsh, Achill Island, on 24th
September 1888, by 'Mv. R. Livesey
(Field, 6th October and 10th Novem-
ber 1888) ; a female was obtained
near Ballycroy, not far from Achill,
on 13th October 1893 by :Mr. T. L.
Mason (Williams, in ZouL, 1893,
p. 434).
Leitrim. — A specimen, sent to
Glenuon and seen by T. W. Warren,
was shot in co. Leitrim on 6th
December 1845 (Thompson, II.,
J). 259) ; another was obtained in the
same county the first week in
October 1888 by Major Hutchinson,
of Rookville (Williams, in ZooL, 1889,
p. 75).
Tyrone. — ^Ir. E. Williams informs
me that he received for preservation
a Great Snipe shot by Mr. H. B.
Fleming, of Campsie House, Omagh,
on 8th September 1899.
THE COMMON SNIPE. GalUnago ccelestis (Frenzel).
Breeds locally in every county, in many counties commonly. Numbers
greatly increased by migration in winter.
Ireland, has for centuries been known as a favourite resort of
the Snipe, -which frequents the bogs and wastes, often in very
large numbers during winter, and breeds freely in spring and
summer. It is more numerous in those parts which abound in
marshes and moors, such as are to be found in the West ; but even
there the Snipe-shooting, formerly so famous, has greatly fallen off
since the multiplication of breech-loaders has reduced the stock
of birds. From the statistics givcTi in the " Fowler in Ireland "
it appears that from forty to sixty have not infrequently fallen
before a single gun in the day, and that even as many as a
hundred have been thus obtained in rare instances. I am informed
by Colonel Vernon that during a portion of the severe winter of
1880-81 he shot in Kerry l,U7o Snipe and could have killed a
278
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
■much larger number, but they became worthless from starvation ;
the same winter a well-known Snipe-shooter is said to have got
as many as 1,376 in the co. Clare. In such hard frosts, which
seldom occur in Ireland, a great influx of Snipe come across from
England, where they disappear at the same time and betake them-
selves to the western side of Ireland, and even to the marine
islands ; this movement extends to Valentia and the coast region
south of it, being only stopped by the Atlantic, but western
Conuaught is not resorted to on those occasions to the same
extent. Most of the larger islands are visited by these birds
regularly in winter, and Inishtrahull, Tory Island and Eathlin
O'Birue are resorts of this kind where small flocks up to twelve
in number have been seen ; while in the bogs of Rathliu many
remain to breed, as a few do on the Copeland Islands. Even the
rocky and precipitous Tearaght is visited — though not for long at
a time — by wandering Snipe, as the Migration Reports show.
Accordingly, as this bird makes itself at home near so many light-
houses, the records of its occurrences near them throw much
less light on the migrations of the species than in the case of the
Woodcock — a bird that is seldom seen on such islands as the above
excej^t when it is migrating. The preponderance of observations
made at Ulster light-stations is, however, an obvious feature in
the reports on Snipe. The first increase of the species is noticed
in September, luit the great annual influx takes place in October,
and the records go on increasing until December ; after which
they gradually diminish until March, and show that a few Inrds
are seen in April and still fewer in May. On the uorth coast of
Dublin, Snipe may be heard arriving from October to December,
and appear to come from the north-east. Thoni}>son considei'ed
that the flocks sometimes seen near Belfast in August were
migratory arrivals which passed on southward after a few days,
but that the l)irds which remained through the winter in that
part of Ireland did not arrive until about Octolier.
The wiuter- visitors, called by some "brown Snipe," are believed
to be distinguishable by colour and markiugs from the birds
reared in this country, which are greyer. Cox remarked that in
hard weather almost all the Snipe met with are home-bred birds,
and he had noticed in several parts of Ireland that the longer the
frost and snow lasted the smaller was the proportion of foreign
birds killed, thus suggesting that the Snipe which are bred in
Ireland do not migrate to anything like the extent of the others.
Similar remarks have been made by Mr. Gf. H. Kinahan.
The Snipe fluctuates a good deal in the places it frequents in winter,
CHAKADRIID.E. 279
not appearing even in favourite haunts until tliese become saturated
with wet, and leaving them when frozen for spots softened by
springs, or for counties where the cold is tempered by the vicinity
of the ocean. The state of the moon, too, influences Snipe in
their resorts, for moonlight enables them to disperse themselves
widely, and afterwards to return to their marshy retreats before
morning ; while darkness, coming on when they are out feeding,
leaves them on their feeding-grounds, on uplands, for instance,
or stubbles, or those river-meadows called " callows," where
they may be found lying out next day. I frequently meet with
Snipe on dry hills 400 to 500 feet high in grassy places among
furze and heather. In wet ground one can judge better where to
find them, as they have a partiality for certain spots, and may
usually be found about a quagmire. Thompson states that they
will feed, not only at the edge of the sea, but on the banks of
Zostera. Sir E. Payne-Gallwey, who corroboj'ates their feeding
on the ooze during frost, remarks that Snipe and Woodcock love
to wash their mouths free from the soil which collects there when
worms are swallowed, and round the base of the bill the mud is
often encrusted from the bird's habit of probing the soil. Dr. E.
Blake Knox states that he has known Snipe thus to probe the
stomach of a putrid animal for the maggots it contained.
The clucking note tyih-fyuh is uttered during the breeding-
season when the bird is perched, but the shrill screain is delivered
on the wdng, and this seems to serve both as an alarm-cry and a
call-note. The bleating or drumming, which is apparently pro-
duced by the wings as the bird swoops or dives through the air,
is characteristic of the breeding-season ; it has been heard in this
country as early as February and as late as July. This sound
seems expressive of pleasurable emotion when produced as the
bird soars overhead on a spring evening, but Mr. H. L. Orr
describes a Snipe frightened off its eggs as uttering the bleating
sound within a few yards of him (Irish Nat., 1899, p. 267) ;
Snipe will thus bleat or drum when sprung by a dog in the
nesting-time.
The eggs are sometimes found duriug the latter half of March,
more frequently in April, and occasionally as late as the 25th July,
on which date I have seen a clutch taken that was nearly fresh.
As many nests contain eggs in June, there is reason to believe that
second clutches are laid. Snipe breed indifferently on mountain
bogs and on lowlands, a rushy field being sometimes the nesting-
place of several pairs. The ground-colour of the eggs is of
various shades of brownish-buff" or pale olive, but is sometimes
280 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
of a greenish hue, and iu additiou to the blotches, which often
form a zone, a reticulated pattern of black streaks surrounds the
larger end of some, while in others the entire surface is dotted
with small specks.
The melauic form known as Sabine's Snipe has been obtained
fullv forty times in Ireland, though the localities of not more
than thirty specimens are now known ; these were scattered in all
quarters of the country, but there is ouly one record from the
east coast (Barrett-Hamilton, in Irish Nat., 1895, p. 12). Some
examples are much darker than others, and in some such the
longitudinal markings on the back disappear ; while a state of
phimage intermediate between Sabine's and the ordinary form has
occvirred in Ireland and has been described by Mr. Harting (Proc.
Zool. Soc, 1877, p. 533).
There have l^een instances of white Snipe, and of others which
are buff or straw-coloured ; of the buff type a specimen is preserved
at Brockley Park, Queen's Co., with two Woodcocks of the same
buft'-colour. Large Snipe are often shot weighing sometimes
from five to six ounces ; Dr. Burkitt had one which weighed the
latter amount, and A. G. More recorded another.
THE JACK SNIPE. GaUlnwjo gaJUmda, Liun^us.
Winter-visitor, distributed locally throughout Ireland, being decidedly
less numerous than the Common Snipe.
An occasional Jack Snipe is commonly met with when Snipe
shooting, and the bird is well known in all parts of the country,
but in the north it appears to be much more numerous than else-
where if we may judge by the numbers killed in seven years,
chiefly within ten miles of Belfast, by a friend of Thompson.
He shot 603 Jack Snipe to 2,077 of the Common Snipe, being a
proportion of about 29 per cent. Thompson, moreover, informs
us that this gentleman had shot as many as fourteen in one
dav ; but this was exceeded by Mr. H. D. M. Barton, who once
obtained seventeen within an area of about an acre near Dundalk,
possibly after their arrival. Mr. H. C. Hart thinks that the Jack
Snipe is more numerous than the Common Snipe in Fanad, a
northern district in Donegal, where he resides ; but this is certainly
not the case through Ireland generally, where the species is com-
paratively scarce, and if several are seen about the same locality,
as has occurred to nie in certain seasons, it is looked ujjon as
CHARADRIID.T.. 281
xiuusual. It is not indeed a common thing to meet with more than
two near the same spot, and one never sees a wisp or small flock
of Jack Snipe as in the'Case of the common species.
The Jack SnijDe has been obtained in Ireland as late in spring-
as May, and again as early as August, but even in September its
appearance is remarkable, October and November being the chief
months of its arrival in this country. Cox remarked that it is
more numerous towards the end of November and in the begin-
ning of December than at any other time, and after March few
are observed, though some remain into April, and previous to
their departure numbers are said to have been seen on the
mountain of Forth, near Wexford (Thompson, II., p. 280). It is
stated upon the authority of Ball that he had met with the Jack
Snipe on the Dublin mountains at midsummer (Ibid.) ; but, as
the Dunlin has since been found breeding there, a possibility
exists that this and other alleged occurrences of the Jack Snipe
in summer may have been of the former species.
Of thirteen specimens sent him from light-stations Mr.
Barrington has received ten from Leiuster, but from the liy;lit-
keepers scanty observations of this bird, the Ulster coast audlnish-
trahull would appear to be often visited, and the coasts of Munster
and Connaught rather less frequently.
I have often remarked how this little Snipe permits of near
approach, and when started will after a short flight return silently
to almost the same spot.
THE BEOAD-BILLED SANDPIPEE. LUnicoJa plafyrhynca
(Temminck).
Has been once obtained, near Belfast.
The only authenticated Irish-taken specimen of the Broad-
billed Sandpiper was recorded by Thompson (" Natural History
of Ireland," II., p. 282). It was killed with Golden Plover and
Dunlins at the same shot from a swivel-gun on the mud-banks of
Belfast Lough on the 4th of Octol)er 1844. It proved to be a
male, and was presented by the late "\V. Darragh to the Belfast
Museum, where it is still })reserved (Moffat, in Irish Not., 181>8,
p. 40).
282 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE AMERICAN PECTORAL SANDPIPER. Trbiga
uiaciilata (Vieillot).
Has once been obtained, near Portumna on the Shannon.
A male Pectoral Sandpiper was obtained bv Mr. E. Williams iu
the Dublin Market iu the middle of October 1886. It had been
received among a lot of Snipe from Portumna, co. Galwaj, and
was extremely fat. This specimen is now in the Science and Art
Museum, Dubhn, and would probably have been unrecognized if
it had not met the discriminating eye of Mr. Williams (Zool., 1889,
pp. 32 and 73). This is an example of an American species
obtained iu Ireland, whose passage could not have been assisted
by ocean steamers, like that of a Passerine \nvd.
BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. Trix'ja fnscicolUs, Vieillot.
Is believed, on circumstantial evidence, to have been once obtained in
Ireland.
There is a specimen oi Bonaparte's Sandpiper still iu the
Belfast Museum, of which Thompson gives the particulars which
were known to him. He believed it to have heeu killed in this
country, presumably on Belfast Lough, before the l-5th of April
1836. Thompson published an account of the occurrence in the
"Annals of Natural History," Vol. XVIII., p. 311, which he
quotes iu his " Natural History of Ireland," Vul. II., p. 297.
THE DUNLIN. Tringa alinna, Linnseus.
Breeds in small numbers in many parts of Leinster, Connaught and
Ulster. Abundant on the coasts in autumn, winter and spring,
when it is the most numerous of the shore-waders.
Of the breeding uf the Dunlin in Ireland Thomj^son had very
little information, Ijut there is now evidence to show that its
breeding-range extends through this island as far south as the
fifty-third parallel of latitude, perhaps a little further. Its eggs
have been taken on the Wicklow Mountains by the Rev. A.
Ellison, by Mr. J. Darling in Mayo, and hv Mr. Campbell near
Lough Swilly ; while I have taken them in Westmeath, on the
Londonderry side of Lough Beg, and in a marsh in Donegal,
where the species breeds numerously. It has also beeu seen>
charadriid.t:. 283
singly or in pairs, in breeding plumage, during May or June in
the following counties : — Clare, Queen's Co., King's Co., Long-
ford, Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh,
Armagh and Tyrone ; and in most of these counties the circum-
stances under which I saw the birds left no doubt that they were
nesting iu the vicinity.
Dunlins betake themselves in the end of April and in May to
their inland breeding-haunts, and, while females are hatching
there, others may be seen together iu parties or small flocks.
The wisps that are to be met with later than this, on such places
as the North Bull, Dublin Bay, have been found by Dr Patten to
consist of non-breeding birds, and this agrees with the habits of
other Limicohv, as observed by Mr. Warren, on Killala Bay.
Thompson states that flocks return to Belfast Lough after the
breeding-season as early as the 3rd or 5th July, fully two hundred
having been seen on the latter date in 1840. On Dublin Bay and
further south, August is the month when they reappear, and they
increase on the coasts until October, when their uumbers become
enormous, and thousands may be seen during the winter on those
larger inlets which have extensive banks of mud. Mr. Warren
found Dunlins much more numerous on Queenstown Harbour
and its branches than on Killala Bay, which is sandy, and he
knows that on the former his grandfather once killed a hundred
and twenty with his ordinary double-barrel; Thompson also
speaks of the multitudes which frequent Belfast Lough, and
describes their beautiful evolutions. Though this species is
usually confined to the coasts in winter, the above writer has
observed small flocks on the borders of Lough Neagh at the end
of September, and the Eev. C. Irvine has known a flock to remain
for some days in the centre of co. Tyrone early in March, when
there was a hard frost.
At the end of April or the beginning of May, when the
breeding plumage has been assumed, there is a great influx of
Dunlins on Belfast Lough, whicli Thompson believed to consist
of birds that had passed the winter further south ; and it may
be remarked in this connection that of the specimens in Mr.
Barring-ton's collection killed at lighthouses eight occurred on
the east coast in April and May, at which time of year, as well as
in October and November, there seems to be a special movement
of these birds round Ireland.
Dunlins feed near the edge of the tide, and do so at night,
both iu moonlight and darkness ; at that time they are easily
approached. Mr. Warren saw one of these birds in great
28-1 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
distress with a cockle about the size of a hazel-nut that had
closed ou its beak, and of which the creature was unable to
divest itself. Dunlins often feed in company with Turnstones,
Ringed Plovers and Redshanks, on the shore, and one of them
has been seen to accompany Golden Plover in their mountain
breeding-haunts in June, taking flight with them from place to
place ; an instance of this in Achill is related by Thompson, and
another took place in Wicklow.
The note of this bird is a trill, and is briefly uttered when
takmg flight, more at length when on the ground ; in the latter
case many individuals will join in it, so as to produce quite a
volume of pleasing sound, that has been described as a purring
whistle. Some have called it a song, as it is uttered spontaneously
liy the Ijirds when at rest, bvit as it is produced by many in
company it may rather be comjiared in character to the chorus of
Redwings in the tree-tops before they leave ns.
The earliest eggs I have heard of in Ireland were found in
Mayo on 17th May, and the latter part of that month and the
Ijeginning of June seems to be the usual time of laying, though I
have found eggs which were nearly fresh on 14th June. The nest
is made in long coarse grass, sometimes beside lakes aud rivers in
the heart of the country, as in Westmeath ; sometimes by the
coast, in marshes adjoining the sand-hills or on reclaimed slob-
lands, as in Donegal. It has been found by Mr. Ellison on the
top of the Wicklow Mountains, 1,700 feet above the sea, where
the moor was covered with moss, stunted heather and patches of
cotton-grass, and studded with small ponds of peaty water. This
nest was a tiny cup-shaped hollow, without cover, in a patch of
gTey moss, surrounded with a few wiry bents and scraps of heather,
and neatly lined with shreds of lichen, and a few scraps of heather
and dry bents. In low lands the tussock of coarse grass in which
the nest is placed usually overhangs the eggs, and the cup is
comfortably lined with dry grass, but a small isolated bank in a
northern lake contained two nests of Redshanks, one of Common
Sandpiper aud one of Dunlin among the green grass which was
not long enough to cover the eggs. Thompson was evidently mis-
informed by his boatmen, who stated that the eggs of this species
were laid on the gravel like those of the Ringed Plover.
I once found, sitting on eggs, a Dunlin which fluttered along the
ground from my feet, trailing its expanded tail, and then settled
down in full view a few yards away, gathering itself up into a
shapeless lump, and remained motionless.
In June the Dunlin, ]u-esumably the male, will rise from its
chaeadeiid.t:. 285
breeding-grouud with rapid whirring flight, and when it attains a
certain height will project itself in the air with the acquired
impetus, holding its wings motionless and soaring thus for a few
moments. This appears to be a performance analogous to that of
a drumming Snipe.
THE LITTLE STINT. Trhtga minuta. Leister.
Autumn-visitor in small numbers, chiefly recorded from the bays of
Dublin and Belfast.
Thompson gives a list of the occurrences of the Little Stint on
Belfast Lough, principally on the co. Down side, on fifteen autumn
seasons from 1831 to 1849 ; the largest number of individuals met
with on one occasion having been nine, while frequently there were
one or two. Though not so systematically kept, there are quite as
many records of this bird's occurrence on the Dul)lin shores, which
show that it must visit the east coast pretty regularly m equallv
small numbers. The only occasion on which many have been
reported was on 7th September 1892, when Dr. Patten believes he
saw quite sixty of these birds on the North Bull, Dublin Bay,
some of them mixed with other small waders, while others were
in separate flocks of fifteen to twenty. Besides the two localities
named, the Little Stint has been reported from exceedingly few
jjlaces in Ireland, but it must not be inferred that this proves the
species to be generally very rare, for no biixls attract so little
attention in this country as small Sandpipers. Thompson
mentions that Chute had twice procured Little Stints near Tralee,
and the Chute collection still contains one ; another was obtained
on the River Barrow near New Ross in co. Wexford (Mr. Bai-rett-
Hamiltou) ; there are two notices of four having been shot on
each occasion at Portrush in Antrim, and one from the Eiver
Bann is in the Dublin Museum ; two were shot at Inch and one
at Fintragh, l^oth in co. Donegal.
Several of Thompson's instances were in August, but September
is the usual month of this bird's appearance, and it does not seem
to stay long. It has occiu-red in a few cases in October and
November, and once in Deceml)er. It never seems to have l)een
obtained in spring, l)ut Thompson states that on 26th March
1838 a flock of five were observed on Belfast Lough. If these
were Litlle Stints, they are the only individuals recorded in spring.
When in company with Dunlins, these l)irds keep pace with
286 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
tliem on the wiDg. Dr. Patten says that the very straight flight
and the voice, which sounds as a delicate high-pitched twitter,
are characteristics by which Little Stints may be known, besides
their diminutive size.
TEMMINCK'S STINT. Trhuja temmincl-i, Leister.
Has once been obtained, in January.
Thompson was informed by Chute, in February 1848, that the
latter had procured a Temminck's Stint, killed at a freshwater
pool near Tralee, during severe frost, at the end of the preceding-
month of January. The bird was alone at the time. Mr. Howard
Saunders states that, with the exception of this individual, the
species has not been known to remain during winter in the
United Kingdom ; and the locality, so far to the south-west, shows
that the bird probably accompanied other fugitives to the Kerry
shores in frost and snow. Thompson does not ai:)pear to have
seen the above specimen, but in 1893, when I inspected the Irish
collection at Chute Hall, I found that it contained a Temminck's
Stint in winter plumage, and I noted that the shaft of the outer
primary was nearly white, while the two outer pairs of tail-
feathers were white, except a narrow band of brown on the outer
web. This is without doul)t the specimen of 1848, but none of
the birds in the collection are labelled. A Little Stint mounted
in the same case is easily distinguishable.
THE CURLEW-SANDPIPER. Trlnga sxhiarpiafa
(GUldenstadt).
Autumn-visitor, not common. Very rare in winter and spring.
The Curlew-Sandpiper is best known as a somewhat irregular
visitor in September to the bays of Dublin and Belfast, and is
unquestionably most frec[uent on the eastern coasts of Leinster
and Ulster, though by no means confined to them. It occurs
much more numerously in certain seasons than in others ; thus sixty
were killed on Cork Harbour on 29th October, 1847, though there
are only two other notices of it from the co. Cork ; one, formerly in
the Neligan collection, was killed on the Clare side of the Shannon
Estuary. This bird occurs on Dublin Bay nearly every autumn.
CHARADEIID.E. 287
usually singly or in very small numbers, but in the first half of
September 1897, a gi-eat year for waders, Mr. E. Williams saw
a great many Curlew-Sandpipers in the l)ay ; one was shot near
the coast of Louth on 3rd November 1837. On Belfast Lough
Thompson made notes of this species for above twenty-five years,
but he found the number to vary much as they do in Dublin,
single birds or small groups being most frequently seen, though on
21st September 1839 not less than a hundred were in company with
a large flock of Dunlins. In this case all the Curlew- Sandpipers
left the bay the same day, showing that they were on their
migration. The Rev. G. Robinson stated that a large number
were killed at Portrush in November 187-5, and others were killed
by Cox at the same place. In Donegal one was shot at Killybegs
in 1850, and another beside Lough Kiltooris on 26th December
1892. In Mayo Mr. Warren has occasionally seen this bird on
the sands between Bartragh Island and Killala in September and
October, but not later in the season, and he says it is easily
distinguished by its cry as well as by its white rump. Mr.
Sheridan informs me he has shot it in Achill, and the Rev. G.
Robinson believed that he had seen one on the shore near Clifden,
CO. Gralway, in July 1844.
Though a shore-bird, the Curlew-Sandpiper was obtained on
Kilcolman Bog near Buttevant, in the north of co. Cork, on 29tli
October 1884, and eight were shot out of a flock on the Dublin
Mountains in September 1879 ; while <)thers have been reported
from Lough Erne, Lough Neagb, and the River Bann.
The earliest arrival noted by Thompson was on 25th August and
others were met with in differeut years during the last week in
that month. September, chiefly the first half of the month, is the
usual time of the bird's occurrence in Ireland, though it has
been found repeatedly in October, but there are exceedingly few
notices of it m November and December.
Thompson states that four individuals were said to have been
killed out of a flock of thirty or forty on the Lagan in spring, l)ut
he did not jilace imjilicit reliance on the statement.
288 BIRDS OF IRELIXD.
THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. Trhiga striata, Linnajus.
Regular visitor to rocky coasts round Ireland, where it is found in
limited numbers in autumn, winter, and sometimes until late in
May.
Though little obsei'ved, the Purple Sandpiper frequents more
or less — except in summer — the rugged and precipitous parts of
the coast, seeming to prefer those that are wild and exposed, and
less frequentl}^ visiting the low-lying shores of Leinster, which
are chiefly sandy ; accordingly it is thus more common along
the western side of Ireland. It is found in Kerry, Cork, Water-
ford, the Saltees off co. Wexford, the promontories and islands of
Dublin, Louth, Down, Antrim, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, and Galway,
and is probably more common in the four last-named counties than
in any others. It has been once taken on a Wexford lightshiji
(Migration Reixirts). Thompson states that in co. Antrim speci-
mens were obtained at Portrush from August to December
inclusive, and at Cushendall in March. The Purple Sandpiper
a[)pears to be most frequently met with in November. There
is but one mention of its occurrence in January, and I have only
three notes of it in February ; while the few spring instances
that can be cited increase in March and again in April ; at
Portrush in particular, a sensible increase in these birds has been
noticed in March. In May seventeen records were made at widely
distant times and places, some as late as the end of that month ;
and they show that the coasts of all the provinces are occasionally
visited by Purple Sandpipei's, which are then in full breeding
plumage, before they leave for their summer resorts. These
seventeen occurrences in May were thus distributed: — Kerry (1),
Cork (2), Wexford (3), Dublin (1), Donegal (5), Mayo (3),
Galway (2). In only one case was the date earlier than the
15th of May, and the latest was the 30th, when the birds were in
the fullest summer dress, and the ovaries of the female were
found to be fairly advanced. Pairs were seen in several of the
instances on islands off Mayo and Donegal, but these did not
exhibit the anxiety of breeding birds, and it would be unsafe to
conclude from the facts that the species breeds in Ireland. It
has not been recorded in June or July.
The Purple Sandpiper frequently occurs singly or in pairs, and
so many as ten or fifteen are seldom found together. On the
Waterford coast in November I have met with small parties of
three and five, which seemed reluctant to leave the dark rocks on
CHARADRIID.E. 289
which they stecial character, estuarinc
flats of mud and sand, and on some parts of the coast is not met
with. Neligan appeared to consider that it was very common
in his time (1837) on the Kerry coast near Tralee, and there are
notices of it from Samphire Island in the Migration Reports ;
while Sir R. Payne-G-allwey, who shot much on Tralee Bay and
the mouth of the Shannon, speaks of it as a common bird in
spring and autumn. On Cork Harbour, however, it is little
known, and the same may be said of the Waterford coast, where I
can scarcely say that I know it, though I have seen a few Knots
which were shot on Dungarvan Bay one hard winter. Poole
noticed this species as occasionally visiting Wexford in great
numbers, though at other times absent. On the AVicklow coast
the Rev. A. Ellison observed many in company with other waders.
Cox states that the Knot is abundant on the bays of co. Dublin,
and that after the tide has begun to ebb very large flocks may be
seen flying about on the North Bull and at Malahide ; but Dr.
Patten finds this bird rather irregular in its numbers, though
common as a rule in autumn and winter on Dublin Bay. Thomp-
son says that it is numerous in the Bay of Drogheda ; and reports
received by Mr. Barriugton from the lighthouse there, accompanied
by a specimen, show that it is common in winter. In 1893 the
numbers increased during January, and on 8th February there
were "some thousands" on the strand near the mouth of the Boyne.
The Knot was a very al:)undant sjiecies twenty years ago on
the marine loughs of Belfast, Strangford and Larne, where it has
suitable and extensive feeding-o-rounds. It is known as a rey-ular
290 BIKDS OF IRELAND.
visitor ou Louo-lis Foyle and Swilly, as Mr. Warren finds it to be
on Killala Bay, where it is verv abundant on the wet and sandy
expanse inside Bartrayh Ishmd. Along the west and south coasts
of Connaught, however, it is seldom recognized, probably from
the wild and rocky character of those districts and the general
absence of muddy estuaries. Mr. Sheridan considers it rare at
Achill, but Mr. Barrington has received specimens from Slyne
Head, killed in Octolier.
Knots have in several instances been obtained inland. I have
seen one shot after a storm in December near Doneraile, and
another was obtained near Clonuiel, another on the O'Conor Don's
property in co. Roscommon, and Mr. J. F. Shackleton shot one
at Hazlehatch, co. Kildare.
Thompson's earliest records of this l)ird near Belfast were made
in the middle of August, the month when Knots also appear on
Dublin Bay, and at that time and in September, when the flocks
of young birds become numerous, they are very tame. They
soon leave Lough. Swilly after their arrival there, but on the
Leinster coast they continue without apparent diminution until
Christmas, and Thompson states that on Belfast Lough he has
known them to be as comm<)n in December and January as at
any time. A hard frost causes them to move along the coast and
visit unusual [daces, and fresh flocks probably visit this country in
such weather. These birds remain until March, by the end of
which month few are to l>e st'cn. A certain number that were not
breeding have been found in April, May, and June on the Moy
Estuary by Mr. Warren ; these associated with Grey Plovers,
Whimbrels, or Godwits, and were in grey plumage, one which he
shot in June having even commenced to moult. A pair were,
however, seen in breeding-plumage on 17th August at Portsalon,
Lough Swilly, and one of them was obtained (Mr. D. C. Camj)-
bell). In a few cases Knots in red plumage have been obtained
in August or September in the neighbourhood of Belfast ; one of
these is in the Museum of that city.
Thompson found the stomachs of all those he examined
contained minute univalve shell-fish ; he remarked that they fed
at night more than by day, and also that when approached on a
dark night with a lantern they ran before it without t;iking flight.
Their evolutions on the wing are swiftly and powerfully executed,
resembling those of Dunlins and other waders. Knots have a
tendency to return to the same spot, and newly-arrived birds in
autumn have done this though fired at four times, flying Imck
after each disturbance, only to be slaughtered.
CHARADRIID.E. 291
THE SANDERLIISTG. Calldris arenaria (Linnaeus).
Visitor to sandy shores on all sides of Ireland, chiefly in autumn and
spring.
The Sanderling visits Ireland in very mucli smaller numbers
than some other waders, and as it resorts to sands, rather than to
mudbanks, it is rather a local bird. Thompson thought that on
Belfast and Strangford Loughs there were fully two thousand
Dunlins to one Sa.nderling, but as those inlets afford but little
sand, the locality is unfavourable for the latter, while it is
attractive to the former species, from the extents of mud.
The Sanderling is said to be of common occurrence on strands
in Kerry, such as those of Ballyheige Bay ; and on the Cork and
Waterford coasts, though not common, it is observed occasionally
in autumn and winter. Larger numbers seem to visit the sandy
Wexford shores, and the North Bull, on its seaward side, is
a noted resort in Dublin Bay. The Baldoyle and Malahide
Estuaries, Drogheda Bay, and Duudrum beach in co. Down are
also visited, as well as Strangford and Belfast Loughs, though,
as stated above, few of these birds occur on the latter. Excellent
observers have failed to notice the Sanderling on Lough Foyle or
Lough Swilly, but on ISTaran and Bundoran strands it is not
uncommon in autumn. To the extensive sand-flats of Killala
Bay and the mouth of the Moy Mr. Warren finds it a regular
visitor, common in autumn, winter and spring, and it is known in
Achill as early as August and as late as June. It is said to be
common in Connemara (Thompson), and is found on Liscannor
Bay, CO. Clare. Thus the Sanderling appears to resort more to
the west of Ireland than to the south-east or north-east coasts,
probably from the occurrence in the west of great accumulations
of sand rich in animal life.
This species arrives so early and departs so late that no month
in the year is without records of it, and Thompson gives some even
for July. Dr. Patten informs me that early in August adults
appear on Dublin Bay still in summer plumage, and become
plentiful by the middle of that month, when they are changing
into their winter garb. Towards the end of August he found
old birds had almost disappeared, but the shore was dotted with
young ones freshly arrived ; and these, which were in small wisps,
he observed to remain until about October. The main arrivals
are noticed in Septemlier, and that ap])ears to be the chief month
of the autumn i)assage, for Sauderlings diminish in numbers
u 2
292
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
during winter. Tliey reappear in May on their sj^ring migration,
many being still found in June, having then assumed the nuptial
colouring. Such examples have been obtained both on Dublin
Bay and on the Mayo coast (Killala Bay and Achill) in the latter
month, and in Donegal Mr. Steele Elliott saw about fifty on
27th Mav, and a smaller flock on the 29th of that month. Dr.
Cox contrasted the small parties seen on Dublin Bay in autumn
with the large flocks he had observed there on their spring
jmssage.
The Sanderliug is not so wary of man's approach as most other
shore-birds. Ball noticed its habit of running rapidly to the
very base of a great retreating wave, and running back as swiftly
before the advance of the next one ; while Watters describes the
sandy surface near Malahide covered with flocks dispersed over it.
Every bird, after standing for a time motionless, would run some
ten or twelve yards and stop simultaneously, and then again pro-
ceed in concert as if impelled liy some mechanical contrivance.
THE EUFF. Machetes inignax (Linnaeus).
Rare yisitor, occurring chiefly in autumn, very seldom in spring.
Though a decidedly uncommon l)ird in Ireland the Euff has
been obtained m at least eighteen counties, of which thirteen are
maritime and some others lie along the Shannon. The localities
of its cai:>ture are so distributed in all the ]>rovinces as to show
that this l)ird has visited occasionally every cjuarter of the country,
though Dublin and Belfast Bays can show the longest list of
records, and there the Euff is probably an annual visitor. The
only considerable area of the island from which it has not been
announced lies in tlie midlands of Leinster and Ulster.
The following table shows the distribution of sixty-four instances of which
the localities are known : —
Kerry
Cork . .
Waterforcl
Clare . .
Tippcrary
Munstcr .
Wexford.
Wicklow.
Dublin .
Kildare .
1
3
10
4
rialway . .
Roscommon
Mayo . .
Slioo . . .
20
Armagh
Down ~|
Antrim J
Londonderry . 2
Donegal . . 5
S Leinster . 18 Connaught
9 Ulster
In fifty-six cases the months of occurrence were as follows : —
January. .— April. . . 1 July. ... 1 October.
February . 1 IMay ... 1 August ... 11 November
^larch . . 1 June ... — September. . 24 December
29
. 9
. 4
CHAEADrjID^E. 293
There have been other occurrences, in spring as well as in
autumn, of which the dates have not been preserved, but the
above figures show that the Euff is chiefly an autumn-visitor
from August to November, and that it has occurred far more
frequently in September than in any other month. A very few
have visited Ireland in spring, but none have been recorded in
June nor in the winter months of December and January.
There has been a great preponderance of immature birds
among those that have reached Ireland in autumn, but the
specimens obtained in spring have been chiefly in breeding-
plumage. Single birds or pairs have been met with in most
cases, though Thompson mentions small flocks of six or even
twelve Ruifs. On one occasion six were taken on the loth of
March in co. Kildare.
Many of the birds obtained in Ireland have been found on
boggy ground in inland situations, and some have been observed
to stand upon tussocks in the marsh ; others have been shot ou
flooded slob-land with four or five inches of water upon it ; others
again have been found on the sea-shore. In several cases they
were in company with flocks of Lapwings, Redshanks, Dunlins or
Knots, but were generally by themselves.
THE BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. Trmgites rufescens
(Vieillot).
Has been twice obtained.
In the Report of the Dublin Natural History Society for
1844-45 it is recorded that a Buff -breasted Sandjnper was
presented to the Society by J. Hill, who shot it near the Pigeon
House, Dublin Bay ; but the date was not mentioned. This
specimen passed with the rest of the above Society's collection to
the Science and Art Museum, Dublin.
A second was shot at the People's Park, co. Down, near Belfast,
about October 1864, by a Mr. Joyce, who, observing two birds
fly from the direction of the bay, first shot the above and then its
companion, which he did not presei-ve, as it was blown to pieces
(Zool, 1866, p. 389 and p. 457). The bird that was preserved was
immature, and is now in the Belfast Museiuu.
It may be observed that this American Sandpiper occurred in
both cases on the eastern side of Ireland, but at localities near
two large towns, whore it was more likely to be noticed and shot.
In the west such a Ijird might more easily esca]^>e observation.
294 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
BAETRAM'S SANDPIPER. Bartramia Zo/i^ictiMfZa (Bechsteiu).
Has been twice obtained, in autumn.
Unlike the last species, Bartram's Sandpiper is fouud to have
occurred in parts of Ireland not very remote from the western
shores.
The first specimen was obtained by Mr. Joseph Dunn, a Dublin
game-dealer, among other wildfowl sent him from Balliuasloe
in the autumn of 1855, and was ]>robably obtained in the valley
of the Shannon, or in that of its tributary the Suck, on which
Ballinasloe is situated. This bird was examined by A. G-. More.
The second, apparently an adult, was shot in a rushy field at
Neweestown, near Bandon, co. Cork, on 4th September 1894, and
is now in the collection of Mr. R. M. Barrington.
THE COMMON SANDPIPER. Totcmus liypolenais (Linneeus).
Common summer-visitor, breeding in almost every county.
During the breeding-season the Common Sandpiper is widely
spread in Ireland, inhabiting not only the lower mountain
loughs and rocky streams, but the lakes and rivers of low-lying
inland comities and nesting on marine islands, such as Achill
and Rathlin. I have nowhere seen it more common than along
the inland reaches of the Shannon, across whose gliding flood the
Sandpiper starts on the wing at every turn, uttering its j^iercing
notes ; while from Kerry to Antrim it may be found on lakes
of all sizes, though more especially on the shores of the larger
sheets of water, such as Loughs Derg, Corrib, Erne, andNeagh.
It is scarcer in the counties of Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, and
Wexford, where it is chiefly known on migration and breeds in
but few places ; corresponding in this feature of its distribution to
its scarcity in the south-east of England.
The Common Sandpiper usually appears in various parts of
Ireland from 14th April to the beginning of May, though I have
observed it on 12th April on the River Suir above Waterford, and
Mr. E. Williams noticed one on 3rd March {Field, 13th April
1872). Mr. Barrington has received specimens, chiefly early in
May, from various light-stations between Mine Head, in co.
CHAEADRIID.T.. 295
Waterford, and Eockabill, off Dul)liu, most uf tliein liaviug beou
taken on the Wexford coast.
In July and August the young broods with their pai'euts
frequent the muddy tidal rivers even in the south-east, and they
there form into small flocks, occasionally amounting to twenty or
thirty, which, however, do not consort with other waders. I have
also shot them in August on the cliffs of Ardmore Head, and
Thompson mentions different parts of the rocky (.'oast, as well as
the inner part of Belfast Lough, where he saw these birds in
July. He remarks that before leaving the country they frequent
the sea-shore, though they betake themselves directly to their
inland haunts when they arrive in spring. They are seldom seen
late in autumn, though there are records of occurrences in
November, December, and even in Januarj?, which have been well
attested ; for example, a specimen shot on the coast of Cork on
l-5th January was sent to Mr. Harting for inspection (Zool., 1884,
p. 115).
The Sandpiper sometimes lays very soon after its arrival, for
Mr. Parker has twice found complete sets of eggs on 2nd May
on Lough Derg, but I have often seen eggs during the first
half of June. The nest is usually placed in coarse grass,
occasionally under trees in a depression in deep moss or among
dead twigs, beech leaves, and rubbish. On an island where
several pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls were breeding a
Sandpiper cleverly placed her nest deep down between two large
stones, where her marauding neighbours could not easily reach
lier. Another nest was three feet up the trunk of an old sycamore
in a hollow formed by its uneven growth, and Thompson describes
the breeding of a pair of these birds in a gooseberry bush. I have
seen white and pallid eggs, which are more beautiful than similar
colourless eggs of Woodcock and Snipe, having a gi'eater gloss.
In the breeding-time the Sandpiper may sometimes be seen
fluttering or hovering at a considerable height, now and then
making a stoop obliquely towards the ground while it utters a trill.
This bird will fly in excitement towards a dog when it aj^proaches
her young, and an adult has been seen to alight bearing a little
one on her back.
This species can not only dive wdien w^ounded, but will swim for
-some distance under w-ater, using its wings as well as its feet (Mr.
H. Blake Knox, in ZuoJ., p. 8195 [1862] j.
296
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER. Toianus maculanus (LinnEeus).
Has been once obtained in Ireland.
In the Bulletin of the British Ornitholoo-ists' Union, No. LX., it
is stated that at their meeting- on the 15th of February 1899
"Mr. r. Curtis exhibited a specimen of the Spotted Sandpiper,
which had been shot on the 2nd of February, at Finnea, co.
Longford, bv Mr. Frank Eoberts. The bird, which proved to be
a female, was very tame, and was feeding at the time in a meadow
much trodden bv cattle by the side of the Eiver Finnea, within a
short distance of the village."
The village of Finnea is in Westmeath on the borders of
Longford and Cavau, and the river on which it is situated is the
Inny, which flows out of the neighbouring Lough Sheelin. The
locality is in the midlands, and the season of the year is an unusual
one for migrants.
This instance sets at rest the question of the occurrence of the
Spotted Sandpiper in the British Islands, which had been
previously much discussed, and it adds another species to the
American Limicolce that have been obtained in Ireland.
THE WOOD-SANDPIPER. Tofanu^ glareola (J. F. Gmelin).
Has been obtained four times in Ireland, in August and September.
The first well authenticated Wood- Sandpiper obtained in this
country was shot on Calary Bog, near the Sugar-loaf Mountain,
CO. Wicklow, by Mr. Smith Cregan on 23rd August 1885. It was
alone, and when it got up the flight reminded him of that of a
Snipe. This specimen was presented by the Eev. Dr. Benson to the
Dublin Museum.
On the same bog Dr. E. Blake Knox met with three birds on
1st August 1896, and shot one ; and again on the 3rd August he
shot another, both proving to be Wood-Sandi^pers.
A third occurrence took place in co. Mayo, on 5th Sej^tember
1898, when Mr. William Drury shot a bird of this species while
it was feeding on a piece of flooded grass-land in the middle of a
shallow lake two miles from Lough Cullin. This specimen
was exhibited l>y Mr. Howard Saunders Ijefore the British
Ornithologists' Club on 16th November 1898.
Another Wood- Sandpiper was shot when alone on a marsh near
CHArtADRIID/Ti:.
297
Tramore Bay, co. Waterford, on 25th August 1899, by Mr. J. F.
Knox. Owing to the heat of the weather this sj^ecimen was not
in a state to be mounted when it reached JJublin, but it was
identified by Mr. E. Williams (Irish Nat., 1899, p. 231).
THE G-REEN SANDPIPEE. Totanus ochropus (Linneeus).
Rare visitor, from August to February inclusive.
The Green Sandpiper has been obtained in at least twenty
counties, the majority of which are maritime ; but less frequently
on the western side of Ireland than elsewhere. It usually occurs
singly or in couples, but I have shot three together on the
Cappagh Lake, and though the bird is decidedly uncommon I
have obtained it in co. Waterford on three occasions at long
intervals ; while other jjersons have also met with it repeatedly. It
is probably an autumn-visitor which remains through the winter
but leaves before spring, as there appear to be no records of it
from March to July inclusive.
Eecords of sixty-niue instances which are available show the following
distribution : —
Kerry . .
2
Wexford .
1
Galwaj'
2
Down. .
. 3
Cork . . .
. 4
Carlow . .
2
Sligo .
5
Antrim .
. 6
Waterford .
. 7
Dublin . .
11
Tyrone .
. 1
Clare . .
. 1
Kildare
5
Donegal .
. 3
Limerick .
2
Queen's Co.
1
Tipperary .
. 4
Louth . .
Meath . .
Westmeath
1
G
2
Munster .
. 20
Leinster .
29
Connau
;ht.
7
Ulster .
. 13
January
. 11 April
February .
. 6 IMay
March . .
. — June
Fifty-three occurrences took place in the following mouths : —
. . — July ... — October . . 7
. . — August . . 10 November • 7
. . — September . 8 December . 4
The Green Sandpiper does not remain on the coast, but resorts
to rivers, lakes, and pools, often near trees, and when it visits a
locality may be seen there for weeks and even for months
together, as Mr. Ldugfield has observed near the Baudon Eiver.
Mr. E. Williams having procured one of these birds in full summer
plumage on the Dodder in August 1889, met with another at the
298 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
same place on 15th December, aud he observed it there repeatedly
uutil the middle of February, wheu it disappeared. He also had
one under observation from September until December 1893. It
used to wade into the water without any apparent reason, and
when it got beyond its depth would swim like a Water-hen to a
shallower spot. It was also fond of standing motionless for a
long time and would then suddenly waken up and begin to feed.
The cry, when heard at a distance, sounds like a person blowing
on a piped key. When flushed. Green Sandjjipers go olf with a
zig-zag flight as a Snipe does ; but though they may fly a long way,
even out of sight, they will often return to alight on the same
place. Birds of this species have been obtained in three different
years on the same little pond at Moyview, co. Sligo, as recoi'ded by
Mr. Warren.
THE COMMON REDSHANK. Totamis caUdrls (Linnaeus).
Resident, breeds in most Irish counties, and becomes very numerous
on the coasts in autumn and winter.
The Redshank is one of those waders most commonly found
breeding on marshes, lakes, and rivers in Ireland, and though less
numerous in the nesting-season than the Common Sandpiper, it is
absent at tliat time from a very few counties only, and these lie
chiefly in the south-east. In Munster generally it breeds far less
than in the other provinces, and a similar remark may l)e made of
western Gfalway aud Mayo, beyond the great chain of lakes. The
bird is common from April uutil July in the wetter parts of the
midlands, on islands in the lakes, the callows along the Shannon,
and on some marshes near tidal water.
In July Redshanks begin to remove from these haunts, and
towards the end of that month some arrive on the estuaries,
while during August they are noticed more commonly on the
coast. September and October bring a great influx of these birds,
which are most abundant in those months, but they continue to
frequent the shores of Ireland, and especially the tidal mud-
banks, through the winter and imtil April. So numerous are they
that a hundred and upwards have been repeatedly killed by one
discharge of a punt gun, and it has been remarked by Thompson
that they are more common on the shores of this country than on
those of Great Britain. Though inland localities ai-e generally
forsaken during the winter months, occasional individuals and
chaeadriid.t:. 299
even small flocks have been found there at that time of year, as
in the frost of January 1892, when Colonel Malone saw nine
together on Lough Iron.
The Migration Eeports contain scattered notices of Redshanks
from isolated stations in every month of the year, and these birds
appear to resort to remote islands of the west and north coasts
in an irregular manner at all seasons. This is the case to some
extent on the shores of the mainland also, for, as Thompson states,
"little flocks as well as single birds and pairs occur on the coast in
the height of summer, though in the breeding-season not more
than one will be met witli for a hundred at other times about our
shores." Such birds are evidently not breeding and are probably
but one year old.
For a ground-breeding bird the Eedshauk lays, early, about the
middle of April and sometimes a little sooner, though eggs may
be taken in May and even in June. Its favourite resorts at that
season are grassy or rushy islands in those lakes which afford
good feeding-grounds ; lakes with stony bottoms and shores being
seldom frequented ; while quiet marshes, whether in the heart of
the country or adjoining marine inlets, like Loughs Foyle and
Swilly, are used as breeding-places. Mauy Redshanks nest in
favoui'ite spots, among which I may specially mention the
preserved marshes at Granston, in Queen's County, those beside
Lough Iron, in Westmeath, and the wet meadow-lands along the
Shannon. When the intruder approaches their resorts, the crowd
of these birds driven to take wing keep up a continuous piping.
At such places one of these birds may frequently be seen to launch
itself upwards from the ground with rapidly vibrating wings, and
then, holding its extended wings rigid with a downward slant,
the bird descends slowly to the ground like a parachute, much in the
same way as a Curlew or Dunlin acts in the nesting-season. The
Redshank will alight on a bush, rail, or top of a ruined castle, to
command a view of an intruder, all the while uttering its excited
alarm-cry, which has given it the name of " Tu hu " in the north
of Ireland. It will also chase a Heron from its home.
The nest is lined with dried grass and is comfortably sunk
among rushes or coarse grass, sometimes in the centre of the tuft,
and sometimes beside it ; but I have found eggs on a small island
where the herbage was not long enough to conceal them.
Thompson's statements as to Redshanks laying on gravelly or
shingly beaches like the Ringed Plover seem to have been derived
from the mistakes of boatmen. In a favourite spot where several
species were breeding, Mr. Warren has found a nest of this bird
300
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
among heather not three yards from that of a Teal and from
another nest of a La^^wing.
Mr. Campbell relates how he and two friends were searching a
breeding-haunt for nests of Redshanks, which were dashing about
excitedly on the wing, when a bird was observed running across
the ground the party had left. It was then found that she was
leading a little nestling l)ack to that pa.rt of the marsh that had
been quitted Iw the searchers (Irish Nat., 1894, p. 188).
THE SPOTTED EEDSHANK. Totanus fuscus (Linnseus).
(Br KoBERT Warren.)
Very rare visitor, chiefly from August to November and December;
it has, however, occurred twice in January, once in February,
and once in April.
The Spotted Kedshauk is not known to have been obtained in
Ireland on more than eight occasions, yet there is good evidence of
its more frequent visits to our shores, chiefly during the autumnal
migration. Including these, the total number of its occurrences
will amount to twenty-six, and in some of these instances the bird
has fi'equented the same locality for weeks or even months
together. These occurrences were as follows : — In co. Cork, one ;
Dublin, six ; Kildare, one ; Sligo, seven ; Mayo, ten ; Down, one.
Those in Mayo and Sligo took place on the Moy Estuary, Killala
Bay, and all of them came under my personal observation. The
fondness of this bird for the coasts and tidal estuaries should be
noticed, there being only two instances from inland localities.
Cork. — An immatm'e female, iu Museum. Two observed at the North
company with Common Redshanks, Bull, September 1888, by Mr. Edward
was shot near Foaty, on a branch of Williams. One, shot among a flock
Cork Harbour, on 26th December of Common Redshanks at the North
1898 (:Mr. W. B. Barrington) . Bull, iu August 1890, by ]\Ir. A. Rohu,
Dublin.—One shot in the mill-race, and :now in the Science and Art
Boherabreeua, an inland locality, iu Museum, Dublin. A bird of the year,
the winter of 1851, by Dr. J. R. shot by Mr. E. Williams on the
Kinahau (Proc. D. U. Zool. Assoc, Baldoyle Estuary, 21th September
25th November 1851). This may be 1S91, and now iu his own collection,
the specimen in Trinity College One observed at the same place on
Museum, which, like other specimens 3rd October 1892 by Mr. E. Williams.
of that period, is without data. As One observed at the North Bull, 7th
Kinahan was a member of the September 1891, by ]Mr. E. Williams
Association, and a College official, he and Dr. Patten,
probably presented it to the College Kildare. — One, an immature bird,
chaPlADpjid.t:.
301
shot near Sallins, and received 27tli
September 1886 by ]\Iessrs. Williams
& Sou, now in the Dublin Museum.
Mayo and Sligo.— One shot on
14th January 1867 by myself, now in
the Queen's College Museum, Cork.
One shot on 30th October 1876, near
Kosserk Abbey, by myself, and still
in my possession. Fifteen others
have been observed by me from time
to time in different parts of the
estuary oi the ]Moy and adjacent
channels, the dates being as follows : —
Late in December 1868; 13th Sep-
tember 1869 ; 15th November 1871 ;
27th October 1874 ; 23rd April 1875 ;
4th September and 13th October
1876 ; 3rd November 1877, and several
days after; 22nd September 1878;
14th March 1882; 14th November
1883 ; 8th October and 13th Novem-
ber 1884; 19th February 18S5 ; 3rd
October and 25th November 1886;
18th September and 9th October and
27th December 1887 ; 20th October
1888. Since the latter date none
have come under my notice, though
shooting regularly every season with
my punt-gun in the iloy Estuary.
Down. — The first recorded Irish
specimen, shot by the late Wm.
Thompson, on 22nd August 1823, at
Holywood, Belfast Bay (" Natural
History of Ireland," Vol. II., p. 200).
In their habits, the birds that have come under niv observation
resemble the common species, frecjueutiug the sanie feeding-haunts
along the shores^ and associating with them both when feeding and
resting. In consequence of this companionship the Sjiotted Eed-
shank passes unnoticed, unless attention is attracted by the peculiar
call-note, so unlike that of any of our other waders. Its extreme
wildness, too, in nearly every instance prevents its being recognized
until its cry betrays its presence, by which time it has got out of
range ; and on such occasions its strong and lofty flight has
surprised me. iov it generally rose like a wild Snipe, soaring to a
great height, and going right off out of sight. The peculiar call-
note is a double one, and can only be imitated by whistling, for it
is impossible to describe it in writing so as to be recognized. It
has also a loud harsh cry when alarmed, and this also is, in my
opinion, indescribable. When seen in flight, the dai'k wings offer
a striking contrast to the white barred ones of the common
species. Other aids to identification are the long, slender, red
legs and long bill, and a peculiar dark streak between its bill
and eye.
302 EIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE GEEENSHANK. Totanvs canescens (J. F. G-melin).
(By Egbert Waeeex.)
A regular winter-visitor in small numbers, generally distributed round
the coast, wherever there are suitable feeding-grounds, but not
known to breed in Ireland.
To most of the Ijays aud estuaries of Ireland, from noi'th to
south, this fine Sandpiper is a regular visitor ; and it is found
throughout the year, except for the short period it is absent at
its breeding-haunts. It seldom wanders inland, though occasion-
ally met with by lakes and rivers. Mr. E. J. Ussher has shot it at
his lake at Cappagh, eo. Waterford ; Mr. Young, of Brockley Park,
Queen's County, mentions that it occasionally occurs in winter on
the Eiver Barrow in his district ; and Mr. A. Parker has a specimen
shot at Castle Lough (;»n the Tipperary side of Lough Derg. In
the south of Ireland, especially a1>out Cork Harbour, the Green-
shank is common, but nowhere numerous ; little groups of three to
five birds may lie seen feeding about the bays and estuaries of that
fine harbour. The bays between Monkstown and Eingaskiddy,
Currabinny, and Loughbeg, and the estuary of the Carrigaline Eiver
near Coolmore, are favourite haunts. In the west of Ireland, the
estuary of the Moy, l'>etween the counties of Mayo and Sligo, is
a favourite feeding-ground of Crreenslianks. and there they may be
met the entire season, scattered aliout the shores, feeding in little
flocks at low tide, then, when the tide rises and covers the feeding-
grounds, they collect together to rest on the shore of some island
until the eV>liing tide leaves the sands again exposed. In the
l()ughs and bays of the north of Ireland their haliits are similar.
Dr. Parke, of Newtownards, says " that at Straugford Lough,
CO. Down the Greenshanks are with us all the year round " (except
when at their breeding-haunts), " but are not at all plenty, only
an odd bird or two now and then." In Lough Swilly, Professor
Leebody and Mr. D. C. Campliell's experiences are somewhat
similar.
The Greenshank is the earliest of our waders to return from its
breeding-haunts, sometimes appearing before the end of June,
when I have shot both adults and young. In 1878 they returned
earlier than usual, for on the 19th of June I met a flock of four-
teen on the Island of Baunros, and shortly after among the
islands near Eosserk Alibey, in company with al>out seventy Eed-
shanks. On the 29th I met them again, when their numbers had
CHARADRIID^. 303
increased to twenty, while the ranks of the Eedshanks had risen
to nearly two hundred birds. When the Greenshanks return
from their breeding-grounds the flocks keep together for some weeks,
or longer, but afterwards se|>arate, to settle down for the season,
and scatter round the shores in little groups of two to five, some-
times only a solitary bird being seen. This habit of separating
into small flocks may have given rise to the idea that on some
parts of the coast Greenshanks are only seen in autumn and early
winter, and later on become scarcer, or disappear altogether. The
fact is that the birds are feeding in retired creeks and inlets,
especially where streams of fresh water run down from the land,
and thus escape the notice of the casual observer, who may walk
for miles along a harbour or estuary without seeing a bird.
On the 1st of Sej^tember 1881 I witnessed a most interesting-
flight of a Peregrine at a Greenshank, and was surprised at the
swimming and diving powers exhibited in escaping. The latter
■ bird was crossing the channel from Rosserk to the Moyview shore
when pursued by the Falcon, and, uttering the most piteous cries
at each stoop of the Hawk, it dropped into the water, diving to
escape the terrible clutch, and then, when the Peregrine soared
upwards from the stoop, it rose from the water and continued its
flight to the shore. Three times the Falcon jiut the Greenshank
to the water, but after the last dive it reached the shore and
hid among the seaweed, while the Peregrine waited on, hovering
over the place of concealment until I ran down and scared the
latter off.
THE EED-BEEASTED SNIPE. Macrorhamphus (jrisem
(J. F. Gmelin).
Has been twice obtained, in the same autumn and in adjoining inland
counties.
The first Irish-taken specimen of this American species was
received in Dul>lin on 29th September 1893, with a lot of Snipe
sent from Maryborough, Queen's Covinty. Mr. E. Williams, who
obtained it, stated that it w^as an immature female in autumn
plumage (Irish Nat., 1893, p. 302), and it is now in the Science
and Art Museum, Dublin.
A second specimen, which proved to be an adult female, was
received on 11th October in the same year, 1893, with a l)undle of
Snipe from co. Tipperary by Mr. F. Coburn, taxidermist. Binning-
304 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
ham, and was sent to Professor Newton, wlio noticed that the
measurements corresponded rather with the western than with
the eastern form (Barrett-Hamilton, in Irish Nat., 1893, p. 323).
THE BAE-TAILED GODWIT. Linwsa lapponica (Linnaeus).
(By Egbert Warren.)
A regular winter-visitor, common, and numerous in some of the larger
bays and estuaries of the East and West coasts, but scarcer in
those of the North and South ; a few occasionally remaining all
through the summer.
The Bar-tailed Godwit appears to be regularly distributed
round the coast of Ireland, among the bays and estuaries where
there are extensive tracts of sand and mudbanks.
In the south of Ireland it is common in Cork Harbour, remain-
ing all the winter ; while in the other bays and estuaries south-
west of Cork Harliour it is much scarcer, for, according to
Captain A. Morgan, of Bunalun, Skibbereen, " during an
experience of forty years' punt-gun shooting on that part of the
coast he has never seen any large flocks, only little parties of five
or six birds together."
In Dublin Bay, on the east coast, the late Dr. Cox states, in
Zoologist for 1879, p. 478: " Bar-tailed Godwits common; a few
may lie seen in August, after this they increase each month till
November, when hundreds may l)e seen along the coast. In mid-
winter the flocks are larger along the shores of Sutton, Dollymount,
and Cloutarf. In severe winters fewer remain, hard weather
driving them further south. In early sjjring there are always
fresh arrivals in small fiocks ; these have nearly all disappeared
by the end of April." In 1899 birds remained on the North Bull,
Dublin Bay, as late as 7th of June (Dr. Patten, in Irish Naturalist,
1899, p. 256).
In Mayo, on the west coast, Mr. J. R. Sheridan states " that
large flocks spend the winter in the vicinity of Innisbiggle, a
large island east of Achill, and between Ballycroy and Achill."
On the Moy Estuary and Killala Bay these birds are very
numerous. They begin to arrive in August, and continue
coming all through September and October ; by the end of the
last-named month they may be seen in very large numbers on
the sands ; their favourite haunt being on the western side of
the estuary, between Moyne Abbey and Bartragh. Flocks from
CHABAPEIID.-E. 305
one liimdred to five liuudred InnU are seen, l)ut one to two
hundred would be about the average. They remain all the winter,
and severe weather does not appear to affect them. In March
small flocks begin to arrive, followed bv others iu April and the
beginning of May ; but they only remain for a short time on their
way to the breeding-idaces, and by the end of the month the
greater part have left, though some linger on through June and
July, and even into August.
In the north of Ireland, according to Tliom]:)SOu, although
niimerous at the time of autumnal migration, they move on, only
a few remaining during the winter. This is corroborated hy
Mr. D. C Camjjbell, of Londonderry, who says of Lough Swilly :
" Tlie Bar-tailed Godwit is fairly common in eai"ly winter ; a few
remain till spring, when their numbers are largely increased."
In Lough Foyle, he says, " Small flocks of six or seven birds are
seen in winter, and occasionally shot l\v punt-gunners." Professor
Leebody, of Londonderry, also considers them scarce in winter
about Inch, on Lough Swilly.
It is strange that amongst the hundreds of biixls seen in s])ring
on their way to the north the red-breasted bird in nuptial
plumage is seldom ol:>served ; iu fact so very seldom that I have
recorded the few I have met. The first I ever saw was on the
]Oth of June 1852, when a pair were among a flock of fifty pale
coloured birds. On the 2nd of June 1866 I saw a pair in full
breeding plumage among a large flock of light coloured birds
and Knots, and on the 2ud of August 1878 three red-breasted
birds were observed among fifty others in the light grey of
winter. A remarkable fact connected with these birds is that
after the greater part have left fi:)r their nesting-haunts, some
birds, jirobably too young to breed, remain throughout the summer
about the estuary, without assuming the nuptial plumage.
During the months of March and April 1878 G-odwits were
scarcer than usual, little flocks of only twenty to thirty Ijeing
met with, although })reviously very lunuerous during the winter.
However, considerable additions were made to their numliers early
in May, and after the greater part of them had left for the
north a good many remained through June and July, and into
August. On June 12th I observed twenty l)irds, all in the grey
phunage, near this pkice ; and on the ll'th, wishing to ascertain
whether the birds still remained, I went doAvn the river in my
punt to a favourite haunt near Bartragh, where I met with a flork
of rather more than a hundred and twenty, and, after looking at
them for a long time through my glass. I was aide to distinguish
X
306 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
only a solitary iudiviJual in the rod plumage, all the rest showing
the grey backs and white underparts of winter. Ten days after,
I.e., the 29th of June, I went down again, and saw about the same
number of birds, and although I carefully examined them through
my glass I was unable to make out a red-breasted bird amongst
them. While watching the Godwits I was surprised at seeing
twenty Knots, and these were also in the grey plumage ; so, wishing
to examine some specimens, I shot two Grodwits and a Knot, none
of which showed any trace of summer-plumage, while the Knot
and one of the Godwits had even begun the autumnal moult, the
young sprouting feathers being of a light grey colour. When
I'eturning, I saw among a small flock of the Bar-tailed Godwits
a pair of the Black-tailed species in full summer-plumage, with
their chestnut-coloured breasts shining in the sunlight. I was
unalile to look after these again until the 2nd of August, when I
found at the same place about fifty Bar-tailed Godwits. three of
which showed reil breasts, though much jialer in colour than the
breasts of the Black-tailed seen ]>reviously. This flock was
evidently part of that seen on the 29th of June, their excessive
wariness prcjving almost conclusively that they were not birds
lately returned from the breeding-haunts ; for the latter, both old
and young, are much tamer and more easily apj^roached than
those that have remained about the shores throughout the season.
Note from IrisJi Naturalist (August, ISO'J, p. 1S7). — An unusually large
number of Bar-tailed Godwits have remained about the sands of the bay
and estuary this summer. When returning in my boat from Bartragh
on the 5th of July, I observed about a hundred birds on the shore of Baunros.
On the 13th of June, on the sands near ]Moyne Abbey, I saw several flocks,
numbering fully 150 birds altogether, and among one small group I observed
a bird in the red plumage of summer, a very unusual sight in this district,
for the birds in this garb do not pass along this coast to their breeding-
haunts as they do on the east coast of England ; tlie birds, with few excep-
tions, that frequent this coast lieing apparently immature — too young for
reproduction.
Robert Warken.
THE BLACK-TAILED GOD WIT. L;mo.<>n heh/ica
(J. F. Gmelin).
Occasional visitant, chiefly in August and the autumn months.
From its repeated dccurrtnces on Belfast Lough, Thompson
<;ousidered the Black-tailed Godwit an annual visitor to Ireland
iu autumn ; lait though it has l)een recorded in a great many
CHAKADRIID.E.
307
instauees, aud occasiouallj in small flocks, it is still a scarce and
imeertain bird, much rarer than the Bar-tailed Godwit. As iu
the (.'ase of other irreg-ular visitors, it has been obtained iu
several parts of the country iu some seasous, while other years
are without any record of it. Leinster is the province most
frequently visited, then Munster, after that Ulster and Connaught ;
while, of sixty-two cases available for reference, fifty-two occurred
in fourteen maritime counties and ten in six inland counties.
August aud September are the mcmths in which Black-tailed
Godwits chiefly find their way to' Ireland, and through the autumn
tnonths, including November, observaticms have been more frequent
than at any other season. In winter these birds are vei-y rare,
and there is no record for February. A very few have been
obtained, chiefly inland, in spring ; one in June, on the Moy ; aud
a pair in Longford iu July. Another pair were shot on a small
lake near Clonmacnoise on the Shannon, l\v Mr. A. Grant in
August. Birds in summer-plumage have been seen or obtained
on the Moy Estuary in May aud June (Mr. Warren).
Fifty-three instances, in some of which more than one bird is
included, took place iu the following months : —
January .
. -2 April . .
. ?, July . .
. 1 October .
. 4
FelDruary .
. — May . .
. 3 August .
. 13 November
. 7
:MaTch . .
. 2 June . .
. ] September
. 16 December
. 1
THE COMMON CURLEW. Num^^nius arquata (Linnanisj.
Resident and numerous. Breeds more or less in all the provinces, and
is abundant in autumn and winter on the coasts, where some
remain through the summer.
The Curlew lireeds extensively iu Ireland, chiefly on the great
flat bogs, also <;)u the mountain-ranges, l)ut in Munster it has fewer
summer resorts than elsewhere. In that province a few nest on
the upland moors of Kerry, Cork, Clare and Limerick, and many
do so on the bogs of the great central plain, which includes most
of Tipperary and the greater part of the Leinster counties. On
the Dublin and Wicklow mountains Curlews also breed, as well as
on bogs and mountains in many parts of Ulster aud Connaught.
During the summer a variable number of non-lireediug birds,
occasioually in flocks, frequent the (-oasts and islauds. and I have
seen a small flock ou Lougli Neagh in June ; wliilc late iu tliat
X 2
308 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
mouth and early iu July great numbers have lieen seen from
Dungarvan lighthouse, flying westward (Migration Eeports).
The resident birds with their young eome down to the estuaries
in July, and in September there is an extensive transmarine immi-
gration. Through autumn this species appears in the largest
numbers on the shores and tidal rivers, where the birds usually
continue, until in spring the residents betake themselves to their
inland resorts and the winter-visitors depart. During Avinter
many are also found on the lakes and rivers of inland counties,
and in severe frost Curlews disperse themselves over the country ;
but when the fields are frozen hard for any considerable time
numbers perish.
In March a great northward migration has been oliserved at
Limerick and up the Shannon Valley, as well as over the cities of
Waterford, "Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry ; in several country
towns too, as Skibbereen and Charleville in the south, and Omagh
in the north of Ireland, a similar movement has been noticed in
March or April. This has been heard going on for hours during
dark nights, when the lights in the towns induce the birds to
lower their usually lofty flight on migration. The loud, piercing-
cries of flocks of Curlews a.ttract the attention of many on such
occasions, and are recorded as phenomenal. Thus the routes
followed do not appear to be confined to the coast-lines, and the
great numbers migrating in a northerly direction — over London-
derry for instance — indicate a departure from this country,
probaldy to Scotland or ISTorthern Euro]>e. This is corrol^orated
by entries iu the Migrati<.)n Reports from the Maidens (light-
houses off CO. Antrim), where Curlews are often observed in March
and April passing to the north and north-east, and in those
months the m(_>vemeut is noticeable all round Ireland.
From the alcove it may be remarked that the spring migration
of the Curlew is oftener ol»served than that (.)f any other bird.
The outlying islands of the north and west coasts are visited,
or used as resorts, through the year ; and Rathlin O'Birne seems
to be a regular roostiug-place, which is quitted during the day for
the mainland of Donegal. The occurrence of Curlews on such
l^recipitous i-ocks as the Tearaght and the Skelligs, and the
frequency with which the species is noticed at lightships, show
what an hal:)itual wanderer it is ; and three individuals have been
seen flving away from the direction of laml aljout twenty miles off
the south-west coast.
Thompson has gi^en a pL/asing descrij'tiou of the Curlews
which frequent the nntd-banks of Belfast Lough, and, as the
CHAEADRIID-E. 309
tide covers their feediug-grouuJs, regularly lly oft' iu V formatiou
to isolated rocks outside the bay, where they await the retreat
of the waters ; while the same thing has been noticed by Mr.
Palmer in Achill Sound, where a small flat island is completely
covered with Curlews at high Avater. This is indeed a common
habit of waders, but the Curlew confines itself less than other
shore-birds to a diet of marine organisms ; and often feeds in the
fields, where it is quick to discover a spot abounding in insects.
Thus kinds five hundred feet aV)Ove the sea in co. Cavan have been
visited by large numbers for the sake of the little grubs which
were plentiful at the time under the cow-dung (Mr. J. A. Faris).
Though Curlews do not breed iu colonies, many pairs may be
found inhabiting the same bog, in the grassy or rushy parts of
which they love to nest, like the bog of Meulough south of
Lough Corrib ; but numlDers are scattered over the vast ex]:»anses
of heather, such as those along the lonely reaches of the Shannon
between Loughs Derg and Ree, and the extensive red bogs of King's
and Queen's Counties, Westmeath, Longford and Koscommon.
I have also seen them nesting on a great floe-bog on the Antrim
mountains near a colony of Lesser Black-backed dulls.
As one walks over their summer haunts these birds come flying
towards the object of their alarm with a quivering whistle which
is not a mere warning-note ; it is freely uttered throughout their
breeding-grounds, where the Curlew, like the Redshank, may be
seen flying up with rapid strokes, and having attained a certain
elevation, projects itself on oixtstretched wings until it descends
like a parachute to the ground.
The eggs are laid in the latter part of April or during May, a
set that I saw having been taken on the Antrim mountains on
the 26th of the latter month. The locality was probably one of
the latest in Ireland.
I have nutes >>f six albino or white and l)uff specimens oljtained
on different occasions ; one of these is in the Dul)liu Museum,
and another, which was shot on the Barrow, is at Brockley Park.
310
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE WHIMBREL. Namenins i^neopm (Limiteus).
Common visitor on migration ; abundant in spring, but much less
numerous in autumn.
The Wliiinbrel, as Tliompson I'emai'ks, is the only bird iu this
order which is of regailar double jjassage, and differs from allied
species iu being more numerous on the spring migration than at
any other time.
The Migration Eejjorts show that Hocks of VVhimbrels arrive
late in April and early in May at all our south coast stations,
from the Fastnet to Coningbeg, flying northward. This seems to
indicate that they reach Ireland f n)m some point further south than
those migrants which chiefly strike the Wexford coast on arrival.
The inland direction of their flight at that time should be considered
in conjunction with the fact that they do not confine themselves to
the coasts ; though they abound along the latter in May, both on
the east and west sides of the island. Whiml)rels largely avail
themselves on migration of the chain of gi'eat lakes that lie
between Galway and Killala Bays, as well as of the Shannon
Valley, and are commonly observed in May on the lakes and bogs
of the adjoining counties and in those of the eastern parts of
King's and Queen's Counties.
But though they disperse themselves widely in the Midlands,
they also, between April and June, visit the most distant islands
of Mayo and Donegal, sometimes lingering there for weeks ; and
no part of the Irish coast seems to l)e unvisited l)y the Whimbrel
in its season. The return movement early in autumn is observed
both along the East and West, aud there is evidence from light-
stations in the South-West, which if hereafter corroborated, may
throw fresh light on the autumn migration of this species.
The earliest date on which the Whimbrel has been recorded is
1st April, when the bird was met with on Dublin Bay l>v Cox, but
it is rarely seen until the concluding days of that month, at which
time, or about the 1st May. it apjtears all round Ireland, and, as
Mr. Warren has ol)served, it is of all our summer-visitors the
most regular in the time (tf its arrival. It usually disappears
early in June, but I have heard the call-notes of Whimbrels over
Muckross on the night of 27th June. Some birds reappear in
July, chiefly in the north of Ireland, where Thompson observed
Whimbrels in that month for ten successive years, usually about
the middle, bat on two occasions early in July. I)uring August
CHARADEIID.E. 311
they are more frecjueiit, thuugli far from approaching iu numbers
the flocks seeu iu May. Soine are observed iu September, but
rarely iu October, though records for November are uot wautiug ;
aud Colonel Irby has stated that this sjjecies has occurred on the
west coast iu winter (" Sauuders's Manual of British Birds").
In spring the flocks of Whimbrels keep chiefly by themselves,
but in autumn they are found iu company with Curlews and
with Groclwits. They not only feed on the oozy mud-banks, but
on rocks and inland fields, and unless associated with Curlews are
not so diflicult to api:)roach.
There is no record of this bird breediuL;' in Ireland.
THE ESKIMO CURLEW. Nianenhts horealis (J. R. Forster).
Has been once obtained in Ireland.
A specimen of the Eskimo Curlew, presented tu the Dublin
Museum by the late Sir Victor Brooke, was obtained at the
establishment of a Dublin poulterer in October 1870, where it
was seen on the 21st, Init remained until the 28th of that month
exposed for sale. It was then purchased fur sixpence, so that its
rarity was not susjiected by the seller.
Mr. H. Blake Knox, who mentions some of these circumstances
(Zool. s. s., p. 2408 [1870]), remarks that, as no game was then
sent from America at the season when this liird was obtained, it
was in all p>robability killed in Ireland ; and A. CI. More was in-
formed that it was shot in co. Sligo (" List of Irish Birds," ji. 26).
The most reasonable conclusiuu from the al»ove evidence is that
the bird was killed in Ireland.
312 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
Older GAVI.E.
Family LAEID.E.
Sub-family Sternin.e.
THE BLACK TEEX. HijdrocJielidon nigra (Liimceus).
Rare and irregular visitor, chiefly in autumn, and in immature
plumage.
The Black Teni has been recorded from twelve or thirteen
counties, all but two of which are maritime, and has been more
frecj^uently obtained on DuViliu Bay than in any other locality ; but
from its occurrence in all the provinces, thou^'h in few instances, it
can only ])e considered a straggler to this country.
The distribution of these cases is as follows: — Kerry (3), Cork (7), Water-
ford (5), Tipperary (1), Dublin (11), Louth (2), Mayo (2), Leitrim (1),
Armagh? (1), Antrim and Down (5), Londonderry (1), Donegal (2). Couples
or small flocks are included in a few of the instances, but in the great
majority there were single birds.
The months are only stated in twenty-four cases, but these show that the
autumn is the chief season of this bird's visits to Ireland, though a few have
appeared in IMay, but none during the first quarter of the year, as the
following figures show : —
. . 1 July 1 or more October . . 9
. . i August . . 2 November . 1
. . — September . 5 December . 1
Of the spring instances our is recorded by Mr. E. "Williams
(Zoo!., 1890, p. 27-5), who on 24th May saw a little flock of eight
or ten at the Britlas ponds, on the borders of Dublin and
Wicklow, but when he went there a few days afterwards they had
disappeared. Besides the cases mentioned above, Mr. C. Long-field
observed a Black Tern on the Bandon River, eo. Cork, which appeared
in spring with a flock of Sancl-Martins. There is no notice of the
bird's occurrence in June, but Ball informed Thompson that in
the month of July for several successive years he had observed a
number of Black Terns frec|uentiug a lake at Roxborough, near
Middletou, co. Cork. As to the time when this took place, it is
only said that it was long liefore 1834, and this might carry us
back to Ball's early days. It is therefore most unsafe, as Watters
points out, to conclude from it, with Sir W. Jardine, that this
species has bred in Ireland.
Four or five were seen in company, on the estuary of the Mov,
January . .
— Apri;
February . .
— ^lay
IMarch . . .
— June
GAVI.E .
313
by Mr. Warren, on litli OcTober 18-5;». He remarked tliem
hawking for flies, in pursuit oi wliicli they made very sudden and
adroit turns on the wing. He shot a eoupk^ which were in the
first season's plumage.
Though the great majority that have visited Ireland have been
immature birds, adults have also been (jbtained on several
occasions.
Some have frequented the same locality for several successive
days, as one which was seen from the 7th to the 14th of August
on Lough Melvin ; another was obtained on Lough Neagh, and
the only other specimen from an inland locality, not near a lake
or tidal river, was shot by Mr. Purefoy in co. Tipperary as it was
flying over a wood.
The absence of suspicion exhibited l)y some of the birds has
been noticed, and I made a note of this in the case of two that
I saw on Ardmore Bay, in September 1858. They kept flying
about in such close proximity to the boats as tt:> give me a good
opportunity of observing their plumage, which resembled that of
the upper figure in Yarrell's woodcut.
Dr. Fnrrau noticed a Black Tern on Clonea Marsh, co.
Waterford, which, instead of plunging into the water after its
prey like other Terns, alighted with its feet on the surface, and
picked up its food there, after the manner of the smaller Gulls
(Thompson, III., p. 306).
THE WHITE-WINC4ED BLACK TERN. HydrocheUdon
Jei'C'i^ifera (Schinz).
Rare and accidental visitor, on the spring and autumn migrations.
The White-winged Black Tern has been obtained six times in
Ireland; namely, four times in dilferent counties of Munster and
twice on Dublin Bay. It is not stated that more than one was
met with on any of these occasions. Two of the instances were in
May, two in June, and one in October, while the date of the
sixth is unknown.
Clare.— One was obtained in the the adjoining county of Limerick
vicinity of Xewmarket-on-Fergus, on and received by ilessrs. Williams &
25th June 1893, while hawking for Sou for preservation in June 1875
flies over a small lake (E. Williams, {Field, 5t]i June 1875).
in Iris/i lYai., 1893, p. 253). It is now Tipperary.— A l)ird that had frc-
in the Dublin :\Iuseum. quented the lake at Templcmoro
Limerick. — Another was killed in Abbey for some days was shot there
314 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
by the late Sir Johu Garden on 21st Dublin.— The first recorded in the
May 1874, and was afterwards pre- Britisli Islands was obtained near the
sented to Mr. F. Foljambe, of Osber- mouth of the Liffey, on Dublin Bay,
ton Hall, Notts. in October 1841 ; the same locality
Waterford. — Another was shot on produced another specimen, shot by
a small lake near Cappagh on 13th JNIassey, which passed into Watters"
May 1875, by my gamekeeper, collection, but no date is recorded in
Richard Wolfe, and is in the Dublin connection with it (Thompson, III.,
Museum. This example was obtained p. 307).
shortly before the co. Limerick speci-
men.
THE WHISKEEED TERN. HijdroclieVidou hyhrida (Pallas).
Has been once obtained.
The only specinieu uf the Whiskered Teru identified in Ireland
was shot between Ringsend and the Pigeon-House Fort, at the
mouth of the Lilfev, in September 1839, by John Hill (Thomp-
son, in "Annals of Nat. Hist.," Vol. XX., p. 170). The bird,
which was in adult plumage, passed with the collection of T. W.
Warren to the Dublin Museum, where it is still preserved.
A record appeared in the Z<>oIuird
near the Island of Bartragh, Killala Bay. Having previously
resided in the south of Ireland the bird was quite unknown to
me, and when the attention of my brother and myself was first
attracted by its peculiar cry, we were much puzzled, and for
a long time we could not make out what bird uttered it or from
what direction it proceeded. However, chancing to look upwards,
we were just able to perceive some Ijirds soaring and wheeling
about at an immense height, and all the time screaming loudly.
This wild flight and strange cry, so unlike that of any bird
we knew, induced us t«-> watcdi them until they low^ered their
flight to the water, then, getting into our l)oat and shooting a
couple, to our great delight we recognized this Teru, and in such
perfect breeding-plumage that the lireasts and uuderparts were
suffused with a rusy tinge almost as deep as that of a Roseate
Tern. This habit of soaring to such a height as to be almost
out of sight, and w^heeling in wide circles, screaming and chasing
each other, is most frequent early in the season, before the
females are sitting, though it may occasionally be witnessed in
August and September, but almost invariably on fine, bright days.
Although seeing the birds every season, I was unable to find out
where they l)red until May 1857, when I w\as told of a small lough
at Cloonagh, two miles from Ballina, where small Gulls had nests.
On visiting Cloonagh, I saw a small lough of 20 to 30 acres in
extent nearly surrounded by Ijog, having a small wooded island
at the end, from which a dense bed of reeds and bullrushes
extended far out into the water. A large colony of Black-headed
Gulls had nests amongst the reeds and on the ttissocks of coarse
grass along the margin of the luugh ; while a small party of
316
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Sandwich Terns were located on a low, flat mudbank, scarcely
above tlie level of tlie water. Most of the Terns' nests were
merely slight depressions in the soil, thinly lined with a few
l-^lades of dried grass, and generally contained three eggs each.
Although not later than the last week in May, incubation was so
far advanced that 1 had great difficulty in blowing the few eggs I
had taken. The succeeding winter and spring were unusually
wet, and the water in the lake rose so high as to cover the mud-
bank, causing the Terns to shift their quarters three miles off to
Rathroeen Lake, which they have continued to frecjueut ever
since. Kathroeeu is much larger than Cloonagh, and is also nearly
surrounded by bog, having very swampy shores except on the
east side, and a large quantity of reeds extending out to a small
round island in the middle. This island is about 25 to 30 yards in
diameter and has some l3uslies growing round the outer edge. A
very large c()lony of Black-headed Gulls have nests on the island
and amongst the reeds, as well as on the tussocks and bunches of
long grass round the lough ; while a smaller colony of Sandwich
Terns nest together on a bare sj»ot on the island, and many others
are scattered round, luit all on the island. This lake and adjoin-
ing land l^elonged to the late Sir C. Knox-Grore, who strictly
preserved it, not allowing the birds to be disturbed or molested,
and having the long grass and reeds removed to give the birds
more s|>ace for their nests ; the result of this protection l)eing
that the Sandwich Terns have increased largely in numbers, and
Miss Kuox-Grore told me that, when visiting the lake in 1886,
they ('ounted 150 nests of Sandwich Terns on the island. I am
hap]>y to add that the Inrds are still preserved there.
Their appearance on other ]»arts of the Irish coast from time
to time has l)een mentioned by the late Dr. Harvey and others.
Harvey stated " that for a week in October 1852 numbers were
observed off Monkstown," Cork Harbmir. Mr. H. Blake Knox,
in ZooJotjist for 1865, remarks : " On April 15th and 25th saw
one off" Dublin Bay." Again, in ZonJo the
estuaiy. and the Terns in consequence remain fishing in the outri-
bay, and are therefore not observed inside Bartragh Lsland, which
separates the estuary from the l)ay. Being such early la-ee(lci-s,
the young are seen foll.,Aving their parents about the estuary
318 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
hj the end of June, and in 1S76 I saw vi^uni;' hirds about on tlie
23rd of June, quite strong on the wing.
When the }iairing season eonimenc is, it is amusing to watch
the absurd antics of the males trying to attract the attention of
the females. At low-water the Terns generally assemble on a
sandbank to rest after fishinu', an^l there the males strut about
among the females with an absurd air of importance, their heads
being thrown back and their wings drooping, or almost trailing
on the ground. After a tim<\ if there is no response from the
females, which generally look on the perfrirraanee with the greatest
unconcern, one of the males goes off fur a time and returns with
a sand-eel in his bill, after which he au'ain struts about with wings
and head in the same position, offering the sand-eel from one to
another of the females as he passes aLnig unnoticed, until at last
he meets one who acce])ts his offering, when he sits down beside
her to settle their arrangements for the season.
THE ROSEATE TERX. Sto-,n:f >lo>,,,,.JJI, Montagu.
Rare summer-visitor, formerly breeding in a very few localities.
During the first half of the century this l)eautiful species bred
in considerable numbers at a few spots on the eastern side of this
island. Following the description of Th':>mpson, he and his
friends appear to have visited Mew Island, one of the Cope-
lands oft' CO. Down, in June on four occasions from 1827 to 1849.
Thirty-five Terns of three species, shut un those several expedi-
tions, comprised twenty-one Arctic, six Common, and eight
Roseate Terns ; the latter forming 23 per cent, of the total
number obtained. In 1833. th(:)Ugh the Terns had greatly dimin-
ished since his first visit in 1827, Thonips>:»n considered that there
were many more of the Roseate in prtjportiou to the others, and
out of six killed three were of this species, which seemed chiefly
to frecjuent one part of the island and to be more vociferous than
the Common or Arctic Terns. He described the wholesale perse-
cutitni and slaughter which resulted in the Terns quitting Mew
Island in 1850.
A lighthouse has since been built there, and though the once
numerous colony has greatly diminished, it still exists. No one,
however, seems to have identified the Roseate Tern there since
the time of Thompson, though Dr. Patten states he observed
three of these Inrds in Belfast Lough en Uth August 1890.
GAA'LT.. 319
They flew witliin a couple of yards of the bow of his boat, and
their long-forked tails aud black beaks were ])lainly visible.
The second l^reeding-colony mentioned by Thompson was
Rockabill, a small island off the northern part of co. Dublin,
where the Rev. Greorge Robinson saw hundreds of Roseate Tenis
on 12th July 1844, four of which were shot. In 1850, when
Watters visited Rockabill, there were not more than seventy or
eighty of these birds about it, the decrease being due to the
barbarous shooting of the birds by persons who went thei'e for
the purpose when the Terns were breeding, and left the water
strewn with them, carrying off all the eggs they could find. No
Terns now l^reed on Rockabill, where a lighthouse stands at
present. In September 1865, and in May 1866, Mr. H. Blake
Knox found many of this species on the Dublin coast, though the
bird had then become rare.
In Thompson's time Roseate Terns were also common on the
Wexford coast, Glennon having stated that in one season he had
received from thence about fifty specimens ; and Walker informed
Thompson that he was acquainted with the nest of this species
on the sand-banks of that county. Mr. Barrington received a
male which was killed by striking Hook lighthouse, co. Wexford,
on 30th April 1897.
Statements as to the breeding of Roseate Terns in Keriy, on
the Aran Islands, and elsewhere, have not been corroborated ; and
now that the bird has become so scarce, as well as j^rotected bv
the laws in the bi-eeding-season, there seems to be very little chance
of identifying it in Ireland. Mr. Warren saw three Terns with
exceptionally long tails and slight l)odies on Ardboline Island, co.
Sligo, on 19th July 1894, which he thought might be of this
species, but though they had sand-eels in their bills to feed their
young, they kept far too high to l)e identified with certainty ; the
great length of their tails, however, could be seen in contrast to
those of other Terns. I have seen a i)air of long, slender Terns
more than once, which took flight from among colonies of other
Terns in Connemara and Donegal, l)ut these w^ere so wild as to
escape observation immediately.
Messrs. Williams & Son have never received a specimen to
preserve except that belonging to Mr. Barrington, and there is
not sufficient evidence to show that the Roseate Tern breeds in
Ireland at the present day.
320 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE COMMON TEEN. Sferna flvvwfllh (Naumann).
Summer visitant, numerous but rather local. Breeds both on salt and
fresh water.
The Comniou Tern visits Ireland for the purpose of reproduc-
tion, and until its young are able to accompany it upon the wing
in autumn, seldom strays further from its breeding-resorts than is
necessary to obtain food. It breeds, often in company with Arctic
Terns, round the coasts of Ireland, on low islands in unfrequented
situations ; but this species does not form such large colonies on
exposed marine islands as the Arctic Tern dc^es, and is less
numerous on the whole than the latter, except on inland lakes.
This inferiority in numbers applies to all parts of the coast, but
especially to those of Ulster. The Common Tern frequents
isolated banks, as well as rocks partly covered with tui'f, in bays,
estiiaries and lagoons, also the islands, and occasionally the shores
of lakes in the midland, western and northern counties.
In Munster its colonies are few ; they are to be found on certain
islands on the coast of Kerry and western Cork, and a few pairs
nest on the Lushings in the co. Clare pOi-tion of Lough Derg.
Several hundred pairs of Common and Arctic Terns breed on two
islets in Ballyteige Bay, co. Wexford, as well as on islands in the
lagoons or lakes near the coast of that county.
The Common Tern used to nest in Thompson's time on beaches
in the counties of Wexford and Dublin, but, with the exception
of a solitary instance near Malahide in 1890, there is no recent
note of its breeding on the eastern shores of Leinster. The next
place to which Terns resort is Clreen Island in Carlingford Lough,
and on the islands of Lough Strangford Mr. R. Patterson has
found many hundreds of pairs of this and the Arctic Tern (Irish
Nat., 1893, pp. 67-72). The Copeland Islands, on which Thomp-
son obsei'ved such vast numbers in 1827-1849, are still resorted to,
and it is to be hoped that these birds are again increasing, as the
Commissioners of Irish Lights have . directed the lightkeepers
there to prevent people from taking Terns' eggs. It should be
remembered, however, that not more than 17 per cent, of the
Terns Thompson saw killed on the Copeland Islands were of
this species. Mr. Camplu'll was unal)le to identify Common
Terns among the Arctic on the Skerries, near Portrush, but large
numl:)ers breed on an isolated bant in the enclosed part of Lough
Swilly, others on Mulroy Bay, and I have fcmnd little colonies on
lakes near Dungiow, as well as on some of the less exposed
gavi-t:. 321
marine islands of Donegal. On Buuduff Lake, co. Sligo, we
found a colony, and Mr. Warren saw a nest of this bird among
those of Arctic Tern on Ardbuline Island; while there is a well-
established breeding-place on a gravelly bank in Killala Bay, and
the thi-ee species S. JIuviafUis, S. macrura and S. mintifa are said to
breed on Inishkea and Duvillauu. Among the Arctic Terns that
were breeding on the islands off the west and south of Connemara
I recognized doubtfully but a few of the Common Tern, and only
on Inishdalla and Deer Island. Mr. Popham got eggs of this
bird on Gal way Bay. Among its inland In-eeding-places I may
mention in Leinster the lakes of West Meath, Lough Gowna,
Lough Oughter, and Lough Sheelin ; in Connaught, Lough Corrib,
Lough Mask, Lough Conn, Lough Gara, Lough Key, Lough Allen,
Lough Melvin; and in Ulster, Lough Erne (Upper and Lower),
Lough Neagh, and Lough Beg.
Mr. Warren's earliest oliservatious of this species on Killala
Bay have usually been made during the first part c>f May, l»ut on
three occasions he recognized it on the 29th or 30th of April.
The arrival of Terns, including S. iwicrura, at the Copeland
Islands has for the last ten years been chronicled there between
the 1st and 12th of May. The Terns are said to appear in the
morning, having arrived during the night, at first in small
numbers, increasing for ten or twelve nights (Migration
Reports, 1883, p. 45). The general arrival round the Irish
coasts seems to coincide pretty well with the above observations,
but there are a few much earlier records; thus " Terus. or Sea
Swallows " were noticed early in April, at Oyster Island, Sligo
Bay, in 1882, 1883 -tmd 1884. These were more probably Sand-
Avich Terns, which Mr. Warren, who lives about twenty-five miles
further west, has so frequently noticed in March or early April.
The Tern-colony leaves the Copeland Islands in September, or
even in August if they have settled early and have not been
disturbed. The young and old l)irds seem to keep t(_igetlier and
to follow the shoals (.)f sprats and other fish round the coasts,
often lingering into Oct<>l»er ; and Mr. Barrington has specimens
obtained from separate light-houses in that month in different
years.
On marine islands eggs are very rarely laid befm-c June, and
are chiefly produced during that month ; but on inland lakes the
Common Tei-n breeds I'urlier, and complete clutches may some-
times be found before the end of May. Where grass is abundant
on their l)reeding-islands these l)irds make their nests in it,
and they are seldom anything more than mere de])ressions. I once
y
322 BIEDS OF ir>ELAND.
found a Tern's eggs occupying a hollow in the centre of a dried
cow-dung ; cattle were grazing on the island where this occurred,
and they do not seem to harm the birds unless the area is very
small. Both on marine and inland islands, however, Common
Terns often lay in hollows of rocks or among loose stones and
shingle ; on Lough Key I found five pairs had eggs with hardly
any nests, on large stones at the verge of the vegetal;)le soil round
an islet close to Rockingham House ; on this and similar islands
frequented by Terns Imshes grow in the centre. Mr. Warren
found several pairs nesting on the ancient circular fort on Garrison
Island, Lough Cullin. The interior is almost filled up, and is
covered with nettles and grass, nearly level with the walls, which
are 12 or 15 feet high. On their broail grass-covered top the
Terns had laid, as well as among the grass and rubbish in the
centre. Another colony of these birds had laid their eggs in a
marshy pasture on the shores of Lough Beg, though cattle and
horses were grazing on the land. Elsewhere the nesting-place is
a bank of gravel, sand and sandy mud, little above the tidal limit,
where Terns and Ringed Plovers In-eed in company.
On several lakes Common Terns have their nests close to those
of Black-headed Gulls, hnt do not always live amicably with
them. I have seen several of the former making repeated swoops
towards a Gull that had her nest in the midst of theirs; at last
the Gull juni]^ed up, and flew after a Tern Avith a scolding cry,
but the agile little creature was out of reach at once.
Terns will attack vigorously a Skua or Heron if it aj^proaches
their colony, and I have seen one of the latter, hotly pursued by
them, turn on its ample wings and evade their attacks witli cries
of terror.
The evolutions of a colony of these birds on the wing afford a
marvellous sight. The Rev. Allan Ellison and I were sitting
beside Lough Meela, in Donegal, at 8.30 p.m. on the 4th of June.
The smooth waters were glowing in the light of the setting sun,
while dark spikes of rock and islets studded its surface.
Suddenly a flock of vociferous Terns, whose long wings and
superior size showed them to be of this species, rose from an
island where they were breeding and ]>erformed astonishing
evolutions over the lake. They would dash down to the water,
swoop round, and mount up, all the time apparently striving to
outdo one another in eager effort, v.hich had no other ai)parent
object than enjoyment.
GAYLE. 323
THE AECTIC TEEK Sterna macrura, Kamnauu.
Summer-visitant. Tlie most numerous Tern on tlie coasts of Ireland,
breeding also on fresh-water lakes in Connaught.
The Arctic Teni lias colonies on all sides of Ireland, and breeds
in Kerry, Cork, Wexford and Do'ttii, in company with the
Common Tern, but exceeds it in numbers on all marine islands.
On those of the Donegal and Sligo coasts are several enormous
colonies of the A.rctie Tern, a|:>parently unmixed with the other
species, which seems to retreat from those exposed haunts to
lakes near the neighbouring' coasts, or to banks in the estuaries.
Moreover, Ireland is one of those few countries where Arctic
Terns are found breeding extensively on some of the fresh-water
lakes.
From the size of its many colonies there can l)e no douV)t that
this species on the whole far outnumbers any other Tern in this
country. Asseml>lages seated on rocks can often be seen from a
boat sufHciently close to distinguish the small, short Arctic Terns
with brilliant red bills ; and in flight the greater length of wing
in the Common Tern, as well as its more prolonged cry, are
characteristics of that species. In a lot of eggs, also, it is not
difficult to pick out the smaller and rounder eggs of *S'. macrum ;
at some places, too. the birds have been shot to settle the question.
In Kerry the Arctic Tern breeds on islands off Tralee Bay, in
the Blasket group and on Puffin Island.
In Cork it nests in company with the Common Tern on islands
in Bantry Bay and on- the Sovereign Islands. In Wexford there
is a large colony of both Terns on the Keeraghs in Ballyteige Bay.
liockabill oft" the co. Dublin, being now deserted by these birds,
Terns are known in that county on the spring and autumn j^assage,
and Cox considered that among the birds obtained at those seasons
the Common Tern was scarce as compared with this species. In
CO. Down are nianv large colonies in which the Arctic outnumliers
the Common Tern ; on G-reen Island, Carlingford Lough, on
several islands in Strangford Lough, and on Mew Island — one of
the Copelands referred to in the last article — so many were shot
here in Thompson's various expeditions as to give some grounds
for estimating the proportion, which was 60 per cent, of Arctic
Terns among the three sorts olitained. On the Skerries near
Portrush, co. Antrim, only this species has been seen l\v Messrs.
Campbell and Gibson, and there is a colony on Inishtrahull. The
largest breeding-place of Terns in Ireland is probably Eoaninish,
y2
324
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
a low rocky islam! or group about a mile in length off Gweebarra
Bay. I saw upon it enormous multitudes of these birds, and a
good many Lesser Terns, but none of the Common, the whole
island being inhabited V»y the two former more or less. Then
there are Inishbarnog and Inishduff, both rocky islands off
Donegal, and Ardboline, another very largely frequented island on
the Sligo coast. On the flats of sand and shingle of Killala Bay,
inside Bartragh Island, Mr. Warren has found this species
breeding in inci^easing numbers of late years along with Common
Terns. There are other breeding-resorts on the islands of Black-
sod Bay and in Clew Bay, co. Mayo, also on many of the isles off
the Connemara coast, especially the group that terminates in
Slyne Head, on Deer Island, the Aran Islands, and various others
on the south coast of Connaught. At the town of Calway one
may watch from the Claddagh Bridge an eager Hock of Arctic
Terns hovering within a few yards of the spectators over the
River Corrib in quest of their finny prey. These birds breed up
Lough Corrib on the rocky islets, on which extensive lake, as
well as on Loughs Mask and Carra, this species seems to pre-
dominate, or at least to be largely associated with the Common
Tern. There is a colony on Lough Melvin, in Leitrim, which
seems in part composed of Arctic Terns, Init we did not shoot
any. On Lough Neagh Dr. Dai'ling found one of these birds,
recently killed on an island near the co. Tyrone shore, where
many Terns lireed, chiefly no doubt of the Common species.
The times of arrival (in May) and of departure (in August or
September) from their l»reeding-grounds on the Copeland Islands
have Ijeen mentioned in the last article, and Mr. Barrington has
had specimens sent him from western islands in Octolier ; one of
these individuals had lieen killed by a Peregrine.
This s[iecies has been occasionally killed when wandering in
inland counties ; moreover, a remarkable flight of Arctic Terns
were observed on 6th June 1842 at Cork, Limerick, and Clonmel.
Their visit to the Shannon extended over two or three weeks
in July, and they ocnu-red there in- immense profusion, being
so unsuspicious as to lie knocked down with sticks (Thomp-
son, III., p. 296).
The chief time of laying is aliout the middle of June, though
it is often commenced early in the month ; l)ut the great enemies
of these Terns ajipear to be sheeji, which are frequently taken to
the islands to feed, and they trample on the eggs, wliich drives
the birds away and thus delays their breeding. However, the
latter escape this misery when they select, as they often do, a
GAVI.E. 325
tract of low liclien-covered. rocks, in the hollows among which
they lay their small boldly-marked eggs. They will select a bare
and exposed spot to lay on, which is surrounded liy the deep blue
sea, and the eggs are sometimes placed among the upturned edges
of sharp, slaty rock. I have seen a few blossoms of thrift
brought to line the hollow, at other times some grass-bents. Two
eggs are frequently sat upon. A pair in my collection are pale
blue, almost spotless.
It is very pretty to see the males feeding the females which call
for the small fish held by their mates ; for this prey they often
wander miles away.
Arctic Terns sometimes, but seldom, occur on Irish coasts in
the immature plumage, which they exhibit when one year old.
They have black beaks, and have been mistaken for other species.
THE LITTLE TERN. Sterna mlmita, Linnaeus.
Summer-visitant. Breeds locally on the coasts of Leinster, Ulster,
and Connaught.
The Little Tern is far less numerous than the Common or the
Arctic Tern, and much more local, being seldom seen far away
from its breeding-colonies. These are in most cases small, though
in a few places they number upwards of fifty 2:)airs. I do not know
of any in Munster, though birds of this species have been noticed
near Ballybunnion, in Kerry, and al^out Cork Harbour ; but
several pairs bi'eed on' the Keeraghs, and on the mainland of the
Wexford and Wicklow coasts there are several colonies. Dul^liu
Bay contains two of their resorts, on one of -^phich fifty or more
pairs may be found nesting in favourable seasons. Little Terns
have laid on the coasts of Louth and among the islands oi
Strangford Lough, but it is not until Donegal is reached that
they are found in any numbers. Mr. Hart says they frequent
the shores of Lough Swilly and there are colonies on the strands
of Naran and other places in the west of the county ; while on
Roaninish I found their eggs in several places. On and near
Drumcliff Bay, in co. Sligo, Mr. Warren met with a considerable
colony on a wide expanse of sand which is above the ordinaiy
tidal limits, and at the Inch on Killala Bay he found the number
of breeding birds had suddenly increased in 1895 to sixty or
seventy pairs, whose nests were dispersed over half a mile of the
sands. In western Mayo these birds nest on luishkea, Duvillaun
82(3
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
and Acliill. as well as uoar Roiiud stone, in Counemai'a, and on the
Aran Islands (Mr. H. Leybourne Popham).
As this is nsually a strictly marine species iu Ireland I was
surprised to see a pair tishiug far up the southern section of
Lough Corrib, fully eight miles from Galway Bay, on Sth June
1897, and they seemed to be quite at home there, though I failed
to tind their nesting-place. It is to be observed, however, that
Arctic Terns l>reed extensively on Lough Corrib, and that the
Little Tern does so on inland lakes and rivers of continental
Europe.
Watters states that thirty of these Ijirds were seen on the
Wicklow coast as early as the 26th of April, but Mr. Warren has
usually noticed them during the first or second week in May.
Eggs are seldom laid before June in most localities, but Dr.
Patten has counted sixteen nests on Dublin Bay on 21st May
1899. The majority of the yoimg are aide to fly in July and are
to be seen on the wing aljout those parts of the coast where they
are bred in August and September.
The numbers that breed in a locality fluctuate unaccountably,
for in some seasons scai'cely any Little Terns can be found, in
others they increase unexpectedly, and they sometimes shift their
quarters tu a neighbouring ]ilace.
GAVI.E. 327
The nest is a depression in a bank of small sliiiiyle, gravel or
sand, preferably shell-sand, and is seldom elevated much above
high-water mark ; consequently the eggs are sometimes lost by
being flooded during an exceptionally high tide or storm.
I am favoured by Dr. C. J. Patten with the accompanying illus-
tration of a nest of Little Tern from a photograph by Mr. W. D.
Latimer, and the former gives a detailed description of the
formation with diagrams in the Irish Naturalist, 1899, p. 189.
He shows that the bird first excavates in the sand a hollow in the
form of an inverted cone or V> '<^^^ then fills the deeper part of it
with broken shells picked off the surrounding surface, which is
neaidy denuded of them in some cases. On these *' lining-shells " the
eggs are deposited with their narrow ends towards the l>ottom of
the hollow. The Eev. A. Ellison has observed the sand carefully
banked up in a little ring all round the eggs. In many other cases,
however, the above details are not carried out.
THE NODDY TERN. Anous stoUdus (Liummis).
Has once occurred, about 1830.
Thompson records two Xoddy Terns which were received in a
fresh condition in the summer season by William Massey from
the captain of a vessel. He stated that they had been shot in his
l^resence, a few days previously, soinewhei'e off the Leinster coast
between the Tuskar and Dublin Bay. Both the specimens were
adidt birds, and one of them passed with the Warren collection
to the Dublin Museum. There is another Noddy Tern among the
Irish birds in the Belfast Museum without data, which may be
the remaining one mentioned above.
Sub-family Larin.?].
SABINE'S CtULL. Xema sahiiul (Joseph Sabine).
Accidental visitor in autumn, when it occurs in immature plumage.
Sabine's Gull was first described as occui'ring in the United
Kingdom by Thompson, from a specimen killed in Belfast Lough
in 1822. It has now been obtained eleven times in Ireland, and
in all these cases the exaniples were immature, several having
been stated to be birds of the year. Seven were shot on Dublin
328
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Bay duriug- fifty years, three oix Belfast Lough, aud one on
Donegal Bay.
It is not to be supposed that the records indicate a special
tendency of these young Ai ctic Gulls to harbour in the above bays ;
but the vicinity of the cities of Dublin aud Belfast occasioned
their being noticed and preserved, "svhile an ordinaiy shooter
would pass over such birds elsewhere.
Seven of the above instances took place in September, one in
October, and two in November. Three of the specimens are in
the Dublin Museinn, and one, the earliest example, is in that of
Belfast. The insensibility of this species to danger was noticed
on several occasions in Ireland ; thus one of them was shot swim-
ming, after several shots had lieen fired at a Phalarope which was
near it, and in another case Mr. H. Blake Knox, with his first
shot, knocked feathers oft" a Sabine's Grull that was hovering over
another bird he had killed ; but the former remained over its
dead companion until the second barrel brought it down.
One of the birds was found associating with Terns, but none of
them are stated to have been accompanied by others of its own
species.
Dublin. — A bird of the first year
was sliot near Kingstown some years
before 1S34 (Thompson, III., p. 312) ;
another, that liad tlie adjoining parts
of the throat aud breast wliito, was ol)-
tained on Dublin Bay on 12th Septem-
ber 1837 (Ibid.) ; a third, which also
had the breast white, was shot on
Dublin Bay by ^Ir. H. Blake Knox
at the end of November 18G1 {ZooL,
p. 8093 [18G2j); a young bird, in
plumage similar to the last, was
killed on Dublin Bay on 28th Sep-
tember 18G6 (H. Blake Knox, in ZooL,
1866, p. 526); another in first plumage
was shot off Kingstown on 18th Sep-
tember 1867 (Ibid., ZooZ.,s. s., p. 1099);
a male, in first year's plumage, was
shot near the Pigeon House Fort on
24th September 1881 (More, in ZooL,
1881, p. 472) ; another male, in similar
plumage, was obtained at Clontarf
on 5th November 1884 (Dowling, in
ZooL, 1884, p. 490).
Down and Antrim.— One in the
plumage of the first autumn was
shot on Belfast Lough on 18th Sep-
tember 1822 (Thompson, III., p. 810);
a bird of the year was obtained ou
the same bay on 15th September
1834 (Ibid., p. 312) ; another, in first
plumage, wliich occurred off Bangor
at the mouth of the bay, was killed
the second week in October 1867
(H. Blake Knox, in ZooL, p. 1099.)
Donegal. — A bird of the year was
shot ou Donegal Bay ou 19th Sep-
tember 1878 (Williams, in ZooL, 1878,
p. 437).
A bird reported doubtfully as a
" Hawk " was noticed at !Mine Head,
'CO. Waterford, in October 1897. It
was described as " nearly all of a light
grey or white, and had a black head
with a forked tail" (^Migration Re-
port, 1897, p. 549). This bird may
have been an adult Sabine's Gull,
but was not obtained.
GAVLT.. 329
BONAPAETE'S GULL. Larus Philadelphia (Ord).
Has once been obtained in Ireland.
Bonaparte's Gull is auotlier Aniericau species iutroduced to the
British fauna by Thompson, who describes a nearly mature bird
that was shot on the tidal portion of the Lagan above Belfast on
1st February 1848 (Vol. III., p. S17). It was a male in winter
plumage, and he examined it in the flesh. This specnnen is still
preserved in the Belfast Museum.
THE LITTLE GULL. Laru.^ minutus, Pallas.
Very rare and accidental visitor in autumn and winter.
The Little Gull has been recorded on ten occasions in Ireland,
in six of which it was said to have been obtained, l)ut of some,
even of the latter cases, we have very incomplete data. As with
some other rare birds, the majority were announced from the
vicinity of Dublin and Belfast, but one occurred on Lough Foyle,
and another on the Shannon. None have been recorded since the
bird seen ]\v Cox in 1876. The earliest example, which was in
company with a second individual, was shot on 5th August, and
there are four records for December, one for January, and one
for February. Several adults are mentioned, but some of the
specimens have been immature.
King's Co. and Galway. — An It came close to him several times
adult bird was shot on tlie Shainion and remained for about a week (Zoo?.,
where it divides these counties on 1879, p. 48G.)
5th August 1840 (Thompson, III., Down and Antrim.— An adult
p. 315). This example is in the Dublin male was shot on the estuary three
iluseum. miles from Belfast on 2.3rd Dec-ember
Dublin. — Two Little Gulls were 1847 ; it was described by Thompson,
said by Kinahau to have been seen and is still in the Belfast ]Museum.
by him on Dulilin Bay at different Darragh, the curator of tliat museum,
times (P. Dublin Univ. Zool. Assn., who preserved the former, saw and
IGth December 1851). One was fired at another similar bird on
stated to have occurred on Dublin Strangford Lough on 18th and 19th
Bay in December 1870 (Mr. H. Blake January 1818 ; anotlier, in adult
Knox, in Zool., s. s., p. '264G [1871] ; plumage, was said to have been shot
anotlier was seen by Cox feeding on Belfast Bay in November 1848,
among other Gulls on the Liffey at but was not preserved ; while another
Ringseud on Gth December 187G. specimen was wounded near Kir-
330 BIRDS OF lEELAKD.
cubbin, Strangford Lough, about the was meutioned as having occurred
beginning of February 1849. It was on Lough Foyle by IMr. H. Blake
allowed to run in a garden, where it Knox (Zool., s. s., p. 2646 [1871]).
disappeared. The last four instances He has kindly sent me a iDhotograph
are given by Thompson. of one of the above specimens, an
Londonderry. — A winter example immature bird in liis collection.
THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. L.rrus rldlhuiidus (Liuua^us).
Resident and abundant. Breeds extensively through Ireland, except in
the East and South.
The Black-headed Gull i.s probably the most plentiful of the
genu.s in this country, and ha.s a great number of colonies scattered
over the laud, from those vast assemblages which number many
thousands down to groups of a fe^v pairs.
A marine l3reediug-place is meutii.)ned by Mr. Turle, who found
a small colony on Beginish, a low island of the Blasket group in
Kerry {Ihis, 1891, p. 10). The nests were placed near the centre
of this island, on marshy ground, round which rushes grew. The
only other part of Kerry where I have heard of the bird breeding-
is the Castleisland district, and the next most southern resort is
Lough Gur in LiuK.'rick, where a few nest. I am not aware of any
breeding-jJace in the maritime counties from Kerry eastwards up
to Down in Leister, nor in Carlow or Meath — that is to say, the
parts of Ireland to which the Black-headed Gull does not seem to
resort, until after it has reared its young, are southern Munster
and eastern Leinster. It is, in fact, an inland-breeding species in
this country, and when the central jilain is reached the largest
colonies are found in Queen's and King's Counties on marshes, like
Kaheenlough, and on red liogs like that of Monettia, near Clon-
aslie. To the latter avast colony has shifted since J 898 that
previously bred on the neighbouring Killeenmore Bog in King's
Co. There are similar resorts in the bogs of Tipperary, Galway,
Kildare, King's Co., Westmeath, and Longford.
Islands in lakes are also favourite breeding-places, and probably
the most southern of these is in co. Kilkenny, a few miles fi'om
Waterford. Other resorts are the Lushings, on the Clare side of
Lough Derg, islands in Loughs Corrib, Mask, Conn, Gara, Key,
Allen, in Upper and Lower Lough Erne, in various Donegal
lakes, one of wdiich, Kinny Lough, adjoins the sand-hills of the
north coast. Black. headed Gulls have also bred since Thompson's
time on Lough Neagh and on some lakes in Down.
In July, when the young broods are able to travel, these Gulls
GAVLF,. 331
flock to the tidal rivers aud bays ; and during the autumn, when
fish are plentiful, abound c>n the sea round our coasts. As winter
approaches these flocks spread over the country during the day,
eagerly following the plough for the worms that are turned up,
but they retire towards evening to roost on some isolated sea-bank
or other marine retreat if such be within reach. All through
winter Black- headed Gulls may be met with daily on the tillage
and pasture-lands of Irelend, and they associate with Common
Gulls when these are driven south by the December storms.
On Rathlin Island the Black-headed Gull is found in great
numbers in winter, but is absent in summer, though birds not in
full maturity may be seen on parts of the coasts and estuaries in
Slimmer.
From 20tli February, in some seasons, to the first week in
March, these birds reappear at their breeding-haunts, and in April
the eggs are laid in favouralde localities, the eai'liest young being
hatched by 1st May ; but on exposed stony islands, as those in
Lough Allen, I found no young out of the eggs on 3rd June.
In certain marshes the nests are placed upon tussocks with
water between them ; on the great red bogs the wettest parts are
chosen, and the eggs are to be found round the margins of the
pools or on islets, surrounded by black water or mud. On the
lakes very small islands or low rocks are used, the nests being-
crowded together and built in curious places, as on an ancient fort,
on the top of a stone beacon, or within a walled hiding-place used
by duck-shooters in winter. On crowded islets Gulls evidently
fight for the best places, and I have found many young dead ; in
one case three of them wt-re flattened out and an egg laid upon
them. Tufted Ducks or Common Terns sometimes nest round
the edges of a colony of this Gull, and the breeding-place of the
Sandwich Terns on Eathroeen Lake in Mayo is in the middle
of a crowded island chiefly occupied by the nests of Black-
headed Gulls.
In a season of great drought the old birds have l^eeu known
to forsake their bog about the end of June, leaving thousands
of young to perish.
Black-headed Gulls will drive away the Lesser Black-back from
their haunt, as I have seen them do on Lough Corrib, where both
species breed ; while vigorous attacks are sometimes made on
Eooks, the Gulls employing great skill in driving their enemies
out over the Avatei's of a lake before making tlioir final ou-
slaught.
These Gulls delight in takin-- Mav-flies or gliost-moths on the
332
BIKDS OF IRELAND.
wing, and numbers may thus be seen engaged in the twilight, and
far on into the night over the meadows near a breeding-lake.
In severe frost, when Lapwings are driven to the southern
pastures each of these birds may sometimes be seen shadowed
by a Black-headed Gull, and the moment the Plover pulls out a
worm the attendant Grull rushes forward to seize it ; the Lapwing-
takes flight and doul^les like a hare, closely pursued by its
tormentor. Possibly the name of Lapwing-Gull may be given in
consequence of this habit.
In easterly gales, when masses of rotten sea- weed covered with
flies are floated ofl: the shore, Black-headed Gulls may be seen
feeding on them after the manner of the Phalaro2)e (H. Blake
Knox, in Zool, s. s., p. 1193 [1868]).
I have seen a wing of a bird of this species that was killed in
December, and the first four primaries, especially their quills,
were of a decidedly rosy hue. The breast also was said to have
been rose-coloured. Thompson descril:)es a similar specimen,
killed in October, which he l;>elieved to have been a very old
individual.
THE COMMON GULL. Larus canus, Liunaus.
Resident, but confined in its breeding-range to the coast-region of tlie
North and West. Wanders over the rest of Ireland in winter,
when the numbers are probably increased by immigration.
Of the six sj^ecies of Gull that breed in Ireland this is the most
restricted in its nesting-haunts, which are never very remote from
the sea, though more frequently on lakes than on the coast.
The low, grassy island ofl:' Kerry, mentioned to Thompson in
1837, has not since been identified, but a small colony exists on
one of the Blaskets, and this is the most isolated breeding-resort
of the species known in Ireland, as well as the most southern in
Europe. In 1890 I found two breeding-colonies near Roundstone
and Carna in Connemara ; these were on small rocky islets in
moorland lakes not far from the coast, and in 1899 I visited
another resort, similarly situated, west of Letterfrack.
In Mayo considerable colonies exist. A few pairs breed in com-
pany with Black-headed Gulls on a low-lying island in a recess of
Blacksod Bay; and when I was driving through the desolate
moors from Belmullet in 1890 a lake called Dahybaun, about four-
teen miles from the sea, was passed, on which some fifty pairs were
nesting. They occupied the southern escarpment of a large island,
GAVLE. 833
and some of the birds feeding- by the roadside allowed the car to
pass within a few yards of them. Mr. Warren found the numbers
of Grulls reduced at Lough Dahybaun in 1898, but we observed
others resorting to islands in Lough Carrowmore. Lii 188'-> he
discovered a small colony nesting on bog-stumps that stood above
the water of a small lake near Crossmolina, and in 1894 he met
with about thirty pairs breeding on an island in Lough Cullin, as
well as isolated pairs on islets and rocky points in Loughs Conn
and Mask. Some of the last-named localities are probably the
most inland places in Ireland where the Common Clull breeds.
A former colony which Mr. Warren discovered in 18-55, on
Lough Talt in western Sligo, has ceased to exist ; but on the
Bomore Rock off northern Sligo a bird of this species was found
hatching on a low shelf in 1896.
In Donegal the Common Gull has some of its most considerable
settlements. On Loughs Birroge and Doon, near Narau, a good
matay pairs nest, and in the Dungiow district there are colonies or
isolated nests on most of the lakes in the vicinity, especially on
Lough Meela (where I noticed a decided increase in 1896) and on
the Meenbanad Lakes. Mr. R. Patterson and Mr. Campliell dis-
covered some maritime breeding-resorts in the north of Donegal
in 1892 ; off one prominent headland about one hundred nests
were placed on ledges of the sloping cliffs of a small island, and
about twenty more were in another spot in the same locality. The
same gentlemen found another colony at a point of the coast
distant foui'teen miles from the above, while Ix'tween these a small
lake separated from the coast by sand-hills afforded a third
breeding-place. An island in Mulroy Bay also contains a settle-
ment, and there are other resorts in the above counties besides
those named.
Thompson's information as to Common Grulls nesting on the
lofty cliffs of Horn Head and of Rathlin Island was evidently
erroneous, for it is foreign to the habits of this bird to build on
high, steep cliffs, and it has so seldom been noticed in Rathliu
that a specimen shot there in 1860 was preserved as remarkable.
The eggs are laid in May, and yoimg are sometimes hatched
the first week in Jime. The nests are made loosely of dried grass
or sedge, but are better l:)uilt than those of the Black-headed Cull.
They are placed in nooks and depressious of the rock, or among
scrult and stones round the islands ; not in tall grass, unless the
space be too small to ttllow of a choice outside the deeper vegetation.
A favourite site is the top of a bouLler or spike of rock ju-oject-
ing out of a lake, on whirli a sinule nest mav often lie si'en
334
BIRDS OF IHELAXD.
occupying any slight cavity, and the Crnll upon it looks most
conspicuous. Nests have been found upon the top of an ancient
fort. On one island the birds were nesting among the heather
on the highest points ; while tlie breeding-islands often contain
bushes, and in one case a nest was partially sheltered by a dwarf
willow. Common Terns or Black-headed Gulls occasionally share
the same islands with this species, though it usually has its
colonies apart. The breeding birds will swoop at the intruder
and utter one deep, menacing note followed by a cackle.
Though the colonies are never found in the Midlands like those
of L. ralihundus this is less of a marine Gull than the following
species, not only in the choice of its nesting places, but in its
habits generally. It seems to prefer harljours, navigable rivers,
the coasts of the mainland, and even the inland fields, to the dee])
sea. It arrives on Dublin Bay and Wexford Harbour from July
and August onwards in large numljers, but does not appear in
force in southern counties until the winter storms set in during
November or December. Flocks of these Gulls may then be seen
feeding on the pastures or following the plough ; and they are
fond oi resorting to a flooded field where the worms are drowned
out. They frequently keep to themselves, but sometimes associate
with Black-headed Gulls whose inland-feeding habits are similar ;
but the appearance of the Common Gull in winter is far less
frequent than that of its congener, ami depends more u[ion the
occurrence of wild and wet weather. This bird is seldom seen in
the south after March, but further north it lingers Inter, and
immature l;»irds of the previous year occur during sprmg and
summer on the bays and rivers ; tlKaigh even they are scarce at
that time of year.
Mr. Barrett-Hamilton's photograph, reproduced below, repre-
sents the north point of Inishuabro Island, co. Kerry.
GAVL-E. 335
THE HEEEIXG-GULL. Laru^ anjentotus, J. F. Gmeliu.
Resident and common at all seasons on the coasts, where it breeds more
extensively than any other Gull.
Though not fouud iu such dense colonies as the Kittiwake, the
Herring-Gull is much the most generally distributed marine-
breeding species of its family. It nests in greater or lesser num-
bers on all the precipitous coasts and larger islands of Ireland,
thus including iu its breeding-range ever}' maritime county except
perhaps Wieklow, Louth and Down, whose shores are low-lying;
but close observation may fiud that even in these a few Herring-
Gulls rear their young.
It is a common breeding species along the whole MunsLer coast,
having a huge colony on the cliffs of Moher in Clare, and is the
principal Gull that nests in co. Waterford. On the South Saltee
Island, off co. Wexford, Herring-Gulls build, in larger numbers
than I have seen anywhere else, in company with Lesser Blach-
baeks. The next breeding-place I know of is on Lambay off co.
Dublin. The cliffs of Antrim and Donegal have many colonies,
including large ones on Eathlin Island and Horn Head, and there
is another at Downhill in Londonderry. Aughris Head is a
i-esort in co. Sligo ; while along the lofty northern coasts of Mayo
there are large colonies. I have seen these birds breeding at the
Dooega cliffs in Achill, on the Bills Eocks, and on the cliff's of
Inishturk, Inishark and the Aran Islands, but on the western and
southern shores of Connaught they seem to have fewer resorts
than in the above-named localities, probably owing to the want of
cliffs.
No inland breeding-place is l^nown in Ireland, and though I
have seen a flock feeding in the fields in July, about five miles
from the sea, and have occasionally seen and heard of these birds
inland, they are much more unusual there than the last two
species. They will, however, fly far u}) rivers, especially those
which serve as the ports of towns, for the sake of the offal which
they piclv up, and they have been found on Lough Neagli iu
autumn and winter.
The Herring-Gull frequents the coasts and tidal waters of
Ireland at all seasons, and as it takes four years to arrive at
maturity the number^ iu the la-own speckled garb of immature
l)irds are large. These are to be seen far from the breeding-haunts
of their elders in spring aud summer, and Thompson deserilx'S a
33G BIRDS OF IRELAND.
movement of tliousauds of tliem in Belfast Lough wliicli passed
southward in September.
The love of this bird for fish is evidenced by the exciting
spectacle so familiar along our shores, "when a shoal attracts the
vociferous Herring-Gulls, which soar above it and form a wheeling
throng, and precipitate themselves in a shuwer upon the sparkling
patch of water where their prey is thickest. They are, moreover,
inveterate egg-stealers, and I have seen desolation brought by
them upon the nests of a whole colony of Cormorants which flew
off their eggs on our approach, ])ut before they could return the
Herring-Gulls had carried every egg away. This they do by
inserting the bill into an egg, when they carry it off to suck in
an accustomed sj^ot. where egg-shells of various sjjecies may be
found. The haunts of these birds are usually strewn with the
lumps of broken-up marine shells which they disgorge. Their
castings also frequently contain the bones and fur of young-
rabbits which they have devoured (Thompson, III., p. 363), and
migrating land-birds often fall a prey. These Gulls do not usually
attack a flock, but when they meet with a Blackbird or Lark
exhausted by its flight across the sea they chase and swallow it,
feathers and all. The danger of this fate may well have given
rise to the migration of so many land-birds by night (Barrington) .
A Gull, prol)ably of this species, has even been seen to pursue a
Peregrine and make it drop its quarry, which was seized upon by
the former (Migration Reports). Pieces of caudle are often picked
up at sea by these birds, and after lieing swallowed are disgorged
at their haunts {Zool, 1894. pp. 308 and 334).
Herring-Gulls do not, like Kittiwakes. crowd their nests
together, and do not place them on such very steep parts of
the cliff. They prefer shelving rocks or a place where there is a
talus or broken ground lietween the ujiper and lower precipice, but
they often build u|ion ledges or (_>u the top of an isolated rock.
A single nest in such a position seems to make its occupant quite
as happy as a place among other nests. These are often on grassy
slopes where the ground is more or less' broken by rock. On the
South Saltee the colony of Herring-Gulls and Lesser Black-backs
extends right across a hill two hundred feet in height, from one
side of the island to the other. The nests are thickest on the
slopes, where they occupy the nooks and corners, but are some-
times on the bare hill-top, and I have seen one on a path. Of the
two species, this occupies situations which are more prominent and
lofty than those where Lesser Black-l>acks nest ; while a few Great
Bkn'k-backed Gulls occu}y the rocky summits. The nests are
GAVLT^. 337
composed of tufts of thrift or of drv grass and other soft materials.
I have never seen sticks or thick stems of heather used, such as
Thomj^sou found near the Griant's Causeway.
Herring- Grulls congregate at their breeding-haunts in co. "Water-
ford by the middle of April. The first eggs are laid early in
May, but a set is rarely completed liy the first week in that month.
Few young ones are hatched before the beginning of June ;
they soon leave the nest and creep along the cliff-ledges, with a
wonderful power to avoid falling over, and hide among the herbage.
Most of them are fledged and swimming by the end of July.
THE LESSEE BLACK-BACKED GULL. Larusfi'scus,
Linna?us.
Resident, but rather local, and much less numerous than the Herring-
Gull. Breeds both on salt and fresh water, as well as on inland
bogs.
The Lesser Black-backed Gull frequents inland localities in
summer much more than either of the other large resident
Gulls, and, even at its marine breeding-stations, it does not seem
so ready to place its nest on salient rocks as the Herring-Gull.
The colonies of this species round the Irish coast are much
smaller and fewer than those of the last-named bird, among
whose nests it often places its own, forming a mixed colony of
both species. In Kerry, this Gull lireeds on the Mucklaghmore
Eock off Tralee, on the Blaskets, Puffin Island and the Little
Skellig ; in Cork, on the Cow Eock, High Island and the Sovereign
Islands ; but no very large colony is to be found until the Saltees,
off Wexford, are reached. This, I believe, is the largest assemblage
of Lesser Black-backs in Ireland, though much outnumbered there
by the associated Herring-Gulls, A few pairs still nest on Lanibay,
CO. Dublin, and rather more on Eathlin Island. It is said that
some breed at Horn Head, though I failed to see any there in
1891, but I found several pairs nesting on Illanaran, in company
with Great Black-backs and Herring-Gulls ; while others breed on
the adjacent Aranniore, and Slieve League is another resort in
Donegal. Mr. Sheridan says this Inrd has nesting-])iaces on the
islands near Achill, though I know of no other resorts round the
Connaught coasts, which are probably too Avild for it, l)ut I have
seen a few Lesser Black-backs at the cliffs of Moher, co. Clare, in
June.
Of inland colonies there are none in Munster, but Mr. Palmer
z
338 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
has described oue of about a Imudred pairs scattered over au
extensive tract of bog in co. Kildare (Irish Nat., 1898, p. 186).
A few breed here and there on the bogs of Westmeath and
Galway, and I have seen an egg taken from such a situation on
the Clonbrock Estate in the latter county. Single birds or jmirs
appear regularly in March on Lough Derg, and continue there
through summer, though their breeding-place is unknown ; and
I have seen others in June on several inland parts of the Shannon
and the lakes connected with it up to its source, as well as on the
Nore at Thomastown.
In Connaught the great lakes Corrib and Mask contain many
breeding-places. The nests are scattered about, usually one on
each stony island, but I have counted four in proximity among
a labyrinth of reefs and shoals that was almost unnavigable, and
Mr. Warren found some twenty nests on an island in the northern
part of Lough Mask. He thinks this species no longer breeds
(as it formerly did) on Lough Conn. There is a small wooded
island in Lovigh Erne, co. Fermanagh, on the broad, flat beach
of which fifteen or more nests have been found among the coarse
shingle and blocks of stone ; but one of the most interesting
colonies I have seen is among the mountains of co. Antrim. I
was conducted by Mr. H. D. M. Barton to a great floe-bog at an
elevation of about a thousand feet, on which Curlews were nest-
ing, when we found al)0ut twenty pairs of Lesser Black-backed
Gulls. Their nests were scattered over the bog on htimmocks,
but were mere depressions among the herbage Avith a few bits
of grey lichen, very different from the large comfortable nests
which are made en the stony islands of Lough Corrib. It is
proba.ble that this liird had many more inland resorts than can
be found at the present day, but that it has been driven from
them, as its eggs ai'e sought for by the jneasants, while keepers
persecute it, under the belief that it takes the eggs of Grouse.
The local habits of this Gull on the coast are very pronounced ;
thtis it is hardly ever seen along most of the co. Waterford shores,
but its fondness for the offal of towns is so great that a flock of
these handsinne birds is an every-day sight on the Suir at Water-
ford even in May and June, thottgh their nearest breeding-place
is on the Saltees, thirty miles away. There is a decided movement
of the species in spring, and Cox states that though some
immature birds occur in Dulilin Bay in winter, there are no
considerable arrivals there until spring. In A]iril flocks may be
seen along that coast whicli "limiuish in May, l>ut reappear as if
on their return journey in Atigust and September. This bird
GAVLE. 331)
is rarely seen inland in winter, but in spring and summer it is
not only common on the Liffey at Dublin, but wanders inland
daily, singly or in pairs, following some river or canal and
returning towards the sea in the evening. Its summer appear-
ances have been noticed in many inland localities.
The Lesser Black-back has the same propensity to steal the
eggs of other birds as the Herring-Grull, though it may not carry
this to the same extent ; it will also devour helpless birds. During
A.pril 1895 some tifty dead Gruillemots were seen floating near
Tralee Bay, and eleven Gulls of this species were feeding on them
upon the water (Migration Reports). The Lesser Black-back
has also been seen to chase a Kittiwake until it disgorged its
prey, and then catch the falling nnn-sel like a Skua (Ogilbv, in
Zoo/., s. s., p. 4905 [1875]).
On the lake-islands in Connaught this bird makes a wide
comfortable nest of dead bracken, moss and the tufts of dead
vegetable matter left by the winter storms on the beach. The
site is well above the flat part of the beach among the larger
stones, and is sometimes shaded In' a willow or other small bush ;
I have even seen a nest on the ground in the midst of a bush
which was open enough to afford space for it.
On the Saltees the earliest eggs are laid at the commencement
of May, but many fresh ones may l)e found much later in that
month, and at the inland resorts eggs are often unhatched at the
end of the first week in June. A set of a green-blue colour was
fouud on the Saltees bv the late Mr. Seebohm.
THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. Larus marinus,
Linnfeus.
Resident in small numbers round Ireland ; more common on the western
coast.
This fine bird is usually to be seen singly or in pairs, and does
not flock iu winter to any such extent as the smaller species ; but
at certain favourite l)reediug-stations several pairs — in one case
fully fifty pairs — nest in company. As a rule, the further west
one goes the oftener this bird is met with, and along the Con-
naught coasts, for instance, it is much more frequent than the
Lesser Black-badved Gull. In Kerry the Mucklaghmore Rock is a
long-known resort where this species breeds as well as the last.
On the outer Blaskets, and also on the Little Skellig, and again
z 2
340 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Oil the Cow Rock, several pairs nest ; but other stacks and islands
nearer the shore are occupied by one or more pairs. An occa-
sional pair breed on the tops of stacks along the coasts of western
Cork, and in one surli place in cc). Waterford. On the South
Saltee several pairs build, chiefly on the tops of the highest
eminences, which rise to two hundred feet. G-reat Black-backed
Gulls have long bred on Lambay, though less regularly of later
years. I am nut aware of any nesting-2)laces on the north-east
coast. In Donegal this bird has bred on Lough Swilly and on a
stack at Horn Head ; I found a small colony on Illanaran, and a pair
nesting on the low rocks of Eoaninish. The district near JSTaran
is the only part of Ireland in which I have ascertained that this
Grull breeds on islands in fresh-water loughs, but it is much per-
secuted there. In Mayo twelve or fifteen ]3airs have their nests on
the flat grassy summit of a pillar-like rock at Downpatrick Head,
and a few lu'eed on the Stags of Broadhaven. The largest colony
probably in the British Islands is on the Bills Rocks, seven miles
from Acliill. I landed there in 1890 with Rev. W. S. GTreen, and
viewing the wheeling cloud of these birds, which we had roused
from their iicsts, we agreed that an estimate of fiftv pairs would
be too small. The young, and the nests which they had in many
cases quittearts of the
Shannon ; however, it must be 1)orne in mind that the appearance
of the Great Blaek-lnick inland is exceptional.
GAVI.E.
341
Its voracity iu stealing e?ggs and tilling ■\voiiuded birds as large
as a Wigeou is "n-ell known in Ireland, and the largest flocks of
Brent Geese will take wing when one of these de]>redators appears
overhead. A young brood of Mergansers was taken one by one
from a Kerry lake by a Grull of this species, and the pellets dis-
gorged beside the nests commonly consist of the remains of young-
rabbits, where these are to be got. I have found the l;)ones of
gurnard thus deposited at Roaninish.
Professor Leebody describes an attack made on the wing by a
Peregrine upon a Great Black-back, which, as often as the Falcon
stooped upon it, successfully presented its bill, and caused its
enemy to swerve aside, though unal)le to attack the latter.
The favourite nesting-place is the top of a high isolated rock,
where the " Royal Gull," as it is called, doininates its inferior
relations which breed lower down. On a hill or headland the
same love of the highest elevation is shown. I have, however,
known of a nest built on an ancient fort in a Donegal lake near
the coast, and a more remarkable site was chosen on the enclosed
fresh-water portion of Lough Swilly, seventeen miles from the
sea, where a Great Black-backed Gull built and laid upon a sand-
bank of small dimensions, on which Terns usually breed. On the
Saltees the eggs, as it appears, are laid by the beginning of May,
if not earlier ; but I have found late clutches still unhatched on
the Bills in the middle of June, though in most cases, to judge
from their size, the young there must have been hatched in May.
I have never seen Irish eggs of the red colour sometimes obtained
in Norway, Init some with a pale l)lue ground and scarcely any
spots have been found..
The Cow Eock, off Dursey Head, co. Cork, here represented, is
a breeding-place of the Great Black-lxicked Gull. It is repro-
duced from a photograph l:)y Mr. Barrett-Hamilton.
-iSS.SSf''^' -'
342 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE GLAUCOUS GULL. Lams glaucus, 0. Fabricius.
Uncertain winter-visitor, occurring occasionally in very small numbers
The Glaucous Gull probably visits the coasts of this country in
most winters, though only as a straggler, for several individuals
are rarely seen together, and the specimens obtained have in most
cases been immature. It wanders to the south of Ireland, but is
most frequent on the north and west coasts, and is met with
occasionally on tidal rivers.
Coming as this species does from the north, the island of Rath-
lin and the coasts of Donegal have repeated records of its visits,
and Mr. W. Sinclair, who lived on the north side of Donegal Bay,
stated that it was to he found there almost every winter, though
he had never seen more than two at a time ; while Mr. Warren
has ol)taiued a considerable series of specimens on the Moy
and Ivillala Bay during more than forty years (Irish Nat., 1892,
p. 154). This Gull has also occurred in western Mayo and Galway,
and it has been repeatedly obtained on the north coast of Kerry ;
while its visits are extended to Cork. Though it has not been
identified in co. Waterford, still in several instances white or
drab-coloured Gulls have l)eeu shot or oliserved on Dungarvan
Bay or on the Suir near Waterforcl. Dul;>lin Bay is the only
locality on the eastern side of the island known to have been
repeatedly visited l>y this bird, and it does not seem to have been
noticed on the coasts of Wicklow or AVexford.
Sixty-five cases of theoccurreuce of thedlaucous Gull have been distributed
as follows ; —
Dul)lin . . 8 Down . . 2 Sligo ... 8 Kerry . . 8
Louth . . 1 Antrim . . 5 Alayo . . .15 Limerick . 1
LondoDcleri-y 2 Galway . . 3 Cork ... 4
Donegal . . 7 Waterford , 1
Leinster . . 9 Ulster . . IG Counauglit . 2G Munster . 14
The months given in fifty-three cases are as follows : —
. 2 -July ... .3 October . . G
. — August . . — November . 3
. — September . 2 December . 8
It will be seen that thirty of tliese instances occurred in the winter months
of December, January and February. Tlie three cases that took place in
July are recorded b}' Thompson.
The Migration Reports contain a good many notices of Gulls
January .
. 10
April .
February
. 12
:\ray .
IMarch .
7
June .
GAVI.E. 343
wliicli, from the descriptions, must have been of this or the next
species. Such iuformatiou has come chiefly from Donegal stations,
from Black Rock, co. Mayo, and from the Tearaght, co. Kerry, the
harbours of Queeustown and Dungarvau having also furnished
similar notices, vphich amount in all to about twenty-four. These
corroborate in a general way the preference of the Arctic Gulls
for the north and west coasts and the occasional extension of
their winter range to Cork and Waterford.
In certain seasons there is a special visitation of Glaucous and
Iceland Gulls, as in the winter of 1891-92 {Irish Nat, 1892, p. 19j.
Mr. Sinclair observed that the Glaucous Gull is exceedingly tierce
and pugnacious, driving off even the Great Black-back fr()ni any
prey it may have found on the shore ; this is frecj^uently carrion,
for the species under consideration has been repeatedly observed
feeding on some dead animal or fish stranded by the tide, and Cox
noticed a Glaucous Gull which resorted to such an object for a
week or ten days, and he added that it was very shy of approach.
Mr. Warren, in commenting on this trait, remarks that in this
particular the species differs from the Iceland Gull, which seldom
shows any alarm. The former can, he adds, be easily distinguished
from the latter when on the wing by its large size and heavier
flight, which is more like that of the Great Black-backed Gull.
When at rest the tips of the primary feathers extend just to the
end of the tail, sometimes slightly beyond it ; while in the Iceland
Gull they project from two to two and a-half inches l>eyond the
tail.
The whiter primaries readily distinguish either of these northern
species from our native Gulls when in flight.
THE ICELAND GULL. Larm hucopterus, Faber.
Uncertain winter- visitor, occurring occasionally in very small numbers.
The Iceland Gull visits the Irish coasts not infrequently,
although in the same irregular way as the Glaucous Gull, and
whatever may be the causes that lead birds of the one species to
this country in special seasons these seem to operate similarly
upon the other. Thus in 1891-92 several of each white-winged
species were obtained on diiferent ])arts of the north and Avest coasts,
indicating that a flight of these northern Inrds reached Ireland
during that winter. Tliere were five of the Glaucous recorded,
from Rathlin in Antrim, Donegal, Mayo and Galwav ; and eleven
344 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Iceland Clulls from Donegal Bay, Killala Bay, western Mayo,
Dingle in Kerry ; and finally an Icelander was seen at Kinsale,
CO. Cork, in May 1892, l:)y Mr. H. Leybourne Popham.
The Iceland Gull occurs in this country at least as frequently
and in about the same numbers as the Glaucous, and visits very
much the same parts of the coast, occurring repeatedly in Dublin
Bay, Donegal, Mayo and Sligo, extending its visits to Kerry and
Cork ; but it has not been recorded from the South-East. In
most of the cases there were single birds ; but tAvo, and even three,
have been met "with together. Sixty-eight instances were dis-
tributed as follows : —
Dublin .
. 11
Antrim . . 2
Sligo. . .
17
Kerry .
. 10
Londonderry 2
Mayo. . .
, 5
Cork . .
. 10
Donegal . .11
Leinster
. 11
Ulster . . 15
Connaught .
22
]Munster .
. 20
It is remarkable that so many should have been obtained in the
extreme South, but it should be observed that five of the birds
killed in co. Cork were noticed by Mr. Warren, to whom are due
seventeen records from Mayo and Sligo, which form the majority
of those from Connaught. Mr. Blake Knox made nearly all the
records available for co. Dublin; and it is probable that if other
good observers resided elsewhere on our coast the visits of this
species would be found to be more frequent and widespread than
they are supposed to be.
Sixty-seven birds were seen or obtained in the following months : —
January . . 15 April ... 3 July ... — October . . 4
February . 13 I\Iay ... 3 August . . 1 November . 6
March . . 4 June ... 2 September . 1 December . 15
The first thing to ol)serve about these numbers is that nearly
sixty-three per cent, of the lairds occurred in the mouths of
Decemlier, January and Felu'uary, beiug a somewhat larger pro-
portion than was ascertained in the case of Glaucous Gulls noted
for those months. The Iceland Gull has been recorded every
month in the year except July. Both the June instances took
place in co. Sligo, in one a bird of the second year was seen bv
Mr. Warren, and the other, an adult, was picked up dead at
Mullaghmore by Mr. C. Langham, who had it preserved. It had
evidently been shot at, as both legs were broken.
Adult individuals and birds in the dark plumage of their first
year appear not to be so often obtained as those which are con-
sidered to be in their second vear.
GAVI.E. 345
Mr. Warren, who lias had so mauy opportunities of uliservint;-
this bird, states that it may l~>e distinguished from the Glaucous
Gull by its buoyant, gliding flight, which is due to the propor-
tionate length of wing, for when at rest the wings extend from
two to two and a-half inches beyond the tail, which is not the
case with the other species. Moreover, this Gull is not wary
like the Glaucous, but has singularly little fear of man, having
been known to alight on a road within thirty yards of persons
standing there. Thompson mentions one which ke\>t its ground
while boys were throwing stones at it, and only flew a few yards
when it was struck.
The Iceland Gall sometimes associates with Herring-Gidls or
others, and will make excursions into the fields and follow the
plough for worms when not too far from the sea. It has lieen
repeatedly shot on Queenstowu Harbour.
Like the Glaucous, the Iceland Gull will feed on dead carcasses
and offal ; and when the entrails of fish were thrown to one of
these birds its eagerness was such that the oljserver thought it
would have taken the food from his hand.
THE KITTIWAKE GULL. Elsm trldadyla (Linnasus).
Resident, but rarely seen in winter. Breeds in vast colonies on tlie more
precipitous coasts and islands, but, though exceedingly numerous,
is decidedly local.
The Kittiwake is exclusively maritime in its habits, and prefers
as breeding-resorts the most beetling cliffs and exposed islands.
In Kerry it has large colonies on the Blaskets and the Skelligs.
In Cork the Bull and Cow Eocks are resorts of this l:)ird, which is
mentioned as breeding regularly by gentlemen residing on the south
coast of the county. In Waterford the Kittiwake has no considerable
colonies, though Helvick Head was mentioned by Thomj^son, but
<»u the Saltees it is to be found in very large numbers on the cliffs,
both of rock and boulder clay, round the south island. Lanibay
and Eockabill are the only breeding-resorts on the east coast,
except the neighbouring rock of Ireland's Eye, which recently held
a small number. Kittiwakes nest in enormous numbers on the
north side of RatliKn Island, Imt one of the largest colonics in
Ireland is at Horn Head, where for miles the liirds people the
cliffs, together witli the Auk family, for two Imndrcd ivel aliove
the sea.
The next great Donegal oluny is T(.»rmore, a colossal pillar-like
346 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
rock off the western peniusula. Aughris Head in Sligo is the
home of great numbers, and aloug the north coast of Mayo there
are several colonies, among which may 1)e mentioned Downpatrick
Head. The pi-ecipitous faces of the Bills, off Achill, hold an
assemblage of these and other rock-birds. The colonies on Inish-
more, the chief island of the Aran group, are not extensive, but
the largest in Ireland is, I should say, on the cliffs of Moher in
Clare. There the great liird-colony, composed very much of Kitti-
wakes, extends upwa.rds for some five hundred feet, though it does
not stretch for so many miles as the Inrd-cliff's of Horn Head.
Those picturesque cliff's of Moher affoi'd the greatest display of
bird-life within the same length of coast-line in Ireland. The
weathering of the limestone strata has left on them a series of
shelves and horizontal fissures, admiralily suited to the eliff-breed-
ing l)irds which have so largely availed themselves of this noble
stronghold. A detached obelisk of the rctck rises, probably to two
hundred feet, out of the sea at the base of these lofty cliffs.
Shelves and cornices run round it the whole way up, and these are
all thickly tenanted, the rows of wliite Kittiwakes on their nests
reminding one of the ornaments on a bridecake.
These Ijirds return after the winter to their rocky homes in
March, and on the 4th of that month they have been observed to
land in numbers on the Skelligs, while a great migration has been
noticed at Slyne Head passing north in March and early in April.
These birds are, however, late breeders, carrying on the prepara-
tion of their nests for some time ; in fact, allowing for some birds
being earlier than others, the jn'ocess goes on for about six weeks.
They tear the grass off" the Ijanks until the ground is as bare as a
fallow, they fish up pond-weed from the pools, and dig up mud
with their beaks, carrying a little bit of it each time to form the
small compact nest, which looks frc>m Ijcneath as if it were stuck
against the rock, like a nest of the Swallow family. These nests
stand in rows, almost touching at times ; the birds occupying them
in perfect harmony, and forming denser colonies than those ot
any of the larger Grulls. As a rule they confine themselves to
the lower portion of the cliff', except where this is very thickly
inhabited.
Kittiwakes may he seen occupying their nests in rows long before
an egg is laid. Few eggs aie produced before the end of May,
the majority being laid during the early ]>art of June. Mr. H. C.
Hart ol>served three as the usual number in each nest at Lambay,
but at the Saltees and on the Kerry Islands I have found sets of
two eggs greatly outnumbering those of three, which are almost
GAVi.B. 347
exceptional. The youuo- do not fly until the end of July or the
month of August, after which old and voung follow the shoals of
fish along the coasts and disappear generally in October with the
macterel ; on the 9th of that month thousands have been seen
passing Duugarvan Lighthouse towards the south-west. Very few
are to be met with in winter, and they prefer deeper water than
the other species, never frequenting fresh water nor resorting to
the fields to feed like the Black-headed and Common Gulls.
Kittiwakes that do occur on our shores in winter are frequently
emaciated, storm-driven birds, and such are sometimes found far
inland. Colonel H. W. Feilden observed these little Gulls following
the vessel, on 24th October, 4-50 miles from Cape Clear. Flocks
of one-year-old birds, though immature, have l)een seen at the
breeding-haunts of the species, and this has been accounted for
by the fact that the best bird-cliffs are near a. good run of tide
which is a highway for migrating fish ; nevertheless, the appear-
ance of young birds of the previous year at such places is excep-
tional, but they may be found in June at the Copeland Islands,
which are far from any breeding-haunt.
The habits of Kittiwakes at their nesting stations ai-e very
engaging to watch ; their dove-like motions harmonising with the
happy scene, and their sweet, plaintive voices echoing from the
cliffs in chorus. When a bird returns from the sea to its mate on
the nest both hold their wings uplifted and continue calling for
some moments with necks crossing, first right and then left, until
the newly arrived Ivittiwake delivers up the prey it has brought to
the hatching bird. Kittiwakes feed till very late in the evening,
and are often thus engaged at dusk, particularly in the spring.
Mr. H. Blake Knox, who makes the last remark, has dealt in detail
with the plumage at different ages (Zool., s. s., p. 548).
THE IVORY GULL. Pafjo^.hna ehurnea (Phipps).
Has been twice obtained, once in Kerry and once in Cork.
The fii'st instance on record in which the Ivory Gull was
obtained in Ireland took place after a storm in Febi-uary 184(i,
when two alighted in the yard at Blennervillc, co. Kerry, and
from their want of fear were looked upon as tame l:)irds. On the
third day, however, one of them, an immature bird, was shot ; and
I lately inspected it among the liirds iu the Chute Hall collection.
348
BIPiDS OF lEELAXD.
It has black tips to the tail anelow, though eleven others are said to have been
observed, and in some of the latter cases the determination was
no doubt correct. The distribution including these takes in the
whole circuit of the Irish coast. The Great Skua has been
obtained three times on Duliliu Bay, and twice on Belfast Bay in
the same season ; it has also occurred on the west coast, having
been obtained in Galway, Kerry and the west of Cork ; while it
is stated to have been twice observed off Dungarvan in co. Water-
ford. There is also an instance of a stonn-drivcu l»ird that was
found inland in co. Tipperaiy.
The first mentioned l»y Thompson was shot early in July, and
others have been obtained in August, September, October and
gayi.t:.
349
November. Thus, like other Skuas, this species has visited Irish
shores in late summer aud through the autumu, but not lietweeu
ISTovembev and July ; so that there are no records of it in May or
June, as there are of the three following species.
Kerry. — One obtained long since
on Tralee Harbour is in the collection
at Chute Hall.
Cork. — A specimen shot on Bantry
Bay in the winter of 1845-46, was
preserved by Lord Bantry (Thompson,
III., p. 390).
Tipperary. — A Great Skua was
picked up dead near Thurles in
November 1S94, and was preserved
by Messrs. Williams & Sou.
Dublin. — One was shot on Dublin
Bay early in July 1833 (Thompson,
III., p. 390). This specimen became
the property of Waiters, whose col-
lection perished by fire. Another
was found dead and emaciated on
the shore near Portmarnock in
November 1S3G (Ibid.). A Great
Skua was taken alive, apparently
on Dublin Bay (Watters, p. 203).
A specimen, now in the Dublin
Museum, was received from Clon-
tarf on 1st October 18S0 by IMessrs.
Williams & Son, who preserved it.
Galway. — An example, shot in
this county in 1835 passed into the
Trinity College Museum, Dublin
(Thompson) ; aud a Great Skua now
bears the " Yarrell " label there.
Down. — Two were killed at one
shot on Ballymacarrett Bank, Bel-
fast Lough, early in August 1848 ;
while another was olitained near
Holywood on ISth September 1848
(Ibid.).
THE POMATORHINE SKUA. Stercorarius pomatorhhtus
(Temininck j .
Scarce autumn-visitor in varying numbers. A few have occurred in
May and the following months.
The Pomatorhine Skua occurs irregularly on all parts of the
Irish coast; the localities where it has been most frec^uently
noticed being co. Kerry, co. Dublin, Belfast Bay and Killala Bay,
though this must l)e very much due to the presence of observers
at the points named. The bird doubtless ranges freely round
Ireland, for it has been met with in twelve maritime counties
and also far out at sea. It has, moreover, occurred in the inland
counties of Kildare, "VVestmeath, Roscommon and Galway ; in
the latter case on Lough Derg, where it was probably following
the Shannon Valley. The majority of those obtained were inuna-
ture, but many have been in adult plumage.
In the remarkable migration of Pomatorhine^ and Richardson's
Skuas which took place on the 22ud and 23rd October 1862, Mr.
Warren observed successive flocks of the former species flying from
350 LIRDS OF IRELAND.
Killala Bay u\> the Mov, tiTwarcls the chain of lakes which leads to
Galway Bay (thus avoidiug the detour round western Counaught).
On the 25th and following days J. C. Neligan and his brother
observed Skuas of both species on Tralee Bay, where they re-
mained until the storms abated that had preceded their appearance
in both localities (Zool, s. s., p. 4700 [1875], and Irish Nat.,
1896, p. 258). The above was the largest visitation of this species
to Ireland on record, but in other years these birds have been
obtained in very distant localities ; as, for instance, in October and
November 1890, in Dublin, Kildare and Mayo (several localities);
in 1892, in Westmeath, Sligo and Mayo ; in 1895, in Kerry (two
localities), Wexford and Sligo ; in 1899, near the SkelUgs, off
Kerry and on Cork Harbour. Some of these seasons have been
particularly stormy, and an adult bird that was sent me by
Dr. Burkitt from Belniullet in ISTovember 1890 had been found
dead and its stomach was completely empty, having died of
exposure and starvation.
The number of times this Skua has beeu recorded from the several counties
is as follows: —
Kerry . .
. G
Wexford .
. 1
Galway .
2
Antrim
and
Cork . .
. 3
Wicklow .
. 1
Roscommon
. 1
Down
. . 6
Waterford
. 1
Dublin .
. (3
^layo . . ,
, G
Donegal
. . 3
Kildare .
. 1
Sliyo . .
. G
Westmeath
. 1
INIuuster
10
Leiuster
10
Counaught
15
Ulster .
. . 9
The months in which thirty-nine of these birds were recognized or captured
were as follows : —
January . -
— April . .
. —
July . . .
1
October . ,
, 18
February . -
- May .
. 3
August . .
1
November
. 9
:\Iarch \ . -
— June . .
. 1
September .
2
December
. 4
There is no record for the first four months of the year, but there are three
for May : — An immature bird shot off Erris Head by Mr. E. W. Holt ; another
found dead at Kiltooris, co. Donegal, the property of Mr. Steele Elliott ; and
a third obtained on Aranmore in the same' county by a lightkeeper and
preserved by him (Mr. H. ]\r. Wallis). One was obtained at French Park,
CO. Roscommon, in June (IMessrs. Williams & Son) ; Mr. Sheridan states that
he shot one in Achill in July, while Dr. Burkitt preserved another that was
killed on Tramore -Bay, co. Waterford, in August. It will be seen that
October is the principal month in vvliich the Pomatorhine Skua visits Ireland,
and that its occurrences diminish in November and December.
One of these birds was sh(jt in co. Wexford while attempting
to kill a chicken, and Thomjtsun mentions another whose stomach
GAVI.E. 351
contained a rat, fish-bones and feathers ; while Watters tells of
one which was found to have eaten a G-ull.
■Referring to the adult hird, Mr. Warren remarks : " When seen
during- flight, the tail of this Skua presents a very clumsy appear-
ance, in contrast to the elegantly pointed tails of the smaller
species. This is caused by the two elongated central tail-feathers
being bluntly rounded at their ends and twisted for nearly half
their length, almost at right angles to the plane of the short
tail-feathers ; so that in a side view the full breadth of the long
feathers is shown, giving the tail that awkward appearance which
so easily distinguishes the Ptimatorhine Skua on the wing."
THE ARCTIC or EICHARDSON'S SKUA. Sfercorarins
crepidafus (J. F. Gmelin).
A not unfrequent visitor in autumn, rare and uncertain in May and
June.
This is the species of Skua that visits Ireland most frecjuently
and has been met with in the largest numbers on those rare
occasions when a considerable migration movement has been
observed. It has l^een recorded repeatedly from thirteen
maritime counties roimd Ireland — viz., Kerry, Cork, Waterford,
Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Louth, Down, Antrim, Donegal, Sligo,
Mayo, and Galway ; but sufficient materials do not exist for a
comparative table illustrating its local distribution. The most
numerous I'ccords are from Killala Bay, owing to Mr. Warren's
long continued observations, and to the favourable position of
that harbour. Arctic Skuas have been obtained inland, once in
Kildare and once in Monaghan, and again by the Hon. E. E. Dillon
in eastern Galway near Eoscommon.
Mr. Warren states that these birds are sometimes observed by
him on their journey to the north in spring, and that when they
do appear they generally remain for some days aliout the Moy
Estuary, chasing the Terns. In May 1877 the flights of the latter
were very large aiid were accom|ianied by six Skuas, of which he
shot three, and these all i^roved to be females, containing eggs up
to the size of B shot. One of these birds was white l)eneath, one
of the dark form and one intermediate in colouring. On 18th
May 1890 an Arctic Skua was seen chasing the Terns on the Moy
352 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
as above described, while on IStli May ISbl Mr. E. W. Holt sliot
one aud saw several others in Donegal Bay, and on the 28tli of
the same month he saw another, quite elose to him, in Dunfauaghy
Harbour on the north coast of Donegal. To the above
, occurrences in May can he added instances that occurred in June,
in which one was obtained in co. Cork and another in co. Louth ;
while a Skua has been seen in Dungarvan Bay chasing other birds in
June, and another was observed pursued by Terns flying noi'th-
ward up Lough Beg on 11th June 189-4.
The Arctic Skua does not ap],)ear to have been noticed in July,
but in August it reaches Ireland occasionally, becoming much
more frecpient in Sej^temlier aud Octoljer, and again becoming
very scarce in November. As a rule this and other Skuas appear
along with those hosts of Grulls that assemble on our coasts when
there are great shoals of fish in autumn.
Mr. Warren and his brother observed an unusual migra-
tion of this species on Killala Bay in October 1851. On the
8th of that month a flock of six and another of eight birds
were seen passing at a great height from the direction of the bay
across the country to the south-west. These were the precursors
of large uumbers that followed on the 15th and 16th. The
weather had meantime become squally with heavy showers, which
caused the birds to fly quite low. From eight a.m. to one o'clock
on the 15th successive flocks, amounting in all to seventy-two
birds, crossed Bartragh Island from the sea in the same south-west
direction. On the morning of the 16th the flight still continued,
the Skuas passing in small flocks, until about eleven o'clock
upwards of a hundred l)irds had been seen. These were mostly dark
immature birds, but a good many long-tailed adults were seen
that had light-coloured throats and l>ellies. Some, from the
fatigue of their migration-flight, rested occasionally on the water
for a few minutes and then followed their comi'anions. The
numerous Gulls ]x\ssed ])y the Skuas on both days were dis-
regarded by them, as though the predatory impulses of these birds
were overpowered by their anxiety to migrate.
Mr. E. H. Warren, during the succeeding four years that he
resided on Bai'tragh, observed Skuas on their south-west course
every October, but not in such numbers as in 1851.
On 18th September 1869, a bright calm day, Mr. liobert Warren
again saw a flock of fifteen directing their flight to the south-west,
but at such a height that he was just able to distinguish their
long tails against the sky ; and again on 3rd Octolier 1874 he saw
small flocks flying in succession up the Moy River from the sea
GAVi^. 353
(Zool, s. s., p. 4699 [18?5j). All these, like the Pomatorhine
Skuas observed in October 1862, were evidently engaged in cross-
ing Connaught bv the chain of lakes that leads to Galway Bay.
After the latter event in October 1862 Inrds of both these species
were noticed by Mr. J. C. Neligan to frecpient Tralee Bay during
the continuance of the storms that accompanied the migration, and
he stated that for many years previously he had observed the
Arctic Skuas off that coast in October, generally in a line from
Kerry Head to Brandon Head.
It api^ears from the statement of Colonel Vernon that Skuas,
presumably of this species, occasionally visit the western coast of
Connaught in some numbers, for when he was at Killary Harbour
about 1867-68 he observed many which had come up the harbour,
and he shot several with long tail-feathers.
Taking the observations of one day as a single instance, forty-two occurrences
of this bird took x^lace thus : —
January . — April . . — July . . — October . 15
February . — May ... 5 August . 5 November . 1
]\Iarch . . — June ... 3 September 13 December .
As in the case of the last species, no record appears from
January to April inclusive, but a large projjortion of the Arctic
Skuas seem to have visited this country in September and fewer
in the last two months of the year ; the autumn migration thus
aj>pearing to be earlier than that of the Pomatorhine Skua.
" Skua Gulls " are often mentioned in the Migration Eeports,
and are sometimes said to have been seen chasing other l:)irds, in
June, August, October, and November ; but the species was un-
described, so that none of these instances are enumerated above.
A statement made to Thompson that the nest of this Skua had
been found on a small rocky islet off Achill was not substantiated
by specimens and has never been corroborated since.
An instance of feeding otherwise than by robbing Gulls of
their prey occurred five miles from Newry, where a bird of this
species was shot while following the plough and feeding on
worms.
A A
354 EIEDS OF IRELAND.
THE LONG- TAILED or BUFFON'S SKUA. Stercorarius
jDarasiticKS (Linnseus).
Scarce and uncertain visitor, appearing chiefly in autumn, less frequently
in May and June.
The Long-tailed Skua has occurred all round the coasts of
Ireland, and exceptionally inland, in much the same way as the
other species. Having no breeding-place in the British Islands
its occurrences on the spring and autumn migi-ations depend on
varying circumstances, such as stormy weather driving the bird
inland, or an abundance of fish with Gulls and Tei'ns to cater
for it. The coasts of Ulster and northern Connaught seem to be
oftener visited than other parts of Ireland.
The inland occurrences were as follows : — An immature bird,
accompanied by another, was shot on the co. Waterford mountains
near Clonmel on the 14th October 1881 by Mr. H. S. Boyd, as he
was pursuing a flock of Golden Plover, and he was surprised to see
the Skua poimce on them like a Falcon. There had been heavy
gales previously. Another immature specimen was obtained near
Edenderry, King's Co., on 20th October 1891 ; and a bird of this
species was shot on the Slieve Bloom Mountains, Queen's Co.,
in 1890; sixty or seventy were seen migrating on the Shannon
between Westmeath and Roscommon on 16th May 1862, as
related below ; while Messrs. Williams tt Son received an adult
specimen from Castlerea, co. Eoscommon, in May 1892. Two
have been shot in co. Armagh ; one of them in October 1891, and
the other, an immature bird, in August 1898.
The distribution of forty-one instances is here given: —
Kerry . .
Waterford
3
2
Wexford . .
Dublin . .
King's Co. .
Queen's Co.
•2
3
2
1
Gahvay . . 1
Roscommon 2
]Mayo . . 5
Sligo • . . 2
Armagh .
Down .
Antrim .
Donegal .
2
. 6
. 5
. 5
Muuster .
5
Leinster . .
8
Connaught 10
Ulster .
. 18
A migration of Long-tailed Skuas on their northward sparing
journey is dt scribed in the Proceedings of the Dublin Natural
History Society for the 7th Fel)ruary 1862. The occurrence took
place on the Shannon on 16tli May 1860, and was witnessed by
Lieutenant J. E. Crane, of the 67th Eegiment. He stated that
the weather, which had been very stormy for some days, was so
GAVI.E. 355
wild on this occasion, with hail-showers, that it was difficult to
keep his boat clear of water. At Long Island, about tive miles
south of Athloue, three successive flocks of these Skuas,
consisting of twenty or more in each flock, passed over him,
following the course of the Shannon northward, and showing- no
disposition to alight. From his description of their long tails these
birds were evidently adults, and Mr. Crane shot three of them.
On the following day a Long-tailed Skua was killed out of a flock
in CO. Donegal. The nature of the weather probaldy determined
the birds seen on the Shannon tct avail themselves of the shelter
of its course, a route which is used by other species on migration.
The majority of the examjdes olitained in May and June have
been adults, and have come chiefly from the North and West of
Ireland ; a few have i;>ccurred in August and September, and
several of the latter also have l>een adults; 1)ut October is the
chief month when this Skua, as well as its congeners, visits
Ireland, and at that time there are many immature individuals.
Thompson mentions four of these l)irds in company, which were
met with in Donegal in November, the only record for that month.
The Dublin Museum possesses an immature specimen obtained by
Mr. Ct. H. Kinahan on the south coast of Wexford on 2nd January
1875, and Thompson records one which was shot in a plouglied
field near Tramore (on the same coast-line) on 1st March 18-16.
These last two are the only instances in which Skuas of any
species appear to have been identified during the first quarter of
the year.
In thirty-one cases the mouths have been recorded : —
January .
1
April . .
. —
July . . .
—
October .
. 12
February
—
:\ray . .
. G
August . .
8
November
. 1
]\Iarch .
1
June . .
o
September .
i
Deceml)er .
. —
One of these Skuas was shi:)t in co. Mayo as it rose from the
carcase of a horse, on which it had been feeding.
A A 2
356 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Order ALCiE.
Family ALCID.^.
THE EAZOEBILL. Alca fordo, Liimgeus.
Resident. Numerous in summer, but infrequent in winter.
The Razorbill is oue of those species usually to l)e found
"wliere there are colonies of rock-birds round the coasts of Ireland,
and its breeding-places are more numerous than those of the
Guillemot, as it does not confine itself to such precipitous cliffs
as the latter does. Multitudes of Razorbills breed on the cliffs
of Moher in Clare, the Blaskets and Skelligs off Kerry, and the
Bull Rock off CO. Cork ; and on the last this species is much
more numerous than the Guillemot, as it seems to be on the coasts
of that county generally, "^vhile it is the only Auk that breeds on
the CO. Waterford cliff's. The Saltees are the summer-resort of
vast numbers, which to a great extent are intermixed with the
Guillemots. Lambay and Ireland's Eye off co. Dublin are the
only homes of the species reported from the east coast ; but on
the Antrim cliffs it is again found, and Rathlin Island is resorted
to by countless numbers which exceed those of the Guillemots.
On Horn Head in Donegal is one of the most extensive colonies
in Ireland, and other breeding-places which may be named in
that county are Tory Island, Aranmore, and Tormore. In co.
Sligo there is one at Aughris Head. Along the tremendous cliffs
of northern Mayo are many colonies, and there are others on the
Bills and Clare Island ; while the chief breeding-place off' co.
Galway is Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. Scattered
pairs and small grou2:)S of Razorlnlls may, however, be found on
many parts of the coast where there is no special colony.
Razorbills scmietimes begin to pay daily visits to their Ijreeding-
cliffs on the Skelligs as early as the end of Februarv, and from
the 10th to the 20th of March they take permanent possession of
their rocky homes in the South, though tliis does not seem to
take place until April in the North. Still, in March a great move-
ment of Razorbills is observed off' the Irish coasts. The first egg
noticed on the Skelligs was seen on 9th May, but laying does not
become general until late in that month ; and from that time
fresh eggs may be found through June, alongside newly-hatched
voung of other parents. Both old and young leave the rocks
alc.t:. 357
towards the eu<\ of July and hetake themselves to the water, aud
after the first few days of August few are left at their breediug-
resorts.
Mr. E. M'Carron, who availed himself of his ojiportunities as
light-keeper to watch these birds on the Tearaght, writes: "The
young are jostled all the way down to the sea by the old ones. If
the young bird rests too long, the old one shoves it, and on it goes,
rolling aud tumbling, and falling sometimes down steep cliffs, but
at last the sea is gained. The old bird wants to get the young oft"
to sea, seems excited, swims round it, and I'ight off before it a few
yards, then returns aud dives a few times round about it ; at last
it commences to peck and tug the young bird ; but this is so stupid
that it cannot understand, and hours are thus spent. At last the
old bird dives down and comes up under the young one, which is
nicely poised on its back. In this way the mother swims oft* to
sea with its offspi'ing, rising and falling with the heaving of the
billows. On no occasion did I observe the youg bird to fall oft.
Some of the young when they tumble into the water swim off to
sea at once with the old ones, others are carried off l)y wind and
tide, and young and old wander along for months. They do not
gather in flocks as Puffins do, but go along in pairs " (Irish
Nat, 1899, p. 135).
From August to Noveml)er these birds with their young are
numerous oft' our shores, especially when the supply of fish is
plentiful ; and when a clamouring cloud of Grulls are pouncing on
a shoal, the dark forms of Kazorbills and Guillemots, which fish
beneath the water, are constantly rising to the surface only to
dive again the next moment.
In December great numbers of this species have been seen
passing our southern lighthouses to the south or south-west, aud
throughout the winter the birds that are met with are chiefty young.
Mr. M'Carron, speaking of his observations on the Tearaght in
winter, says : — " As many as two or three hundred might be seen
almost every day. It was generally in stormy weather that they
came close to our island. They were then c^uite active and dived
immediately. In fine weather they rested C[uietly on the water,
but kept at a distance from the island." He found them equally
common in winter at Mine Head, co. Waterford, up to the middle
of February, aud noticed them subsecpiently at the Copelaud
Islands and oft Kingstown.
Mr. H. Blake Knox remarked the numbers of Razorbills
decrease on Dublin Bay early in December. From that time until
March they are scarce, as he states, and it is chiefly young birds
358 UIKDS OF IRELAND.
that are met with. East winds and frosty weather bring them in.
Individuals still in immature plumage have been seen by Mr.
M'Carron n-mong the hundreds of breeding Razorbills ; and one of
the former, which he shot in June, was larger and heavier than
the adult, and had the throat white. This indicates that the
breeding-plumage is not attained until the second year, and that
the birds of the previous season make their appearance at the
breeding-colonies only in exceptional cases.
Most Razorbills prefer to lay in the nooks and cavities of the
cliff rather than on those open shelves and platforms which are
chiefly used by Guillemots ; but the eggs of both species may
sometimes be found side by side. The Guillemots, however, are
fond of hatching in ]»acks, while the Razorbill usually finds a
den for itself, and sometimes lays apart from other birds, like the
Black Guillemot.
Among the vast variety in the eggs of this species a green
ground is very rarely found, but specimens occur of a purplish
and of a coffee-coloured tint : while streaks or scrolls, though
uncommon, are prevalent on some eggs.
The hatching bird is extremely determined in the defence of
her home, and has l>een known not only to bite severely, but hold
on to a dog until another intruder afforded her a fresh object to
seize. The male usually fishes for the female, l)ut is thought to
take her place at times, the egg never, if possible, being left
exposed to the Herring-Gulls, which would carry it ofl: at (.)nce.
Straggling Razorbills have been met with on Lough Derg and
Lough Neagh, and are occasionally blown to the most inland
localities by storms, even in summer. In winter numbers are
occasionally washed up or blown ashore along the coast in an
emaciated and dying condition. This is probably the result of a
scarcity of food combined with the fatigue of coping with the
waves, under which these birds dive, coming momentarily to the
surface to dive ayain.
THE GREAT AUK. AIca im2>ennis,Unnsius.
This now extinct bird was once obtained, on the co. Waterford coast
in May 183i.
The late Dr. Robert J. Burkitt, who preserved the above
sjjecimen, gave me notes in Avliich he corrected some statements
in Thom}>son's account of it. These corrections had previously
been comnuuiicated to Mr. J. H. Gurney and mentioned bv him
ALC^. 359
{Zool., s. s., p. 1449 [1868]). I have, moreover, been shown by
David Hardy, now deceased, the spot where the capture occurred,
(;lose to the clilfs between Ballyniacaw and Brownstown Head ;
it was not at the mouth uf Waterford Harlxmr, Init several
miles further west. He referred to the bird spontaneously as a
" Penguin," and said that it appeared to him to have a white ring-
round its eye (a slight mistake, but sufficiently near the truth to
show that he remembered this G-reat Auk). After it had been
observed by Hardy swimming about the locality, a fisherman named
Kirby captured it without difficulty. It showed so little suspicion
that sprats thrown to it enticed it near the boat, when it was taken
in a landing-net, and apjieared to be half starved. This was stated
to have occurred, in May 1834, by Mr. Francis Davis of Waterford,
who purchased it ten days afterwards and sent it to Mr. Jacob
Goif, of Horetown, co. Wexford ; where it was kept in captivity
for four months. For somje time it took no food, but potatoes
and milk were then forced down its throat, after which it ate
voraciously. It was fed chiefly on fish, which were swallowed
entire, and trout were preferred to sea-fisb. " This Auk stood
very erect, was a very stately-looking bird, and had a habit of
frequently shaking its head in a peculiar manner, more especially
when any food was presented to it ; thus, if a small trout was
held up before it the bird would at once commence shaking its
head." (This statement Dr. Burkitt supplied as a correction of
what Thompson said — -that the bird stroked its head with its
foot.) It was rather fierce, and seemed to have an aversion to water.
Its subsequent preservation resulted from a recjuest made by
the late Captain Spence, when on a visit to Horetown, that if the
bird should die it might be presented to Dr. Burkitt. This took
place, and the entry of the fact in Dr. Burkitt's collecting-l)ook is
as follows : — " September 7th, 1834, I obtained a young Penguin
from Francis Davis, Esq., which was taken off Ballyniacaw, and
which I presented to the Museum uf Trinity College, Dublin,
1844."
It was described as a young female, not in good plumage, and
was cured with arsenical soap. It now stands under a glass shade
in Trinity College Museum, and is the only known example in
immature plumage, the white patch l)etween the bill and eye being-
mottled with l)lackish-brown feathers. The measurements are
given by Thompson. The 1 tones were preserved by Dr. Burkitt
and given w^ith the skin to Dr. Ball, but nothing is known of
them now.
Dr.Bm'kitt discredited the statement that ;ip}>ears in Thompson's
8G0 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
work as to a seeoud Great Auk having lieeii procured about the
same time, aud he believed that it arose from a separate accouut
of the above specimen and was due to the confusion of the names
of Francis Davis, of Waterford, aud of Robert Davis, of Clonmel
(Thompson, III., pp. 238, 289). Moreover, Stopford's communi-
cation to Harvey, made in 1844, which stated that one of these
birds had been ol:»tained on the strand at Castle Freke in a water-
soaked condition, does not appear in Harvey's " Fauna of Cork,"
1845.
Thompson was informed hy H. Bell, a wildfowl shooter,
that lie saw" two large birds of the size of Great Northern Divers,
but with much smaller wings and much more clumsy heads, on
Belfast Lough on 23rd September 1845. These kept diving aud
went an extraordinary distance under water each time.
I have to thank Mr. Roliert Patterson for the information that
the late Robert Gage, of Rathlin, concluded his list of the birds
of that island with the following note : — " In 1740 the Rev. John
Gage i^urchased the island of Rathlin. He died in 17G3, and
though he did not I'eside in the island he occasionally visited it.
A short paper in his handwriting was found many years ago,
giving an account of some of the birds which he had observed
frequenting the island. As well as I can remember he mentioned
a great number of ' Sea-pyots,' wdiicli I suppose included Puffins,
Guillemots, Sea-Gulls, &<■., and a large fowl bigger than a goose,
which he sup2)osed to be a Penguin."
Though the above paper is lost aud the statement, conveyed
through the memory of Mr. Gage, is open to criticism, still it is a
remarkable coincidence that the first place in Ireland where the
remains of the Great Auk have been found is White Park Bay,
on the Antrim coast, not far from Rathlin. In the kitchen-
middens of that place, Mr. Knowles, of Ballymena, found bones
of AIca impennis associated with flint implements and flakes and
shells of edible molluscs (" Proc. Rl. Irish Academy," Vol. I.,
No. 5, p. 625 ; Id., Vol. III., No. 4, p. 654).
These Great Auk's Iiones were found 2>artly by digging and
partly were scattered on the sini'ace and comprised: — Four right
and six left humeri, two right and one left ulnte, one radius, one
metacarpal, two phalanges, two left coracoids, one right aiid two
left scapulae, one right ti1)ia, one right femur ; in all twenty-four
bones. In one case the entire bones of a wing were found
together {Irish Nat., 1899, p. 4).
A similar discovery awaited me in co. "Witerford, where among
the sand-hills on Tramore Bay are extensive kitchen-middens, con-
ALC.^^. 361
taining layers of shells of oysters and eoclcles with limiiots, mussels
and other shells, charcoal, burned stones (split from use as pot-
boilers), and bones of domestic animals and fowls, with bones and
horns of red deer. Among these objects, which were on the surface,
my companions and I found in diiferent places, seventeen bones
of Great Auk, comprising eight coracoids, five humeri, one tibia,
two metatarsals and one |>elvic bone. In one case a right and a
left humerus were found together. The coracoids, according to
Dr. Gadow of Cambridge, who kindly determined the ]-emains,
represent at least six individual l)irds. A selection of these
bones is in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, and others are
in the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge.
The above facts lead to the conclusion that the Great Auk
was used for food by the people who created the kitchen-middens,
and the inquiry will arise how they procured so many of these
oceanic birds. This could have been easily done if breeding-
places of the species existed in their vicinity, such as Rathlin
might have afforded. On the Waterford coast there are no large
islands, but not more than sixteen miles from Tramore Bay are
the low Keeragh Islands, eminently suited for such a bird to
breed on ; and the incursions that the sea has made along the
Waterford coast, removing two successive school-houses within
my memory, may well have washed away any low flat island that
existed in Tramore Bay. This locality is nearly as far south as
the fifty-second degree of latitude, probably the most southern
point at which the remains of the Great Auk have been ftmnd in
Europe, and it is to be hoped that when more of the Irish coast
is searched similar discoveries will be made elsewhere. I have,
however, explored the sand-hills on the south and east coasts of
Wexford without finding there any bones of this bird.
THE COMMON GUILLEMOT. Uria troih (Linnsus).
Resident. Numerous in summer, but scarce and uncertain in mid-
winter, when the majority migrate southward.
The Guillemot, like the Razorbill, breeds on all sides of Ireland
where the cliffs are suitable, but it cannot lie as numerous as
the latter ; for though jt has many huge and dense colonies, this
species does not extend itself over those tracts of cliff, nor is it
found scattered along all parts of the coast, to which the Razor-
bill commonly resorts. Even in some of the principal breeding-
3G2
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
baimts of clilt'-birds, as Eatlilin aud Horn Head, tlie Guillemot
is considered less numerous than the Eazorljill or the Puffin, and
seems more restricted in the choice of its home.
The largest assemblage of Guillemi;>ts in Ireland is on the
majestic limestone cliffs of Moher in Clare. These rise to 600
feet and their coast-line is indented, huge bastions affording
points from which the next cliffs can he viewed. Their faces are
stratified in bands of unequal durability, and have thus been
worn into deep seams, leaving covered shelves and ledges, of
which the vast bird-population takes ample advantage. This
does not fall off at about 200 fet^t from the water, as at Horn
Head, but covers the cliff's up to 500 feet. At this height the
deeplj-cut h(jrizontal fissures are packed with a dense multitude
of hatching Cluillemots, which it requires careful scrutiny to
inspect from the next cliff-top. These birds with Kittiwakes
occupy also to its very apex that remarkable pinnacle which rises
from an isolated base to some 200 feet near O'Brien's Castle. Its
sides are all ledged in the lines of stratification, which are carried
round the angles and, as it tapers, form lines of prominence
round its shaft. It seems as if designed to hold the greatest
possible display of bird life. Loop Head, the southern point
of Clare, has also remarkably fine cliff's teeming with Guille-
mots and their usual companions. In Kerry and Cork there
are cohjuies along the coast, which, however, are far eclipsed
by the vast multitudes that breed on the several groups of
precipitous islands, the Bhiskets, the Skelligs, and the Bull and
Cow Eocks. The assemblage of Guillemots on the summit of
the "■ Cow " is shown in the illustration, the Bull Eock appearing
in the distance. The view is from a photograph presented
by Mr. A. E. C. Newburgh.
Along the cliff'-girt coast of Waterford the Guillemot has no
breeding-place, but there is a limited one l)etween Hook Head
and Fethard in Wexford, and on the South Saltee is a famous
colony extending along the entire eastern side of the island and
part of the western. Lambay Island', north of Dublin, is the
only breeding-place I know of on the east coast. Countless
numbers make Eathlin Island their In-eeding-haunt, one huge
flat-topped stack called Doonmore l)eing the site on which a
marvellous host of Guillemots assemble. But the great breeding-
place of the north of Ireland is Horn Head, a precipitous
mountain whose cliff's, rising to 400 or oOt) feet, extend for several
miles, supporting all the way a vast multitude of sea-fowl partly
composed of this species. A loftv perpendicular rock at the east
ALC.E. 303
end of Tory Island is covered with these birds. The next great
colony is on Tormore, a huge jiillar-like mass, oft the western
peninsula of Donegal. Aughris Head in Sligo is also frequented,
and there are several colonies along the north coast of Mayo,
though these seem diminutive compared to those of the Puffins.
Parts of the Bills of Aehill are crowded with Guillemots as well
as other rock-birds, and the former also breed on Clare Island, on
the western side of Inishark, and on the cliffs of Inishmore in
the Aran Islands.
After betaking themselves to the sea in winter Guillemots
reajjpear very early at their Kerry rock-stations, where they are
observed in the end of January or beginning of February, but at
first they only pay a visit of a few hoiirs daily, landing in the
night or in the early morning, and leaving again during the
forenoon. They then occupy their nesting-places more or less for
three months before they lay. In the North they do not
generally laud until April, during which month a northward
migration takes place on different parts of the coast. Eggs were
said to have been seen on the Skelligs as early as the 9th of May,
but though I have paid many visits to the Saltees I have never
known Guillemots to lay there until the last week in May, when
eggs of the Eazorbill had been already laid at that time in greater
numbers. Fresh eggs of Guillemots may be found through June
and even in July, though the latter are probably second layings of
birds whose first eggs have been destroyed. On loth June I failed
to find any young hatched, but on the 16th of that month they
were coming ovit in all directions. From the middle of July
onwards they leave the rocks, the old birds pushing their young
over the cliffs, as I am informed liy light-keejiers. During the
first week in August the last of them disa])pear from their
nesting-places, and for al)0ut three m(;)nths hosts of these birds
follow the shoals of fish round the coasts, the y(Uing crying
" willock " and the old ones " murr." Those sounds may be
heard at a great distance when the sea is calm. In Octoljer a
general southward and south-westward movement is observed
from light-stations, and in Deceml)er and most of January
Guillemots are scarce, and chiefly seen on our south and south-
west coasts.
When stormy weather has been of long continuance Guillemots
and other Auks are sometimes washed up dead and dying on the
shore, and occasional waifs have been found in inland localities
both in summer and winter.
Guillemots chiefiy lay on open shelves of rock or the tops of large
364
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
stacks, where nests of Cormorauts siiniK^times occupy the higher
poiats, aucl a crowd of the former Ijirds sit between them ; but a
throng of this species sometimes fills an oven-like cavity in the
cliff, where after wet weather I have seen water dripping on the
birds and partly covering the fl(5or where the eggs lay in it. The
latter get completely covered in filth as incubation proceeds, and
I have seen many cemented thereby to the rock. This may
account for the exaggerated statement that the bird has the power
of gluing them to the rock to keep them from falling off. The
objert is gained in some cases by the hatching bird simply hold-
ing her egg on, for I have seen Gruillemots hatching on surfaces
which inclined to the jirecipice. Such birds would only leave
their eggs at the last moment and after uttering cries of distress,
the immediate result being that the eggs rolled off and were
lost. Even where the surface does not slope outwai'ds, the
parent birds are most careful to ste}> free from their eggs before
they take wing ; and a sudden alarm, such as that caused by a
shot, produces a disastrous stampede, in which the poor birds
throw over showers of eggs in their [(anic. Many eggs are
destroyed in the ordinary course of things. Thus when creeping
among the undisturbed birds I have often heard eggs fall, and
many may be found broken or lying in pools or crevices where
they have rolled. I have seen a Cxuillemot descend Avitli mis-
calculated speed upon an egg and smash it, and a Razorbill on
which another egg had broken was perfectly yellow. The birds
in hatching face the cliff or sit sideways, the pointed end of the
egg being held between the legs and directed down the slope of
the rock-surface so as to serve as an additional support. Cracked
or dinged ones are not necessarily destroyed, as the membrane
within is very thick, but if the latter is ruptured another egg of
the same pattern is laid close by. If the first egg is taken a
similar one is laid in the same place ; thus Mr. Cunningham, a
light-keeper on the Skelligs, found a peculiar egg " turned at one
point." After he had taken the first and the second, the
Guillemot dejiosited a third, all having the same malformation
(Migration Report, 1895). The beautiful varieties of colouring
must help eiich bird to distinguish her egg from others lying near,
until they all become stained and soiled. Variations occur in the
colouring of the eggs of Irish Cluillemots similar to those which
are found elsewhere. Eggs which have a decidedly blue ground
are scarce, and those whose coLjur inclines to red are still more
so. I once found a specimen of a pale buff, the inferior portion
of which was of a deep red-brown, as if bluod had dried on it.
ALC.E. 3G5
Auother has the whole surface of a rich pur[ilish red-browu, with
darker spots. The eggs of this species, like all others that are
pear-shaped, rarely have a zone of dark colouring round the
smaller end ; and when this occurs the supposition is that the end
in cpiestion is laid first. I have seen an example taken on the
Saltees with a bright blue groixnd, and round the small end was a
broad band of Idack.
There is consideral)le confusion in a great bird-colouv. A
desperate fight may sometimes be witnessed in which two Guille-
mots, holding on fiercely to one another, fall down fluttering
to the base of the cliff. I have also seen eggs of Guillemots in
the nests of Cormorants and Kittiwakes among the eggs of these
birds, and I believe that the owners of the nest incubate the
mixed clutches, and not the Guillemots, for I have noticed a
Kittiwake chase away one of the latter from its nest.
The aft'ectiou shown to the young is very great. I once
disturbed a Guillemot which moved to the edge to take flight,
when her newlv-hatched little one set up a piteous, piping cry.
The parent bird turned, uttered a gurgling sound, and waddled
back to her nestling with wings uplifted in spite of my near
presence. It has been remarked that, as in the case of other sea-
birds, when the young are being fed, if a fish falls on the rock
it is never picked up ; a good sanitary rule, considering the filtliv
state of the surroundings.
The movements of the birds in a colony that are not hatching,
presumably the males, are worth watching. Numbers will start
off together and flap along the water down the creeks and gullies,
or dive in concert, when they can be seen swimming in a flock
beneath the surface, using their wings in progression, which is not
so rapid as might be supposed. When great waves are rolling in
they will precij^itate themselves into the surf, where they flap
along, disappearing under the 1)reakers, and reappear far out,
where the waves become dotted with the birds riding on them.
The form called the Ringed Guillemot, which possesses a w-hite
ring round the eye and a white streak behind it, occurs in all the
colonies of the species, though the percentage of such birds
appears to be small. I should say that in my experience there is
scarcely one Ringed Guillemot to fifty of the ordinary tvpe. The
individuals which exhiliit that variation are never grouped
together, like birds of a se]»arate species, but are mingled with
the general throng of other Guillemots.
I know of no ground for regarding the form referred to as
being more than a colour-variation to which this species is subject.
3GG BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE BLACK GUILLEMOT Uria gryUe (Linuseus).
Resident, breeding in small numbers on rocky coasts round Ireland.
Much more frequent in the North and West.
Tlie Black CTuillemot resorts in summer to most of the wilder
and more rocky parts of our shores and islands, becoming
frequent and even common on those which are washed by the
open ocean ; though the bird is l^y no means confined to the vicinity
of lofty cliffs. It is partial to bays, and frequents low as well as
precii>itous islands and the bases of cliff -faces, provided it has
quiet hiding-holes in which to lay. These are either in the fissures
of the solid rock, or among the fallen masses, or again, under
boulders and piles of large fragments near the level of the sea.
It is seldom seen in summer far fr<:>m its nesting-place, and
never in flocks. This is not a species that associates in great
communities as the other Auks do, and, as a rule, one or more
pairs only are met with in the same place ; luit where there is an
unfrequented spot, affording numerous rock-fisures in contiguity
to a great run of tide, quite a small colony of Black G-uillemots
make it their home. I have seen this to be the case on the
outer side of Owey Island in Donegal, and Doulus Head in
Kerry. Both those counties and their islands, as well as the
coasts and islands of western Galway and Mayo, have innumer-
able breeding-places of this l)ird, which is found here and thei'e
along every suitable part of their ro(-ky shores that is not occupied
by a great assemblage of other cliff-l>irds. Thus I saw no Black
Gruillemots at the crowded cliifs of Molier in Clare, but a pair
were swimming close to the flat, limestrecipice. In July these haunts are left, and
the birds, still in the black plumage, arrive on harbours like
Strangford Lough, not frecj^uented for reproduction. On 20th
August the Rev. W. S. Green saw on Valentia Harljour a pair
of FJlack Guillemots accompanied by a full-grown young one
which was alile to fly. This corroborates the statement in
Thompson, that they feed their young assiduously on the water,
though it has been said that they desert them on leaving the
nesting-place. Their food consists of small fish and crustaceans.
During a visit in September to Roundstone, ou the Connemara
coast, Mr. Howard Saunders observed the water thickly sprinkled
with Black Guillemots, then in their grey or winter j^lumage. In
the winter months these birds are fi'equently obtained off our coasts,
sometimes on tidal rivers, and they seem more inclined to remain
about our shores than the Common Guillemot or Razorbill.
When ap2:»roached on the water the Black Guillemot, instead
of diving, sets its wings in rapid motion and runs along the
surface, striking the water with its feet, much in the same way as
a Coot or Moor-hen does, but more rapidly. It is very careful
not to enter its uestiug-jilace while under observation, and in this
it differs from the Common Guillemot.
THE LITTLE AUK. Mer(s aUe (Linna?us).
Scarce and irregular v/inter-visitor, occurring on all sides of Ireland.
The Little Auk, though it has occurred so often, seems in most
cases to be driven to Irish shores rather than to visit them in
the usual course of thiugs. Its appearance generally follows
stormy weather, and birds of this species have repeatedly been
found carried by temjiests into the heart of the couutrv ; wliilo
some have been taken alive. In those winters wlien numv Little
368 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Auks liave occuvved in Grreat Britain, others have visited Ireland.
Thus in October 1841 examples were obtained in Kilkenny,
Queen's Co. and Dublin. In November 1893 and the following
months of that winter others occurred in Mayo, Sligo, Fermanagh,
Donegal, Loudonderry, Antrim and Down ; doubtless in conse-
quence of the gales which caused such disastrous effects (Mr.
J. H. Gurney, in ZooL, 1894, p. 90). Again in January 1895,
when numljers appeared on the shores of Great Britain, Little
Auks were obtained in Antrim, Londonderry, Donegal and
Leitrim, and in the following May the remains of one were sent
to Mr. Barrington from Tory Island.
As a rule the birds olitained in Irroken j^arts are tenanted for miles
l)y these l»irds. There are haunts on Tory Island and the north
side of Aranmore, and a more considerable colony occupies the
lofty Tormore, all on tlie Donegal coast. The greatest display of
Puffins alone that I have seen is on the north coast of Mayo,
where a series of enormous colonies extend between Belderg and
Portacloy. The elevated island of Illanmaster, which is capped
370 Bir.DS OF IRELAND.
with green sod, coutaius sucli hosts of these Hrds that thej come
pouring out of their ]mssages like a stream, and a great extent of
the surrounding sea is thickly sprinkled over with them. The cliffs
further west rise to 700 or 800 feet and form a most majestic
coast-line ; these are tenanted in places to the very top by
myriads of Puffins, which far outnumber any other species to be
seen there. The Bills oft' Achill, and Clare Island, hold much
smaller colonies, but further south I know of none until the cliffs
of Mt)her are reached.
Towards the end of March these l)irds make their appearance
at the CO. Kerry islands. Their landing is sometimes quite a
spectacle, for Mr. Jeremiah Trant wrote from the Tearaght : —
" On the 30tli and 31st of March the Puffins swim round the rock
in thousands; then on the 1st of April they all rise towards
evening and fly roimd the rock in a circle. Many of them do not
alight on that evening, l)ut the next day they nearly all land."
They return to the water before dark except when they are breed-
ing (M'Carron).
Mr. H. C. Hart, when visiting Lanibay on 19th March, found
that the Puffins had already arrived on the island for several days.
On Eathlin they do not land until about 1st April, though they
are seen, as in Kerrv, during the latter part of March.
Eggs have been found plentifully on 5th May on the Saltees ;
this species, which enjoys the shelter of its burrow, being an
earlier breeder than the Razorbill and Guillemot, birds that lay
on the open rock. The period of incubation is stated by Yarrell
to he a month, and this has been corroborated by the obser-
vation of Mr. M'Carron on the Tearaght. The eggs are not
always hidden undergrc>uud, for in the faces of clay cliff's on the
Saltees, where intrusion from land is improbable, eggs are occa-
sionally exposed to view, and on the crowded parts of the Little
Skellig they are sometimes to l>e found on the l>are rock. In some
specimens streaks of l)rowu and uudershell grey are so pronounced
as to suggest a reversion to a type like that of some Guillemots'
eggs.
When feeding its young a Puffin will bring half-a-dozen little
fish held by their heads, the tails hanging down on each side of
its beak ; and this suggests that the bird has the power of holding
several while it continues to catch others. The young do not
beg'in to appear at the cutrauces of their Imrrows until they are
fledged, and when they do, many are seized by the Peregrine,
which is a usual neighbour of a large bird-colony.
The departure for the water begins about the middle of July
ay
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W
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2
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ALCID.E. 371
and takes place chiefly at uiglit or at daybreak, wheu the young
go tumbling and rolling down to the sea, and they then quit the
vicinity of their breeding-haunts (M'Carron). The movement is
at its height about 1st August, and by the middle of that month
all the Puf&ns have left the land. After fishing off the coasts for
several weeks, multitudes are seen passing away south for days
in October and November. Eagle Island, Mayo, is thus passed by
vast flocks probably from North Mayo and the Donegal stations.
During winter these birds leave us, though occasional examples
are met with, not only on the coast, but sometimes inland, where
storms have driven them. Indeed, many, if not most, of the
winter Puffins are driven ashore by violent gales, and young birds
of the year are specially liable to this fate.
In summer, too, some have been found far inland. Thus Mr.
Kane relates that early in June 1893 a man in his employment,
near Monaghan, brought him a live Puffin in a state of starva-
tion which had walked into his cottage with his ducks.
A white example has been seen at Horn Head, and I have
observed another whose back was white though its wings wei'e
black, among the flocks flying round their haunts in Mayo.
The photograph which is here reproduced exhibits one of the
breeding-grounds of these birds on the Saltees, and was taken
by Mr. C. Kearton, to whom I am indebted for it.
Order PYGOPODES.
Family COLYMBID.E.
THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. Cohjmhns ylacialis,
Linnaeus.
Regular winter-visitor.
The Great Northern Diver, though not a numerous species,
occurs on all parts of the Irish coast, but more commonly on the
north and west. It frequents the bays, often in pairs, and is
wont to take up a particular lieat on its arrival, which it uses as
its fishing-ground for the season. A large proiDortion of those
met with on our shores are immature birds. Mr. H. Blake Knox,
who found this species numerous off the Dulilin coast in the
winter of 1866-67, stated that of forty-three examined, twenty-
nine were voung in' their first winter, the rest in second, third
or advilt winter plumage ; but it should be remembered that
the young are more easilv approached and oftener killed.
r. i; 2
372 BIEDS OF IRELAND.
These l»irds are commonly found on Bantiy Bay, Kenmare
River, Dingle Bay, Blacksod, Killala and Donegal Bays and
Loiigli Swilly, frequenting the latter as far up as Inch. For a
1»ird of marine habits it is remarkable how often this Diver has
occurred in inland localities. It has been taken on the Lower
Lake, Killarney, Loughs Derg, Cori-ib, Mask, and Erne, as well as
on the lakes of Westmeath and inland waters of smaller extent in
several parts of Ireland. It has also been obtained far from
water, in several instances ; thus one was found in a yard in
Tullaniore on 1st Octul»er 1883. Some of these birds, no doubt,
may have been driven inland by storms ; but Mr. Bloomfield
informed me that he observed one at the western end of Lough
Erne for weeks in the autumn of 1893, the first he ever saw on
that lake. Mr. W. H. Good also states that this species appears
occasionally on Lough Corrib in hard winters.
Northern Divers arrive in October, when the adults are then
generally in moult, but specimens have been obtained in that
month in perfect summer plumage. They remain on Irish coasts
generally until April or May, when the full nuptial dress has
been assumed by the adults ; and in the North- West they may
be oliserved late in the season gathering into small parties pre-
vious to their departure. Mr. Warren observed ten together on
Killala Bay on 24th May 1851, and nine of these were in adult
summer plumage. Many have been seen on Broadhaven in April,
in flocks of five or six, and numbers of these birds continue to
j>ass into that bay through Achill Sound as late as the end of
May and the beginning of June ; while this species is said to be
occasionally seen in summer at Achill and in co. Donegal. Even
in July and August instances have been recorded ; thus Sir
William Paul obtained an adult bird at Wexford, in July 1899,
which he sent to Mr. J. H. Gurney, and Messrs. Williams &: Son
received specimens from the counties of Cavan and Donegal on
1st July in two different years.
Dr. Kane, who lived north of Dingle Bay, said that Divers
frecjucnt the mouths of the rivers and feed on the fry which run
in the spring months. The Great Northern Diver feeds chiefly
on fish, and takes flat fish from the sandy bottom. It also swal-
lows the bodies of crabs, as well as large molluscs.
This bird has the power of floating high upon the water when
it is resting and enjoying repose, or of sinking itself so as to show
little but the head and neck It can also dive so rapidly as to
evade a shot, and when alarmed it has the habit of changing its
course so as to reappear in a different direction from that in which
COLYMBIDiE. 373
it had dived. Sir R. Payne- Gralhvej has timed an immersion at
ten minntes, but when fishing-, the bird comes to the surface at
much briefer intervals. The above writer rehxtes that he has
several times seen Northern Divers stranded among the shallows
of Tralee Bay, where they had been left by the receding tide.
Such birds were observed to sit bolt upright, the head and bill
pointing upwards ; but when approached they flapped away like
Cormorants taking flight. In this manner, too, they sometimes
take wing along the surface of the water, and the flight is power-
ful, but low. They seem, however, to be unable to take flight
from land, and when there, are very helpless, though the bill may
be used to make a dangerous dart at an enemy.
Divers of this species are frequently caught in nets while
pursuing their prey beneath tlie water, and many such may be
obtained from fishermen, though the adult birds are less frec|uently
taken in this wav than the vouno-.
THE BLACK-THEOATED DIVER. Colymhus ardlcus,
Linnseus.
Rare winter-visitor. About twenty-five examples have been recorded.
The Black-throated Diver is much the rarest of the three species
in Ireland, but it is probably of more frecjuent occurrence than is
supposed, for Mr. H. Blake Knox, who has devoted special attention
to the Divers, has met with it in several instances on Dublin Bay,
where Cox and Watters also i-ecorded it. It is very liable to be
overlooked from its likeness to the other Divers, especially in
immature plumage.
Like the last species, this bird has occurred on all sides of
Ireland, and has been obtained in the counties of Kerry, Water-
ford, Dublin, Loath, Antrim, Donegal, and Mayo. It has also
been killed inland in Queen's Co., Meath, Roscommon, and once
or twice on Lough Neagh. The example preserved at Cranston,
Queen's Co., had remained some time on the lake there liefore it
was shot.
October is the earliest autumn month in which we have a record
of the Black-throated Diver, and it ajipears to have been oljtaiued
or identified in each succeeding month through the winter and
spring until May. In the latter month. Cox saw one in summer
plumage, and others have been seen with the black throat in
April.
374 BIRDS OF IRELAND,
THE RED-THROATED DIVER. CoJymbus se^tentrionaUs,
Linnseus.
Bred until 1896 in one locality in the North. Common during winter
round Ireland.
The Red-throated Diver was iiufortuuately announced in print
to breed in Ireland, and the locality was named. The result was
that for a number of years both first and second clutches were
tateu for collectors. Two pairs of these Divers were found to lay
in the district, as three clutches, six eggs, were obtained in 1886.
No other nesting-locality is known in Ireland.
The species is common and widely distributed on the Irish
coast in winter. It sometimes appears in September, more
commonly in October, and frequents our shores through the
winter mouths, becoming scarcer in spring ; but it is occasionally
seen as late as the early part of May. Adults that have not lost
the red throat occur in September and 0(/tober, and this summer
dress is assumed very early in spring ; the throat turns dark even
in January, and by the end of February the red patch has been
found perfect. Comparatively few, however, are shot in this
stage, the adults l)eing very wary, and immature individuals
are much more commonly obtained. Mr. Warren has observed
these Divers to congregate together before leaving in spring, and
he found a starved Inrd, recently dead, on the Sligo coast on 24th
July 1890, which was iu full summer plumage. Among the inland
localities where specimens have been taken I may mention Lough
Derg, Parsonstown and Castleljlayney.
Mr. Warren states that he has not found this species so constant
to its feeding-grounds as the Great Northern Diver, being far
more restless, and he has often seen it flying up and down the
tidal channels ; while Professor Leebody has killed it on the wing
when flight-shooting, and Poole once pursued a Red-throated Diver
up a long, narrow channel, but it took wing long before he came
within shot of it. These birds cannot rise from the land, and
with difficulty from a calm sea, but rough water facilitates their
taking flight. This they are slow to do when gorged with fish, of
which they swallow a great deal, but when alarmed they will
" throw out ballast," and after they have taken wing the rejected
sprats may be found strewn on the surface (" Fowler in Ireland ").
When flying, the neck is held straight out in a stift", ungainly
manner, like the neck of a long bottle, and the discordant cry is
COLYMBID.E. 375
uttered ou the wiug. Thompson's attentiou has been attracted to
this sound when uttered bv a flock of five or six flying southward
at a considerable height in October, and similar flocks were seen
taking the same course until the end of the month.
When alarmed, they sometimes take flight without diving ; at
other times they escape under water at an amazing rate, merely
rising for an instant occasionally to take breath, and gliding below
again without a splash.
When resting itself on the surface of a calm sea this bird will
float high and buoyantly on the water, rolling at times on the
surface as if gently turned by a screw and heeling over, now ou
this side and now on that, occasionally even on its back, and
stretching out one wing as if to balance itself. These attitudes,
which are also assumed by the Great Northern Diver, might give
an observer the idea that the bird was writhing in the agonies of
death, instead of luxuriating in the sunshine.
The nesting-place of the Eed-throated Diver in Ulster was
beside a small mountain lake, the most elevated of a sei'ies of
lakes, and more than three miles from the nearest bay. The
waters did not escape from the little tarn hj a regular stream,
but overflowed through a Cjuakiug swamp. In this, among flower-
ing bog-bean, the nesting-hollow was formed by scraping the peaty
surface of a bank on the verge of the open water. The eggs were
laid time after time in different spots round the little lake, usually
in the last week in May, or at the beginning of June. The birds
flew to sea to fish, returning at night, when they uttered their
loud laughing cry ; but when the female was hatching the male
was generally on the lake. I saw the pair there after their nest
had evidently been robbed, and they kept at that side of the lake
which was farthest from us. When the young were hatched, as
I was told, the parent birds did not seem much to mind human
observation, nor were they disposed to leave the place.
376 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
Family PODICIPEDID.^.
THE GEEAT CRESTED GREBE. Podicipes cristatus
(Linnaeus).
Resident, and breeds on numerous lakes from co. Clare to co. Antrim.
The Great Crested Grebe lias probably qnite as many nesting-
localities in the Midlands of Ireland as it has, in proportion, in
any other j»art of the United Kingdom. On the lakes of the
Shannon Valley it breeds extensively, especially on Lough Ree ;
and Lough Erne is another favourite resort, each of the larger
sheets of water harbouring several pairs. On many lakes from
King's Co., through north central Ireland, to Down and Antrim,
one or more ]iairs are to l)e found. Among these resorts may
be mentioned Lough Annaghmore, L. Iron, and other "West-
meath lakes, L. Gowna. L. Sheelin and many small lakes in
Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Armagh, Down and Antrim. On
Lough Neagh, and to some extent also on Portmore Lough, this
species has certainly diminished since the time when the account
given in '' Yarrell " (4th Ed.) was written. In Counaught I have
seen the bird in June on a lake west of Tuam, and it breeds on
Lough Key in Roscommon, and Loughs Gara, Arrow and Gill in
Sligo. Further west I have failed to trace it, and it does not
appear to nest on the great lakes of Corrib, Mask and Conn, nor
on Loughs Allen and Melvin in Leitrim, though it occurs on some
of these in winter. They have stony bottoms, are deficient in
large reed-beds, and are subject to violent squalls from the
adjacent mountains, causing formidable waves. This species does
not apj)ear to In-eed south of Lough Derg, though it is said to be
found on the Killarney Lakes in winter.
Mr. Parker finds the Great Crested Grebe a resident on Lough
Derg, as it is on the Shannon lakes, on those of Westmeath, and
on Lough Erne ; but in winter it leaves many of the smaller
pieces of Avater on which it lireeds, especially in the North of
Ireland. Thus the Rev. A. Ellison remarked its disappearance
from its haunts in co. Down from November to March. In
winter many betake themselves to tidal water and are shot on
bays and estuaries round Ireland, but rarely on the coasts of
Connaught. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that certain spots are
frequented throughout that season by pairs, and sometimes by
single birds. Manv have been observed in Januarv in Duudalk
PODICIPEDID.E. 377
Bay, a conveiiieiit winter-resort for those wliicli breed in the
neig-hbouriug eonuties ; but others travel further and visit the
coasts of Kerry, Cork, Waterford, and "Wexford, immature birds
being frequently obtained in these southern locahties.
The Great Crested Grebe can generally be distinguished far off
ujion the water by its tall, slender neck showing white in front,
and by the garniture of its quaint-looking head ; while its body
is kept almost under water. The quiet way that it sinks below
the surface without leap or splash is characteristic of it even more
than of the Divers ; and its croak, though not loud, can be heard
at a long distance, This is quite different from the alarm-note,
which resembles " kek, kek." When resting at ease, however, its
body-plumage is puft'ed out so that the bird resembles a Coot in
shaj)e, and its head is drawn back, resting between its shoulders ;
while the beak is buried in the feathers on one side of the neck. On
Lough Iron, where the Grebes show little fear, I have more than
once seen them take flight when approached, instead of diving.
On the wing they look not unlike Mergansers, but the large feet,
stretched out behind, are peculiar. A Grelie that does not suspect
it is watched performs various i)retty actions ; with its body
well over the water it will swim rapidly in one direction, dip its
bill, and swim as fast in another direction, possibly in pursiiit of
May-flies on the surface. Its behaviour in the nesting-season is
more confiding than at other times. A pair will approach each
other with their necks held up and crests erected, all the while
uttering their croak. Having met, they remain in that attitude,
with the points of their l:»ills touching each other. After some
moments they lower their heads simultaneously until their bills
touch tiieir breasts, and then they renew the manoeuvre, setting
to one another like partners in a quadrille; or one dives and the
other follows it. At other times they swim or rest on the water
side by side (3Ir. Kane, in Field, 4th March 1893;.
Several pairs will sometimes nest in a quiet reed-bed — for
instance, in a sequestered lagoon where the water is covered with
a plentiful growth of tall rashes. I have found the nests com-
posed of decayed rushes with some finer pond-weed to cover the
eggs ; but the Eev. A. Ellison describes a nest which was a
large mass of rotten sticks matted together with decayed rul)bish
and lined with ac|uatic weeds and old wet leaves.
The eggs are laid in May or June, 1 »ut are to be found up to the
end of July ; and, if the first clutches are taken, second sets may
not be hatched until September. Mr. G. D. Beresford iDformed
me that at Castle Dillon the male bird carried the voung for at
378 BIRDS OF IRELAND,
least ten clays on his back, while the female dived and brought
them food. This habit of carryino; the young has been observed
by many, and Sir E. Payne-Gallwey states that he shot a Great
Crested Grebe flying, when two young ones dropped from their
parent upon the water. A Grebe of this species will swallow a fish
so large that its slender throat is distended, and looks like a goitre
(Mr. Kane), and young ones have been found to have choked
themselves in this way. The singular propensity of these birds
to swallow their own feathers has been described by Thompson,
who found these substances, together with fish-bones, in con-
siderable quantities in the stomachs of several Grebes which he
examined.
THE RED-NECKED GEEBE. Podlcijjes griseigena (BoM^ert).
Rare and accidental winter-visitor.
The Red-necked Grebe, which is the rarest of its family, has been
obtained in about ten instances : — On Bautry Bay; near Waterford;
on the coast of Leinster ; on Belfast Lough ; and on Inver Bay in
western Donegal ; while an example was said to have been got on
the Shannon. (By this ex|u-ession the estuary of that river may
have been meant. J The bird has therefore occurred on most
parts of the Ii'ish coast, though it has not been recorded from
Conuaught.
In the majority of the above cases tlie birds were immature ;
and in seven instances the months of occurrence were December
(2), January (2), and February (3). Thompson's first record was
of a bird said to have been obtained late in the autumn.
Cork. — One was shot at the mouth ou 24th February 1838, and was
of the Gleugarrifi River, Bantry Bay, preserved iu the collection of T. W.
in December 1842 (Tliompsou, III., Warren, of Dublin (Thompson),
p. 184); a bird of the second year was Dublin.-An immature bird was
also shot on Bantry Bay on 26th ^j^^^ ^^ Sandymount ilarsh, Dublin
December 1850, and is in the Queen s g^^.^ q,^ 2^t^, j.^^^,,,,.^ ig^g, and was
College ^luseum, Cork. -^ Watters' collection (Ibid.).
Waterford.-An immature male j^^^^ ^^ Antrim.-Another im-
^Yas taken about two miles mland ^^^.^^^^.^ ^^^,^^ ^^.^^ obtained late in the
from Tramore Bay, and brought to autumn of 1831 on the coast of co.
Dr. Burkitt on 25th January 1854. j^^^^.^^ ^j^j^^^ . ^ f^^^^^j^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^
He preserved it in hi. collection. ^^jf^^^^ ^^^^gj^ ^^ 23^.^ February
Wexford or Wicklow.— An imma- 1850 (Ibid.), and is still in the Belfast
ture female was taken on the coast ^Museum.
PODICIPEDID.53. 379
Donegal. — A bird obtained on In vci- about the end of February 1865, and
Bay by Mr. A. R. Wallace is in the to have been sent to Gleuuou for
Dublin Museum, having been re- preservation. The edge of the lower
ceived on 23rd November 1887, but mandible was brilliant yellow, aiid
had probably been killed some years the bird was not more than two-
before that. thirds as large as the Great Crested
Shannon. — An adult male is said Grebe, and had the neck much shorter
to have been shot on the Shannon in proportion (F/c/f?, 11th March 18G5).
THE SLAVONIAN or HOENED GEEBE. Podicipes aurlfvs
(Liuneeus).
Winter-visitor. Frequent on the North and North-West coasts ; rare
in the South.
The Slavonian Grebe is the eomniouest of the three species
which do not breed in Irehmd, and is usually found singly or in
pairs in winter on Lough Swilly in Donegal, and Blacksod Bay
in Mayo ; while Belfast Lough and Killala Bay afford a series
of records. There are six notices of the bird from Kerrv, liut
other southern counties have only one each ; and Mr. Newburgh,
who lived on Bantry Bay, remarked that he had never met with it
there, though he had ol»served it every winter in which he had been
shooting on Blacksod Bay. It has been obtained in all the mari-
time counties, except perhaps Clare and Galway (from which it has
not been announced) ; but though most frequently occurrmg on
tidal water, it has been killed in at least six inland counties,
chiefly on lakes ; and four such instances took 2>lace on Lough
Neagh.
The Slavonian Grebe has not been noticed in July or August,
but from September onwards through the winter the notices of it
increase up to February, w'hen nearly twice as many of these birds
have occurred as in any other month. The numbers of instances
that can be cited for the several months are the following : —
July ... — October . 8
August . . — November 4
September . 2 December 5
The greater numl)er of individuals obtained have been in the
immature plumage, in which this bird has been called the Dusky
Grebe, but a few in adult summer dress have been ])rocured in
spring. Two fine examples with the golden tufts on the head were
sent to Mr. Barrington from Blacksod Bay on 14th April 1895,
January ,
. 7
April .
2
February ,
. 13
May . ,
. . 1
March . .
3
June .
, . 1
380
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
having been shot there out of a small flock of six. Professor
Leebody saw a pair in breeding-plumage on Lough Swilly in
April 1898, and Mr. Campbell obtained a male in the same stage,
which was found dead on Lough Foyle in June 1893.
The fondness of the Slavonian Grebe for bays and estuaries
is a marked feature in its habits, and its occurrences on fresh
water, especially on Lough Neagh, have been too often repeated
to be the mere result of storms or accidents.
Thompson remarks that examples of this sj^ecies, as well as of
the Red-necked and Eared Grel^es, were obtained both in the
North and South of Ireland in the winter of 1837-38, a season in
which the Duck family were unusually plentiful.
THE BLACK-NECKED or EARED GREBE. Podlcipes
nigricoJJis, C. L. Brehm.
Rare and accidental winter-visitor. Has been obtained twice in June.
This is one of the rarer Grel>es, and only twenty-one records
of it can be cited, as against forty-nine of the last species ; there
is, moreover, no part of Ireland where the Eared Grebe is said to
occur annually, as the Slavonian does on Lough Swilly. The
specified instances show that the species we are considering has
occurred more frequently in proportion in the South, East and
North-East, and more rarely in the North and North-West than
the Slavonian Grebe. Otherwise the distribution and season of
occurrence of the two species is singularly similar, considering
that this is a southern species and that the other breeds so far
to the north of these islands.
Both birds occur chiefly on tidal water, luit have also been
repeatedly obtained far inland ; on the Shannon, the midlands
of Leinster, in co. Armagh, and on Lough Neagh.
The twenty-one cases cited have occurred in the following counties :—
Kerry . .
1
Wexford
2
IMayo ,
1
Armagh . . .
2
Cork . .
4
Wicklow
1
Down & Antrim
3
Waterford
1
Dublin . .
Louth - . .
Westmeath
1
1
3
Donegal . . .
1
^Muuster .
G
Leinster
8
Connau;
"ht
1
Ulster . . .
G
The only instances recorded from the western and north-western coasts
are : one from Valentia, one from Killala Bay, and one from Killybegs in
PODICIPEDID.E.
381
Donegal. This accords with the fact that this Grebe reaches Trelaud from
the East rather than from the North.
The mouths of occurrence are only given in the fifteen cases followiug : —
January .
February
March .
1 April
6 ]May
— June
July ... — October .
August . . — November
September . — December
So far as these meagre figures go tliey sliow that the Eared Grebe usually
visits Ireland from October to February, and is found most frequently in the
latter month, but that it has also been twice recorded in June. In both
these cases the birds were in full summer plumage, and so is a specimen in
the Dublin Museum, which is simply labelled " Ireland."
Kerry. — One was received from
Valentia on 1st :March 1899 by
Messrs. Williams & Son.
Cork. — An immature bird, now in
Queen's College IMuseum, Cork, was
shdt in IMuskerrj^ Barony in 1S47
(Thompson, III., p. 190); one was
preserved by INIr. Rohu in the severe
winter of 1878-79, for Tslr. Jackson
of Ahenesk ; one in the collection of
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey was shot by
him in Queenstown Harbour in
December 1878, and ho infornaed me
that he had shot two or three others
there at different times.
Waterford.— I received an ex-
ample from Dungarvan Bay on 22nd
February 1890, which is now in the
Dublin ^Museum.
Wexford. — Several were said to
have been obtained in co. Wexford
on 24th Feburary 1838 (Thompson,
III., p). 190) : another was received
by Messrs. Williams & Son from
Enniscorthy, on IGth February
1895.
Wicklow. — A specimen was sent
for preservation to ]Messrs. Williams
& Son from Enniskerry, in October
1899.
Dublin. — An adult in full nuptial
plumage was shot near Dublin on
15th June 1847, and was preserved
in Watters' collection' (Thompson,
III., p. 190).
Louth. — A female or immature
male was obtained on the coast near
Dundalk on ISth December 1856 by
the late Lord Clermont (Proc.
Dublin N.H. Society, 23rd January
1S57).
Westmeath. — Two were obtained
in 18G3 by Captain Ingham, who was
then stationed at Athlone (Ibid., 1st
April 1864) ; one, killed on Lough
Ennell, is in the Dublin Museum,
l)Ut the date of its capture does not
appear ; another was received for
preservation from Westmeath by
IMessrs. Williams & Son in October
1899.
Mayo. — An immature specimen
was shot by 'Mr. Warren in the
I\Ioyne Channel, Killala Bay, on 6th
February 1S52, and the fact that this
species has only once occurred to so
careful an observer in that great
harboirr of refuge shows how rare it
is on the coast of Connaught.
Armagh. — A specimen in the Bel-
fast IMuseum was procured on Loush
Neagh in 1826; an Eared Grebe in
summer plumage was shot near
Benburb, on the borders of Armagh
and Tyrone, early in June 1849. and
was preserved In' the Rev. G. Robin-
S'>n (Thompson, III., p. 190).
Down and Antrim. — One was ob-
tained in January r)r Februarj' 1835,
when two young Slavonian Grebes
were also killed (Ibid., p. 189) ; two
males were obtained at one shot on
382 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
33th November 134G, aftjr some locality was Belfast Lough (Ibid.,
severe frost and snow, and one of p. 190).
them is in the Belfast ^Museum Donegal. — A bird of this species
(Ibid.) ; two more were killed in the was shot while fishing at Killybegs on
same manner on 11th November 6th February 1893, and is in the col-
18i7, and in each of these cases the lection of 'Mr. Barrington.
The storaaclis of some of those specimens examined by Thomp-
son contained quantitie.^ of their own feathers, with the remains
of fi-sh, shrimps, and 1)eetk^s.
THE LITTLE GREBE. Podidpes ffuv!afiUs (Tuustall).
Resident, common and generally distributed.
This bird, also well known as the Dabehick, l^reeds freely in every
county in Ireland, and even on the larger islands of Achill and
Rathlin. It is at home on the lakes of western Donegal, and breeds
on those that are near the coast, as well as throughout the midland
counties. It avails itself everywhere of the fresh waters in which
Ireland so extensively abounds, while on the River Shannon and
the great lakes thr(:)ugh which it passes, the nests of the Little
Grebe are innumerable. It seems to have no objection to brackish
water, for it breeds on the intakes of the harbours of Wexford
and Ballyteige in the south of that county, and is equally partial
to ponds surrounded with trees and evergreens.
In winter, pairs which have bred on some of the smaller lakes
and ponds leave them, and little parties, consisting probably of
the old ones with their broods, are to be seen on tidal estuaries
and the sheltered parts of bays round Ireland. That these birds
travel on the wing round the coast at night is shown by the
Little Grebes that have struck lighthouse lanterns. Mr. "Barring-
ton has received specimens thus killed in November and December
at Hook Head in Wexford, Berehaven in western Cork, and
Slyne Head ; the latter being one of the remotest and most
exposed points on the west coast of Connaught. Little Grebes
also fly from one lake io another in winter, and I have seen a pair
in January on a mountain pond, five hundred feet aliove the sea,
which they do not frequent at other times.
The Dabehick progresses under water with great sj^eed, and uses
its wings, its head and neck being fully extended, and its laro-e
feet and webbed toes thrown l>ackward alternately. The power of
diving is immediately acquired }>x the nestling when hatched, for
PODICIPEDID.E. 3S3
I have seen a little one, recently escaped from the shell, which
took to the "water on my approach, dived, and used both "wins^-s
and legs under water. It soou came up and dived again, which
disposes of the idea that the nestling cannot dive.
The nest does not float free except hy accident, but is moored
among stems, or rests upon submerged branches, or on the shallow-
bottom of the pond, and in one case I found the bird had built
upon a cup-shaped stone. The structure is not large and flat at
first, but more in the shape of a lump or little heap, the elevation
of the centre indicating if there are eggs in it, even when the
parent has covered them. The act of doing this is rapidly per-
formed, for the weeds or ruliljish are chucked over the eggs as
quickly as possible, and the bird then dives out of sight. In a dry
summer, when the water was low, a Dabchick had her nest in a
shallow place in the centre of the Cappagh Lake. Whenever any-
one ap^ieared on the bank she covered her eggs and dived. I
once approached a hatching bird of this species in the twilight,
when she dived without attempting to cover them, being probablv
sensible that there was no need of this at night. When returning
to the nest this bird will swim to it under water, and creep out
when she reaches it.
The eggs are ordinarily laid in co. Waterford at the begin-
ning of April, but I have seen others that were sat upon in Julv
and August, no doubt second clutches. Four is the usual number,
but five are frecj^uently found, and in rare cases six.
Order TUBINARES.
Family PROCELLAEIID.E.
THE STOEM-PETEEL. ProceUarh pehfjica, Linnaeus.
Resident to some extent, but is very rare from January to March.
Breeds on islands off tiie North and West coasts.
The Storm-Petrel breeds in great numbers oft' the Kerry coast,
on the Skelligs, the Blaskets, Puffin Island, and Scarift". Mr.
M'Carron on the Tearaght has estimated the Petrels there at
sevei-al thousands; while another lightkeeper informed nie in 1891
that 276 of their eggs had unfortunately been talcen that season
on a neighbouring island. The bird and egg has been obtained
on an island oft" the Cork coast, and though there is no record
from the Saltees, where I have searched for Stonii-Petrels in
384 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
vain, still they are so often seen during the summer months at the
neighbouring Coningbeg lightship that it is hard to believe they
do not nest in that vicinity. On the eastern coast no haunt
of this l)ird is known, but in Clare Storm-Petrels have been taken
with their eggs on Mutton Island, as well as on Croaghnakeela
(Deer Island), and High Island off western Galway. On the
Mayo coast, Black Rock, and several other islands north of Achill
are breeding-resorts, and Mr. Richards has found the nest on
the cliffs of the coast quite near Belmullet. Eggs have been
also taken on Pig Island and Illanmaster, on the north of Mayo.
Numbers of these birds lay on Rathlin O'Birne, Roaninish, and
Tory Island off Donegal ; and two small islands off the north coast
of Antrim are also resorted to. It is probable that several other
breeding-places of the Storm-Petrel exist round Ireland, but the
nocturnal and suliterraneau habits of the bird when on land make
it difficult to be discovered.
Storm-Petrels are seldom observed at their rocky homes before
May, but they were noticed in holes on the Great Skellig on
21st April 1885 (Migration Reports). I have received an egg from
the Skelligs marked 28th IVIay, and Mr. Turle obtained a good man-y-
on the Biaskets the last week in that mouth. In Donegal I saw
the adult birds taken from their Imrrows on Roaninish on 1st June,
but they had not then laid, so that they are probalily later there
than in Kerry. Both the l>irds may l^e found in the same l^urrow
before laying has commenced. As June advauces the numbers of
ego-s increase; many are laid in July, and Seebohm found both
eggs and youug on ITth Sej^tember. It has been stated that
there is a second layiug in the season, but Mr. Ryan, living on the
Tearaght, wrote to me on lUth October, saying : "The Stormy
Petrels take a long time to get fledged. I am Avatching one that
was hatched in July, and it is not fledged yet."
The nesting-holes are often in the peaty sod, and are sometimes
at a great height abo^e the sea. On Tory Island Petrels breed
on a grassy slope at the top of a cliff three hundred feet high,
and I have seen them at various elevations, sometimes on low
islands. Holes under boulders and crevices of all sorts are used.
When ascending the Clreat Skellig to the cells of the ancient monks,
we heard the note of a Petrel coming from under one of the stone
steps, and this was coiitinued while we endeavoured in vain to
open up her hiding-place.
I have seen a few wiry stems that had l^een brought into the
nesting-hollow, and this is occasionally lined with a little dry
grass, but in another case the egg was simply laid in a little
PROCELLARIID.E. 385
cavity scraped iu the peat at the bottom of the buiTow. If the
first and second eggs are taken a third is hiid. The eggs vary
greatly in size, from 1'2 x "9 to I'Ol x "78 and 1"1 x '66 ; and
the zone of specks, which is absent in some, is very distinctly
defined in others. This zone encircles some eggs broadly, enclos-
ing a cap of uncoloured shell ; in other eggs it shrinks to the
most tiny circle, and it sometimes coalesces into a round patch of
specks at the very end of the egg. A Petrel, identified by having
lost a foot, was found to resort to the same hole year after year,
so that these birds seem to be constant to their homes, as so many
others are. When taken out of their burrows they eject oil from
the mouth, and not from the nostrils, and they are also said by
light-keepers to vomit a half-digested white matter as well. They
seem, on such occasions, very helpless, ap].)arently unable to take
wing on land, and only anxious to retreat again to their holes.
At their breeding-haunts they usually lie within during the day,
and issue forth in great numbers at night, and on dark, wet nights
they annoy the light-keepers by striking against the lauterns of
the lighthouses, and leaving spots of oil on the glass. Mr.
G-ardiner, on the Skelligs, stated that he saw from sixty to eighty
killed one dark, stormy night, by flying against the cliff where the
lantern cast a dark shadow on the rock-face ; and he found their
bodies next morning.
Storm-Petrels, possibly the male birds, are, however, often to
be seen on the wing in the daytime in considerable uumliers, and
Mr. William Sinclair, who resided every summer on Inver Bay,
CO. Donegal, saw them there so frequently that he considered
their habits to be diurnal. When approaching the Skelligs from
the sea, after a dredging expedition with the Rev. W. S. Green,
we came to the body of a large cetacean, on which five blue sharks
were feeding. All around this spot were numbers of Storm-
Petrels on the wing in full daylight, as though they were desirous
of picking up morsels of the carcase or oily matter.
These l)irds are said by Mr. M'Carrou to vitter a continuous
chain of articulations, or a kind of "churr" according to Mr.
Barrington. The noise is kept up by those iu holes, as well as by
those on the wing, and may l>e heard on a calm night at a distance
of a hundred yards. On the Tearaght Mr. M'Carron says they
are to be heard in every V)ank, under every rock and iu every
crevice (Migration Reports).
In October both old and young are met with on the wing off
the coasts. They diminish in November and Deeeml>er, and after
that are very rarely seen until their return in Mareh or A]>ril.
c c
386 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
They are liable, liowever, to be blown inland at any time by
violent storms, and Thompson gives various localities where Petrels
were found on the occasion of the memorable storm of 7th January
1839, which strewed these birds right across Ireland. A similar
occurrence took place in September 1891, when so many Petrels
of this and the Fork-tailed species were blown over the country.
Instances in which Storm-Petrels have been found after gales
in inland places are too numerous to be recounted, and they
seem to have occurred in all parts of the island. Among these
cases may be included the occasional visits of Storm-P(?trels to
Lough Derg, Lough Neagh, and other lakes.
LEACH'S FOEK-TAILED PETREL. Oceanodroma leucorrlioa
(Vieillot).
Chiefly known as an accidental visitor, but a few pairs have been
found breeding in Kerry and Mayo.
Thompson mentioned a statement that a Petrel with a forked
tail bred on islets near Slyne Head, co. Galway, but discredited
it, as the e^g was described to l)e speckled like a Sparrow's. There
has been no confirmation of this statement, which at present is
valueless, though its improbability has been greatly reduced by
the finding of the eggs of the Fork-tailed Petrel in the following
localities, further north as well as further south than Slyne
Head :—
In 1886 1 received from Mr. F. J. Ryan, then stationed on the
Tearaght, an egg of this species taken on 1st July. It came with
a few eggs of Storm-Petrel, and was pure white, measui'ing
1-27 X -94 inch {Zool., 1886, p. 367). In 1887 Mr. Eyan found
two Fork-tailed Petrels on their eggs on 21st and 2ord June
respectively, one of which he sent to the Dublin Museum, and he
forwarded the egg of the other to Mr. Barrington, who received
another bird with its egg, taken on 6th July 1888 on the same
island (Migration Reports). Though this- species has not been
found since then on the Tearaght, an egg was taken on the
neighbouring island of Inishnabro by Mr. Turle on 20th May
1889 {Ibis, 1880, \>\k H and 12). He gives its dimensions as
1"31 X '^7 inch, which leaves no doubt as to the correctness
of the determination.
On 13th August 1899 Mr. Barrington received another egg of this
Petrel, much incubated, from an island off the coast of Mayo, from
which birds taken in autumn had twice been sent to him before.
PEOCELLARIID.E. 387
The above localities are some of the remotest rocks off the Irish
coast, and there can be little doubt that the number of Fork-
tailed Petrels that breed there are few in number. Mr. Ryan
stated that the little nesting-hollows were thinly lined with grass.
This bird has been obtained as a straggler in twenty. six coun-
ties, half of which are inland ; and out of more than a hundred
specimens obtained at various times not more than one-third were
met with in marine localities. In the great majority of instances
the bird is blown inland or driven upon our shores by storms, and
has been often picked up dead.
It has been obtained twice in January, but has not been recorded
in February nor in March. In April two have been taken, in
May one, in June two, and in August oiae, besides the breeding-
birds mentioned above ; but September, October, and November
witnessed storms that strewed these birds over Ireland ; and for
December there are seven records. On 20th November 1881 there
was a terrible south-westerly gale, and during the week that followed
Fork-tailed Petrels were met with in Galway, King's Co., West-
meath, Dublin and Londonderry. The birds were in an advanced
state of moult, and their stomachs contained rotind, semi-trans-
parent objects besides oily matter. Two of them were seen flying
against the wind for several hours along the margin of a lake in
Westmeath, and six were observed on the wing near Clontarf
outside the railway culvert tlu-ough which the tidal water escapes.
There they hovered with their heads to the wind, tipping the water
with their tiny black feet (A. Williams, in Zool., 1882, p. 18).
The south-westerly storms of September 26th-30th and October
-Ath-Mth 1891 proved far more disastrous than the former gale to
this species, as well as to the Grey Phalarope, which also occurred
in Ireland in unusual numbers, and Wilson's Petrel was then re-
corded for the first time and in two instances ; while other rare birds
obtained in the North of Ireland at that time were Black Terns
and Rollers. In England, besides Petrels and Shearwaters, three
Sabine's Gulls were recorded (Saunders, in Ihis, 1892, pp. 182,
185). Fork-tailed Petrels were obtained at the time named in
the eighteen counties of Kerry, Waterford, Clare, Limerick,
Tipperary, Duliliu, Kildare, Queen's Co., Westmeath, Galway,
Mayo, Leitrim, Cavan, Down, Antrim, Londonderry, Tyrone and
Donegal. It will be observed that no large portion of Ireland
escaped this visitation except Southern Leinster. The Petrels
were taken in different places from Galway town to the Shaunuu.
A number were seen flying about the Shannon in the neighbour-
hood of Limerick on 27th September, coming, in their eagerness
c c 2
388 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
for food, close to the sj^eetators, aud at Bauagher tlie birds were
not only seen on the river, but in the town. Several occurred in
each of the counties of Tipperary, Westmeath and Cavan, and
others at Londonderry, on Lougli Neagh, Belfast Lough, and in
the adjoining districts, the northern localities being chiefly reached
m October. A correspondent, who enclosed one to Dr. Scharff
from Moy, co. Tyrone, stated that dozens were lying about that
place.
It appears, therefore, that these birds were blown right across
Ireland ; but flocks, apparently of Fork-tailed Petrels, were still
seen off the west coast in the middle of October. On the 14th of
that mouth the light-keeper at the Skelligs stated that he saw
about two hundred Petrels which were larger than the Storm-
Petrel, iu flocks of about twenty or thirty (Migration Eeports).
At the same time flocks of Petrels a^jpeared on the coasts of
Wexford, but two wings sent from Hook Head to Mr. Barrington
proved to be those of P. 2)elagica.
Accounts of the Fork-tailed Petrels obtained in September and
October 1891 are given in the Zoologist (1891, p. 469). The birds
seem to have lieen all moulting and were emaciated, many having
been found dead. Out of twenty-seven, received in twelve days
by Messrs. Williams A Son, six had the tarsus mutilated and
one had completely lost a leg.
WILSON'S PETREL. Ocpaniies oceankus (Kuhl).
Was obtained in two inland localities in Ulster, in October 1891,
after a storm.
Thompson mentions that Glennon, the Dublin taxidermist, had
in August 1840 jiresented him with a Wilson's Petrel, which he
believed to have been obtained iu Ireland, but the locality of
which had not been recorded. Thompson, did not consider that
this specimen was evidence enough for including the species in
the Irish list.
In the concluding days of September 1891 occurred those
westerly gales, which, as has been stated, drove many Fork-tailed
Petrels and some Storm-Petrels over Ireland ; and on the 1st of
October the first authenticated example of Wilson's Petrel was shot
on Lough Erne by Mr. Thomas Plunkett, of Enniskillen, who pre-
sented it to the Dublin Museum (Williams, in Zonh, 1891, p. 428).
PEOCELLAmiD^. 389
Next clay, the 2u(i of October, au adult female in fair plumage
was found, alive, but in au emaciated state, in a field at Mossvale,
CO. Down. It sat upon the ground, and its legs seemed of little
use for walking, though it got along to some extent by the aid of
its wings. Next morning it was dead. It was exhibited at a
meeting of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, on 27th November
1891, bv Mr. Eobert Patterson, who favoured me with a photograph
of it (Ibid.).
Family PUFFINID^.
THE GEEAT SHEARWATEE. Pvjitru.^ therwise described in
"The Birds, Fishes, Arc, of Belfast Lough," p. 87. It was
obtained off Bangor, co. Down, on 29th September 1869.
The above instances have all taken place in the months of
AugiTst and September, the season in which the Great Shearwater
also has most frequently occurred on Irish shores.
On the Rockall expedition, when tibout twenty miles north-west
of Donegal, on 18th June 1896, a bird was seen which Mr.
Barrington believes to have been a Sooty Shearwater.
This sj:)ecies undoubtedly breeds in the Southern Ocean.
392 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
THE MANX SHEARWATEE. Puffinus anglor^im
(Temminck).
Resident, but rare in winter, when the great majority migrate.
Breeds very locally on each side of Ireland.
The largest breeding-eolouies of the Maux Shearwater known
on the Irish coast are on the two Skelligs and Puffin Island in
Kerry, and some of these birds are said to nest on the Blaskets.
The Shearwaters seen fishing so numerously in summer along the
coast of western Cork possibly resort to islands there, though
the localities are not ascertained. There are no suitable islands
off Waterford ; but on the Saltees Mr. Barrington has taken
eggs, and I have heard the weird calls of a considerable colony
at night. There are a few points along Wicklow and Dublin where
a very limited number nest, but great colonies exist on Eathlin
Island, and on Aranmore in Donegal there are two or more
stations of this bird. On the north coast of Mayo it is believed
to breed on two islands at the foot of the tremendous clift's. I was
also told that birds answering to the description breed on High
Island, west of Connemara ; and as I was returning from Inish-
turk to luishbufin, at 8.30 p.m. on 14th June, thirty Shearwaters
passed in a close flock. Mr. F. J. Ryan, who was stationed on the
Aran Islands, stated that these birds bred on the north-west
corner of the principal island.
There are j)robably many unknown breeding-haunts on remote
spots, especially in the West, as a bird which never shows itself
by daylight on land is difficult to discover ; Init as evidence
of its general distribution in June and July, I may mention that
during the cruise of Mr. H. Evans's yacht "Aster" in 1899 Mr.
Barrett-Hamilton noticed some on every section of the Irish coast.
There is no information before me of the Manx Shearwater in
January, but it has been observed in February, and it appears at
its breeding-haunts in March, when its nocturnal cries have been
rejteatedly heard. In April these birds flock to their homes.
They occur in that month and the following in large numbers
on the Dublin coast, and again l)ecome numerous in autumn.
The eggs are laid iu May, much earlier than those of the Storm
Petrel, and young are hatched l)y the middle of June. These
become huge Ixills of down before they assume their feathers late
in July or in August. When the young have taken wing. Shear-
waters are seen off the coasts in the largest numbers, but after
PUFFINID.E. 393
October few are to be met with, and they dimiuish very greatly
towards the end of the year, when stragglers only occur.
I have repeatedly seen flocks of Shearwaters resting on the
sea. They would rise and wheel or fly along slowly, occasionally
alighting as if to pick up food. Their flight when in company is
quite unlike the rising and falling motion adopted when separately
roaming for prey.
The habit, which gives the bird its name, of dipping towards the
sea in flight, and scudding the surface ere it mounts again, has
doubtless for its aim to pick up objects from the surface. But
the Shearwater will dash into and under water without closing its
wings, and it seems to fly or row itself with them beneath the
surface for a few yards, though it soon emerges. It will also
dash imder water in the same way, with its wings spread, when it
has been swimming or resting ; Init it does not dive with a sort of
summersault as the Auks do.
I have plainly seen these birds pursuing fish in the manner
described, and Mr. Warren has found them to swallow much more
substantial food than the oily matter they sometimes disgorge ;
for he has known one on being seized to eject sprats and the
entrails of fish that had been thrown overboard.
The crowing or hooting of Shearwaters can be heard on the
Saltees at the end of May. I walked along the cliifs there
one dark night ; when from above, around me, and beneath
(apparently at times from burrows in the ground) came their
loud cries. These consisted of four articulations like " kuk, kuk,
ah, oo " — "kuk, kuk, ah, oo," repeated by numbers of birds in
the most tragic tones ; but while some uttered them in a deep
voice, others adopted a higher and more plaintive key, as if
in mimicry of their neighbours. I could just distinguish the
dark forms of the birds that were making these sounds when
they flew over me.
The following year, when I visited the Saltees with Mr.
Seebohm, our hope of hearing the Shearwaters was disappointed,
as there was moonlight. We scarcely heard one of them, th(.)Ugh
we remained out until 2 a.m., when a Nightjar struck up, and
ere it was done the chorus of Skylarks began.
The notes I have described have been heard as early as the 21st
of February and as late as October (Migration Reports), Init I am
not aware that they are utti-red far out at sea. They seem to |)ro-
ceed from the members of a breeding-colony which do not issue
from their burrows until about 10 p.m., when it is dark, and they
then flutter alony; the (rround for some distance Itefore tliev
394
BIRDS OF IRELAND.
succeed in taking wing (Barrington). JSTumbers of Shearwaters,
jn-esumably tlie males, may, however, be seen flying all clay over
the neighbouring sea.
Before the egg is laid a pair of Shearwaters may be found in
the same burrow. The Kerry peasants search their breeding-places
for the birds, which they kill and eat. These have no escape, but
they try to bite and scratch. The peaty sod is easily torn up by
men's hands, but the burrows sometimes extend several feet or
even yards. They are at all heights on the slopes of the islands.
On Rathlin and Aranmore turfy slopes of broken ground are
inhabited which are found between the top and bottom of the
cliff-face. On the Great Skellig the Shearwaters chiefly nest
under large flags, as the Petrels do under smaller stones. There
is sometimes a little bed of hay or roots under the egg, but it is
often laid on the bare peat.
The extraordinary vitality of this species was exemplified by a
young bird which showed signs of life when it was taken out of an
egg, though the latter had been removed from the nest seven
days before and sent across Ireland.
.#-m-
' B'?lSSP!VU„S«'Sy«'Wr«H.
Mr. Barrett-Hamilton's iihotograph here, reproduced shows a
portion of the Little Skellig with G-annets sitting on the higher
ledges. Many Shearwaters and Storm Petels breed on this
island, which is probably the most picturesque bird-rock round
the Irish coast. It has a central peak 440 feet in height, from
which several elevated spurs radiate, and one of these is pierced
by a lofty arch like a flying buttress. The iipper ledges and plat-
forms of this island support an enormous and varied colony of
sea-birds.
PUFFINID.E. 395
THE LITTLE DUSKY SHEARWATEE. Puffinus asslmiUs,
Gould.
Has once been obtained, off the Bull Rock, co. Cork.
A bird of this species settled ou the little sloop " Olive " when it
was passing the gi'oup of islands known as the Bull, Cow and Calf
Eocks, off the western termination of co. Cork. The Shearwater was
taken alive and brought into Valentia Harbour on 6th May 1858,
when it was presented to the late Mr. Bewicke Blackburn, who gave
nie the above jiarticulars from notes taken at the time. The speci-
men was preserved for many years in Lancashire, but in 1894 Mr.
Blackburn and his son generously complied with my suggestion
to present it to the Dublin Museum, where it is now preserved.
This bird was described by Yarrell as the Dusky Shearwater,
P..ohscurus ("Brit. Birds," ord Ed. ,111., p. 659); but on examination
it was found to be the P. assimilis of Gould by Mr. Howard
Saunders, who exhibited it at a meeting of the British Ornitholo-
gists' Club on 16th March 1898, and has described it in the last
edition of his " Manual of British Bii'ds."
THE FULMAR. Fidmarus ylaciaUs (Linnaeus).
Rare and accidental visitor ; has been repeatedly driven ashore by
storms.
It is probable that the Fulmar seldom or never comes to the
shores of Ireland except l:)y accident, and out of the fourteen
specimens that Mr. Warren has obtained during forty years on
Killala Bay only two were alive ; and even they were in the last
stage of exhaustion and were found falling a prey to the Great
Black-backed Gulls. The majority were water-logged specmiens,
whose feathers were full of sand, so that it was impossible to say
whether they had perished at sea or on the shore. Such cases
might probably be found to occur not infrequently on the north
and west coasts if they were watched for. This bird has, however,
been shot in several instances, as those in co. Cork and Dublin
Bay, recorded by Thompson, and in other cases it has been taken
alive, probably in an exhausted condition, as at Rathlin and
Londonderry.
The counties on whose coasts the Fulmar has been obtained.
396 BIRDS OF IRELAND.
or observed, aud the number of iustauces recorded in each are as
follows :— Kerry (1), Cork (2), Dublin (1), Mayo (2), Sligo (12),
Antrim (3), Londonderry (1), Donegal (2).
Nineteen cases have ocevxrred in the followino- months : —
January .
2
April .
. —
July . . .
—
October .
. 9
February
. —
INIay .
2
August . .
—
November .
. 2
March .
. 1
June
1
September
2
December .
It thus aj^pears to be chiefly an autumn-visitor, but the
occurrences in January, March, May, and June do not answer
to this desci'iption. The two May instances took place in Donegal
Bay, where Mr. Ernest Holt observed several Fulmars about five
miles from laud between 15th and 18th May 1891. Mr. H. L.
Jameson picked up a bird of the grey-breasted form on the sands
near Bundoran on 19th May 1892 (ZooL, 1893, p. 75). The
Rev. W. S. Green observed a Fulmar late in June 1890, midway
between Broadhaven and Donegal Bay.
Most of the birds obtained in Ireland seem to have been adults,
but the first that Mr. Warren found, and which is now in Queen's
College, Cork, is described by him as having been in dark, mottled
plumage ; aud the same description applied to one tha,t he foimd
dead in 1892.
Though apparently avoiding the vicinity of laud. Fulmars have
been often seen by the Eev. W. S. Green and Mr. Holt, who
accompanied him, when they went from ten to twenty miles west
of the Irish coast. These observations were made ofi: the Skelligs
in May 1889, west of the Mayo coast in July 1890 and in the
summer of 1891, aud off Donegal Bay on several occasions. Quite
a flock was sometimes met Avith, and of those seen in the end
of June or early in July 1890, Mr. Green wrote : — " Numbers of
Fulmars came close to us ; we could pelt them with stones. Most
of them had the speckled appearance of young birds, and a jagged
gap in the wing which looked as if they were moulting."
The only instance in which I have seen one was when we were
some sixty miles west of the Skelligs on 4th July 1889, wdien a
grey-backed bird, which I believe was a Fulmar, passed with
skimming flight like that of a Shearwater.
It seems probable that the birds seen so often in summer on the
seas west of Ireland are Fulmars of the previous year which are
not breeding, and this bird may always be expected in summer
from tw^enty to thii'ty miles north or west of our shores (Harvie-
Brown and Barrington in Eockall Report, ^iipra, p. 7\).
APPENDIX.
Species whose claims to be included in the list of Irish Birds are at
present considered to be insufficient.
Tt seems necessary to give some account of the following fifteen
species wliiob have been recorded from Ireland, but whose claims
to attention are so different that they cannot be placed in the
same category.
Two, the Reed-Warbler and Ortolan, are European, and only
await the evidence of fresh occuri'ences to be admitted.
There are eight American species — the Migratory Thrush or
" Eobin," Purple Martin, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
Black-billed Cuckoo, American Goshawk, Passenger-Pigeon, and
Canada Goose. Some of these were long admitted to the British
list on the strength of specimens obtained in Ireland. They are,
however, rejected by Mr. Saunders in consequence of the prob-
ability that the land-birds perched on vessels coming from
America, or were brought over in confinement. The Canada
Goose, and probably some of the African species (the Gallinule
and Egyptian Goose), ai'e regarded as escapes from confinement.
The Black-winged Kite, the third iVfrican species, was killed
nearly sixty years ago, and there is some obscurity about its
antecedents before it came into its present owner's possession.
There are two species from the Southern Hemisphere, the Gold-
vented Thrush and the Yellow-billed Sheathbill, concerning which
many naturalists hold that it would have been impossible for them
to have crossed the tropics and come to Ireland of their own
accord.
398 APPENDIX.
THE AMERICAN ** ROBIN." Turdus migratorms, Linnteus.
Has twice been obtained in Ireland.
The first, au adult male, iu almost perfect breeding-plumage,
was shot at Spriugmoimt, Shanakill, a few miles from Dublin,
on the 4th May 1891, and is in the Science and Art Museum,
Dublin. It was in good condition and the stomach contained
remains of beetles. It did not show any sign of having been in a
cage {Zool., 1891. p. 219).
A second was shot on the shore of Lough Gill, co. Sligo, on or
about the 7th December 1892, by Mr. West, gamekeeper, who
preserved it. I found it in his possession in 1896, its species being
unknown to him. Mr. West states that, when he shot it, it
was feeding with a similar bird, and with Snipe, Lapwings, Field-
fai'es and Redwings, near the shore of the lake, during heavy
snow, which had begun to thaw on the 5th December. This
specimen is also in the Dublin Museum.
It is difficult to see how these and other American " Robins "
taken in Europe could have crossed the Atlantic without aid
from vessels.
THE REED-WARBLER. Acroceplialus streperus (Vieillot).
Is said to liave been once obtained, in winter.
A male Reed- Warbler was announced l)y R. J. Montgomery as
having been shot by him at Raheny, near Dublin Bay, on 21st
December 1843 {ZooJ., 1848, p. 2143). He further stated that
about the same time, snow beiug then on the ground, he shot a
Whitethroat and 'two Blackcaps (Proc. Dublin N.H. Soc, 1852,
p. 89).
The unusual season at which the lurds occurred would be less a
difficulty when it is remembered how many summer- visitors have
occurred in Ireland in winter ; l)ut though Thompson and Kiuahan
both referred to the above Warbler, neither of them ap]>ears to
have seen it, and there is no Reed-Warbler among Montgomery's
birds in the Dublin Museum.
It is safer, therefore, to await the oceuri-ence of a specimen that
can be satisfactorily determined l>efore including this species.
APPENDIX. 399
THE GOLD- VENTED THEUSH. Pycnonotus capensis
(Liniiieus) .
A speciinen referred to this species by Professor ISTewtou, after
he had seen the original sketch of it, was presented in 1846 to
Trinity College Mnseum by the late Dr. Burkitt of Waterford.
I have before me his correspondence with Yarrell and Professor
Newton about this bird, and his private notes on the subject,
intended for no eye but his own. It is indisputable that he
believed it to have been shot at Mount Beresford on the 10th
January 1838 and to have been skinned and preserved by him.
He had, however, a friend. Captain John Hudson, at the Cape,
from whom he received natural history speciinens from time to
time. Coidd the skin of a Bulbul have been received from this
gentleman, put by unlabelled, and afterwards mistakeia by Dr.
Burkitt for the skin of a bird he had preserved in 1838 ? He is
unfortunately not now alive to throw light on this, and the
specimen has ceased to exist. I saw it in 1854, but before 1860
it had disappeared, possibly in the removal of the collections
of Trinity College Museum to another building. The original
coloured sketch of it, however, is in the Science and Art Museum,
Dublin.
The South African Spotted Eagle-Owl preserved by Dr. Burkitt
was supposed by him to have escaped from some vessel near
"Waterford Harbour, as stated in his later communications.
THE PUEPLE MAETIN. Proyne suhis (Linuajus).
Is said to have been once obtained ; the only identified specimen
recorded in Europe.
Yarrell published in March 1840 (Part XYIL, 1st Edition) a
letter from a Mr. Frederick McCoy, of Dublin, informing him that
a female of this species had been shot near Kingstown and sent to
to Dr. Scolder for dissection a few hours afterwards. This specimen
is still preserved in the Irish collection of the Dublin Museum.
THE OETOLAN BUNTING-. Emheriza Iwrtulono, Linuaus.
A specimen of the Ortolan now in the Science and Art Museum,
Dublin, was exhibited by Montgomery before the Dublin Natural
History Society in May 1852 (Proceedings, p. i'l). He is stated
to have then said : " The specimens of the Ortolan Bunting and
400 APPENDIX.
Tree-Sparrow, now before you, I received as Irish examples, and
I believe tliem to be so, but not having killed them myself, I can-
not positively announce them as such. . . Neither of them have
been befoi-e taken in Ireland." He does not appear to have stated
where the Ortolan was taken, though " co. Clare " has been given
as the locality.
Montgomery on the above occasion exhibited a Scops Owl, which
he believed to have been killed in Clare, but which was afterwards
labelled " Wexford." It would seem therefore as if the bird-stuffer
with whom Montgomery had dealings was rather vague as to the
data, and the Ortolan had better be omitted.
THE BELTED KINGFISHER. CerijJe ahyon (Linnaeus).
Occurred in two instances in the province of Leinster the same
autumn.
The first of these, a female, now in Trinity College Museum,
was shot at Aunsbi'ook, co. Meath, on the 26th October 1845.
Dr. Ball considered that its unimpaired plumage denoted a
wild bird.
The second was shot on a stream in the Wicklow Mountains in
the following month of November, and having come into the
collection of the late T. W. Warren, was left by him to the Science
and Art Museum, Dublin.
High authorities diifer as to whether this species should be
admitted into our fauna on the strength of the above occurrences.
On the one hand the bird is known to fly as far as the Bermudas
and the West Indies on its autumn migration, during which these
examples were shot. It also has been found fishing at sea. On
the other hand, it has been suggested that these two specimens,
which occurred in tlie same quarter of Ireland, may have escaped
from the same cao'e.
THE AMERICAN YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. Coccyzus
americanus (Linnaeus).
Has been twice obtained, in autumn.
Trinity College Museum still contains a specimen of this bird,
which was brought to Ball, freshly killed and bleeding, at Youghal
in the autumn of 1825.
When announcing this biid in the Field Naturalists' Magazine,
APPENDIX. 401
October 1832, he was able to meutiou a second specimen, then
recently killed near Bray. The latter was examined by Thompson,
and is preserved in Queen's College Museum, Cork. Four or
five other specimens have occurred in the autumn from tinn.' to
time on the west coasts of Great Britain, though it is impossible
to deny that some or all of them may have been assisted in transit
from America by resting on vessels.
THE AMERICAI^ BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. Coccyzus
erifhrophthaliiixs (Wilson).
Has occurred once, in September.
An example of this New- World species was shot in the parish of
Killead, co. Antrim, on 25th September 1871, and passed into the
possession of Mr. H. Blake Knox. Lord Clei-mont gave the result
of a careful comparison of it with American skins, by which its
species was determined (Zoo?., 1872, p. 3022, and Zool. Soe. Proc,
1872, p. 661).
Another was killed near Lueca in 1858, these being the only
two instances kno"\vn of its occurrence in Europe.
THE AMEEICAN GOSHAWK. Astnr afncajnUus (Wilson).
Two instances are recorded.
One, an adult female, was shot on the Galtee Mountains,
county of Tipperary, in February 1870. It was presented by
Mr. G. K. S. Massey Dawson, of Ballynacourty, to the Science
and Art Museum, Dublin, where it is still preserved (Ibis, 1870,
p. 538).
A second, also a female, was shot shortly afterwards, near
Parsonstowu, King's County, as stated by Mr. A. B. Brooke
(Zoologist, s. s., p. 2524 [1871]).
THE BLACK- WINGED KITE. Elanns ccendeus
(Desfontaines).
An immature specimen of this semi-tropical l)ird is in the
possession of Sir John Dillon at Lismullen, Navan. It appears
to have been sent to him about 1870 by Dr. Nicolls, who received
it in the flesh about 1842 and preserved the skin.
D D
402 APPENDIX.
This bird was stated by Dr. Nicolls to have been shot by a
Mr. Horan on the bog of Harristown, co. Meath, probably late iu
the autumn or in the winter, as a Bittern was shot on the same
day.
The original account (Ibis, 1872, p. 471) contains some
inaccuracies (ZooL, 1875, p. 4455).
THE EGYPTIAN GOOSE. Cltenalopex cegyptiacus (Linnaeus).
Of the Egyptian Goose there are twelve records. Mr. H. Blake
Knox stated that he saw a large flock on the North Strand,
Dublin Bay, in January 1863 {ZooL, s. s., p. 304 [1866]). Small
parties were seen, and specimens were obtained, on the Boyne and
Belfast Loughs ; and a pair were shot at O'Brien's Bridge on the
Shannon, between Limerick and Clare.
The occurrences were distributed as follows : — Cork (1),
Limerick (1), Queen's Co. (1), Dublin (2), Louth (2), Monaghan
(1), Dowu (4). Three of the localities, it maybe observed, were
inland.
The above cases took place iu the months of January (2),
March (1), April (1), June (1), July (1), August (1), October
(1), November (1), December (2). Such records as these do not
seem reconcilable with any seasonal migration, and rather suggest
the accidental occurrences of escaped birds ; and in this counection
I may mention a remark of Mr. E. Williams, that Sir A. Bellingham
bred Egyptian Geese in co. Louth, of which a good mauy flew
awav.
THE CANADA GOOSE. Bernkh canadensis (Linnseus).
There are ten records of the Canada Goose, and from one of
these we learn that a flock uf six were observed in two successive
winters near Innishanuon, co. Cork, when two of them were shot
(Thompson, III., p. 25). In another instance four appeared on the
pond of the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin (Ibid).
Nine were seen and one shot in co. Wicklow in the beginning of
March 1895 (Messrs. Williams & Sou). A pair were shot at
Dundrum on the coast of Down on 6th June 1844, and in other
cases single birds were obtained.
The species has been thus taken iu the following counties,
and the numbers indicate the separate occurrences : — Cork (2),
APPENDIX. 403
Wicklow (2), Dublin (3), Armagh (Lough Neagh, 1), Down (1),
Autrim (1).
All these cases took place on the side of Ireland nearest to Great
Britain, and not on that nearest to Canada.
The months are given us in nine cases as follows : — January
(2), February (1), March (2), April (3), June (1).
The absence of any records for the last six months of the year
is a significant fact ; and from a review of the foregoing facts
there apjjears to be no reason to think that any of these Canada
Greese visited Ireland directly from America.
• THE PASSENGER-PiaEOX. Edopistes migratorius
(Linnajus).
Has been once obtained, in co. Kerry.
Of this occurrence Thompson wrote (III., p. 443): — "Mr. R. D.
FitzG-erald, Jun., writing from Tralee in July 18-50 (said), I had
in my possession, about two years ago, a Passenger-Pigeon, which
was caught near this town, when unable to fly from fatigue.
From this circumstance, there can, I think, be no doubt that it
came direct from America, as a bird of its powers of flight would
not have been exhausted unless it came from some very great
distance. It never became tame, though I had it in confinement
for about two years, at first alone, and afterwards in company
with other pigeons. It would walk backwards and forwards in a
very shy manner when anyone looked at it, and always avoided
the other birds."
THE GREEN- BACKED GALLINULE. Porphyrin
smaragdonotus, Temmincl:.
Has been twice obtained, on or near the north coast of co. Kerry.
I have examined the specimen at Chute Hall, believed l\y
Thompson to be a Martiuco Gallinule, and after looking over the
skins of the several Gallinules in the British Museum, I find that
Mr. Chute's bird is of the Green-backed species. It was said t()
have been blown upon the coast near Brandon (Thompson, II. ,
p. 331), and was picked up dead in a ditch about the first week in
November 1845 (Harting, in Field, 14th December 1878).
A second Green-backed Gallinule was obtained in a cabbage-
garden near Ballyheige Bay, on the same line of coast in co. Kerry
D D 2
404 APPENDIX.
OH 10th October 187:^. It is iu the possession of Lord Ventry,
who sulnnitted it for inspection to A. G. More. The species hein^
an inhabitant of Egypt, and often sent in a livina; state to England
to be Icept in confinement, is not admitted to British avi-fauna ;
but it is interesting that the only two instances of its capture in
Ireland should have occurred in the extreme South-West, where
many other rare Ijirds have wandered, as the Migration Eeports
from the Blaskets and Skelligs show. The district is at a great
distance from places where foreign l)irds are likely to be kept.
It is also worthy of remark that both the above birds occurred
in autumn, when the migratory instinct must be strongest in the
Rails, as the I'eports of their occurrences at lighthouses show.
A Purple Gallinule (P. creridens) said to have been killed iu
Ireland is mentioned hv Mr. Hartiug (Field, 14th December 1878).
THE YELLOW-BILLED SHEATHBILL. Chionis alba,
Latham.
A female of this Antarctic species was observed on a rock near
the Carlingford lighthouse, co. Down, on 2nd December 1892. It
seemed to take no notice of the approach of the lightkeeper, Mr.
R. Hamilton, who fired at about thirty yards. Then, on taking
wing, it performed a circuit and returned to the rock, where it was
shot, lint was still alile to take wing and alighted on the sea,
when it was captured. It was said to move on land with a
" proud, bold walk," and its flight was compai-ed to that of a
Fuffin, l)ut was less rapid.
It proved to be fat. and was iu such unimpaired plumage that
Mr. E. Williams, who preserved it. considered that it showed no
traces whatever of recent confinement. It appeared to be in a
state of moult, as some of the old feathers were not yet cast, but
these showed no sign of captivity ; and the ovary contained some
small eggs like pin-heads (Zool. ,'lS9o. p. 28. and Irish Nat., 1893,
p. 151, with a photograph).
This specimen was exhibited liefore the Zoological Society on
28th Feln-uary 1893, and is in the collection of Mr. R. M. Bar-
rington, who received it in the flesh.
In the " Dictionary of Birds," p. 823, Professor Newton alludes
to the capture, and remarks that the l>ird thus killed may well
have escaped from confinement, while Mr. Howard Saunders in
his Manual makes a similar suggestion.
If that were so, this Sheathbill must have maintained itself at
liberty for some time under conditions favourable to its health ;
APPENDIX.
40^
however, as Mr. Barringtou remarks, the Sheathbill has beeu met
with at great distauees from laud in the Southern Ocean, and he
suggests that there is nothing impossible in its travelling north of
the Equator if it could find suitable food on the journey. It
certainly seems to be able to I'est on the water and swim to some
extent.
The following species w^ere excluded by name in the last
edition of the " List of Irish Birds " by A. Gr. More, published in
1890, and have not been admitted in this volume : —
Blue Thrash.
Nightingale.
Reed- Warbler.
Bearded Titmouse.
Crested Titmouse.
Nuthatch.
Blue-headed Wagtail.
Tree-Pij)it.
Pine-Grosbeak.
Cirl Bunting.
Tawny Owl.
Eagle-Owl.
Spotted Eagle Owl.
Red-breasted Groose.
Membranaceous Duck.
American Wigeon.
Buffel-headed Duck.
Grreen-backed Gallinule.
Martinico Grallinule.
Ruppell's Tern.
Brunnich's Guillemot.
Cape Pigeon.
ADDENDA.
Song-Thrush, p. 2. — After mentioning the immigration of
flocks in October and November I remarked (p. 3, supra) that
the return journey is observed chiefly in Febrnary. Mr. R. M.
Barrington has gone very carefully into the migration of the Song-
Thrush, and gives me his opinion that, as a rule, no departing
birds are ol)served at light-stations, and that even those which
are noticed in February are then arriving. I will not attempt
further to forestall the elaborate paper he has prepared on this
subject to accompany the Migration Eeports of 1888-1897.
Black Redstart, p. 11. — The following birds occurred last
autumn, 1899: — I saw one at my window at Cappagh on 2nd
ISTovember, and five specimens were obtained in different parts of
Ireland — two at Wicklow Head, on 28th October and on the 1st
November (Mr. Barrington) ; one at Killiney, co. Dublin, on 15th,
and another at Portmarnock in the same county on 20th
November ; while another was obtained at Portaferry, co. Down,
before the 15th of the same month (Mr. C. Langham).
Whitethroat, p. 13. — Mr. Barrington informs me that the
instance to which I referred as having occurred in February
took place ])robably the previous autumn, and that the sijecimen
reached him in February.
Lesser Whitethroat, p. 14. — A second Irish-taken specimen
has been received by Mr. Barrington. It was caught at the
lantern of Inishtrahull lighthouse, 10th October 1899.
White Wagtail, p. 36. — Mr. W. T. Crawstay, writing in the
Zoologist, 1899, p. 418, states that on 20th April 1899 he observed
a bird of this species on the River Lee, co. Cork. A fine specimen,
ADDENDA. 407
received by Mr. Barrington, was caught at tlie lantern of Inishtra-
hull liglithouse on 23rcl April 1900. Both the localities ai"e new ;
but the latter is specially interesting, as the White Wagtail could
only have occurred there on migration. Inishtrahull seems to be
often touched by birds on their passage to the North from
Ireland.
Yellow Wagtail, p. oU. — A Wagtail received by Mr. Barring-
ton from the Tuskar and killed there on 22ud September 1887
proves to be a Pied Wagtail. He has therefore received Ijut two
Yellow Wagtails from the Tuskar, not three as I had stated.
Pied Flycatcher, p. 47. — -Another immature bird has been
received by Mr. Barrington which was caught on the Fastnet on
9th October 1899. This is the eighth Irish-taken specimen, and
all, except the first, have been obtained at lighthouses on the
autumn migration.
Hawfinch, p. -53. — Mr. Trumbull announced in the Irish
Naturalist, 1899, p. 27, that an adult male had been obtained
at Portmarnock on the Dublin coast on 13th February 1898.
GrOLDFiNCH, p. 54. — Having stated that no specimens had been
received from the Wexford lightships, I wish to record that Mr.
Barrington has since informed me that he has received two Gold-
finches, one taken at Lucifer Shoals on 21st October 1898, and
the other at Blackwater Bank on 18th October 1899.
Rose-coloured Starling, p. 81. — A fine adult male was
obtained at Killybegs, co. Donegal, on 21st July 1899, by Mr.
Arthur Brooke. It had frequented his fruit gai'den in company
with Blackbirds for several days previously. This makes the
third occurrence recorded from western Donegal. Another
specimen, in moult, was shot at Belgarriff House, Foxford,
CO. Mayo, on 5th ISTovember 1899, by Mr. James A. Knox
(Warren, in Zool., 1900, p. 37, where " 1898" should read 1899).
The Eose-coloured Starling has never been recorded from Mayo
before, nor at so late a season.
The above occurrences, together with that which took place
near Londonderry in June, make three for 1899, after an interval
of twenty years, during which tht' species was not recorded from
Ireland.
408 ADDENDA.
Hoopoe, p. 111. — In April 1900 Hoopoes were obtained in the
counties of Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, and Antrim ; and
another was seen as early as the r2tli of March and again on the
24th of that month, at Enniskean, co. Cork, by Mr. J. E. Long-
field, who mercifully spared the liird.
Short-eared Owl, ]>. 116. — A specimen received by Mr.
Barrington was shot on Aranniure Island on 2181 October 1899 ;
another example from the noi-th-west coast.
Montagu's Harrier, p. 122. — An immature male was shot
near Kylelieg, Blessington, co. Wicklow, on 7th September 1899,
which probably belonged to the same brood as the two young
birds obtained in northern Wexford the previous August
(Williams, in Irish Nat., 1900, p. 21).
EouGH-LEGaED BuzzARD, p. 124. — A fiuc male was obtained at
Campsie, co. Londonderry, on 4th October 1899, by Mr. W. Kirk-
patrick (Campbell, in Irish Nat., 1900, p. 50). This is the third
occurrence of the species in that county.
Heron, p. 158. — My daughter informs me that there is a
coDsiderable heronry on an island in Lough Cloonaglin, co. Kerry,
which should therefore be added to the list.
Night-Heron, p. 164. — An adult female was obtained at
Corstown, co. Meath, as I am informed l\v Mr. E. Williams, who
received it for preservation on 10th May 1900.
Common Bittern, p. 167. — Towards the end of December
1899, and early in January 1900, Bitterns were shot twice in
Clare and once in each of the counties of Limerick, Queen's Co.,
Westmeath, and Mayo ; while another was identified in co. Cork
on 13th January In' three gentlemen who were shooting, Init who
laudably spared it. Were the latter course generally followed the
Bittern might again be numbered among the birds that breed in
Ireland.
Whooper Swan, p. 1S4. — Messrs. Williams & Son received a
Whooper wJiich was shot at BelmuUet, co. Mayo, on 15th
November 1899.
Bewick's Swan, p. 185. — A herd of tweuty of these Swans, all
ADDENDA. 409
adults, visited the sauds between Bartragh Island and Moyne
Abbey, in Mayo, on 12th Deeeniber 1899. One bird whieh was
obtained measured 3 feet 9 inches in total length and weighed
14 lbs. (Warren, in Irish Nat., 1900, p. 21).
Garganey, p. 198. — A female shot near the Curragh, co.
Kildare, on 20th September 1899, was sent to Messrs. Williams
& Son for preservation. This is the second Garganey obtained in
Ireland iu autumn.
Long-tailed Duck, ji. 210. — Mr. Sheals, of Belfast, received
for preservation a male in spring plumage obtained at Kilkeel, co.
Down, on 16th February 1899. Another adult male was shot at
Dundalk hghthouse on 8th November 1899, and sent to Mr.
Barrington in the spring of 1900. Messrs. Williams & Son
received three specimens from Mr. Jones, who shot them upon the
upper section of Lough Corrib and who stated that a fioet of
about twenty had been on that lake most of the winter, near
Inishanbo, the island where he resided. This was a departure
from the usual marine habits of the species.
Eider-duck, p. 211. — ^A female was shot at Carndonagh iu
northern Donegal at the end of October 1899 (Campbell, in Irish
Nat, 1899, p. 27).
Spotted Crake, p. 238. — One of two birds received by Mr.
Sheals, of Belfast, for preservation was shot at Cullybackey, co.
Antrim, on 8th October 1898, and the other at Seaforde, co. Down,
on 7th November 1898.
Early in May 1900 the call of a Spotted Crake was heard for
several nights from a marsh near Caj^pagh, co. Waterford, and on
the 10th of that month I listened to it for a long time and as
close as thirty or forty yards. It was loud and clear, and
sounded like " whuit, whuit, whuit " constantlv repeated (Jy/.s-//
Nat., 1900, p. 160).
Kentish Plover, p. 252. — Thompson mentions iu a note
which I have overlooked (III., p. 445) that the specimen which
was preserved in Trinity College Museum and to which I have
alluded was shot at Baldovle, co. Dublin, on Sth August 1848.
410 ADDENDA.
Woodcock, p. 268. — I have just received, 1st July 1900, from
Miss Fairholme, Comragli, co. Waterford, the following very
interesting descrijjtion of a Woodcock which lifted two of her
young at once : — " My sister and I were standing in a field here
one day in May last, and our two dogs were hunting in a small
oak-wood at the other side of the fence near, when we heard a
noise, close behind us, something like the cry of a Kestrel, but
not quite so loud. On turning round we saw a Woodcock crouch-
ing on the ground, fluttering her wings and crying. On our
going a step or two towards her to see if she were hurt, she
gathered up two little ones ; one clasjied to her breast by her
head and beak and the other between her feet. She flew on
slowly a few yards to the top of a very low bank where she let
down the young ones, and crouched over them fluttering her wings
and crying as before. We waited to see what would happen,
when the dogs came out of the fence from the wood. The bird
immediately raised up the two young ones as before and flew
back into the oak-wood. Both flights were short, and she flew
heavily aud near the ground, so that we saAV the whole proceed-
ing perfectly. We caught the dogs aud took them away at
once."
Miss Fairholme had remarked jireviously to me that the bird's
bill was invisible during her flight, but that when she let down
the nestling which was supported liy it she put out her bill.
I have never before heard of more than one young Woodcock
being carried off hj the parent. The mode of carrying between
the legs has been often observed, but the second little one was
held in the less nsual way described to me by a woodman at
Brittas, in Queen's Co. (Zo'ol. 1882, p. 306).
Sandwich Ter>:, p. 314. — In June 1900 Mr. Langham, of
Tempo Manor, iuformed me that he had received young Sandwich
Terns from a place in co. Fermanagh. On my communicating
this to Mr. Eobert Warren he has visited Tempo, and Mr.
Langham has shown him the young Terns, which ai'e kept in
confinement, and a few eggs of this species which were obtained
at the same breeding-haunt, in 1897.
Mr. Warren visited the place on the 12th July and found about
fifteen or twenty pairs of Sandwich Terns there. He also saw
some addled eggs aud young, though most of the latter had
apparently left.
BIRDS OF IRELAND BY USSHER & WARREN
^
SjtthliTiI. -If II „f
Xkp Ediiiburtft Gt
.Li. H;uli.nlnr^v,..- * Co
BIRDS OF IRELAND BY USSHER t WARREN
.i.rtmBarLnaloiTKr'-ir Co
INDEX
The Ent^lisli names of excluded species are placed in square brackets.
Accentor inodiilaris, 26
Accipiter ids its, 132
Acreditla caitdata, 28
Acrocephalus pliragmitis, 24
strepcnts, 397, 398, 405
Aildon galactodes, 23
yKgialitis cantiaiia, 252
hiaticola, 251, 409
Alauda arborea, 100
ai"veiisis, 99
brachydac/yla, 102
cr is tat a., 10 1
Alca iiiipcnnis, 358
tarda, 356
Alcedo zspida, 109
Ainpelis garrithis, 45
^/^aj- doscas, 190
strepcra, 192
Anotts stoUdits, 327
Anser albifrons, 176
brachyrliyiicluis, 179
cinereiis, 174
segetit/ii, 177
Anthiis obscitnis, 41
p}-ateitsis, 40
trivialis, 41
Aquila c/uysactits, 125
■ inacitlata, 125
Ardea cincrca, 1 58, 408
garzetta, 162
purpurea, 162
— ■ — • ralloidcs, 163
Ardetta mi nut a, 165
^.f/i3 accipitrinus, 1 1 6, 408
o/'«J-, 115
Astttr atricapillus, 397, 401
paluiidiarius, 132
Auk, Great., 358
I-ittle, 367
Avocet, 264
Bakl Coot, 244
Barn-Owl, 1 14
Bartra/i/ia /ongicaudata, 294
Bee-eater, iii
" Barnacle" (Brent Goose), 1S2
Bcrnicla brent a, 182
canadensis, 397, 402
le It cops is, 181
rujicollis, 405
Bittern, American, 168
Common, 167, 408
Little, 165
Blackbird, 6
Blackcap, 15
"Blackcap" (Stonechat,Reed-Buntini.
10, 76
" Blue Felt" (Fieldfare), 4
"Blue Rock" (Rock Uove), 225
Botaitrus lentigiiiosus, 168
stellar is, 167, 40S
Brambling, 62
[Bulbul, South African], 339
Bullfinch, 68
Bunting [CirlJ, 405
■ • Corn-, 74
■ Lapland, 77
[Ortolan], 397, 399
Reed-, 76
Snow-, 78
■ Yellow, 75
Bustard, Little, 247
Buteo lagopus, 1 24, 408
vulgaris, \2\
412
INDEX.
Buzzard, Common, 123
■ Honey-, 134
Rough-legged, 124, 40S
" Buzzard" (Marsh-Harrier), 1 19
Cah-ariiis lapponicus, 77
Calidris arenaria, 291
[Cape Pigeon], 405
[Capercaillie], 230
Capriniiili^us eiiropi?iis, 104
Caiihtclis elcgaus, 54, 407
spilt us, 55
Carrion-Crow, 94
Cert Ilia faiiiiliarh, 34
Ceryle alcyou, 397, 400
Chaffinch, 61
Charadritis doiuiniiiis, 255
• pliiviaiis, 253
Chclidou itrhica, 49
Chen hyper/hveiis, iSo
nivalis, 180
Chciialopex u;^yptiaca, 397, 402
Chiftchaft", 19
Chionis aiha, 397, 404
Chough, 82
Ciconia aid a, 1 70
Cine Ills aquatic lis, 27
Circus ccriti^inosits, 119
cineraceits, 122, 408
cyaiieits, 1 2 1
[Cirl Bunting], 405
Clangnla albeola, 405
Glaiicion, 209
Coal-Titmouse, 30
Coccotliraitstes vulgaris, 53, 407
Coccystes glandarius, 1 14
Coccyzus aiiierieanus, 397, 400
erythopthaliiiits, 397, 401
Colunitm livia, 225
«-//.f, 223
paluinluis, 222
Colyinlnts arcticus, t^JT,
glacialis, 371
septentrionalis, 374
Coot, 244
Coracias garrulus, 1 1 o
Cormorant, 152
Corn-Bunting, 74
Corn-Crake, 236
CorT'us corax, 92
comix, 95
234
Corviis corone, 94
/r//i'^7t-^-//.S 97
nioneditla, 90
Cotile riparia, 50
Coturnix coniinunis
Crake, Baillon's, 241
Corn-, 236
Little, 240
Spotted, 23S, 409
Crane, 246
" Crane" (Heron), 15S
Creeper, Tree-, 34
Crex pratensis, 236
Crossljill, 69
I'arrot, 73
Two-barred, 73
Crow, Carrion-, 94
Hooded, 94
" Crow" (Rook), 97
"Crows, White" (Gulls), 330-335
Cuckoo, 113
[American Black-billed], 397, 401
[American Yellow-billed], 397,
400
Great Spotted, 114
Cncttlus canorits, 113
Curlew, Common, 307
Eskimo, 31 1
Stone-, 248
"Stone-" (Whimbrel), 310
Sandpiper, 2S6
Cygnits heivicki, 1S5, 40S
music us, 1 84, 40S
olor, 1 86
Cypselus apiis, 102
iiielba, 104
Dafila acuta, 196
Daulias luscinia, 405
Dendrocopus niajor, loS
minor, 109
Dipper, 27
"Diver" (Cormorant), 152
"Diver, White-sided "" (Tufted Duck),
205
Diver, Blaclc-tliroaied, 373
— ■ — Great Northern, 371
Red-thruated, 374
Dotterel, 250
"Dotterel" (Ringed Plover), 251
D(jve, Ring-, 222
INDEX.
413
Dove, Rock-, 225
Stock-, 223
Turtle-, 226
Duck, Common Shekl-, 1S7
[Buffel-headed], 405
Eider, 211, 409
Ferruginous, 204
Golden-eye, 209
Long- tailed, 210, 409
[Membranacous], 405
Pintail, 196
Ruddy Sheld-, 1S9
Scaup-, 207
"Spoonbill" (Shoveler), 193
Tufted, 205
White- eyed, 204
Wild, 190
Dunlin, 2S2
Eagle, Golden, 1 25
Sea-, 129
Spotted, 125
White-tailed, 129
Ectopistes niigratoriiis, 397, 403
Egret, Little, 162
Eider Duck, 211, 409
King, 313
Elaiuis iariikiis, 397, 401
Embiriza litrinella, 75
Iiortiilaita, 397, 399
miliaria, 74
Sihirinclus, 76
Erit/iaaii ntbeciiia, 12
Erne, 129
Eiidroiiiias iiioriiicl/iis, 250
FaliO icsaloii, 144
taiidicaiis, 135
it'ihhris, 148
islaiidns, 137
fcrcgt inns, 138
siil'btitco, 144
tiiiuitnculus, 146
vcspcrliniis, 146
Falcon, (Greenland, 135
Iceland, 137
Peregrine, 138
Red-footed, 146
Fieldfare, 4
Finch, Mountain-, 62
Flycatcher, Pied, 47, 407
Flycatcher, Red-breasted, 48
Spotted, 46
Fratercitla arctica, 369
Fringilla civlcbs, 61
/itojififriiigii/a, 62
Fitlica atra, 244
Fiiligitla ii-istata, 205
fc'rina, 202
niarila, 207
nyroca, 204
Fulmar, 395
Fttlniaris. glacialis, 395
Gadwall, 192
Galliiiago la/esiis, 277
gallimila, 280
major, 276
Gallinitla chloropiis, 243
Gallinule [Green-backed], 397,403- 405
[Martinico], 405
Olivaceous, 240
[Purple], 404
Gannet, 155
" Gannets, Quarter " (Terns),
Garden- Warbler, 16
Gare-fowl (Great Auk), 358
Garganey, 198, 409
Garriihts glandarins, 87
Gt'ciiiiis viridis, 1 07
Glareola pratiinola, 249
Goatsucker, 104
Godwit, Bar-tailed, 304
! Black-tailed, 306
Golden-crested Wren, iS
j Ciolden-eye, 209
\ Golden Oriole, 42
Goldfinch, 54, 407
Goosander, 217
Goose, Bean-, 177
Barnacle, iSi
Brent, 182
[Canada], 397, 402
[Eg)'ptian], 397, 402
Grey Lag-, 174
Pink-footed, 179
[Red-breasted], 405
Snow-, 180
Solan (Gannet), 155
White-fronted, 176
Goshawk. 132
[American], 397, 401
414
INDEX.
"Goose-hawk" (Peregrine), 13S
Grasshopper-Warl)ler, 25
Grebe, Black-necked, 3S0
■ Eared, 3S0
Great Crested, 376
■ • Horned, 379
Little, 382
Red-necked, 37S
• Slavonian, 379
Greenfinch, 52
Greenshank, 302
Griffon-Vulture, 119
[Grosbeak, Pine-], 405
[Grouse, Black], 230
Pallas's Sand-, 227
Red, 229
Gnis coi/iiiiiiin's, 246
Guillemot, Black, 366
Bridled, 365
[Brunnich's], 405
■ Common, 361
■ Ringed, 365
Gull, Black-headed, 330
Bonaparte's, 329
Common, 332
• Glaucous, 342
• Great Black-backed, 339
Herring, 335
■ Iceland, 343
■ Ivory, 347
• Kittiwake, 345
Lesser Black-backed, 337
Little, 329
■ " Peewit," 330
Sabine's, 327
Gyps fttk'us, 119
HiHuiatopus osiralcgiis, 261
Haliactus albiiilla, 129
Harelda glacialii, 210, 409
Harrier, Hen-, 121
Marsh-, 119
Montagu's, 122, 40S
" Ring-tail," 121
Hawfinch, 53, 407
Hawk, Gos-, 132
" Big," "Goose-" (Peregrine), 13S
"Moth-" (Nightjar), 104
■ Sparrow-, 132
" Sparrow-"' (Kestrel). 146
Hedge-Accentor, 26
Hedge-Sparrow, 26
Hen-Harrier, 121
Heron, Common, 15S, 408
Night, 164, 408
Purple, 162
Squacco, 163
Herring-Gull, 335
Hiniantopits candidits, 266
Hiriindo riistica, 48
Hobby, 144
Orange-legged, 146
Honey-Buzzard, 134
Hoopoe, III, 408
House-Sparrow, 59
Hydrochelidoii hyhrida, 314
kite opt ei-a, 313
nigra, 312
Hypolais icicrina, 23
Ibis, Glossy, 171
lynx torquilla, 1 07
Jackdaw, 90
"Jackdaw" (Chough), 82
Jack Snipe, 280
jay, 87
"Jay"(Mistle-Thrush), i
Kestrel, 146
■ Lesser, 14S
King-Eider, 213
Kingfisher, 109
" Kingfisher" (Dipper), 27
" Kingfisher" (Tern), 320
[Belted], 397, 400
Kite, 134
[Black-winged], 397, 401
"Kites" (Harriers),'';! 19, 121
Knot, 2S9
Lagopiis III tit Its, 231
scoficits 229
Land-Rail, 236
Laititts colhtrio, 44
cxcithitor, 43
pontcfiiiitis, 45
Lapwing, 258
Lark, Crested, 10 1
Short-toed, 102
Sky-, 99
Wood, ICO
INDEX.
415
Lark, "Sand-" (Small Wader), 251,
260, 2S2
Lanis argciifa/!ts, 335
■ catiits, 332
/nsci/s, ^^~
glanais, 342
Icitcopto-us, 343
iiiarinits, 339
inimitiis, 329
Philadelphia, 329
ridibitndiis, 330
Ligurimts chloris, 52
Liriiicoia platyrhymha, 281
Liviiiocryptes, 280
Limosa (^gocephala, 306
belgica 306
lappoiiica, 304
Linnet, Brown, 63
- — - Green, 52
^ Grey, 63
■ Mountain, 66
Linota cannabina, 63
Jlavirostris, 66
iiiiaria, 64
rostrata, 64
ritfescens, 65
Locustella mvvia, 25
" Loon" (Crested Grebe), 376
Loxia bifasciaia, 73
ciirvirostra, 69
pityopsittacits, 73
riibrifasaata, 73
Machetes piigiiax, 292
Alacrorhaiuphus griscus, 303
Magpie, 88
Mallard, 190
Rlareca aiiiei-icana, 405
Mareca pcitclope, 1 99
Marsh-Harrier, 1 19
Marsh-Titmouse, 31
Martin, House-Marlin, 49
[American I'urple], 397, 399
Sand-, 50
"San.l-'- (Tern), 320. 323
" May-bird " (Whimbrel), 310
Meadow- Pi pit, 40
IMegakstris catarrhacUs, 34S
Merganser, Hooded, i2\
Red-breasted, 21S
Mcrgiiliis alle, 367
JMcrgits alhcllus, 220
ciicitllatiis, 221
juerganscr, 217
serrator, 21S
Merlin, 144
Merops apiasfer, in
"Mews" (Terns), 31S-325
Milvus id inns, 134
Mistle-Thrush, i
"Moor-Buzzard" (]\Larsh- Harrier), 119
Moor-hen, 243
" Morillon " (Golden-eye), 209
" Moss-cheeper" (Meadow Pipit),
Motacilla alba, 36
higtibris, 35
//le la nope, 27
rffzV, 39, 407
yarrelli, 35
" Mother Carey's Chickens " (Petrels),
383
" Moth-Hawk " (Nightjar), 104
Mountain-P'inch, 62
"Murre" (Razorbill, Guillemot), 356,
361
Alitsiicapa a/riiapilla, 47, 407
gnsola, 46
pai-va, 48
Netia j-nfina, 201
Nettion craca, 197
Night-Heron, 164
[Nightingale], 405
" Nightingale, Irish " (Sedge Warbler),
24
Nightjar, 104
Noddy Tern, 327
Nmncnius arquata, 307
borcalis, 311
phivopns, 310
[Nuthatch], 405
Nyitca scandiaca, iij
Ayclicora.x grisciis, 164, 40S
Oceaniti's oceaniins, 3SS
Oicanodronia Iciuwrhoa, 3S6
Qidonia fnsio, 214
nigra, 213
perspicillata, 2 1 6
CEdicneiniis scolopax, 248
Oriole, Golden, 42
Oriohis ^alhiila, 42
416
INDEX.
[Ortolan], 397, 399
Osprey, 149
Otis teti-ax, 247
Ouzel, Ring-, 7
Water-, 27
Owl, Barn-, 114
[Eagle-], 405
• — - — Long-eared, 115
Scops-, 118
" Screech-," 1 14
Short-eared, 116, 40S
Snowy, 117
[Spotted Eagle-], 399, 405
[Tawny], 405
■ White, 114
"Woodcock-," 116
Oyster-catcher, 261
Ptv^ophila chiirnea, 347
Paiidiou haliactus, 149
Partridge, Common, 232
Pants ati'r, 30
iirittaininiis, 30
iivrii/ciis, 32
in'sfatiis, 405
Ill a/or, 29
/a/its/r/s, 3 1
ifressdri, 31
[I'assenger Pigeon], 397
PasscT (/oiiicsticiis, 59
montaiuts, 60
Pastor roset/s, Si, 407
Peewit, 258
" Peewit-Gull," 330
"Penguin" (Great Auk), 35S
I\Tiii.x oiiwrca, 232
Peregrine, 138
P, mis apivoriis, 134
I'etrel, Leach's Fork-tailed, 3S6
Storm-, 383
Wilson's, 38S
Plialacrocorax carina, 152
i^racitlits, 1 54
Phalarope, Grey, 266
Reil-necked, 26S
Plialaropits fitlicarius, 266
hypcrltorcus, 26S
PJiasiamis colcliiats, 232
Pheasant, 232
Pliylloscopiis riifits, 19
sihi/atrix, 22
Pliylloscopits, siipcrciliostis, 19
■ t roc hi ins, 21
Pica rustic a, 88
Pigeon [American Passenger], 397, 403
[Cape], 405
Wood-, 222
[Pine-Grosbeak], 405
Pintail, 196
Pipit, Meadow-, 40
Rock-, 41
[Tree-], 41
Piatalea leucordia, 172
Plcctroplienax nivalis, 78
Plcgadis falcinclliis, 171
Plover, Golden, 253
"Green" (Lapwing), 258
firey, 256
"Grey" (Golden Plover), 253
Kentish, 252, 409
Lesser Golden, 255
Norfolk, 24S
Ringed, 251
Sociable, 257
Pochard, 202
Red-crested, 201
Podicipcs aiiritus, Tijg
cr is tat us, 376
fluviatilis, 382
griseigeiia, 378
iiigricoiiis. 380
J\-irpIiyrio siiiaraodonotiis, 397, 403,
405
ca'niiciis, 404
J\yrzaiia bailloui, 241
riiarnetta, 238, 409
parva, 240
Pratiiicola rithctra, 9
rnhicola, lo
Pratincole, 249
Procellaria pelai^ica, 383
Progne subis, 397, 399
[Ptarmigan], 231
I'uftin, 369
"I'uftin" (Razorbill, Guillemot), 356,
361
Piiffiniis anqioniin, 392
■ assiinilis, 395
gravis, 389
griseiis, 391
major, 389
Pyciionotns capensis, 397, 399
INDEX.
417
Pyrrhocorax gracniits, 82
Pyrrhula eiiropea, 68
Quail, 234
Qnerqtiedula circia, 198, 409
Rail, Land-, 236
Water-, 241
Ralhis aquatic lis, 241
Raven, 92
Razorbill, 356
Recurvirosti-a avocetta, 264
Redbreast, 12
Redpoll, Lesser, 65
Mealy, 64
Redshank, Common, 298
Dusky, 300
Spotted, 300
Redstart, 10
Black, II, 406
Redwing, 3
Reed-Bunting, 76
[Reed-Warbler], 397, 398, 405
Reeve, 292
Regidiis cristatiis, 18
Ring-Dove, 222
Ring-Ouzel, 7
" Ring-tail" (Hen Harrier), 121
Rissa tridaclyla, 345
Robin, 12
[American], 397, 398
Rock-Dove, 225
Rock-Pipit, 41
Roller, no
Rook, 97
Rotche, 367
Ruff, 292
Ruticilla phaiiicicrns, lO
titys, 1 1 , 406
Sanderling, 291
Sand-Grouse, Pallas's, 227
"Sand-Lark" (Small Wader), 251,
260, 2S2
Sand Martin, 50
" Sand Martin " (Tern), 320, 325
Sandpiper, American Pectoral, 282
American Spotted, 296
Bartram's, 294
Bonaparte's, 282
Broad-billed, 281
Sandpiper, Buft'-breasted, 293
Common, 294
Curlew-, 286
Green, 297
Purple, 2S8
W^ood-, 296
" Saw-bills," 217, 218
Saxicola ivnanthe, S
"Scald-Crow" (Hooded Crow), 95
Scaup, 207
Scolopax riisticula, 268, 410
Scops gilt, 1x8
Scops-Owl, 118
Scoter, Conmion or Black, 213
Surf-, 216
Velvet-, 214
" Sea-Parrot " (Puffin), 369
" Sea- Pigeon " (Black Guillemot), 366
" Sea-Pie" (Oyster-catcher), 261
" Sea-Snipe" (Dunlin), 2S2
"Sea-Swallows" (Terns), 320-325
" Sedge-Bird," 24
Sedge-Warbler, 24
Serin, 59
SeriiiKS hoiiitlauus, 59
Shag, 154
Shearwater, Great, 389
Little Dusky, 395
Manx, 392
Sooty, 391
[Sheathliill], 397, 404
Sheld-Duck, Common, 187
Ruddy, 189
" Sheld-Duck" (Merganser), 218
Shoveler (Duck), 193
Shrike, Great Grey, 43
Red-ljacked, 44
Woodchat, 45
Siskin, 55
Sitta ctcsia, 405
Skua, Arctic, 351
Buffon's, 354
Great, 348
Long-tailed, 354
Pomatorhine, 349
Richardson's, 351
Sky- Lark, 99
Smew, 220
Snipe, Common, 277
DouIjIc, 276
Great, 276
E E
418
INDEX.
Snipe, Jack, 280
Red-breasted, 303
• Sabine's, 280
"Sea" (Dunlin), 2S2
Solitary, 276
"Summer" (Common Sandpiper),
294
Snow-Bunting, 78
Soniateria vioUissinta^ 211, 409
spectabilis, 2 1 3
Song-Thrush, 2, 406
Sparrovv-Hawk, 132
Sparrow, "Bog-" (Reed-Bunting), 76
Hedge-, 26
House-, 59
Tree-, 60
Spatula clypeata, 193
" Spear-Wigeon " (Merganser), 218
Spoonbill, 172
"Spoonbill" (Shoveler Duck), 173
Sqitatarola helvetica, 256
Starling, 79
Rose-coloured, 81, 407
Stercorarius crepidattis, 351
parasiticus, 354
pomatorhiniis, 349
Sterna anglica, 314
cantiaca, 314
doitgalh, 318
- flitviatilis, 320
rnacriira, 323
/n inula, 325
Stilt, Black-winged, 266
Stint, Little, 285
Temminck's, 286
Stock-Dove, 223
Stonechat, 10
Stone-Curlew, 24S
Stork, White, 170
Storm- Petrel, 383
Strepsilas interpres, 260
Strix flammea, 1 14
Stunius vulgaris, 79
Sula bassana, 155
" Summer Snipe " (Sandpiper). 294
Surf-Scoter, 216
Swallow, 48
"Swallow, Black" (Swift), 102
Swan, Bewick's, 1S5, 40S
Mute, 1S6
— [Polish], 187
Swan, Tame, 186
Whooper, 184, 40S
Swans, Wild, 184, 185
Swift, 102
Alpine, 104
Sylvia atricapilla, 15
cinerea, 13, 406
curruca, 14, 406
■ hortensis, 1 6
nisoria, 17
Syrniuiii aluco, 405
Syrrhaptes paradoxus, 227
Tadorua casarca, 1S9
cornitta, 187
Teal, 197
Tern, Arctic, 323
Black, 312
Common, 320
[Gull-billed], 314
Little, 325
Noddy, 327
• Roseate, 318
[Ruppell's], 405
Sandwich, 314
[Swift], 405
Whiskered, 314
■ White- winged Black, 313
Tetrao tetrix, 230
nrogallus, 230
Thick-knee, 248
Thrush [Blue], 405
[Gold-vented], 397, 399
[Migratory], 397, 398
Mistle-, I
Song-, 2, 406
White's, 5
Tit-larks (Pipits), 40, 41
Titmouse [Bearded], 405
Blue, 32
Coal, 30 ■
[Crested], 405
Great, 29
Long-tailed, 28
Marsh-, 31
Totanus calidris, 298
canescens, 302
fuscus, 300
glareola, 296
hypoleucus, 294
macularius, 296
INDEX,
419
Totanits ochropns, 297
Tree-Creeper, 34
[Tree-Pipit], 41, 405
Tree-Sparrow, 60
Tringa alphia, 282
caniitits, 289
fuse no His ,282
tnacitlata, 282
ininiita, 285
striata, 288
sitba)'(]uata, 286
temmtncki, 286
Tringites I'ltfescens, 293
Troglodytes parv III as, t^'^
Tiirdus iliaciis, 3
meriila, 6
migratorius, 397, 398
music us, 2, 406
pilaris, 4
torquatus, 7
varius, 5
viscivorus, 1
Turnstone, 260
Turtle-Dove, 226
Turtur communis, 226
Twite, 66
Upupa epops, in, 408
£/r/rt \bruennichi\, 405
i-r^//t', 366
troile, 361
Vanellus gregarius, 257
vulgaris, 258
Velvet-Scoter, 214
Vulture, Griffon, 119
Wagtail [Blue-headed], 405
Grey, 37
Pied, 35
White, 36, 406
Yellow, 39, 407
"Yellow" (Grey Wagtail
Waibler, Barred, 17
Garden, 16
Grasshopper, 25
Icterine, 23
[Reed-], 397, 398, 405
Rufous, 23
Sedge-, 24
Yellow-browed, 19
Water-hen, 243
Water-Rail, 241
Waxwing, 45
Wheatear, 8
Whimbrel, 310
Whinchat, 9
" Whinchat " (Stonechat), 10
Whitethroat, Greater, 13, 406
Lesser, 14, 406
Whooper, 184
Wigeon, 199
[American], 405
"Spear-" (Merganser), 218
"Whillock" (Guillemot),
Willow- Wren, 21
Windhover (Kestrel), 146
Woodchat, 45
Woodcock, 268, 410
"Woodcock-Owl," 116
Wood- Lark, 100
Woodpecker, Great Spotted. loS
Green, 107
Lesser Spotted, 109
"Woodpecker" (Tree-Cree]jer). 34
Wood- Pigeon, 222
Wood-Sandpiper, 296
Wood-Wren, 22
Wren, 2,^
Golden-crested, 18
Willow-, 21
Wood-, 22
Wryneck, 107
Xcma sabiiiii, 327
Yellow-IIammcr, 75
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