//, ■ 
 
 LI B R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN IVER.5ITY 
 
 OF ILLI NOIS 
 
 54\.94t5 
 
 
 f 6 
 

 
NATURAL HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof01thom 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 BIRDS, 
 
 COMPRISING THE ORDERS 
 
 RAPTORES & INSESSORES 
 
 Wm, THOMPSON, Esq., 
 
 President of the Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast, Corresponding Member 
 
 of the Nat. Hist. Society of Boston, U. S. ; of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
 
 Philadelphia, &c, &c. 
 
 LONDON: 
 REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1849 
 
REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE, 
 
 PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS, 
 
 KINO WTLLIAM STREET, STRAND. 
 
'<V-WG 
 
 
 «* 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The adoption of the title Natural History of Ireland for this 
 work, of which the Birds only are announced for early publica- 
 tion, requires some explanation. The Zoology of Ireland, — on 
 nearly every branch of which the author has matter almost ready 
 ^,*for the press, — would, it must be admitted, have been more strictly 
 ** correct, as little else than that portion of the general subject is 
 ^ intended to be comprised in the work. It is, however, to be 
 hoped that the name selected, may not be considered too pre- 
 N sumptuous. 
 
 ' The volumes on Birds are put forward merely as supplementary 
 to the several excellent works already published on British Ornitho- 
 logy. Hence it is unnecessary to enter into a description of the 
 "' form or plumage, or into a general history of each species, these 
 .; subjects having been amply treated of in the publications alluded 
 ~ to. The whole economy of the species, however, though not 
 always dwelt upon, will be often fully illustrated from original 
 observation. 
 
 Figures of Irish birds are not required, as all the species are 
 _ included, down to the period of publication (to mention British 
 ^works only) in Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology; 
 ^ Gould's Birds of Europe ; and the History of British Birds by 
 "n Bewick, and Yarrell, respectively. Coloured figures of many of 
 the species are also given in Sir Wm. Jardine's work on British 
 
 4 VOL. I. A 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Birds ; and in Mr. Macgillivray's, the heads, at least, of nearly 
 all the land birds are represented. 
 
 With so much already done pictorially and descriptively, on the 
 subject of British ornithology, it may be considered superfluous to 
 treat of the birds of Ireland in a separate work, but, in the author's 
 opinion, every country should possess a Natural History specially 
 appertaining to itself. In the publications referred to, the birds of 
 Ireland have been but briefly indicated, — a species generally dis- 
 missed in a single line, and so much appearing only in two works; 
 — those of Sir Win. Jardine and Mr. Yarrell. 
 
 The least reflection will convince any one who appreciates the 
 geographical distribution of species, that the birds of Ireland are 
 in this respect even more interesting than those of Great Britain, 
 as, within its latitude and longitude, Ireland is the " ultima Thule," 
 the extreme western limit to which the European species not found 
 in the Western Hemisphere, resort. The geographical position 
 of the island, also renders it occasionally the first European land on 
 which North American species, after having crossed the Atlantic, 
 alight. 
 
 Considerable differences, too, consequent en physical causes, 
 will be found to exist in the economy of the same species in 
 Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 The Physical Geography or natural features of the country 
 compared with those of Great Britain, cannot be said to deprive 
 Ireland of more than one species (the ptarmigan). The relative 
 proportion in the two countries, of land to water, of heaths and 
 bogs to cultivated grounds and plantations, has influence only on 
 the number of individuals. 
 
 Nor does the difference in the mineralogical structure of Ireland 
 compared with Great Britain affect the actual presence of any 
 species, although it is the primary cause which influences the 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 number of individuals prevailing in different parts of the island. 
 The plants which appear on particular soils attract such land 
 birds as feed upon their seeds. The submarine rocks and grounds 
 on which sea-weeds grow plentifully so as to afford shelter to the 
 minute fishes, and the molluscous and crustaceous animals on 
 which the wading and swimming birds feed, tempt them in greater 
 numbers to the neighbouring shores. The oozy, the sandy, the 
 gravelly, the stony, the rocky beach, has each its favourite species, 
 as has every peculiar natural or artificial feature of a country from 
 the level of the sea to the most lofty mountain summit. 
 
 The difference in climate between Ireland and Great Britain 
 cannot be said to deprive the former island of any species found 
 in the latter. The comparative mildness of winter in the more 
 western island has, however, great influence on birds. Even in 
 the north of Ireland, a few land species, considered as birds of 
 passage in England, except in the extreme south, become resi- 
 dent ; and some grallatorial birds remain throughout the winter, 
 although found only in the south of England at this season. The 
 soft-billed birds also being generally able to procure abundance of 
 food, are by the comparatively high temperature, more inclined to 
 song at this period of the year. The humidity of the climate, 
 together with the great extent of bog throughout the island, 
 brings hither to winter, different species of grallatorial and other 
 birds, in much greater numbers than prevail in England or 
 Scotland. The extent of moist and rich meadows in summer 
 has a similar, but more limited, influence. The want of extensive 
 districts of old timber seems, when fully considered, to have little 
 effect in excluding from Ireland species which inhabit Great 
 Britain. 
 
 To the laws of geographical distribution alone must, I conceive, 
 be attributed our want of species not affected by any of the 
 
 a 2 
 
V1U PREFACE. 
 
 foregoing causes, — viz., physical geography, mineralogical struc- 
 ture, climate, and absence of old timber. It should be borne in 
 mind that in all the preceding remarks the mere absence or pre- 
 sence of species is considered ; consequently, nothing is said of 
 birds from different causes being less frequently met with in 
 Ireland, than in particular parts of England or Scotland. Such 
 points will be fully treated of under the respective species. 
 
 Although in their polar and equatorial migrations, the crossing 
 of a sea, — as the Mediterranean * for instance, — offers no obstacle 
 to birds, yet is it different when they are spreading latitudinally ; 
 either to the east or to the west, in which case the migration of 
 many species terminates at the margin of the sea. Were Ireland 
 therefore geographically joined to Great Britain, some species 
 that are not now found would certainly inhabit it, but the junc- 
 tion would make no difference with respect to others : — resident 
 as well as migratory birds. In that event, we should in the east of 
 Ireland at least, have those species which are found throughout 
 the most western portion of Great Britain in the same parallel of 
 latitude ; but not those whose range of distribution does not extend 
 to the most western counties of England and to Wales. The 
 species which Ireland would and would not have, under such circum- 
 stances, may be inferred from an examination of the summary ap- 
 pended to the end of each Order of Birds, where the distribution 
 over Great Britain of the species not known as Irish, is pointed out. 
 We should, for example, if the country suited them, have as resi- 
 
 * A paper on birds seen crossing the Mediterranean in spring, by the author, 
 will be fully given in the appendix to the last volume ; but it was considered de- 
 sirable to notice each bird included there when treating of its species. This was 
 done that a person might be enabled on referring to any species to have the whole 
 information respecting it before him at once. The author, however, feels that a 
 reader of the matter continuously, may accuse him of too frequent allusion to the 
 subject. 
 
PKEl'ACE. IX 
 
 dent birds, the green woodpecker and the nuthatch ; of annual 
 summer migrants, the wood wren and the tree pipit. But we 
 should not have the stock clove, — a resident species in the midland 
 and eastern counties of England ; — nor would the melodious 
 nightingale favour us with its presence, so definitively marked is 
 the line of its migration. As to other species, which are found 
 though rarely to the westward, — in Cornwall and Wales, — as the 
 lesser whitethroat, &c, they might then, as a matter of course, 
 be expected as rare visitants; such they possibly may be now, 
 though more unfrequently than they would be in the other 
 instance. 
 
 In like manner, the junction of Great Britain throughout its 
 parallels of latitude, with the nearest continental land, would add 
 greatly to the number of British birds, that island being as 
 deficient comparatively in those of the most western European 
 countries, as Ireland is, in comparison with it. The sea lying 
 between the shores of Great Britain and the continent, has the 
 same effect as that extending between the former and Ireland. 
 Were there an island even of equal size to Ireland, situated as far 
 distant to the westward of that country as it is from Great Britain, 
 the diminution of species would be still greater than that actually 
 existing between Ireland and Great Britain, and so on, in an 
 increased ratio, were island after island, about equidistant from 
 each other, placed still farther to the westward. 
 
 The falling off would be owing to the principle, that species 
 continue diminishing (each within its different range) the farther 
 we recede from their metropolis, and that the diminution is accele- 
 rated by the insular nature of the land, as opposed to its being 
 conterminous or continental. 
 
 The preceding remarks apply only to islands like Great Britain 
 and Ireland lying near a continent and deriving their birds 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 thence.* t There are, however, instances of islands situated suffi- 
 ciently near large continents to admit of the flight of birds from the 
 latter, and yet deriving comparatively few, or none of their species 
 from them. The most remarkable example is presented by the 
 Galapagos archipelago, situated under the equatorial line, and 
 which, though only 500 to 600 miles westward of the coast of 
 South America, does not contain a land bird from the continent. 
 Even some of the islands of the group have their peculiar 
 species. J Full information on this most interesting subject will be 
 found in Mr. Darwin's excellent journal, kept during the Survey- 
 ing Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. p. 461 
 and 473-478. Madagascar, the nearest part of which is only 
 about 250 miles distant from the coast of Africa and extending 
 about 1,000 miles in a parallel direction, offers another striking 
 instance of an island not deriving its fauna from the neigh- 
 bouring continent. Of 113 known species of birds of Mada- 
 gascar, 68 are peculiar to it. The fullest information on the sub- 
 ject of the ornithology of that island will be found in a compre- 
 hensive essay by Dr. G. Hartlaub of Bremen, published in the 
 Annals of Natural History for Dec, 1848, p. 383-396. For a 
 knowledge of it, and its translation from a German journal, the 
 English reader is indebted to Mr. H. E. Strickland. 
 
 It is interesting to observe how birds are affected by the opera- 
 
 * One species only, the red grouse, is peculiar to the British Islands. 
 
 f These views were announced with great brevity in my Report on the Verte- 
 brate Fauna of Ireland drawn up for the British Associatiou for the Advancement of 
 Science, and published in the volume for 1840. At the meeting of that Association 
 held at Cambridge in 1845, Professor Edw. Forbes brought forward a very elabo- 
 rate communication, accounting for the distribution of the species contained in the 
 existing fauna and flora of the British Islands, on geological data. This highly 
 interesting and remarkable essay (pp. 98) was subsequently published in the 1st 
 volume of Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. 
 
 | The flora of these islands is equally peculiar. See an admirable paper on this 
 subject by Dr. Joseph D. Hooker in the Liunsean Transactions, vol. xx. part 2 (1847). 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 tions of man. I have remarked this particularly at one locality 
 near Belfast, situated 500 feet above the sea, and backed by hills 
 rising to 800 feet. Marshy ground, the abode of little else than 
 the snipe, became drained, and that species was consequently ex- 
 pelled. As cultivation advanced, the numerous species of small 
 birds attendant on it, became visitors, and plantations soon made 
 them inhabitants of the place. The land-rail soon haunted the 
 meadows j the quail and the partridge, the fields of grain. A pond, 
 covering less than an acre of ground, tempted annually for the 
 first few years, a pair of the graceful and handsome sandpipers 
 {Totanus hypoleticoi), which, with their brood, appeared at the 
 end of July or beginning of August, on their way to the sea- 
 side from their breeding haunt. Tins was in a moor about a 
 mile distant, where a pair annually bred until driven away by 
 drainage rendering it unsuitable. The pond was supplied by 
 streams descending from the mountains through wild and rocky 
 glens, the favourite haunt of the water-ouzel, which visited its 
 margin daily throughout the year. When the willows planted 
 at the water's edge had attained a goodly size, the splendid king- 
 fisher occasionally visited it during autumn. Rarely do the water- 
 ouzel and kingfisher meet " to drink at the same pool/' but here 
 they did so. So soon as there was sufficient cover for the water- 
 hen (Gallimila chloropus) it, an unbidden but most welcome 
 guest, appeared and took up its permanent abode; a number 
 of them frequently joining the poultry in the farm-yard at their 
 repast. The heron, as if conscious that his deeds rendered him 
 unwelcome, stealthily raised his " blue bulk " aloft, and fled at 
 our approach. The innocent and attractive wagtails, both pied 
 and grey, were of course always to be seen about the pond. A 
 couple of wild-ducks, and two or three teal, occasionally at diffe- 
 rent seasons, became visitants ; and once, early in October, a tufted 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 duck (Fuligula cristata) arrived, and after remaining a few days 
 took its departure, but returned in company with two or three 
 others of the same species. These went off several times, but re- 
 turned on each occasion with an increase to their, numbers, until 
 above a dozen adorned the water with their presence. During 
 severe frost, the woodcock was driven to the unfrozen rill drip- 
 ping into it beneath a dense mass of foliage; and the snipe, 
 together with the jack-snipe, appeared along the edge of the 
 water. The titlark, too, visited it at such times. In summer, the 
 swallow, house-martin, sand-martin, and swift, displayed their 
 respective modes of flight in pursuit of prey above the surface 
 of the pond. The sedge-warbler poured forth its imitative or 
 mocking-notes from the cover on the banks, as did the willow- 
 wren its simple song. This bird was almost constantly to be 
 seen ascending the branches and twigs of the willows {Salix vimi- 
 tialis chiefly) that overhung the water, for Ap/tides and other 
 insect prey. In winter, lesser redpoles in little flocks were swayed 
 gracefully about, while extracting food from the light and pendent 
 bunches of the alder-seed. Three species of tit (Parus major, 
 ccendeus, and ater,) and the gold-crested regulus, appeared in 
 lively and varied attitudes on the larch and other trees. In 
 winter, also, and especially during frost, the wren and the hedge- 
 accentor were sure to be seen threading their modest way among 
 the entangled roots of the trees and brushwood, little elevated 
 above the surface of the water. 
 
 So far only, the pond and bordering foliage have been considered : 
 many other species might.be named as seen upon the trees. On the 
 banks a few yards distant, fine Portugal laurels tempted the green- 
 finch to take up its permanent residence, and served as a roost 
 during the winter for many hundred linnets, which made known 
 the place of their choice by congregating in some fine tall poplars 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 that towered above the shrubs, and thence poured forth their 
 evening jubilee. 
 
 To name all the birds that cultivation, the erection of houses,* 
 the plantation of trees and shrubs together with the attraction of 
 a garden, brought to the place, would be tedious. It will therefore 
 only be further observed, that the beautiful goldfinch, so long as 
 a neighbouring hill-side was covered with thistles and other plants 
 on the seeds of which it fed, visited the standard cherry-trees to 
 nidify ; and the spotted flycatcher, which particularly delights in 
 pleasure-grounds and gardens, annually spent the summer there. 
 Of the six species of British Merulida, the resident missel and 
 song thrushes, and the blackbird, inhabited the place ; the fieldfare 
 and redwing, winter visitants, were to be seen in their season ; 
 and the ring-ouzel, annually during summer, frequented an ad- 
 jacent rocky glen. Curlews on their way from the sea to the 
 mountain-moor, occasionally alighted in the pasture-fields. The 
 entire number of species seen at this place (seventy-five English 
 acres in extent) was seventy ; forty -one or forty- two of which bred 
 there. A few others, — the kestrel, ring-ouzel, sand-martin, and 
 quail, — built in the immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 Nearly seventy species have been noticed in Kensington Gardens, 
 London.f White remarks that " Selborne parish alone has exhi- 
 bited at times [120 species] more than half the birds that are 
 ever seen in all Sweden. The parish comprises an extent of 
 thirty miles in circumference ; and where else within the same 
 
 * Including houses in the category may seem inadvertent. But the house-martin 
 annually built about the windows or under the roof of the dwelling-house ; as the 
 sparrow did in the spouts ; the swallow against the rafters of sheds, and the swift in 
 apertures at the eaves : — the thrush, redbreast, and wren also, occasionally nidified in 
 the outbouses. 
 
 f Yarrell. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 inland area should we hope to find so many, as amid the seclusion 
 of that little earthly paradise, with all the " kindly aspects, and 
 sloping coverts," pourtrayed in the pages of its amiable historian. 
 By drawing a circuit of thirty miles around Belfast, and its most 
 populous neighbourhood, (the boundary line being a mile and a 
 half inland from the town, and eight miles and a half seaward, so 
 that the opposite verge may include the greater portion of the 
 bay,) we shall find that at least 185 species have been seen within 
 it, some of them, too, possessing very high interest. Within that 
 circle have appeared the first individuals of several species placed 
 on record as visiting Ireland ,and the only examples of three species 
 yet obtained ; namely, the spotted redshank, the flat-billed sand- 
 piper, and the surf scoter. Within the limited circuit of thirty 
 miles, alighted in 1802, the first white-banded cross-bill [Loxia 
 bifasciaia) known to visit Europe, its native country being Siberia; 
 nor for many years afterwards was the species observed in 
 Great Britain, or in any country of continental Europe. Indeed 
 within the last few years only, has it been distinguished from 
 a nearly allied North American bird. Within the same range 
 occurred the only individual of the Bonapartian gull {Larus Bona- 
 partii) yet ascertained to have migrated to Europe, the species 
 being a native of North America, and common in the fur coun- 
 tries, &c. Within that area was also obtained the first fork- 
 tailed gull [Larus Sabini) known to wing its way southward, 
 not only to temperate climes, but towards the continent of 
 Europe ; and being a young bird of the year, it appeared in a 
 garb, in which the species had never before come under the notice 
 of the naturalist. 
 
 But to return to the remark of White, respecting the parish of 
 Selborne producing more species than the half of these found in 
 all Sweden, it must be observed, that as a general rule the number 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 of species bears no comparison to the area ; thus, there are in the 
 parish of Selbome 120 species; within the same space around 
 Belfast 185 ; in Ireland 262 ; in the British Islands generally 
 320 j * in Europe 503 ; f in North America 471 ; t in Australia 
 636; X in the world 5,000. || 
 
 The neighbourhood of Belfast, including the bay,§ may be 
 considered too fully dwelt upon throughout this work ; but what 
 is alluded to in this locality should, unless mentioned as of a 
 local nature, be viewed in the light of an epitome of the general 
 habits or economy of the species. Dates, winch may seem too 
 fully given, are interesting in a statistical point of view, as 
 the rapid changes made by man on the material world, affect 
 birds to a great extent. Nowhere is this more required than in 
 connection with the place just named, as railways lately constructed 
 on both sides of the bay, have diminished to a great extent the 
 feeding-ground of the Grallatorial and Natatorial birds. Inte- 
 resting peculiarities respecting the locality, and the changes 
 effected, will be found noticed under curlew, and other species. 
 The great increase of shipping of late years, and the steam-vessels 
 in particular, have already had a great effect upon them. The swivel- 
 guns, too, tell a deadly tale. The adjacent Strangford lough, owing 
 to its comparative retirement, is becoming annually more and more 
 resorted to by birds which would otherwise remain in Belfast bay. 
 
 * Jenyns in 1843 ; several species since added. 
 
 f Prince of Canino's Comparative Catal. Birds Europe and North America, 1838. 
 
 \ Gould. Introd. to Birds of Australia, 1848. 
 
 || Strickland, Report on Ornithology, Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1844, p. 218. It 
 has heen lately remarked that although this is about the number accurately known, 
 there may be in the world 6,000 species. Agassiz and Gould's Principles of 
 Zoology, p. 3, (1848). 
 
 § The plate in Hawker's Instructions to Young Sportsmen, &c. entitled 
 " Approaching Wild-fowl preparatory to the Flowing Tide," gives a good idea of the 
 gullets, as they are called, of Belfast bay. 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 But on this subject the following information on species, at 
 particular periods, is given, that we may judge of the changes 
 which have taken place, either as to their decrease or increase. 
 Those which have decreased in number shall first be considered. 
 According to the Topographia Hibernise of Giraldus de Barri 
 (Cambrensis), written towards the end of the 12th century, 
 the crane was very common in Ireland, about a hundred being 
 sometimes seen in a flock. If the bird meant by that author 
 were the true crane (Grus cinerea), and not the heron [Ardea 
 cinerea), commonly called by that name in Ireland to the present 
 day, the stately bird would seem to have been once as common 
 here, as it was, in early times, in England. The latest published 
 record of its occurrence in this island known to me, is that of 
 Smith, who, in his Histories of Waterford (1745) and Cork 
 (1749), remarks, that a few were seen in those counties during 
 the great frost of 1739. They are mentioned as birds of passage, 
 which do not breed ; and in the former work are said not to have 
 been seen " since or before in any person's memory." Two 
 instances of the occurrence of single individuals in Ireland in the 
 present century will be found noticed under the species in the 
 present work. That noble bird, the cock of the wood {Tetrao 
 urogallus), was plentiful throughout the native forests of Ireland, 
 but has long since become extinct, the last bird having been 
 killed about a century since. The great bustard [Otis tarda), 
 too, an inhabitant of the open plain, disappeared about the same 
 period. 
 
 In " A Brife description of Ireland made in this yeere 1589, 
 by Robert Payne," it is stated : — " There be great store of wild 
 swannes, * * * much more plentiful than in England." 
 Harris, in his History of the County of Down published in 1744, 
 remarks of the wild swan {Cyijnus ferns) : — " Great numbers of 
 
PREFACE. XV11 
 
 them breed in the islands of Strangford lake/' p. 233. In 
 another part of the volume it is observed : — " Pour of these islands 
 are called svian islands, from the number of swans that frequent 
 them," p. 154. That these fine birds built there at so compa- 
 ratively late a period may seem doubtful ; but it should be borne 
 in miud that Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis, written at the end 
 of the last century, informs us that " a few pairs build in the 
 holms of the loch of Stennes," in Orkney.* Butty, in Ins 
 Natural History of the County of Dublin published in 1772, 
 observes : — " There are two sorts [of " wild goose, Anser ferus"~\, 
 the one a bird of passage, that comes about Michaelmas and 
 goes off about March ; but there is a larger kind which stays 
 and breeds here, particularly in the Bog of Allen," vol. i. p. 333. 
 Harris, in his History of Down, speaks of the "great harrow 
 goose being found in a red bog in the Ardes near Kirkiston," 
 but says nothing of its breeding there. An octogenarian friend 
 has, however, informed me that a relative often told him that he 
 had robbed the nests of wild geese in this very locality, Kirkiston 
 flow ; — red bog of Harris ; — the period of his doing so was previous 
 to the year 1775. There' is little doubt that the true wild goose 
 (A. ferns) was the bird alluded to, as it formerly bred plentifully 
 in the fens of England, though for a considerable period they, 
 as well as the bogs of Ireland, have been deserted by it. 
 
 The golden eagle is becoming annually more rare, and is now even 
 " very scarce " t in its former stronghold, the county of Kerry. 
 The kite, remarked by Smith in his History of Cork (1749) to 
 be so common as to " need no particular description," and to re- 
 main "all the year," has been known in the present century, only 
 
 * No date is given: the author died in 1795. His work was not published 
 until 1813. 
 
 t Mr. R. Chute. 
 
XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 as an extremely rare visitant to any part of the island ; this species 
 would be affected by the absence of wood. The Bittern, on the 
 other hand, affected by the draining of the bogs, has almost 
 ceased to breed in Ireland, though it commonly did so through- 
 out the island, until a late period. It now ranks as little more 
 than an occasional winter visitant from more northern countries. 
 The curlew, golden plover, lapwing, and others, have been driven 
 from many of their breeding grounds by the drainage of the 
 bogs ; as has the shell-drake from many rabbit -burrows, which 
 are no longer retired, owing to the increase of population. This has 
 likewise influenced the whimbrel to change its haunts around 
 Belfast, where, until the last forty or fifty years, it regularly fre- 
 quented the pastures, iucluding the upland ones, during the few 
 weeks of its sojourn when on migration northwards. Of late 
 years, it has been seen only on the sea-shore : pastures and bogs 
 seemed to be its favourite places of resort in spring. The total 
 disappearance of the beautiful goldfinch and bullfinch from 
 districts which they had regularly frequented, the varying in- 
 crease and decrease of the swallow tribe, partridge, &c, will 
 be found treated of under the species, as will the great in- 
 crease and decrease of the black-headed gull at particular 
 localities. 
 
 It is not on the land only that changes have taken place. 
 Wigeon, in consequence of being too much disturbed in Belfast 
 bay, by increase of shipping, steam-vessels, &c, even by night — 
 their feeding time — have greatly diminished within the last 
 twenty years. Previous to that period, they arrived here every 
 evening at twilight, in vast numbers from Strangford lough, and 
 after remaining to feed during the night, again retired every 
 morning before daybreak, to the comparative quietude of its 
 waters. Morning and evening, shooters took their station on the 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 hill tops, over which the birds often flew within shot ; but of 
 late such " occupation 's gone." Similar changes respecting 
 others of the Anatidte, and also of the Grallatores, will be found 
 under the respective species. The beautiful and graceful roseate 
 tern has nearly, if not wholly, disappeared within the last few 
 years from a favourite annual breeding haunt, the Mew island, at 
 the entrance of Belfast bay, the result, I grieve to say, of wanton 
 cruelty. Persons go to the island every summer to shoot these 
 birds, and the closely allied Arctic and common terns, while 
 they have eggs or young. Should one even of a different species 
 be brought to the ground, while the others are a little distant, 
 they make common cause, wheel down towards their fallen com- 
 rade as if to compassionate its fate, and are even at such times 
 "savagely slaughtered." The shooters have no object in view 
 but the heartless one of using as targets these beautiful and in- 
 nocent creatures, which are afterwards flung away as useless. 
 
 Other birds have increased in number of late years ; the most 
 striking example of which, for a regular and steady augmentation, 
 is the missel thrush. The long-tailed tit has also become gradu- 
 ally more plentiful : the extension of plantations is accessory 
 to this end, in respect to both species. The singular increase 
 of snow-buntings during a few winters will be found noticed ; as 
 will that of crossbills in recent years. Allusion to the rapid 
 multiplication of the magpie from the period of its introduction 
 to the island, must not be omitted. The fact of the starling having 
 deserted the town of Belfast as a building haunt for perhaps forty 
 years, and two or three pair returning again last season, is singular. 
 The increase in the number of quails wintering of late years, and 
 in the number of woodcocks remaining through the summer, to 
 breed in favourite localities, is worthy of record. 
 
 A great deal more might be stated, in these general terms, on 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 the subject of the increase and decrease of species. But it is hoped 
 that sufficient has been said to denote the desn*ableness of our pos- 
 sessing full and accurate ornithological statistics of Ireland, such as 
 the author intends to give in the detailed notices of the species 
 throughout the work.* 
 
 The author expects to be enabled to furnish a carefully drawn 
 up list of the Irish names of native birds for the concluding 
 volume. 
 
 It now only remains for him to return his most grateful 
 acknowledgements to all whose names appear as contributors of 
 information throughout the work. Every one in Ireland known 
 to the author as possessing positive knowledge on the subject of 
 native birds, on being applied to, most cheerfully imparted the 
 result of his observations. Indeed, so fully have these been 
 taken advantage of, that the work should rather be considered 
 that of Irish ornithologists generally than of the individual whose 
 name appears on the title page. 
 
 Belfast, Dec, 1848. 
 
 * Various general points of economy treated of under the respective species, 
 will be classified in an index to the last volume of Birds. 
 
BIRDS OF IRELAND. 
 Order, RAPTORES. 
 
 BIRDS OF PREY. 
 
BIRDS OF IRELAND. 
 
 Order! RAPTORES. 
 
 {Birds of Prey.) 
 
 THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 
 
 Aquila chrysaetos, Lin. (sp. *) 
 fulva, „ 
 
 Inhabits permanently several of the most lofty and re- 
 tired mountain ranges throughout Ireland. 
 
 Distribution, Eyries, Habits, 8fc. 
 
 The collection of my friend, William Sinclaire, Esq. of Belfast, 
 contained a splendid specimen in adult plumage of the golden 
 eagle, which was trapped some years ago on Muckish mountain, 
 in the county of Donegal. In June, 1832, the gamekeeper of 
 Mr. Stewart of " the Horn" t informed me when there, that since 
 he entered on his present occupation in 1828, he had destroyed 
 thirteen or fourteen eagles, of winch a single individual only was 
 of this species : it was taken on one of the inland mountains of 
 
 * An abbreviation of the word species, implying that the specific (and not the 
 generic) name, is that of the author quoted. Falco is the Linnean genus. 
 
 t The name given to the peninsula bounding the western entrance to Sheephaven, 
 that terminates in the stupendous promontory of Horn Head. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 falconidjE. 
 
 the Horn. When visiting about the same time the precipitous 
 mountain of Rosheen, near Dunfanaghy, in that county, I was 
 told that for a long time previous to the preceding twelve years, a 
 pair of eagles had built their eyrie in one of the inaccessible cliffs, 
 and as their young advanced in growth, they levied such contri- 
 butions from the surrounding neighbourhood, that the country- 
 people finally resolved upon their destruction. This was effected 
 by lowering from the summit of the precipice a lighted brand, 
 which ignited and consumed the nest, and three unfortunate eaglets 
 fell scorched and dead to the ground. The old birds from that 
 time deserted the mountain. The situation selected for this eyrie 
 indicates that the species was most probably the golden eagle."* 
 
 One of these birds, shot at the end of November, 1837, in the 
 county of Londonderry, has come under my notice. 
 
 In October, 1833, when looking over a collection of the Brit- 
 ish Falconida belonging to Wm. Sinclaire, Esq. with Mr. Adams, 
 lately gamekeeper at Glenarm Park (county of Antrim), lie at once 
 recognised a golden eagle as the species of winch he had killed 
 four individuals in that locality. The first he saw, was in the 
 month of March, when two visited the park. At this time there 
 were but five lambs dropped, and on each of the first two days of 
 the eagles' appearance, a couple of them were carried off. Find- 
 ing that lambs were in such request with these birds, the keeper 
 procured two as bait for his traps, and successfully, as both eagles 
 were captured. In November, a third individual was seen in pur- 
 suit of a hare by my informant and several other persons. The 
 poor animal took refuge under every bush that presented itself, 
 but, as often as she did, the eagle approached the bush so near as 
 apparently to beat its top with his wings, and thereby forced the 
 hare to leave it. In this way she was eventually driven to open 
 ground, where the eagle soon came up with, and bore her off in 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball mentions a similar circumstance, in the following note. " In the 
 summer of 1837, I saw a pair of golden eagles in the county of Kerry, that were 
 proprietors of an eyrie in a cliff, from which they for a long time issued to commit 
 depredations on the poultry and lambs of the neighbouring peasantry, who in vain 
 endeavoured to get at their nest. At length a boy contrived to sling fire into it, and 
 so destroyed the young, but the old birds still boldly defy all attempts made for their 
 destruction." 
 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 
 
 his talons. A trap, baited once with a rabbit, and again with a 
 hare, was set for this eagle, and on each of these animals he 
 pounced, but finding that they would not rise with him, — in con- 
 sequence of their being held down by the trap, — he immediately left 
 them. Mr. Adams, hearing that this eagle had killed several of a 
 neighbour's ducks, lost little time in obtaining one for his 
 trap, and with this tempting bait secured him. Upon the fourth 
 eagle the keeper came by chance when out shooting. This bird 
 flew overhead, and was fired at from about twenty yards distance; 
 the shot from the first barrel bereft him of many feathers, and by 
 the contents of the second he was severely wounded, but able to 
 fly off. Some men who were near, having told the keeper that 
 they had seen an eagle mobbed by magpies, he was eventually dis- 
 covered by the great number of these birds collected about the 
 place on the heath where he lay dead, with outstretched wings. 
 Only one sea eagle was obtained within the same period at Glen- 
 arm Park. On the 14th of Oct., 1835, I saw an adult specimen 
 of the golden eagle, which was trapped the day before at Claggan 
 (Antrim). It was accompanied by two others, but the attempt to 
 capture them was unsuccessful. 
 
 By the late Dr. M'Donnell and another friend, both of whom 
 well recollected the circumstance, I have been assured that the 
 plan adopted by the Kerry peasant for supporting his family in a 
 season of scarcity,* was successfully resorted to about thirty years 
 ago at Glenariff, in the county of Antrim. One of a pair of eaglets 
 taken from a nest there was so placed, that its parents during the 
 summer supplied it with rabbits and hares in such abundance, that 
 its owner obtained, in addition to what the bird required, a suffici- 
 ency of animal food for himself and his family. The old birds 
 did not alight with their prey, but circling for some time above 
 the eaglet, apparently calculating the distance, they dropped the 
 food within the limited reach of its chain. 
 
 A sporting friend, who was eye-witness to the fact, assures me 
 that when out hunting among the Belfast mountains many years 
 ago, an eagle, which from the darkness of its plumage he concluded 
 * Smith's Kerry, p. 97- 
 
b falconidjE. 
 
 was the golden, appeared above his hounds as they came to fault 
 after a good chase, on the ascent to Devis, the highest of the range. 
 As they came on the scent again, and were at full cry, the eagle 
 for a short time kept above them, but at length advanced, and 
 carried off the hare when at the distance of three or four hundred 
 yards before the hounds.* 
 
 In the autumn of 1836, the intelligent gamekeeper at Tolly- 
 more Park (Down), the seat of the Earl of Eoden, informed me 
 that during the preceding nine years of his residence there, he had 
 never met with the golden eagle among the neighbouring moun- 
 tains of Mourne. In the summer of 1837, one of these birds 
 was killed in that part of the country. 
 
 Mr. W. M'Calla of Roundstone, Connemara (Galway), made 
 in substance the following communication to me in 1841. Golden 
 eagles are not uncommon in that district, t but seldom seek their 
 prey in the neighbourhood of villages. Their eyries are generally 
 among inaccessible cliffs in the range of mountains called the 
 Twelve Pins ; but, in one instance, a pair bred in the level part of 
 
 * When grouse-shooting on the elevated and romantic mountains attached to Me- 
 garnie castle in Perthshire, late in Octoher, 1829, my friend audi were surprised on 
 one occasion by seeing a great number of grouse {Tetrao Scoticus) flying for a con- 
 siderable distance so low as merely to overtop the heath. Passing us a short way off, 
 they disappeared over an adjoining knoll. Thinking that they had alighted there, 
 we hurried forward with our dogs, and not finding them, we on looking above per- 
 ceived a golden eagle sailing along in the direction they had flown. This bird was 
 presumed to have caused their unwonted flight, and its slow mode of progression gave 
 us further hope that the grouse might still be near. Expecting them to lie well, in 
 consequence of the eagle's being above, we carefully " beat " the ground for about 
 a mOe around, but not a grouse was found ; which, added to the eagle's flight being 
 right onward, left little doubt that they had continued flying for a great distance 
 in the unusual manner described. 
 
 t 'Flaherty, in his West or H-Iar Connanght, written in 1684, and published 
 by the Irish Archaeological Society in 1846, remarks at p. 12: — "Here is a kind of 
 black eagle, which kills the deere by grappling him with his claw, and forcing hini 
 to run headlong into precipices." The golden eagle being a bold bird, as weD as 
 darker coloured than the sea eagle, is, I presume, meant. The deer alluded to must 
 be the stag, or red deer (Cervus elephas). The following note, from Martin's West- 
 ern Islands, Isle of Lingay, p. 70, is appended by the editor to the quotation given: — 
 "The black eagle fixes his talons between the deer's horns, and beats its wings con- 
 stantly about its eyes, which puts the deer to run continually, till it falls into a ditch, 
 or over a precipice, where it dies, and so becomes a prey to this cunning hunter. 
 There are, at the same time, several other eagles of this kind, which flye on both 
 sides of the deer, which frights it extremely, and contributes much to its more sudden 
 destruction." 
 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 7 
 
 the country, selecting for the purpose a small island in the moun- 
 tain lakes between FhVs house and Maam. His attention was 
 called to these birds by the country-people remarking, that they 
 were feathered to the toes, and on his approaching the island when 
 incubation was advancing, he obtained so near a view of one of 
 them, as to be certain of its species. Notwithstanding the shy- 
 ness of the golden eagle, it sometimes approaches the houses in 
 remote parts of the district, and is more daring than the sea eagle. 
 A family living a few miles from the locality indicated, were rear- 
 ing a number of young turkeys, and as these birds are prone to 
 wander, several of them were carried off by a golden eagle. The 
 people then endeavoured to confine the turkeys to the immediate 
 vicinity of the house, yet the eagle as usual paid Ins visit. In 
 the attempt to seize one of them, he was baffled by the flock taking 
 cover among some furze, but unwilling to relinquish Ins prey, he 
 alighted on the adjacent ground. One of the men who were at 
 work in the field, having gone for his gun, approached within a 
 few yards of the eagle and attempted to shoot him, when the gun 
 burned priming. The bird now alarmed took wing, but the ten- 
 der flesh of young turkeys was irresistible, and instead of making 
 his escape, he hovered round the place until shot. An eyrie ap- 
 proached by my informant for the purpose of procuring the eggs, 
 (which he has not known in any instance to exceed two in num- 
 ber,) was situated in the face of a steep rock, and although he 
 could get within six feet of it from above, the rock overhanging 
 it prevented all access. Two years previously, some persons look- 
 ing over the cliff at this nest, threw a dog into it, by which means 
 two eaglets were forced out and secured. The poor dog remained 
 in the nest for several days, but when nearly famished, he took 
 courage and leaped down, fortunately without injury. 
 
 The Eev. B. J. Clarke remarked, when writing to me in March, 
 1841, from the wild district of Bermullet (county of Mayo), 
 where he had resided for some time, that, although sea eagles are 
 common there, he had seen the first golden eagle but a few days 
 before : it was on the sand-banks within thirty yards of him. On 
 visiting Achil, off the coast of Mayo, in June, 1834, (accom- 
 
a falconid,e. 
 
 panied by Robert Ball, Esq. of Dublin,) Lieutenant Reynolds of 
 the Preventive Service, a keen sportsman, and well acquainted 
 with birds, assured, us that one or two pair of golden eagles breed 
 annually in the island. When subsequently on the mountain of 
 Croaghpatrick, which volcano-like terminates in a magnificent 
 cone, and is in elevation the second in Connaught, we for a con- 
 siderable time observed a pair of these eagles soaring above its 
 summit. In the county of Kerry a few weeks afterwards, an eagle, 
 supposed to be of this species, was seen from the top of Manger- 
 ton, which towers above the lakes of Killarney. Mr. Robert Pat- 
 terson, of Belfast, when visiting this place in the previous autumn, 
 made the following note: — "Near to the little lake called, the 
 Devil's Punch- bowl, we disturbed, four eagles preying on a full- 
 grown sheep; they rose majestically into the air as we approached. 
 The people who were with us supposed that the sheep, being per- 
 haps sickly, had been killed by the eagles, — a supposition corro- 
 borated by the quantity of fleece scattered over the ground for 
 some yards in one direction. The flesh of the neck was complete- 
 ly removed, although that of every other part was untouched. 
 We were assured, that two eagles will occasionally pursue a hare, 
 one flying low and coursing it along the ground, the other keep- 
 ing perpendicularly above the terrified animal, and. occasionally 
 changing their places, until the hare is completely wearied out. 
 The same circumstance was mentioned a few days afterwards at 
 Tralee, and again at Monasterevan : my informant in every instance 
 stated the fact, not as a matter of hearsay, but as one which had 
 fallen under his own knowledge."* The golden eagle has now 
 become very scarce in Kerry. t 
 
 A golden eagle was shot in Westmeath in Peb., 1838, when 
 accompanied by another ; and a fine specimen was in the autumn 
 of 1843 killed at Clontarf, near Dublin. Mr. Robert Davis, jun., 
 of Clonmel, notices a male bird in the plumage of the second 
 
 * This practice is mentioned in the "Wild sports of the West;" (Letter 19) in the 
 work entitled " The Moor and the Loch ;" and in an article on " Highland Sports," 
 in the Quarterly Review for Dec. 1845, being a review of Scrope's " fiays aDd Nights 
 of Salmon Fishing," p. 103. 
 
 f Mr. R. Chute. 
 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 9 
 
 year, as shot at Curraghmore, the seat of the Marquis of Water- 
 ford, early in June, 1837 ; and, at the end of the same month, an 
 eyrie situated in the rocks above Counshenane* lake in the Come- 
 ragh mountains, county of Waterford, was robbed of an eaglet of 
 this species. On the 21st of April, 1841, he sent persons to the 
 same eyrie to procure eggs, who succeeded in obtaining two, 
 which seemed to be about a fortnight laid, and were very dissimi- 
 lar in size and appearance. He states that this bird is met with 
 in Knockmeledown, and the Galtee mountains, and is occasionally 
 seen far from its haunts. In the " Fauna of Cork," it is said to 
 breed on the borders of that county, and in Tipperary. 
 
 I have never known the eyrie of the golden eagle to be in ma- 
 rine cliffs in Ireland. Mr. Macgillivray, who, in his History of 
 British Birds, gives interesting particulars on this species from 
 personal observation, states, on the authority of Mr. Forbes of 
 South Ronaldshay, that it breeds on the headlands of Orkney (vol. 
 3, p. 230). 
 
 Docility, fyc. — In the two excellent works, "Gardens and Mena- 
 geries of the Zoological Society," and "Illustrations of British 
 Ornithology," the golden eagle is characterized as indocile: in the 
 latter work, Mr. Selby speaks from his own experience of two 
 individuals which were kept by him for some years. But my 
 friend Richard Langtry, Esq. of Fortwilliam, near Belfast, had in 
 1838 a bird of this species, which was extremely docile and trac- 
 table.f It was taken in the summer of that year from a nest in 
 Inverness-shire,J and came into Ins possession about the end of 
 September. This bird at once became attached to its owner, and 
 after being about a month in his possession, was given full liberty, 
 — a high privilege to a golden eagle having the use of its wings, 
 — but which was not abused, as it came to the lure whenever call- 
 
 * Coumshingaun of Ordnance Survey Map. 
 
 t Mr. Yarrell (Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 13,) after alluding to Mr. Selby's birds, re- 
 marks, that in the menageries of the Garden of the Zoological Society of Londou, 
 where there are two golden and four white-tailed eagles, the keepers find the former 
 the more tractable of the two species. 
 
 { At Aberarder, in this county, I saw a golden eagle displayed among the numer- 
 ous "winged vermin" on the gable end of the shooting lodge, in September, 
 1842. 
 
1 FALCONIDiE. 
 
 ed. It evidently derived much pleasure from the application of 
 the hand to its legs and plumage,, and permitted itself to be handled 
 in any way. As one of the first steps towards training this eagle 
 for the chace, it was hooded after the manner of a hunting hawk, 
 but the practice was soon abandoned as unnecessary, in consequence 
 of its remaining quiet and contented when carried on the arm of 
 its master. It was unwilling indeed to leave him even to take a 
 flight, unless some special " quarry" was in view. When at liberty 
 for the day, and my friend appeared in sight at any distance, his 
 arm was no sooner held out towards the affectionate bird, than it 
 came hurriedly flying to perch upon it. I have, when in his com- 
 pany, — for it was quite indifferent to the presence of strangers, — 
 seen it fly to him without any food being offered, not less than a 
 dozen times within half an hour. When on the ground, and the 
 lure was thrown comparatively near, this bird preferred running, 
 — which it could do very fast, — to using its wings. It was also 
 fed from the " fist." Live rats were several times turned out of 
 the cage-trap to it; but before getting far away, they were invari- 
 ably pounced upon. Pour full-grown rats have been taken at a 
 meal; an entire heron, (Ardea cinerea), except the head and legs, 
 was also eaten on one occasion. It differed somewhat in its man- 
 ner of feeding from two sea eagles which were kept along with it; 
 when the head and neck of a goose were offered, the golden eagle 
 eat them wholly, the latter took the flesh off only, leaving the 
 harder parts; and when entire birds were given, the sea eagle 
 plucked many more feathers off than the golden;* the latter assi- 
 milating to the peregrine falcon in this respect. This golden eagle 
 was more partial to alighting on trees than the sea eagles were. 
 Plying from one group of them to another, it in this manner fol- 
 lowed its master about the demesne, indolently remaining as long 
 as possible where it perched, consistently with always keeping him 
 in sight. My friend discontinued any further training of this 
 eagle on account of its boldness, as it flew not only at well-grown 
 cygnets of the tame swan, but at the old birds themselves, which 
 
 * Birds up to the size of sparrows are eaten whole by the golden eagle ; three 
 sparrows have been taken in succession without a feather being plucked off. 
 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 11 
 
 were obliged to take to the water for safety : it also flew at dogs, 
 so that its liberty had to be lessened. This bird has now been for 
 some years in the menagerie of the Royal Zoological Society, 
 Phoenix Park, Dublin. A golden eagle, belonging to Mr. Wm. 
 Sinclaire, was a more familiar bird than a sea eagle in Ins pos- 
 session, but being kept in town, its docility was not much put to 
 the proof. 
 
 Size and Weight. — The golden eagle is generally represented as 
 larger than the sea eagle, but such specimens of the latter as I 
 have examined, were invariably of superior size to the former, and 
 I speak from comparison of adult individuals of the same sex. 
 A similar remark is made in the "Fauna of Cork." Mr. Sinclaire's 
 bird just alluded to, after having been in captivity for a year, had 
 its wings accidentally broken, and was in consequence destroyed: 
 its weight was 7 lbs. 14 oz. The specimen from Donegal in this 
 gentleman's collection weighed on being captured 9 lbs : both of 
 these birds were males. One of those killed in Glenarm Park 
 (sex not noted) weighed 10 lbs. A large female sea eagle obtained 
 in Donegal, and believed to be in her fourth or fifth year, weighed 
 14 lbs* 
 
 Irides. — "When visiting in May, 1844, (along with my friend 
 Wm. Ogilby, Esq.,) the magnificent menagerie at Knowsley in 
 Lancashire, the seat of the Earl of Derby, the different coloured 
 irides of two golden eagles attracted my attention ; one, a bird 
 five years old, having them golden, while those of the other, whose 
 age was not known, were of a whitish-brown hue. This is men- 
 tioned simply as a fact, and not as anything remarkable, as the 
 irides of birds vary in colour at different ages. But I certainly 
 did not expect so great diversity in the colour of the irides, as 
 was exhibited in a pair of condors at the Surrey Zoological Gar- 
 dens, in April, 1834 ; those of the male being of a dark dull yel- 
 low, while those of the female were of a brilliant red. 
 Great eagle-cage in the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin. 
 
 More eagles of different species being brought together here 
 than perhaps in any other place, Mr. E. Ball, the Honorary Secre- 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. 
 
1 2 FALCONID/E. 
 
 tary, at my request, kindly supplied the following account of them 
 in July, 1845. 
 
 "The great eagle-cage in the Garden of the Eoyal Zoological 
 Society of Ireland is 36 feet long, 16 broad, and 16 high, and 
 was erected at the expense of Sir Philip Crampton, Bart., as a 
 place for the exercise of the large Camivora, and consequently called 
 a Deambulatorium. It failed in its original object. A tigress placed 
 in it quailed, and seemed most anxious to regain her small den ; a 
 lioness and a leopard had to be forced into it. Sometime afterwards 
 I had seven Eagles placed in it as an experiment, and they seemed 
 to agree perfectly. To these, additions have been made for the 
 last four years, until the number now amounts to 17: viz., 3 
 Golden, 2 White-headed, and 12 Sea Eagles; for some time a 
 Choka Eagle was of the number, but it has since been removed 
 to a smaller cage. The eagles live together, if not in harmony, at 
 least in a sort of mutual respect towards each other. I know of 
 only one quarrel, and at this I happened to be present. A sea 
 eagle pounced on a golden eagle ; the latter threw itself on its 
 back, when the former with its talons seized it by the legs until 
 it seemed to faint in agony, while the assailant gave forth its 
 loudest barking cry in triumph. I had some difficulty in beating 
 tins bird off the other with a pole ; it was removed from the cage, 
 and shortly afterwards accidentally killed. On another occasion, a 
 golden eagle was found drowned in the bath, or large trough in 
 which the eagles delight to roll ; it was supposed by the keeper to 
 have been forced under water by one of the sea eagles, but more 
 probably it got cramped, as the birds seem often to carry their 
 bathing to excess. It is a remarkable fact, that a sea eagle but 
 one year old, seemed to be generally acknowledged as the superior 
 of the whole. This bird seized the first piece of food thrown into 
 the cage as its acknowledged right ; but should any other eagle 
 happen to get possession of it, the food was instantly given up on 
 the approach of the young one, which, when full grown, was 
 about the largest of the flock. The bathing of the eagles alluded 
 to is remarkable. On observing that these birds, which in mena- 
 geries are generally kept without water, exhibited a great desire 
 
THE SPOTTED EAGLE. 13 
 
 to wash themselves, a large vessel was provided : when fresh 
 water is put into this vessel, it is at once occupied by one of them, 
 and surrounded by the others waiting their turn for a dip ; they 
 constantly lie in it for some time until completely wetted." 
 
 THE SPOTTED EAGLE. 
 The Eough-footed Eagle. 
 
 Aquila nosvia, Brisson. 
 
 Falco „ F. maculatus, Gmel. 
 
 Has been obtained in the south of Ireland. 
 
 In September, 1845, Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, wrote to 
 me respecting a bird then in Iris possession : " In contour, bill, 
 eyes, legs, &c, it is a miniature of the golden eagle, but about 
 one-third less than a male of that species ; except the tail-coverts 
 and some spots on the wings and breast, it is entirely of a 
 very deep glossy blackish- brown : the body is of small size, 
 comparatively with the head, wings, and tail." [Claws, yellow ; 
 beak, horn-colour, with a yellow streak at the base; weight, 
 rather exceeding that of a full-grown raven.' 54 '] Tins gentleman 
 subsequently forwarded for my inspection, a coloured drawing of 
 the bird, (which he believed to be of this species,) repre- 
 senting it in immature plumage. A wood-cut taken from the 
 drawing has appeared in the second edition of YarrelTs British 
 Birds, vol. i. p. 10, and in the Zoologist for January, 1846. In a 
 communication made to the Annals of Natural History for Nov., 
 1845, p. 351, Mr. Davis stated that the bird was shot when 
 preying on a rabbit, in January, 1845, on the estate of the Earl 
 of Shannon, in the county of Cork. Another eagle of the same 
 species, said to be similarly marked, but rather lighter in colour, 
 had been killed there a few days before. The two birds had been 
 observed for several weeks previously, sweeping over the low 
 grounds between Castle-martyr and Clay Castle, near Youghal. 
 
 In a letter from Dr. Harvey of Cork, dated Oct. 30, 1845, it 
 was remarked, with reference to the Irish specimen: — "Mr. 
 
 * Noted by Mr. S. Moss, of Youghal, who received the bird iu a fresh state. 
 
14 FALCONIDjE. 
 
 Parker* took a portrait of the little eagle while I had it for a 
 short time, and mentioned a singular coincidence. When on a 
 visit to Mr. Butler of Waterville, a few days before the bird came 
 under his inspection, that gentleman had mentioned a small brown 
 eagle, in all respects like a golden eagle, except in being about 
 half the size, as frequenting the mountains above Cahirciveen, in 
 Kerry : — he had seen it occasionally during the last seven or 
 eight years. To the Rev. Mr. Bastable, a clergyman of the 
 neighbourhood, it was likewise known." I have little doubt, also, 
 that a bird particularly described to myself, when visiting Horn 
 Head (Donegal), in 1832, as having been shot there the previous 
 year, was of this species. 
 
 The Spotted Eagle has not been met with in England or 
 Scotland. In Continental Europe, it appears to inhabit chiefly 
 the east and south ; but has been obtained in most of the countries 
 southward of the Baltic Sea, including Belgium and France. 
 
 THE SEA EAGLE. 
 White-tailed Eagle. 
 
 Haliaetos albicilla, Briss. (sp.) 
 Falco ossifragus, Linn. 
 
 Is found in suitable localities throughout Ireland, and is 
 resident. 
 
 Distribution, Eyries, Habits, Sfc. 
 The first Sea Eagle I had the satisfaction of seeing in Ireland, 
 was on the 25th June, 1832, when visiting the majestic promon- 
 tory of Horn Head (Donegal), which rises precipitously from the 
 ocean to an elevation of nearly 600 feet. On looking over the 
 cliff on the eastern side, one of these birds rose from a platform 
 of rock about sixty yards distant. Immediately afterwards, on 
 reaching the northern side, I perceived another sitting on her 
 nest, about a fourth of the way from the summit of the precipice; 
 
 * A gentleman whose splendid collection of coloured drawings of native birds, 
 mostly life-size, and all executed by liimself, attracted great admiration in the Natural 
 History Section of the British Association at Cork, iu 1843. 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 15 
 
 when she flew off, two eggs, greenish-white in colour, like those 
 of the swan, {Cygnus olor), were exposed to view. Very near to 
 this was^ another nest at a similar distance from the top, but it 
 was untenanted, and from its proximity to the other, I should 
 rather suppose that both had belonged to the same pair of eagles 
 in different years, than that they were occupied by two pair at the 
 same time. Less than a furlong distant to the eastward of the 
 Head, there was a nest similarly situated, and containing two 
 eaglets. To obtain these, we engaged a man accustomed to the 
 apparently hazardous exploit of descending precipices. A rope 
 being attached to his body for safety, and a basket to Ins back for 
 the reception of the eaglets, he was lowered to the nest, from 
 which he brought up the birds without injury either to himself 
 or them. The parents were most vociferous during the robbing 
 of their eyrie, taking hurried flights, evidently in despair, towards 
 the nest, but did not attack, nor even closely approach the plun- 
 derer, nor did they come within fair gun-shot of the rock. The 
 eaglets were almost entirely feathered. The first layer of this 
 nest, as well as that of the other two, was composed of strong 
 stems of heather ; being unable by looking over the rock to see 
 the lining, I had it brought up, and found it to be the tender 
 twigs of heath, and plants of Luzula sylvatica, both of which grow 
 on the summit of the cliff. About the nest, there were many legs 
 of rabbits, and the remains of puffins {Mormon fratercula, Temin.) 
 On the following day I saw five sea eagles in mature plumage,* 
 
 * Excepting eaglets, the gamekeeper had never seen any but white-tailed, or adult, 
 eagles here at this season. Mr. J. V. Stewart, however, with reference to this part 
 of the country, remarks : — " In spring I have seen the white-tailed eagle apparently 
 paired with Ossifragus (the adult with the immature bird), and I have reason to 
 believe that they breed together." He adds : — " The males at this season are very 
 assiduous in their attention to the females, and very pugnacious in their rivalry. 
 Some time ago, two of them near this fought so furiously for a female, who remained 
 soaring above, that having in the contest fixed their talons firmly into each other's 
 breasts, they dropped to the ground, and there continued the struggle so fiercely, 
 that a peasant passing by, was enabled to despatch them both with a stick." — Mag. 
 Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 580, 1832. I have been informed of another instance (which 
 happened in 1836 ?) of two eagles, that after fighting for some time in the air, fell 
 to the ground, in a garden near Newtowncunuingham in the same county, and were 
 secured. If gallantry be really the cause of such combats, birds about to pair for the 
 first time are probably the disputants, as from the circumstance of a pair frequenting 
 
16 falconim:. 
 
 all that were then said to be at " the Horn." The bird which we 
 raised from the nest containing eggs, was thought by the gamekeeper 
 to have no partner, as he had killed a male bird a few weeks before. 
 I gazed for a long time at three of these eagles, both when they 
 were at rest and on wing ; at first through a telescope, bat as 
 they permitted a much nearer approach than was anticipated, I 
 had afterwards an excellent and near view of them. The head 
 and neck in every position appeared almost as white as the tail,* 
 and was so distinguished from a great distance, more especially 
 when thrown into relief by a dark rocky back-ground. One of 
 these birds was pursued by several gulls (Larus camis?) and kestrels, 
 which kept closely flying after, and sometimes even apparently 
 striking him. A gull certainly once did so, but the eagle, " tower- 
 ing in his pride of place," did not deign even momentarily to 
 notice any of his puny assailants. 
 
 Here to the present time these noble birds probably still main- 
 tain their ground. I learn from scientific friends f who visited 
 Horn Head on the 4th of August, 1845, that from one point of 
 view they saw five eagles, three old (as denoted by their white 
 tails) soaring above, and two young (as was supposed from their 
 darker plumage) flying along the face of the cliffs. At Tory 
 Island, off this coast, the same party saw two sea eagles a few 
 days afterwards, and were told that a pair, but never more, has 
 always an eyrie there. 
 
 Under the Golden Eagle, it has been mentioned, that of the 
 number thirteen or fourteen eagles killed at the Horn within 
 four years, J all but one individual were the Haliaetos albicilla. 
 
 a particular locality, not only in the breeding season, but throughout the year, it 
 would seem that the species is monogamous, or pairs for life. 
 
 * The colour of the head and neck in preserved specimens of adult birds, (having 
 the tail pure white,) examined by me, have presented considerable difference in this 
 respect, and, though none had this portion of plumage altogether white, yet some 
 were marked so faintly with very pale ash-grey, as to exhibit the appearance of soiled 
 white, which, contrasted with the dark hue of the back and wings, gives from a dis- 
 tance the appearance above described. 
 
 t Mr. Edmund Getty, Mr. Geo. C. Hyndman, and Mr. John Grattan, three of the 
 most valuable members of the Scientific and Literary Institutions of Belfast. 
 
 X The reward alone could hardly have prompted the destruction of this number, — 
 one shilling a head only beiwg given by the proprietor of the Horn for them. 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 17 
 
 I was informed by a gentleman resident at Dunfanaghy, the village 
 nearest to Horn Head, that in winter the sea eagle is compara- 
 tively numerous, and that he has sometimes seen as many as six 
 or seven in company on the strand."* They are supposed to be 
 attracted hither at this season by rabbits, which greatly abound 
 at the Horn. In an article by John Yandeleur Stewart, Esq., on 
 the Birds, &c, of Donegal, which appeared in the Magazine of 
 Natural History for 1832 (p. 578), the golden eagle is men- 
 tioned as resident and rare ; the sea eagle as resident and common. 
 The author states that he had received three specimens of the 
 latter for his museum in addition to five living eaglets, and fully 
 describes the various stages of plumage the species undergoes. 
 Mr. W. Sinclaire had a splendid bird of this species from the 
 same locality. It likewise frequents Malin Head, the extreme 
 northern point of Ireland. At Burt, also, in the county of Donegal, 
 this species is said to be seen every year about the month of May. 
 In the county of Antrim, the sea eagle has an eyrie at Fair- 
 head, the most lofty and sublime of the basaltic promontories of 
 the north-east coast. When visiting this place on the 16th of July, 
 1839, (accompanied by Mr. Selby and the Rev. E. Bigge,) a pair 
 of these birds appeared soaring about the headland. An intelli- 
 gent man, long resident in the neighbourhood, since stated, that 
 they build annually, very early in the season, on the same plat- 
 form of rock, and the number of young was always two, except in 
 one year, when to the surprise of the people living in the vicinity, 
 four eaglets made their appearance. These were all about the 
 same size, and appeared in company with the two old birds. The 
 man was questioned particularly respecting this circumstance, as 
 no instance of the kind is perhaps on record ; and although he 
 could not say that the four young were actually seen in the nest, 
 yet at the usual time of eaglets appearing on wing with their 
 parents, four young birds unquestionably bore them company. 
 Eagles are persecuted by the people here, for carrying off lambs, 
 turkeys, and geese of tender age, as well as ducks and hens of all 
 
 * Temminck remarks that this species is common in winter on the shores of 
 Denmark. Man. d'Orn. de l'Eur. part 3, p. 27. 
 
 VOL. I. C 
 
18 FALCONID.E. 
 
 ages. One which was fired at, and wounded so as to be captured, 
 struck its talons into the shooter's arm, giving him excessive 
 pain, and did not loosen its hold until the leg was severed from 
 its body. A pair only frequent Pairhead, except in autumn, when 
 the young are still there. In the Island of Bathlin, the sea eagle 
 is said to have an eyrie. This species, as well as the golden eagle, 
 has been taken in Glenarm Park ; and, on the 6th of September, 
 1837, two were seen in company on Galbally mountain, near the 
 Garron Point. An adult bird was shot in the winter of 1842-43? 
 at Larne Lough, under the following circumstances : — A wild- 
 fowl shooter was lying in ambush on the shore, in the hope that 
 the flowing tide would bring some wigeon within range, when 
 the eagle appeared overhead, intent, as he imagined, on his 
 ' ' game." The royal bird floating in the air looked down upon 
 the swimming wild-fowl, expanded the claws of one of its feet, 
 then clasped them together, — an act, perhaps, even more sugges- 
 tive to the shooter of the bird's intent, than was the air-drawn 
 dagger to Macbeth ; and, before it could again clutch the air, the 
 " charge" intended for the wigeon brought it to the ground. 
 One pities the majestic bird falling a sacrifice under such circum- 
 stances, and wishes that the slayer had been imbued with the feeling 
 of "William Tell, as exemplified in the following passage : — 
 
 " Scaling yonder peak, 
 
 I saw an eagle wheeling near its brow, 
 
 O'er the abyss : his broad expanded wings 
 
 Lay calm and motionless upon the air, 
 
 As if he floated there without their aid, 
 
 By the sole act of his unlorded will, 
 
 That buoyed him proudly up. Instinctively 
 
 I bent my how ; yet kept he rounding still 
 
 His airy circle, as in the delight 
 
 Of measuring the ample range beneath ; 
 
 And round about absorb'd, he heeded not 
 
 The death that threaten'd him. I coidd not shoot ! 
 
 'Twas liberty ! — I turned my bow aside, 
 
 And let him soar away !" 
 
 J. Sheridan Knowles, William Tell. 
 Act 1, Scene 2. 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 19 
 
 In the Belfast mountains, far remote from any of its habita- 
 tions, I was once, (October 2, 1832,) gratified by the sight 
 of an eagle, which was soaring, attended first by one kestrel, 
 and afterwards by two of these birds. The snowy w T hiteness of 
 the tail proved it to be adult ; it remained in view for about a 
 quarter of an hour, then disappeared in the direction of the Cave- 
 hill. The last I have heard of being taken near Belfast, was 
 trapped in the Deer Park, about thirty years ago. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1844, two eagles were observed flying 
 over Ballydrain, a few miles from Belfast, by the same person i 
 who supplied the information respecting the Fairhead birds. 
 When asked, was he sure of their having been eagles, the reply 
 was : — " Do you think I don't known the yelp of them ; " and 
 truly, their barking or yelping cry is most peculiar. 
 
 When in August, 1836, at Sleive Donard,* the chief of the 
 Mourne mountains, in the county of Down, a cliff situated quite 
 inland, was pointed out as the " Eagle's rock ; " — so named in 
 consequence of having been at one period the eyrie of this bird. 
 Our guide informed us, that eagles had not bred there of late 
 years (their place being supplied by ravens), but that they an- 
 nually build at less frequented places among the range of moun- 
 tains. Here they are frequently met with by Lord Boden's 
 gamekeeper, but are seldom seen so low down as Tollymore Park, 
 where one only had been taken within the preceding nine years.f 
 A well-known collector of objects of Natural History, who has 
 spent much time among the mountains of Mourne, % stated in 
 1831, that he had at various periods seen three or four pairs of 
 eagles there, and once visited a nest in an inland situation, con- 
 
 * Montagu obtained two sea eagles from this mountain, which, although 2,796 feet 
 in height, he terms " a mountainous precipice, or craggy cliif impending the sea." 
 These birds " were, on their arrival at Bristol, detained by an officer of excise, upon 
 the plea that there was a duty upon all singing birds ! " — Ornithological Bid. 
 and Supp. The individual from which Pennant drew up his description was taken in 
 Galway. 
 
 f Ten years afterwards, in May, 1846, the same keeper reported to me, that he 
 " feared " (he then wanted eggs) there was but one eagle about the mountains of 
 Mourne, where it is often seen at a particular rock. 
 
 X Mr. Patrick Doran. 
 
 c2 
 
20 FALCONID./E. 
 
 taining two eggs. These birds were accused of committing great 
 devastation, " killing a sheep every week/' and very often sweeping 
 down and bearing off a goose from the farm-yard. One of the finest 
 sea eagles which has come under my own observation, was shot 
 in that neighbourhood, (near Dundrum,) on the 13th of January, 
 1845, when in the act of pursuing the fowls in a farmer's yard. 
 This bird was preserved for the late Marquis of Downshire, who 
 kindly supplied me with all the information respecting it. " It 
 weighed 10| lbs., measured three feet from the point of the beak 
 to the end of the tail, and seven feet four inches from tip to tip 
 of the wings." 
 
 When in June, 1834, at Achil Head (Mayo), which is fondly, 
 but erroneously, believed by the inhabitants of the island, to ap- 
 proximate the shores of the western world more nearly than any 
 other European land, and stretching out afar into the Atlantic, 
 is rendered sublime, less from altitude than from the utter barren- 
 ness of its desolate and inaccessible cliffs, a suitable accompani- 
 ment to the scene appeared in a sea eagle, which rose startled 
 from her nest on the ledge of an adjoining precipice. Mr. R. 
 Ball, my companion on the occasion, thus referred to this eagle in 
 a lecture delivered before the Zoological Society, in Dublin : — 
 "One of the most striking and valuable results of practical 
 ornithology, is the extraordinary manner in which the scenery 
 where a bird is first observed becomes impressed on the memory. 
 I can see in my mind's eye the whole scene, when peering over a 
 precipice at Achil Head, a sea eagle started from the rocks below, 
 and ascended in spirals to a great height above Saddle Head, 
 which towered over us. It was sunset of a summer evening. 
 We were weary, hungry, foiled in the object which led us to the 
 Head, and many miles from the place where we were to get food 
 and rest. Yet the sight of this bird in its native wilds at once 
 refreshed us, and I at least felt inspirited and repaid for a day of 
 great fatigue. I could then enjoy the beauty of the scene, the 
 boldness of the rocks, the vastness of the great western ocean, 
 dashing its waves in broken foam from the American coasts. The 
 scathed majestic Saddle Head, the setting sun, the wild grandeur 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 21 
 
 of the whole struck upon me, and I bent my course back with a 
 feeling of gratification, that, but for the occurrence of the eagle, 
 would have been one of having made a profitless excursion." 
 
 Two of these birds (adults) were seen by us the next day, 
 soaring above a lake in the island, and we were informed by 
 Lieutenant Reynolds,* that four pair of sea eagles breed in Achil. 
 With respect to their being in so wild a district comparatively 
 fearless of man, it may be stated, that the gentleman just named 
 when once shooting there, had, with his first barrel brought down 
 a grouse, which an eagle stooped to carry off, and when just in the 
 act of seizing, was itself shot by the second barrel. Such a pro- 
 ceeding, however, was more like that of a golden eagle, than of 
 the species now under consideration. 
 
 Lieut. Reynolds assured me, that in Achil he once saw a pair 
 of old sea eagles attack and kill a young bird of their own species, 
 which they eat, leaving only the bill and legs.f 
 
 Although we associate the sublime in scenery with the eagle, 
 yet where these birds are of frequent occurrence, as at Achil, they 
 
 * This gentleman mentioned that an eagle had for some years frequented the 
 uninhabited Bills Rock, which rises above the ocean at the distance of several miles 
 from Achil. To the fishermen visiting the place, this bird was known by the name of 
 Old Brown, in consequence of a belief that a well-known person so called, who 
 had committed some heinous sin, had been changed into the eagle, and doomed 
 to the penance of living on the wild and savage rock. The idea of but one bird being 
 there, probably arose from the circumstance of the rock being but rarely visited, 
 and one individual only seen at such times. A correspondent mentioned in 1841, 
 that a pair of sea eagles inhabited the islet, and from their remarkable light colour, 
 he imagined them to be very old birds. 
 
 f A portion of the following matter communicated by my late friend, Geo. Matthews, 
 Esq., although relating to another country, bears on some of the preceding points : — 
 " We saw a number of eagles along the coast of Norway, from Trondjeim to the Alten 
 Fiord, in the summei', autumn, and winter of 1843, especially the osprey or sea 
 eagle. Some were shot. They were watchful, and difficult to get at. They eat car- 
 rion : — even the carcass of one of their own species, which we threw overboard, after 
 being skinned, was eaten by them. Sometimes we looked out for eagles hovering 
 over a mountain side, and on going there with our dogs, were sure to find game. We 
 thought them cowardly, as several times we have seen a falcon attack and hunt them 
 well. The falcons would not leave the mountain, notwithstanding our firing, if once 
 they saw grouse on the wing, and several were shot in consequence of their following 
 the same pack of grouse as we did. The eagles always went off on the first fire." 
 
 The difference between the actions related by Lieut. Reynolds and Mr. Matthews, 
 may, as it seems to me, (taking it for granted that the same species is alluded to,) 
 fairly be attributed to the different circumstances of the localities, and to the indivi- 
 dual character of the birds. 
 
22 falconid^;. 
 
 are occasionally found in connection with the next step to 
 the sublime, — the ridiculous ; an example of which we have in 
 one being shot by a man from his bed, as it was feeding on a 
 dead pig. 
 
 We were assured by Serjeant Croker, of the Constabulary, 
 that about six months before we visited Ballycroy, an eagle, when 
 distant a few yards only from him and several persons, carried off 
 a hen from that village. He was informed that a similar occurrence 
 had several times taken place. True, we were long before told 
 this, and much more, respecting the eagles of the district, in the 
 Wild Sports of the West (letter 19); but I was not aware whether 
 the author intended his admirably graphic narrative, — almost 
 " too good to be true," — to be understood as literally correct. It 
 is there remarked, that " the eagle in the gray of morning sweeps 
 through the cabins, and never fails in carrying off some prey;" * 
 that " to black fowls, eagles appear particularly attached ; and the 
 villagers (of Dugurth) avoid as much as possible rearing birds of 
 that colour " (p. 107). This partiality, if such there really be, is 
 probably owing to the black fowls being the most readily seen by 
 the eagle, both from a distance and when with all his fears upon 
 him, — for well he knows the evil of such ways, — he makes a sud- 
 den stoop to the poultry about the cabin-door. 
 
 Mr. M'Calla, writing from Rounclstone, Connemara (Galway), 
 in 1841, supplied me with the following information in substance 
 respecting this species. 
 
 It is common throughout that district ; has its eyrie in cliffs 
 rising from the sea ; in trees growing on the small islands of 
 inland lakes, and in once instance built on a green islet without 
 any trees. t A pair has bred for a number of years on the marine 
 island of Boffin, and from the nest being inaccessible, a brood of 
 eaglets has been annually reared ; these have always left the island 
 
 * Dr. Laurence Edmonston in a communication to Macgillivray's Hist, of Brit. 
 Birds (vol. 3, p. 231), on the sea eagle in Shetland, makes a precisely similar state- 
 ment. 
 
 t Mr. Macgillivray, in the third volume of his History of British Birds, gives a 
 very full and interesting account of this species from personal ohservation, and men- 
 tions, that "on a fiat islet in a small lake in Harris, one of the Hebrides, a pair of 
 these birds bred for many years, although there are lofty crags in the neighbourhood." 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 23 
 
 so soon as able to wing their way elsewhere. The inhabi- 
 tants of the island believe, that the pair of old birds which 
 frequent it, not only guard, and abstain from injuring their 
 fowl, but that they will not suffer other birds of prey to 
 molest them.* The people of Connemara generally, indeed, be- 
 lieve that the eagle never takes away any fowl from about the 
 houses in the vicinity of its nest. My informant has seen a sea 
 eagle lift a duck from near the door of a house, at a distance from 
 its eyrie, and bear it away, but being pursued by a number of 
 gray crows (Corvus comix), it dropped the prey, which was still 
 alive, though much torn by its talons. This species of crow, 
 which is abundant in the district, is said to be the " inveterate 
 enemy of the eagle," and to gather from all quarters to harass 
 and attack it, so soon as the royal bird comes in sight. The 
 writer has visited fourteen eagles' nests, and robbed several of the 
 eggs, which were never more than two in number. A few years 
 ago it was considered a dangerous undertaking to rob an eyrie, 
 and persons went armed with guns to protect the aggressor, but 
 my informant has never himself been assailed, nor known men to 
 be attacked t by the parent birds. They appear to breed for a 
 number of years in the same nest, renewing it every season. 
 One built in a yew tree, growing upon an island of the lake on 
 
 * This idea may not 'be wholly imaginary. The party already mentioned as visiting 
 Horn Head, &c., in 1845, saw, at Dunfanaghy, a singularly docile pet bird of this 
 species, which had been taken as a nestling the year before in that vicinity. This 
 bird had its liberty in a yard within the village, where it generally remained, but 
 took occasional flights to the opposite side of the bay. It did not molest any of the 
 fowls kept in the same yard, but immediately attacked any strange fowls that 
 made their appearance. It may be added, that this eagle not only permitted, but 
 took pleasure in having its plumage smoothed down by the hand of its owner. 
 
 t Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that, although under such circumstances, they seldom 
 attempt to molest their enemy, he was told of their having twice done so in 
 the island of Lewis (p. 227). The golden eagle, he observes, is bolder than the sea 
 eagle, and has been known to attack the robbers of its eyrie : two instances are 
 briefly given at p. 213. An article in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, 
 on Scrope's Days and Nights of Salmon-fishing, contains an excellent account of the 
 habits &c, of the golden eagle. The attack of one of these birds on a boy about 
 to rob an eyrie in Sutherlandshire is authentically given, ^and the adventurer named, 
 who went single-handed to the task. The eagle fixed one talon in his shoulder, and 
 the other in his cheek, but with the aid of his knife, he destroyed the bird, after a 
 very severe combat. In the Wild Sports of the West, p. 107, a graphic account 
 
24 FALCONlDiE. 
 
 the western side of Urrisbeg mountain, was, with the accumulated 
 materials of the nest of the preceding years, nine feet in diameter. 
 The portion in which the eggs were deposited, was lined with 
 wool, the fur of the hare, &c. 
 
 On the 15th Feb., 1847, Mr. E. Ball received from the county 
 of Carlow, where it was shot, the finest sea eagle he had ever seen, 
 the weight of which was 131bs. He remarked : — "We have one 
 eagle of the same character in the Zoological Garden. I would 
 almost call it a species, if A. albicilla did not vary so much. The 
 size is much greater than ordinary, and the bearing more lofty ; 
 besides, our living specimen, though young when we got it, as- 
 sumed the mastery over a number of others, and has kept it ever 
 since.* It cannot be that this is merely the female, or else in 
 about thirty living sea eagles which we have had, we never had 
 any but this one. There is a good deal of white on the back, 
 and the breast is strongly and very beautifully spotted with that 
 colour." 
 
 The species is said to breed at Lugnaquilla, the loftiest of the 
 Wicklow mountains ; and there is an eyrie at Moher cliffs, county 
 of Clare.f It has occasionally been met with about Youghal, and 
 has several eyries in the county of Cork; in June, 1837, one was 
 seen on Knockmeledown mountain, county of Waterford.J It 
 frequents the Saltees, off the Wexford coast, and the burrow of 
 Ballyteigue, both being places plentifully stocked with rabbits. § 
 The lofty marine cliffs, noble mountains, and grand rocky islets of 
 Kerry, are favourite abodes of this eagle. It may, therefore, have 
 been this species, and not the golden eagle, which was seen (as 
 uoticed under that bird) by some of our party and others at Man- 
 gerton. The lofty and admirably picturesque cliff between the 
 Upper and Lower Lake of Killarney, called the ' ( Eagle's Nest," 
 bears that name in consequence of its containing an eyrie either 
 of this species or of the golden eagle : — to each it would be 
 
 of two eagles — sea eagles, if the locality be correctly described — attacking a person 
 lowered by a rope to their nest, is given as " well authenticated." 
 * This bird is noticed under Golden Eagle, p. 12. 
 t Davis. + Ball. § Poole. 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 25 
 
 equally suited. Montagu, apparently without positive informa- 
 tion, speaks of the sea eagle as breeding there annually. 
 
 Eagles visiting Lough Berg to prey on dead fish. — I have been 
 informed by Mr. Wm. Todhunter, formerly resident at Portumna, 
 on the banks of Lough Derg (Galway), that about the 20th of 
 June, 1835, three eagles visited the shores of that lake, attracted 
 apparently by immense quantities of perch, which, with some trout 
 and pike, ascended in a sick state to the surface of the water, and 
 died there. These eagles admitted of a near approach, and were 
 not disturbed by a steam-boat passing twice in the day within a 
 hundred yards of them : they remained for about three weeks. 
 Early in the month of July, in 1836 and 1837, when the fish 
 likewise died in numbers, two eagles visited the place, and con- 
 tinued a similar time. In 1838, but few fish died, and the eagles, 
 winch made their appearance about the end of July, stayed but 
 for a short period. My informant attributed the fatality of the 
 fish to the " hot weather," stating that where they died, the water 
 was but from one to three feet in depth, and consequently would 
 be much acted on by heat. The lake generally is shallow, its 
 average depth being about eight feet, and there is no apparent 
 current through it.* 
 
 Eagles obtained by simple means. — Montagu relates an instance 
 of a sea eagle being so much wounded by a charge of snipe-shot, 
 as, after flying some distance, to fall and be captured. I have 
 seen one in captivity, which was similarly obtained at the Horn, 
 by Mr. John Sims of Dunfanaghy, near to whom it rose as he was 
 returning from snipe-shooting. But, by still simpler means, an 
 eagle was captured in the county of Tyrone, at the end of Decem- 
 
 * This fatality was probably owing to an extraordinary diminution of the propor- 
 tion of oxygen in the water of the lake. MM. Aug. and Ch. Morren, in their most 
 interesting " Kecherches sur la Rubefactiou des Eaux et leur Oxygenation par les Ani- 
 malcules etles Algues," state, to quote the words used in noticing their memoir in the 
 Annals of Natural History, vol. xii. p. 207, that " At times they have found the pro- 
 portion (of oxygen) so low as 18, 19, or 20 per cent., and the consequence has been 
 the destruction of the greater part of the fish by asphyxia. On the 18th of June, 
 1835, (the very time when the fatality was greatest in Lough Derg,) the greater part of 
 the fish in the Maine perished from this cause ; and the same circumstance was ob- 
 served twice in the pond, which first directed the attention of the authors to the 
 subject of the memoir." 
 
26 PALCONIDiE. 
 
 ber, 1837, when a man on turning suddenly round a rock, came 
 close upon one, and attacking it on the instant with his walking- 
 stick, so disabled the bird as to bear it off in triumph. 
 
 Habits in captivity. Kinds of food preferred, Sfc. — The Rev. 
 Thomas Knox of Toomavara, (Tipperary), remarked in a letter 
 dated November 22, 1837, with reference to two young sea eagles, 
 birds of that year, which he had in captivity, that he attributed 
 their clean healthy state in a great measure to " having placed in 
 their cage, which is very large, a tank of water in which they have 
 full room to wash themselves. They seldom miss a day without 
 doing so, and the time preferred is immediately after eating : even 
 in cold weather, they seem to enjoy the ablution."* Their food is 
 varied as much as possible ; raw beef, liver, eels now and then, 
 rooks, small birds, and all the dead rats that can be got ; the last 
 are preferred to anything else. They sometimes swallow small 
 birds whole, and the feathers are afterwards ejected in castings 
 about the size of a hen's egg; but when not very hungry, 
 they pluck the feathers off. When young, one of them would 
 occasionally get out between the bars of the cage, and take a flight 
 about the place ; on its being confined again, the bird that re- 
 mained behind chastised the transgressor, which, as an additional 
 mark of disfavour, was not permitted to occupy the same perch 
 with it for the remainder of that day, [in fact, was c put in the 
 corner/] The quantity they eat daily was very small compared 
 with what was required by a kestrel kept during the preceding 
 summer : this bird was very ravenous, and when satisfied, would 
 hide the remainder of the food given to it, in a very cunning 
 manner." 
 
 The two sea eagles taken from the nest at ' ' the Horn," were 
 trained so far by Mr. Ed. Langtry, that they allowed him to carry 
 them on his arm. When given liberty in the morning, they kept 
 about the demesne during the day, generally attended his call to 
 the lure in the evening, when they were put up for the night, 
 throughout winch, however, they were occasionally at large'. As 
 
 * The partiality of eagles for the bath is also mentioned under " Golden Eagle," 
 p. 12. 
 
THE SEA EAGLE. 27 
 
 food, they preferred rats to fish.* When not very hungry, they, 
 after tasting the blackbird {Tardus merula), showed a dislike to 
 it, but that this did not arise from colour, was evident from black 
 chickens being always as acceptable as others ; gray crows {Corvus 
 cornier) were also disliked, though magpies {Corvus pica) were fa- 
 vourite food.f On one occasion during rainy weather, they re- 
 fused to eat for a few days, though at the same time they never 
 retired to the shelter of their sheds, as buzzards {Buteo vulgaris) 
 and peregrine falcons {Falco jjeregrinus) did, which were kept 
 along with them. One of these eagles, (a male,) killed four pet 
 birds, his constant companions in the same enclosure : — these 
 were a white owl, a kite, a buzzard, and a peregrine falcon, that 
 when he was tied, J either alighted near him, or were carelessly 
 fastened within his reach. The first intimation my friend had of 
 the owl's death, was its legs (all else had been devoured) lying 
 beside the post, where a few hours before he had seen their owner 
 alive and well. The eagle had partly plucked the falcon prepara- 
 tory to eating it, just as his master appeared in view, when he in- 
 stantly sprang from the body of his victim, and further evinced 
 the consciousness of his misdeed by allowing it to be carried off, 
 
 * Fish, however, are in no little request with sea eagles. A correspondent has 
 known a young bird to eat twenty gurnards (Trigla gurnardus) in a day. An eagle 
 obtained in the Highlands of Scotland by Major Matthews (of Springvale, co. Down), 
 and taken about with his regiment, had the audacity to drive away one of the soldier's 
 wives engaged in washing a dozen of herrings in the river near Fort George, and 
 made a meal of them all. 
 
 f The peregrine falcon also shows distaste and partiality to birds nearly allied ; 
 thus the blackbird and ring-ouzel (Turdus torquatus) are disliked, while the song 
 thrush (21 ?nusicus) is much relished, and, though it will kill and eat the landrail 
 {Crejc pratensis) and wagtails {Motacilla Yarreliii) when huugry, it is averse to 
 them, and has in some instances been observed to eject them front the stomach. My 
 friend, the Baron De Selys Lougchamps, a very distinguished naturalist, has remarked 
 to me with reference to Belgium, where these birds are much used at table, that the 
 song thrush is excellent eating, and the redwing (21 iliacus) is also good ; but that 
 the fieldfare {T. pilaris) is not so, and the blackbird is decidedly bad : — the falcons, 
 the eagles, and the Baron, are therefore all of the same opinion. According to M. 
 Duval-Jouve, blackbirds fatten and acquire an excellent flavour from feeding on the 
 fruit of the myrtle, in Provence. (Zoologist, Oct. 1845, p. 1119.) In the north of 
 Ireland, indeed, these birds are by many persons considered very good, which may be 
 owing to their feeding much on the nutritious mollusca found about the hedges and 
 covers they frequent. 
 
 % When the golden eagle, sea eagle, peregrine falcon, kite, buzzard, and kestrel, 
 all of which Mr. Laugtry had at the same time, were at liberty, they never molested 
 each other. 
 
28 falconim;. 
 
 though any food given in the ordinary manner, he would not per- 
 mit to be removed. 
 
 These eagles occasionally broke loose, and flew about the place, 
 but eventually, after having made several circuits in the air, they 
 would alight near the pond at which they were kept, and allow 
 their master to lay hold of, and place them again in captivity. 
 After one of these birds had been kept about two, and the other 
 four and a half years, they were lost by flying to a distance, where 
 they were shot. The latter exhibited the white tail which denotes 
 maturity, early in October, 1836, being then four years and a half 
 old : it proved a male bird on dissection, and weighed 11 lbs. 
 
 A few words may be given on eagles, as observed in Scotland 
 and England. My friend, the owner of the birds just noticed, 
 informed me, after returning from the very extensive and moun- 
 tainous shooting quarters of Aberarder and Dunmaglass, in the 
 north of Inverness-shire, in 1838, that during his three months' 
 stay there, no eagles were seen. But on the 28th of September, 
 when a few miles distant from that locality, he observed four old 
 birds in company (all displaying white tails), soaring above a 
 mountain northward of Loch Ness. In the autumn of the fol- 
 lowing year, this species was first seen by him at Aberarder, and 
 when there myself during the month of September, 1842, I saw 
 one on wing near the house ; its tail was conspicuously white, as 
 was that of the other individual. It is singular that all these 
 birds should have been adult, for at the time of their occurrence, 
 the young birds of the year are leaving the eyries and " regions 
 round about" to the sway of their respective parents. Old birds 
 seem also to be given to wandering at this period of the year. 
 The following note, together with that on the Bald Eagle, was 
 contributed by me to Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History 
 in 1838 (vol. 2, p. 164). 
 
 Golden and Sea Eagle, Aquila Chrysaetos and A. albicilla. — In 
 the more recent works on British ornithology, there is not any 
 notice of eyries, either of the golden or sea eagle, in England at 
 the present time ; but, from my having seen two birds of one or 
 other of these species, (though not sufficiently near to be speci- 
 
THE OSPREY. 29 
 
 fically determined,) on the 13th of July, 1835, about the English 
 lakes, they most probably breed in that quarter. One appeared 
 near the eastern extremity of the vale of Newlands, not far from 
 Keswick, and the other at Crummock Water. Willoughby states 
 that there was an eyrie of the sea eagle in Whinfield Park, West- 
 moreland; and Latham, on the authority of Dr. Heysham, re- 
 marks that the same species bred near Keswick. When visiting 
 all of the lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, 
 except Lowes-Water, Ennerdale, and Wast-water, in the month 
 of July, 1835, I saw eagles on the one day only.* 
 
 THE OSPREY. 
 
 Pandion kaliaetos, Linn, (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ 
 
 Can only be announced as of occasional occurrence, f 
 
 * Bald Eagle, Haliaetos leiicocephalns, Savig. — "Wilson, in his American Orni- 
 thology, (vol. ii. p. 310, Jardine's ed.) observes respecting this bird: — "Of the pre- 
 cise time of building, we have no account, but something may be deduced from the 
 following circumstance." Here follows the description of an ascent to a nest in a 
 pine tree, near Great Egg Harbour, in the month of May ; when it was found that 
 the young birds must have vacated the nest some time before. It is added : — " Our 
 guide had passed this place, early in February, at which time both the male and female 
 were making a great noise about the nest ; and from what we afterwards learned, it is 
 highly probable it contained young, even at that early time of the season." In the 
 Fauna Boreali- Americana, (part 2, p. 15,) Dr. Richardson remarks of this eagle: — 
 " It is known to breed as far south as Virginia, but its nests do not appear to be so 
 common within any part of the United States, as they are in the fur countries." 
 
 In the following note, there is at the same time proof that the bald eagle builds 
 at the early period presumed by Wilson, and that during the season of incubation, it 
 is found much farther to the south than is mentioned in the latter work. During a 
 tour made by Richard Langtry, Esq. (of Fort William, near Belfast), through the 
 United States, in 1836, he, in the middle of January, observed a pair of these birds 
 flying about a nest, in the top of a gigantic pitch pine, which stood a little 
 remote from other trees, on the bank of the Fish River, Mobile Bay. On the 
 6th of February he returned to the place, in the hope of procuring a young bird 
 alive. The nest being inaccessible, the tree was cut down, and with it, one young 
 bird (unfortunately killed by the fall) came to the ground. The eaglet was covered 
 with down, interspersed with a few feathers. The nest was rather flat, and composed 
 of sticks ; it contained the heads and bones of mullet, and two heads of the gray 
 pelican. The parent birds were in great consternation during the felling of the pine, 
 and to the last moment continued flying clamorously about the nest. Mr. Langtry 
 was told that two or three pair of bald eagles build annually about Mobile Bay, and 
 had their nests pointed out to him. 
 
 f Montagu, in his Ornithological Dictionary, remarks : — " We have been informed 
 it is frequently seen about the Lake of Killarney, in Ireland, at particular seasons : 
 it no doubt breeds there." No proof of this bird's breeding either there or elsewhere 
 
30 falconidjE. 
 
 In but one instance, has the osprey in a wild state come under 
 my observation in Ireland. This was on the 13th of July, 1834, 
 at the Lower Lake of Killarney, when a single bird appeared for 
 short time in view, displayed its mode of fishing, and struck at 
 some prey on the surface of the water. The species was familiar 
 to me, as I had previously become acquainted with its appearance 
 and manner of fishing at the lakes of Lucerne and Maggiore. A 
 fine specimen, purchased in 1833 in Dublin, — and now in the 
 Belfast Museum, — was said to have been killed in the Queen's 
 County a few years before that time. One is recorded as having 
 been seen in August, 1835, at Oughterard, county of Galway,* 
 in which district others have been shot. One was obtained at 
 Garristown, county of Kildare, on the 23d of October, 1837, where 
 it had been seen for about three weeks before being killed.t Two 
 were procured on the 19th of October, 1839, at a pond near the 
 Kingstown and Dublin Railway : one of them which came into 
 Mr. R. Ball's possession weighed 2| lbs., and was 22 inches in 
 length. The periods of occurrence of five only of the preceding 
 birds were noted: one appeared in the month of July, one in 
 August, and three in October. 
 
 My friend Mr. Richard Langtry, on his return to Belfast in 
 November, 1839, from three months' shooting at Aberarder, in 
 Inverness-shire, mentioned his having seen an osprey at Loch 
 Ruthven in the month of August, and watched it for some- 
 time. This bird had no sooner captured a fish than it was follow- 
 ed by a gray crow, which harassed it for about a quarter of an 
 hour, when both pursuer and pursued disappeared from Ins view 
 together. The crow once struck the osprey, which however kept 
 firm hold of its prey, though unable to commence its repast. This 
 being the only osprey which my friend had seen in Scotland, 
 though some months there every year in the shooting season, he 
 remarked, how much more common it is about some of the small 
 lakes and rivers in Canada, where one would appear in view about 
 every half hour during the day. At Mud Lake they were parti- 
 
 in this island, has to my knowledge been yet recorded, although we might expect 
 it to do so. 
 
 * Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 128. f Mr. T. W. Warren. 
 
THE GYR AND GREENLAND FALCON. 31 
 
 cularly abundant, owing, it was presumed, to the prey being easily 
 captured in its shallow water : in the course of the forenoon he 
 had seen fifteen or sixteen in that locality, where, too, the thickly 
 wooded banks afforded them suitable resting-places. Mr. Evatt, 
 of Mount Louise, Monaghan, has informed me, that during a 
 sporting tour in Canada, he was made aware, as night approached, 
 of the abundance of basse, at the mouth of the Grand River, by 
 ospreys dashing down, and bearing them off to the woods. This 
 was the signal for the commencement of his fishing. 
 
 The Prince of Canino considers the American osprey distinct 
 from the European, but the general opinion of ornithologists 
 seems rather opposed to that view. 
 
 THE GYR FALCON. 
 
 Jer Falcon. Iceland Falcon. 
 Falco gyrfalco, Lin. 
 
 Islandicus, Briss. 
 
 Hancock, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 2, 247. 
 
 Must be included in the Irish catalogue with doubt. 
 
 All we know of it, is what Mr. Templeton has stated under 
 " Jer Falcon;" — that in 1803 he received the skin of a bird of 
 this species, which had been shot near Randalstown, county of 
 Antrim. Bat as the term Jer Falcon, according to Mr. Hancock's 
 views, has been applied indiscriminately to two species, we cannot, 
 in the absence of a description, tell to which of them Mr. Tem- 
 pleton's bird belonged. 
 
 THE GREENLAND FALCON. 
 
 Falco candicans, Gmel. Linn. 
 
 Groenlandicus, Turt. Linn. 
 
 Hancock, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 2, 249. 
 
 Is of extremely rare occurrence. 
 
 In a letter from John Vandeleur Stewart, Esq., of Rockhill, 
 Letterkenny, dated Feb. 3, 1837, I was favoured with a minute 
 
32 falconidjE. 
 
 description of a bird in his collection, believed to be an Iceland 
 Falcon, which had been killed when on wing above a rabbit-war- 
 ren, close to Dunfanaghy, county of Donegal. At a meeting of 
 the British Association held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1838, 
 Mr. John Hancock, of that town, read a paper (admirably illus- 
 trated by specimens in various states of plumage) with a view to 
 prove that the Iceland and Greenland Falcons are distinct species. 
 This was subsequently published in the " Annals of Natural His- 
 tory," as above quoted. On referring to the description of Mr. 
 Stewart's bird, I felt certain, that according to the views of Mr. 
 Hancock, it must be F. Groenlandicus, and having submitted the 
 description to him, I had the satisfaction of receiving his testi- 
 mony to that effect. The specimen is an adult male. Subse- 
 quently (in 1842?), Mr. Stewart obtained what he considered to be 
 a young bird of this species, which was shot at Drumboe Castle, 
 in the above named county. 
 
 Mr. Hancock kindly replied as follows, on the 1st of March, 
 
 1846, to some queries respecting these species : — 
 
 "I have had specimens of the Greenland Falcon from both Davis' 
 Straits and Iceland; those from the latter locality were killed in the 
 winter season, therefore I conclude it is only a winter visitant of that 
 country, while those from Davis' Straits were all taken in the summer. 
 I was informed by a captain of a whale-vessel of this port, that he once 
 found the nest of Falco Groenlandicus with young, at Cape Iinilic, 
 Baffin's Bay. 
 
 " The Iceland bird appears to be very common in Iceland, from 
 which country I have had a number of specimens, both young and old, 
 and I have an egg from the same place. I have a specimen of F. 
 Islandicus' in its first plumage, which was killed in Yorkshire, March, 
 
 1847. There was another young bird shot on the North Tyne in Janu- 
 ary, 1845, which I saw in the flesh : it is now in the possession of 
 Mr. C. Adamson of this place. 
 
 " I only know of one instance of the capture of F. Groenlandicus 
 in this country ; it was a mature bird, and was in the collection of Mr. 
 Ellis of York, up to the time of his collection being sold : it was ob- 
 tained in Yorkshire, and, to the best of my recollection, was shot about 
 the year 1836. I have no authentic account of either species being 
 taken in Scotland. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. SB 
 
 " You will see further particulars on this subject in the paper pub- 
 lished in the Annals of Nat. History, No. 10, Dec, 1838." 
 
 THE PEEEGBINE FALCON. 
 
 Falco peregrinus, Briss. 
 
 Inhabits suitable localities throughout the island, breed- 
 ing in marine and inland cliffs. 
 
 Eyries and Distribution. — In the cliffs of the four maritime 
 counties of Ulster, it has many eyries, and in Antrim, where the 
 basaltic precipices are peculiarly favourable for this purpose, nine 
 at least may be enumerated. Three of these, — Glenariff, Salagh 
 Braes, and the Cave-hill,'* — are inland. A nest was pointed out 
 in 1834 to Dr. J. D. Marshall, in a range of basaltic cliffs on the 
 north side of the island of Rathlin, to which a man descended, 
 and brought up two young birds. In connection with two of the 
 grandest features of this coast, Fairhead and Dunluce Castle, the 
 peregrine falcon has especially attracted my attention. The eyrie 
 at the latter, however, is not on the same headland with the Castle, 
 but at a more lofty one on its eastern-side. 
 
 A range of precipitous basaltic cliff, called the Gobbins, rising 
 from the sea outside the northern entrance to Belfast bay, has 
 been regularly frequented to the present time (1847) by a 
 pair, and in one year, there were two nests within an extent 
 of rock considerably less than a mile, which is the only in- 
 stance known to me of so close an approximation of their 
 eyries. Even at "the Horn" in Donegal, where the extent of 
 lofty precipices is very great and continuous, we met with but a 
 pair of these birds during a week spent there, when we endeavour - 
 
 * A pair bred in M'Art's Fort on this hill, in 1822, and the young were taken by 
 a person lowered over the precipice with a rope around his body. This locality, about 
 three miles from Belfast, is now too much frequented to be occupied by the peregrine 
 falcon. In the spring of 1832, a pair remained there for some time, but did not 
 venture to build. M'Skimmin, in his History of Carrickfergus, mentions its building 
 in another inland locality, at the rocks of the Knockagh Hill, near that town. 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 falconidje. 
 
 ed, though unsuccessfully, to procure their young.* We were 
 informed that there is but one other eyrie. 
 
 Tory island (off Donegal) ; the mountains of Mourne (Down) ; 
 Bray Head (Wicklow) ; cliffs above the Killeries (Galway) ; Bay 
 Lough, near Clogheen (Tipperary) ; the Saltee and Blasquet 
 islands, off the coasts of Wexford and Kerry ; Ardrnore, &c, in 
 Waterford ; the marine cliffs of Cork ; are a few of the localities 
 known either to my correspondents or myself as breeding haunts 
 of this species. A part of the coast, near the city of Waterford, 
 was formerly noted for producing a valuable breed of hawks, and 
 is still said to be held under lease, the renewal fine of winch is 
 one or more " casts of falcons " bred there. A country lad at- 
 tempting, in 1831, to rob a nest near Dunmore, in that county, 
 by being lowered over the rock, was struck at so violently by both 
 the old birds as to be obliged to desist, and was glad to make his 
 escape without personal injury.t 
 
 I shall first give some notes on this species in a wild state, and 
 afterwards, when trained. 
 
 " Mights " of wild Peregrine Falcons. — Mr. Sinclaire, many 
 years ago, when exercising his dogs on the Belfast mountains 
 towards the end of July, preparatory to grouse-shooting, saw 
 them point, and coming up, startled a male peregrine falcon off 
 a grouse {Tetrad Scoticus), just killed by him, and very near the 
 same place came upon the female bird, also on a grouse. Although 
 my friend lifted both the dead birds, the hawks continued flying 
 about, and on the remainder of the pack, which lay near, being 
 sprung, either three or four more grouse were struck down by them. 
 Thus two and a half or three brace were obtained by means of these 
 wild birds, being more than had ever been procured out of a pack of 
 grouse by my friend's trained falcons.J The same gentleman has 
 
 * Our object, however, was very different from that of a gentleman living so near 
 Horn Head as to enjoy ample opportunity of studying its birds, at whose earnest re- 
 quest, the keeper procured peregrine falcons for the purpose of being turned out in 
 the garden to destroy the worms and snails ! As may be supposed, the poor birds 
 did not long survive. 
 
 f Dr. Burkitt. 
 
 \ A still stronger instance of the courage of falcons, in which they followed the 
 same packs of grouse (Tetrao saliceti) as the sportsman, notwithstanding the shots 
 fired at the latter, will be found noticed under Sea Eagle, at p. 21. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 35 
 
 frequently, when out shooting, obtained a single grouse, which 
 had been killed by wild peregrine falcons, but except in the above 
 instance, never more than one. 
 
 Another friend, walking on Devis mountain, near Belfast, on 
 the 1st of September, 1832, saw one of these birds pursue a 
 couple of grouse for some distance without success, and subse- 
 quently kill a snipe high in the air, after a good chase. A sports- 
 man states, that woodcocks shot by Mm in the south of Ireland, 
 have more than once been pounced upon and carried off by wild 
 peregrine falcons before they reached the ground. 
 
 On the two following occasions I had opportunities of remark- 
 ing tins falcon in haunts similar to those, which, according to 
 Wilson, it frequents in America* On the 8th of May, 1832, as 
 the banks of Belfast Bay,f at about a mile from the town on the 
 northern shore, were becoming bare from the ebbing of the tide, 
 they were literary covered with dunlins {Tringa variabilis) and 
 some ringed plovers (Ckaradrius hiaticula) intermixed, all busily 
 feeding on the rejectamenta of the waves. This flock, consisting 
 of many hundreds, to my surprise, suddenly, and without any 
 apparent cause of alarm, took wing, but immediately afterwards, 
 I observed a peregrine falcon bearing down upon them. As they 
 flew out to sea, he followed them only a short way above the 
 water, and returning without any prey, after a few bold and 
 graceful sweeps, alighted on the beach they had left, when, with 
 
 * Mr. Rd. Langtry having heard that the gyr falcon hred on the coast of Labra- 
 dor, gave a commission in 1836 to a person proceeding thither, to obtain for him 
 young birds from the nest. Four falcons were accordingly in that year procured 
 from an eyrie in the cliffs impending the sea, near the Moravian Settlement, Labra- 
 dor, but two only reached my friend alive, the others having died on the passage. 
 Instead, however, of the Gyr, they proved to be the Peregrine falcon. I saw them 
 frequently during the year after they were received, and considered them the same 
 as our native species. They were large birds, and of a darker shade of colour than 
 usual. The Prince of Canino considers the American bird distinct from the European, 
 which he does not admit into the fauna of North America. In his " Comparative 
 List of the Birds of Europe and North America," p. 4, the bird described as F. 
 Feregrinus by Wilson, is named Falco anatum. 
 
 f Several species of the Raptores being mentioned as occurring in Belfast Bay, it 
 should be stated that the tide recedes here to a very great distance, leaving a vast 
 extent of banks uncovered, on many parts of which the grass-wrack {Zostera marina) 
 grows so profusely as to impart a greenish tinge ; the whole at low water presenting 
 somewhat the appearance of a marsh. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 FALCONIDiE. 
 
 the aid of a pocket-telescope, I had the satisfaction of identifying 
 his species with certainty. Again, on July the 13th, 1833, when 
 crossing the ferry near the junction of the river Bann with the 
 ocean, I was attracted by the near call of a curlew, and on looking 
 round, saw coming towards us what at first appeared to be two of 
 these birds, flying close together, just above the water. I was 
 surprised to see the foremost dip in the river like a swal- 
 low, fly on a short way, and then repose on the water : the other 
 bird, which proved to be a peregrine falcon, now gave up the 
 chase, and sweeping past us, alighted on the beach at some dis- 
 tance. The curlew now finding it was safe, rose from the river 
 and flew back in the direction whence it had been pursued. 
 
 On the 12th of December, 1845, a wild "falcon" was ob- 
 served flying over the grounds of Tort William, near Belfast, 
 towards the bay, where some days before a tercel * was seen in 
 pursuit of a redshank- or dunlin, for a very longtime. When the 
 hawk made a swoop at its ' ' quarry '• on the bank, the redshank 
 dashed into the water ; but whenever its enemy retreated, the dry 
 land was sought again, and no sooner done, than the hawk endea- 
 voured to seize it. This proceeding was repeated on the part of 
 both, until eventually the hawk succeeded in capturing its victim 
 before it could reach the water. On the 16th of the same month, 
 a peregrine falcon, — most probably the same individual, — as the 
 visits of the species are very " few and far between," was shot 
 near Clifden, on the opposite side of the bay, when carrying off a 
 redshank. 
 
 The finest chase by the peregrine falcon of which I have heard, 
 was communicated to me by Richard Langtry, Esq., on Ins re- 
 turn from Inverness-shire, after the shooting season of 1838. 
 On the first day, in the beginning of August, that he went out 
 from Aberarder towards Loch Ruthven, he observed an eyrie of 
 these birds in the mountain cliffs on its western side. Among 
 those which darkly beetle above Loch Cor, on the opposite side, 
 a pair formerly nestled. The old pair were seen that day. One 
 
 * Tercel is the name applied in falconry to the male, as Falcon is to the female 
 of this species. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 37 
 
 of them struck a heron, and also a gray crow that came near, 
 though without pursuing, or caring to pursue either to the death. 
 Very different were curlews treated one day at the end of August, 
 to seize which every attempt was made. My friend and his com- 
 panions were fishing on Loch Buthven, when a flock of nine 
 of these birds appeared. Immediately afterwards, a tercel came 
 in sight, bearing down upon them so suddenly, as to be hardly 
 seen until he had singled out and swept one of them from a 
 height of about fifty yards into the lake. Here he pounced at 
 it, but without striking, though it did not go beneath the surface 
 of the water. On the tercel's flying a little way off, to take one 
 of his bold circles when the quarry is put down, or " at bay," the 
 curlew rose to follow the flock, and had got away about a hundred 
 yards when the tercel again bore down upon it. Eefuge was a 
 second time taken upon the lake. This was repeated not less 
 than ten times. The speed of the tercel's flight was consi- 
 dered to be twice that of the curlew's, as, when circling about two 
 hundred yards off, he never gave his desired victim leave to get 
 more than about half that distance ahead, until he had it down 
 again. The curlew, though apparently more fatigued and worn 
 out every time it was put down, — the last time hardly able to 
 rise from the lake, — escaped, in consecmence of the flock from 
 which it came, or a similar number of birds, appearing in sight, 
 when its persecutor betook himself after them. He very soon 
 had one of this flock also in the water, and enacted just the same 
 part towards it as he had done towards the other. It was put 
 down to the lake at least a dozen times, and along a great extent of 
 its surface, once between the boats of the fishing party, not more 
 than about fifty yards distant from each other. The hawk and 
 curlew were both several times within about twenty yards of the 
 boats, and once indeed, the latter, closely pursued, took the water 
 just before the bow of one of them. Eventually, the tercel left 
 off the chase, though, as in the former instance, the curlew was 
 nearly worn out. The poor bird now seeing two of its species 
 come in sight, joined them, and they all went off safely in com- 
 
38 FALCONID/E. 
 
 pany.* The chase was continued so long, that two of my friends, 
 whose taste inclined more to fishing than to hawking, resumed their 
 avocation, though, as sportsmen, highly enjoying the chase at first ; 
 but the third, who communicated the circumstance, possessing 
 trained falcons himself, witnessed it to the last, and described the 
 swoops made by the wild bird as bolder, and its flight certainly 
 more swift, than that of any trained one he had ever seen.f 
 
 My friend was told that these peregrine falcons destroy numbers 
 of rooks ; and he remarked many of the feathers of these "birds, 
 at the chief feeding -ground to which their prey is borne to be 
 eaten ; a hill top at the opposite side of the lake from their eyrie. 
 They are said to persecute the gray crows, whenever these come 
 in their way, — " between the wind and their nobility," — though 
 apparently not caring for them as food. Every day on which my 
 friend went in the direction of Loch Ruthven, from the 10th of 
 August until the middle of September, he saw the old pair of 
 peregrines, their blue backs marking them as such, from the 
 height at which he looked down upon them. From the latter period 
 until the end of October, when he left Aberarder, they were not 
 seen by him, The general belief, however, in that neighbourhood, 
 is, that the old birds remain all the year there, but that the young 
 leave it about the end of September. 
 
 Trained Peregrine Falcons. % — Some of our north of Ireland 
 
 * When any quarry, pursued by one of these falcons, gains even the surface of 
 the water, it is almost invariably safe, in consequence of its being unnatural for the 
 species to strike at any object on that element. But it would appear that necessity 
 will sometimes compel a departure from this rule, as an accurate observer informs me, 
 that he once saw a peregrine falcon stoop to a flock of razorbills, or guillemots, sit- 
 ting on the water at the Gobbins, and bear one off to its eyrie near the summit of the 
 cliff. The prey was obviously larger than the hawk. Macgillivray alludes to this 
 species carrying a greater weight than itself, in his Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 307. 
 
 f One of his own falcons, when at liberty, flew at and put into a pipe, — as 
 harriers offer do a hare in hunting, — a full-grown curlew. The same falcon was 
 beaten by a sea-gull (Z.canus?), which, duriug a pursuit of about half an hour's 
 continuance, it could not seize, owing to the suddeu turns, ("twirlings," as it was 
 expressed,) of the gull, that screamed loudly all the time. 
 
 \ OTlaherty, in his West or H-Iar Connanght, written in 1684, remarks, when 
 describing the Isles of Arran, off Gahvay bay : — " Here are ayries of hawkes," to 
 which the editor (Mr. Hardiman) in 1840, adds in a note, that "they were formerly 
 trained in Iar-Conuaught for iield-sport, and were held in high esteem. Morogh 
 na Maor O'Flahcrty, of Buuowcn, in Conamara, by his will, dated 13th April, A.D. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 39 
 
 eyries have been annually in requisition for more than thirty 
 years, to supply different sportsmen, but chiefly my friend, John 
 Sinclaire, Esq., with falcons for the chase.* The best time to 
 secure the young, is just before they essay then- wings, but they 
 are sometimes taken at an earlier period, when arrayed in a cos- 
 tume of pure white down. They are generally three in number, 
 but, in a few instances, four have been obtained ; in which case, 
 one is generally much smaller than the others. An exception to 
 this occurred at Salagh Braes, in 1838, when all four were of 
 similar size ; and, what is most unusual, of the same sex, being 
 females. Three females and one male were, in another instance, 
 the produce of a nest ; but the two sexes are, upon the whole, 
 considered to be about equal in number, — the females, perhaps, 
 rather preponderating. If either an old male or female be killed 
 in the breeding season, (not an uncommon circumstance,) another 
 mate is found within a very few days ; so that the eyries, notwith- 
 standing such casualties, are sure to turn out their complement 
 of young. An addled egg is not unfrequently brought from the 
 nest with the young birds, when of a proper age to be reared ; 
 from which it would appear, that there is no desire on the part of 
 of the parent birds to get rid of it. Mr. Sinclaire states, that on 
 going to obtain these hawks, — which is done by a person sus- 
 pended from the summit of the cliff by a rope, — he has often 
 seen the tercel, or male bird, circling at a great height in the air, 
 with prey for the eyrie, while the female, loudly screaming, kept 
 flying about the vicinity of the nest. The food was then dropped 
 by the tercel, and as it fell through the air was seized by his 
 partner, who bore it off to the young. In captivity, when grow- 
 ing, they eat twice or thrice as much as after they have attained 
 full size, which they do very soon. The greatest regularity in 
 
 1626, directed that his third son, Bryan O'Flahertie, should have the Cleggan, an 
 extensive tract in the barony of Balinahiuch ' excepting onelie the Aiery of hawks 
 upon Barnanoran,' reserved for his eldest son, Morogh na Mart." In High 
 Island, also, it is remarked, that "yearlie an ayrie of hawkes is found," p. 115. 
 
 * One of these localities in Ballynascreen, county of Londonderry, frequented 
 from time immemorial by the peregrine falcon, is called Craig -na-shoke, or rock of 
 the hawks. 
 
40 FALCONID.E. 
 
 feeding them is requisite, otherwise they get a " taint/' or want 
 of full development of the feathers, which is evinced by a light 
 marking on the colour of the tail and quills, and what is not so 
 apparent, though of much more consequence, a weakness in the 
 shaft of the feather at the place. My informant believes this 
 taint to be apparent in the feather, in consequence of even one 
 day's " starvation." Not only are the tails of birds badly fed 
 tainted by a lighter marking than ordinary, but the wings will 
 not attain within an inch and half of the length they should do ; 
 a most important point with regard to their power of flight. 
 
 Eyries in the south-west of Scotland, where Mr. Sinclaire has 
 of late years chiefly resided, have been likewise in requisition to 
 supply him with these birds. The inland cliffs of the finely- 
 formed mountain of Knockdolian, in Ayrshire, called by seamen 
 the " Palse Craig," from its being occasionally mistaken for Ailsa, 
 thus paid tribute in 1839. Others are: — at Ailsa; one, in the 
 neighbourhood of the town of Ayr; two, in sea-cliffs near Ballantrae, 
 the one about five miles northward, and the other, four miles 
 southward of it ; also, two in sea-cliffs to the north and south of 
 Portpatrick ; — in all seven eyries. Occasionally, both in Ireland 
 and Scotland, I have had the pleasure of witnessing flights with 
 these hawks. It is truly a beautiful and interesting sight, to 
 behold the intelligent bird sweeping boldly overhead, and follow- 
 ing its master, the comparative slowness of whose motion sadly 
 taxes its patience. It will alight on the ground, on a stone, 
 or other eminence, be it small or great, to await his coming. The 
 most convenient that presented itself, in an open space of moor 
 near Ballantrae, on one of the last days that I was so engaged, 
 was the back of a greyhound, which was accordingly appropriated, 
 as the backs of the setters very frequently are. The hawk was at 
 some distance when the first grouse was sprung and shot, but the 
 report of the gun brought it instantly to the spot, when it alighted 
 on the wounded bird. The training evinced by the falcon's thus 
 speeding to the place whence the report of the gun proceeds, is 
 highly interesting. . 
 
 A covey of partridges was soon afterwards raised, and the hawk 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 41 
 
 being prepared for them, a " flight " ensued, which ended by 
 its killing one. It struck the partridge near the ground. The 
 same swoop with which the victim was felled, carried the hawk 
 boldly and gracefully high into the air. Had the peregrine falcon 
 not this admirable faculty of sweeping upwards, from the stoop 
 made at its victim when near the ground, the extreme velocity of 
 flight would be the means of its destruction, as, missing the quarry, it 
 would be dashed against the earth. A few days afterwards, this hawk 
 bore us company to the field, and there was a short but good flight 
 at an old partridge, which was killed. When struck, it fell in cover, 
 close to a mountain-stream ; the hawk alighted on a stone- dyke at 
 the opposite side, and there awaited for many minutes its master's 
 coming up, when the " quarry " was obtained. The hawk 
 " making to bathe," it was feared that the sport was over, bat she 
 was prevented doing so. The bad effect of bathing is the wetting 
 of the plumage, which greatly impedes the flight. 
 
 Woodcocks have always afforded the best flights with these 
 birds ; and in hawking, I have often witnessed that singular trait 
 in their character, of leaving their quarry the moment it takes to 
 cover.* In this way I recollect what promised to be a good chase, 
 being at once terminated by the woodcock's descent close to a pub- 
 lic road, and as it could not again be sprung, another had to be 
 sought for. When returning home, however, about six hours 
 afterwards, a woodcock was raised from the base of a hedge at 
 the road-side, where the bird had been lost in the morning. It 
 was doubtless the same individual, as, unless pursued, such a 
 place of refuge would certainly not have been chosen. Here, in all 
 probability, this bird, had remained during the day, though many 
 persons must have passed on the footway within a yard of it, but 
 until coming under our notice, it may not have recovered from 
 the fright. On one occasion, a woodcock caught merely (not 
 struck), by a trained falcon of Mr. Sinclaire's, was carried across 
 a ravine, and a few minutes had elapsed before the falconer could 
 
 * Mr. Sinclaire's best falcon pursued woodcocks into dense cover, the first year, so 
 that it was difficult to get her out with safety to her plumage. His falcons, or 
 female birds, which are more savage than the males, geuerally did this the first year, 
 but very rarely afterwards. 
 
42 falconiile. 
 
 come up with her, but even then, on disengaging the captive, it 
 proved so little the worse, as to afford a flight of average length 
 to another falcon. The stroke of this hawk is more fatal than 
 its clutch. Land-rails, as well as woodcocks, in consequence 
 of being seized merely by the wing, have occasionally been carried 
 a considerable way by these birds without injury. 
 
 Mr. Sinclaire, when once on a visit at Eedhall, county of 
 Antrim, after having spent a week there with his hawks and gun, 
 gave up a day specially to this sport, which the neighbouring 
 gentry were invited to witness. The host, on going to have a 
 view of the hawks in the morning, found, to Ins great chagrin, 
 that they were missing. The falconer had given them liberty for 
 an ailing, and it was feared that the intended sport was hopeless. 
 It was afterwards discovered, that, at this very time, the hawks 
 were at their home at the Falls, nearly twenty miles distant, 
 whither they flew on being let off,* but finding no food on 
 the lure there, they retraced their way, and were both back at 
 Eedhall, in time for the chase of the first woodcock that was 
 sprung after breakfast. Their presence was then made known by a 
 t( chevy " that one of them gave the woodcock, which it killed 
 within a few yards of the spot where the ladies were assembled in 
 their carriages to see the flight. The second hawk gave evidence 
 of its presence, by joining the other in pursuit of the next bird 
 that was raised. Six or seven woodcocks were killed by them 
 on that day. My friend's hawks never, in any other instance, 
 flew so far, and returned immediately to him; but they have 
 frequently, from a distance of five or six miles, flown home, and 
 finding no food there, returned to him without delay. 
 
 A woodcock, pursued by a falcon at Redhall, was not only 
 killed, but split open at the breast, by the force with which it 
 accidentally struck against the top of a wall. To the hawks 
 themselves, casualties during the chase have twice occurred. 
 
 * Upon one of the early days of February, 1837, when this gentleman was hawk- 
 ing at some miles distance from his-p lace, one of his falcons was lost in consequence 
 of a heavy fog coming on, but she re-appeared in the hawk-yard a week afterwards ; 
 others of them have similarly returned after a much longer absence. The first flight 
 of a falcon, given by Mr. Sinclaire to a gentleman resident about four miles off, was 
 to her old quarters, from which she had been taken six months before. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 43 
 
 Once, when in close pursuit of a woodcock, the hawk dashed 
 through the drooping spray of a very large and fine weeping ash- 
 tree at the Falls, and both the pursued and pursuer, striking 
 against the stem of the tree, fell to the ground. We may attri- 
 bute this accident to the closely-drooping branches screening the 
 stem from sight ; for it is as surprising as interesting, to witness 
 the extreme adroitness with which the woodcock avoids contact 
 with the stems and branches, in its flight through a dense wood. 
 In this instance, the woodcock was the first to recover. After 
 being allowed a little breathing time, it was able to " shuffle off " 
 to the bank of the adjacent glen, and was generously permitted 
 to make its escape. The hawk, when lifted up, was bleeding at 
 the mouth, but soon recovered. On the other occasion, both 
 woodcock and falcon struck against a large stone in the river at 
 Stormont (county of Down), when the former, though not killed, 
 was quite disabled ; the latter was not much the worse. From three 
 to four brace and a half of woodcocks have been killed in the 
 course of a forenoon by my friend's hawks. During a winter, 
 about fifty brace have been killed by his best falcon in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Belfast. 
 
 These falcons have been flown at, and have put into cover, 
 black game (old hens and young males, but not the old black 
 cock), red grouse, partridge, land-rails, wood quests, rooks, &c* 
 They have occasionally been flown at herons, which, in the olden 
 time, were the chief objects of pursuit, but were never brought 
 up regularly to fly at them. 
 
 Of " Memorabilia," it may be noticed, that once, when for the 
 purpose of grouse-shooting, Mr. Sinclairewas encamped at Mounter- 
 lowney (on the borders of Tyrone and Londonderry), a grouse, pur- 
 sued by a falcon, was put down among the ropes of the tents. On 
 another occasion, an old cock grouse was put into the house of the 
 gamekeeper (Hercules Dean), in the Belfast mountains, and showed 
 fight against the falcon, — the only instance in which my friend 
 ever saw this done on the part of the pursued, — but a second 
 
 * Falcons, or female birds, are preferred to males, from being " more wicked." 
 They wall readily fly at rooks or sea-gulls (L. ridibundus) in the fields, which the 
 males will not always condescend to do. 
 
44 falconid^e. 
 
 stoop, at which he was struck by the talons of the falcon, put an 
 end to all bravado. One of these hawks having caught a land- 
 rail (Crex pratensis) , which it was about to eat on a house-top, 
 instantly gave chase to another rail that was sprung, and, still re- 
 taining its first victim, secured the second with its other foot : — 
 it bore both off together. Heavy birds, on the other hand, are 
 struck to the ground, and there eaten. Mr. Sinclaire's hawks 
 have occasionally struck the head off their " quarry " at a blow, 
 but have never, like one of Colonel Thornton's, divided a snipe 
 in two at a single stroke of the foot. 
 
 The finest flights are those in which the birds " climb the air." 
 Once, when from fifty to sixty spectators were present, a wood- 
 cock sprung near Anderson's Town, in the Falls, " climbed the 
 air," and the hawk swept after him, until both got out of sight, 
 of all persons present, except one, who insisted that the quarry 
 was captured : — it soon proved so, by the hawk's coming down with 
 its victim. The trial between the birds, which should be higher, 
 was so well contested from the moment the woodcock sprung and 
 went right up, that the issue was most eagerly looked to : numerous 
 even bets pended on it. Again, at the head of Colin Glen, in the 
 same district, a woodcock, pursued by one of the hawks, " climbed " 
 until both were lost to view. The death of the woodcock was, 
 however, soon announced, by its rapidly falling through the 
 air until soused in the deep pool of the rocky river, called from 
 the peculiar sound its waters make, the "Rumbling Burn." It 
 was observed on examining the victim, that it had been struck on 
 the back by the hawk, but not laid hold of, which accounted for 
 its coming down singly. 
 
 Tame pigeons are sometimes flown at, in lieu of game, and 
 afford excellent flights. One day, in the autumn of 1842, when 
 a large party, consisting of ladies as well as gentlemen, were as- 
 sembled at Drumlamford, in Ayrshire, there was some splendid 
 hawking at tame pigeons, three of winch flew admirably, and one 
 rose so high into the air that it was lost to the sight of all the 
 numerous spectators but one or two. The hawk succeeded in 
 " putting it in," when the pigeon was found to have been struck 
 
THE PEREGEINE FALCON. 45 
 
 under the wing, which must have happened when it was at 
 the greatest altitude, else the stroke would have been witnessed. 
 
 Actions of Trained Falcons when at liberty. — So well trained 
 were these falcons, that the most intelligent were permitted to be 
 at large at Mr. Sinclaire's country -place, and one would remain 
 for hours together perched on the same spot. A lofty and beauti- 
 ful weeping-birch, whence a fine range of view was commanded, 
 was a favourite perch, but no matter where these birds were about 
 the place, the call of their master, or of the falconer, was imme- 
 diately attended to ; — in a moment they were with him. Ac- 
 customed to be fed in the hawk-yard, they depended on being pro- 
 vided with food there, instead of looking for prey ; but one fine 
 bird was an exception to this rule. On flying to the hawk -yard 
 at the Palls, or at Ballantrae, and finding no food on the " hack," 
 or board on which it is fastened, she would at once sally forth 
 to kill birds for herself. This falcon was so intelligent as to be 
 a particular favourite, and have her full liberty about Ballantrae. 
 She would take flights of several miles from the hawk-yard, and, 
 when ranging free as air, would, on seeing her master out shoot- 
 ing, fly with delight to him, alight on his head or shoulder, and 
 "put in" grouse for him. One day, when shooting with Lord 
 Orkney on his moor there, my friend, quite unaware of the prox- 
 imity of the falcon, fired at a gray hen,* which the hawk, at the 
 same moment, made a stoop at, and was struck by a grain of shot, 
 but fortunately was little injured.f 
 
 Peregrine falcons have occasionally forgotten the proprieties, 
 and abused the liberty accorded to themj at the Falls. They have 
 killed Brent geese of full size, which, with one wing pinioned, 
 were kept on a pond ; a large domestic cock, too, was once attacked, 
 and would have been killed in another moment, had he not been 
 rescued. The following paragraph relates to what may be con- 
 sidered fair game. 
 
 * Brown-/ierc or gr&y-ken are names applied to the female of the black grouse ; 
 the male being commonly called hfock-cock. 
 
 f In the review of a work on Falconry, in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for 
 December, 1842, p. 326, there is an extremely interesting account of a pet falcon. 
 
 \ Watertou mentions wild peregrine falcons attacking the mallards and teal at 
 Walton Hall.— Essay on Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 199. 
 
46 falconidye. 
 
 In December, 1832, one of these birds, which had her liberty 
 there, was observed to fly several times over a pond on which a 
 wild golden-eyed duck (Anas clangula), exhibiting the beautiful 
 plumage of the adult male, had just alighted, and was remarked 
 to keep watch on Mm during the day. At dusk, when wild fowl 
 betake themselves to their feeding haunts, this golden eye depart- 
 ed from the pond, and was perceived by the falcon, which instantly 
 commenced pursuit. After a short chase, she seized and brought 
 him back to the place he had just left, when, by struggling vio- 
 lently, he became disengaged from her grasp, and took refuge in 
 a small and shallow pond. Here again he was persecuted by two 
 persons who had witnessed the above occurrence, and though his 
 wings had not been in the least degree injured, he did not again 
 venture to take flight, but seeking escape only by diving, was 
 eventually captured ; thus affording evidence of the feathered, 
 being more dreaded than the human tyrant.* He was now pin- 
 ioned, and compelled to take up his abode with the other wild- 
 fowl in the aquatic menagerie, a place which, in the unlimited 
 freedom of flight, he had unluckily happened to visit but a few 
 hours before. 
 
 Falcons killing each other, 8fc. — In October, 1833, a female pe- 
 regrine falcon of Mr. Sinclaire's, a bird of that year, and conse- 
 quently but a few months old, having got loose in the hawk-yard, 
 killed a male of her own species, a year or two older than herself. 
 He had the power, too, of moving at least a yard from his block. 
 She had nearly eaten Mm, when the falconer entered the yard to 
 feed them, which he did once daily at a regular hour. TMs female 
 bird was " full fed " the day before, and had never got more than 
 one meal in the day. Montagu relates a similar occurrence in the 
 Supplement to Ms Ornithological Dictionary; and in the latter 
 work, mentions one of Ms sea eagles having eaten the other. 
 About twenty-five years ago, Captain Johnson, of the lsj; battalion 
 of the Bine Brigade, then stationed in the county of Limerick, 
 
 * Birds of all kinds, when put into cover by peregrine falcons, generally allow them- 
 selves to be captured by man, rather than again venture on wing. Grouse and young 
 black-cocks will do so ; and several partridges out of a covey, under such circumstances, 
 have lain until caught by the dogs. 
 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 47 
 
 invited a large party, of which the fair sex, as in the olden time, 
 formed a portion, to a day's hawking ; but on going to the mew, 
 it was found that his peregrine falcon, having obtained her liberty, 
 had killed and devoured a merlin {Falco asalon), her partner in 
 captivity. The misfortune on such an occasion was not only the 
 loss of the merlin, but was two-fold, as the feasting on it prevented 
 the falcon's service in the chase for that day. The female of a 
 pair of fine birds once in the possession of Mr. R. Ball, attacked 
 and devoured a male taken from the same nest, after they had 
 been kept for about a year, but she died a few days afterwards, in 
 consequence of the wounds received in the contest. 
 
 Distances to which Trained Falcons sometimes fly, fyc.< — In the 
 winter of 1820-21, Mr. Sinclaire having lost a trained falcon, knew 
 nothing of her for some months, nor until a paragraph appeared 
 in a Scotch newspaper, stating that a hawk, which had for some 
 time frequented a rookery near Aberdeen, was killed, and on the 
 bells attached to her, the name of " John Sinclaire, Belfast," was 
 engraved. Another of this gentleman's falcons once left him, 
 and took up her abode at a rookery about twelve miles distant 
 from his place, remaining there for about six weeks, when she was 
 again recaptured. When flown at rooks (Corvus frugilegtis) , this 
 bird always struck down several before alighting to prey on one. 
 A person who was eye-witness to the fact assures me, that he once 
 in Scotland saw a trained falcon similarly strike to the ground 
 five partridges in succession out of a covey, before stooping to 
 any one ; but such occurrences are very rare. 
 
 In the summer of 1835, a female bird was shot near Castle 
 Island, county of Kerry, in the act of killing a crow. A silver 
 ring was fixed to her leg, and on it " J. Campbell, Treesbanks, 
 Ayrshire, Scotland," was engraved. The male bird, on the follow- 
 ing day, was shot on the nest, in an old castle, near where the 
 female had been killed.* 
 
 We find a similar circumstance recorded in Borlase's Natural His- 
 tory of Cornwall, published in 1758. But all that is said on the sub- 
 ject of the species, had better be given. He remarks : — 
 
 * Communicated to me by R. Chute, Esq.; also noticed in the Fourth Annual Report 
 of the Dublin Nat. Hist. Society. 
 
48 falconidjE. 
 
 " Among the first [perennial birds] may be reckoned the Hawks, of 
 which we have several sorts : the Marlions, Spar-hawks, Hobbies, and, 
 in some places, the Lannards. In the reign of Elizabeth, the Cornish 
 and Devonshire gentlemen employed a great deal of their time in hatch- 
 ing, nurturing, and instructing them to fly at the Partridge. In Corn- 
 wall at present, this tedious science, which consumes so much of life 
 for so little an end, is now no more, but still exists, it seems, in a 
 neighbouring island ; for being at Trerice (the seat of the present Lord 
 Arundell of Trerice), August 25, 1738, I saw a Hawk, which being 
 overpowered by a Crow, fell near a man at his labour in the field, who 
 perceiving the Hawk quite spent, brought it into the house to a gentle- 
 man then steward to his Lordship. The Hawk was armed, as usual, 
 with silver plates on its legs and neck ; and Mr. Church (so the steward 
 was called) perceiving an inscription engraved, quickly discovered the 
 name of an Irish gentleman, and the place he lived at ; upon this he 
 took great care of the Hawk, and wrote immediately to the gentleman. 
 The bird was a favourite, and the gentleman sent a servant from Ire- 
 land into Cornwall on purpose to fetch it." p. 242. 
 
 In a letter from John Paston, Esquire, to the Knight of the same 
 name, written at Norwich, in 1472 — in the reign of Edward IV. — it 
 is remarked, after a most urgent appeal for a Hawk of any kind rather 
 than none, being sent him from Calais : — " If I have not an Hawk, I 
 shall wax fat for default of labour, and dead for default of company, 
 by my troth."* 
 
 In the autumn and winter I have met with the peregrine fal- 
 con in Ireland, far from its native rocks, and have little doubt 
 that the young birds of the year generally migrate. Risso men- 
 tions it as a bird of passage to the South of Europe, appearing in 
 the autumn and departing in the spring.f About the marine 
 cliffs at Navarino, I saw this species on the 29th April, 1841, and 
 believed it to be breeding there. J 
 
 * Fenn's Original Letters, &c, vol. 2, p. 111. 
 
 t Vol. 3, p. 26, edit. 1826. See Savi's Ornitologia Toscana, vol. 1, p. 41. 
 
 + As Pennant, in treating of the Lanner, remarks, "this species hreeds in Ireland," 
 and Bewick repeats the words, it is perhaps requisite to state, that the true Falco 
 lananus, Linn., has never to my knowledge occurred in this country. The bird called 
 lanner by Pennant, is now considered to be the peregrine falcon at a certain age. 
 There can be little doubt that the " Goshawk" of more than one of our Irish lists is 
 also this species. It is the only English name applied to "Falco peregrinus" in M' 
 Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus. We learn also, from two excelle ntcontribu- 
 
49 
 
 THE HOBBY. 
 
 Falco subbuteo, Linn. 
 
 Has once at least been obtained in Ireland. 
 
 In old county histories and other works, the hobby is mention- 
 ed, but when more than the mere name is given, — as in Smith's 
 Cork, — the observations suggest that some other species is meant. 
 The hobby is there noticed, as breeding " on the sea-coast." Mr. 
 Templeton has remarked, that one was seen during the breeding 
 season of 1800, at the rocks of Ballynascreen mountains; and 
 another in 1802, at Lough Bray rocks, county of Wicklow. I 
 cannot, however, but think that the male peregrine falcon may 
 have been mistaken for the hobby in these instances, as viewed 
 from a distance it might readily be. Specimens were not ob- 
 tained for examination. We read, that it is the nature of the 
 hobby to frequent wooded and cultivated districts, and breed in 
 trees, though from what we know of others of its tribe, rocks 
 in lieu of these might possibly be selected for its eyrie. In Nor- 
 way, indeed, Mr. Hewitson remarks : — "We met with a nest of the 
 hobby, placed upon a projecting ledge of rock on the face of a 
 steep precipice, which, overhung with brushwood, formed a part of 
 the beautiful scenery of one of the lovely lakes of that country."* 
 The specimen, in virtue of which this hawk was recorded as a very 
 rare visitant to Donegal, t is not preserved, and the writer of the 
 notice admits, in a letter to me, that his case is ' ' not proven." 
 Dr. Harvey of Cork kindly informed me to the following effect, 
 in June, 1848: — "1 have lately got information winch leaves no 
 
 tors to Macgillivray's History of British Birds, (vol. i. 182, and vol. iii. p. 303,) 
 that by the name of goshawk, this species is commonly known in Peebles-shire; from 
 which circumstance, and the fact that the peregrine falcon (as I learn from Sir 
 William Jardine) has several eyries in the Moffat hills and other localities not far dis- 
 tant from the Border, I cannot but believe that it must often have been the bird so 
 pleasingly introduced in the old Scottish ballads, as the "gay goshawk," &c. — Sec the 
 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and other works. The frequency with which it 
 is mentioned, would, of itself, lead us to believe that the bird was either common in 
 the country, or that the name was applied to some common species. The peregrine 
 falcon, I presume, must have been at all periods more frequent in Scotland than the 
 goshawk. 
 
 *Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 15. 
 t Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. 5. p. 579. 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 FALCONDXffi. 
 
 doubt on my mind of the hobby having occurred in this county. 
 On a late visit to my friend Mr. Eichard Parker, I saw, for the 
 first time, amongst his beautiful paintings, a hawk, winch I could 
 not for a moment hesitate in recognising as a hobby; the history 
 of it is tins : — A brother of his shot on the garden wall of Car- 
 rigrohan, the family mansion, in the summer of 1822 (?), a hawk 
 which presented so unusual an appearance, that he made a colour- 
 ed drawing of it. The size he describes as having been between 
 that of a merlin and a kestrel. The painting is an exact copy of 
 the coloured drawing in all respects but size, and it certainly 
 answers critically the description of the hobby. The dark spots 
 on the lower parts are longitudinally disposed. 
 
 Carrigrohan is wooded and inland — three or four miles up the 
 river from Cork." 
 
 The Hobby is called a rare summer visitant to England, but 
 very little information is given respecting it as such; it seems not 
 to have been met with in the north of that country, nor in 
 Scotland. 
 
 THE BED-FOOTED EALCON. 
 
 Orange-legged Hobby. 
 
 Falco rufipes, Besecke. 
 vesjpertinus, Gmel. 
 
 Is an extremely rare visitant. 
 
 Its occurrence in Ireland was first noticed, in a communication 
 which I made to the Zoological Society of London (in June, 1835), 
 respecting an immature specimen obtained in the county of Wick- 
 low, in the summer of 1832. This bird was preserved for the 
 collection of T. W. Warren, Esq. of Dublin, by whose kindness 
 it was exhibited on that occasion. The specimen was given to 
 Mr. Warren by a gentleman who shot it in his yard, just as it 
 had pounced at a pigeon of at least its own size, which, with the 
 hawk, fell dead at the one discharge. In March, 1833, Mr. W. 
 S. Wall, bird preserver, mentioned to me, that he had iu October, 
 1830, received a hobby in a fresh state, from Bally veolan, 
 
THE MERLIN. 51 
 
 county of Wicklow. My informant knew the. species of birds so 
 well, that the individual in question must doubtless have been 
 either the Falco subbuteo or F. rufipes ; probably the latter, as a 
 flight of them appeared in England that year. 
 
 Very few specimens of F. rufipes, — a native chiefly of the more 
 eastern half of temperate Europe, — have been taken in England, 
 and the first on record, was procured in 1830. Their second ap- 
 pearance in that country was in 1832, in which year the first 
 mentioned specimen was obtained in Ireland. The species has 
 not been met with in Scotland. 
 
 THE MERLIN. 
 
 Falco cesalon, Gmel. 
 
 Is indigenous both in the north and south of the island. 
 
 It breeds about Claggan, in the county of Antrim; and its 
 nest, as well as that of the marsh and hen harrier, has been 
 found on the ground, among the heath, by the gamekeeper in va- 
 rious years. On the Mounterlowney and other mountains of 
 Londonderry and Tyrone, some of my sporting friends have met 
 with their nests, and young birds have been brought thence to Bel- 
 fast, to W. Sinclaire, Esq., who in due time trained them to the 
 pursuit of larks and snipes. In Donegal, the merlin is occasion- 
 ally met with in summer, but more commonly in winter, on and 
 after the first week of October.* The intelligent gamekeeper at 
 Tollymore Park (Down), states that this species breeds regularly 
 in the mountains of Mourne, where, in the summer of 1836 (when 
 the information was supplied), he saw four of their nests. The 
 young have frequently been brought from the neighbourhood of 
 Clonmel (Tipperary), to Mr. E. Davis, jun., of that town; as 
 they have likewise been from the vicinity of Youghal (Cork) to 
 Mr. R. Ball. A nest "in the Commeragh mountains (Waterford) 
 was merely a slight depression in the peaty soil, arched over with 
 heather, and situated on the edge of an enormous detached rock, 
 near the foot of the mountain. "t The species is common in 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. f Mr. J. Poole. 
 
 E 2 
 
 U. OF ill. ua 
 
52 FALCONIDJE. 
 
 Kerry .* There can be little doubt of the merlin's frequenting, 
 generally, the mountainous parts of the country suited to it. The 
 nests, by all who had seen them, were said to have been invari- 
 ably on the ground among the heath.f This species, though 
 breeding regularly in the south of Ireland, is said to be rare, and 
 only seen in winter in the southern English counties of Devon 
 and Cornwall. J 
 
 At the approach of winter, both the adult and immature mer- 
 lins descend to the low grounds, where they sometimes remain 
 until spring is far advanced. The 10th of September is the 
 earliest date of its occurrence, to an accurate observer, in the 
 more cultivated districts of Wexford. About Belfast, I have 
 known it to appear so early as the end of July ; and so late in 
 spring as the 17th of April. There may not improbably be a 
 limited migration of merlins to our lower grounds at the beginning 
 of winter, more, I think, being seen during this season than are 
 bred in Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Poole communicated the following note, dated March 7 th, 
 1848: — "A merlin has taken up his residence in a small grove 
 near my house during the past winter, and at any time after dusk 
 I can be sure of finding him there, generally in or near the same 
 tree. He is remarkably tame, and on being startled, merely flies 
 into a neighbouring tree ; even after firing two barrels at him, he 
 pitched again in the same grove. I once took, as I believed, a 
 most deadly aim at this bird in the dusk, and on going to the base 
 of the tree to pick him up as a matter of certainty, was astonished 
 to find that he had never left the spot at which he was fired at, 
 but remained quietly perched there, about twelve or fifteen feet 
 above my head, apparently in the quiet enjoyment of his night's 
 
 * Mr. T. F. Neligan. 
 t Temminck notices the merlin as breeding in trees, and Mr. Hewitson, when in 
 Norway, had the eggs brought to him from a tree ; he subsequently found one of 
 their nests himself, near the top of a tall spruce fir. In Dunn's Ornithologist's 
 Guide to Orkney and Shetland, (published in 1837,) it is stated, that "like the pe- 
 regrine, it chooses the most inaccessible parts of the rocks for breeding places," 
 p. 75. The merlin and peregrine falcon were the only species of hawks met with by 
 the author in those islands. 
 
 X Yarrell, Brit. Birds. 
 
THE MERLIN. 53 
 
 repose. After some time he seemed to awake from his slumbers, 
 and, discovering my intrusion, quickly decamped." The same 
 gentleman remarks, that a merlin which he once saw attacked by 
 a number of swallows, was by no means satisfied to put up with 
 their insults tamely, as a kestrel or a sparrow-hawk would have 
 done, but darted about after the tormentors, and descended upon 
 them from above in so furious a manner as quickly to put them 
 to flight. 
 
 On March the 9th, 1832, when walking on the shore of Bel- 
 fast Bay, as the tide was flowing, I observed a merlin for some 
 time coursing above the uncovered banks, the edge of the waves 
 being the limit to his flight. This at once led me to believe he 
 was in search of prey, which was confirmed by his giving chase to 
 a large flock of dunlins (Tringa variabilis), in pursuit of which 
 he disappeared. The oldest of the "shore-shooters" in Belfast 
 Bay has often seen hawks, which were believed to be merlins, follow 
 and kill dunlins on the banks at low water. This occurred more 
 frequently in the autumn than at any other season. The merlin's 
 thus resorting to the sea-shore has very rarely been noticed by 
 authors: the weather was mild in the instances alluded to.* 
 Another shooter since assured me, that he has frequently seen the 
 merlin in autumn, and early in winter, about the beach of the 
 bay, sometimes even daily during a week. Its visits are, he be- 
 lieves, for the purpose of obtaining wounded birds ; but he has 
 likewise seen it single a dunlin from a flock and pursue it, though 
 not always with success. In one instance, he shot a merlin in the 
 act of destroying one of these birds. The black-headed gull (La- 
 rus ridibundus), too, he has seen pursued, though not killed, by 
 hawks here ; but the assailants of that bird, he remarks, may have 
 been peregrine falcons. The merlin is occasionally seen perched 
 on large stones, winch rise above the waters of the estuary. 
 
 * Mr. Dunn, in his little work on Orkney and Shetland, already alluded to, remarks 
 of the merlin : — " I have frequently shot it from my hoat, while in the act of chasing 
 small birds on the water," p. 75. In the 3d vol. of his History of Brit. Birds, p. 322, 
 published in 1840, Mr. Macgillivray mentioned his having snot a merlin at Mussel- 
 burgh, that had just secured a sanderling, after along pursuit. It is the only shere- 
 bird noticed in th^work as pursued by this hawk. 
 
54 FALCONID.E. 
 
 A person fishing in the bay, at the end of October, 1840, 
 when about a quarter of a mile from the shore, saw a redshank 
 pursued by a hawk (merlin ?) dash into the water, so as almost to 
 conceal itself beneath the surface. The hawk then rose into the 
 the air and soared, 
 
 "And the merlin hung in the middle air 
 
 With his little wings outspread, 
 As if let down from the heavens there 
 By a viewless silken thread ;"* 
 
 while the redshank sought to make its escape ; but so often as 
 this was done, it was " put down" in a similar manner. Thus the 
 two birds went out of sight, leaving the result of the chase un- 
 known. The cry of the redshank is described to have been most 
 piteous. 
 
 A gentleman residing at Moyallen (county of Down), who has 
 merlins trained for the chase, frequently flies them at tame pigeons, 
 which they kill well. Mr. W. Sinclaire has remarked to me, that 
 when living prey was given to his merlins, they instantaneously 
 extinguished life, whether or not they at the same time began feed- 
 ing ; while, under similar circumstances, the peregrine falcon has 
 retained a bird in his grasp for some time, putting an end to its 
 existence only when urged by hunger, though, like the merlin, 
 when it did commence, the most vital part was invariably the first 
 " entered upon." His sparrow-hawks, it need hardly be added, 
 began feeding indiscriminately on any part of the living objects 
 offered them. 
 
 The remains of food contained in four out of five merlins examin- 
 ed by me, were, in each, one small bird ; in the fifth, were three 
 skylarks. 
 
 The merlin breeds in the mountain-heaths at Aberarder, Inver- 
 ness-shire, and has been observed in the low grounds there by the 
 middle of August. To the 1st of October, — the time of my own 
 departure in 1842, — I observed the species there; and about Me- 
 garnie Castle, in Perthshire, I have seen it on the 22nd of that 
 month. One of these birds, brought to Mr. E. Langtry at the 
 
 * Hogg. * 
 
THE KESTREL. 55 
 
 former locality, was captured in a cottage, which it entered by 
 dashing through a pane of the window, in sparrow-hawk fashion, 
 after a yellow bunting. Tins merlin was a female, as was another 
 sent to him, which had been shot there, after having twice " put 
 down" a ring-dove or wood-quest. This bird, though double its 
 own weight, would have been killed at the second stoop, had not 
 a sportsman, who witnessed the whole occurrence, shot the mer- 
 lin, when in the act of seizing its prey. 
 
 THE KESTREL. 
 
 Wind-hover. 
 
 Falco tinnuneuhts, Linn. 
 
 Is common and indigenous to suitable localities through- 
 out the island. 
 
 The chosen locality for the eyrie of the peregrine falcon is 
 always of such a nature as is suited to the kestrel, which we are 
 almost certain to find there, be the place inland or marine ; but 
 much more humble cliffs than the larger bird would deign to 
 occupy, are tenanted by the smaller one. Throughout the whole 
 range of noble basaltic precipices in the north-east of Ireland, I 
 have remarked the presence of the kestrel. Where there are no 
 cliffs, its nest is placed in ruined buildings, church towers,* trees, 
 and occasionally in pigeon-houses. This bird is but a poor 
 architect When trees are selected for its eyrie, the ruined nest 
 of other species (generally of the magpie, or some one of the 
 Corvidce) is used for the purpose ; and " among rocks or ruins it 
 seems to make no nest, but lays its eggs on the natural or arti- 
 ficial floor."t A kestrel, after having been kept for four years 
 at Castle Warren (co. Cork), laid eggs for the first time in April, 
 1848, and when four were deposited in the nest, commenced sit- 
 
 * The only place of this kind in the neighbourhood of Belfast, that I know to be 
 selected for the purpose, is the tower of Ballylesson church, which alone, of the many 
 edifices of this description in our populous neighbourhood, contains a set of musical 
 bells. (Note of 1838.) 
 
 f Mr. J. Poole. 
 
56 FALCONUXffi. 
 
 ting intently on them. The eggs were of large size, and as vivid 
 in colouring as those of wild individuals. This bird had not the 
 company of any other kestrel during its captivity. Being pur- 
 chased in the market, its age is not known .* 
 
 Although the kestrel is the most common of the Falconidee in 
 Ireland, I have not met with it so abundantly anywhere in this 
 island, as it is said by Sir William Jardine and Mr. Waterton to 
 be in Scotland and England. The former author observes : — 
 " We know several glens where, within a quarter of a mile, there 
 may in April and May be found from ten to twelve eyries ; and, 
 in one situation, eight or nine can be perceived at once."t Mr. 
 Waterton remarks: — "Last summer [1835] I visited twenty- 
 four nests in my park, all with the wind-hover's eggs in 
 them."J 
 
 In an extent of glen such as that noticed, we should not, in the 
 north of Ireland, find more than one or two nests. The reason of 
 the species being less numerous in this island than in Great 
 Britain, may perhaps in some degree be accounted for, by the 
 circumstance, that there are comparatively few of the smaller 
 Mammalia on which the kestrel chiefly preys. Of the Arvicolce, 
 or short-tailed mice, for instance, of which four species are found 
 in Great Britain, none have yet been detected in Ireland ; and of 
 the Sorices, or shrew-mice, we have as yet in Ireland met with 
 but two, (or one-half of the British species,) one only of which 
 is common. 
 
 Willoughby says of the kestrel : — " In the stomach we found 
 beetles and fur of mice;" Mr. Waterton also writes to the same 
 effect, adding that it lives " almost entirely on mice." Mr. Hep- 
 burn, an attentive observer and a contributor of much interesting 
 matter to Macgillivray's History of British Birds, remarks, that 
 " birds constitute no part of its food," vol. iii. p. 335. These 
 gentlemen are doubtless correct with regard to the food of the 
 kestrel, in the districts from which they have written ; — but their 
 
 * Mr. Kobert Warren, junr. f Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
 % Essays Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 261. 
 
THE KESTKEL. 57 
 
 observations will not apply to those in Scotland, whence Mr. Mac- 
 gillivray had specimens, as he informs us they contained the 
 remains of birds of various species, though mice are considered by 
 him to be the chief food of this hawk (p. 331). Nor will the 
 observations quoted apply to Ireland, where, judging from the 
 stomachs that I have examined, and other means of knowledge, 
 mice constitute but a small portion of the kestrel's food ; 
 still, for what the species does kill of these vermin, its life 
 should be preserved, and not sacrificed, as it is by every game- 
 keeper.* 
 
 Of four birds examined by me in 1838, as to their food ; the 
 first contained the remains of a young hare or rabbit ; the second 
 (killed in the middle of December), insects only, consisting of 
 three dor-beetles of a small species ( Geotrupes vernalis ?) and the 
 elytra of a Carabus, or common "clock;" — the third was filled 
 with the remains of a bird ; the fourth (in April) wholly with 
 beetles (Coleoptera), and the larvae of insects. Mr. J. R. Garrett 
 states that to his house near Belfast, the gable of which being 
 covered with ivy was consequently the resort of many sparrows, 
 a kestrel came almost daily at sunset, when these birds had col- 
 lected together to roost, and always captured one of them, after 
 which exploit the locality was not revisited on that day.f A 
 kestrel, observed by the same gentleman hovering in summer 
 above a mountain tarn, was shot by him, and "in its stomach 
 
 * The keeper at Hillsborough Park (co. Down) remarked, when robbing a nest of 
 five young, in the last week of May, 1848, then twelve days out, that it contained a 
 couple of mice. The down with which the young are covered is white, but when 
 viewed en masse, of a light sandy-coloured tinge ; their irides are bluish-black. These 
 birds were produced in the old nest of a magpie. 
 
 f This is quite a counterpart to the sparrow-hawk described by Mr. Waterton 
 (under Kestrel), as frequently bearing off one of the inmates of the starling tower at 
 Walton Hall. Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, remarks, in a letter to me, that " the 
 boldness of some hawks, when in pursuit of prey, is truly astonishing. I recollect 
 one evening in the summer of 1835, being struck by the appearance of a sparrow 
 which alighted in a myrtle within two yards of me, and hopped backwards and for- 
 wards within a space of about eight or ten inches, evidently in a state of extreme 
 terror. For the few moments that it continued thus, my attention was exclusively 
 attracted by its most peculiar motions, but almost at the same instant I felt as if 
 something brushed my head (my hat being off at the time), and before I could turn 
 to ascertain the cause, a female kestrel dashed at the sparrow and bore it off." This, 
 as well as what is mentioned above, seems rather the act of a sparrow-hawk than a 
 
58 FALCONUXffi. 
 
 were found shrimp-like creatures, quite transparent;" — probably 
 the larvse of dragon-flies {IAbellula), which it was presumed could 
 only be obtained at, or near, the surface of the water. It was 
 remarked of a tame kestrel kept by him, that when birds or mice 
 were given to it, the eyes were always picked out at the com- 
 mencement of the repast. One in the possession of my corres- 
 pondent in Wexford, always refused thrushes, but accepted larks, 
 chaffinches, and field-mice. Once, when this bird was set at 
 liberty, it flew into a high tree containing numbers of goldfinches 
 and green-linnets, all of which kept their places regardless of its 
 presence. Prom this circumstance, it may perhaps be fairly in- 
 ferred that the kestrels of that neighbourhood are not much given 
 to preying upon small birds.' 35 ' I have remarked the kestrel 
 abroad at a very early hour in the winter morning ; and 
 Mr. Poole notes his having " observed one on the morning 
 of the 11th of November, examining a stubble field before 7 
 o' clock, when there seemed little enough of light for an owl to 
 plunder by." 
 
 kestrel, but both my informants are good ornithologists, and know the difference 
 between the species well. The following occurrence, in which the kestrel is made 
 the hero, is also less in unison with the general character of this species than with 
 that of its congener. In November, 1845, as Mr. J. O'Neil Higginson was in a 
 coach proceeding from Belfast to Antrim, a skylark pursued by a kestrel flew into 
 the coach (the window being open) when near Templepatrick, and alighted at his 
 back. Feeling confident that it had taken refuge from some bird of prey, he gently 
 laid hold of, and carried the lark for some distance, until certain that it would be 
 beyond the reach of its pursuer, when it was given liberty. A friend of Mr. Hig- 
 ginson's travelling outside the coach, observed the hawk to sweep close past the 
 vehicle, but did not perceive the lark. 
 
 * Dr. Wilde, when in the desert, between the pyramids of Gaza and Dashoor, at 
 the end of January, remarks ; — " I was not a little surprised at the good feeling and 
 familiarity that seemed to exist between them [swallows] and numbers of kestrelsf 
 that flew round with the most graceful motion, now skimming in rapid flight along 
 the sands, and anon balanced on extended wing for minutes together, ere they 
 pounced upon their quarry. Their prey was not birds, but a large species of grass 
 or sand-hopper, with remarkably brilliant crimson legs. The wings and back of this 
 insect were the exact colour of the sand, so that when the animal lay quiet on the 
 ground, not even the eye of a hawk could distinguish it. The bird, however, marked 
 with unerring accuracy the spot whereon it alighted, and remained hovering over it 
 as described, till the insect again took flight, when its red legs, and the under part 
 of the body, rendering it very conspicuous, he pounced upon it while on the wing. 
 But neither did this hawk appear to mind the smaller birds, nor did they, as if aware 
 of their security, seem to pay the least attention to him." Narrative of a voyage to 
 Madeira, the Mediterranean, &c, including a visit to Egypt, &c, 2nd edit. p. 252. 
 t Possibly Falco tinnunculoides. 
 
THE KESTREL. 59 
 
 Mr. Macgillivray observes, that the kestrel never hovers in 
 pursuit of prey " at a greater distance from the ground than forty 
 feet;" but, in the north of Ireland, it is commonly, when so 
 occupied, at double or treble that height in the air. Its elevation 
 above the ground is probably proportioned according to the prey 
 sought for ; small birds, we may presume, being seen from a much 
 greater height than mice. 
 
 The kestrel has been so far trained by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, as, 
 when given its liberty, to attend and soar above him like the pere- 
 grine falcon, and fly at small birds let off from the hand. One of 
 these hawks, kept by this gentleman in the town of Belfast, 
 had its freedom, and went every evening to roost in an ex- 
 tensive plantation in the country, about a mile distant, in flying 
 to and from which it was first recognised by the sound of the bells 
 attached to its legs. Tins bird returned regularly to its town 
 domicile at an early hour in the morning. 
 
 Mr. Rd. Langtry has often seen a wild kestrel rise from the 
 enclosure in which his eagles, &c, were kept, but never having 
 observed it to carry away anything, knew not whether food or 
 curiosity (which we frequently see displayed by birds,) may have 
 been the cause of its visit. 
 
 Often as I have seen swallows follow in the train of birds of 
 prey, I never, but in the following instance, saw one of them be- 
 come the pursued. On September the 22nd, 1832, when walk- 
 ing with a friend in the garden at Wolf-hill, near Belfast, a male 
 kestrel, in close pursuit of a swallow {Hirundo rustica), appeared 
 in sight over the hedge-row, and with extreme ferocity continued 
 the chase, losing not the least way by the swallow's turnings, but 
 keeping within about a foot of it all the time. At one moment 
 they passed within five or six yards of our heads. It is idle to 
 conjecture how long the pursuit may have lasted before we 
 witnessed it, but immediately on the kestrel's giving up the 
 chase, the swallow, nothing daunted, became again, accompanied 
 by many of its species, its pursuer, and so continued until 
 they all disappeared. The kestrel was probably forced to this 
 chase by the particular annoyance of the swallows, as they 
 
60 falconidjE. 
 
 and the martins {Hirunclo urbica) had been more numerous on 
 that day at Wolf-hill, than at any time during the season. 
 
 Notwithstanding the numbers of these birds bred at Walton 
 Hall, we are told that " during the winter there is scarcely a 
 wind-hover to be found" there. Such, also, is said to be the 
 case in the eastern parts of Mid Lothian ;* but Mr. Macgillivray 
 remarks, that in the districts bordering the Frith of Forth, they 
 are as numerous, perhaps even more so, in winter than in summer, 
 adding, that probably, " like the merlin, this species merely mi- 
 grates from the interior to the coast." In the north of Ireland 
 generally, kestrels seem to be quite as numerous in winter as in 
 summer, in their usual haunts. 
 
 I have observed this species to be not uncommon in Switzer- 
 land and Italy. The first winch was seen, on our proceeding in 
 H.M.S. Beacon from Malta to the Morea, at the end of April, 
 1841, was a single individual, which flew close past the vessel 
 when sixty miles west of the Morea, and forty-five distant from 
 Zante, the nearest land. We saw the kestrel about Navarino at 
 the period just mentioned, and in the month of June met with it 
 at the cliffs of an islet north-east of Port Naussa, in Paros, where 
 it was believed to have an eyrie. When Dr. J. L. Drummond 
 was, many years ago, in the Renown (74 gun ship), off Toulon, 
 some hundreds of male kestrels, on their way from the south, 
 alighted, quite exhausted, on the rigging, and so many were caught 
 by the sailors, that for some time there was hardly a berth with- 
 out its kestrel. The weather was moderate at the time. My 
 friend kept one of them alive for several weeks by feeding it on 
 salt meat, steeped for some time in fresh water. But none of 
 the birds lived long, in consequence of no fresh food being obtain- 
 able for them. 
 
 The Little Kestrel, Falco tbmunculoides. — In a review which 
 appeared in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany (vol. ii. p. 352), of 
 the French Scientific Expedition to the Morea, the writer states that 
 he had long been aware of this bird being common in Greece ; that it 
 
 * Mr. Hepburn in Macg. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 334. 
 
THE LITTLE KESTREL. 61 
 
 is likewise so at Seville, and all the cities in the south of Spain, and as 
 far north as Toledo. He adds, that " a very moderate flight, to a 
 bird accustomed as this is to remain the whole day on the wing, would 
 waft it from the western coast of the Peninsula to the nearest part of 
 Ireland ;" and calls my attention to the subject, in consequence of my 
 having, in a paper published a short time before, alluded to kestrels, 
 as breeding in the towers of churches, — favourite haunts of F. tinnun- 
 culoides in Spain. In Ireland, however, this species has not yet been 
 met with ; and should it ever appear, a " flying visit " is the most 
 that can be expected from it. 
 
 In the Morea, I have with great pleasure watched the elegant and 
 playful evolutions of this interesting miniature of the kestrel. On the 
 28th of April, 1841, during my first delightful walk there, along the 
 eastern side of the bay of Navarino, so grand in scenery and admirably 
 rich in varied vegetable forms, this bird was met with. On visiting 
 the island of Sphacteria (the scene of Byron's " Corsair"), the next 
 day, eight of them appeared for a long time in company upon the wing, 
 about a lofty cliff rising precipitously from the sea, and on the ledges 
 of which they occasionally alighted, probably having eyries there. 
 When riding in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, a month afterwards, I 
 again saw this species, as 1 did in the month of June about the Acro- 
 pobs at Athens, and above the ruins of the castle at Patras. At the 
 last place, a party of six was for some time observed going through 
 their graceful evolutions.* At Malta, I remarked, — but at too great 
 a distance for the species to be determined, — either this bird or the 
 kestrel ; which the F. tinnunculoides does not wholly replace in the 
 south of Europe, as both may occasionally be found in the same loca- 
 hties. Every place, too, in which the latter was observed by me, 
 would have equally suited its more northern congener. We occasion- 
 ally saw both species at one view, as, in a similar case, we did the 
 Common and the Alpine Swift (Cypselus opus and C. melba). The 
 two kinds of Kestrel were thus seen on the precipitous western side of 
 
 * As many kestrels will sometimes be seen disporting together about the fine 
 cliffs at the Cavehill, near Belfast. Baron Von Waltershausen — a gentleman dis- 
 tinguished for his most elaborate scientific investigations at Mount Etna — when at 
 the former locality with me, at the beginning of August, 1845, remarked, on seeing 
 from M 'Art's Fort, a kestrel hovering below, that he had once found a bird of this 
 species lying dead, though without the appearance of having sustained any injury, 
 within the crater of Mount Etna. May not the sulphureous fumes have caused its 
 death ? The F. tinnunculoides was obtained there, by ordinary means, on the same 
 day. 
 
62 FALCONHXafi. 
 
 the island of Sphacteria, where the peregrine falcon also presented 
 itself. The small size of the F. tinnuncuhides readily marks its species 
 to the ornithologist, with whom it at once becomes a favourite, and 
 courts his attention almost like a pet bird. 
 
 THE GOSHAWK. 
 
 AsUir palumbarius, Linn, (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ 
 
 Cannot be included in the Irish Fauna with certainty. 
 
 Mr. Templeton, in his MS., remarked under " Goshawk :" 
 " I have seen a young one, got at the rocks of Magilligan, county 
 of Londonderry," and " a specimen [is] in the Dublin Museum." 
 He noted also, under " Gentil Falcon" (another name for the 
 same species), "on the 25th of July, 1809, I saw at Carrickfergus 
 a stuffed specimen that had been shot at the Gobbins." 
 
 I have no doubt that the peregrine falcon,* a bird to which 
 both the names just used have occasionally been applied, and 
 that still breeds at the Gobbins, is here meant. It likewise is 
 probably the species alluded to, as at Magilligan, for nowhere are 
 there rocks better suited to its eyrie. When I visited the loca- 
 lity, in the summer of 1833, the common buzzard had a nest 
 there. It is not stated where the specimen in the Dublin Muse- 
 um was obtained. 
 
 Bird preservers have told me of goshawks, killed in Ireland, 
 having been sent to them to be set up, but the species has neither 
 been seen by myself, nor by any of my correspondents throughout 
 the island. It is not, however, by any means improbable that the 
 bird may be an occasional visitant. 
 
 * For the peregrine falcon being called goshawk, see that species, p. 48, foot- 
 note. The latter term is applied by the peasantry and others, (who should be better 
 informed, to any of the larger Falconida?, such as the common buzzard, &c. 
 
63 
 
 THE SPARROW-HAWK. 
 
 Accipiter nisus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ 
 
 Is common, at all seasons, throughout the enclosed and 
 wooded parts of Ireland.* 
 
 In such localities, we are often attracted by this beautiful 
 creature, — with the exception of the kestrel, the most common 
 of the Ealconidse, — sweeping in silence past us, in a flight equally 
 characterized by power and elegance. Approaching silently, it 
 appears meteor-like, but for a moment, as a graceful sweep of 
 wing bears it over the fence, and its flight onward being towards 
 the ground, it is wholly lost to our sight. Its boldness is ex- 
 treme ; but this we almost forgive on account of its undaunted 
 spirit. Many instances of this trait having been made known to 
 me, the most striking shall be given, as illustrating the character 
 of the species. 
 
 A keen-sighted friend has mentioned, what, indeed, is not un- 
 common with respect to the celerity of the flight of the sparrow- 
 hawk ; — one sweeping closely past him towards a flock of wag- 
 tails, and bearing a victim away so suddenly, that he could not 
 tell whether it was seized on the ground, or on the wing. 
 
 As remarked by Robert Evatt, Esq., Mount Louise, county 
 of Monaghan : — 
 
 " When the flocks of linnets, chaffinches, and other little birds 
 assemble of a winter evening to roost among the laurels and young 
 spruce round the house, and their happy noisy chatter tells us 
 what a fuss they are making about their perching-places, the 
 sparrow-hawk comes through the midst of them, from some un- 
 expected quarter, and scatters them like chaff before the wind. 
 The first intimation of his presence is often his departure, and 
 the death screech of his captive. 
 
 " The old birds are constantly seen darting through the woods 
 after young thrushes and black -birds, then alighting on the bough 
 
 * I have, both in Ireland and Scotland, remarked it to be comparatively scarce in 
 wild and unenclosed districts, though containing abundance of wood. 
 
64 falconidjE. 
 
 of a tree, and making another stoop. The rapidity of their move- 
 ments, and the sudden turns which they make to avoid coming 
 in contact with the branches, is truly astonishing. Although he 
 glides like an arrow through the wood, the sparrow-hawk falls 
 more frequently before cock-shooting parties than other birds of 
 prey. True, his quick perceptions give him full notice of the 
 sportsman's advance with his noisy beaters ; yet all the ' ' feathered 
 songsters of the grove" being just then in confusion, he hovers 
 about to take advantage of their unguarded movements, until some 
 sportsman brings him to the ground. 
 
 " Very often, of a summer evening, the shrill whistle of some 
 little bird directs attention to the sparrow-hawk as he returns 
 home, flying high in air, with a bird in his talons. I am inclined 
 to think they carry their prey considerable distances, having often 
 watched them flying off with it, at a good height, and in a straight 
 line, until they left my sight in the direction of some woods. 
 Nor does the male bird always make his repast in peace, for in 
 July last, while riding along a road through a wood, two sparrow- 
 hawks crossed me about twenty times. One had some small 
 bird in his talons ; the other hawk (a female, perhaps his own 
 partner), followed him everywhere, while he twisted and turned 
 in all directions, throwing her out at the turns. I watched them 
 for a quarter of an hour, and then rode on. 
 
 " A sparrow-hawk robbed me of a little snow-white pea-fowl, a 
 few days old, — the only white one in a brood of five, — singling it 
 out from the others while they were all being fed by a lady at her 
 hall-door steps." 
 
 As a gamekeeper at Ormeau, the seat of the Marquis of 
 Donegal, near Belfast, was one day feeding young pheasants, a 
 sparrow-hawk swept close past his feet, and bore off one of the 
 innocents. On attempting, the next day, to repeat the same feat 
 of dexterity, its life fell a sacrifice; the keeper, in expectation of 
 another visit, having come armed with his gun to the feeding- 
 ground. 
 
 At the end of October, 1840, as two shooters, in a boat in 
 Belfast bay, had just fired at and killed a few dunlins (Tringa va- 
 
THE SPARROW-HAWK. 65 
 
 riabilis), a male sparrow-hawk dashed through the smoke the 
 moment after the discharge, poised himself beautifully, so that he 
 might not be wetted by " the stoop," drooped his legs, and with 
 the talons of both feet seizing one of the victims from the surface 
 of the water, bore it off to the trees on the shore. He was within 
 a near shot pf the fowlers in the boat, but, fortunately for the 
 bold pilferer, no second gun was charged, or he might have paid 
 the penalty with his life. This species has been shot on the 
 zostera banks of the bay, at low water, when in pursuit of prey. 
 
 Boldness about houses, fyc. — In October, 1833, Dr. J. D. Mar- 
 shall received an old female sparrow-hawk, winch, in pursuit of 
 a thrush {Turclus musicus), followed it into a cottage in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Belfast, where both were secured. On some stuffed 
 birds being placed near this hawk, she dashed fiercely at them. 
 Bent on spoliation, the sparrow-hawk scruples not to enter even 
 the church itself ; a male bird having, some years ago, been caught 
 by the sexton in Newtownbreda church (co. Down), whither it 
 had pursued a robin.* 
 
 A correspondent once received a fine female bird which was 
 shot in a little garden in the centre of the town of Clonmel, where, 
 some doves in a cage attracting her attention, she had made at- 
 tempts to tear one of them out through the bars. To kill a little 
 bird in its cage, remarks Mr. Evatt, is, with the sparrow-hawk, a 
 very common practice. Even within a room with closed windows, 
 caged birds are not free from its attacks. Some years ago, at 
 Springvale, county of Down, one dashed through a pane of the 
 drawing-room window at a small bird caged within, to the no 
 little alarm and astonishment of several members of the family. 
 An observant friend, when one day driving into Belfast, remarked, 
 almost immediately in front of the vehicle, a sparrow-hawk to 
 dash down at a fieldfare, and strike the ground with so much vio- 
 
 * The peregrine falcon, though much more powerful, does not carry its boldness 
 to such extremes as the sparrow-hawk. An instance may be given : — One day in 
 the middle of August, when on the elevated downs above Steephill Castle, 
 Isle of Wight, I was astonished by a sudden rush of wind near me, and on turning 
 my eyes instantaneously to the quarter whence it came, saw an old male peregrine 
 falcon swoop at a wheatear on the ground, about ten paces from me ; but he did not 
 seize the bird, evidently from being deterred by my proximity. 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 falconidjE. 
 
 lence as to raise a cloud of dust. It rolled over the body several 
 times, — measuring, at least, half the breadth of the road, — before 
 recovering itself. It is not, therefore, surprising that tins species 
 should sometimes fall a victim to its temerity. On the ] 2th of 
 August, 1847, an adult male was killed by flying against one of 
 the windows of Belfast College, about seven o'clock in the evening. 
 It was seen by some of the boys outside of the building, to strike 
 against, and break the window, in pursuit of a small bird, which, 
 however, by some means escaped. The porter, hearing the crash 
 of glass, hurried instantly to the room, and found the hawk on 
 the floor perfectly dead. The taxidermist who skinned it, looked 
 particularly to ascertain the cause of death, but no injury what- 
 ever was apparent, except that a globule of blood was seen 
 through the skull, upon the brain : the skull itself was quite 
 whole. The bird had evidently died of concussion of the brain. 
 
 Efforts of its intended victims to escape. — Rarely is there any 
 possibility of escape for the poor victims. But I remember once 
 being astonished at the quickness with which a flock of sparrows 
 dashed into the midst of a thick hedge, on the appearance of one 
 of these hawks, the swiftness of whose flight seemed as if it must 
 have secured him one of them. The sparrows, however, having 
 timely perceived their enemy's approach, contrived to save them- 
 selves.* 
 
 * The following occurrence, though not happening on Irish ground, was witnessed 
 by so accurate an observer, Wm, Ogilby, Esq., that I cannot resist introducing it 
 here: — " I once," he remarks (about the year 1832), "had an opportunity, from on 
 board a Ramsgate steamer, of witnessing a curious pursuit of a thrush by a sparrow- 
 hawk. We were off the North Foreland at the time : the thrush was, when first 
 seen, a considerable way ahead of her pursuer, and making vigorous efforts to gain 
 the woods which surround the seat of Mr. Alexander, near Broadstairs ; the hawk 
 was evidently bent on forcing her out to sea, for which purpose, instead of flying 
 directly at the thrush, he kept close in along shore, always heading her, and thus 
 effectually cutting off her retreat. This lasted for a considerable time, till at length 
 the thrush, wearied with flying, and probably despairing of reaching the wood, 
 wheeled suddenly round, and made directly for the steamer. The hawk dashed boldly 
 and rapidly after her, and was with some difficulty prevented from pouncing on his 
 victim even when perched on the foremast. Baffled in this attempt, he retreated to 
 the woods on shore. The thrush accompanied us for some time, and supposing the 
 coast clear, at length flew off to the woods. Her enemy, who no doubt kept his eye 
 on her all the time, permitted her to come within a short distance before showing 
 himself ; but I had finally the mortification of seeing the poor thrush fall a victim to 
 his cunning and prowess." 
 
THE SPARROW-HAWK. 67 
 
 It is interesting when the pursued fly to man for security. 
 When Major Higginson was once riding over the mountains, north- 
 ward of Glenarm, a skylark, pursued by a hawk (doubtless either 
 this species, or a merlin), made several attempts " to fly into his 
 breast," but failing in this, sought shelter beneath the body of 
 his horse. He instantly alighted, and took up the lark, whose 
 little heart was beating most violently, during which time, the 
 hawk kept so near, that his whip was in requisition, in the hope 
 that the lash might reach it. Inconsiderately, he concealed the 
 lark in the heath merely, instead of carrying it to some distance, 
 as the hawk was observed to remain about the spot, and, in all 
 probability, the poor bird, though respited for a time, eventually 
 fell its victim. Some years ago, a swallow in the neighbourhood 
 of Belfast, actually did take refuge in a lady's breast from a spar- 
 row-hawk. As a sporting friend was shooting upon his moor in 
 Ayrshire, in the month of October, a lark, pursued by a merlin 
 (Falco asalon), came from the distance of about a hundred yards 
 directly towards him and his servant, and alighted near their feet, 
 apparently for safety. On reaching the ground, it was so ex- 
 hausted as to be unable to close its wings. 
 
 Sparrow-hawh and Heron. — Once, at the end of July, when 
 walking along the side of the river Lagan, near Belfast, I was 
 attracted by the loud screams of herons, which appeared above 
 the trees at the north-west extremity of Belvoir Park. A couple 
 of these giants of the air kept flying above the tops of the trees 
 with tremendous uproar, in consequence of the presence of a single 
 sparrow-hawk ! This bird was circling about, and the herons 
 awkwardly and quite unavailingly endeavouring to strike him. 
 Mying quite at ease, his turns were so short, and, at the same 
 time, so full of grace, that he seemed to laugh to scorn their heavy 
 lumbering movements. The herons' savage cries were apparently 
 (evidently, might almost be said) caused by the hawk's make- 
 believe attempt to carry off their young, as they were particularly 
 violent and vociferous whenever he made a swoop, — as I remarked 
 him to do thrice, — at the top of a particular tree. It seemed a mere 
 play or bravado on the part of the hawk, as he could easily, in 
 
 f 2 
 
68 FALCONID.E. 
 
 spite of the herons, have borne off the contents of the nest any 
 time, were the prey not too bulky for his purpose. 
 
 Mr. B. Langtry has not only observed a wild sparrow-hawk 
 strike his sea eagles when perching on their sheds ; but when his 
 golden eagle was on wing, has seen one of these birds strike it in 
 passing, and once even witnessed the hawk's turning back and 
 repeating the impertinence. 
 
 Nest. — An ornithological friend, on climbing a tree, at the 
 Falls, to one of their nests, was, when within a few yards of it, 
 attacked by the female bird, and his cap, at one stroke, sent to 
 the ground. He speedily followed it, lest the next stroke should 
 be on his bare head ; but replacing the cap more firmly on, he 
 gallantly remounted to the nest, which he had been almost daily 
 in the habit of visiting, and was gratified with the sight of four 
 young birds, that day hatched. The boldness of the parent was 
 now accounted for. The young were described as beautiful in 
 their first garb of snow-white down. Early in the month of June 
 they generally make their appearance. A pair of these birds inha- 
 bited a wooded glen there, in which they bred regularly for many 
 years, until one of them was trapped, when its partner deserted 
 the place : had this happened in the breeding season, another mate 
 would doubtless have been found, that the great duty of the period 
 might be proceeded with. The locality for some years from that time 
 was tenanted instead by a pair of kestrels. Sparrow-hawks again 
 resumed occupation, and the kestrels in consequence took their 
 departure, though it might be imagined that, in an extent of wooded 
 glen of fully a quarter of a mile, there would be room enough for a 
 pair of each species ; but even the smaller birds of prey prefer 
 to have a considerable range. When they are more numerous than 
 ordinary, we may be pretty sure that their prey is likewise so : — 
 the balance of nature will be kept up. Although the trees generally 
 are old and large, one nest here was not more than six feet 
 
 * A pair for many years frequented the plantations at Fort William, near 
 Belfast, and though one of them was several times shot, no matter whether male 
 or female fell victim, the survivor was, invariably, soon provided with another 
 mate. 
 
THE SPARROW-HAWK. 69 
 
 above the ground, in a spruce-fir, — which did not exceed twice 
 that height. In Ireland, I have known this bird to build in 
 trees only; but according to Macgillivray, "in the Outer 
 Hebrides, where there are no trees, it builds in rocks." In Hills- 
 borough Park, according to the gamekeeper, it always constructs 
 a nest for itself; while the kestrel, on the contrary, takes posses- 
 sion of the old nest of some other bird, as that of the magpie, &c. 
 Two nests, reported to me as situated in " dark fir trees," as flat, 
 and consisting of little materials, were robbed here in the last 
 week of May, 1848. They contained four young each, one brood 
 being about two, and the other fourteen days out. Birds from 
 both nests came under my notice ; they were snow-white in the 
 down; their irides light hazel. At Mount Louise, (Monaghan,) 
 " it builds a rough kind of nest in the fork of a larch or Scotch- 
 fir tree, and about twenty feet from the ground. The nest has 
 never been met with there in hedge-row timber, nor in a detached 
 tree, but always somewhere in the interior of the plantation." A 
 correspondent, writing from the south of Ireland, remarks, that 
 he has never known the sparrow-hawk use the nest of another 
 bird, but always to build one for itself ; adding, that " the 
 structure is little more artistical than that of the ring-dove, being 
 merely a wide and shallow platform of sticks, without any lining, 
 except some accidental feathers of the old birds, or their prey." * 
 These facts are mentioned, as, in some places, the sparrow-hawk 
 would seem, like the kestrel, to appropriate to itself the old nests 
 of other birds.f A friend at Springvale (county of Down), has 
 frequently taken the nest of the sparrow-hawk from a tree when 
 the young were nearly fledged, and placed it on the ground under 
 a basket, in the bottom of which a hole was cut to admit the old 
 birds when they came to feed them. The basket was quite ex- 
 posed to view, and rat-traps were placed about it, in which, 
 though often screened by only a single leaf of the sycamore, the old 
 birds were captured; in snares, too, set around the basket, they 
 were often caught. Once, when the female was taken, the male 
 
 * Mr. J. Poole, 
 f See Macgillivray's Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 358-359. 
 
70 FALCONIDJE. 
 
 fed the young regularly for eight days, or until he was himself 
 secured : he must have dropped the food to them during the 
 whole period, as he could not otherwise have fed them without 
 being trapped or snared.* It is stated, that all the birds brought 
 to the young were plucked, and had the heads taken off. Young 
 birds were procured three years successively from nests there on 
 a particular branch of the same tree, though there was abundance 
 of wood in the demesne. The food contained in many sparrow- 
 hawks which I have examined, consisted of birds only. 
 
 The sparrow-hawk's mode of flight is admirably described by 
 Sir William Jardine,t and a full and excellent description of the 
 species is given by Mr. Macgillivray ; Professor Wilson, too, dis- 
 courses on it in his own eloquent manner. J 
 
 THE KITE. 
 
 Milvus regalis, Briss. 
 Falco milvus, Linn. 
 
 Is known only as a very rare visitant. 
 
 The uame of " Kite " appears commonly in the catalogues of 
 birds given in the Statistical Surveys of the Irish counties, and 
 elsewhere; but, as the larger species of the Falconida are in 
 some places called Kite and Glead, as well as Goshawk or Goose- 
 hawk, there can be no doubt that the buzzard, or some common 
 species, was generally meant. The mere fact of rewards having 
 been offered in the Irish Statutes || for the destruction of the 
 " kite," as one of the birds of prey, does not prove anything with 
 respect to the veritable species. 
 
 Smith, in his History of Cork, completed in 1749, could hardly 
 be mistaken, as he does not content himself with stating that 
 " the kite is distinguished from all other birds of prey by its 
 forked tail," but adds, " that it remains with us all the year." He 
 
 * See Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 354 and 360. 
 
 f Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 151. 
 
 \ Recreations of Christopher North, vol. i. p. 90-91. 
 
 || 11th Anne, ch 7 and 17 ; Geo. II. ch. 10. 
 
THE KITE. 71 
 
 remarks, however, what we should hardly have expected, that 
 " these birds are so common as to need no particular description." 
 But when the country was more richly wooded, and less populous 
 than at present, it was much better circumstanced for the kite. 
 With the exception of its being stated to have been seen by the 
 Eev. Joseph Stopford, near Blarney, and at Ballincollig Castle, in 
 1827,* it is now unknown, not only in the county of Cork, but 
 in the whole south of Ireland. A native bird, either in a wild 
 state, or preserved in a collection, has not come either under my 
 own cognizance, or that of any of my ornithological correspondents; 
 but I have no doubt of the species having been seen in the follow- 
 ing instances, as communicated to the Annals of Natural History, 
 in April, 1838. Mr. Adams, the intelligent gamekeeper at 
 Shane's Castle (the seat of Earl O'Neil, on the borders of Lough 
 Neagh), informed me, that " in cold weather," about eight years 
 before that period, he had seen a kite on two or three occasions, 
 hovering over Glenarm Park (Antrim) ; and that in March, 1835, 
 his attention was called to a strange bird, which appeared for three 
 successive days in Shane's Castle park, that proved to be of this 
 species. In both instances, the forked tail served for specific 
 distinction : — neither bird was obtained. My informant knew the 
 species well, from having taken it frequently in Northamptonshire: 
 he described it accurately to me. I had before heard from an 
 old gamekeeper, who had hived for many years at Shane's Castle, 
 of a few kites " with tails forked like swallows" having been 
 killed there My friend, William Ogilby, Esq., in one instance, 
 many years ago, saw this species in the county of Londonderry. 
 
 Mr. Richard Langtry, when at Loch Awe in Argyleshire, early 
 in the summer of 1833, procured from the nest two young kites, 
 which proved a highly interesting addition to Ms aviary. They 
 at once became very tame and familiar, and were so gentle in dis- 
 position as to be most engaging. Every morning they had their 
 liberty, and never flew far away, but soaring to a great height in 
 the air, "in still repeated circles," displayed their peculiar and 
 graceful flight. To either lure or " fist " they always returned 
 
 * Communicated by that gentleman to Dr. Harvey of Cork. 
 
72 falconid^;. 
 
 when called. Mice were preferred by them to birds or any other 
 food. When these kites were on wing, rats let ofP from the cage- 
 trap were expertly caught by them. At the shooting- quarters of 
 Aberarder, in Inverness-shire, a locality apparently well suited to 
 the kite, only one bird was seen by the last-named gentleman 
 during the three autumnal months of 1838 and 1839. 
 
 I have met with this most interesting bird amid fine scenery in 
 the west of Scotland ; — in the deer-park at Inverary, and towards 
 the head of the beautiful valley of Glenapp, Ayrshire. In the 
 summer of 1826 I observed it in Switzerland and Italy; and in 
 the celebrated Black Forest of Germany, it was particularly com- 
 mon, admitting there of a close approach without exhibiting any 
 fear. 
 
 THE BUZZABD. 
 
 Buteo vulgaris, Bechst. 
 Falco buteo, Linn. 
 
 Is generally to be found in suitable localities. 
 
 Specimens sent to bird-preservers in Belfast, at all seasons of 
 the year, from the most extensive and best wooded demesnes in 
 Down and Antrim, have come under my notice. In such haunts 
 the buzzard builds in trees. But in the retired and mountainous 
 parts of the country, where not a tree is to be found, it is equally 
 at home, and forms its nest in the cliffs. This bird has a fine 
 appearance when soaring high up towards the blue heaven in a 
 bright summer day. The first exclamation of the ordinary 
 spectator, at the moment of so beholding it, is — " an eagle," — 
 which the buzzard, indeed, strongly resembles in general contour, 
 more especially in the comparatively roundish outline of its ex- 
 panded wings ; but to the eye of the ornithologist, the size at once 
 marks it as a much humbler species, however like the royal bird 
 it may soar. 
 
 When at Rosheen mountain, near Dunfanaghy, — before men- 
 tioned as having contained an eyrie of the golden eagle, — in June, 
 1832, we saw a pair of buzzards, and heard their young call from 
 the nest on a ledge of rock, midway down a precipice. This site, 
 
THE BUZZARD. 73 
 
 until that season, we were told, had been for many years oocupied 
 by a pair of ravens (Corvus corax), which did not yield their 
 possession quietly, but fought hard, though in vain, against the 
 buzzards' usurpation. My companion being desirous of obtaining 
 the young birds, a man undertook to descend the rock for them 
 in the ordinary way, being secured from falling by a rope fastened 
 about his body, and held by persons above. However, from its 
 impending at the summit, this was rather perilous, and for greater 
 safety he preferred ascending from the base ; the preventive just 
 mentioned against accidents being in this case likewise resorted to. 
 When the least apprehension of danger was manifested, we endea- 
 voured to dissuade him altogether from the attempt, but his father, 
 an old gray-haired man, insisted, though gain was never thought of, 
 that he should not turn craven, and was so eager in leaning over the 
 cliff to direct his son's movements, that we verily feared his own life 
 would become a sacrifice ; but all expostulation was in vain. Three 
 young birds were taken ; a fourth escaped by flight. The climber 
 said the nest was composed of the strong stems of heather and 
 roots of grasses, and lined with the fur of hares and rabbits ; and 
 would have held several more than the four birds it contained. 
 The legs of rabbits and hares were lying about it. The buzzard 
 is said to be common in Donegal.* 
 
 When at Macgilligan, in the county of Londonderry, in July, 
 1833, I observed a buzzard soaring about the basaltic precipices, 
 and flying from one pinnacle of rock to another, its young being 
 all the while very vociferous. The call of one of them loudly 
 heard above the others, being similar to that of the male bird 
 brought from Donegal in the preceding year, satisfied me respect- 
 ing the species. The continual and loud cry of the latter bird, as 
 we drove slowly from Dunfanaghy to the city of Londonderry, 
 proved ludicrously annoying to us, by giving evidence of the con- 
 tents of our baskets to the crowds of persons we met, — it being a 
 holiday, — and thus drawing their attention towards us. The 
 other two buzzards and the eagles, which shared the conveyance 
 with us, remained generally quiet. These three buzzards, but 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. 
 
74 falconidjE. 
 
 especially the male, soon became very familiar. When let off in 
 the morning, Ins favourite perch was upon some stacks of grain, 
 where he remained patiently watching for mice, but was not always 
 successful in their capture, as he sometimes dashed his talons into 
 the straw, and brought them out empty. He preferred mice to 
 rats, though very expert at killing both. One of his favourite 
 tricks was to fly on Ms master's feet and untie his shoe-strings. 
 He was likewise very bold ; and taking a dislike to a certain in- 
 dividual, flew at him whenever he appeared, and endeavoured to 
 strike him about the head. Against these attacks, a walking- 
 stick generally served as a defence ; but the buzzard once came 
 upon him unawares, and inflicted a severe blow on the back of 
 his head. This bird occasionally astonished strangers, by smartly 
 striking them on the hat, so as to send it over their ears. He 
 was always, when flying about, persecuted by gray crows. A long- 
 drawn, mournful whistle was his ordinary cry. 
 
 At the headlands above the Giant's Causeway, and those near 
 Carrick-a-rede (Antrim), 1 have seen buzzards in the middle of 
 summer. At the same season, a friend remarked a couple of 
 them at Pairhead, upon the same day on which he saw pairs of 
 sea eagles, peregrine falcons, and kestrels, all of which are known 
 to have eyries there. He has likewise observed the buzzard about 
 Cushendall. A young bird taken from a nest in the precipitous 
 rocks at Drumnasole, was kept by a gentleman of the neighbourhood 
 for three or four years. It was very bold in various ways ; among 
 others, by flying at strangers, and, like the tame bird already alluded 
 to, striking them on the hat, but more forcibly, as it was occasionally 
 knocked off the head. If attacked by any one with a stick, it 
 showed fight, by lying on its back and striking with its talons at 
 the object of annoyance. This bird regularly attended the potato- 
 diggers to feed on the worms exposed to view, to which it was so 
 partial, that they were sought for at other times to give to it as 
 food. It would only eat magpies when very hungry, and nothing 
 else was to be had : jackdaws, too, were disliked, but not to the 
 same degree. A bird of the latter species, shot at on wing and 
 wounded, fell into a mill-race, where it was instantly pounced on 
 
THE BUZZARD. 75 
 
 by this buzzard, whose entire " thighs " (tibia?) became immersed 
 in the water. It remained thus a considerable time, the spectators 
 conjecturing that the object was to drown the jackdaw ; which, at 
 all events, was done. When this buzzard was stationary on its 
 perch, the smaller hawks, in passing, often struck it. A buzzard 
 from Glenarm Park has come under my notice : at the range of 
 inland rocks called Salagh Braes, and in the cliffs at the Knockagh 
 mountain, near Carrickfergus, pairs lately bred. The species has 
 often been captured at the last locality in fox-traps baited with 
 rabbits, — the trap being concealed from view by mosses shaken 
 over it. From the county of Antrim localities, noticed in this 
 paragraph, with the addition of Macgilligan in the preceding one, 
 it would appear that the buzzard frequents, for nesting, the inland 
 range of basaltic cliffs throughout the north-east of Ireland, 
 wherever it is permitted undisturbed to rear its young. Some of 
 the places named are certainly very near the sea, but none rise 
 precipitously above it. In the finely-wooded park at Shjane's 
 Castle (Antrim), I have, at the end of July, heard the young 
 calling from their nest in a large tree. 
 
 In the adjoining county of Down, the finely wooded demesnes 
 are the buzzard's chief abode. Specimens from Belvoir Park and 
 Hillsborough Park (several from hence), have come under my 
 observation. The gamekeeper at Tollymore Park states, that they 
 are not unfrequently killed in that neighbourhood, where they are 
 known by the names of kite and glead. 
 
 Mr. R. Davis, jun., remarked, in 1841, that he had never 
 known the buzzard to be obtained about Clonmel (Tipperary). 
 It is uncommon in Wexford,* but not so in the neighbourhood 
 of Waterford t and Youghal (Cork) ; J it was never met with by 
 Mr. Neligan in Kerry. A native specimen of this bird which 
 came under my examination, had a few feathers half an inch in 
 length about the middle of one of the tarsi, which was bare for 
 nine lines above them. 
 
 The buzzard is common about Aberarder, in Inverness-shire, 
 where it is said to breed in the rocks, though wood, of which little, 
 * Mr. R. Davis. f Mr. J. Poole. J Mr. R. Ball. 
 
76 faloonid^;. 
 
 however, is aged, abounds there : the gamekeeper's " museum " 
 in 1842, exhibited many victims. I have observed this bird in 
 Holland, Switzerland, and Italy : — what I believed to be it, ap- 
 peared sailing over the gardens of Constantinople, alighting on 
 the trees, evidently without the least fear of injury, and feeling as 
 much at home as the Turk himself. 
 
 Graphic descriptions of the buzzard, from personal observation, 
 are given in the British Birds of Sir William Jardine, vol. i. p. 202 
 and Mr. Macgillivray, vol. hi. p. 190. 
 
 THE EOUGH-LEGGED BUZZAED. 
 
 Buteo lagopus, Brunn. 
 Falco „ Gmel. 
 
 Is only known as an extremely rare visitant. 
 
 About the middle of October, 1831, a bird of this species was 
 taken near Dundonald, in the county of Down, by being knocked 
 on the head with a stick, when gorged. The occurrence was 
 noticed at the time in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. 
 p. 578. On dissection, the remains of birds, and of a full-grown 
 rat torn into four pieces, were found in its stomach. It was pur- 
 chased Dr. J. D. Marshall, and is now in the Belfast Museum. 
 This bird accords with Temminck's description of the adult male. 
 It has not any indication of bands on either side of the tail : a 
 band is represented near the tip on the under side, in Mr. Selb/s 
 figure of the female. 
 
 About this time, two others were seen at Killinchy, in the same 
 county, and one of them was shot, but, through ignorance, it was 
 lost as a specimen. In the autumn of 1836, the gamekeeper 
 at Tollymore Park described a bird to me, which evidently had 
 been of this species. It was shot a few year before (probably at 
 the same period as the others) in Castlewellan demesne (Down), 
 when carrying off a young rabbit. 
 
 In May, 1838, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, 
 Dublin, that a bird of this species (which he accurately described), 
 was killed towards the end of the year 1837 (?) by the gamekeeper 
 at Powerscourt, county of Wicklow. 
 
77 
 
 THE HONEY BUZZARD. 
 
 Pernis apivorus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ 
 
 Is a very rare summer visitant. 
 
 On the 11th of June, 1833, a fine male specimen of the Honey 
 Buzzard, unrecorded as having before occurred in Ireland, was 
 shot by Robert G. Bomford, Esq., in his demesne of Annadale, 
 near Belfast. This gentleman, on being informed of the rarity of 
 the bird, kindly presented it to the Belfast Museum. A similar 
 bird, most probably the female, accompanied the one that was 
 shot. I saw the specimen when recent, and found the bill and 
 forehead covered with cow-dung in such a manner, as to lead to the 
 supposition that the bird had been searching for insects in that sub- 
 stance. On examination of the stomach, which was quite full, it was 
 found to contain a few of the larva?, and some fragments of perfect 
 coleopterous insects, several whitish-coloured hairy caterpillars, the 
 pupae of a butterfly, and also of the the six-spot burnet-moth 
 (Zygcena filipendulce), together with some pieces of grass, which 
 it is presumed were taken with the last-named insect, it being on 
 the stalks of grass that the pupae of this species of Zygcena are 
 chiefly found. This insectivorous food must have been a matter 
 of choice to the honey buzzard, the bird being in the full vigour 
 of its powers, and the district in which it was killed abounding 
 with such birds, as, were they its natural or wished-for prey, it 
 might have easily captured and destroyed. 
 
 The individual thus dwelt upon, and of which a notice appeared 
 in the Magazine of Natural History for 1833, vol. vi. p. 447, 
 was a mature male. The bands on the tail exhibited a greater 
 inequality than is represented in any figure I have seen, the first 
 and second being less than an inch apart ; the third, more than 
 two inches and a half distant from the second band. 
 
 In the summer of 1838, a honey buzzard, shot in the grounds 
 about Kilruddery House, in the county of Wicklow, the seat of 
 the Earl of Meath, came into the possession of T. W. Warren, 
 Esq. of Dublin. A second individual was in company with it, 
 
78 falconidjE. 
 
 and remained about the place for weeks after its supposed partner's 
 death. This species has occasionally bred in England. On the 
 7th of June, 1839, an adult male was shot on the county of An- 
 trim strand of Belfast bay, and purchased by Richard Langtry, 
 Esq. The food in its stomach consisted of coleopterous insects 
 only. A specimen of the honey buzzard was sent in a recent 
 state from Gorey, county of Wexford, in the summer or autumn 
 of 1841, to Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin.' 55 ' 
 
 Mr. Selby, in the Berwickshire Club Report for 1836, p. 109, 
 gives a very interesting account of one of these birds, which was 
 observed and trapped in his demesne at Twizel, Northumber- 
 land. 
 
 THE MARSH HARRIER. 
 Moor Buzzard. 
 
 Circus ceruginosus, Linn, (sp.) — Circus rufus, Gmel. (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ Falco „ „ 
 
 Is found in suitable localities over the island, and is 
 resident. 
 
 This species appears, as from the nature of the country might 
 be expected, of more frequent occurrence in Ireland than in 
 Scotland. Sir William Jardine informs us that in the latter 
 country, it is "rare generally/' and "would also seem to be 
 partially migratory ."f Mr. Macgillivray observes, that it " must 
 be very rare in the northern and middle divisions" of Scotland, 
 and that " none of the bird-stuffers in Edinburgh have had a 
 specimen for at least five years back."! (1840.) Specimens have 
 not very unfrequently come under my inspection at the bird-pre- 
 servers' in Belfast. I have, in the course of the last fifteen years, 
 known about twenty of them to be killed in Antrim and Down, 
 within the same number of miles from Belfast. They were ob- 
 tained at all seasons except summer, and chiefly in the low 
 grounds. The last marsh harriers that came under my notice, 
 were an adult pah, which were shot close to the Main-water, at 
 
 * Mr. T. W. Warren, f Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 239. 
 
 X Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 385. 
 
THE MARSH HARRIER. 79 
 
 Killagan, on the 20th of August, 1847, by George Hutchinson, 
 Esq., of Ballymoney. They sprung together, in the evening, from 
 a little hillock rising above a marsh in which he had killed some 
 wild ducks and snipes, and were brought down " right and left" 
 — one with each barrel. They were kindly sent to the Belfast 
 Museum, and are preserved in the collection. This species breeds 
 in the heath at Claggan (Antrim.) 
 
 An adult male, fired at and wounded, in August, 1837, at a 
 small lake near Ballynahinch (Down), ejected two young water- 
 hens when captured. One killed on the moor near Tollymore 
 Park, in August, 1836, was shown to me by the gamekeeper as 
 a bird he had not before (during nine years) met with in that 
 neighbourhood ; which is indeed too mountainous to be much 
 frequented by the marsh harrier. The stomach of the bird alluded 
 to was filled with frogs. Many years ago, a friend saw two of 
 their nests on the ground in Island Mahee and Island Reagh, 
 Strangford Lough, and shot the females rising from them ; in 
 each nest four eggs were found. 
 
 Some years since, a brood, consisting of three or four young 
 birds was brought to Belfast from the mountains of Ballynascreen, 
 in Londonderry ; and Wm. Ogilby, Esq., procured, in 1842, an 
 old marsh harrier, which had been taken by means of a noose, at 
 its nest in Glenshane, near Dungiven, in that county. This bird, 
 being uninjured, was sent to the splendid menagerie at Knowsley, 
 the seat of the Earl of Derby. 
 
 At the commencement of the grouse-shooting season, many 
 years ago, a late nest was found on the ground among the heath, 
 on the mountains of Mounterlowney, in Tyrone, by an old sport- 
 ing friend. This gentleman remarks, that he has often seen the 
 marsh harrier "quarter" its ground like a setting-dog, as the 
 hen harrier is well known to do, and that he considers his perfor- 
 mance in this way equal to that of the latter species. Within the 
 last few years, its nests have been met with in another part of that 
 county. None of the mountains alluded to as breeding-places 
 are of an Alpine character,* but all are heath-clad, such as we 
 
 * See Jardine's Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 239 
 
80 FALCONID.E. 
 
 find inhabited by the red grouse. The species is very rare in the 
 north-west of Donegal.* A brood of these birds, taken some 
 years ago from a nest on the mountains of the county of Mona- 
 ghan, was reared by Captain Bonham of the 10th Hussars, for 
 the purpose of being tried in falconry ; but they proved very in- 
 tractable. A gentleman, who resided in the last named county, 
 has informed me of the following circumstance : — A "large 
 hawk " (most probably a marsh harrier) having pounced upon a 
 water-hen (Gattinula c/dorqpus) which was swimming among some 
 reeds at the edge of a lake near his house, he fired at it when 
 carrying oft' its prey, which was instantly dropped into the lake. 
 The hawk, although apparently uninjured by the shot, did not 
 attempt to recover the bird from the water, but perched on a tree, 
 remained for several hours, patiently watching it until wafted by 
 the light wind ashore, when the quarry was recaptured. 
 
 When in Dublin, in August, 1836, I saw a marsh harrier 
 which had been trapped, with a chicken as bait, at Newbridge 
 Castle, near Swords (co. Dublin). In 1838, this species was not 
 uncommon, and bred about Clonmel (Tipperary) ; but in 1845, 
 owing to the vigilance of gamekeepers, it had been rendered 
 almost extinct in that neighbourhood. t It is common in Kerry, J 
 and not uncommon about Youghal (Cork), whence young birds 
 have been brought to Mr. E. Ball. This gentleman remarks : — 
 " It is known in the south under the name of kite, and is also 
 called the snipe hawk ; [may not the hen harrier also be meant 
 under this name ?] One of these birds, which I had some years 
 since, lost a leg by accident. I supplied it with a wooden one, 
 and the dexterity it acquired with this stump, both in walking and 
 killing rats, was astonishing When a rat was turned out, the 
 bird pounced at it, and never failed to pin the animal's head to 
 the ground with the stump, while a few grasps of the sound limb 
 soon terminated the struggle." 
 
 When proceeding from Constantinople to the Valley of Sweet 
 Waters, on the 14th of May, 1841, I remarked an adult bird of 
 this species. 
 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. f Mr. R. Davis. t Mr. T. F. Neligan. 
 
81 
 
 THE HEN HARRIER. 
 
 Ringtail. 
 
 Circus cyaneus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Falco „ „ 
 
 Is pretty generally distributed over the island. 
 
 In snipe-shooting, it is generally met with. The first that came 
 under my own notice appeared when a friend and I were in search 
 of snipes, in a boggy spot among the Belfast mountains (Antrim), 
 when a female bird hovered above us in the manner of a kestrel, 
 and was not alarmed by our presence, nor by that of our dogs 
 engaged in " beating " the ground immediately beneath : — her life 
 fell a sacrifice to my gun. The species is scarce there. On the 
 lower skirts of these mountains, the hen harrier is still more rarely 
 seen, but has been met with "flying through the fields, and 
 beating the sides of the hedges as it proceeded." Such birds 
 were immature, and occurred late in the autumn or in winter ; — 
 they were probably bred at some little distance, where there is an 
 extensive tract of moor. At Claggan, &c, the nests have not 
 uncommonly been found among the heath. In suitable localities, 
 such as prevail throughout the greater part of the county of An- 
 trim, the adult birds remain during the year, and the male is 
 always conspicuous from his light-coloured plumage ; — appearing, 
 indeed, at first sight like a sea-gull. A sporting friend in the 
 county of Londonderry informs me, that there are many " white 
 hawks " on his mountains at Ballynascreen, whose nests, — occa- 
 sionally two in the season, — he has met with in the heath. The 
 hen harrier is not included in Mr. J. V. Stewart's published 
 catalogue of the birds of Donegal, but, in a letter to me from that 
 gentleman, has been mentioned as a subsequent addition. When 
 at "the Horn" in 1832, the gamekeeper alluded to his having 
 the winter before, seen a " white hawk " strike a curlew (Nume- 
 nius arquata) in passing, and break its wing, which so disabled 
 the bird that it became an easy capture to my informant. About 
 Bogay, in that county, old male birds are said to be frequently 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 falconidjE. 
 
 seen on the moors in August. Among the mountains of Mourne, 
 in Down, this bird has been observed by the Rev. G. M. Black, 
 who remarks, that the ringtail or female may be readily distin- 
 guished, when on the wing, by the whitish marking above the tail. 
 But the species must be rare in that district, as the first adult male, 
 at least, which came under the notice of the gamekeeper at Tolly- 
 more Park, was seen on the mountain early in February, 1845. 
 He described it to me as a very beautiful hawk or kite, of a cream 
 colour. 
 
 About Dublin, the adult birds have been obtained at all seasons. 
 At Clifden (Galway), I have met with the species. Mr. M'Calla, 
 after mentioning its peculiar flight, with an easy motion, close to 
 the ground, and taking several turns over the same place, states, 
 that he has often seen it attack grouse in Connemara, when a 
 struggle will take place, the grouse rising into the air contrary to 
 its usual mode of flight.* It is said to be rare there, to nidify 
 in swamps, generally on the margin of lakes, and to be known by 
 the name of sea-gull hawk. The Rev. T. Knox of Toomavara (Tip- 
 perary), informs me, that ' ' white kite " is the name by which the 
 species is known about the Shannon, where it frequents the bogs 
 adjoining the river, and has frequently been seen at a distance by 
 him. He has been able, however, to obtain but one adult male 
 for his collection ; — in this bird, the remains of a bunting and a 
 lark were found. Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, writing to 
 me in 1838, remarked, that the hen harrier breeds in that neigh- 
 bourhood, where the eggs and young are easily obtained. He adds : 
 " I have endeavoured for three years past to rear these birds, wishing 
 to have a male in adult plumage, but they always died before 
 attaining it. In a female now living the upper mandible became so 
 hooked as to turn under the lower, and nearly prevented her from 
 
 * A writer in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, when descanting on " High- 
 land Sport," (article on Scrope's Days and Nights of Salmon-Fishing) and the enemies 
 of the grouse, observes, that "hawks of all sorts, from the eaglet to the merlin, 
 destroy numbers. The worst of the family, and the most difficult to be destroyed, 
 is the hen harrier. Living wholly on birds of his own killing, he will come to no 
 laid bait, and hunting in an open country he is rarely approached near enough to be 
 shot : skimming low, and quartering his ground like a well-trained pointer, he finds 
 almost every bird, and with sure aim strikes down all he finds." — p. 95. 
 
THE HEN HARRIER. 83 
 
 taking food ; but by my cutting half an inch off it, she was much 
 relieved, and now feeds well." Since the last-mentioned year, the 
 hen harrier has become very scarce there. Dr. Burkitt, of Water- 
 ford, has seen but two of these birds winch were shot near that 
 city, but they are said to be not uncommon about the river Suir, 
 near Portlaw. One of those alluded to, was obtained in the 
 following manner : — A sportsman having killed a snipe, was in the 
 act of reloading his gun, when the hawk sweeping quickly past him, 
 made a stoop to carry off the snipe, and when just seizing the bird, 
 was itself brought down by the second barrel. About Youghal 
 (co. Cork) this species is occasionally met with, * and in Kerry, 
 Mr. T. F. Neligan considered it to be common ; he had seen its 
 nests among the heath. 
 
 When at Aberarder, Inverness -shire, in September, 1842, one of 
 these birds was observed on wing, and another adorned the " game- 
 keeper's museum " on the gable of the shooting-lodge. In the 
 middle of August, I have seen the ringtail flying above the sea- 
 cliffs near Yentnor, in the Isle of Wight. I had evidence that 
 this bird is found in the Morea, by observing an old female near 
 Navarino. From her being seen at the end of April, the species 
 probably breeds in that quarter, where there are localities admi- 
 rably suited to the purpose. 
 
 Sir Wm. Jardine, in his notes to Wilson's American Ornitho- 
 logy, (vol. iii. p. 392,) and in his British Birds, (vol. i. p. 227,) 
 gives from observation a full and interesting account of the hen 
 harrier. 
 
 The Ash-coloured or Montagu's Harrier (Circus Montagui; 
 Falco cineraceus) is not known as an Irish species ; nor has it a place 
 among Scottish birds (Jardine and Macgillivray), though it has been 
 met with in the border county of Northumberland. I have no doubt, 
 however, from the accurate description of a harrier shot by a very ob- 
 servant sportsman on his moor near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, in 1836, 
 that it was a male bird of this species. My friend had often killed the 
 hen harrier, and remarking the specimen in question as distinct from it, 
 described to me the differential characters, which precisely marked the 
 Circus cineraceus. Unfortunately it was not preserved. 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball. 
 
 g2 
 
84 vulturidj;. 
 
 THE GRIFFON VULTURE. 
 
 Vultw fulvus, Briss. 
 
 Has once been obtained in Ireland. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1843, my friend Mr. Yarrell favoured me 
 with the information that he had received a letter from Admiral 
 Bowles, in which this gentleman mentioned having recently seen 
 at Castle Martyr, the seat of the Earl of Shannon, a living 
 vulture, said to have been captured in the county of Cork. From 
 this nobleman, Mr. R. Ball learned that the bird was purchased 
 by his steward for 2*. 6d. of a peasant, who caught it on the sea- 
 shore in that neighbourhood. Its plumage being in good order, 
 tended to indicate that it had not escaped from captivity. His 
 lordship politely offered the bird for the collection in the Garden 
 of the Zoological Society, Dublin, but it died before arrangements 
 were completed for its transmission. By the direction of Lord 
 Shannon, it was carefully stuffed, and then added to the collection 
 in Trinity College, Dublin. It proved to be the fultur fulvus in 
 adult plumage, as distinguished from V. Kolbii, Daud.* There 
 has been so much confusion about these vultures, that their 
 distribution is differently stated in every work that has come 
 under my notice. M. Scldegel in his Revue Critique des Oiseaux 
 d'Europe, published in 1844, gives at p. 12, as localities for 
 what he terms V. fulvus, Dalmatia and Greece : and for V. fulvus 
 occidentalis, Sardinia and the Pyrenees. 
 
 The griffon vulture has not been met with in England or 
 Scotland. 
 
 Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus, Linn, [sp.] Temm. 
 vol. iv. p. 587). Two of these birds were seen about the Bristol 
 Channel in October, 1825, and one of them was killed. On the 12th 
 of May, 1841, I met with Egyptian vultures in the neighbourhood of 
 Smyrna, and two days afterwards at the Valley of Sweet Waters, near 
 Constantinople. They were in the beautiful adult plumage in which 
 
 * A fine specimen of V. Kolbii, shot at the Nile by Henry Callwell, Esq., has 
 been presented to the Belfast Museum. 
 
EAGLE AND SCOPS-EARED OWLS. 85 
 
 the relative disposition of white and black * strongly resembles that of 
 the common stork. They flew very near to us, evidently having no 
 fear of man. In most countries, vultures are indeed not only unmolested, 
 but regarded as benefactors ; the Turks, however, amiably protect birds 
 of all kinds. 
 
 THE EAGLE OWL. 
 
 Bubo maximus, Sibbald. 
 Strix bubo, Linn. 
 
 Is said to have been once observed in Ireland. 
 
 The only record of its occurrence appears in Mr. J. V. Stewart's 
 Catalogue of the Birds of Donegal, in the following words : — 
 " Four of these birds paid us a visit for two days after a great 
 storm from the north, when the ground was covered with snow. 
 They have not since been seen here. As I am informed that a 
 pair of them breed in Tory Island, about nine miles to the north 
 of this coast, it is probable that they came from that island. I 
 have heard of them nowhere else/' f Their breeding at Tory 
 must be a mere fancy on the part of the individual who made the 
 communication to Mr. Stewart. 
 
 THE SCOPS-EARED OWL. 
 
 Scops Aldrovandi, Ray. 
 Strix scops, Linn. 
 
 Has been obtained at least twice in Ireland. 
 
 The following notice of its first occurrence was communicated 
 by me to the Zoological Society of London, in 1837, and appeared 
 in the Proceedings of that year, p. 54 : — 
 
 I have been informed by Robert Ball, Esq., of Dublin, that a 
 scops-eared owl was shot in the month of July, a few years ago, 
 by the gamekeeper at Loughcrew, county of Meath, the seat of 
 J. W. L. Naper, Esq., in whose possession it now is. The specimen 
 was kindly sent to Dublin for the examination of Mr. Ball, and 
 
 * See Yarrell's figure of the adult Egyptian vulture, 
 t Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 581. 1832. 
 
86 STRIGIDiE. 
 
 proved similar to a Strix Scops in his collection. Mr. Joseph 
 Poole, of Killiane, Wexford, wrote to me on the 19th of April, 
 1847, that a scops-eared owl, which had come under his notice, 
 was killed a few days before that date, near Kilmore, in the south 
 of the county. 
 
 In the month of August, 1826, I met with a bird of this 
 species, perched in what had been a window, among the ruins of 
 Otricoli, near Eome. It admitted of a close approach, and looked 
 most contentedly at home. When proceeding from Malta to 
 the Morea, in H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th of April, 1841, and 
 135 miles eastward of Etna, and less than half that distance from 
 Calabria (the nearest land), a scops-eared owl, on its northward 
 flight, came on board. It was struck down and captured, just as 
 it had clutched a lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca). 
 
 The little Owl (Strix passerina, Temm.), which has occasionally 
 been obtained in England, cannot yet be included with certainty in the 
 Irish catalogue ; — nor can it in that of Scotland. On the 22nd of 
 April, 1841, one of these owls flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, when 
 forty miles east of Malta, and remained for a short time. Others were 
 seen during the next few days, as we sailed towards the Morea. Early 
 in June one was shot at Paros ; and I saw another near Naussa. 
 
 THE LONG-EABED OWL. 
 
 Otus vulgaris, Elein. 
 Strix otus, Linn. 
 
 Commonly inhabits old wooded districts in all parts of 
 the island. 
 
 In addition to such places, I have known this species to be shot 
 during the dusk of the evening, at low water in Belfast bay, a mile 
 distant from the land, by a person waiting (in a barrel sunk in the 
 ooze) for the flying of wigeon. The white owl has, in several 
 instances, been similarly obtained. 
 
 An individual to whom the long-eared owl is well known, in- 
 forms me, that in a close plantation of spruce firs ( Abies com- 
 munis,) at Scoutbush, near Carrickfergus, he for several years had 
 
THE LONG-EARED OWL. 87 
 
 its nests ; which, in consequence of the trees being young, were 
 placed not higher than six feet from the ground. Two nests in 
 Hillsborough Park, in the summer of 1848, were placed about 
 twenty feet from the ground in dense silver firs of double that 
 height. One of them, which was robbed about the 10th of June, 
 coutained tliree young (perhaps twelve days out) and an addled egg. 
 The other nest at the same date contained four eggs. The first 
 garb of the owlets is white down, but like that of the kestrel, 
 when viewed en masse, of a light sandy-coloured tinge; their 
 irides are yellow, of a lighter tint than in old birds. Their 
 larder consisted at the early hour of five o'clock in the morning, 
 when they were carried off, of three old sparrows, two of which 
 were males. About Youghal, it builds "in ruined magpie's 
 nests." * Mr. Poole mentions, that to a deserted magpie's nest 
 which came under his notice, when appropriated by a pair of these 
 owls, no addition was made, excepting a few soft feathers from 
 the owl itself. The nest contained eggs on the 14th of March, 
 and beside them lay a dead field-mouse. Another nest, examined 
 by him, contained four owlets, two of which were so much 
 larger then the others, as scarcely to appear to belong to 
 the same brood. There were no castings under the tree in 
 which this brood was brought up. The long-eared owl is com- 
 mon in Tipperary f and Kerry ; J and is noticed as inhabiting 
 chiefly fir plantations, in the former county. With respect to 
 food, the stomachs of three winch I have noted, contained : — 
 One, a sparrow almost whole ; the second, portions of a large 
 coleopterous insect; the third, the remains of three buntings. 
 The stomach of a long-eared owl, shot at Killaloe, contained " part 
 of a rat, the skull of a mouse, and the heads of two sparrows." 
 
 Dr. J. D. Marshall, of Belfast, informs me, that for five or six 
 years, when he lived in High-street, opposite St. George's Church, 
 he kept long and short-eared owls (S. otus and S. hrachyotus) 
 instead of cats, and found them to be much more effective killers 
 of rats and mice. Their patience was extraordinary. At the 
 entrance to one rat -hole, which happened frequently to come under 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball. f Mr. R. Davis. % Mr. Neligan. 
 
88 STRIGIDiE. 
 
 his view, one of these birds was always stationed, until it succeeded 
 in killing the whole of the inmates, consisting of a pair of old, 
 and nine well-grown young ones. They were invariably seized 
 with its foot by the back of the neck, so that the bird never 
 suffered the slightest injury. Living rats, too, (as in the case of 
 the kites already mentioned,) let out of the cage-trap, and a fair 
 start given to them, were always captured by these owls, which 
 kept up a violent screaming during the chase ; as they also did, 
 when by their unaided efforts they had seized a rat, and, flapping 
 their wings, hurried away to some retired spot to eat their prey. 
 These owls had free access to the dwelling-house, and cleared it 
 completely of mice ; as they did the yard and store, of rats. They 
 were great pets, and very fond of having their ears rubbed. 
 When the finger was applied to these organs, they were fully ex- 
 panded, and the application was so pleasing to the bird that it 
 gently fell asleep. Mr. E. Ball had once a young long-eared owl, 
 which was permitted to fly wherever it pleased, and by choice it 
 generally remained during the day in a grove of tall fir-trees. 
 His call to it from a considerable distance was always answered 
 by a loud melancholy cry, and when he reached the base of the 
 tree on winch the owl was, it came down and perched upon his 
 hand. 
 
 THE SHOET-EAEED OWL. 
 
 Otus brachyohbs, Forster (sp.) 
 Strix „ Gmel. 
 
 Can only be announced with certainty as a regular 
 winter visitant. 
 
 Sir William Jardine has met with this species in its breeding 
 haunts in Dumfries-shire, and given a most interesting account of 
 it, as observed there.* Mr. Selby, too, considers from the cir- 
 cumstance of Ins meeting with the short- eared owl on the Nor- 
 thumbrian moors about the 1 2th of August, that it breeds on 
 them ; f and Mr. Hoy ascertained that it bred in the south-west 
 
 * His edition of Wilson's Aracr. Orn. vol. ii. p. 63 ; ami Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 286. 
 t " A few of them remain upon the moors of Northumhcrland, where Mr. Charlton 
 
THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 89 
 
 of Norfolk. But as to its breeding in Ireland, — which from the 
 nature of the country, we should certainly expect, — no informa- 
 tion can be given. Sportsmen and gamekeepers, whom I have 
 questioned on the subject, know the bird only as a winter visitant. 
 One friend, who for about forty years shot over the mountains of 
 several of our northern counties, and in no instance was a day 
 after the legal one (20th of August in Ireland) in commencing 
 grouse-shooting, — always, too, having exercised his dogs prepara- 
 tory to the sport, for some time previously, — never met with it at 
 that season ; nor at any other than when woodcocks are to be 
 found. The short-eared owl is then well known to him as fre- 
 quenting the mountain heaths. He has never observed it on 
 wing, except when sprung, nor seen it pursue prey by day. It 
 has, however, been observed to do so in Scotland.' 35 ' 
 
 To the neighbourhood of Belfast, — Down and Antrim, — this 
 owl generally comes in the month of October ; but so early as 
 the 5th of September, 1839, one was shot in a potato field bor- 
 dering the bay, within a mile of the town. It remains from this 
 time until spring. The latest noted here was killed on the 3rd of 
 April, 1837 ; for a long time before that period, there was a pre- 
 valence of north-easterly winds, which, had the bird been disposed 
 for migration, might have retarded its movements. The species 
 is generally found in marshy ground frequented by snipes. When 
 snipe-shooting around Belfast, a few of these owls have fallen to 
 my gun, in boggy spots of very limited extent. The first of them 
 that did so, being only winged, afforded me an opportunity of 
 observing the exceeding "depth" and brilliancy of its large 
 golden eyes, to utterly extinguish the light of which, — such is the 
 effect of beauty, — it must be confessed, pained me much. To the 
 counties of Londonderry and Donegal this owl resorts, in the 
 latter of which it was not observed by Mr. J. V. Stewart until 
 after the publication of Ms catalogue. Southward, it is met with 
 
 of Hesleyside, has frequently found their eggs among the heath in his own neigh- 
 bourhood. Mr. R. R. Wingate has also met with the young ones on the same moors 
 before they were able to fly." — Hewitson, Eggs Brit. Birds, p. 36. 
 
 * See St. John's Sketches of the Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 64. 
 
90 STRIGID^E. 
 
 very rarely about ClonmeL* Major Walker of Belmont, near 
 Wexford, mentions their presence in winter in numbers on the 
 mountain of Forth, whence they leave the country about April. 
 This gentleman remarks : — " I consider the short-eared owl and 
 the yellow owl [S. flammeaf] the most sharp-sighted and vigilant 
 birds I meet, and nearly impossible to get a shot at after being 
 once disturbed, perching as they do on some elevation, or in the 
 centre of a field, so as to command a good view around. I men- 
 tion this, as it is so different from the habits of the very large 
 owls I have met with in the forests of North America, which 
 would let our troops ride within a few yards of their perch, and 
 unless struck at, never flew away." Another correspondent, 
 writing from the same county, mentions Ins coming suddenly on 
 three of these birds, resting together on the ground in the middle 
 of a large bog, waiting as he supposed, " for an opportunity of 
 devouring snipe." Specimens are occasionally obtained in the 
 county of Waterford.f 
 
 In the Fauna of Cork, the species is noted as not rare ; and from 
 what Dr. Harvey of Cork writes to me respecting its occurrence 
 in that neighbourhood, it would seem to be about equally common 
 as around Belfast. Mr. Neligan has remarked, that it arrives in 
 Kerry with the woodcock, and departs thence at the same period ; 
 also, that the haunts of the two species in the mountains are simi- 
 lar. In the month of September or October, — about the time of 
 arrival, — a friend of his once saw thirteen or fourteen in company; 
 and from sportsmen shooting near Tralee, he was occasionally 
 supplied with two or three of these birds in the course of a week. 
 Mr. M'Calla, writhfg from Eoundstone, Connemara, in October, 
 1840, stated that he had seen but one owl of any kind in that 
 district, and from the distance at which it was, the species could 
 not be ascertained. To the short-eared owl only would that 
 locality seem to be suited, and to it, particularly well. 
 
 In the stomach of one specimen examined by me, were the legs of 
 a dunlin (Tringa variabilis), and in another, the remains of mice. J 
 
 * Davis. f Bnrkitt. 
 
 \ The following quaint extract from Kutty's Natural History of the county of 
 
THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 91 
 
 As the dunlin is a shore bird, it may be remarked, that this owl 
 is occasionally to be met with along the grassy margin of Belfast 
 bay. 
 
 Capt. Portlock, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 
 (vol. i. p. 52), mentions, on information communicated to him by 
 Serjeant Neely, collector for the Ordnance Survey, that these 
 birds are regular autumnal visitants to the rabbit-warren at Magil- 
 ligan, county of Londonderry, and have been seen at the entrance 
 of the burrows, within which they retired when disturbed ; more 
 than one was shot on emerging from the holes, and one was taken 
 in a trap placed at the entrance of a burrow, when making its 
 exit thence. As remarked by Captain Portlock, this habit brings 
 to mind the burrowing owl of America, Strix cunicularia. By 
 naming this species, the chord is touched which bears the imagi- 
 nation to far distant regions, and is therefore extremely pleasing ; 
 but there does not seem to me any analogy between the two cases. 
 It is the general and natural habit of the American bird to live 
 and breed within the burrows of the marmot, in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Rocky mountains ; while we can only regard the S. 
 bracliyotus as a mere accidental tenant of the deserted dwelling of 
 the rabbit in a particular locality. 
 
 A serjeant, who had been attached to the Ordnance Survey, 
 informed me, that he saw a white owl also fly into a rabbit-hole 
 at Magilligan, and by means of a trap, the bird was captured 
 when coming out. 
 
 Dublin (1772), applies better to the short-eared, than to any other species of British 
 owl : — " Owls are useful about stacks of corn, to destroy the mice, and the more 
 necessary, as these are great breeders. They were of singular use to the inhabitants 
 of Kent, and marshes of Essex, A.D. 1581, when they had a sore plague of strange 
 mice suddenly covering the earth, and gnawing the grass-roots, which poisoned all 
 herbage, and raised the plague of murrain among cattle grazing on it ; no wit or art 
 of man could destroy these mice, until another strange flight of owls came and killed 
 them all." 
 
 A like observation is given us from Market-Downham, in the London Magazine, 
 1754, where we are told that the parishioners pay almost the same veneration to the 
 Norway owls, [Strix brachyotus ?] as the Egyptians did to the Ibis, and will not 
 at any rate annoy them, on account of their coming to them and destroying the 
 field-mice, with which they are infested commonly once about six or seven years, and 
 which otherwise, like locusts, would devour their corn of every kind. Young owls 
 are eaten in Norfolk, and it is a proverb among them, as tender as a boiled owl. 
 
92 STBIGIDiE. 
 
 THE WHITE, OE BARN OWL. 
 
 Striae flammea, Linn. 
 
 Is the most commou species, and takes up its abode in 
 towns, as well as in country districts. 
 
 Where there is much old timber, the long-eared owl may be as 
 frequent as this species ; but throughout Ireland generally, the 
 numbers of S. flammea doubtless greatly prevail. It is said to be 
 the only species of owl known in the island of Rathlin, and to be 
 very rare.* Both this and the long-eared owl, which were once 
 plentiful in the plantations at Springvale, county of Down, are 
 said to have almost entirely disappeared of late years, without any 
 apparent cause, although the greatest protection was always 
 afforded to them. 
 
 I have had the following evidence of the white owl's regular 
 flight to some distance from its domicile, just as twilight com- 
 mences. Near Belfast, there is a considerable extent of low-lying 
 meadows which are flooded by heavy rains, and at such times are 
 resorted to by various species of wild-fowl (Anatida). The flood 
 never attaining such a height as to cover the banks surrounding 
 these meadows, they are frequented by persons for the purpose of 
 shooting the wild-fowl on their evening flight, and to whom the 
 owl, on as " murderous deeds intent," occasionally falls a victim. 
 It at first occurred to me that the owl's visit might be consequent 
 on the flood having driven the rats, mice, &c, on which it preys, 
 from the meadows to their banks, where, as the only place of 
 refuge, these animals would be more than usually abundant ; but 
 I since ascertained that the owl equally haunts them when the 
 flood is gone. I have seen it flying towards these grounds from 
 the distance of nearly a mile. 
 
 This species builds its nest in the ordinary site, old houses, &c, 
 about Youghal.f The family at Castle Warren, near Cork, were 
 much alarmed on one occasion by hearing a loud snoring noise, 
 like that made by a man after a day's hard labour, proceeding 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall. f Ball. 
 
THE WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 93 
 
 from one of the chimneys, and all apprehension was not dispelled 
 until owls of tliis species, which had a nest there, were discovered 
 to be the snorers. The young have been seen in the evening 
 flying to the battlements of the castle, where they kept up a snor- 
 ing noise, until the old birds came and fed them.* In the county 
 of Wexford, its nest has been found in a hollow tree.f The 
 white owl is a well-known visitor to the dove-cot, — though not 
 with the evil intent commonly imagined, — and in such a place, or 
 rather a loft appropriated to pigeons in the town of Belfast, an 
 observant friend informs me that a pair once had their nest, con- 
 taining four young, which were brought up at the same time with 
 many pigeons. The nests containing the latter were on every 
 side, but the owls never attempted to molest either the parents or 
 their young. As may be conjectured, this owl's nest was fre- 
 quently inspected during the progress of the young birds. On 
 the shelf beside them, never less than six, and as many as fifteen 
 mice and young rats have been observed (no birds were ever seen), 
 this too being the number left after their night's repast. The 
 parent owls, when undisturbed, remained all day in the pigeon- 
 loft. Mr. Waterton, in an admirable essay on this species, 
 strongly urges the great good it does by the destruction of mice 
 and allied vermin ; as Sir William Jardine, in his full and excel- 
 lent account of it, does also. J In St. John's Wild Sports of 
 the Highlands, the great service rendered to the farmer, &c, by 
 owls, is likewise fully expatiated on, p. 66-67. The localities, 
 indeed, in which we chiefly find this species in towns, bear circum- 
 stantial evidence of this fact. These are, to my own knowledge, 
 grain stores, breweries, &c, wherever mice and rats particularly 
 abound. 
 
 Of the stomachs of four white owls examined by me, one 
 contained the remains of rats ; another, of mice ; a third was filled 
 to distension with portions of eight mice; and the fourth exhibited 
 only an imperfect coleopterous insect of the family Harpalida, 
 
 * Mr. Kobert Warren, junr. 
 
 t Mr. J. Poole. See Jardine's Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 254. 
 
 X Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 256. 
 
94 STEIGIDiE. 
 
 which could not when perfect have exceeded nine lines in length. 
 A friend, too, on examining the pellets cast by these owls, has 
 often, in addition to the fur and bones of rats and mice, perceived 
 the wing-cases of beetles shining through them. The remains of 
 birds he never detected. Mr. Ball has taken nine mice from the 
 stomach of one of these owls. A thrush and sparrows, together 
 with field-mice, have been found in one of their larders ;* but it 
 is probably in the absence of other prey that any of the feathered 
 tribe are attacked. Once, however, I knew a tame one kill a 
 full-grown lapwing ( Vanettus cristatus), its only constant com- 
 panion in a spacious garden. 
 
 A white owl, kept for upwards of a year in a friend's house, 
 was from the first kindly disposed to the servant who fed it, but 
 pugnacious towards its master, instantly striking with its talons 
 at his finger when placed against the cage ; but he rather taught 
 it to do this, that its expertness might be witnessed. When 
 spoken to by any one, it returned the recognition by most gro- 
 tesquely moving from one leg to the other on its perch, accom- 
 panied at the same time by a bow or inclination of the head side- 
 ways. It screamed greatly during the night. Standing with one 
 leg drawn up, and the entire foot concealed in the plumage, the 
 white owl has a most singular appearance. Mr. Ball has known 
 one that escaped from a place in which it was for a few days con- 
 fined, return to it again after a short interval, a voluntary prisoner. 
 
 The ruins of Rome are, as may be supposed, a fine locality for 
 the white owl. From the Coliseum, tomb of Cecilia Metella, &c, 
 I have startled it from its mid-day repose. 
 
 THE TAWNY OWL. 
 
 Syrnium aluco, Linn, (sp.) 
 stridula „ (sp.) 
 
 tul/TZtV yy yy 
 
 If included at all in the Irish Fauna, must be considered 
 extremely rare. 
 
 * Poole. 
 
THE TAWNY AND SNOWY OWLS. 95 
 
 It is enumerated in the lists of birds published in several of the 
 Statistical Surveys of counties, and in other catalogues, but in 
 such a manner as «to be unworthy of record here. It never 
 occurred to Mr. Templeton, nor have any of my ornithological 
 friends or correspondents met with a specimen. The only notice 
 which seems authentic, is that published in the 1st volume of the 
 Annals of Natural History, p. 156, to the following effect : — That 
 in Feb., 1838, Mr. Adams, gamekeeper at Shane's Castle park, 
 assured me of a specimen having been killed there, within the 
 preceding few years. From the circumstance of my informant 
 having served in the capacity of gamekeeper in England, before 
 coming to this country, he became acquainted with the species, which 
 he correctly described to me under the name of "brown owl." 
 The gentleman who, in the Zoologist for June 1848, (p. 2141,) 
 and Saunders' News-letter of the 9th of that month, noticed the 
 tawny owl as having been obtained in the Queen's county, men- 
 tions, in a letter to me, that he was mistaken respecting the 
 species. 
 
 Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that "in the northern parts of 
 Scotland this species is seldom, if ever, met with ; but in the 
 wooded portions of the middle and southern divisions, it is more 
 frequently obtained than any other, excepting the long-eared and 
 barn owls," vol. iii. p. 442. 
 
 THE SNOWY OWL. 
 
 Surnia nyctea, Linn, (sp.) 
 Strix „ „ 
 
 Is a very rare winter visitant. 
 
 It is said to have been met with in 1812 and 1827.* Speci- 
 mens killed in two winters only — 1834-35, and 1837-38 — have 
 come under my own examination. To what I have already pub- 
 
 * To Mr. J. Poole, I am indebted for the following note : — Mr. B. Vicary, of 
 Wexford, when residing at Kilmore, on the south coast, in 1812, near an extensive 
 rabbit-burrow, was told on the first day of the shooting season that year, of a very 
 large, white, extraordinary looking bird being perched on a fence at a short distance 
 from the house. It remained on the spot until seen in staring majesty by that gen- 
 
96 strigidjE. 
 
 lished respecting Irish specimens, nothing is now to be added. 
 — I can only bring together what has before appeared. 
 
 On June 9, 1835, I had the satisfaction of communicating the 
 first notice of the occurrence of the snowy owl in Ireland to the 
 Zoological Society of London, in whose Proceedings, (1835, 
 p. 78,) it was subsequently published. About the 26th of March, 
 1835, a specimen of this bird was sent in a recent state to Dr. 
 Adams of Portglenone, county of Antrim, by a person who had 
 shot it a few days before in that neighbourhood, and who stated 
 that a similar individual had been seen about the place where it 
 was obtained. The specimen was presented by Dr. Adams to the 
 Natural History Society of Belfast. It was immature, agreeing 
 with the figure in Mr. Selby's Illustrations of British Orni- 
 thology. 
 
 On the 21st of the same month, as two of my friends were 
 snipe-shooting at Bruslee, about twenty miles to the south-east of 
 Portglenone, a large white owl, represented by them as twice the 
 size of the common species of that colour (Strix flammed), rose 
 from the heath within a few yards of one of them, just as he had 
 discharged both barrels at a snipe. His companion fired at it 
 from such a distance, that although struck, it escaped with the 
 loss of only a few feathers, and afterwards alighted a short way 
 off. On showing the specimen killed at Portglenone to one of 
 these gentlemen, he recognised it as similar in size and colour to 
 the bird which he had seen. 
 
 In Dublin, I subsequently saw a snowy owl, winch had been 
 shot in the county of Mayo, also in the month of March, and was 
 credibly informed that a few others were obtained about the same 
 
 tleman, then rose at about forty yards distance, and flew towards him, when it was 
 fired at, but sailed away apparently unhurt. It was, however, soon afterwards brought 
 to him by a boy who had seen it fall ; and excepting a flesh wound in the muscle of 
 one wing, was quite uninjured. It was kept in confinement for a considerable time, 
 and eventually killed by a servant for making too free with some chickens. 
 
 In the Fauna of Cork, published in 1845, it is stated that " an individual of this 
 species was twice fired at by Richard D. Parker, Esq., of Sunday's Well, on Inchigeela 
 mountain, in 1827, but was not procured." To make sure that there was not a 
 typographical error in the year, — that 1827 was not substituted for 1837, — I wrote 
 to the author, and learned that it was correctly printed. The bird was seen in the 
 month of September. 
 
THE SNOWY OWL. 
 
 97 
 
 time in different parts of Ireland. One may be mentioned as 
 having been received from the county of Longford, on the 5th of 
 April, by a bird-preserver in Dublin. When in that city, in the 
 spring of 1838, I saw, in the possession of Edward Waller, Esq., 
 a very fine specimen of the snowy owl, said to have been shot 
 about three years before that time, near Omagh, in the county of 
 Tyrone. There can be little doubt that this bird was of the same 
 "flight" as the others. I was pleased to hear from Dr. P. Neill 
 of Edinburgh, in August, 1835, that he had received a snowy owl 
 alive, in the spring of that year, from Orkney, where it was cap- 
 tured at the end of March. Dr. Neill has contributed a very 
 interesting account of this individual to Sir William Jardine's 
 History of British Birds, vol. i. p. 307. It is there said to have 
 been taken in the middle of April. 
 
 On the 2nd of December, 1837, a beautiful specimen of the 
 snowy owl was shot in a quarry on Scrabo mountain, in the county 
 of Down, and came into the possession of Thomas M'Leroth, 
 Esq., of Killinether House, in that neighbourhood, who liberally 
 presented it to the Belfast Museum. Having come under my 
 inspection in a recent state, I drew up the following description 
 of this bird, which differs in some particulars from other speci- 
 mens described in detail.* On that account, and for the purpose 
 of comparison with individuals noticed in the sequel, it is here 
 given : — 
 
 Length, entire ...... 
 
 Length of wing from carpus to end of longest quill 
 
 tarsus .... 
 
 bill measured along ridge 
 
 cere on its ridge 
 
 bill in a straight line from rictus to outer edge 
 
 middle toe .... 
 
 — its claw, following curvature 
 
 its claw in a straight line 
 
 inner claw, following curvature 
 
 outer claw, following curvature 
 
 hind claw, following curvature 
 
 Wings past the tail .... 
 
 * See Fauna Boreali-Americana, part ii, p. 190, 
 VOL. I. H 
 
 inch. 
 24 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 line. 
 
 6 
 3 
 9 
 9 
 9 
 6 
 8 
 
 3i 
 9 
 6 
 
98 STRIGIDiE. 
 
 Extent of wings 4 feet 94 inches ; first quill 14 inch shorter than the second, 
 which is about 2 lines shorter than the third, this being the longest ; the fourth is 
 about 2 lines shorter than the second ; the fifth 2 lines less than the first in length ; 
 this relative proportion of the quills is the same in the specimen from Portglenone, 
 preserved in the Belfast Museum. 
 
 Colour of forehead, throat, and upper portion of breast, lower part of belly, under 
 tail-coverts, under side of wings (except the roundish spots towards the points of 
 primaries, secondaries, and tertials), and entire legs, white. Plumage of the body 
 beneath the wings, lower part of breast, and upper portion of belly, white, beautifully 
 barred with blackish-brown in waved and variously formed lines about half an inch 
 apart, and becoming narrow as they approach the tail ; the greatest breadth of these 
 dark bars about 14 line. Feathers of the occiput white, tipped with black ; lower 
 part of nape where the head joins the body, white ; back, scapulars, and coverts of 
 the wings, white, closely barred with blackish brown. Primaries, secondaries, and 
 tertials (which, as to colouring, cannot well be separated in description, blending as 
 they do into each other), at first darkly barred on both outer and inner webs towards 
 the tips, but gradually becoming less so towards the centre (secondaries generally), 
 where three or four round spots appear on the outer web only ; thence the spots 
 become more numerous, and towards the body (tertials) the bars again appear on 
 both webs, thus, in the markings, balancing the primaries on the opposite side ; upper 
 tail coverts with narrow bars of blackish brown. Tail feathers twelve in number, 
 the two outer ones pure white, third and fourth with two broad bars of dark blackish 
 brown near the tip, fifth and sixth with three bars of the same colour. Irides, 
 golden yellow. Weight 3i lbs. This bird was fat, and in high condition. On 
 dissection, it proved a male ; its stomach was quite empty. 
 
 In a letter, dated Twizell House, July 21, 1838, 1 was informed 
 by P. J. Selby, Esq., that lie had received a snowy owl from 
 Killibegs, county of Donegal, near which place it was shot in the 
 month of November or December, 1837. This is the same indi- 
 vidual which appears from the " First Annual Report of the 
 Natural History Society of Dublin," p. 6, to have been announced 
 at one of the meetings as an eagle owl [Bubo maximus) : it is 
 almost unnecessary to add, that the gentleman who made the an- 
 nouncement had not the opportunity of seeing the specimen, but 
 judged merely from the description communicated to him. The 
 fact is mentioned here merely to guard against future error. 
 
 On young birds brought alive from North America. 
 
 In the month of October, 1837, Eichard Langtry, Esq., of 
 Eort William, near Belfast, received three riving specimens of the 
 snowy owl, which were taken in the previous month of August, 
 
THE SNOWY OWL. 99 
 
 from a nest in the vicinity of the Moravian settlement, on the 
 coast of Labrador. He had commissioned a person to procure 
 for him there, living specimens of the gyr falcon, for which the 
 owls were mistaken. In the preceding year, peregrine falcons 
 were brought to him thence by mistake for gyr falcons. The 
 white colour of the owls, however, led the person commissioned 
 to procure the hawks, to believe that he had at last obtained the 
 wished-for objects. These nestlings were at the time covered 
 only with down, and were so young that it was at first feared they 
 would not survive until the arrival of the vessel in London. Due 
 care was, however, taken of them, upwards of 700 mice, procured 
 by an Esquimaux for the occasion, were stowed in the vessel for 
 their support; when these were consumed, reindeers' flesh was 
 given them ; and when the vessel came near soundings, they were 
 supplied with sea-gulls caught upon baited hooks. An examina- 
 tion of these individuals has enabled me to correct an error which 
 appears in some of the best ornithological works respecting the 
 plumage of the snowy owl in the first year. This error seems, 
 in part at least, to have originated with Bullock, who states (but 
 not from personal observation), that the young birds which are 
 seen in the Shetland Islands flying about with their parents, are 
 brown at the end of summer. Temminck also remarks, that 
 " les jeunes, au sortir du nid, sont couverts d'un duvet brim ; les 
 premieres plumes sont aussi d'un brun clair."* Audubon ob- 
 serves, " I have shot specimens, which were, as I thought, so 
 young as to be nearly of a uniform light-brown tint, and which 
 puzzled me for several years, as I had at first conceived them to 
 be of a different species/'f On arrival, when they were in good 
 condition, the birds under consideration were as follows : — 
 
 One, much smaller than the others, and presumed to be a male, was considerably 
 whiter than the specimen shot in a wild state, whose plumage has just been described, 
 but displayed two markings which the other does not possess ; the back of the head, 
 where it joins the body, being blackish-brown, and another patch of this colour appear- 
 
 * Man. Orn. torn. i. p. 82. 
 f Orn. Biog. vol. ii. p. 136 ; where a highly interesting account of the snowy 
 owl's mode of fishing, as witnessed by the author at the Falls of the Ohio, will be 
 found. 
 
100 STRIGID^E. 
 
 ing oa the body just before the carpal joint of the wing. The supposed fema les 
 which are much larger than the last mentioned, differ exceedingly from it in mark- 
 ings. They have the facial plumage, or that within the disk, the throat, body beneath 
 the wings, under surface of the latter, the legs and toes, pure white. The head to the 
 disk posteriorly, back, upper side of wings, and whole plumage between the folded 
 wings, present as much of a blackish-brown colour as of white, the former being 
 disposed in the same manner as described in the specimen from Scrabo ; but the 
 bars and other dark markings are so broad as to occupy equal space with the white or 
 "ground" colour. 
 
 As immature, and more especially young birds of the year, 
 often wander farther from their native domicile, than those which 
 have attained maturity, it hitherto appeared singular to me, 
 that none of the specimens of the snowy owl obtained in so 
 southern a limit of their flight as England and Ireland, should be 
 in the garb described as assumed previous to the first moult. The 
 plumage of these Labrador birds, however, satisfied me, that the 
 young of the snowy owl, like the immature individuals of many 
 other species, do scatter themselves more widely than the adults. 
 
 The bird shot at Scrabo was, I have no doubt, a nestling in the 
 summer of 1837. The individual figured by Mr. Selby* is also 
 less white than Mr. Langtry's male bird, and if belonging to the 
 same sex, I should consider it a bird of the first year. Of two 
 other individuals, male and female, recorded by Mr. Selby to have 
 been killed in Northumberland, in 1823, the latter was, from the 
 number of black bars and spots, considered by that gentleman to 
 be a young bird, but no opinion on the age of the male is offered ; 
 he is, however, stated to have been much whiter than the female, 
 a circumstance which, as we have seen, does not militate against 
 his also being a young bird of the year. Of the other specimens 
 killed in England, I have not seen such detailed descriptions as 
 enable me to judge of their age from comparison with the Labra- 
 dor birds ; nor, in consequence of its sex being unknown, can a 
 satisfactory opinion be offered on the first snowy owl recorded to 
 have been obtained in Ireland. (Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 78.) "Were 
 the sex of the individuals known, we should probably find that the 
 
 * 111. Brit. Oru. pi. 23. 
 f See Naturalist's Library : Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307. 
 
THE SNOWY OWL. 101 
 
 greater number of these noble birds which have wandered to the 
 British Islands, have been the young in the plumage of the first 
 year. 
 
 It is thought desirable to add the following notice of the habits 
 of these owls reared from the nest, as compared chiefly with those 
 of Dr. Neill's bird,* procured when full grown. The male and 
 one female specimen now in Mr. Langtry's possession, are wild, 
 and sometimes fast for one or two days, though food is within 
 their reach. They are chiefly fed on the heads of poultry, wild 
 fowl, and rabbits ; but mice and rats are preferred, as are also sea- 
 gulls : from these birds no feathers have to be plucked, as the owls 
 very efficiently render this service for themselves. The heads of 
 plaice {Platessa vulgaris) several times offered them were refused, 
 and being forced down their throats were instantly ejected. Cast- 
 ings of the indigestible portions of their food are regularly thrown 
 up. Although the female is very partial to washing, the male has 
 never been known to wash. Their usual cry is a long-drawn 
 scream, but frequently they keep a low purring noise like a cat, 
 and the male bird, when annoyed, utters a sound like coo-coo-coo; 
 described by Dr. Neill as "cuckoo." 
 
 The third individual, a female, is very different from the others, 
 in being somewhat playful and quite familiar even with strangers. 
 It was interesting on one occasion, when standing about a pace dis- 
 tant from this bird during bright sunshine, to observe the contraction 
 of the pupil of the eye, which was particularly conspicuous from 
 contrast with the immense golden irides. When attracted by 
 larks which were singing at a great elevation and distance, the 
 pupil, from the ordinary size adapted to near objects, instantly 
 diminished to its minimum, or half the ordinary diameter ; and 
 again, when the sight was directed to birds at less distance, varied 
 accordingly. The other two owls are not in the least affected by 
 bright sunshine; and from their observing birds passing at a 
 great height in the air, or, as expressed to me, "almost in the 
 clouds," they are considered to see as far as a golden eagle, their 
 companion in captivity. Live rats turned out to this female owl 
 
 * See Naturalist's Library: Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307. 
 
102 strigidjE. 
 
 have been invariably captured within a very short time. In the 
 few instances in which I have seen dead prey seized, the 
 four claws were used.* 
 
 The preceding account of Mr. Langtry*s birds was published 
 in the Annals of Natural History for June, 1838. Two of them 
 were soon after that period sent to the Zoological Garden, in the 
 Phoenix Park, Dublin. Respecting the one which survived the 
 longest, I made the following notes on the 6th of Sept., 1845: — 
 "This bird, now more than eight years old, appears in the highest 
 state of health, and from the exceeding richness of its soft downy 
 plumage, is extremely beautiful. It is much whiter than any of 
 the individuals represented in the works at hand for reference, 
 namely, those of Bewick, Wilson,t Selby, Bennett,^ Yarrell, and 
 Jardine.|| At a front view, — the bird looking towards me, — it is 
 purely white without a single spot ; viewed dorsally, the upper 
 half of its plumage is also white, but on the coverts about the 
 middle of the wing, two or three blackish-brown spots appear. 
 The only other markings of this colour are a very few spots dis- 
 posed at random on the lowest portion of the wing-coverts, and a 
 few bands towards the tips of two of the secondaries. The bird 
 is wholly white excepting the wings, to which the dark markings 
 are confined, and these are different on each wing." Tins bird 
 died in the middle of October, 1846, and a post-mortem exami- 
 nation of its body took place. Outwardly all looked fair, but 
 within "not a muscle, vessel, or portion of viscera but was 
 diseased." (Ball.) 
 
 Migration of the Snowy Owl. 
 
 The following notes were published in the Annals of Natural 
 History for April, 1839:— 
 
 I have the pleasure on this occasion of recording a novel and 
 interesting fact in the history of that beautiful bird, the snowy 
 owl. By the ship John and Robert, (Captain M'Kechnie), of 501 
 tons burthen, belonging to the port of Belfast, that arrived here 
 from Quebec early in the month of December, 1838, three speci- 
 
 * See observation to the contrary in the last-cited work, p. 310. 
 t Amer. Ornith. % Gard. and Menag. Zool. Soc. || Hist. Brit. Birds. 
 
THE SNOWY OWL. 103 
 
 mens of this bird, which had been caught on board, were brought 
 hither alive. A fourth individual, similarly obtained, died about 
 the time the vessel entered Belfast bay. 
 
 These birds were secured either at twilight or by night, when 
 perched on the rigging, the sailors observing that they were 
 asleep before attempting their capture. They were kept on 
 flesh-meat, winch, for the first ten days, was forced down their 
 throats, but after this time they fed of themselves; in about 
 fifteen days after their capture, the vessel came into port. These 
 three birds, of winch two are males and the other a female, are 
 very fine examples of the snowy owl ; I have not seen a more 
 splendid specimen than the last-mentioned, winch died and is now 
 in my possession. I should consider all of them birds of the year, 
 and from the one that died having been described to me as similar 
 to mine, it probably was so likewise.'* 
 
 Having heard that these were part of a large "flight" of snowy 
 owls which for several days were seen about the vessel, I (never 
 having read of this species being met with on its migration) made 
 the fullest inquiry into the subject. The captain obligingly replied 
 to all my queries, and besides furnished me with the log-book of 
 the ship. 
 
 It may in the first place be desirable to give an extract from the 
 "log" for a week previous to the owls' occurrence, that we may learn 
 if the state of the wind, &c, will account for the great number 
 of these birds observed in the course of their migration. The 
 vessel, which was bound from Quebec to Belfast, was driven by 
 contrary winds along the coast of Labrador. 
 
 Notices of the owls were kept separate, but are here added to 
 the log, which otherwise is much condensed. 
 
 1838. 
 Nov. 8. Wind W.N.W. at noon; strong gales and tremendous sea running. N.W. 
 at midnight, and more moderate. 
 
 * See remarks on Mr. Langtry's birds. His snowy owls, which are kept in a spa- 
 cious garden containing many fruit trees, never perch upon them, but remain con- 
 stantly on the ground, although in rainy weather a portion of their snow-white 
 plumage is much soiled in consequence, greatly to the disadvantage of their 
 appearance. 
 
104 
 
 STRIGIDyE. 
 
 Nov. 9. Wind W. by N. at 10 a.m.; weather hazy. At 5 p.m. strong gale fromE.; 
 bore up for the harbour of Labrador; here we lay for the next 48 hours. 
 On the 10th were strong gales from the E. On the 11th strong gales 
 from the S. 
 
 — 12. Wind N. by E., moderate ; left harbour of Labrador this day ; light breezes 
 
 and clear weather. 
 
 — 13. Wind N.; going along shore passed Bellisle. 
 
 — 14. WindE. by N. at noon; light airs; cloudy weather; sun obscure. 
 
 — 15. Wind S. by E. at noon; sun obscure; strong gales from the S. 
 
 — 16. WindS.S.W., light airs, clear weather; saw owls to the number of about 
 
 thirty or forty for the first time. Lat. 54.02 ; long. 47.40 ; about 250 
 miles from the straits of Bellisle. 
 
 — 17. Wind S.S.W., fresh breezes ; a few owls alighted on masts ; two captured 
 
 this evening about 7 o'clock. Lat. 54.20; long. 46.20; about 375 
 miles from Bellisle. 
 
 — 18. Wind S.W. ; strong breezes and heavy sea from the E. ; great numbers of 
 
 owls, about fifty or sixty flying about and alighting on the rigging ; cap- 
 tured none to-day, nor did any remain on the ship this night. Lat. 
 54.50 ; 450 miles from Bellisle. 
 
 — 19. Wind N.W., strong breezes and cloudy weather ; squally with snow showers 
 
 during the day ; captured two more owls to-night. Lat. 54.51 ; long. 
 37.39 ; about 635 miles from Bellisle. 
 
 — 20. Wind N. by E., heavy gales with a tremendous sea running; saw several 
 
 owls, but none were caught. Lat. 54.50 ; long. 33.10. 
 
 — 21. Wind N.E. at 2 p.m. ; E. by S. at 4 p.m. ; light breezes and cloudy weather; 
 
 saw a gannet and curlew. Lat. 54.25 ; long. 31.40 ; about 740 miles 
 from Bellisle. 
 
 — 22. Wind S.E. by S., light breezes ; no owls seen these two days past, nor 
 
 were any afterwards met with. 
 Dec. 4. Vessel arrived at Belfast. 
 
 The captain describes the migration of these owls to have been 
 an extremely beautiful sight, and from his never having seen such 
 birds before, he was greatly interested about them. Sometimes they 
 kept flying near the vessel without alighting, and again there 
 would be one or two on every yard arm, with others hovering just 
 above : on alighting, they fell asleep, apparently from exhaustion. 
 Numerous as were these beautiful creatures, it was only when 
 occasional bickerings took place among those which had alighted 
 on the yard-arms, and in the stillness of night, that they were 
 heard during their entire presence. Their flight, described as in- 
 audible, could not but call to mind the finest and most poetical 
 description of this characteristic trait applied to the owls generally : 
 
THE SNOWY OWL. 105 
 
 "How serenely beautiful their noiseless flight ! A flake of snow 
 is not winnowed through the air more softly silent !"* Occasion- 
 ally, when but little way was made, they remained for a day about 
 the ship, and again, as reported to me, " went off for a day and 
 returned next morning," greatly to the surprise of the beholders 
 how they could find the ship after a night had intervened. What 
 must have added much additional interest to their appearance, was 
 the idea entertained, that these birds blown from the coast of La- 
 brador, and finding, like the dove of old, "no rest for the sole of 
 her foot," had, after traversing the pathless waters, sought the 
 vessel for this purpose, loitering about her course, disappearing 
 for a day, and again hastening to repose upon her yards and rig- 
 ging. But however pleasing such imaginings, it is not for the 
 naturalist here to pause, but in search of truth, assuredly not 
 less attractive, to pursue inquiry further. 
 
 If by reason of storms, or otherwise, he cannot perceive why 
 the same birds should, after having rested on and left the vessel, 
 re-appear another day, he may perhaps conclude, that the owls 
 thus seen, were flocks successively migrating to more southern 
 latitudes, and that different birds appeared on each occasion, or, 
 at all events, that it was not the same individuals which presented 
 themselves during the whole period. 
 
 That the regions within the arctic circle are the chief abode of 
 the snowy owl is well known, as it likewise is, that numbers mi- 
 grate thence in winter to Canada and the United States. Refer- 
 ence to the " log " will show, that during the five days on which 
 these birds were successively observed, the vessel kept nearly to 
 the 54th degree of latitude, having sailed during the time about 
 500 miles in an easterly direction; consequently, if the flight of 
 the owls were to Canada or the States, the vessel, which in such 
 event might possibly " have fallen in with " them a second time, 
 was proceeding somewhat in an opposite course, but whither it 
 does not appear from the direction of the wind that they would 
 have been driven by storms. A greater number of birds, too, 
 
 * Professor Wilson in Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xx. (1826) p. 671. 
 
106 stbigidjE. 
 
 being seen on the 18th than on the 16th, favours the idea of a 
 continuous migration. 
 
 The vessel was about 250 miles from the straits of Beflisle, the 
 S.E. point of Labrador, when these owls first appeared, but sail- 
 ing eastward, was on the day they were last seen about 740 miles 
 distant thence, and 480 miles from the southern extremity of 
 Greenland, which for some time was the nearest land. 
 
 In November, 1840, further information on this subject was 
 obtained from a trust-worthy and intelligent mate of another ves- 
 sel belonging to the port of Belfast. He stated that in two differ- 
 ent years, when his vessel was from 200 to 300 miles off the 
 banks of Newfoundland, snowy owls alighted on the spars and 
 rigging. This occurred only during fogs, but so long as these 
 continued, which was occasionally for two or three days, the birds 
 remained : whenever the atmosphere became clear, they took their 
 departure; they never permitted themselves to be caught. In 
 both years these owls were met with in September, and once, as 
 particularly noted, on the 20th of that month.' 36 ' 
 
 In concluding the Baptores, it may be mentioned, that I have 
 heard of the occurrence of a few species in Ireland, which have 
 not a place in this work, in consequence of their being insufficiently 
 authenticated. The relative differences between the species of 
 this order, obtained in Great Britain and Ireland, are : — 
 
 IN GEEAT BRITAIN, AND NOT IN IRELAND. 
 
 Fam. Falconida. 
 Circus cineraceus, . . Ash-coloured Harrier. 
 
 * Mr. Thomas M'Cullough of Pictou, when on his passage thence to Hull, in 
 November, 1834, and upwards of 200 miles from the nearest point of Newfoundland, 
 states, that a snowy owl passed close by the vessel repeatedly, without exhibiting any 
 disposition to alight. "It shewed no symptom of fatigue, but skimmed as dexter- 
 ously along the deep trough of the rolling waves, or rose as freely over their huge 
 white crests as if it had been merely coursing the surface of its native hills."f 
 Though evidently in search of food on the surface of the water, it was not observed to 
 seize any object. An interesting account is given by the same gentleman of a snowy 
 owl kept on board the vessel during the passage. 
 
 t Audubon, Orn. Biog. vol. v. p. 382. 
 
RARE SPECIES. 107 
 
 Elanus furcatus, . . Swallow-tailed Kite. 
 
 Fam. Vulturida. 
 Neophron percnopterus, Egyptian Vulture. 
 
 Fam. Strigidm. 
 Surnia funerea, . . . Hawk Owl. 
 Noctua passerina, . . Little Owl. 
 — Tengmalmi, . Tengmalm's Owl. 
 
 IN IRELAND, AND NOT IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Vultur fulvus, . . . Griffon Vulture. 
 Aquila nsevia, . . . Spotted Eagle. 
 
 The Circus cineraceus has been met with from the south to the 
 north of England, but has not occurred in Scotland, unless in the 
 instance mentioned at p. 83. Elanus furcatus is an American 
 (N. and S.) species, which has been taken once in Scotland and 
 once in England. The Neophron percnopterus, which inhabits 
 the south of Europe, has but once been procured in Great Britain. 
 Surnia funerea is included in the British list, from a single indi- 
 vidual captured on board a vessel off the coast of Cornwall, as 
 recorded by me in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 
 1835, p. 77. It inhabits the northern parts of Europe and North 
 America. Noctua passerina and N Tengmalmi are only occasional, 
 and very rare visitants to England ; in Scotland, they have not 
 been noticed. The former is chiefly a native of the more southern 
 portion of Europe, not having been seen beyond 55° north lati- 
 tude, according to Temminck. The latter inhabits more especially 
 the northern parts of that continent, but has been obtained on 
 the southern side of the Alps. It is common in North America. 
 
 The distribution of Vultur fulvus, and Aquila ncevia, is treated 
 of under those species, in the preceding pages. 
 
 The difference between the species of raptorial birds enumerated 
 in the respective lists of Great Britain and Ireland, arises, with 
 the exception of Circus cineraceus (a species resorting to England 
 regularly in the summer), from mere accidental visitants. If we 
 pause for a moment to consider the probability of the occurrence 
 
108 strigidjE. 
 
 of these species in the one island rather than in the'other, in con- 
 nection with the countries which they severally frequent, we shall 
 find, JLst. — That the exclusively American'species Elanus furcatm, 
 might be equally expected to visit either island ; 2nd. — That 
 Surniafunerea, being an inhabitant of the northern parts of Europe, 
 should rather be expected to occur in Great Britain (either in 
 Scotland or England) thaiyn Ireland; 3rd. — That all the others, 
 Neophron percnopterus, Vultur fulvus, Aquila ncevia, Noctua pas- 
 senna, and Noctua Tengmalmi, from their inhabiting (periodically 
 or permanently) the more southern portion of Europe, should 
 rather, on account of its comparative proximity thereto, be ex- 
 pected to visit England, than either Scotland or Ireland. Such 
 has partially, but only partially, been the result. Accidental 
 visitants cannot in such a point of view be placed under any 
 positive law. 
 
BIRDS OE IRELAND. 
 Order, INSESSORES. 
 
 PERCHING BIRDS. 
 
Order, INSESSORES. 
 (Perching Birds.) 
 
 THE GREAT GEEY SHRIKE. 
 Ash-coloured Butcher-bird. 
 
 Lanius excubitor, Linn. 
 
 Has occasionally been obtained in the autumn and 
 winter. 
 
 Two of these birds came under the notice of Templeton ; one 
 shot in the county of Down, and sent to him by Rainey Maxwell 
 Esq., and the other, observed by himself in the county of Antrim, 
 about the beginning of the present century. Eour, obtained in 
 these counties, have come under my own observation. The first, 
 a bird in mature plumage, was shot at Echlinville, late in the 
 autumn, more than twenty years ago ; — the second, an adult male, 
 was killed at Beechmount, near Belfast, in November, 1824; 
 another individual was in company with it, and remained about 
 the place for a few weeks afterwards ; — in a neighbouring locality, 
 one, (perhaps the latter bird,) was shot during the few days 
 of frost which occurred at the end of January, 1835. A recent 
 adult male was shot on a thorn-hedge at Kilmore, county of Down, 
 on the 15th of January, 1845: in its crop was the greater portion 
 of a grey linnet, which was recognised by a few feathers that 
 remained. On the 16th of November, 1846, a recent bird of 
 this species, killed a few days before, came under my examina- 
 tion in Belfast. The contents of the stomach consisted entirely 
 
112 strigim;. 
 
 of insect food ; the remains of earwigs, Carabi, and Staphylinu 
 It was ascertained that this bird had first been taken by a bird- 
 catcher, between Kilrea and Garvagh (county of Londonderry) 
 in a trap-cage set for goldfinches. Being kept for some days in 
 a cage with a canary-finch, it did not molest this bird, though 
 refusing all food that was offered. It escaped from the cage, and 
 was afterwards shot in the garden of Dr. Lane, at Newtown- 
 limavady. The plumage being smeared with bird-lime sufficed 
 for its identification. 
 
 Further, noting the localities from north to south, one of these 
 birds was killed at Mullaghmore, county of Sligo, about the year 
 1831 or 1832;* another preserved at Knockdrin Castle, West- 
 meath, the seat of Sir Richard Levinge, bart., was obtained there 
 previous to 1834. In the year 1822 or 1823, one was procured on 
 Shankhill mountain, county of Dublin, and in the Phoenix Park, 
 adjacent to the city, another was shot in 1831 (?). In the Queen' s- 
 county, one was killed on the 18th of December, 1847.t The 
 species is said to have been met with in the counties of Tipperary 
 and Waterford ; a specimen was procured near Cork in 1824 ; % a 
 second, as noticed in the Pauna of Cork (Introduction, p. iv.), 
 was shot near Carrigalane, about ten miles to the south of the 
 city, at the end of October, 1844, and a third was obtained in the 
 same quarter, early in August, 1845. 
 
 The ash-coloured shrike is only an occasional visitant to Eng- 
 land and Scotland, having been met with in those countries at 
 uncertain periods, as above noticed with respect to Ireland. It 
 has never been known to breed in Great Britain, but is stated to 
 do so, and remain during the year in Prance. 
 
 The red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), a regular summer 
 visitant to England; and the Wood chat (L. rufiis), a very rare one, 
 to that country, cannot at present be included in the Irish catalogue ; 
 nor is either species enumerated in that of Scotland by Sir W. Jardiue 
 
 * Mr. H. H. Dombrain. f Mr. Robt. J. Montgomery. 
 
 \ The same noticed in Cork Fauna, p. 5, although the year appears different there. 
 
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 113 
 
 or Mr. Macgillivray. The following shrikes came under my observation 
 when proceeding from Malta to the Morea in 1841 : — April 23rd, 
 when eighty miles from Malta, and Cape Passaro fifty miles distant, a 
 lesser gray shrike (L. minor) flew on board ; I had a near view of it 
 several times: — 25th, when 135 miles east of Mount Etna, and about 
 sixty from Calabria, a shrike (the species of which I could not distin- 
 guish, owing to the height at which it kept on the rigging,) seized a 
 yellow wren {Sylvia trochilns) which it eat except the bill: — 26th, 
 distant from Zante (the nearest land) eighty-six miles, 130 from 
 Navarino, a fine male woodchat (L. rufus) was caught on board. The 
 L. minor has not yet been noticed in England, but has been met 
 with as far north on the continent as Holland. 
 
 THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
 
 Mnscicapa grisola, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant to some parts of Ireland ■ 
 
 And perhaps to suitable localities throughout the island ; — which 
 seem to be especially gardens and pleasure-grounds. The species 
 is little known, except to the observant ornithologist. Owing to 
 the dullness of its plumage, its want of song, and its weak call 
 being seldom heard, the spotted flycatcher is certainly one of 
 the least obtrusive of our birds ; the trees, too, having put forth 
 their "leafy honours" before the period of its arrival, further 
 serve to screen it from observation. To Templeton it was known 
 as a regular summer visitant to the neighbourhood of Bel- 
 fast; a pair is mentioned as having built in the lime-trees at 
 his residence, Cranmore, in July, 1801 and 1802. It is the 
 latest of the summer birds in making its appearance about 
 Belfast; the 7th or 8th of May (1838) being the earliest date 
 of its arrival noted by me. On either of those clays one was seen 
 at the Falls; but on the 12th of the same month in that year, 
 not one was'met with in Shane's Castle Park, a circumstance im- 
 plying that the arrival had not been general ; on the 15th of May, 
 1832, the species was observed at Wolf-hill. White remarked its 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 MUSCICAPID^E. 
 
 arrival at Selborne more than once to be so late as the 20th of 
 May. It remains in the north of Ireland until autumn is very 
 far advanced. 
 
 In addition to the ordinary places selected for nidiflcation 
 here, as trees, holes in walls, &c, I have seen a nest at the Falls, 
 resting in part upon an aperture in a wall, and partly on the 
 branch of a fig-tree trained against it. Garden walls, indeed, seem 
 to be favourite sites for the nest. This is generally of careless 
 construction, and formed of various materials, occasionally of 
 moss, to winch is sometimes added hair, cobwebs, and feathers; 
 the last not being always used, even as lining. An observant 
 friend states that a nest placed against the unglazed window of 
 an outhouse at Beechmount, was so composed of cobwebs inside 
 and outside, that no other material was visible. Prom its choice 
 of this fragile building substance, the spotted flycatcher is called 
 cobweb bird in some parts of England. On the nest alluded to 
 being approached when it contained young, the parent bird was 
 very bold, flying angrily at the intruder, uttering shrill cries, and 
 approaching him so near that it might almost have been struck 
 with his hand."* 
 
 A pair of these birds is said to have built their nest on the 
 angle of a lamp-post in one of the streets of Leeds, and brought 
 up their young there ; f in the ornamental crown surmounting a 
 lamp near Portland Place, London, a nest was also constructed, in 
 which five eggs were laid and incubated. J That a pair might 
 have had similar intentions in Belfast, was supposed on the 8th of 
 June, 1842, when one was seen from our parlour in Donegal 
 Square to alight on a lamp-post a few yards distant from the 
 window, where it was soon joined by another, and both continued 
 there for some time, making occasional sorties after flies, but 
 still returning to the lamp-post. This site was not, however, 
 
 * In Macgillivray's Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 522, most interesting memoranda on 
 
 the number of times during one whole day that a pah - of these birds fed their young 
 
 are given from the observation of Mr. Durham Weir ; who adds, that " they beat 
 
 off most vigorously all kinds of small birds that approach their nest." 
 
 f Atkinson's Compendium. 
 
 \ Jesse's Gleanings, second series, and Yarrell's Brit. Birds. 
 
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 115 
 
 chosen, but in a more natural one, among ivy on an adjacent 
 wall in the square, it was afterwards ascertained that they had a 
 nest. In a town-garden here, a pair of these birds built for a 
 long period annually; too many of the choicest sites always 
 " offering," where bad bricks had crumbled away and left " ample 
 space and verge enough " for the summer mansion of the fly- 
 catcher. The nest was at least partially screened from observation 
 by the foliage of the fruit trees upon the wall ; the eggs were 
 generally four in number. 
 
 The Rev. Geo. Robinson of Tanderagee informs me (1847) that 
 the spotted flycatcher is as numerous in the demesne at Drumba- 
 nagher, as he has ever seen it in the parks or pleasure-grounds of 
 England. He has observed it, but not commonly, at other places 
 in the county of Armagh, and also in Tyrone. Prom the vicinity 
 of Londonderry, specimens were obtained for the Ordnance Survey 
 collection. This species regularly visits the neighbourhood of 
 Dublin. The Eev. Thomas Knox remarks, that it breeds about 
 Killaloe, county of Clare, and has occasionally either two broods, 
 or builds a second time if the first nest be destroyed, as on the 
 1st of August, 1833, he saw one sitting on young birds, though 
 on the 8th of June in the previous year, he knew a brood to have 
 been hatched.* It is not uncommon, and breeds about Clonmel.t 
 In the Fauna of Cork it is said to be a regular summer visitant 
 to that county. 
 
 The Pied Flycatcher {Muscicapa atricapilla or M. luctuosa), a 
 summer visitant to some parts of England, has not been met with in 
 Ireland or Scotland. When on the 26th of April, 1841, in H.M.S. 
 Beacon nearly ninety miles from Zante, the nearest land, and 130 from 
 Navarino, a male white-collared flycatcher {Muscicapa albicollis) was 
 caught on board, and on the following day, when about half that dis- 
 tance from these places respectively, two or three more male birds flew 
 on board, as did also the same number of females, either of M. albicollis 
 or M. atricapilla, but more probably of the former species. 
 
 * On this subject see note to White's Selbome, p. 179, ed. 1837, and Journal of 
 a Naturalist, p. 207. 
 
 t Mr. Davis. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 MERULIDtE. 
 
 THE WATER OUZEL. 
 
 Water blackbird. Dipper. 
 Cinclus aquaticus, Bechst. 
 Sturnus cinclus, Linn. 
 
 Inhabits suitable localities throughout the island. 
 
 Where such prevail, it is as common in Ireland as in Scotland, 
 Wales, and England.* This species might well be designated 
 the bird of the water-fall, so constantly is it to be seen in con- 
 nection with this fine feature of natural scenery. Once only 
 did this bird come under my notice, on the Rhine from 
 Cologne to Schaffhausen, and then it was at the great fall near the 
 latter city. It is always attendant on the torrents rushing through 
 the sublhne alpine defiles of Switzerland, and though Acerbi tells 
 us that the species is not found in Italy, I at one view observed 
 three or four individuals at the surpassingly beautiful cascade of 
 Velino, the admirable description of which occupies four stanzas 
 of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. But, — to return homewards, — it 
 may be seen about the humble water-falls in the glens and 
 ravines of the Belfast mountains every day throughout the year. 
 Such, however, are not its only haunts, for with the romantic and 
 picturesque in scenery, we may, as a general rule, associate this 
 species. When the stream descends to the lowlands, and 
 
 " Drags its slow length along," 
 
 with a placid surface, unbroken by rock or stone, the water ouzel 
 
 ceases to accompany it, and returns towards its upland source. 
 
 It is remarked by Mr. Selby, that these birds are seen "always 
 
 on the margin of the stream, or perched in their particular 
 
 attitude on some projecting stone in the middle of the water." 
 
 Thus are they characteristically represented in his splendid 
 
 Illustrations of British Ornithology, as well as by Bewick, whose 
 
 vignette more especially exhibits the species in its " rightful place " 
 
 in connection with the scenery depicted. About the ponds at 
 
 Wolf-hill, an elevated situation near Belfast, where these birds 
 
 * Mr. Selby having remarked that the water ouzel is " probably " met with in 
 Derbyshire, it may be stated, that I never saw the species more plentiful any where 
 than in that comity, especially about the romantic Dove, and the river at Matlock. 
 
THE WATER OUZEL. 117 
 
 have chiefly come under my observation, the willows that fringe 
 the bank, are, however, — owing to the absence of stones, — their 
 constant perch. Contiguous to these ponds are rocky mountain 
 streams, by which they are supplied. 
 
 The water ouzel is described by Montagu and Selby, merely as 
 a very early songster. In the north of Ireland, its song is 
 occasionally heard at all seasons ; and more especially when other 
 birds are silent, as in the autumnal, and still more frequently, in 
 the winter months. The bright mornings and forenoons that 
 occur during the most severe frost and snow, have always seemed 
 to me its favourite time for song, which it pours forth when 
 quickly flying at a great height, as well as when perched just 
 above the water. 
 
 The first nest of this bird that came under my observation, was 
 placed in a hole in the clayey bank of a pond, where, owing to 
 the shelter afforded, there was no occasion for the display of the 
 ordinary domed architecture, and it was consequently dispensed 
 with. This nest contained four eggs, from which three young 
 were produced. So soon as these were fledged, they were to be 
 seen accompanied by their parents, early every morning about 
 the same pond, some singing, others diving into the water from 
 the rail on which they were perched, none of them being for 
 one moment at rest. When neither, diving nor singing, they went 
 through the most grotesque and amusing evolutions ; and were a 
 highly interesting group, presenting quite a picture of social hap- 
 piness. I have frequently witnessed similar playfulness of manner ; 
 though from the fact of these birds being generally seen singly, 
 the species is regarded as unsocial In autumn, at a favourite haunt, 
 I was once much amused by observing a water ouzel singing 
 and perking about its head most ludicrously as it sat on the 
 top of a huge stone, around the base of which a second individual 
 at the same time was skipping in a comical manner. 
 
 The following note by an accurate observer, also illustrates the 
 same trait : " On the 26th of Sept.,* a pair of water ouzels, at 
 
 * The date is mentioned, to show that they are not any of the captivating arts 
 preceding the nuptial season. 
 
118 MERULIDiE. 
 
 the upper pond, Wolf-hill, plunged several times into the water, 
 which was some feet deep, and remained, moving about in it with 
 only their heads above the surface ; twice one of them disappeared 
 altogether, but each time for only two seconds; they then pursued 
 each other round the pond, alighted each on a separate stone, when 
 one of them sang: and several times they repeated all these 
 manoeuvres." Early in the morning of the 9th of October, 
 1843, when driving down the wildly picturesque Glenapp, in 
 Ayrshire, a couple of water ouzels appeared flying in company 
 over the river, into which one of them suddenly dropped and dis- 
 appeared. This was apparently done through mere playfulness, 
 the water being very muddy from a long and heavy shower which 
 had just fallen, and the food of the bird, it was conjectured, could 
 hardly be seen, except upon the surface. It proceeded for several 
 yards concealed by the water, excepting now and then, when 
 it came so near the surface as to be visible : the river was shallow 
 at the place, and rushing over a very rough stony bed. On 
 emerging, it flew down the river after its companion. I have 
 often, when a boy, seen the water ouzel dive into a pond of clear 
 spring-water at Wolf-hill ten feet in depth ; but did not give 
 attention to its motions beneath the surface ; it dived from a pipe 
 placed about a foot above the water. Only by a quick plunge, 
 or quiet dive from a little height have I seen this bird enter deep 
 water ; but into shallow water, I have observed it walk gradually 
 just so far as to enable a thorough ablution to be performed, 
 after which it returned to the land like any other species.* 
 
 But to return to the nests. Of five other sites observed to be 
 
 * The water ouzel is descanted on in an interesting manner in St. John's Wild 
 sports, &c, of the Highlands, chapter 25, p. 198, and the author remarks: — 
 " Despite of Mr. Waterton's strong opinion of the impossibility of the feat, he (the 
 bird in question) walks and runs about on the gravel at the bottom of the water, 
 scratching with his feet among the small stones, and picking away at all the small 
 insects and animalcula which he can dislodge. On two or three occasions I have wit- 
 nessed this act of the water ouzel, and have most distinctly seen the bird walking 
 and feeding in this manner, under the pellucid waters of a Highland burn." Mr. 
 Dillwyn, too, observes : " I have often seen this bird run rather than dive from the 
 edge of a stream ; and while under water by some motion of the wings as well as 
 legs, dabble along at the bottom for a minute or more." — Fauna and Flora of 
 Swansea, p. 4. 
 
THE WATER OUZEL. 119 
 
 selected for nidification, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, three 
 were in the fissures of rocks close to the finest cascades of our 
 mountain streams. One (in 1832) was at the side of the Cave- 
 hill waterfall, the highest in the extensive parish in which the 
 town just named is situated ; the brood duly appeared ; and 
 five or six birds, old and young, were often, through the autumn, 
 seen in company about the place. Another was tastefully built 
 on a niche near the summit of a waterfall of 30 feet in the Crow 
 glen, the rock directly above rising to such an elevation as to 
 render it inaccessible. Here the nest was very large, formed of 
 moss, and of the regular domed structure, upon which the spray 
 from the cascade seldom ceased to beat, the water flowing over 
 the rock being only about two feet distant. This circumstance, 
 however, apparently caused the desertion of the nest, as it was aban- 
 doned before the production of a brood ; it was not completed 
 until the 20th of April, upon which day one of the birds was for 
 some time observed pulling the growing moss off the moist rocks 
 to add to the structure, while the other remained idle at the base 
 of the cascade. During a flood, the water would have fallen in 
 a sheet over the nest, and left it uirinjured. On the 27th of 
 April, in a subsequent year, a nest containing young was ob- 
 served at the side of a rock bordering a mountain stream, above 
 the surface of which it was elevated only a foot ; the lining con- 
 sisted of the dried stalks of grasses, and a few leaves of trees. In 
 the hole of a wall beside an artificial fall of the river Lagan, 
 another was placed. Throughout the breeding season of 1832, a 
 pair of these birds frequented a dark shed erected over a large 
 mill-wheel of nearly forty feet diameter, at Wolf-lrill, where it was 
 presumed they had a nest. Their appearance, perching on the 
 arms of the wheel, and again emerging from this gloomy abode, 
 often caused surprise, more especially when they sallied forth 
 from between the arms of the gigantic wheel in motion, a 
 state in which it was almost constantly. 
 
 The last nest of this species which came under my notice, was 
 observed, at the end of May, 1842, near a cascade of Carnlough 
 river (county of Antrim), above the great fall. It was very large, 
 
120 MERTJL1D.*. 
 
 fully the size of a man's head, composed externally of moss, 
 and placed on the shelf of a rock rising from the river, which 
 flowed about seven feet beneath. The aperture was close to the 
 base, the thickness of the nest merely being between it and the 
 rock ; it was eaved so, that from particular points of view only 
 could any entrance be observed. This bird breeds in the glens 
 around Clonmel;* and apertures in the arches of the bridge, over 
 the Shannon at Killaloe, are occupied by its nests.f Thus, where 
 there is a deficiency of natural breeding-places, the water ouzel 
 can accommodate itself to artificial structures. 
 
 As several authors, to whose works I have referred, differ in 
 their descriptions of the colour of the legs of this species, it may 
 be remarked, that two mature specimens killed on the 25th July, 
 had the entire front (and it only) of the tarsi and upper side of 
 the toes of a whitish colour, like the clouded or opaque part of a 
 quill ; all the rest was blackish. 
 
 The stomachs ^f two individuals I examined, in the month of 
 December, contained the remains of the larvae of aquatic Coleop- 
 tera, and one in January exhibited the fragments of insects only. 
 The stomach of one looked to in October was entirely filled with 
 the remains of Crustacea, excepting two full-sized dorsal spines of 
 a three-spined stickleback ( Gasterosteus) . A person who has had 
 ample opportunities of observing the species, states, that from 
 shallow water he has often seen it bring the larvae of Phryganea, 
 and break their cases on a stone to get at the contained animal. 
 Sir Wm, Jardine, in the second volume of his British Birds, gives 
 a full and admirable account of this species, as Mr. Macgillivray 
 likewise does in his second volume ; the latter description, how- 
 ever, being marred by unnecessary reflections on other ornitho- 
 logists. Both these authors state, that they never found the ova 
 of fish in water ouzels dissected by them, nor do they think 
 that these birds ever seek or use such food, although, from an 
 ignorant belief that they destroy the ova of the salmon, they are 
 unrelentingly persecuted in some parts of the north of Scotland. 
 
 * Mr. R. Davis. f Rev. T. Kiiox. 
 
THE MISSEL THRUSH. 121 
 
 A reward of sixpence for every head would seem to have effected 
 a complete "clearance" of water ouzels in some districts there; as 
 Sir Wm. Jardine says he was unable to meet with a single indi- 
 vidual in the most suitable localities. Tins author further mentions 
 (p. 71) that, in one Highland district, he had the factor's authen- 
 ticated report of 548 of these birds having been destroyed within 
 three years. When spending the month of September, 1842, at 
 Aberarder, in the north of Inverness-shire, I was gratified to 
 find (although the erroneous notion just mentioned respect- 
 ing it is current there), that the water ouzel " maintained its 
 ground " about the streams where nature intended that it 
 should be. It is known there by the name of king-fisher, as it 
 is generally in the north of Scotland. Mr. Poole mentions that 
 about Wexford also, the name of king-fishei is applied to this bird. 
 He gives the following instance of its double signification : — Being 
 one day on the look out for water ouzels, in a favourite haunt about a 
 mill, and having fired at one, the report brought the miller to the 
 spot. My correspondent anticipating much information from one 
 who thus lived in their regular haunts, commenced questioning the 
 miller as to the habits of the species ; but the amount of his 
 knowledge consisted in the remark that the hen birds are common 
 enough, but the cock, which is a most brilliant creature, had 
 never come under his notice but once. Water ouzels of both 
 sexes were, therefore, considered by the miller as hens, and the 
 true king-fisher (Alcedo ispida) as the male bird. In no part of 
 Ireland am I aware of the species under consideration suffering, 
 as it does in Scotland, from ignorant persecution. 
 
 THE MISSEL THBUSH* 
 
 Turdus viscivorus, Linn. 
 
 Is a resident species pretty generally distributed over 
 wooded districts. 
 
 * This bird passes under the name of Jay in many parts of Ireland ; about Belfast 
 T have heard it called corny keevor. Butcher-bird is the term applied to it in a part 
 of Donegal. 
 
122 merulidjE. 
 
 The remarkable feature in the history of this bird, is its absence 
 from the country until of late years, and its rapid increase from 
 the period of its first appearance, — an observation which applies 
 to Great Britain as well as to Ireland. The first individual that 
 I have heard of, occurring in the north of Ireland, was shot by 
 John Sinclaire, Esq., about the year 1800, from a flock of field- 
 fares, at Eedhall, in the county of Antrim. Within a very few 
 years afterwards, the species bred at Belvoir Park, county of 
 Down; and in 1807 my friend just named observed a nest at 
 Oriel Temple, county of Louth. In Tollymore Park, situated at 
 the base of the mountains of Mourne (Down), it is said to have 
 been first known about 1830. Mr. J. Y. Stewart remarked, in 
 1832, with respect to the north-west of Donegal, that it had been 
 quite unknown there until within the few preceding years, but was 
 then common and resident — flocks of from fifteen to twenty being 
 seen at the approach of autumn. About that time a specimen 
 was sent to me from the county of Fermanagh. In 1839, the 
 species was said to have been increasing much of late years in the 
 neighbourhood of Portumna, county of Galway. Around Clonmel 
 (Tipperary) it was then common. In 1845, missel thrushes were 
 plentiful in the wooded districts of the county of Wexford, where 
 they had been known only for about ten years ; * and at the same 
 period were numerous in the county of Waterford, where some 
 years before they had been rare. They have for some time been 
 common in the county of Cork : — one shot there by Mr. E. Ball, in 
 1818, was considered an extraordinary rarity. In Kerry, they 
 were first seen in 1827 by the late Mr. T. P. Neligan, who ob- 
 served a gradual increase annually to their numbers until 1837, 
 when the communication was made to me. 
 
 In the counties of Antrim and Down, the missel thrush was 
 at first confined to the warm and richly wooded districts, but 
 gradually spread from them over the plantations generally ; and 
 of late years it has inhabited those winch stretch farthest towards 
 the mountain tops. 
 
 This bird builds very early; — before the trees put forth their 
 
 * Poole, 
 
THE MISSEL THRUSH. 123 
 
 leaves. On the 6th of April, 1833, a nest with four eggs was 
 observed in an elder in the glen at Wolf-hill ; where, however, 
 two other nests, built on larch firs, were remarked, on the 
 26th of May in the same year, with the birds at that late 
 period incubating ; probably in consequence of the first eggs or 
 brood having been destroyed. It is also noted as building on 
 April the 5th, 1837. On the 7th of April, 1844, a nest, in a 
 young ash tree in Colin Glen, examined by a juvenile friend, 
 contained three eggs; on our proceeding thence from Belfast, 
 pairs of missel thrushes were seen in two or three other localities 
 attacking magpies, and driving them from the vicinity of their 
 nests. Although the spring of 1845 was remarkably late, a pair 
 of these thrushes was observed by an ornithological friend build- 
 ing on the 3rd of April, and, as usual, in an exposed place — the 
 cleft of a birch tree, within a few feet of an avenue at Cromac, 
 being the site; — on the 16th, incubation was going forward. 
 The preceding are casual observations made in the neighbourhood 
 of Belfast. 
 
 In the county of Wexford, they have been known to pair as 
 early as the 29th of December ; to have the nest completed on the 
 4th of March, and the eggs laid on the 22nd of that month.* 
 The missel thrush sometimes builds in towns. When in Dublin 
 in the year 1838, I was assured that pairs had bred for the few 
 preceding years in the garden of Trinity College, and in the grounds 
 attached to the house of the Royal Society: — in the trees at Don- 
 egal Square, Belfast, too, it probably builds, as towards the end of 
 March, and early in April, its song is poured forth in the early 
 morning from the tops of the loftiest trees. The nest is gene- 
 rally most conspicuous: almost every one that I have seen was 
 placed in the forking of the main stem, or chief branches of trees, 
 whether these were wholly bare, or clothed with cryptogamic vege- 
 tation ; but they are sometimes situated eight or ten feet from 
 the main stem, particularly on the branches of firs. Trees in 
 young plantations, rising from twenty to thirty feet in height, 
 are often selected. May it not be in some degree to counter- 
 
 * Poole. 
 
124 MERULIDiE. 
 
 balance the danger to which its nest is subjected from the exposed 
 site, (selected according to the dictates of nature,) that this bird 
 is endowed with the extraordinary courage and perseverance 
 manifested in its defence. Often have I seen a pair of these 
 birds driving off magpies, and occasionally fighting against 
 four of them. The pair to which the first mentioned nest be- 
 longed, attacked a kestrel, which appeared in their neighbourhood 
 when the young birds were out, although probably without any 
 felonious intent upon them. One of these thrushes struck the 
 hawk several times, and made as many more attempts to do so 
 but in vain, as the latter, by suddenly rising in the air, escaped 
 the coming blow. This pair of birds followed the kestrel for a 
 great way, until they were all lost to sight in the distance. In 
 the wood at Cultra I was once (at the end of April) witness to a 
 single missel thrush boldly attacking a kestrel, which fled before 
 it. The courage of the thrush was further evinced by its flying 
 to the summit of the highest pine in the plantation, from which 
 commanding site it for a long time proudly looked defiance against 
 all comers ; but, by superior numbers, missel thrushes are, like 
 their betters, sometimes overpowered. This happened at the Falls 
 on one occasion, when a pair of gray crows (Corvus comix) joined, 
 or it may be followed, in the wake of a pair of magpies in their 
 assault on a nest, and the thrushes were unfortunately routed. 
 A pair of these birds which bred at the residence of a gentleman 
 of my acquaintance near Belfast, in the summer of 1837, flew 
 angrily towards himself whenever he walked in the direction of 
 their nest. But the missel thrush can exhibit boldness without 
 its nest being attacked. At the end of June, 1848, a friend 
 brought from Scotland to his residence, near Belfast, four young- 
 peregrine falcons. The first day that these birds, then full grown, 
 were placed out of doors upon their blocks, contiguously, four in 
 a row, they were assailed by a missel thrush, which for several 
 hours continued dashing down at them, and all but, if not ac- 
 actually, striking them occasionally. No reason, such as having 
 a nest in the vicinity, &c, could be assigned for the thrush's in- 
 hospitable welcome to the Scotch falcons. 
 
MISSEL THRUSH. 125 
 
 I am assured by Mr. James R. Garrett, that he has several times 
 known one of a pair of missel thrushes to be killed in the breeding 
 season, and in every such instance another mate was soon found 
 to supply the loss. 
 
 The few nests which I have particularly examined, were out- 
 wardly composed of larch or birch twigs and strong grasses ; the 
 interstices being filled up with mosses and jungermannia ; they 
 were lined in the bottom with fine grasses. There was no struc- 
 ture that could, correctly, be designated " a substantial wall of 
 clay" (Architecture of Birds, p. 210). The bottom generally 
 contained a portion of it; but in one nest there was not a 
 particle of clay, nor any other substance that could be used 
 in " masonry." Mr. Poole remarks : — " The nest is not, so far 
 as my experience goes, (nor, it may be added, mine either) at- 
 tached by lichens or anything else to the tree in which it is built. 
 The materials composing it are remarkably heterogeneous; sticks, 
 moss, grass, wool, feathers or shavings ; and once, a portion of 
 a newspaper entered into the composition/' — This gentleman 
 adds, that he has u known this bird to build, successively in the 
 same fork of a tree for several years." The indiscriminate 
 nature of the materials used in the structure of its nest by the 
 missel thrush, has indeed, occasionally, brought against it the 
 charge of pilfering, as in the following instances. 
 
 Some years ago, a lady residing near Ballymena lost in the 
 spring a lace cap winch had been laid on the grass to dry. In 
 the autumn, when the leaves began to fall, something white 
 appeared in one of the trees, and on inspection, proved to be the 
 missing cap, winch had been used by one of these birds in the 
 construction of its nest. 
 
 I had evidence of a similar depredation, but of a minor degree 
 of turpitude, being committed ; a narrow piece of net, a yard in 
 length, which was carried off when bleaching, being afterwards, in 
 my presence, found composing part of a nest. 
 
 Like some others of the genus, the missel-thrush is, in England, 
 noticed only as an early songster ; but, except in the moulting 
 season, its song may occasionally be heard in Ireland at every 
 
126 merulim;. 
 
 period of the year, and frequently in winter. Within the first fort- 
 night of December, 1832, I heard it sing on the mornings of five 
 different days ; and on the 7th of the ensuing month two were 
 heard at the same time. Under December the 2nd, 1838, it was 
 noted at the Falls, that during the preceding eight days there had 
 been most severe gales from the east and west, through the stormiest 
 period of winch — chiefly in the morning — this bird was heard 
 singing, as is its habit during storms in the spring. On the 26th 
 of December, 1845, it was heard singing at the Palls for the 
 first time that season. 
 
 As soon as the breeding season is over, these birds assemble 
 either in families or large flocks — generally unassociated with 
 other species — and are very destructive to the fruit in certain 
 gardens and orchards about Belfast. On the 5th of July, I once 
 saw two or three families congregated ; and on the 1st of August, 
 1832, fifty -four were reckoned in a flock in the garden at the 
 Palls, where, during the month, they consumed almost the entire 
 crop of raspberries. Several of the young birds were caught in 
 rat-traps baited with this fruit. At the end of August the same 
 year, they resorted in such numbers to an orchard, containing the 
 most venerable fruit-trees in the vicinity of the town, that on one 
 morning twenty-six, and on the next, seventeen of them were 
 shot, and, with one or two exceptions, singly : late cherries were 
 the attraction. Missel-thrushes were that year more than usually 
 abundant. In 1833, the report of the gardener at the Palls was 
 not, however, very satisfactory ; — that since they had eaten the 
 greater part of the raspberries, and had cleared the trees of the 
 late crop of cherries, he had not seen many. In the months 
 of July and August in 1837 and 1838, but especially in the latter 
 year, they were likewise most destructive to the raspberries here, and 
 appeared in flocks consisting of forty or fifty individuals at a time. 
 The injury was not confined^ to the mere loss of the fruit, but was 
 increased by their weight breaking off the shoots on which it 
 grew. Scarecrows attired after the fashion of men, and a rattle, 
 such as is erected in fields of grain to frighten off feathered depre- 
 dators, were used against them with some effect. I have been 
 
THE MISSEL THRUSH. 127 
 
 thus particular, as similar depredations on the part of this species 
 have not been related in any ornithological work with winch I am 
 acquainted. In his History of Selborne, "White remarks, that 
 "missel-thrushes do not destroy the fruit in our gardens like 
 other species of Turdi," and on this passage (so far as I have noticed) 
 not one of his numerous commentators has made an observa- 
 tion. Sir Wm. Jardine * particularizes only " wild-bevnes " as 
 their food ; hence we may conclude that the gardens known to him 
 have been exempt from their attacks. In an anonymous contribu- 
 tion to Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, facts similar to 
 those I have brought forward are recorded (vol. iv. p. 184). 
 
 The stomachs of two individuals, examined by me in January 
 and September, contained the remains of coleopterous insects in 
 addition to vegetable matter. Mr. J. Poole mentions " lob- worms" 
 as their general food, but that in one stomach he found several 
 small green caterpillars, some Scolopendrce, and the remains of 
 a lizard. These birds vary much in numbers in different years, and 
 are capricious as to localities, not a flock, either large or small, being 
 seen in some seasons at places where they are usually common. I 
 have been particularly reminded of this by not seeing one about 
 Holywood House during the autumn of 1847, while in that of 
 1846, and commonly, they were in such numbers, that from 
 twenty to thirty would be seen at a time feeding on the berries 
 of the mountain-ash trees {Pyrus auciiparia) near the windows 
 of the dwelling-house. 
 
 Friends who have had better opportunities for observation than 
 myself, are of opinion that the flocks seen in July and August 
 about Belfast, and believed to be bred there, migrate southward, 
 which supposition is strengthened by the statements of corres- 
 pondents residing further south; and by the fact, that the birds 
 are never seen in numbers during the winter, though a regular 
 stock is kept up throughout the year. In Connemara, the 
 species is said to be common in winter, and only at that 
 season.f Its "average winter arrival" to the neighbourhood 
 
 * Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 77. t Mr. M'Cedla. 
 
128 MERULIDiE. 
 
 of Toomavara, in the county of Tipperary, is noted by the 
 Rev. T. Knox, to be about the 7th of November ; in summer it is 
 also met with there in pairs and limited numbers, as well as about 
 Killaloe, his former residence. 
 
 Mr. Macgillivray remarks that he has not met with this bird 
 in the northern division of Scotland (B. B. vol. ii. p. 121), but 
 as many as thirty together were commonly seen by my friend 
 Richard Langtry, about Aberarder — sixteen miles southward 
 of the town of Inverness — in the autumn of 1838. They at 
 first frequented the heath (adjacent to a wood), as he supposed 
 for the purpose of feeding on the berries of the trailing Arbutus 
 or bear-berry [Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), and afterwards destroyed 
 the cherries in the garden, several at a time being engaged 
 picking the fruit from a single tree. Over the southern portion 
 of Scotland, the missel thrush is remarked by Sir William 
 Jardine to be "generally distributed." It has, as in Ireland, 
 increased much of late years. When on a visit in August, 1839, 
 to a most observant sportsman, near Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, he 
 remarked that this bird was quite unknown there until the few 
 preceding years, within which time two of its nests were built near 
 the village, and large flocks were seen at Auchairne ; in the glens 
 about which place there are extensive young plantations. On the 
 2nd of September, I remarked a flock of a dozen at Glen-tig, in 
 the same district. In the summer of 1826, I met with this 
 species in Switzerland, but not so commonly as in its favourite 
 haunts in Ireland. 
 
 WHITE'S THRUSH. 
 
 Turdus W/iitei, Eyton. 
 
 Has once occurred in Ireland, 
 
 As noticed by Mr. G. J. Allman (now Professor of Botany in 
 Trinity College, Dublin,) in the 11th vol. of the Annals of Natural 
 History, p. 78. The communication is dated Dec, 15th, 1842, 
 and states that the writer is in possession of a specimen of this very 
 rare bird, obtained about ten days previously in the neighbour- 
 
white's thrush. 129 
 
 hood of Bandon, county of Cork. It is said in the Pauna of Cork, 
 that the gentleman at whose place the bird was obtained, saw 
 what he believed to be another of the same species there ; but 
 when, is not mentioned. 
 
 Two specimens, at most, of T. Whitei have been obtained in 
 Great Britain, and both in Hampshire. The one which has 
 served for the descriptions and figures of the species was shot 
 by Lord Malmesbury in January, 1828. The Irish specimen is 
 similar to it. The following notes upon this bird were made in 
 Dublin in September, 1845, when a comparison was also drawn 
 up between it and a thrush from Nepal, so far as the imperfect 
 specimens would admit : — the Irish bird wants the head and neck j 
 the Nepal one, the legs. The latter specimen was presented by 
 Mr. Hodgson to the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, under 
 the name of Oreocincla Whitei, and noted as a duplicate of one 
 (and numbered 194), which he had presented to the British 
 Museum collection. 
 
 Irish Nepal 
 
 specimen specimen 
 
 Length of wing 6^- inches 5i 
 
 First quill feather about equally short in both . 
 
 1st quill, tip from carpus, 2|- 
 
 3rd quill (longest), exceeding 4th (next in length) -^ 
 
 9nrl _i_ _5- 
 
 u 55 euu 10 10 
 
 4th „ „ 5th 
 5th „ „ 6th 
 6th „ „ 7th 
 2nd „ „ 5th 
 4th „ „ 2nd 
 Tarsus 
 
 The tail of the Irish bird in length and size generally, exceeds 
 that of the Nepal one, as much proportionally as the wing. In 
 colouring and marking the two birds are similar, — agreeing with 
 the descriptions and figures of Eyton and Yarrell, — with the 
 
 * This trivial difference is exceeded by one half in the other wing of the same speci- 
 men. In the one wing, the third and fourth quills are of equal length ; in the other, 
 the fourth exceeds the third by one-twelfth of an inch. 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
 To - 
 
 l * 
 To" 
 
 6 
 10 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 TO" 
 
 
 3 
 
 "5" 
 
 
 1 
 t 
 
 
 1 10 
 
 
130 merulidjE. 
 
 unimportant difference of the Irish one being the deeper in tint, 
 owing, it may be presumed, either to its being killed sooner after 
 moult, or being less exposed to the sun and weather than the 
 Nepal bird. The mere disagreement in size between them is not, 
 I consider, of any specific consequence -, but the discrepancy in 
 the relative length of the quill feathers to each other may be so 
 considered, should it prove to be a permanent character. 
 
 THE EIELDEAEE. 
 
 Blue Pigeon, or Big Pelt. 
 
 Turdus pilaris, Linn. 
 Is a regular winter visitant, 
 
 Appearing generally in the north towards the end of October or 
 beginning of November. In 1840, they did not arrive at the 
 Ealls, near Belfast, until the 9th of November, on the morning of 
 which day a flock was seen there by Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., at a 
 great height in the air, coming from a north-easterly direction : this 
 gentleman is of opinion that in the course of the preceding moon- 
 light night, they may have come in one flight direct from Norway. 
 The first redwings of the season made their appearance at the 
 Ealls, under precisely similar circumstances, after a fine moonlight 
 night a month before. So early as the 24th of September, 1 847, 
 I saw a small flock of fieldfares at Holywood House (co. of Down) 
 and a larger flock of redwings ; they were quite separate. The 
 first arrival of the fieldfare in the county of Wexford has been 
 noted in different years from the 20th of September to the 2nd of 
 November.* Mr. Macgillivray mentions its appearing in "the 
 northern and eastern parts of Britain" (vol. ii. p. 108) at the 
 end of October or beginning of November. Sir Wm. Jardine, 
 writing from Dumfries-shire, remarks, that " its time of arrival is 
 late in November" (vol. ii.-p. 81). I am assured by Mr. Eichard 
 Langtry that early in September, 1838, he raised two or three 
 fieldfares from among juniper bushes, at Aberarder, Inverness- 
 shire. On the 28th of September, 1843, I saw several of these 
 
 * Poole. 
 
THE FIELDFARE. 131 
 
 birds at Ballochmorrie, in Ayrshire; and when at Dunskey, Wigton- 
 shire, in the middle of October of the following year, I observed 
 large flocks. 
 
 This bird remains until a late period in spring. In seven diffe- 
 rent years, flocks were observed about Belfast, from the middle to 
 the end of April, and continued until the latter period in two 
 years (1834 and 1842), although there had been some weeks of 
 fine summer-like weather previously, which we might imagine 
 would have tempted them to move northwards. 
 
 On the evening of the 7th of May, 1836, Mr. W. Sinclaire, 
 when at Ms residence, the Palls, observed a large flock migrating 
 in a north-east direction, and heard them calling as they passed 
 overhead. They were considered to be on their way from some dis- 
 tant locality, as none had been seen in his neighbourhood for some 
 time before. But when the season was as far advanced in the very 
 late spring of 1837, fieldfares still frequented their winter quarters 
 there, the great body of them remaining longer than ever before 
 known. They likewise remained in the county of Kerry in the 
 spring of 1837, until the end of April, which is later than had 
 been before noticed.' 34 ' The middle of April is the latest time 
 at which they have been met with in the county of Wexford ;t 
 but at Ballinderry, on the borders of Lough Neagh, about a 
 dozen of these birds were seen in a hedge-row, in 1 842, so late 
 as the 31st of May; their call was heard, and the blue of the back 
 distinctly seen, so that no mistake could have been made respecting 
 the species. Sir Win. Jardine remarks, that the " great body re- 
 migrate during the month of May." The ordinary arrival of the 
 species in the north of Ireland, and its departure thence, certainly 
 take place at earlier periods than the south (?) of Scotland, as 
 noticed in that author's work. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Knox of Toomavara remarks in a letter to 
 me, with respect to his present neighbourhood, and Killaloe, his 
 former residence, that the fieldfares are not so numerous, and are 
 always later in appearing than the redwings ; that if the weather be 
 mild, they retire in the middle of winter for weeks together, but 
 * Rev. T. Knox. f Mr. Poole. 
 
 k2 
 
132 merulid^e. 
 
 that one or two nights of frost are certain to bring them back 
 again. When they disappear, he thinks they visit the mountains. 
 Such, likewise, are their habits in the north, as in the open weather, 
 they frequent the upland districts, but are driven to the lowlands 
 by frost and snow.* Their favourite haunts around Belfast are 
 the fields skirting the base of the mountains, more especially those 
 surrounded by tall white-thorn hedges, which for the sake of 
 shelter have been permitted to grow to maturity in a state of un- 
 pruned and wild luxuriance. Although frequently associating 
 with the redwing, the fieldfare may be considered as preferring 
 localities of a wilder nature than those usually resorted to by that 
 bird, and is accordingly, in such places the more common of the 
 two species. 
 
 My correspondents in Kerry and Wexford mention the ground 
 as being the ordinary roosting-place of the fieldfare. When re- 
 turning at a late hour from hunting, I have several times in the 
 short days of winter raised flocks of fieldfares that were roosting 
 near the summit of heath-clad hills considerably distant from their 
 daily haunts, as well as from any hedges or plantations. Mr. R. 
 Ball mentions his having once seen a flock of about five hundred 
 perched for the night on a spruce-fir near Youghal, and that 
 fieldfares and redwings in large flocks — " a stream of them " — 
 pass over the Zoological Gardens, Dublin, commonly in the winter, 
 to roost in the Phoenix Park. The flight of the fieldfare is well 
 described by Mr. Macgillivray, whose description of its habits 
 generally is very good ; as is that also of Sir Wm. Jardine. 
 
 I have little doubt, from having at such times remarked their 
 scarcity, that when a severe frost sets gradually in, fieldfares 
 generally leave, as in England, the northern parts of this country. 
 Though the species is naturally wild and difficult of approach, 
 such individuals as remain behind are driven to the bogs, ditches, 
 and drains, in quest of food, and suffer so severely from hunger 
 and cold combined, as to become easy victims to the most juve- 
 nile sportsmen. A note, dated Belfast, 1st of December, 1846, is 
 to the effect, that for the last few days a severe frost prevailed, 
 
 * See Journal of a Naturalist, p. 259, third ed. for the opposite procedure. 
 
THE FIELDFARE. 3 33 
 
 which had been preceded by snow. Two wild-fowl shooters who 
 were out in the bay every morning for a week previous to the 
 commencement of the frost, heard large flocks of these birds 
 flying overhead before daybreak. They all came from a northerly 
 and proceeded in a southerly direction. The frost and snow setting 
 in northwards probably before it reached us may have compelled 
 the birds to migrate to a more genial climate. There was no 
 moonlight at the time. 
 
 On the 27th and 28th of January, 1848, when hard frost had 
 for some time prevailed, and the ground was sparingly covered, 
 with snow, an accurate observer, for a long time watched a large 
 flock of from 150 to 200 of these birds, in a field of Swedish 
 turnips at Island hill, near Strangford Lough. Lying behind the 
 fence, hidden by a furze or whin-bush, he was within four yards 
 of the nearest, and saw that the birds generally over the field 
 were engaged pecking eagerly at the roots of the turnip. They 
 were very pugnacious, attacking each other like game-cocks ; a 
 couple thus engaged, sometimes springing even two feet into the 
 air ; never less than about a dozen pair were thus off the ground 
 at the same time. This singular appearance was the means of 
 attracting from a distance the attention of my informant to the 
 spot. When a couple were fighting, a third often came up 
 and attacked one of them, which was no sooner done, than the 
 previous combatant so relieved betook itself again to turnip-feeding. 
 They never fought long, — " only two or three blows at a time," — 
 but kept up a continual feast and continual battle. On afterwards 
 examining the turnips in the field, he saw, to his surprise, consi- 
 dering their being hard frozen, and the weak bills of the birds, that 
 they had to a great extent been eaten by the fieldfares. As water 
 would lodge where the roots had been pecked, they would, he 
 conceived, be rotted in consequence, to the serious damage of the 
 crop. Five of these birds having been shot and brought to Bel- 
 fast, I had an opportunity of examining their stomachs ; winch, 
 even before being opened, all smelled strongly of turnips, and 
 on being cut into, were found to be filled exclusively with that 
 
134 .MEEULIDiE. 
 
 vegetable. The entire flesh also when dressed, partook strongly of 
 the flavour of the turnip. 
 
 As a difference of opinion exists among authors on the subject 
 of the fieldfare's food, I give the contents of the stomachs of seven 
 other individuals examined by me, and which were killed at various 
 times and places during two seasons. Of these, one contained 
 two limacelli, (internal shells of naked snails belonging to the 
 genus Limax, Linn.) the remains of coleopterous insects, and 
 some vegetable matter; this last substance only appeared in 
 the second; the third was filled with oats alone, though the 
 weather was mild, and had been so for some time before; 
 the fourth contained worms and bits of grass; these last, 
 together with pieces of straw and the husks of grain, were found 
 in the fifth, — the weather was severe and frosty for a week pre- 
 viously ; the sixth was stored with the husks, and one grain of 
 oats ; the seventh, obtained in mild weather, was filled with the 
 stones of haws of the white-thorn. These birds have often been 
 observed by a person of my acquaintance regaling on the haws 
 or fruit of that plant, during frosty weather. 
 
 Mr. Hewitson remarks : — " The fieldfare is the most abun- 
 dant bird in Norway, and is generally diffused over that part 
 of the country which we visited, from Drontheim to the Arctic 
 circle. It builds in society. Two hundred nests or upwards 
 may be found within a small circuit of the forest." * Nothing is 
 said of its song. The fieldfare " only arrives in Provence when 
 the cold is excessive at the beginning of winter. It stays in the 
 wildest places, and departs at the approach of spring. It does 
 not cross the [Mediterranean] sea." f 
 
 THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH. 
 
 Turdus musicus, Linn. 
 
 Is plentiful, and resident throughout the island. 
 
 Although I have seen flocks of thrushes late in autumn, I am of 
 
 * Egg's Brit. Birds, p. 58. 
 t M. Duval- Jouvc in Zoologist, October, 1845, p. 1118. 
 
THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH. 135 
 
 opinion (as is Mr. Selby with regard to Northumberland,) that they 
 are not our indigenous birds which so congregate, but that such 
 bodies are on their migration from more northern countries. 
 As confirmative of this view, there does not seem to be any 
 diminution of the species in its accustomed haunts, nor are flocks 
 seen, except for a short time at a particular season. 
 
 In England the thrush is considered only as an early songster, 
 beginning its melody at earliest by the end of January (Selby), 
 and continuing it until July (Jenyns). But in Ireland, where our 
 winters are milder, its song, even in the north, is continued in 
 fine weather throughout the year, excepting at the moulting 
 period, and, as if the bird felt the winter day too brief, its melody 
 does not cease when the sun goes down. In December, 1831, 
 I heard it at "Wolf -hill, on the 5th, 30 minutes; on the 19th, 
 40 minutes; and on the 26th, 45 minutes after sunset. Similar 
 memoranda were made in December, 1835, 1837, and 1839, 
 when so many thrushes and robins were sometimes singing 
 at the same time as to produce quite a concert, broken in upon 
 occasionally by the harsh call of the missel thrush. * In sum- 
 mer, too, the notes of the song thrush are sometimes prolonged 
 until a very late hour. On the 27th of May, I once heard them 
 at half past nine o'clock, p.m.; as a friend on one occasion did 
 about midsummer, at a quarter to ten o'clock, p.m. I once, on the 
 15th of June, listened to[its song at Wolf-hill, so early as a quarter 
 past two o'clock, a.m., at which hour on the 16th of that month 
 in another year, it was heard at the Falls : followed a few minutes 
 afterwards, by the note of the cuckoo, and the song of the swallow. 
 When travelling in the month of June over a very wild mountain 
 tract covered with heath, between Cushendall and Ballycastle, 
 (co. Antrim,) and some miles distant from any trees, I heard two 
 thrushes singing: the nearer one, which I saw and listened to for 
 some time, was perched on a dead ragweed (Senecio Jacobaa) that 
 overtopped the heath. The next day one appeared at a still wilder 
 
 * Mr. Poole, writing of the county of Wexford, remarks on his having heard 
 thrushes, sky-larks, and hedge-sparrows sing during a very hard frost. 
 
136 MEKULIDiE. 
 
 place near the summit of the noble promontory of Fairhead. 
 One or two pairs are said to inhabit the island of Bathlm,* a 
 similar locality. Mr. Macgillivray, who gives a long and good 
 account of the thrush, mentions it as abundant in the Hebrides, 
 where it may be heard singing from the pinnacles of the rocks. 
 B. B. vol. ii. p. 130. 
 
 This bird breeds early in the north of Ireland; sometimes in 
 the month of March, and not uncommonly before the middle 
 of April, incubation has commenced. The favourite sites chosen 
 for the nest are ever-green shrubs, young trees, and beech hedges, 
 yet even where these abound, the thrush not unfrequently prefers 
 placing it in the holes of walls and beneath the roof of sheds. In 
 one of the latter situations, I knew a pair to build on the top 
 of the wall just beneath the slates, for three successive summers. 
 The nest was exposed to view from every part of the house which, 
 too, was in the midst of shrubberies and plantations. The site was 
 such as the swallow would select, and similar to one I have known 
 the robin appropriate to itself in a yard in Belfast. Thrushes' nests 
 at the Falls are sometimes placed among moss on ditch-banks 
 overshadowed by ferns (Aspidii) or the rank hemlock. A nest in 
 a pear-tree in the garden there, near to which is a hay-loft, was with 
 the exception of its inner clay coating, constructed entirely of hay. 
 A relative, who has attended to the nidification of birds, once 
 found the nest of a thrush containing five eggs, on the ground in 
 a meadow at Wolf-hill, — a place with grass about two feet high 
 waving over it. This place abounded in such situations as are 
 usually selected. Of four nests observed there in one season, two 
 were in the holes of walls ; a third was built among ivy against 
 a wall, and the fourth beneath the roof of a small out-house : — 
 a favourite place, always chosen when the opportunity offered, 
 was among heaps of the small branches of trees lying on the 
 ground in a corner of the garden, and ready for use as pea-rods. 
 In a garden a few miles distant, the blackbird took possession of 
 heaps of similar branches for its nest. 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
 
THE COMMON OB SONG THEUSH. 137 
 
 The thrush has commonly a second brood : several memoranda 
 are before me of young birds being unfledged late in August, and 
 on one occasion the young were unable to leave the nest before 
 the 1st of October. The following remarkable instance of fecun- 
 dity, &c, which seems worthy of being fully detailed, has been 
 furnished me by Mr. Edward Benn : — "Very early in 1836, a 
 thrush built her nest in a beech hedge in our garden, at Saul, 
 near Downpatrick. When the leaves were blown from the beech 
 by the gales of early spring, she was quite exposed to view sitting 
 on the nest, but on perceiving herself looked at, remained there 
 without being disturbed. We commenced feeding her with worms, 
 which, to avoid startling her by a too near approach, were offered 
 on the end of a long rod ; then with bread, which was taken from 
 the hand. She soou became as tame as domestic fowl. There 
 were three young. When these were fledged, a second nest was 
 formed near the same place, and she fed as before, but in a bolder 
 manner. There were in tins instance five young. When these 
 were well grown, so as to fill the nest, she would perch on the 
 edge, and feed from the hand, allow her plumage to be gently 
 smoothed down, but if too much disturbed, became noisy, and 
 struck with her wings at the intruder. When this brood could 
 provide for themselves, a third nest was constructed, the parent 
 bird was fed as formerly, and five young were produced. These 
 gone ; a fourth nest was built at the farther end of the hedge 
 from the house, and a person going to feed her here one morning 
 as usual, remarked her in great consternation on the bank, and 
 found the nest torn to pieces. A day or two afterwards, she began 
 the erection of a fifth, and, evidently for the sake of protection, 
 chose in this instance, a site quite close to the house. Tour young 
 got off in safety, after which we saw her no more. Thus in one 
 season, five nests were formed, and seventeen young produced.* 
 Thirty persons at least witnessed what is here related, and fed the 
 bird in her nest. She was indifferent to the presence of strangers." 
 Mr. Benn attributes the fecundity of this bird to its being par- 
 
 * An instance of a blackbird producing three broods in the same nest is men- 
 tioned in p. 144. 
 
138 MEKULID-iE. 
 
 ticularly well fed, instancing in support of that view, the much 
 greater number of eggs laid by a well fed domestic hen than by 
 an ill fed one. 
 
 A friend mentioned to me, that in 1837, he had very frequently 
 observed a thrush on coming to feed its young, pick up and swal- 
 low their mutings : this was its invariable practice, and the nest 
 being within view of the windows of the house, several persons 
 as well as himself, were witnesses to the proceeding. 
 
 Observations made on a pair of thrushes which had their 
 nest in the ivy on one of the walls at Wolf -hill in 1847, 
 were as follows: — That on wet days the male bird invariably 
 fed the young, the female leaving the nest on his approach, 
 and going to about a yard's distance from it during the time her 
 mate was so employed. On fine days the female fed them, and 
 the male sang perched on the top of a neighbouring tall tree. It 
 was particularly remarked, that the female on going back to the 
 nest after the male had fed the young, invariably eat all their 
 mutings. In the second volume of Macgillivray's Brit. Birds, 
 which appeared in 1839, similar observations of Mr. Weir's are 
 recorded (p. 138). To the volume itself I must refer for this 
 gentleman's most interesting notes, on the number of times that 
 a pair of thrushes fed their young during twenty-four hours; 
 notes on the blackbird to the same effect will be found at p. 93 
 of the volume. 
 
 Although thrushes are very destructive to our cherries and 
 other fruits, the admiration in which their song is held generally 
 pleads so strongly in their favour as to save them from destruc- 
 tion. In a friend's garden near Belfast, I have known a few of 
 them to forfeit their lives by eating of the fruit, with which traps 
 were baited for blackbirds. In the hothouse at the same place, 
 the gardener one day caught three or four of them regaling on 
 his grapes, which reminds ois of their partiality to this fruit in 
 continental countries. By several British authors, Helix nemoralis 
 is particularized as a favourite repast with this species, to which 
 one author adds the H. hortensis, (Jour, of a Nat. p. 339,) and 
 another the H. lucida, (Wern. Mem. vol. iii. p. ISO,) but its 
 
THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH. 139 
 
 predilection for such food is far from being limited to these species. 
 The beautiful Helix arbustorum, whose delicate shell is much more 
 easily broken than that of the others, is an especial favourite. So 
 eagerly is it sought for by the thrush, (and probably also by the 
 blackbird,) that in some localities, in which the fragments of broken 
 shells first announced to me its contiguity, I have found it difficult 
 to obtain specimens after the successful foraging of the birds. 
 
 In addition to the naked or externally shelless snails, insects 
 (coleoptera, larvse, chrysalides), worms, seeds, and soft vegetable 
 matter, the smaller Helices and other land shells form in winter 
 a very considerable portion of the thrush's food.* Prom a single 
 stomach I have taken the Helix cellaria, H pur a, and H. radiata, 
 in addition to Limacelli; and have similarly met with the Buli- 
 mus lubricus, and Vitrina pellucida. I once, at the end of 
 February, found several specimens of this last species in one 
 bird; which contained also five shells of Limaces, (the snails 
 themselves being wholly digested,) a coleopterous and another 
 insect, together with chrysalides and larvae. 
 
 The intelligent gamekeeper at Tollymore Park (Down), re- 
 marked to me in 1836, that when living in Ayrshire some years 
 before that time with the Marquess of Bute, he had seen 
 four pair of cream-coloured thrushes in one season; that they 
 bred and had also young of the same colour, some of which were 
 attempted to be reared, but unsuccessfully. They were observed 
 but in the one season. 
 
 It is interesting to remark how birds will follow their nests 
 when removed from their original situations, as in the instances 
 about to be related, which occurred in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 
 In May, 1847, a thrush's nest built in a tree at a considerable 
 height from the ground, was, when containing five eggs, brought 
 down about six feet and placed on a branch. The bird followed 
 it and sat on the eggs as usual. It was then brought down eight 
 or nine feet lower, until it could be looked into by a person stand- 
 ing on the ground ; the bird followed it here also, and continued 
 
 * Since these notes were first published, Mr. Macgillivray has remarked that " He- 
 lix aspersa, hortensis, nemoralis, supply great part of its food in winter," p. 133. 
 
140 merulid^e. 
 
 to sit on the eggs until the brood was produced. Two of the 
 young were taken out of the nest when they were ready to be 
 transferred to a cage, but the thrush nevertheless continued to tend 
 the remaining three, until they all took wing. A grey-linnet's 
 nest containing young was put in a cage, into which the 
 parent bird went regularly to feed them. The cage was then 
 moved gradually nearer and nearer to the cottage, until at last 
 brought within doors, whither the parent bird followed and fed 
 the young. 
 
 Sky-larks have frequently been known to follow their nests 
 when shifted by boys from place to place — occasionally several 
 times in a day — across a field, or until the young were put in a 
 cage, and placed beside the cottage. The parent lark then 
 alighted on a little piece of board placed outside the cage as a 
 perch for her, and from it, fed the young regularly through the 
 wires. In such instances, the cottages were in the fields. In other 
 cases, when the young were so far advanced as not to require the 
 warmth derived from the parent sitting on the nest, this was rodded 
 over to prevent their escape when fledged, and the old bird came 
 and fed them. Both these practices respecting sky- larks, and 
 more especially the former one, were common some years ago in 
 the county of Down. 
 
 THE EEDWING. 
 
 Felt. SmaU Pelt. 
 
 Turdus iliacus, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular winter visitant, its migration, like that of 
 the fieldfare, extending over the island. 
 
 In the north, it generally arrives about the middle of October,* 
 sometimes early in the month ; and remains until the beginning 
 or middle of April : to the end of this month its departure was 
 
 * A sporting friend remarks that he never saw redwings so plentiful any where as at 
 Aberarder, Inverness-shire, from the end of the first week, until the 18th of October, 
 1840. 
 
THE REDWING. 141 
 
 delayed in the very late spring of 1837. Its average arrival in 
 the neighbourhood of Killaloe is said to take place in the first 
 week of November;* about Wexford, at the end of October.f 
 The redwing is stated to be more common than the fieldfare in 
 Kerry; and in the north it likewise prevails numerically over 
 that species. They often associate together : both were remarked 
 by an observant friend to be unusally scarce in the north-east of 
 Ireland and south-west of Scotland, in the winter of 1838-39. 
 What has been said on the haunts and occasional migration of the 
 fieldfare equally applies to the redwing. In the severe winter of 
 1813, these birds were so reduced about Youghal that several of 
 both species were killed by my informant with a stick thrown from 
 the hand. In the north, that winter was remarkably fatal to birds 
 generally. I have never met with redwings roosting on the 
 ground like fieldfares, but instead, in hedge-rows and thick 
 plantations. A favourite locality in which they in different years 
 came under my observation, was a dense plantation of larch-firs 
 of about fifteen years growth on a hill side, where their con- 
 certs, like those of grey-linnets, before going to roost were most 
 agreeable. But in the morning and forenoon likewise, dur- 
 ing fine weather, chiefly towards the spring, a flock of redwings 
 from a hedge or plantation will sometimes delight us with a most 
 agreeable concert, and a single bird will occasionally utter a few 
 melodious notes. A friend, who has frequently heard these notes 
 at Cromac (Belfast), compares them to those of the grey-linnet 
 {Fringitta cannabina), remarking at the same time, that they are 
 always uttered in a low subdued tone. When we know that the 
 melody of this species has obtained for it the name of the nightin- 
 gale of Norway, J what is here mentioned should probably be re- 
 
 * Rev. T. Knox. f Mr. Poole. 
 
 % Mr. Hewitson who mentions its bearing this name remarks : — " In 'our long 
 rambles through the boundless forest scenery of Norway, or during our visits to some 
 of its thousand isles, whether by night or by day, the loud, wild, and most delicious 
 song of the redwing seldom failed to cheer us." Eggs Brit. Birds, p. 61. The same 
 author informs us that " the nest of the redwing is placed, like those of the thrush 
 and blackbird, in the centre of a thorn or other thick bush. It is similar to those of 
 the blackbird, fieldfare, and ring ouzel." p. 62. 
 
142 MERULID.E. 
 
 garded only as a mode of repeating its notes, called by bird- 
 fanciers "recording." 
 
 Of the stomachs of three redwings opened by me, one (in Janu- 
 ary) contained the remains of insects, two shells of Helix cettaria, 
 and one of H. radiata; two (in December) exhibited worms, vege- 
 table food, chiefly bits of grass, remains of coleopterous insects, 
 and several Limacetti ; one had in addition two of the Bulimus 
 luhricus, a Helix hisjnda, and three of H. rufescens : some of 
 these shells were perfect. 
 
 THE BLACKBIBD. 
 
 Tiwdus merula, Linn. 
 
 Is common and resident throughout the wooded districts 
 of Ireland. 
 
 They likewise resort to the islands off the coasts. In the summer 
 of 1827 I remarked them among the underwood sparingly scat- 
 tered over the Lighthouse island (one of the Copelands), off the 
 county of Down. Dr. J. D. Marshall mentions one or two being 
 occasionally seen in the wild island of Rathlin, about a garden 
 where they sometimes breed. The indigenous birds do not 
 congregate with us, nor have I ever heard of flocks being seen 
 in any part of this country on their migration from the north 
 of Europe, as they have been in England.* They are indeed stated 
 to be more numerous about Tralee (co. Kerry) in winter than 
 in summer, but their comparative scarcity at the latter season 
 is attributed to the want of woods and thickets wherein to 
 build. 
 
 In the middle of June, I have heard the blackbird sing 
 at Wolf-hill as early in the morning as a quarter past 2 o'clock. In 
 1832, it was noted as ceasing its song about the middle of June, 
 soon after which time the thrush also ceased : so late as the 25th 
 of July, 1845, the blackbird's song was heard near Belfast. 
 Captain Walker of Belmont, Wexford, remarked in a letter to me, 
 
 * Selby's Illustr. of Brit. Om. vol. i. p. 167, second edition. 
 
THE BLACKBIRD. 143 
 
 dated November, 1836, that "last year numbers of people went 
 to Mr. Boxwell's of Lyngestown, to bear a blackbird in his shrub- 
 beries, that clapped his wings and crew like a bantam cock." 
 In a letter from Edward Benn, Esq., dated Oakland, Brough- 
 shane (county of Antrim), August 31st, 1840, a bird pos- 
 sessed of the same ludicrous accomplishment, is thus noticed : 
 " We have not yet done with our old friend the crowing blackbird. 
 A man wishing to have some of his breed, robbed the nest, which 
 contained four young ; two he left, and the other two he put into 
 a large cage, and removed to his house. The old cock came con- 
 stantly with food for the young in the cage, going into it and feed- 
 ing them ; the man watching for such an opportunity, made a run 
 at the cage and secured him, but when carrying it into the 
 house, the bird made his escape through a hole in the wires. 
 It was supposed he would not come back : he, however, returned 
 to feed the young as usual ; but instead of going into the cage, he 
 went to the outside and put the worm through the wires. It may 
 have been instinct that prompted him to find food for his young, 
 though removed to a distance, and in an unusual place ; but when 
 he found there was danger in feeding them in the old way, it 
 certainly showed calculation to find out a way of doing it equally 
 well without running risk. It was also very curious to see him 
 going to feed the young when any person was watching : — the 
 cage was in a potato garden, and he would fly to the low end of 
 the garden and creep up the furrow so that it was impossible to 
 see him, until he had finished his duty, when he flew off with great 
 noise. The hen never appeared, and it was supposed she had 
 been killed. To all that is here stated, I was a witness, though 
 not fortunate enough to hear him crow, as he entirely ceased 
 early in summer." 
 
 A crowing blackbird is particularly noticed in the 4th volume 
 of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, p. 433. 
 
 The blackbird builds early in the north of Ireland, often com- 
 mencing about the middle of March and occasionally sooner. In 
 the unusually early spring of 1846, the following occurred in the 
 
144 MERULlDiE. 
 
 neighbourhood of Belfast.* On the 22nd of February a nest 
 with three eggs was seen ; on the 1st of April, the young made 
 their appearance in a nest at the Falls ; on the 14th of this month 
 a nest containing three young birds some time " out," was dis- 
 covered at Cromac House. Three broods were produced in this 
 nest, the last of which made their appearance on the 3rd of July. 
 The three broods followed imm ediately after each other, and were 
 all seen by Mr. J. E. Garrett, to whom the nest itself from first 
 to last, did not seem in the least degree altered.f The nest is 
 generally placed in low situations,! as in small shrubs, white- 
 thorn hedges, among ivy on the stem of a tree or on a wall, &c : 
 — the obvious difference between it and that of the thrush, 
 as remarked by my friend at the Falls, is, the latter being lined 
 with clay or cow-dung only, the former with grasses, &c, although 
 either of the two substances just named is also used in its construc- 
 tion. Mr. Macgillivray describes the blackbird's nest very particu- 
 larly (B. B. vol. ii. p. 90). This species, like the missel thrush, has 
 the good taste, when an opportunity presents itself, of lining its 
 nest with lace. A valuable piece of this material, which had been 
 laid out to bleach in a garden at Lame, belonging to a lady of my 
 acquaintance, was carried off, and the servant was blamed for the 
 theft ; but when winter came, the missing article was found lining 
 a blackbird's nest. A correspondent mentions a nest of this 
 species having for its foundation the nest of a ring-dove of the 
 preceding year. 
 
 In the north of Ireland, blackbirds are very destructive to 
 fruits of almost every kind ; in many gardens around Belfast, 
 
 * A brief " Comparison of the Periods of Flowering of certain Plants in the early 
 spring of 1846, in the Botanic Garden of Belfast, and the Jardin des Plantes at 
 Paris," drawn up by the author, will be found in the 19th volume of the Annals of 
 Natural History, p. 223-226. 
 
 f My informant surmised that the-first and second broods had, on leaving the nest, 
 fallen victims to cats, which were in the habit of visiting the locality. 
 
 \ Professor Wilson is aware of this, and treating of the bird in his own eloquent 
 manner, places the nest at the foot of a silver fir, from the top of which the male 
 pours forth his song. — Reckeat : Chr. North, vol. iii. p. 14. 
 
THE BLACKBIRD. 145 
 
 even apples and pears suffer much from them : as they are like- 
 wise said to do in the county of Wexford. To the earlier fruits in 
 a friend's garden near Belfast, these birds were so injurious in the 
 summer of 1833, when they were particularly abundant, that he 
 had recourse to the common rat-trap for their destruction. It 
 was baited with currants, cherries, and early peas ; and although 
 exposed to view,* forty of these birds soon fell victims to it, three 
 thrushes at the same time sharing a similar fate. When a cherry 
 and pear were placed on the trap, the former was always preferred. 
 All of these birds but one were caught by the neck, thus proving 
 that they were secured when in the act of pecking at the fruit. 
 
 The large amount of good which the blackbird does, in the de- 
 struction of snails and insects injurious to vegetation, is rarely 
 considered as counterbalancing its frugivorous propensity. Nets 
 to protect the fruit are certainly allowable ; but I should be sorry 
 to bear evil intent against this handsome and lively bird, which 
 renders us essential service, and is, besides, so sweet a songster. 
 
 The whole truth, however, respecting its proceedings, be they 
 good or bad, must be told. On observing some plants in the Bel- 
 fast Botanic Garden in January, 1837, that had been much injured 
 by birds, I learned from the curator, that even in mild weather, 
 he had seen blackbirds tearing up different species of saxifrage ; 
 hardly a fragment remained of plants of Saxifraga pedatifda 
 and 8. trifurcata, though each had formed a round clump at 
 least a yard in diameter. Beside these, a similarly large patch of 
 S. liypnoides appeared untouched; but this species had been 
 attacked in another part of the garden. In the present instance 
 it was uninjured, apparently in consequence of forming a more 
 compact mass, and its green surface foliage was, besides, so dense, 
 that insects, &c, could hardly lodge beneath. Moss, covering 
 the roots of trees here, was likewise much torn away, doubtless in 
 the search for living objects. 
 
 In our mountain glens, I observed, many years ago, during 
 winter, tufts of the rein-deer lichen [Cladonia rangiferina) lying 
 
 * For many species, such as the magpie, hooded crow, &c, the trap requires to be 
 concealed, the bait only being visible. 
 
 VOX. I. L 
 
146 MERULIDjE. 
 
 strewn about, and inferred that it had been torn up by either 
 the thrush or blackbird in search of food : from what is just 
 stated, there can be little doubt of the correctness of my in- 
 ference. Mr. Moore, now curator of the Botanic Garden, Glas- 
 nevin, Dublin, informed me in the last-mentioned year, that when 
 he was in the College Botanic Garden near that city, he remarked 
 several species of plants to be much injured by birds ; and . more 
 especially the rare alpine plant, Cherleria sedoides. In the 
 month of September of two different years, I remarked an 
 old male blackbird regaling on the flowers of a fine large 
 bushy Fuchsia coccinea, in the midst of which he remained 
 for a considerable time; on the former occasion, which was 
 at the end of the month, the plant was profusely in berry, 
 but retained only a few flowers, — the last ones of summer, — 
 yet of these only did he partake ; in the other instance it was 
 covered with bloom. In the middle of June, 1843, two of my 
 relatives living at Ballysillan, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, were 
 attracted during a few successive days by numbers of blackbirds, 
 thrushes, sparrows, and robins, flying to the grass of the verdure 
 garden before the windows of the house, and bearing off white 
 objects in their bills : — on going to the place, my friends found 
 some of them, which on beiDg brought to me, proved to be all 
 ghost moths (Repialus humuli). A blackbird which was often 
 seen about the parlour window at a friend's country-house, was 
 fed during frost with crumbs of bread thrown beneath a tree 
 within view of the house ; others came to join in the repast, and 
 were sometimes beaten away by it, as was a missel thrush, which 
 —though its superior in size, and a bolder species — was not 
 permitted to pick up a morsel. The presumption was, that the 
 same blackbird " ruled the roast " all the time, and was bold and 
 confident from the locality being its home. Eobins may often be 
 seen driving strange birds of their own species from their " beats." 
 Birds of various kinds have not only their homes, where they act 
 like man in considering ' ' Ids house his castle/' but lay claim also 
 to the regions round about, and drive all others of the species 
 from their locality. 
 
THE BLACKBIRD. 147 
 
 In the stomachs of thirteen blackbirds examined by me in 
 November, December, and January, in various years, were 
 haws, seeds, and soft vegetable matter, coleopterous and other 
 insects and their larvee, earth worms, limacelli, &c. : in three were 
 land-shells, one stomach alone exhibiting six specimens of Buli- 
 mus lubricus, and ten of Helix radiata ; — the weather was mild 
 when this bird was obtained, as it was when another filled 
 with haws was procured. Minute Coleoptera were the most 
 abundant food. In summer, I have seen the Helix nemoralis 
 attacked by tins species. Daring frost, the blackbird suffers 
 much, and irrigated meadows are favourite feeding-ground: as 
 are ditch-banks, overgrown with brambles, in winter generally. 
 
 In the winter of 1813-14, there was an extremely severe and 
 long-continued frost in the north of Ireland. At the commence- 
 ment of the thaw, above a hundred birds, chiefly blackbirds and 
 thrushes, were found floating dead on the stream flowing from a 
 spring at Ballynafeigh, near Belfast. It was believed that the 
 birds had been tempted to the place by the spring (which at its 
 immediate source remained unfrozen) and by the comparative 
 shelter of overhanging trees. Water was extremely scarce in the 
 neighbourhood. The birds were considered to have foundered 
 from time to time during the continuance of the frost, though 
 noticed only on its breaking up. 
 
 Several native specimens of the blackbird variegated with white 
 — in some instances obviously the result of disease — have come 
 under my notice in Belfast ; the tarsi and toes were sometimes 
 marked with white. Correspondents mention the occurrence of these 
 varieties in all quarters of the island. A friend has remarked two 
 pied ones at the same time flying about Ins demesne. A few 
 notes on the subject may be given. January 20th, 1838. 1 was 
 shown by Mr. Wm. Marshall, of Belfast, a male blackbird, either 
 twenty or twenty-one years old, which had been taken from the 
 nest by a waiter at an hotel in Dungannon, and kept by him from 
 that period until a few days ago, when it died. Its entire head 
 was bald or destitute of feathers ; the wings displayed as much 
 white as black ; the quills being white, and the coverts black. 
 
 l2 
 
148 merulidjE. 
 
 In the Belfast Commercial Chronicle of December 25, 1839, 
 the following paragraph appeared under the heading of 
 
 "A venerable Blackbird. — There is at present in the 
 possession of Mr. John Spence, of Tullaghgarley, near Ballymena, 
 a blackbird that has arrived at the wonderful age of twenty-years 
 and nearly eight months. It was taken by him from the nest 
 when young, and ever since has enjoyed the very best of health. 
 It still continues to sing, and that well. He feeds him on 
 potatoes baked up with a little oatmeal, of which he is- uncom- 
 monly fond. He is, however, beginning to shew symptoms of old 
 age, his head is getting grey, and a number of white feathers are 
 springing up on his neck and breast." 
 
 January 12, 1843, I saw at Mr. Nicholas, bird-preserver, Bel- 
 fast, a female blackbird with a pure white head, and which was" 
 otherwise singular in having the entire upper plumage black like 
 a male, while the under plumage was that of a female. This 
 caused persons equally skilled in the species to differ in opinion 
 respecting its sex; it proved on dissection to be a female. The bird 
 had been observed (the white head marking it) for two years about 
 a country house, and was carefully protected from shooters, but un- 
 fortunately at last fell a victim to a rat-trap, in which it was cap- 
 tured. Mr. Davis of Clonmel has mentioned a male blackbird 
 with a white head having been picked up in a dying state on the 
 18th of January, 1848, at Rocklow, near Fethard, where it had 
 been known for the preceeding fifteen years, and had come every day 
 at luncheon hour to be fed. A pure white one is said to have 
 been taken in the summer of ] 845, from a nest at Monkstown, 
 in which were three others of the ordinary colour.' 34 ' 
 
 Mr. Richard Langtry, after returning in 1838, from shooting at 
 Aberarder, Inverness-shire, where he had spent three months, 
 informed me that no blackbirds were seen, although there is much 
 wood towards the base of the mountains : when there myself 
 during the month of September, 1842, I did not meet with one 
 of these birds, although there are extensive woods and trees 
 
 * Mr. R. Warren, junr., Castle Warren, Cork. 
 
THE RING-OUZEL. 149 
 
 of various growth about the place. The song-thrush, too, is 
 scarce. In some parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy, I have 
 observed the blackbird to be common. 
 
 THE RING-OUZEL. 
 
 Rock or Mountain Blackbird. Rock Starling. 
 
 Turdus torquatus, Linn. 
 
 Is found during summer in suitable localities over the 
 island. 
 
 From the south to the north of Ireland the ring-ouzel is a sum- 
 mer inhabitant of certain haunts, which wholly differ in their 
 character from those frequented by the other British thrushes, and 
 render it little known except to the student of nature, or to the 
 visitor of the wild and rocky mountain scenery.* To my ear its 
 call-note is extremely pleasing, from association in the mind with 
 the free spirit of nature, with localities which own not, — and 
 never will own, — man's dominion. The ring-ouzel is truly a 
 " tenant of the wild." It first became familiar to me in the glens 
 or ravines cleft in the range of mountains lying westward of Bel- 
 fast, every one of which, that displayed wild romantic beauty in 
 an eminent degree, boasted its pair or more of these birds, whose 
 haunts were always where the cliffs or banks were loftiest, and 
 where the cascade formed a picturesque accompaniment to the 
 scene. Within the distance of five or six miles were as many of 
 these localities thus resorted to, and where only, throughout the 
 district, the birds were to be found, except at the periods of their 
 migratory movements. When walking in the Crow Glen, one of 
 these haunts, on a summer evening in 1829, with my pointer dog 
 
 * When observing the two other fine species of European rock-thrush — Turdus 
 saxatilis and T. cyaneus — about the Alps of Switzerland and Italy, the former of 
 which was particularly conspicuous in the wild rocky defiles of the Rhigi, I could not 
 but wish that, like the ring-ouzel, they also were visitants to Ireland. Two indivi- 
 duals of the T. saxatilis have of late years been obtained in England. See Yarr. 
 Brit. Birds. Supp. to 1st edit, and 2nd edit. 
 
150 meruliDjE. 
 
 some paces in advance, it was amusing to see two ring-ouzels pur- 
 suing him, and approaching so near as to strike the air violently 
 within a few inches of his head ; their loudest cries being at the 
 same time uttered. Many an earnest and expressive look the dog 
 gave towards me, as if desirous of advice in his extremity, but 
 finding it in vain, he at length ran up to me, when the birds, 
 nothing daunted, followed, and gave myself as well as two friends 
 who were with me, the same salute, flying so near that we could 
 almost have struck them with our hands. At the beginning of 
 the onset, a female bird appeared, as if inciting the males forward, 
 and continued until they attained the highest pitch of violence, 
 when like another heroine, she retired to a commanding eminence 
 to be " spectatress of the fight/' Had these birds been a pair 
 protecting their young, or assuming similar artifice to the lapwing 
 in withdrawing attention from its nest, (in which the ring-ouzel 
 is said to be an adept,) the circumstance would be unworthy of 
 notice, but the assailants were both male birds in adult plumage. 
 The chase of the dog was continued a considerable way down the 
 glen, and for about fifteen or twenty minutes. There were two 
 or three pair there in that season, and one of their nests containing 
 four eggs was discovered ; it was artfully placed beneath an over- 
 hanging bank, whose mosses, growing naturally, concealed those 
 of which the nest was composed from ordinary view. The usual 
 building site is on the ground, and generally on the side either of 
 the shelving or precipitous banks of our mountain-streams. 
 
 Throughout Ireland m similar localities to those already 
 noticed, we have met with the ring-ouzel from April to October, 
 as in "The Glens," Glenariff, &c, about Cushendall in Antrim; 
 about Rosheen mountain, and Lough Salt in Donegal ; at the 
 head of the ravine between Sleive Donard, — the loftiest of the 
 mountains of Mourne in Down, rising nearly three thousand 
 feet above the sea, which washes its base, — and the mountains 
 to its north-west; on the heights of Carlingford mountain 
 in Louth, where the beautiful flowers of the rare Rhodiola 
 rosea at the same time met the eye; about Achil Head, one 
 of the most westerly points of Mayo ; and on the high rocky lulls 
 
THE RING-OUZEL. 151 
 
 of Clare. Its presence is generally announced to us by its chatter 
 at some distance excited by our approach; but, restless as a black- 
 bird, the ring-ouzel flits from rock to rock, often leaving the eye 
 wandering long ere it can fix upon the sought-for object. It 
 breeds about the mountains of Dublin and Wieklow, * and 
 is stated to appear there in flocks in spring and autumn ;t at 
 the latter season, to eat the berries of the mountain ash (Pynts 
 aucuparia). It is said to frequent the hills about Portumna, on 
 the western border of Galway; and Mr. M'Calla, states that 
 a few breed in the least frequented parts of the mountains of 
 Connemara, where he has often searched in vain for their nests, 
 though satisfied that they were near : — on leaving their supposed 
 vicinity the old birds followed him to a considerable distance, 
 uttering their mournful notes. They are plentiful in the autumn 
 evidently from migration, although never seen in flocks in 
 spring, and are called round-berry birds in that district, from 
 the circumstance of their feeding on the berries of the rowan or 
 mountain ash. Eing-ouzels frequent the mountain tops — Sliev- 
 na-mon, &c, — about Clonmel (Tipperary), where the country 
 people call them cow-boy s,% and a few have been met with in sum- 
 mer among the Comeragh mountains, county of Waterford.§ 
 This species is mentioned in the Fauna of Cork as a summer 
 visitant to the mountainous districts; and is common at that 
 season in the most rocky parts of the mountains of Kerry, within 
 a few miles of the sea-coast, in the same haunts with choughs 
 and eagles. || 
 
 More than a family of these birds together have not come under 
 my own observation in the north-east of this island, but they have 
 been reported to me as once seen in considerable numbers in 
 autumn on Sleive Donard, and the bleak mountain above Sea-Forde 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball. 
 
 •f* In White's " Natural History of Selborne," this species is mentioned as merely 
 visiting that locality in spring and autumn, when on its way to the north and south. 
 According to his observation during three springs and two autumns, it is most punc- 
 tual in its appearance. It has been noticed as visiting Devonshire and Cornwall in 
 a similar manner. 
 
 % Mr. Davis. § Mr. Poole. || Mr. T. F. Neligan. 
 
152 MERULIDiE. 
 
 in Down. Ring-ouzels appeared in numbers like fieldfares and red- 
 wings among the Mounterlowney mountains, Tyrone, to sporting 
 friends, grouse-shooting there in the last week of August, in 
 the years 1817 and 1818. Their resort was to some rowan- 
 trees near a shieling at the extremity of a glen, where six or 
 seven have been killed at a shot as they were feeding on the ber- 
 ries. They were the most common birds in that wild locality, 
 and suffered much in consequence, being in daily requisition as 
 food for trained peregrine falcons. 
 
 I have rarely been in the haunts of the ring-ouzel about the 
 time of its arrival or departure. The earliest date at which it 
 happened to come under my notice about Belfast, was the 17th of 
 April,* and the latest the middle of October : in a bird killed at 
 the latter period, I found a quantity of the larvae of insects of 
 several kinds. This species has occasionally been met with in 
 Ireland during winter. 
 
 About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, an observant friend met with 
 ring-ouzels in small flocks from the 10th of August to the 26th 
 f September, 1838, on which latter day not less than twenty 
 were seen : he considers them to feed chiefly on the "heath-berries" 
 (which were observed in their mutings) and berries of the juniper. 
 In other years they were stated to be common until the period of 
 his departure from that district in the middle of October. When 
 there myself during September, 1842, these birds were occasionally 
 seen among junipers, — of which there is quite a tract in Glen 
 Marson, — and rowan-trees, both laden with berries. The greatest 
 number were seen on the 26th of that month, on which day a 
 few came under my own observation. One of my friends, whose 
 beat was in another and wilder district, reported them to be in con- 
 
 * An ornithological friend under whose notice this species first came on the 30th of 
 April, 1848, when he saw four in company at one of the ravines of the Black Moun- 
 tain here, remarked, that he should have passed them by as blackbirds, but for per- 
 ceiving them to alight on the tops of whins and other plants : — a good observation as 
 their alighting on the tops of rocks, stones, plants, &c, is a striking characteristic. 
 On the 7th of April, 1846, several were seen by Lord Roden's gamekeeper on the 
 mountains above Tollymore Park. 
 
THE GOLD-VENTED THRUSH. 153 
 
 siderable numbers ; — flying out of the rowan-trees in flocks. The 
 remark of Sir Wm. Jar dine that this species " is no where abun- 
 dant, and is generally seen in pairs about some solitary glen or 
 ravine, or by some shelving cliff," (B. B. vol. ii. p. 99.) would 
 appear to be only referable o in Scotland to certain districts, or to 
 the breeding season. 
 
 M. Duval- Jouve informs us that : — " The ring-ouzel is always 
 seen (in Provence) early in the spring. It has been observed to- 
 wards the end of February ; on one occasion it was seen as late as 
 the 15th of April. The cold of November brings it back to us 
 regularly. None remain with us during winter, not even on the 
 shores of the Mediterranean, or in the neighbouring islands ; so 
 that among all the birds of this tribe, which are sent from Corsica 
 every winter to Toulon and Marseilles, by thousands, we do not 
 find one ring-ouzel before the end of February ." Zoologist for 
 Oct., 1845, p. 1119. 
 
 THE GOLD-VENTED THRUSH. 
 
 Tardus aurigaster, Vieillot. 
 
 chrysorhaus, Temm. 
 
 Hamatornis, „ Swains. 
 
 Has once been killed in Ireland. 
 
 By the kindness of Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, who possesses a 
 collection of native birds, (or species killed in Ireland,) I exhibited 
 an individual of this African thrush to the Natural History 
 section of the British Association, held at Cork in 1843. It was 
 purchased by that gentleman from a country -lad who brought it 
 into Waterford in January, 1838, with a number of blackbirds 
 (Turdus merula) and snipes, and who believed it to be a hen 
 blackbird : he shot it at Mount Beresford, three miles and a half 
 from Waterford. There can therefore be no doubt of the speci- 
 men having been killed in tins country. It is the only indi- 
 vidual known to have occurred in Europe. Le Vaillant described 
 
154 MERULID.E. 
 
 the species in his Birds of Africa, vol. iii. p. 46. pi. 107 (Paris 
 1802), under the name of Le Cudor, stating that it was dis- 
 covered on the banks of the Groot-vis, a river of the Caffre country : 
 little more is yet known respecting it. A. figure, taken from the 
 specimen here noticed, has appeared in the 2nd edition of Yar- 
 relTs British Birds, and in the Supplementary part to the 1st 
 edition of the same work. 
 
 Mr. E. Ball of Dublin informed me in October, 1845, that 
 three birds of a very nearly allied species, brought from Palestine 
 — and called Palestine Nightingales — had been obtained for the 
 aviary of the Zoological Garden, Phoenix Park. They were more 
 of a slate-colour than the species under consideration. 
 
 GOLDEN OEIOLE. 
 
 Oriolus gall/ula, Linn r 
 
 This beautiful species — unlike a native of our clime — is 
 but an occasional summer visitant. 
 
 A bird described to Mr. E. J Jail to have been the size of a thrush, 
 and in colour, bright-yellow and black, frequented a garden be- 
 tween Middleton and Castlemartyr (county of Cork),' 55 ' for some 
 months in the summer of 1817 (?) : he had no doubt of its having 
 been a golden oriole. In the 1st volume of the Zoological Jour- 
 nal (p. 590), one of these birds stated to have been shot in 
 the county of Wexford, m May, 1823, is said to be preserved 
 in the Museum of the Eoyal ] )ublin Society. In the Fauna of 
 Cork (1845), we are told that " one was sent to the Institution 
 in 1823 by Lord Bantry :" this is, I presume, the same individual 
 that Mr. Eichard Dowden told me in 1838, had been sent some 
 years before that period to the Institution alluded to. It came 
 under his notice in a fresh state ; and had 1 ieen shot at Lord 
 Pantry's seat, near the town of Bantry, in the county of Cork. 
 On the 11th of May, 1824, a female of tliis species was shot by 
 a gentleman of my acquaintance near Donaghadee, in the county 
 
 * This is the specimen alluded to in the Fauna of Cork as from Castlemartyr. 
 
GOLDEN ORIOLE. 155 
 
 of Down, and sent to Mr. John Montgomery of Belfast, who 
 added it to his collection : a male bird was soon afterwards seen 
 about the same place.* Dr. Burkitt of Waterford mentions 
 a golden oriole as having been shot at Ballinamona, two miles 
 from that city, in 1824 or 1825. I have been credibly in- 
 formed that one was procured near Arklow, county of Wicklow, 
 in the summer of 1827 (?). In a letter from Dr. Robert Graves 
 of Dublin to a mutual friend in Belfast, dated November, 1830, it 
 is mentioned, that a male golden oriole was shot in the preceding 
 summer in a valley above owe of the bays of Kerry. In January 
 1838, I was informed of one having been shot near Gorey, county 
 of Wexford, about a year before that time — probably in the sum- 
 mer of 1837 ; as in that year a male bird, accompanied by a 
 female which escaped, was shot on a cherry tree in a garden at 
 Ballintore near Ferns :f it has not been positively stated whether 
 more than the same individual be included in these two records. 
 In Dr. Burkitt' s collection there is a male bird which was pro- 
 cured in June, 1838, near Woodstown, county of "Waterford. In 
 the same year (?) one was for some time a visitant at Cahirmore, 
 near Roxborough, co. Cork. J 
 
 Mr. Yarrell mentions two individuals as obtained in England in 
 the month of April, 1824, in which year one or two were procured 
 in Ireland. The other years of their occurrence in England men- 
 tioned by this author — 1811, 1829, 1833 — are different from 
 those in which they were met with in Ireland. The species is 
 about equally rare in England and in this island. In Scotland, — 
 according to Macgillivray, B. B. vol. ii. p. 76. (1839), — there is 
 no authentic record of its occurrence. The birds mentioned by 
 Mr. Selby as in the Museum of the University, Edinburgh, and 
 said to have been killed on the Pentland Hills, are known to Mr. 
 Macgillivray to have been brought from France. 
 
 In the summer and autumn of 1826, I met with the golden 
 oriole near Rotterdam, in Holland ; in the finely wooded valley 
 
 * These are the individuals alluded to by Mr. Templeton in Charlesworth's Maga- 
 zine of Natural History, vol. i. p. 405. 
 
 t Poole. % BaU. 
 
156 sylviam:. 
 
 near Stanz, in Switzerland ; in different parts of Italy ; and in the 
 royal garden at the palace of Eontainebleau, in France, where on 
 the 30th of August, a whole family of them appeared at once, and 
 their fine bright colours were in admirable keeping with the 
 lovely flowers around. When sailing in H. M. S. Beacon, from 
 Malta to the Morea, in April, 1841, a female bird of this species 
 flew on board on the 25th, when we were about 60 miles "from 
 Calabria, — the nearest land — and 135 from Mount Etna: on the 
 27th two other females alighted on the rigging and were captured; 
 we were then 45 miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 60 
 from the Morea. 
 
 THE HEDGE-SPARROW. 
 
 Hedge- Warbler or Accentor. 
 Dunnock. 
 
 Accentor nodularis, Cuv. 
 Motacitta „ Linn. 
 
 Is distributed over the island in suitable localities. 
 
 A favourite haunt of this bird, so plain in plumage and unob- 
 trusive in its habits, is the base of thick white-thorn hedges, 
 where we are often amused on perceiving it thread its way, evi- 
 dently as happy and contented as if no obstacles were opposed 
 to its progress : we may often too, see it come quietly stealing out 
 of heaps of pea-rods piled up in the outskirts of the garden, 
 where its early nest (sometimes built in the first week of April,) 
 with the beautiful bluish-green eggs, so much prized by juvenile 
 depredators, will not unfrequently be found.* A nest which came 
 under my observation was formed exteriorly of grass and mosses 
 (Hypna) : and with the exception of a small tuft of hair, was lined 
 entirely with the latter, some of the graceful urn-shaped capsules of 
 which, rich-brown in hue, most picturesquely nodded over the four 
 beautiful bluish-green eggs. This bird is not confined to the country, 
 
 * Since this was written, remarks on the species to the same effect, hut fuller and 
 better, have been published by Sir. Wm. Jardine, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 187. Mr. 
 Macgillivray too, gives an excellent account of its habits, vol. ii. p. 251 ; and it 
 is very agreeably treated of in the Journal of a Naturalist, p. 148. 
 
THE HEDGE-SPARROW. ■ 157 
 
 but also takes up its abode in the plantations about the squares, &c, 
 in towns. From a narrow skirting of shrubbery before our house in 
 Belfast, I frequently hear the song in its season, and occasionally do so 
 in bright days during winter. It has always seemed to me one of the 
 most peaceable of birds, but that it can be moved to enmity, I have 
 the testimony of a relative, who, at Fort William, near Belfast, once 
 witnessed a fight between two of them, in which one was killed. 
 The victor, after having slain his antagonist, twice or thrice uttered 
 a song of triumph, at the finale of which he each time flew at 
 and again struck his victim. A friend, who has kept this bird 
 caged, remarks : that when placed near any other species it imitates 
 its notes, and when near several, imitates them all, making a strange 
 medley. The following communication by Mr. Poole reminds me 
 of an interesting habit of this species : — " March the 3rd. At 
 this season the dunnock displays some curious evolutions, probably 
 by way of exhibiting its gallantry — suddenly raising the wings 
 from the body, and holding them for a moment at right angles 
 with it, and then repeatedly flapping them with an attractive and 
 languishing air. It also floats in the air in a manner quite foreign 
 to its usual habit. One whose nest I was examining, when fright- 
 ened off, evidenced great distress, and even simulated being wound- 
 ed, as is the custom of many, indeed of most species of birds 
 with which I am acquainted." The hedge-sparrow (as it is called 
 in the north) is known in the south of Ireland by the name of 
 wren' s-man, * perhaps on account of its frequenting hedges 
 like the wren, along with which it often falls a sacrifice to the 
 "wren-boys" on St. Stephen's, or Christmas day. The wren 
 being in the estimation of these worthies (see account of that 
 species) the greater bird of the two, we can understand why the 
 other should be called v/ien's-mcm. Reefogue is the name applied 
 to it in Wexford.f 
 
 Mr. R. Davis, in February, 1838, kindly sent from Clonmel 
 for my inspection a specimen of the hedge-sparrow, the upper 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball. 
 
 t Mr. Poole. " Riabhog (pronounced reefogue) signifies in Irish, brownish-grey 
 bird."— Mr. R. S. M'Adam. 
 
158 sylviadjE. 
 
 plumage of which was entirely of a cream-colour of one shade, 
 and the under pliunage of a paler hue. It had for a long time fre- 
 quented nursery grounds near Clonmel, where some dozen shots 
 were from time to time tired at it.; — a penalty for showing false 
 colours. As correctly remarked by Mr. Macgillivray, accidental 
 varieties of tlus species are extremely rare. The bill and legs of 
 the hedge-accentor are occasionally in this country, as well as- else- 
 where, covered with large excrescences, like those described in the 
 Magazine of Natural History, vol. vi. p. 154, and by the author 
 last named, p. £56. The stomach of one examined in January, 
 contained the seeds of vetches and fragments of stone. 
 
 The Alpine Accentor {Accentor alpinus) has, in a very few in- 
 stances, been taken in England, but not as yet in Scotland or Ireland. 
 I have commonly met with it in the months of June and July, on the 
 perpetual snow of the lofty Alps of Switzerland, as towards the sum- 
 mit of Mount St. Gothard, the Grimsel, Col de Four, &c. ; single 
 birds, or a couple near to each other, but not in company, generally 
 appeared. 
 
 THE REDBEEAST. 
 
 Eobin. 
 
 Erythaca rubecula, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacilla „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Is very common, and is resident. 
 
 Well known as are its habits, a few notes illustrative of them, as 
 observed in the neighbourhood of Belfast may be selected ; and 
 first, with regard to its familiarity. In the very mild winter of 
 1831-32 a redbreast very frequently joined a friend and Iris lady 
 residing at Milltown in the Falls, at breakfast ; without invitation 
 it ate of the bread and butter on the table, and when not so em- 
 ployed, made itself quite at home by perching on the toasting- 
 fork at the fire. In summer it built in one of the out-houses, 
 and visited the kitchen daily ; its song was in August poured 
 forth in the hall. In this house, also, a redbreast once built its 
 
THE REDBREAST. 159 
 
 nest in the fold of a bed-curtain in an occupied chamber. Its 
 absence being preferred to its presence there, the room window 
 was closed against the intruder, in consequence of which the first 
 egg was laid outside on the bare window-sill. Tbis circumstance 
 caused pity for the bird, the window was re-ope7ied, and the egg 
 placed in the nest, wliere the usual number was duly deposited 
 and incubated, (hie yomig bird only was produced, widch was 
 overfed to such a degree that it grew to a most unnatural size, 
 but did not long survive, falling a victim probably to too good 
 Living. Butter is so great a dainty to these birds, that in a friend's 
 house, frequented daring the winter by one or two of them, the 
 servant was obliged to be very careful in keeping what was 
 in her charge covered, to save it from destruction : if unprotected, 
 it was certain to be eaten. I have known them to visit labourers 
 at breakfast hour to eat butter from their hands,* and enter 
 a lantern to feast on the candle. One, as I have been assured, 
 was iii the constant habit of entering a house in a tan-yard 
 in Belfast by the window, that it might feed upon tallow, when 
 the men were using this substance in the preparation of the 
 hides. But even further than this, I have seen the redbreast 
 exlnbit its partiality for scraps of fat, &c. Being present one day 
 in December, 1837, when the golden eagle described at page 3 
 was fed, a robin, to my surprise, took the eagle's place on the 
 perch the moment that he descended from it to the ground to eat 
 some food given him, and when there, picked off some little frag- 
 ments of fat, or scraps of flesh ; this done, it quite unconcernedly 
 alighted on the chain by which the " rapacious " bird was 
 fastened.t I at the same time learned that this robin regularly 
 visited the eagle's abode at feeding-time, though as yet there was 
 
 * Robins and other small birds seem to have a good idea of time, as evinced by 
 their coming to particular spots at the period of the day when food is given to 
 them. This species in particular I have known to come to the window-sill just at 
 the breakfast hour, when a few crumbs were given it, and not at any other hour 
 throughout the day. 
 
 f Although this robin escaped the golden eagle unscathed, as much cannot be 
 said for one which occasionally entered the kitchen at the Falls and sang there : 
 having one day alighted on a cage in which a toucan was kept, this bird with its 
 huge bill seized and killed it. 
 
160 SYLVIATXE. 
 
 no severity of weather. With respect to other food of an un- 
 usual kind, it may be mentioned, that a plant of the Fuchsia 
 tenella in the " Falls " greenhouse was entirely deprived of its 
 seed by robins; that in a friend's garden, in the summer of 
 ]838, some young birds of the year were captured in the nets 
 suspended over the cherry-trees, when in search of the protected 
 fruit, and others were often seen partaking freely of the cherries. 
 The stomachs of two killed in the month of January for the pur- 
 pose of being stuffed, having been sent to me, were found to con- 
 tain in addition to gravel, the remains of insects only. One was 
 filled with Coleoptera, the other with various insect food. Robins 
 are such favourites* as scarcely ever to be shot in Ireland. 
 
 The song of the robin is heard with us throughout the year, 
 except at the moulting period. Even in dull and rainy win- 
 ter mornings, when all other birds are silent, this favourite 
 species may sometimes be heard as soon as twilight commences, 
 and long before the sun is up. It will hold forth, too, in the 
 autumnal and winter afternoons, until darkness sets in. Its song 
 was once heard at the Palls in a moonlight night, as it has been 
 on different occasions by moonlight in the county of Wexford.f 
 I have more than once in Belfast listened to the commencement 
 of its song in the first week of June, at a quarter before three 
 o'clock. So soon after the breeding season as the end of July, its 
 song has been renewed at Wolf-hill, and on the 6th of August, 
 several had in one year recommenced their strains. Fine autum- 
 nal mornings succeeding wet nights, are the favourite time for 
 the harmony of this and many other birds. I have seen and heard 
 about a dozen of redbreasts perched on the fruit trees in our 
 garden, and about twenty-five to thirty yards distant from each 
 other, singing at the same time. So many of them sending forth 
 
 * November 23, 1847. Taking shelter to day from a heavy shower in a cottage at 
 the side of the river Lagan, near Belfast, a robin came to the door, picked crumbs, 
 and flew away. The mistress of the cottage remarked that as winter advanced it 
 would take up its abode in the house altogether, as it had done for the last four or 
 five winters. But what pleased me, (and induced this note to be made) was, that 
 lest the robin should be disturbed, no cat had as formerly been kept in the house, 
 since the bird established itself as a winter inmate. 
 
 t Poole. 
 
THE REDBREAST. 161 
 
 at one time satisfies me that the young birds of the year bear their 
 part in the concert, and the fact of every individual in view trilling 
 forth its notes, favours the idea that the female bird is possessed 
 of song. When the ground has been covered with snow, of more 
 than a week's continuance at mid- winter, and the sun did not break 
 forth all day, I have heard several singing, and answering each 
 other as at a more genial season : — a wild bird, too, has been ob- 
 served to wash, at such a time as in summer. All this would indi- 
 cate a seeming indifference to cold, of which we, however, know 
 these birds to be very susceptible, leaving as they do various con- 
 tinental countries, on the approach of winter, and betaking 
 themselves to milder climates. In snares, set for small birds 
 during frost, I have remarked that redbreasts were generally the 
 first victims. Their extreme tameness before a fall of snow, un- 
 erringly shows their sensibility to the coming change, and in 
 several instances has led me to prognosticate it with certainty, 
 when no other indication was perceptible. 
 
 That a single redbreast, or a pair of these birds, has generally a 
 particular beat or range I have had abundant evidence, (vide 
 Dovastonin Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 3,) as I have also 
 had, that they very frequently keep within it as spring advances, 
 instead of retiring to the thickest woods to build, as stated by 
 many authors. In towns, they have been known to me as fre- 
 quenting a certain quarter throughout the year. Eor two years this 
 occurred in our own office-houses, and in each season two 
 broods were reared. In one instance the nest was placed on the 
 top of a wall supporting the roof of the gateway, and in the other, 
 on the part of the side-wall of a three-story building, the only 
 approach to it being through small apertures, about two inches in 
 diameter, cut in trap-doors on the first and second floors to admit 
 the rope attached to a pulley. Perched on the neighbouring 
 buildings, these birds gave forth their song, and for about the 
 latter half of the month of October, 1831, when the days were 
 very fine and bright, one regularly frequented the stable, and, 
 when perched upon the stalls, sang without being in any degree 
 disturbed by the general business of the place going forward, even 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 SYLVIADjE. 
 
 within two or three feet of his station. A pair of redbreasts that 
 were assiduously watched during their nidification in the conser- 
 vatory attached to the town- house of an acquaintance, were one 
 morning found in great consternation, in consequence of their 
 nest having been taken possession of by a bat, which they event- 
 ually compelled to change its quarters. The number of eggs is 
 not uncommonly five ; rarely more. 
 
 Pour rather singular instances of the redbreast building within 
 doors near Belfast in the summer of 1833 here follow. In all of 
 them, shrubberies and plantations were quite near to the chosen 
 sites. The first two, communicated by a relative, occurred at 
 Wolf -hill. He observes : — " The two nests of a robin in the 
 carpenter's loft are placed on the corner of the wall supporting 
 the roof; the foundation that serves for both nests, is a quantity 
 of large wood-shavings, of which the sides of the nests are likewise 
 formed, together with green moss, beech leaves, wool, tufts of cow- 
 hair, &c, but they are lined with horse-hair only. The mass of mate- 
 rials of which these two nests are made, is about a foot and a half in 
 length, eight inches in breadth, and five inches in thickness. In wet 
 days the male bird kept much within the loft, and sang there. The 
 carpenter tells me that only one of them collected the leaves and 
 shavings : tins individual was known from its wanting the tail ; 
 it made very free with his pot of grease, and picked from it while in 
 his hand : a brood was reared in one of these nests, but two eggs 
 laid in the other were not incubated. On another occasion the 
 nest was built in the joist-hole of a wall, in course of erection, the 
 completion of which made the removal of the nest unavoidable, and 
 it was placed in an adjoining aperture of the same kind. The parent 
 bird after looking for some time about the spot where the nest 
 had been, rejoined her young, one of which was killed by falling 
 out of its domicile in the course of removal ; and here she did 
 not long remain undisturbed, as in the breaking out of a door 
 within a foot of the nest, the mortar and stones fell perilously near 
 her, but she nevertheless did not desert her young." 
 
 At Fort William, the seat of a relative, the following circumstance 
 occurred. In a pantry, the window of which was kept open during 
 
THE REDBREAST. 163 
 
 the day, one of these birds constructed its nest early in the summer. 
 The place selected was the corner of a moderately high shelf among 
 pickle bottles, which being four-sided, gave the nest the singular 
 appearance of a perfect square. It was made of green moss, and 
 lined with a little black hair ; on the one side which was ex- 
 posed to view, and that only, were dead beech-leaves. When any 
 article near the nest was sought for by the housekeeper, the bird 
 instead of flying out of the window, as might have been expected, 
 alighted on the floor, and waited there patiently until the cause 
 of disturbance was over, when it immediately returned to its 
 nest. Five eggs were laid, which, after having been incubated 
 without success for the long period of about five weeks, were for- 
 saken. The room above this pantry was occupied as a bird- 
 stuffing apartment ; after the redbreast had deserted the lower 
 story, a bird of this species, — doubtless the same individual, — 
 visited it daily, and was as often expelled. My friend finding its 
 expulsion of no avail, for it continued to return, had recourse to a 
 novel and rather comical expedient. Having a short time before 
 received a collection of stuffed Asiatic quadrupeds, he selected 
 the most fierce-looking Carnivora, and placed them at the open win- 
 dow, which they nearly filled up, hoping that their formidable aspect, 
 might deter the bird from future ingress. It was not, however, to 
 be so frighted "from its propriety," but made its entree as usual. 
 The walls of the room, the tables in it, and nearly the entire 
 floor were occupied by these stuffed quadrupeds. The perseve- 
 rance of the robin was at length rewarded by a free permission to 
 have its own way, when, as if in defiance of the ruse that was 
 practised against it, the place chosen for the nest was the head 
 of a shark, which hung on the wall, (the mouth being gagged 
 may have prevented its being the site) ; while the tail, &c, of an 
 " alligator stuff' d " served to screen it from observation. During 
 the operation of forming this nest, the redbreast did not in the 
 least regard the presence of my friend : but both man and bird 
 worked away within a few feet of each other. On the 1st of June 
 I saw it seated on the eggs, winch were five in number : they were 
 all productive, and the whole brood in due time escaped in safety. 
 
 m 2 
 
164 sylviaDjE. 
 
 Two ladies at Lame, believing that a robin, which they fed at 
 the window-sill, was disposed to nidify, placed a box within the 
 porch of their house, for its accommodation. The kind act was 
 at once understood and appreciated by the bird, which built its 
 nest, and reared its brood in the box. The ladies so far assisted in 
 providing building materials, as to pull hairs out of an old chair 
 cover ; the robin flew regularly for these, and with them the nest 
 was wholly lined. That the noisy operations of the ship-builder 
 will not prevent the selection of a place for nidification, in his im- 
 mediate vicinity was shown by a circumstance winch came under 
 my own observation. On May 13th, 1836, I saw a redbreast's 
 nest, containing young, in a small round aperture apparently where 
 a knot had been in one of the timbers of the ship " Dunlop," 
 then under repair in the dry dock at Belfast. It was built inside 
 the vessel about three yards from the top of the timbers, (the deck 
 being off,) and at the time of its construction, the deafening pro- 
 cess of driving in the tree-nails was carried forward occasionally 
 close to the nest. An observant friend, discovering a redbreast's 
 nest, remarked the apparent stupidity of the bird, which having 
 been lifted off the eggs and laid on his open hand, sought not, and 
 indeed seemed to want the power, to escape. He placed it in the 
 nest again, and returning the next day found the young brood 
 out. The appearance of the bird on the previous day, it was now 
 presumed, had been caused by its intentness on the last stage of 
 incubation. I have seen young robins flying about Belfast on the 
 12th of May. In the very early spring of 1846, a nest with eggs 
 was discovered in the vicinity of that town, on the 20th of 
 February. 
 
 A note of February 18th, 1838, reminds me that a young robin 
 of the year, which was caught late in the preceding autumn, and 
 kept for some time in a large cage at the Falls, in company with 
 other birds, made its escape, but, on the appearance of snow, two 
 months afterwards, returned, when it gladly renewed its acquaint- 
 ance with the lady of the house, and a servant, both of whom had 
 been in the habit of feeding it, — the bird at once markedly exhi- 
 bited its former partiality towards them, in preference to the other 
 
THE REDBREAST. 165 
 
 inmates of the house. It sang in a low tone, and never burst 
 forth into full song but once, — "a song of triumph," — just 
 after it had nearly killed a blue tit-mouse, its companion in 
 captivity. 
 
 Well known as is the pugnacity of robins, one or two instances 
 may be given. Their being so wholly absorbed during combat as 
 to be regardless of all else, was ludicrously evinced at Springvale, 
 by a pair fighting from the air downwards to the earth, until 
 they disappeared in a man's hat, that happened to be lying on the 
 ground, and in which they were both captured. On one occasion 
 two of these birds caught fighting in a yard in Belfast were kept 
 all night in separate cages. One was given its liberty early in the 
 morning, and the other being tamer — possibly from having been 
 the better beaten of the two — was kept with the intention of being 
 permanently retained. So unhappy, however, did the prisoner 
 look, that it too was set at liberty in the yard, which was believed 
 to be its chosen domicile. The other came a second time, and 
 attacked it, when my informant who was present, hastened to the 
 rescue, and the wilder bird flew away. The tamer one was again 
 caught, and brought into the house for safety. The intruder was 
 now driven out of the premises, and in the evening, when it 
 was expected that he was in a different locality, the other bird 
 was turned out ; its wicked and pertinacious antagonist, how- 
 ever, still lay in wait, a third time attacked, and then killed 
 it : — the tame bird, though the inferior of the other in strength, 
 always "joined issue" with it, and fought to the best of its poor 
 ability. Some years ago, at Merville (co. Antrim), a robin kept 
 possession of the green-house, and killed every intruder of its own 
 species, amounting to about two dozen, that entered the house. 
 This had been so frequently done, that my informant became 
 curious to know the means resorted to for the purpose ; and on 
 examination of two or three of the victims, he found a deep wound 
 in the neck of each, evidently made by the bill of the slayer. The 
 lady of the house hearing of the bird's cruelty, had the sharp 
 point of its beak cut off, and no more of its brethren were after- 
 wards slaughtered ; but it did not itself long survive this slight 
 
166 SYLVIADiE. 
 
 mutilation. The following came under my own observation at 
 Wolf-hill : — two robins fighting most wickedly in the air alighted 
 to take breath ; — having recovered a little, and approached within 
 a foot of each other ready to recommence the charge, a duck that 
 had witnessed the combat quickly waddled up, and in the most 
 gentle and pacific manner shoved with its bill the one to the right 
 and the other to the left, thus evidently separating them to "pre- 
 vent a renewal of the conflict. Having alluded to their evil 
 propensities, the following note must be introduced. Mr. Poole 
 having a slate-trap once set for birds, saw, on going up to it, a 
 robin perched outside. On opening the trap, one of these birds 
 was found within. It was carried off, and the other with amiable 
 intent followed the captor of its companion (as it was presumed) 
 even into the house. 
 
 The robin is not subject to much variety in plumage, but fawn- 
 coloured specimens have occasionally come under my notice in 
 Ireland. In the Belfast Museum, there is one having the whole 
 upper plumage a very light fawn-colour ; the quills and larger 
 feathers of the wings, whitish : the red breast is retained. The 
 tarsi and toes, as may be anticipated from the tendency of the 
 plumage towards albinism, are much lighter coloured than usual. 
 A relative, who has attended particularly to the changes of plumage 
 in birds, has noticed in a particular year, that scarcely an adult 
 robin had his breast of a bright red, at the beginning of July ; 
 and that on the 29th of the month, the first was seen in full 
 adult garb. 
 
 Dr. J. D. Marshall states that the species is very rarely met with 
 in the island of Rathlin, off the northern coast of Antrim. Mr. 
 Macgillivray remarks, that it is " found in all parts of England 
 and Scotland" (vol. ii. p. 270.) During the three months of 
 August, September, and October, spent by friends at Aberarder, 
 Inverness-shire, in each of the five years, from 1838 to 1842, in- 
 clusive, one robin only appeared, and this was seen by myself on 
 the 4th of Sept., 1842. There is abundance of wood in the dis- 
 trict, but it alone is not a sufficient attraction to the familiar bird. 
 
THE REDBREAST. 167 
 
 The robin has not uncommonly come under my notice in summer 
 in Holland and Switzerland. 
 
 For the following biography, I am indebted to a lady residing 
 at Hazelbank, (co. Antrim) : — 
 
 In the autumn of 1844, we first became intimate with our little friends (the robins), 
 about whom you inquire. They attended all our gardening operations, picking up 
 worms as they appeared, and although they seemed to prefer small ones, yet I was 
 often amazed at their enormous swallow, for they would attack monstrous creatures, 
 knocking them about with their bills until they were totally disabled, then gulpiDg 
 them down whole or in very large pieces. As it was very rare for more than a single 
 bird to attend us at a time, we thought at first that there was only one who particu- 
 larly sought our society ; however, upon further acquaintance, we discovered we had 
 three constant companions, and were delighted wben we found that each had its 
 own little peculiarity of plumage, of movement, and even of expression of counte- 
 nance, which enabled us to identify them, when near, almost at a glance. As a 
 matter of course we gave them different appellations; one with a slight elevation of 
 feather on the top of his head we named Cresty ; the second we called Terry, from 
 meeting him generally at the seat on the terrace walk; the third, having eyes much 
 larger than either of the other two, was, in consequence, designated Big-eye. Cresty 
 is much the handsomest bird, having a most brilliant bosom and a fine glossy coat, 
 with a quick startling movement and a fiery eye. Terry's breast is of a paler red, 
 with a rounded soft cosey little figure, gentle in his movements, and confiding and 
 affectionate in his manner. The plumage of Big-eye is all over of a darker hue; the 
 movement more stealthy, and the manner extremely timid. To induce a greater in- 
 timacy, we placed crumbs of bread on the sun-dial at the terrace seat, and our dear 
 little Terry would pick them up, and gradually come so near, hopping about our feet, 
 that I put some on a bit of slate and held it in my hand, in order to tempt him still 
 nearer : after a little hesitation he alighted on it for an instant, and flew off with a 
 crumb: by degrees he gained more courage and remained longer; I then tried him 
 with my hand, which he seemed to prefer, and took delight in picking the crumbs 
 from the hollow between the fingers, but he looked with great suspicion at my thumb 
 which I could, with difficulty, train to be quite still. In a short time he became 
 more familiar, and seemed to watch our approach, for he frequently met us on the 
 little walk leading from the house, and when we did not attend to him, he would come 
 dashing past, striking my bonnet violently with his wing, or fluttering in my face ; 
 he would sometimes sit upon a twig, and as if hold a conversation with me, for he 
 would be quite silent while I talked to him, and so soon as I paused, he began a little 
 soft and sweet muttering in his throat, as if in reply, which he would cease, the mo- 
 ment I again spoke. "When we found him absent, and called, Terry ! Terry ! he was 
 soon at our side : and his hearing must be very acute, for I have seen him flying to- 
 wards us from a very great distance. To give an idea of his extreme composure and 
 satisfaction while sitting on the hand, he has more than once, after feeding, tucked up 
 one of his little feet under his feathers (as we often see barn-door fowls do,) and roosting 
 
168 SYLVIAD^. 
 
 on a finger, deliberately prepare himself for sleep : which on one occasion he indulged 
 in so long, as to completely weary his perch. He would eat off my lap, hop about 
 there without any concern, pick at my shawl, and then look up in my face and begin 
 his little song, or prattle ; occasionally he became quite coquettish, disregarding my 
 call, while sitting on a high branch and only descending at his leisure, with a digni- 
 fied hop — hop, from twig to twig, as if quite aware of how much I was his humble 
 servant. Finding that neither Cresty, nor Big-eye, visited the terrace, but that we 
 always found them waiting for us, either in the garden, or in the melon-pit enclosure, 
 we began to suspect there was some appropriation of landed property amongst the 
 birds, and were soon convinced of the fact, by witnessing grievous battles between our 
 two favourites, Terry and Cresty, the former attacking the latter if he appeared within 
 a certain distance of the terrace, and the latter seizing Terry, if he made any move- 
 ment towards the melon-pit. It would have been amusing, had it not been distress- 
 ing, to view these beauteous little creatures, who seemed only formed for harmony 
 and love, bristling up with rage, every feather like " quills upon the fretful porcupine," 
 eyes on fire, and their tiny heads making circles of defiance before the final collision, 
 which always terminated by our separating the combatants, who retreated severally 
 to their respective districts, — so fierce have they been that they have fought even 
 upon our hands. Terry, though by far the mildest and quietest creature in times of 
 peace, was the most daring and determined in war : he seemed also to have more 
 respect for the rights of property, for Cresty was generally the intruder upon his 
 neighbour. 
 
 We often marvelled, that we had never seen the slightest quarrel take place between 
 Cresty and Big-eye, though we had often perceived frequent trespassing upon what 
 we deemed Cresty's peculiar domain ; the riddle was solved however, in spring, 
 when one day the latter gentleman made himself very busy by snatching a crumb 
 from us at repeated intervals, which he would eagerly carry to a neighbouring hedge. 
 On examining the premises, we saw Mrs. Big-eye, snugly ensconced in her bower, 
 and her gallant Cresty, playing the kind little husband by bringing her food, which 
 she opened her mouth with much satisfaction to receive. Afterwards we watched 
 them both go down to the bank nest the sea, which proved to be the spot selected 
 for their nest. And in process of time (the lady having disappeared altogether), Cresty 
 would carry large cargoes of food to madame and the chicks. Often about this period 
 have we seen both him and Terry, (with green caterpillars caught in their bills, and 
 writhing round their heads like so many small serpents,) hop on our hands, and add 
 to their burthen eight or nine bits of oaten cake, and thus, with bills well packed, fly 
 to their nest. Cresty never was, at any time, so familiar with us as Terry ; his habit 
 was to flutter round the hand for a moment, pick a crumb, and away: but he would 
 occasionally rest for a minute or so, then sit on a flower-pot, or twig, and talk to us. 
 Big-eye never came near us but in the absence of Cresty, and then only to about the 
 distance of half a yard, where she fed quietly and securely on the crumbs we threw 
 down to her, — and when this pair brought their young ones abroad, they kept close 
 to the hedge and seemed to inherit the shyness of their parents. But not so, the 
 progeny of our sweet Terry, who were careless and confiding ; their mother never 
 came near us, and we have sad reason to believe that she met with some untoward 
 
THE REDSTART. 169 
 
 fate, — as Terry came to us one day all dripping wet, his plumage disordered and half 
 plucked off, — he had a most melancholy countenance, and with drooping wing, sat 
 uttering faint, doleful little cries — we feared his nest (which was in the river hank,) 
 had heen rohbed, or swept away by the recent floods : he refused to take any food 
 during the whole day, looking piteously in our face for sympathy, — on the nest, he 
 seemed to have revived in some degree, he rushed eagerly to the crumhs, filled his 
 bill full, and flew off, — he returned in the same agitated manner several times ; and 
 every day, for a long period, he continued his unceasing exertions, with an anxiety 
 and a deplorable wo-be-gone look, so unlike his former gay little self, that we were 
 quite grieved for him. Gradually he recovered his looks, and when the brood were 
 fledged he brought them to the terrace, and with the joy of a happy father, displayed 
 his treasures, and fed them without fear, before our eyes. They became very familiar, 
 hopping round our feet, so that we hoped they would become as tame as papa, but 
 he evidently had no such wish, for he watched them attentively, and the moment he 
 perceived them approach too closely, he darted amongst them with a great flutter 
 and scattered them to a proper distance, — he was so much on the alert, that we 
 never succeeded in attracting any of them, and they disappeared entirely during the 
 summer.* 
 
 The only sources of annoyance our birds had with us, were from the dog and the 
 cat, who occasionally accompanied us in our walks, — of the latter, they were very 
 much afraid, although she was quite amenable to orders, and did not attempt to 
 molest them, — but, strange to say, with the dog they were much better friends, 
 although in defiance of all correction, he would often make a bounce at them, but 
 only in play ; Terry seemed to know this, often remaining quietly on my hand, while 
 Rory stood at my side gazing at him, — and we were much amused to watch occasion- 
 ally, a kind of race between them, as they accompanied us down the avenue to the 
 front gate, a distance of about 250 yards, the dog running before us, and the bird 
 flying from tree to tree during the whole way and back again. 
 
 Hazelbank, December 23rd, 1845. I. T. T. 
 
 THE KEDSTAET. 
 
 Phcenicura ruticilla, Swains. 
 Motacilla p/ue/iicurm, Linn. 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Can only be noticed as a very rare visitant to Ireland. 
 
 This is singular, as it is a regular vernal migrant, not only to 
 England but to Scotland, and is met with "from the borders to 
 
 * A similar fact may be mentioned. A young robin which followed a relative 
 through the garden, and eat food from his hand, gave him also its "most sweet com- 
 pany " by perching on his knee or shoulder when he was seated in a garden chair ; 
 this degree of familiarity however, was not at all approved of by an old bird, most 
 probably its parent, which several times rushed quickly past and drove it away. 
 
170 sylviad^e. 
 
 the extreme north"* of the latter country. Nowhere are there 
 districts apparently better suited to this very handsome and inter- 
 esting bird than in Ireland. Its absence as a summer visitor to 
 our isle I have always regretted, when meeting with it in localities 
 of various character in England; as about the Great Park at 
 Windsor; the trim and old fashioned grounds at Hampton Court; 
 the rich and wooded districts of Norfolk; the picturesque Matlock, 
 in Derbyshire; and amid the stern grandeur of the scenery about 
 Langdale Pikes, in Westmoreland. My information on the species 
 as Irish, simply is, that a specimen was shot many years ago in 
 the autumn, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and when recent 
 was obtained by Dr. J. D. Marshall; it proved to be P. ruticitta, 
 when compared with English specimens in his collection: it has 
 unfortunately been destroyed by moths. The same gentleman pro- 
 cured a fresh specimen which was killed near Dublin, in Decem- 
 ber, 1828. In the collection of T. W. Warren, Esq., of that 
 city, I have seen one of these birds which was shot about the 
 year 1830, near Kingstown. I have heard of another being 
 killed near Dublin, and one at Tanderagee, in the county of 
 Armagh. That all these birds were redstarts of some species, 
 there can be no doubt, but whether or not P. ruticitta is uncertain. 
 This species came under . my notice in Switzerland ; and when 
 proceeding from Malta to the Morea, in 1841, one of them mi- 
 grating from the south on the 25th of April, alighted on H.M.S. 
 Beacon and was captured : the nearest land was Calabria, distant 
 about 60 miles. Dr. J. L. Drummond informs me, that when 
 H.M.S. Eenown (74), of winch he was assistant-surgeon, was 
 lying off Gibraltar in spring, redstarts on migration flew on board, 
 some of which were taken. 
 
 * Macgillivray, vol. ii. p. 308. Mr. St. John, too, mentions it as a regular sum- 
 mer visitant to Morayshire. "Wild Sports, &c." p. 139. 
 
171 
 
 THE BLACK REDSTART. 
 
 Phcenicura tithys, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacilla „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Has in a few instances been obtained. 
 
 The first specimen recorded as met with in Great Britain, was pro- 
 cured near London in October, 1829, since which period a few 
 others have been procured in different parts of the south of Eng- 
 land. But so early as the year 1818, Mr. R. Ball saw the species 
 about Youghal; in the autumn of that year and the few following 
 autumns (in four different years), ten altogether were seen. In 
 one season — 1818 ? — five were killed: of which, unfortunately, all 
 that now remains is one badly preserved specimen. Since the 
 period alluded to, a redstart was taken in a corn-store at Youghal, 
 and in May, 1837, one was seen in a garden within the town, but 
 whether these also were P. tithys cannot now be ascertained. 
 
 A black redstart, shot near Wexford, in February, 1836, came 
 into the possession of Dr. Burkitt of Waterford. As a steam- 
 boat was proceeding from Glasgow to Belfast, on the 5th of 
 November, 1841, a female bird flew on board when the vessel was 
 about mid-way between the two ports ; the day was remarkably 
 fine and the wind southerly. This bird, which was in excellent 
 condition, came into my possession on the following day :* it was 
 probably migrating from Scotland, but the P. tithys has not been 
 noticed there, nor in the north of England.f An adult male in 
 the collection of Mr. R. Davis of Clonmel, was shot on a cliff 
 near Youghal, in January, 1843. Dr. Harvey sent for my in- 
 spection from Cork, on the 6th of November, 1845, the wing 
 and tail of one, killed a few days before that date by the Rev. 
 Joseph Stopford, at Castlefreke, near Rosscarberry, in the west of 
 the county of Cork. This bird, as well as that taken in the Glas- 
 
 * Jard.; Macgil.; Yarr. 
 
 f This is the individual noticed in the preface to Yarrell's Brit. Birds, p. vi. 1st edit, 
 as killed in the north of Ireland. 
 
172 SYLVIAD^E. 
 
 gow steamer, has the tail tipped with black, which colour prevails 
 particularly on the outer web of the feathers : this is mentioned, 
 as in the descriptions which I have referred to, there is no notice 
 of the black colour. In a continental specimen of P. Suecica 
 examined at the same time, the lower half of the tail is black, the 
 upper half red, of the same hue as in the tail of P. tithgs, and 
 that of other redstarts. 
 
 It appears singular, that some of the birds noticed should have 
 been met with so late in the year, indeed, even in winter, but in 
 England they have similarly occurred, — the only individuals there 
 obtained, in connection with which particulars are given, are three 
 in number, and the months of their occurrence, October, Decem- 
 ber, and January, in different years. The years in which they 
 were taken in England, namely, 1829, 1830, 1833 and 1835, 
 are all different from those in which the specimens were procured 
 in Ireland: this is against the ordinary rule. 
 
 In the summer of 1826, I had the pleasure of seeing tins 
 species in secluded and rocky pastures of the Ehsetian Alps, and 
 at the end of August, met with it in France. 
 
 The Blue Throated Kedstart {P. Suecica), of which six* indi- 
 viduals have been obtained in various parts of England, from north to 
 south, has not occurred in Scotland (Jard. ; Macg.), nor in Ireland. 
 
 THE STONE-CHAT. 
 
 Saxicola rubicola, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacitta „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Is common, and resident throughout the island. 
 
 Waste places producing shrubby plants are its favourite haunts. 
 Around Belfast it equally frequents the old ditch-banks, covered 
 with the sloe, bramble, &c, surrounding the lowest-lying meadows, 
 and the furze (whins), or other cover on the mountain sides.f 
 
 * Yarr. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 254. 2nd edit, 
 f The name of stone-checker (not stone-chat) is more commonly applied to the 
 wheatear than to this species, in the north of Ireland, where, as well as in some parts 
 of the south, it is called black-cap. Mr. Macgillivray has well observed, that " it 
 does not frequent stony or rocky places," vol. ii. p. 282. 
 
THE STONE-CHAT. 173 
 
 It occasionally appears close to the town. In the north of 
 the county of Antrim, I have remarked it, like the titlark, fre- 
 quenting the wildest and bleakest localities. It is said, too, to be 
 common in the island of Bathlin.* By the middle of February, 
 its song may be heard ; at the end of April, I have seen the female 
 carry food to her young. My friend at Cromac has found its 
 nests in low bushes, and met with several on the ground about 
 the roots of furze, where they were screened from observation 
 by long grass. Mr. Poole remarks it to be an exceedingly wary 
 bird, and that he has sometimes vainly concealed himself behind 
 a thick hedge for a considerable time, with the hope of tracking 
 the parent to its nest, and at length had to give up the attempt 
 in despair. He adds, that the nest is placed towards the lower 
 branches of a furze bush; is composed of dry grass, roots, and 
 wool; that he has seen the eggs on the 30th of April, and once 
 so late as the 1 2th of July. Its resembling the flycatcher in 
 darting at flies from its perch, and returning to its former station 
 after it has secured them, is noticed by my correspondent. The 
 stomachs of two of these birds sent to me in December and Jan- 
 uary, were entirely filled with minute coleopterous insects. 
 
 Tern mi nek states, that the stone-chat is resident in Africa, 
 but in Europe is a bird of passage : the mfld winters of Ireland 
 however, induce it to remain constantly in tins island. I have 
 never observed its "arriving or departing at the usual seasons of 
 spring and autumn/' as Sir. W. Jardine has done in Scotland, 
 such birds, he remarks, coming "either from the continent, or per- 
 forming a partial migration from other parts of our own island," — 
 some, indeed, are said to remain in Scotland during the whole year. 
 This author continues : — " The stone-chat is a species not nearly so 
 abundant as either of the preceding (wheatear and whin-chat), f 
 and frequents localities of a more wild and secluded character: 
 extensive whin-covers, the skirts of muirland districts, or the 
 vicinity of the coast, where whin or brushwood prevail." Brit. 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
 
 f Mr. Hewitson makes the same remark, without referring to any part of England 
 or Scotland; hut probably the north of England is alluded to. Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 79. 
 
174 sylviadjE. 
 
 Birds, vol. ii. p. 112. So different is this from what we find in 
 Ireland, that were whin-chat substituted for stone-chat in the 
 extract, it would, with respect to relative numbers and haunts, 
 exactly apply to this island. 
 
 In Holland, France, Switzerland, and Italy, this bird has in 
 summer and autumn come under my notice. 
 
 THE WHIN-CHAT. 
 
 Saxicola rubetra, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacitta „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Like the wheat-ear, is a regular summer visitant to this 
 country, but is less diffused than that species. 
 
 Besides, its places of resort contribute to render the whin-chat 
 still less known than, as a regular bird of passage, it might be. 
 These, about Belfast, are chiefly the base of the mountains and the 
 adjacent fields, or low-lying uncultivated ground, containing 
 shrubby underwood. Tins bird is described as common in Don- 
 egal,* in which county it has come under my own notice. It 
 visits Down, Monaghan, and Armagh, and probably every county 
 throughout the island. It is said to be not uncommon in Conne- 
 mara ;t is believed to visit the neighbourhood of Clonmel ; % and 
 is included in the Cork Fauna; but noticed as "rare," as it like- 
 wise is about Killaloe.§ Mr. Neligan considered this bird to be 
 common in Kerry ; remarking that it is very partial to alighting 
 on the dock-weed (Rumex) in the meadows, and that the same 
 fields are resorted to every summer. 
 
 In white-thorn hedges I have not uncommonly seen the whin- 
 chat, and have remarked it make sallies into the air like the fly- 
 catcher in pursuit of winged prey. The eggs which I have ex- 
 amined, in form, size, and colour, strongly resemble those of the 
 hedge accentor, but on minute inspection are not of their uniform 
 
 * J. V. Stewart. f M'Calla. % Davis. § Rev. T. Knox. 
 
THE WHIN-CHAT. 175 
 
 bluish-green colour, but faintly speckled with very light brown : 
 they are sometimes six or seven in number. Plies, coleopterous 
 insects, and caterpillars, were the chief food in the stomachs of 
 these birds examined by me. 
 
 Mr. Macgillivray observes, that the whin-chat generally arrives 
 about a month later than the wheatear, "and in the south of 
 Scotland seldom makes its appearance before the end of April, 
 while it is stated to arrive in the south of England about the 
 middle of that month," vol. ii. p. 276. Even earlier than this 
 latter period it has been met with about Belfast, but I do not pos- 
 sess sufficient data on which to decide its average arrival. It is 
 considerably later however, than that of the wheatear. The 
 earliest and latest seen by me in the neighbourhood of the town 
 just named, were observed in the same year, 1827, when they 
 appeared on the 3rd of April, and remained until the 1st of 
 October. In 1846, I observed them on the 8th of April, a few 
 days before which they were seen about the mountains of Mourne. 
 At the end of April, 1848, they were met with in the former 
 locality. Sir Wm. Jardine with reference, it may be presumed, to 
 Dumfries-shire, remarks, that this species is more common than 
 the stone-chat, — "in some districts and seasons occurring in im- 
 mense abundance," Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 110. In no part of 
 Ireland have I seen the whin-chat numerous, and compared with 
 the stone-chat, it is very scarce. Three or four pair in a 
 forenoon's walk, are about the most that will be seen at the 
 beginning of the season in the north. In similar numbers as in 
 this latter country, I have observed it in Holland, France, and 
 Italy. One flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, on the 26th of April, 
 1841, when nearly 90 miles from Zante, and 130 from Navarino: 
 the next day another came to the vessel when about 45 miles from 
 Zante, and 60 from the Morea. 
 
176 sylviadjE. 
 
 THE WHEATEAE,* 
 
 Saxicola cenanthe, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacitta „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant, commonly distributed over 
 Ireland and the surrounding islets ; 
 
 Such as the Copelands, off Down; Rathlin, off the north of 
 Antrim ;t Tory, off the north-west of Donegal; J and when visit- 
 ing the largest of the islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, on the 
 8th of July, 1834, it was the only land bird of passage that we 
 met with. Nowhere have I observed this beautiful bird in greater 
 numbers than in the extreme north-west, and along the western 
 coast generally : — with regard to Scotland, it is said to be " no- 
 where more plentiful, than in the Outer Hebrides, and in the 
 Orkney and Shetland Islands." § The wheatear is commonly the 
 earliest of the su mm er birds in arrival, making its appearance 
 usually in the last week of March. The earliest known to me 
 about Belfast, were seen on the 19th of March, 1843, and 24th 
 of March, 1847, — in the late spring of 1837, it did not appear 
 until the 15th of April, nor in that of 1840, until the 29th of 
 this month. Mr. Poole notes its arrival in Wexford on the 26th 
 of March, and Mr. Neligan had not seen it in Kerry before the 
 25th of this month. About a dozen of wheatears were observed 
 
 * In the north of Ireland this hird is commonly called stone- checker, from its 
 note, check — check, and its being generally seen about stones. In Kerry, according 
 to the Rev. T. Knox — as communicated in August, 1838 — it is called custeen-fay- 
 clough, meaning " the cunning little old man under the stone." Having called the 
 attention of a good Irish scholar, Mr. Robert S. Mc Adam of Belfast, to the name of 
 this bird, he kindly supplied the following note : — "The name for the stone-checker in 
 the north and west of Ireland, is cloibhrean cloich. A county Tipperary man ques- 
 tioned, never heard that name for it, nor the county Kerry name either, (which you 
 have,) but says it is called in his county, casur clock, which signifies the stone-ham- 
 mer. The custeen-f ay -dough is spelled coistinfaoi cloich, but seems to be a local 
 name for the bird. No one that I have asked had ever heard it." 
 
 t Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
 
 % In August, 1845, Mr. Hyndman saw several here. 
 
 § Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 292. 
 
THE WHEATEAR. 177 
 
 together contiguous to the sea, near Belfast, on the 3rd of April, 
 1836, and as the species is not disposed to congregate with us, it 
 was thought that they had probably come hither in company, and 
 had not long arrived. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell mentions their coming from the southward to 
 England about the middle of March, which is also the period 
 named by Mr. Selby as that of their arrival, (it may be presumed,) 
 in Northumberland. But contrary to the habit of other species 
 of migratory birds, it appears that they arrive at an earlier period 
 in Scotland, than in England or Ireland. Sir Wm. Jardine in- 
 forms us, that they are met with in the pastoral districts in the 
 first week of March, and one was seen by Mr. Macgillivray near 
 Edinburgh, on the 28th of February. The period of their stay 
 in Scotland is not mentioned by these authors. Erom the district 
 of Aberarder, Inverness-shire, I can state from personal know- 
 ledge, that they had generally taken their departure previous to 
 the 1st of September, 1842, as during that month, two individuals 
 only appeared, one on the 16th, and another on the 28th of the 
 month. 
 
 From the counties of Down and Antrim, they migrate very early ; 
 the mountain pastures, marine sand-hills, and turf bogs, which 
 through the summer have been enlivened by their presence, being 
 often found wholly deserted by the end of August : a few, chiefly 
 single birds, have however, in some places, come under my notice 
 until the first week of October. I have not heard of the occurrence 
 of the species in Ireland during winter, though such might be ex- 
 pected, as White of Selborne tells us, that " in many parts of the 
 south of England" (p. 257, &c. edit. 1837,) wheatears have been 
 seen at that season. But the numbers of these birds which, in the 
 autumn, visit the southern part of that country, are vastly greater 
 than can be found in any part of Ireland. Mr. J. Y. Stewart, writing 
 of the north-west of Donegal, informs us, that " the old wheatears, 
 which are among our first spring visitants, take their departure from 
 this place soon after the young ones can provide for themselves." It 
 is added, that " this may account for what White mentions — 
 their being found about this period in great numbers on the downs 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 sylvian. 
 
 of Sussex, where, until then, they are scarcely met with." The 
 young birds are stated, by Mr. Stewart, to remain a month or six 
 weeks longer than the old. 
 
 Throughout our wild mountain-pastures and turf -bogs, as well 
 as the rabbit-burrows, sand-hills, and rocks, that skirt the coast, 
 the wheatear is found in its season, and in the first-mentioned lo- 
 calities, where, even at the most genial period of the year, we. see 
 but few of the feathered tribe, is highly attractive, from the beauty 
 of its plumage, lively habits, and variously uttered song. In the 
 other localities too, we see but few birds in summer, but with the 
 ever-living sea in view, the want of them is not felt, as in the moun- 
 tain solitude. I have walked in the middle of July, over the 
 marine sand-hills of Magilligan from east to west, a distance 
 of about ten miles, and met only with wheatears, larks, tit- 
 larks, and grey-linnets. About artificial embankments, and in 
 populous neighbourhoods, the wheatear will sometimes come 
 under our notice : — at the outer dock-yard of Belfast we have 
 even seen it, robin-like, perched on piles of timber. In its wild 
 haunts around this town, it has become much scarcer of late years, 
 and has deserted some places altogether. The situation of 
 the nest varies according to the haunts, being in old stone walls, 
 on the ground, among debris of rocks, &c. In the last, it may be 
 found about the Giant's Causeway, where the species is numerous. 
 I have been much interested in witnessing their flight here in the 
 middle of June; when, from a considerable height, they descended 
 with motionless wings to the precipitous rocks contiguous to their 
 nests : the body drooping below the wings, and the breast 
 puffed out, impart to them a very singular appearance. The 
 wheatear is not specially looked after for the table in the north of 
 Ireland; for which purpose, indeed, the species does not appear 
 in sufficient numbers.* Eutty, in his Natural History of the 
 county of Dublin, has remarked that " it is excellent food, and 
 very fat, and for its delicacy is by some called the Irish ortolan" 
 (vol.i. p. 313). 
 
 * Mr. St. John, too, informs us in his 'Wild Sports of the Highlands' that it is never 
 sought after in Morayshire, p. 140. 
 
THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 179 
 
 In Holland, France, Switzerland, &c, I have seen the species, 
 commonly in summer and autumn. When proceeding from Malta 
 to the Morea in H.M.S. Beacon, in April, 1841, one of these 
 birds on migration, came on board on the 23rd, when we were 
 eighty miles from Malta, and fifty from Cape Passaro ; it remained 
 in the vessel all day. On the 26th, when about ninety miles from 
 Zante, and 130 from Navarino, another alighted, as did like- 
 wise the still more beautiful pied-wheatear, (Saxicola leuco- 
 mela), and a whinchat (Sax. rubetra). On the 28th of April, 
 wheatears were met with about Navarino ; and on the 12th of May 
 a few were seen on Mount Pagrus, above Smyrna. Several of 
 the S. leucomela appeared about the summit of the loftiest moun- 
 tain in the island of Syra, on the 7th of May. 
 
 THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 
 
 Salicaria locustella, Lath, (sp.) 
 Sylvia „ „ 
 
 Is probably a regular summer visitant to suitable locali- 
 ties from south to north. 
 
 Montagu states that he has found this bird in Ireland (Orn. 
 Diet.), and Templeton remarks that it is " not very uncommon 
 during spring and summer,"* which observation is meant to 
 apply to the neighbourhood of Belfast. In M'Skimmin's History 
 of Carrickfergus, it is remarked that this warbler " inhabits thickets 
 and close hedges, and makes a noise in the summer evenings re- 
 sembling the winding up of a clock, or call of the common grass- 
 hopper." Por many years, birds considered, from their very peculiar 
 note, to be of this species, were occasionally heard andjseen (but the 
 latter very rarely and only for a moment) around Belfast, — in the 
 counties of Down and Antrim, — by my ornithological friends and 
 myself. But no specimen killed either here or anywhere in Ire- 
 land, — guns being laid up at the time of the bird's sojourn with 
 us, — came under my examination, until the 2,5th of July, 1839, 
 when my friend Richard K. Sinclaire, Esq., brought me an adult 
 
 * Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 405, New Series. 
 N 2 
 
180 sylviad^;. 
 
 one which he had shot on the preceding evening at the Falls ; 
 its stomach was filled with coleopterous insects. Mr. Wm. 
 Sinclaire on visiting the scene of its death on the following even- 
 ing, and hearing its mate sing, recognised the note as having 
 been often heard by him in the same place for the preceding six 
 or seven years, when he had imagined it to proceed from some 
 insect. This exact locality has not since been frequented by the 
 species, but about a mile distant, the song of one was heard one 
 night in June, 1845, so late as 11 o'clock; and in a subsequent 
 year, on the 29th of April, so late as 12 o'clock. The one loca- 
 lity is less than a mile, the other twice that distance from Belfast, 
 county of Down, in the summer of 1838, the intelligent game- 
 keeper assured me that he had heard its note (which he correctly 
 imitated) there early in that season. About Killaloe, county 
 of Clare, the Rev. Thomas Knox has seen and heard a bird, the 
 note and habits of which correspond with those of the grass- 
 hopper warbler, but no specimen has been obtained for examination. 
 Mr. R. Davis in a letter dated August 2nd, 1838, mentioned tins 
 species as breeding within a few miles of Clonmel, whence a nest 
 containing four eggs was brought to him, about two months be- 
 fore that time. He kindly sent for my inspection an adult male 
 bird, which was shot near Wexford, on the 11th of June, 1843, 
 by Mr. Poole, who remarked that it frequented the thorn bushes 
 on a fence, and would sing while he was close to it, adding, 
 that "its peculiar rotatory song bears no greater resemblance to 
 anything than to the running out of a slick wheel." Mr. R. Ball 
 remarks that he has often heard its curious voice, like the tapping 
 of two stones together, in the neighbourhood of Youghal. 
 
 THE SEDGE WARBLER. 
 
 Salicaria pkragmitis, Bechst. (sp.) 
 Sylvia „ „ 
 
 salicaria, Lath. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant from south to north. 
 
 It is generally observed around Belfast within the first ten days 
 of May, and once only have I been aware of its arrival not taking 
 
THE SEDGE WARBLER. 181 
 
 place within that time; this was in 1842, when it was not seen 
 until the 13th of the month. In 1836, one was observed as 
 early as the 16th of April; and in 1844, on the 18th of that 
 month. Although this bird and the whitethroat usually arrive 
 about the same time, the sedge warbler is generally the first seen, 
 but in 1842, the contrary occurred in the districts which came 
 under my own observation, white-throats having appeared on 
 the 23rd of April, and the allied species not until the 13 th of 
 May. The 5th of September is the latest date at which I have 
 known it to be met with, — when one was seen and heard to sing on 
 the banks of the Lagan; but further observation may perhaps show 
 that the bird remains until a later period, as it does in England.* 
 The migration of the sedge warbler extends to the extreme north- 
 west of Ireland, where on the 1st of July, 1832, I heard and saw 
 one near Dunfanaghy : — Mr. Stewart, in his Catalogue of the Birds, 
 &c, of Donegal, observes that the species is common. Tins gentleman 
 further remarks that ' ' it is one of the latest of our spring visitants, 
 and certainly one of the most interesting in its manners, though from 
 its shy habits and constant restlessness, it is difficult of access; and 
 from the unceasing variety of its borrowed song, and its retirement, 
 often passed unnoticed. Often have I been so deceived by its 
 imitative strain, that on its assuming the clear note of the thrush, 
 the hoarse twitter of the sparrow, or the vocal power of some 
 other songster, I have given up my pursuit of it, supposing it 
 must have stolen off in a different direction, and have only been 
 undeceived when it has had recourse to its natural harsh, chid- 
 ing, and oft repeated note. Frequently it rises above the brake 
 in which, perhaps, concealed his helpmate is assiduously attending 
 to the duties of incubation, and beguiles her of her weary hours, 
 by imitating the lark, both in its melodious strains and gestures.'" 
 — Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 581. Mr. James E. 
 Garrett has frequently heard the sedge warbler make a cricket-like 
 noise for a long time, as the grasshopper warbler is described to 
 do, and then suddenly burst out into the song of the swallow, or 
 some other bird. Throughout the northern counties generally, 
 * Selby's 111. Brit. Om. vol. i. p. 202. 
 
182 SYLVIADjE. 
 
 it has occurred to me in suitable localities, and is not confined 
 to where "reeds and other tall aquatic plants abound" (or 
 even grow), as is described; but is found in the lower grounds 
 about old ditch-banks, on winch the sloe or blackthorn (Primus 
 spinosa) and other shrubby plants afford a safe asylum; also 
 on the banks of mountain rivulets at as great an elevation as the 
 spontaneous growth of the willow or any underwood forms suffi- 
 cient shelter. It likewise frequents the wooded borders of 
 well-kept ponds, where none of the aquatic plants alluded to 
 appear. 
 
 Although perhaps too common-place to be remarked here, it is 
 simply from natural inclination, and not from shyness, that the 
 sedge warbler inhabits the "tangled brake." When perched, sing- 
 ing on a reed, this species has admitted my approach within about 
 three paces without ceasing its song ; and I have been amused at its 
 practice, so contrary to that of other birds, of singing only when 
 I closely passed the bush in which it was. What may perhaps be 
 termed its boldness, is evinced by any object flung into its haunt, 
 prompting the bird to sing, as if in defiance of the interruption, or, 
 as a well-known author might imagine, "to keep its courage 
 up." The amusing song of this species is sometimes heard from 
 its arrival until the end of July, indeed until its departure, and 
 by night as well as by day. It is the warbler chiefly heard in 
 summer nights, and consequently has been honoured by the flat- 
 tering appellation of Irish nightingale. A bird described to me 
 by the Rev. T. Knox, as frequenting the county of Westmeath 
 and the vicinity of the river Shannon, is, I have little doubt, the 
 sedge warbler. In Connemara, it is said to be common ; also 
 in the counties of Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wex- 
 ford. With reference to the last, Mr. Poole communicates the 
 dates of its arrival in six years to be April 22, 28, 30 ; May 9, 
 10, 15 , — the departure in one year is noted 13th of August, but 
 the young birds remained longer. The nest is also remarked to 
 be " in brakes or bushes, rushes, &c, close over the stream or 
 pond the bird frequents ; " and the eggs as obtained on the 2nd 
 of June. "July, 4, 1846. — A sedge warbler's nest found in a 
 
REED WREN. BLACK-CAP. 183 
 
 marsh at Springmount, near Clough, was placed in the midst of 
 about half a dozen of reeds, and supported by the grass at their 
 roots. It contained three eggs, of a dark stone colour, with a 
 few slight streaks of a dark hue. The male bird was singing 
 among the reeds near the nest, while the female was sitting 
 on it."* 
 
 REED WREN. 
 
 Salicaria arundinacea, Briss. (sp.) 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Mr. Templeton has informed us that he " once saw this bird in 
 the vicinity of Belfast ; " and Mr. R. J. Montgomery, that he shot 
 a male specimen, at Raheny, near Dublin, on the 21st of 
 December, 1843. Although a regular summer visitant to 
 England, it appears not to have been met with in the western or 
 northern counties ; f nor to have occurred in Scotland. J 
 
 THE BLACK-CAP. 
 
 Curruca atricapilla, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacitta „ „ 
 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Is perhaps a regular summer visitant, to certain districts, 
 but must be considered very local in Ireland. 
 
 Although pretty generally distributed in England, the black-cap, 
 according to Mr. Macgillivray,is "met with sparingly in the southern 
 districts of Scotland " (vol. ii. p. 344) ; and is remarked by Sir 
 Wm. Jardine to be rather local in his " own vicinity," in Dum- 
 fries-shire, having appeared there only within the last few years 
 (B. B. vol. ii. p. 130 ; 1839). Around Belfast are districts ap- 
 parently well suited to this warbler, winch is, however, of extremely 
 rare occurrence. Mr. Templeton noticed it as $een at his own 
 residence, Cranmore, on the 17th of June, 1818, and twice 
 since. On the 1st of March, 1834, an adult male specimen was 
 brought to a bird preserver's in Belfast by the Bishop of 
 Down, in whose garden, within a few miles of the town, it had 
 * J. R. Garrett. f Selby; Yarrell. \ Jard. ; Macg. 
 
184 SYLVIADjE. 
 
 been shot, either on that or the preceding day. These are the 
 only instances known to me of its occurrence in the neighbour- 
 hood. When at Shane's Castle Park, on the 30th of July, 1839, 
 accompanied by Mr. Selby and the Rev. Edw. Bigge (of Merton 
 College, Oxford) the song of a bird which I had not before heard, 
 attracted me ; and the attention of the former gentleman being 
 called to it, he stated it to be unquestionably that of the black-cap, 
 with which he was quite familiar : the bird was on the south bank 
 of the river Main, near its junction with Lough Neagh. -On the 
 following day we heard the song of another repeated for a long 
 time in Massareene Park, on the opposite side of the lake ; the 
 bird was in underwood contiguous to a small garden. Neither 
 songster was seen. 
 
 A male black-cap was shot in the first week of December, 1833, 
 near Dublin. About the middle of May, 1844, a pair was 
 was seen among the underwood of the Zoological Garden, Phcenix 
 Park, where in a previous year one bird had been observed. At 
 another and distant part of this very extensive park, the black- cap 
 has been met with in different years. Two of these birds were 
 shot in December, 1843, (one of them on the 23rd of the month,) 
 by Mr. E. J. Montgomery, at the Manor House, Eaheny, near 
 Dublin. At Donnybrook, too, near the metropolis, the black-cap 
 was obtained, in the month of October, 1846; and at Eath- 
 farnham, in the same county, one of these birds was killed in 
 the last week of January, 1847. One, procured at the vale of 
 Avoca, county of Wicklow, on the 23rd of May, 1837, came 
 under my inspection in Dublin ; and it was stated that a few 
 more had been seen at the same time. 
 
 The collection of Mr. E. Davis, junr., of Clonmel, contains 
 a black-cap killed in that neighbourhood on the 27th of Decem- 
 ber, 1834 -, it was, when shot, accompanied by five or six others. 
 The late Mr. Henry Pennell --of Ballibrado, county of Tipperary, 
 met with the black-cap breeding there in different years, and pro- 
 cured specimens of the adult and young birds ; also of the eggs. 
 A coloured drawing of a bird shot on the 9th of October, 1830, 
 near the town of Waterford, and kindly sent thence for my in- 
 
THE GARDEN WARBLER. 185 
 
 spection by Dr. Burkitt, represented a female or young male 
 black-cap : — on the 21st of August, 1834, one of these birds was 
 seen by this gentleman near Dunmore, county of Waterford. One 
 was shot on a hedge-row at the rectory of Dunmore, county 
 of Galway, and about seven miles from Tuam, on the 1st 
 of November, 1842. It had been observed there for the few 
 preceding days; the specimen was kindly forwarded for my 
 examination by the Rev. B. J. Clarke of Tuam. A female or 
 young male black-cap, in Mr. R. BalTs collection, was found dead 
 in his father's garden in the town of Youghal, in the second week 
 of January, 1838. Dr. Harvey mentions in the Fauna of Cork, 
 that he saw two of these birds in company in November, 1839, 
 both of which were taken. 
 
 The wintering of the black-cap in Ireland, as shown in various 
 instances from north to south, is a singular circumstance. Being 
 generally considered one of the latest summer birds appearing in 
 England,* it may, I think, be fairly concluded that the occurrence 
 of an individual on the 1st of March, at which date one was obtain- 
 ed near Belfast, is rather indicative of a winter residence than of 
 an unprecedentedly early arrival. The black-cap has in a few in- 
 stances been procured in England during winter, t 
 
 The bird described in Rutty* s Natural History of the County 
 of Dublin, vol. i. p. 317, as the " black-cap," is obviously not the 
 Sylvia Atricapilla. 
 
 THE GARDEN WARBLER. 
 
 Greater Pettychaps. 
 
 Curruca hortensis, Bechst. 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Seems to be extremely rare in this island. 
 
 The following observations on this species are copied from the 
 
 * Mr. Henry Doubleday of Epping, remarks in a letter to a mutual correspondent 
 that he has often seen the black-cap in March, and therefore looks upon it as one of 
 the earliest summer visitants. 
 
 t Yarr. B. B. vol. ii. p. 308. 2nd edit. 
 
186 sylviadjE. 
 
 MS. of the late John Templeton, Esq. :— "On the 21st of May, 
 1820, 1 had the pleasure of seeing this bird, to whose haunt in 
 my garden I was attracted by its pleasing melody. It was not 
 very shy, coming near enough to be distinctly seen, but was ex- 
 tremely restless, flitting every moment from place to place, and 
 only stationary on the branch while it gave out its song. The 
 male continued to sing until the young were reared, when his 
 song ceased for about a fortnight ; then it was again renewed, as 
 I suppose on the construction of a second nest." By Dr. Har- 
 vey of Cork, I have been informed, that his cousin, the late Mr. 
 Henry Fennell of Ballibrado, county of Tipperary, ascertained 
 that this species bred there in more years than one : both old and 
 young birds and eggs were procured. For several years past it 
 has frequented the rich gardens about Sunday's Well,* Cork. 
 
 The Garden Warbler is one of the regular summer visitants to 
 England, but would seem to be less common in Scotland, though 
 much more frequent there than in Ireland. 
 
 THE WHITE-THROAT. 
 
 Curruca cinerea, Lath, (sp.) 
 Sylvia „ „ 
 
 Motacitta sylvia, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant from south to north. 
 
 This bird is well known in Ireland. Like the sedge warbler it 
 generally appears about Belfast early in May ; but on the 24th of 
 April, 1836, was observed at Cromac in the neighbourhood of 
 the town. On the 23rd of April, 1842, I heard its song in 
 the district of the Falls, and on the following two or three days, 
 heard several singing about the river Lagan, and therefore believed 
 that the general arrival had taken place: in M'Skimmin's History 
 of Carrickfergus (p. 354, 2nd edit.), it is mentioned as being once 
 heard near that city on the 21st of April. One was seen by Mr. 
 J. R. Garrett on the 15th of September, 1837, the latest date at 
 
 * Dr. Harvey, on the authority of Mr. R. Parker. 
 
THE WHITE-THROAT. 187 
 
 which I am aware of the species having been observed here. Near 
 Eaheny, county of Dublin, one was shot in December, 1843, by 
 Mr. E. J. Montgomery, about the same time that a reed warbler, 
 and two blackcaps, were obtained. 
 
 The white-throat is a regular summer visitant to the extreme 
 north-west of Ireland, and according to information received, is so 
 to the neighbourhood of Killaloe, and to the counties of Tipperary, 
 Wexford, Cork, and Kerry. Its earliest arrival in the county of 
 Wexford noted by my correspondent is the 1st of May, and the 
 latest seen in autumn, on the 21st of August;* but there can be 
 little doubt, both of its arrival being earlier, and its stay later, 
 than those dates denote. 
 
 The song is commenced on arrival, and generally ceases early in 
 the month of July. Its habits, and the grotesquely earnest appear- 
 ance which the erected feathers on the crown of the head and the 
 distended throat impart when singing, render this bird one of the 
 most interesting of our warblers. When on one of its harmo- 
 nious flights, the white-throat does not uniformly return to the 
 same place, though it generally does so. I have seen one rise from 
 a low bush, singing in its upward and irregular flight, alight on 
 a leafless tree at some little distance, and there continue to pour 
 forth its notes without intermission, as if perched in the same 
 place all the time. At the Falls early in the summer of 1833, 
 the white-throat was several times heard to imitate the songs of 
 other birds, after the manner of the sedge warbler. 
 
 Mr. J. E. Garrett has seen at least half a dozen of its nests about 
 Cromac, where they were generally placed in brambles or the wild 
 rose, with growing grass concealing them from observation ; the 
 eggs were generally five in number. This species would seem to 
 prefer placing its nest in thorny plants, as all of those just 
 mentioned were of that description. Indeed, the white-throat 
 appears to be particularly partial to districts still in a state of 
 nature, where the plants alluded to flourish in all their wild luxu- 
 riance. In the romantic district of this kind, bounding the sea 
 northward of Glenarm, I have remarked the species to be parti- 
 
 * Mr. Poole. 
 
188 SYLVIADjE. 
 
 cularly abundant. Early in July, 1837, a nest containing eggs 
 was discovered at the "Palls/' within about ten paces of a public 
 highway, and twice that distance from an occupied dwelling- 
 house. It was elevated about a foot above the ground, in a sloe- 
 bush, and concealed by the growing grass of a late meadow. 
 White-throats, perched on hedges or underwood, with caterpil- 
 lars in their bills, denoting the vicinity of the nestlings, will often 
 permit our approach within a few paces, all the time keeping a 
 great uproar, consisting of a mere* repetition of the word churr. 
 
 A young white-throat caught in the middle of June when just 
 fledged, was taken home by the captor. It was at first fed on 
 bread and milk, and worms, but on the third day began to catch 
 flies for itself, when taken near to them. It became perfectly tame. 
 Its favourite perch was the finger of its owner, from which it very 
 expertly picked up the " flies on the window-panes of the house."* 
 
 On April the 23rd, 1841, when on the way from Malta to the 
 Morea, in H.M.S. Beacon, a. white-throat, migrating northwards, 
 flew on board, when we were 80 miles from Malta, and 50 from 
 Cape Passaro, the nearest land: when walking about Navarino 
 on the 28th, my attention was called to one by its song. 
 
 In Dr. Patrick Brown's " Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland," 
 published in ExshaWs Magazine for 1772, I find, — " Motacitta 
 Curruca, White-bellied Nightingale, seen about Ballydangan, in 
 May, 1774, Brown." To the Catalogue a notice of the "ska or 
 white-throat" is also appended. No specimen of the Lesser 
 White-throat (S. curruca) obtained in Ireland, has as yet come 
 under my own notice, or that of any of my correspondents by 
 whom the species is known, but I anticipate its being added to 
 the Irish Pauna : the gun being very rarely directed against warb- 
 lers, may be the reason that it has not yet been met with. Its 
 occurrence, even in the south of Scotland, was not known to Sir 
 Wm. Jardine at the time of his writing the " British Birds ;" 
 Mr. Macgillivray, however, notices the species as met with there, 
 but as being "very uncommon," vol. ii. p. 358. 
 
 * Garrett. 
 
THE WOOD WREN. 189 
 
 When in H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th of April, 1841, 
 and about 60 miles from Calabria (the nearest land), and 
 135 east of Mount Etna, a scops-eared owl was knocked down 
 on the deck and captured, just as he had clutched a lesser white- 
 throat (S. curruca), of which species two or three appeared. 
 On the 26th another 8. curruca alighted, when the vessel was 
 about 90 miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 130 from 
 Navarino. On this day, a sub-alpine warbler (Sylvia suhalpina, 
 Bonelli) — a south of Europe species — also came on board. 
 
 THE WOOD WEEN. 
 
 Sylvia sylvicola, Lath. 
 „ sibilatrix, Bechst. 
 
 Holds a very doubtful place in our Fauna. 
 
 In my series of papers on the Birds of Ireland, the following ap- 
 peared : — Relying on the accuracy of a relative, who has bestowed 
 much attention on birds and their nests, I should be disposed to 
 give this species a place here with confidence but for one charac- 
 ter, hereafter to be mentioned. On June 19th, 1832, it is 
 remarked of a nest he detected on the ground in a small meadow 
 surrounded by a wooded glen at Wolf-hill, near Belfast, that it 
 belonged to a bird most nearly approaching the willow wren, 
 (S. Trochilus,) but larger, and with a whiter breast ; and that the 
 eggs, instead of being marked with numerous very minute, and a 
 few large specks of a dark pink colour, like those of the S. Tro- 
 chilus, were dotted all over, so much so as to give the egg, at a 
 cursory view, a light-brown appearance. Sketches of these eggs 
 and of those of the willow wren, made at the time, are now before 
 me, and present the difference here pointed out. He observes 
 that it was a very pretty nest, formed of moss, and lined with 
 feathers.* On the morning of the 1 9th of June it contained one 
 egg, on the 21st three, and on the 24th five eggs ; on July the 7th 
 
 * This is the only character against its heing that of the S. sibilatrix, whose nest 
 is stated by authors to differ from that of the S. Trochilus in not being lined with 
 feathers. 
 
190 sylviad^:. 
 
 the young were hatched, and on the 19th had left the nest : thus 
 in six days the complement of eggs was laid, in thirteen they 
 were incubated, and in eleven or twelve days the young were 
 fledged. There was a second nest at the same place that season, 
 containing similar eggs. 
 
 In the Fauna of Cork, it is remarked by Dr. Harvey : — " I am 
 inclined to believe that the wood wren (S. sibilatrix, Bechst.) 
 is entitled to the place in the Catalogue of Irish Birds, which Mr. 
 Thompson doubtfully assigns to it, on the authority of a friend. 
 This gentleman's observations as to the nest being lined with 
 feathers, contrary to the account of it in the different systematic 
 works, entirely coincide with those of my late friend and relative, 
 Mr. Henry Eennell of Ballybrado, in the county of Tipperary. 
 This talented young gentleman, who was an ardent ornithologist, 
 closely observed a few years since, a bird which appeared to him 
 new, and he found both nest and eggs precisely answering the 
 description given by Mr. Thompson, in the Annals of Natural 
 History (vol. i. p. 22). The nest was profusely lined with 
 feathers, and the eggs (two of which are now in my possession) 
 quite differently spotted from those of the willow wren, and much 
 more densely covered. The bird was larger than either the willow 
 wren or chiff-chaff, and whiter underneath/' p. vii. These, and 
 the preceding notes, do not go farther than affording some circum- 
 stantial evidence in favour of the wood wren being a summer 
 visitant : — proof is still wanting. 
 
 This bird appears to be pretty generally distributed over Eng- 
 land including the west, and is found northward to the middle 
 districts of Scotland.* Authors state that it differs from the 
 S. trochilus and S. hippolais, by having a decided preference for 
 old woods or trees, and these are much less numerous in Ireland 
 than in either England or Scotland, winch may be one reason for the 
 S. sibilatrix not visiting this island like its congeners just named. In 
 July, 1826, this species came under my observation in Switzerland. 
 
 * Jard. ; Macg. 
 
191 
 
 THE WILLOW WREN. 
 
 Sylvia trochilus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Motacilla „ „ 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant, and commonly dispersed 
 over suitable localities throughout the island. 
 
 Montagu has remarked that " it is frequently found with the 
 wood wren, but does not extend so far to the west in England, as 
 it is rarely met with in Cornwall." If there be thus a diminution 
 of numbers to the west in England, the circumstance must arise 
 from some other cause than geographical situation, as in Ireland 
 the willow wren ranges to the counties jutting out to the extreme 
 south-west and north-west of the island, being common both to 
 Kerry and to Donegal.* 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Belfast, this species generally appears 
 about the middle of April, when its presence is at once proclaimed 
 by its song. My notes of the earliest arrival here during eleven 
 years, are April, 6th, 1833; 7th, 1834; 8th, 1844 :— the latest, 
 April 24th, 1837 (a very late spring) ; and 23rd in 1842, on 
 which day they appeared very generally in different districts. So 
 early as the 2nd of April, 1848, a willow wren was seen near 
 that town. When on the island of Ireland's Eye, off the Dublin 
 coast, on the 23rd of April, 1835, a flock of eight of these birds 
 appeared, from which one was shot. They were doubtless on 
 migration, but were not the earliest comers, as the species was 
 observed on the 20th of the same month about Belfast. 
 
 The willow wren is commonly seen until the middle of Sep- 
 tember. On the 24th of tins month, and on the 10th of October, 
 1832, I heard it sing; on the former occasion incessantly so 
 long as I gave attention, — about half an hour. Erom the period 
 of arrival until moulting commences, the song of the willow wren 
 is constantly heard ; and so soon as that process is over, is recom- 
 menced, often in a weaker tone, and continued during fine weather 
 
 * In Mr. Stewart's Catalogue the willow wren is set down as " common " in Don- 
 egal, where I have myself remarked it to be so. By Mr. T. F. Neligan, of Tralee, 
 it was stated to be very common in Kerry. 
 
192 SYLVIADiE. 
 
 until the time of departure. The young birds, too, may sometimes 
 be heard going over their notes in a much weaker tone than the 
 old ones. Mr. J. V. Stewart gives a representation of the song 
 in musical notes, in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, 
 vol. v. p. 581. 
 
 A friend who has had many nests of the willow wren, describes 
 them all to have been composed of fine hay,* and lined with feathers. 
 They were situated on the ground at the foot of trees, except 
 in two instances, in one of which the nest was placed in a meadow, 
 several yards distant from the hedge ; and in the other, on the side 
 of a ditch-bank, about four feet above the level ground. There was 
 usually a long approach to them through the brake. My corres- 
 pondent at Clonmel has met with a nest in ivy, upon a wall. 
 Towards the end of August, I was once amused on perceiving 
 several willow wrens rising into the air from some pea-rods in our 
 garden, after the manner of the spotted flycatcher when on its 
 aerial captures : two of them were thus occasionally occupied at 
 the same time. A few flycatchers (Muscicapa grisola) were also 
 on the pea-rods, from which they now and then sallied after their 
 winged prey, having thus apparently prompted the 8. Trochilus to 
 these flights. 
 
 In the north of Ireland, this species frequents plantations, from 
 those of the little garden or spacious square in the town, to the most 
 elevated on the mountains. Although, from the circumstance of its 
 general occurrence in pleasure-grounds and gardens the name 
 of " willow wren " may be thought " unmeaning," f I cannot so 
 consider it. Tins name was doubtless bestowed upon the bird 
 originally on account of its partiality to willows, which I have 
 frequently remarked the twigs and branches of the commmon osier 
 (Salix viminalis), abounding with aphides, being on such occasions 
 its chief favourite. I have never seen these birds so numerous 
 anywhere, — several continental countries, as France, Italy, &c, 
 
 * From the use of this material in the construction of its nests, the willow wren 
 in some places, received the name of hay-bird. 
 
 f See note to White's Selborne, p. 84, ed. 1837. 
 
THE WILLOW WREN. 193 
 
 where I have met with it being included, in addition to the British 
 Islands, — as they were for many years in a certain hedge-row of 
 these trees in the neighbourhood of Belfast. On some scattered 
 trees of the Salix Smithiana in the same locality, they were, for 
 a similar reason, almost equally plentiful. In parts of the south 
 of Ireland, the species is known by the name of lady bird. 
 
 A young willow wren caught at the " Falls," soon after having 
 left the nest, became at once, from its familiarity, very attractive. 
 When at liberty in a room, and called by the name of " Sylvia," 
 it immediately flew to and alighted on a finger held out for the 
 purpose, and was so partial to this unnatural perch, as, like a 
 hooded hawk upon the " fist," to remain stationary there when 
 carried out of doors to feed upon the aphides infesting some 
 monthly roses near the house. It did not attempt even to fly to 
 the plants, but rested from choice upon the finger.' 35 ' To the regret 
 of its owners, this bird did not lire long, in consequence, as was 
 supposed, of excessive washing. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Poole for the following remarks on the 
 willow wren : — 
 
 " A bird of this species which I had taken from its nest to 
 examine, on being set at liberty, was quickly on its nest again, 
 notwithstanding all the fright it had undergone. There can 
 scarcely be a more beautiful sight to an ornithologist or general 
 lover of nature than a family of willow wrens manoeuvring amongst 
 the hedge-rows on a hot day, in the delightful month of July. 
 Nothing can exceed the downy softness of the lower parts of the 
 young willow wren, which, with its yellow mouth, velvet plumage, 
 and timid yet confiding manner, is altogether as touching 
 an emblem of absolute innocence as can be conceived. The 
 mother with her ceaseless " twee, twee," flies anxiously around 
 you, uneasily endeavouring to instil into her beautiful charge her 
 own distrast of your proximity. As soon as she has succeeded in 
 
 * About Ryde, Isle of Wight, this species was common at the end of July and 
 beginning of August, 1841, and from the windows of our house looked very beauti- 
 ful, ascending the branches and twigs of rose-trees, on which it was most usefully 
 employed, in clearing them of injurious insects. 
 
 VOL. I. O 
 
194 SYLVIADiE. 
 
 prevailing on them for the first time to admit suspicion into their 
 guileless bosoms, off hurries the whole interesting group with quick 
 and undulating motion to the nearest tree or young plantation in 
 sight j yet there, if you follow them cautiously and noiselessly, 
 they will re-admit you to nearly former familiarity, and so enable 
 you to pry once more into the mysteries of their ceconomical de- 
 partment." 
 
 In April, 1 841, this species was met with as follows in H.M.S. 
 Beacon in the Mediterranean : — 23rd, eighty miles from Malta, 
 and fifty from Cape Passaro, the nearest land, one flew on board : 
 — 25th, about sixty miles from Calabria, and 135 from Mount 
 Etna, another appeared; one which I caught, perched quietly on 
 my finger, and was so carried about to feed on flies, which it seized 
 when within reach, never leaving the hand if the fly could possibly 
 be captured thence : — 26th, eighty miles from Zante, 130 from 
 Navarino, a willow wren and a chiff-chaff (S. rufa) were found 
 dead in my cabin. They had not been caught or injured in any 
 way, and must, I think, have died from fatigue ; want of food 
 could hardly have caused their death, as there were plenty of flies 
 in the cabin. On this same day, one of Nattered s warblers 
 [Sylvia Natter eri, Temminck,), a south of Europe species, was 
 caught. 
 
 I possess a specimen of the 8. Trochilus, which flew on board a 
 ship in 1834, to the north-west of the Azores, in latitude 44° N. 
 and longitude 34° W. ; the date, unfortunately, was not commu- 
 nicated. 
 
195 
 
 THE CHIFF-CHAFF. 
 
 Lesser Petty chaps. 
 
 Sylvia rufa, Lath. 
 
 „ /djjpolais, Venn, &c.* 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant to certain localities from 
 south to north, 
 
 It differs from the willow wren in being very partially, instead of 
 generally, distributed, a remark which applies not only to the island 
 at large, but to limited districts. Around Belfast — in the coun- 
 ties of Down and Antrim — this bird is known only as a regular 
 visitant to very few places. These (whether in the mountain 
 glen or demesne in the valley) are where there is abundance 
 of wood, and more especially where, in addition, cover from under- 
 wood prevails. This preference appears singular, as the chiff- 
 chaff generally frequents the higher trees. In other parts of these 
 counties, as among the beautiful plantations bordering the gently 
 flowing Main through Shane's Castle Park, I have met with it, as 
 my friend E. K. Sinclaire, Esq. ,has done, in the wooded glens about 
 Cushendall towards the north of Antrim ; and about Bryansford 
 and Rosstrevor, in Down, where the bases of the mountains are 
 well clothed with wood. At the Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, and 
 the Phcenix Park, Dublin, I have heard the notes of the chiff- 
 chaff, which is said to be a regular summer visitant to that quarter. 
 It is common in woods within two miles of Clonmel through the 
 
 * The following note was published in my series of papers on the Birds of Ireland, 
 in 1838. " As a difference of opinion exists about this bird, (see note to White's Sel- 
 borne, pp. 80 et seq., ed. 1837) I had intended entering fully into the subject ; but 
 turning to the description of the species in the ' Manual of British Vertebrate Animals,' 
 p. 112, 1 find it to accord so well with my specimens, — which, being shot in the month 
 of April, when uttering their notes, may be considered adults, — as to render further ob- 
 servation unnecessary. The terms Syl. Hippolais, Lath., and chiff-chaff have been 
 correctly used as synonymous in the best British works. The original description in the 
 ' Index Ornithologicus ' (vol. ii. p. 507) iu a few words marks the species ; Temminck 
 however, in his valuable ' Manuel ' of the Birds of Europe, (part i. p. 222) has adopted 
 Latham's name for a continental Sylvia, very different from the one to which it was 
 applied by this author." June 15th, 1848: — The first individual of this species (S. 
 hippolais, Temm.), known to visit the British Islands, was killed at this date, at 
 Eyethorne, near Dover. Daily News. Athenaeum, July 29, 1848, p. 756, where 
 full particulars will be found. 
 
 o 2 
 
19G SYLVIAD,E. 
 
 summer, and the eggs have been obtained near Clogheen ,* It is 
 found about Waterford ; f is said to be numerous during summer 
 about Castle Warren, J and Glengariff, county of Cork ; § and has 
 been obtained near Tralee, in Kerry. § 
 
 The period of the chiff-chaff's arrival in the north of Ireland 
 seems to be very uncertain : the earliest noted appeared on the 
 3rd of April, and on the 7 th of that month, it was seen in 
 1838 and 1844; but on the 29th of April, 1832, and on the 
 30th, in 1837 1| and 1840, not one could be heard in Colin Glen, 
 the chief haunt of the species in the vicinity of Belfast. Several 
 were heard and seen here on the 15th of April, 1847, a year in 
 which the vernal migrants were very late in making their appear- 
 ance, so much so, that this was the only species of them that I 
 met with during a walk of twelve miles over a country of varied 
 character as to scenery, and in which the earlier visitants, had they 
 arrived, would have occurred : in the middle of May I have been for 
 the greater part of a day in Colin Glen, without once hearing its 
 notes, though during a similar time, a month before, they were 
 almost constantly uttered, and when the days alluded to were equally 
 fine. A certain progress of their broods may have caused the 
 silence: after this period, we again hear the notes. On the 21st of 
 March, 1848, in which year, the summer birds arrived very early, 
 this species was observed at Raheny, near Dublin. ^[ The chiff- 
 chaff is considered the earliest of the summer warblers in visiting 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The time of this bird's departure from the north of Ireland 
 has not been particularly attended to, but on the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, 1832, one was heard at Bryansford. I cannot agree with 
 Mr. Macgillivray respecting its notes resembling " the syllables 
 cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, chee, rather than, chiff-chaff, cherry- 
 churry," vol. ii. p. 381. The species is not noticed by this author 
 or Sir Wm. Jardine, as found in Scotland, north of the vicinity 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 * Davis. f Burkitt. % Mr. R. Warren, juiir. 
 
 § Report, Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, 1841-42, p. 8. 
 
 || Birds generally — willow wren, wheatear, &c. — very late in arrival this spring. 
 
 1f Mr. R. J. Montgomery. 
 
GOLD-CRESTED REGULUS. 197 
 
 The occurrence of this bird crossing the Mediterranean at the 
 migratory period in spring, will be found noticed under the 
 willow wren. 
 
 GOLD-CRESTED REGULUS. 
 Gold-crested Wren. 
 
 Regulus cristatus, Will. ; Ray. 
 Motacilla regidus, Linn. 
 Sylvia, „ Lath. 
 
 This very small and beautiful bird is common, and resi- 
 dent in plantations throughout Ireland. 
 
 In the north its song is occasionally commenced early in the 
 month of February,* and has been heard at the end of September. 
 On one occasion, when a friend was attending to the process of 
 nidification adopted by a chaffinch which built within view of his 
 window at Cromac, it was discovered that he was not the only 
 spectator, a regulus at some little distance being also recognised 
 as a looker-on, and, as afterwards proved, with sinister intent. 
 When the chaffinch took flight from the nest, this bird, in the 
 most cunning manner, stole round in an opposite direction 
 and carried off part of the materials. Such was its common 
 practice, as observed in at least a dozen instances; but the 
 chaffinch eventually discovering the regulus in the act, gave it 
 a severe chase through the plantation, and its mal-practices were 
 never afterwards known to be repeated. More than this isolated 
 instance of theft can be brought against the "gold-crest;" for 
 another friend remarks, from personal observation, that " the nest 
 is open at the top and like a chaffinch's, from whose nest it steals 
 the materials for its own." Notes are before me of three nests, 
 observed in the same summer. One was placed in a cypress ; 
 another was neatly fixed to the branch of a silver-fir whose spin- 
 ous leaves shaded the little opening of one inch diameter ; it was 
 
 * Mr. S. Poole has heard it in the county of Wexford on the 3rd of January. 
 
198 sylviadjE. 
 
 • 
 
 composed of moss mixed with a kind of fine wool-like substance, 
 and lined with feathers ; the third, composed of similar materials, 
 was in a laurustinus and shaded by the leaves of the shrub : so 
 late as the l8th of July it contained four young. The three plants 
 just named, are favourite sites for the nest ; for which evergreen 
 shrubs and young coniferous trees are generally selected. The 
 gentleman first alluded to, once remarked, to his surprise, that the 
 eggs in a nest were placed regularly in two rows with the small 
 ends touching each other. On the 14th of April, 1848, earlier than 
 usual, a nest with eggs, was found near Belfast. Mr. Poole, 
 on the 16th of April, has observed a nest containing eight eggs. 
 Soon after the young can provide for themselves, they and their 
 parents flit about in company, and ring their little changes through- 
 out every plantation. In the first autumns that they thus came 
 under my observation, I was rather disposed, from hearing them 
 simultaneously everywhere around Belfast, to believe in a migra- 
 tion from the north (vide Selby's 111. Brit. Orn., vol. i. p. 230, 
 2nd ed.), but having subsequently heard them in different years 
 so early as the month of August, I now consider that it is our in- 
 digenous birds alone, which, by constantly uttering their little cries, 
 thus attract attention. These remarks were published in 1838, 
 in my series of papers in the Annals of Natural History, and it is 
 only to be added, that I consider the opinion then expressed still 
 correct as to the birds seen very early in the autumn, yet, on two 
 subsequent years, when the species came particularly under my 
 observation, I felt certain of a migration of these birds to the 
 neighbourhood of Belfast at the end of September and beginning 
 of October. All at once numbers then appeared, and their little 
 chorus was heard throughout a whole district, in a part of which 
 none were known to breed in the one year, and but a single nest 
 was observed in the other. Mr. Selby gives a most interesting 
 account of a great migration of these birds to Northumberland, 
 and adds, that before witnessing it, he " was convinced, from 
 the great and sudden increase of the species during the autumnal 
 and hyemal months, that our indigenous birds must be augmented 
 by a body of strangers making these shores their winter resort." 
 
GOLD-CRESTED REGULUS. 199 
 
 Sir. Wm. Jardine too, writing from Dumfries-shire, speaks of 
 ". the time of migration, about November, when our accession of 
 numbers arrives," B. B. vol. ii. p. 157. 
 
 The gold-crested regulus seems not to be the hardy bird that 
 authors generally imagine. In the north of Ireland it has fre- 
 quently been found dead about the hedges, not only in severe 
 weather, but after slight frosts.* To the green-houses and hot- 
 houses in the garden of a relative near Belfast, these birds resorted 
 so regularly in the mild winter of 1831-32, that some were cap- 
 tured weekly throughout the season, and taken to one of our bird- 
 preservers : on the rere-wall of the houses is a range of sheds 
 accessible to birds, and dense plantations of trees and evergreen 
 shrubs are quite contiguous. They were occasionally caught 
 at all seasons, as were common wrens and titmice — many 
 of both — together with robins, sparrows, and chaffinches. All 
 these birds, except the robin, were cruelly sacrificed by the 
 ignorant gardener for their intrusion into the houses, though 
 by the destruction of insects they must have been eminently 
 serviceable to the plants under his charge. Winter too, being 
 the chief season of their visits, they could, even if so dis- 
 posed, do little or no injury. Early in the winter of 1835, three 
 of these birds, which had been captured by a cat in a small gar- 
 den, in a very populous part of Belfast, were brought to me, and 
 on the preceding day, four or five had in the same place shared a 
 similar fate. In the middle of December, 1846, after a few days 
 of frost and snow, I observed a regulus fly from a plantation at 
 the road-side several times, and alight at the base of the demesne 
 wall bounding the foot-way on which I walked. That done, it 
 ascended the wall, picking for insects like a creeper [Certhia fami- 
 liaris), but less continuously than that species. I was several 
 times within two or three feet of the bird, and had I been so cruel, 
 could have killed it with my walking-stick. 
 
 Of five stomachs of the regulus which have come under my 
 inspection in the months of December, January and May, four 
 
 * In a note to White's Selborne (p. 180, ed. 1837), Mr. Herbert gives instances of 
 the fatal effect of cold on caged individuals. 
 
200 SYLVIADiE. 
 
 were entirely filled with insects, chiefly minute Coleoptera; and the 
 fifth contained seeds of two or three kinds in addition to frag- 
 ments of stone. 
 
 I shall transcribe some notes on this species just as they were made. 
 Bee, 1839. A regulus, in the collection of Mr. R. Ball, of Dublin, 
 obtained in that neighbourhood, attracted my attention by exhibiting a 
 white streak continuously from one eye to the other, and which is con- 
 sequently interposed between the black band bounding the crest and 
 the bill ; the crest was of the ordinary brilliant colour. On my return 
 home, a specimen of my own, killed near Belfast, was examined, and 
 displayed a similar white band, but not so conspicuously, between the 
 eyes : in all other characters these birds agreed with the B. cristatus of 
 authors. Several others were examined, but none exhibited the 
 white which possibly may be peculiar to adult males, as the brightness 
 of the crests in both individuals possessing it, indicated them to be : 
 the sex of all those referred to was unknown. At the end of Feb- 
 ruary, 1844, I obtained another specimen with the white marking, that 
 proved on dissection to be a male. None of the authors, to whose works 
 I have referred, describe these white bands in the B. cristatus. Tem- 
 minck, remarks that it is " sans aucun indice de bandes blanchatres," 
 vol. i. p. 229 : in which Jenyns follows him, p. 113 ; Montagu (Orn. 
 Diet.) ; Selby (p. 231) • Tarrell, Macgillivray, Jardine (in Brit. Birds), 
 say nothing of the white, disposed as above mentioned. The last author, 
 however, when comparing B. cristatus with B. reguloides, in his edition 
 of Wilson's American Ornithology, (vol. i. p. 127), incidentally observes, 
 that " the white streak above the eye is better marked " in the latter 
 than in the former species : — the extent of the white fine is not men- 
 tioned. Wilson, in describing the American bird, which he regarded as 
 B. cristatus, remarked, that " a fine of white passed round the frontlet, 
 extending over and beyond the eye on each side," ib. p. 130. This is 
 just the case in the individual to which attention has been particularly 
 called, but the various differential characters in the North American 
 and European birds are considered by Sir. Wm. Jardine, and other 
 ornithologists who have compared them, as decidedly separating the 
 species. A specimen of B. cristatus, from Italy — being one of a large 
 collection of admirably stuffed birds from that country, presented by 
 George Lenox Conyngham, Esq., to the Belfast Museum — exhibits 
 the white marking. 
 
THE GREAT TIT. 201 
 
 At Aberarder, Inverness-shire, I observed this species to be 
 numerous in September, 1842, particularly in Dunmaglass wood, 
 composed chiefly of larch and Scotch fir : about the middle of the 
 month some were heard singing. 
 
 The Fire-chested Regultjs (R. ignicapillus) is stated to have 
 been observed in a garden at Tralee, but without further information, 
 cannot be included in the Irish Fauna. 
 
 THE GREAT TIT* 
 
 Par us major, Linn. 
 
 Is common and resident, 
 
 Frequenting town plantations as well as those in the country, 
 I have observed it also in districts destitute of trees, and where 
 hawthorn hedges afforded the only shelter. Its sawing song, 
 is commenced very early ; in three successive years this was heard 
 about Belfast on the 5th of January ; 23rd and 24th of Dec. j 
 and towards the end of January was once heard when ice, an 
 inch in thickness, covered the ponds near the songster's station. 
 Some time after the breeding season, as in September, the sawing 
 is again commonly heard. A pair of these birds along with two 
 blue titmice daily, during a winter, visited the window-sill of a 
 friend's house in the country f at a particular hour, where crumbs 
 of bread were laid for them. In the following winter the latter 
 species only renewed its visits, which were daily, until the severe 
 weather in the middle of February, when a pair of great titmice, 
 presumed to be the same, re-appeared, and continued to come as 
 in the former season. 
 
 On looking to the food contained in three of the P. major 
 killed in February and March, it was found to be seeds, and small 
 coleopterous insects and larvae. In a friend's garden near Belfast, 
 
 * Titmouse is the name commonly applied to all the British species of the genus 
 Parus. 
 
 t They are occasionally seen on the window-sills of our house in Belfast, with- 
 out being tempted by food ; but the house is situated in a square partially planted with 
 trees and shrubs, and before it is a narrow belt of shrubbery. 
 
202 PARID.E. 
 
 these birds were in one season seen to watch and seize upon the 
 bees issuing from their hives when they first began to stir about 
 in spring. "Vengeance was accordingly let loose upon them, and 
 in the usual undiscriminating manner, from which the whole 
 genus of tits suffered, although a very few individuals of the one 
 species only were known to commit the crime. Shots were to be 
 heard in all directions about the demesne, until the wrath of the 
 owner was appeased by a considerable massacre having taken 
 place. Here, also, the gardener, probably not without reason, 
 accuses this species (which he distinguishes by the name of Billy- 
 nipper) of being very destructive to peas. They are said to break 
 through the pods with their strong bills, opposite the peas, and 
 dislodge them. 
 
 I have the excellent testimony of Miss Farrell of Balli- 
 brado, county of Tipperary, to the fact of these birds breaking 
 sound nuts with their bills, a feat frequently observed by this 
 lady. Mr. Poole, too, remarks that they " seem to derive consi- 
 derable proportion of their autumn subsistence from the kernels 
 of hazel-nuts. They may be heard at that season in every direction 
 in a wood, hammering the nuts on the branches of the trees to 
 break them, a difficult operation it would appear from the inces- 
 sant labour necessary for the purpose." Mr. C. E. Bree of Stow- 
 market, has remarked of the bine tit (I presume), which is much 
 less than the present species : — " I have frequently seen the tomtit, 
 which is a much smaller bird, with an infinitely more delicate beak 
 than the nut-hatch, break the stones of the yew-berry and the 
 haw. He carries the stone on to a convenient branch, where he 
 fixes it with his claws, and then makes repeated and quick strokes 
 upon it with his beak, exactly as ' Sutor ' has described, like the 
 hammer of a blacksmith. * * * The bird makes by re- 
 peated strokes a small hole in the stone, with the fine sharp point 
 of its beak which then acts as a wedge, and the resistance is easily 
 overcome." * I have myself remarked the blue tit drive its bill 
 like a pick-axe into a rotten portion of a tree, thus reminding me 
 of a woodpecker. 
 
 * Gardener's Chronicle, July 18th, 1846, p. 480. 
 
203 
 
 THE BLUE TIT. 
 
 Bluebonnet. Tomtit. 
 
 Parus coeruleus, Linn. 
 
 Is very common ; more so than any other of the genus, 
 in the island. 
 
 Its lively and varied attitudes, as observed in the ordinary places of 
 resort, have often been described. In addition to the more common 
 haunts, this bird is met with as far up the sides of the moun- 
 tain glens as there is a little underwood for shelter. It feeds pretty 
 much on the highways, and occasionally builds in the walls of 
 town gardens. In winter, whether mild or otherwise, this species 
 is very partial to the reeds {Arundo phragmitis) fringing the river 
 Lagan near Belfast, where I have often been much interested in 
 observing numbers of them. The force of one coming against a 
 dead reed sways it almost to the surface of the water, in which the 
 base is immersed, but the titmouse nevertheless maintains its hold; 
 then hurrying to another, alights near its base and rapidly runs 
 up the stem to near the top, and almost dips in the river again : 
 the graceful bend of the reed adds much to the beauty of such a 
 scene. 
 
 These birds are known to suffer considerably from the cold of 
 winter, to winch they are very sensible, even when kept in the 
 house. One at " the Falls," when let out of the cage in summer, 
 roosted upon the top : but in winter, although in a warm room, 
 selected the hottest place in which it could remain safely for the 
 night, namely, under the fender, a locality which afforded at the 
 same time sufficient space and shelter. This bird, from its familiarity 
 and vivacity, was most amusing. The cage was covered with close 
 netting, which it several times cut through, thereby effecting its 
 escape into the room. It then flew to the children, and having 
 taken hold of a piece of bread or cake in the hand of the youngest, 
 would not forego the object of attack, though shaken with the 
 greatest force the child could exert ; indeed, the latter was 
 so persecuted on one occasion for a piece of apple, that she 
 ran crying out of the apartment. It was particularly fond of 
 
204 PARID.E. 
 
 sugar. Confined in the same cage with this bird were some other 
 species, and among them a redbreast, which it sometimes annoyed 
 so much as to bring upon its head severe chastisement. A 
 favourite trick was to pull the feathers out of its fellow prisoners. 
 The young willow wren already alluded to was sadly tormented in 
 this way. A similar attempt was even made on a song thrush 
 introduced to its domicile, but it was successfully repelled. This 
 mischievous tit escaped out of doors several times, but always 
 returned without being sought for. 
 
 The blue titmouse, as is well known, sometimes chooses singular 
 places for its nest. An ornamental jar in the green-house at Elm 
 Park, near Dublin, was selected in the spring of 1844, though 
 the aperture through which the birds had to pass, to reach its 
 roomy portion, seemed hardly large enough to admit them ; they 
 flew into and out of the jar, regardless of persons being present. 
 
 Mr. Poole too remarks : " A jar which I placed in a horizontal 
 position on my window-stool was in a few days tenanted by a pair 
 of blue tits, who after cleaning out some rubbish of which they 
 did not approve, have set hard to work to manufacture a snug 
 abode for themselves and progeny. The cock blue tit came one 
 morning to feed the hen with a fly at a time, when she had a 
 bunch of materials for her nest in her mouth. She quickly dropped 
 them, however, and received the proffered morsel with every ap- 
 pearance of gratification at her mate's gallant attention. May 1st : 
 the blue tits at my window-stool are very early risers, indeed 
 generally commencing the labours of the day as soon as light sets 
 in, and consequently long before the sun appears. The cock at 
 first paid little attention to his mate in her labours, farther than 
 by holding himself ready and willing for a fight with any strange 
 birds of his own species that might venture too near his sanctuary 
 — at the commencement another pair used frequently to contest 
 possession — but eventually was very assiduous in feeding her. 
 He came frequently at intervals of half a minute with a fly or cater- 
 pillar, and inserting his head at the neck of the jar delivered it to 
 his patient mate. 
 
 "In the breeding season I have frequently seen blue tits 
 
THE BLUE TIT. 205 
 
 striking against the panes of windows, I conclude, in jealous 
 defiance of their own reflections. The pair which built in a jar 
 at my window, after buffeting the unconscious glass for a long 
 time, seemed to gain no wisdom by experience, and, until the hen 
 began to sit, continued as busy at it as ever. The hen indeed 
 seemed chief performer." 
 
 The blue titmouse is ready for a fight with more than its own 
 species. A gentleman of my acquaintance states of a pair, which 
 built for three years successively in a fruit tree close to the house 
 in which he lived, that when any persons went near the nest, the 
 bird flew to a neighbouring branch, and not only pecked boldly 
 at them, but would not permit them to drive it away. A pair of 
 these birds built inside a pump, which had not been used for 
 some time, at Abbeylands, near Belfast. The first indication of 
 the circumstance, unfortunately, was the nest and young being 
 ejected into the air, when the pump was again put in requisition. 
 Notwithstanding this misfortune they built again in the same place, 
 and as their so doing was in this instance known, the pump was 
 not used until the brood was safely reared. At a place not two 
 miles distant, the following circumstance, communicated by Mr. 
 Robert Patterson, occurred : — " Having gone one day to dine 
 with a friend living at Ringsend Point, he enquired, did I ever 
 know a bird's nest to be made, and the eggs laid within an hour ? 
 On my answering in the expected negative, he told me there was a 
 well from which water for the use of the family was drawn, and a 
 pump, which being what is called "down," was somewhat, 
 troublesome to work, but which yielded excellent water for drink- 
 ing. Going into his parlour on this day before dinner time, the 
 gentleman happened to taste some of the water which had been 
 placed on the side- board, and instantly accused the servant 
 of having drawn it from the well, and not from the pump. The 
 man denied the charge, alleging that it had been pumped up by 
 himself only half an hour before. He was desired to go and pump 
 some more, and his master went with him to see it done. 
 At the first stroke up came little particles of straw, and muddy 
 looking water, and next followed a bird's nest with three eggs ! 
 
206 PARIDiE. 
 
 So that there were but two inferences, either that the little archi- 
 tect had built her nest, and laid her eggs in the interval, or else 
 that the man had c told the lie direct/ — an amusing instance of a 
 liar being convicted by the mute testimony of a tomtit." 
 
 The titmouse often falls a victim to most unpardonable igno- 
 rance in this country, as well as in England, in consequence of 
 the injury it is supposed to do to fruit trees. When in the very 
 act of saving the buds, by picking away from them the insects 
 bent on their destruction, and which man himself with all his 
 power could not destroy, this poor bird is "savagely slaugh- 
 tered." Mr. Selby most justly pleads in favour of its being a 
 friend rather than an enemy to the horticulturist ; and Mr. Knapp, 
 treating of the species very fully in his most agreeable manner, is 
 indignant that it should in these days be ranked as vermin, and a 
 reward be offered for its head. Thanks to Mr. Weir we have some 
 idea of the vast amount of good done by these birds in the 
 destruction of caterpillars, when they have young. This gentleman 
 with extraordinary patience, watched for seventeen hours suc- 
 cessively how often a pair fed their nestlings, and ascertained it to 
 be four hundred and seventy-five times ; they appeared to be fed 
 solely on caterpillars : " sometimes they brought in a single large 
 one ; at other times two or three small ones." (Macgillivray's Brit. 
 Bird, vol. ii. p. 438.) The stomachs of a number of specimens 
 sent to me during different years by bird preservers, from Decem- 
 ber to March inclusive, contained the remains of coleopterous and 
 other insects, and very few of them, any vegetable food, as seeds, 
 &c. ; there was no sand or fragment of stone in any of them. 
 
 I have remarked tin's species in Holland, Prance, Switzerland, 
 &c, to be about as plentiful as in the British Islands. 
 
 THE MAESH TIT. 
 
 Par us palustris, Linn. 
 
 Is very little known as an Irish species, but has been 
 
 met in the north, centre (as to latitude), and south. 
 
 In Smith's History of the County of Cork it is remarked, 
 
MARSH TIT. COAL TIT. 207 
 
 " Besides this species (Partis major), there is also the cole tit- 
 mouse, the blackcap, the blue titmouse or nun, and the long-tailed 
 titmouse." (vol. ii. p. 340, 2nd edit.) If we take for granted 
 that the term " blackcap " is correctly applied to a Paras, the 
 marsh titmouse must be considered the one meant. In very few 
 instances has this bird occurred to me around Belfast, and not in 
 any other locality. By two ornithological friends it has once or 
 twice been met with here, and though within a few miles of the 
 town, the localities and times of its appearance to them and myself 
 were always different : — it was observed at the various seasons of 
 the year. The marsh tit has been seen by E. Ball, Esq., only 
 about Ballitore in the county of Kildare. In the collection of 
 T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, a native specimen is preserved, 
 which was shot in the Phoenix Park near that city. Mr. Davis 
 of Clonmel, informed me in May 1844, that some eggs winch had 
 been sent to him from the vicinity of Clogheen, county of Tippe- 
 rary, on being submitted to Mr. Hewitson, were considered to be 
 of tins species.* 
 
 It is said to be found over England. "When walking through 
 the beautiful plantations about Twizell House, Northumberland, 
 in the month of September, with Mr. Selby, this bird appeared quite 
 common, and was stated to be so there at all seasons. About 
 Jardine Hall, Dumfries-shire, on the contrary, as I was informed 
 when there in October 1845, it is now considered only as an 
 occasional visitant, generally appearing in the winter season. Mr. 
 Macgillivray is " not aware of its having been met with farther 
 north [in Scotland] than Fifeshire," vol. ii. p. 446. 
 
 THE COAL TIT. 
 
 Parus ater, Linn. 
 
 Is common in Ireland. 
 
 Montagu and Selby remark, that this species is less numerous in 
 England than the P. palustris : but the relative proportion between 
 
 * Mr. Yarrell, by mistake, states on my authority, that it has been met with in 
 Donegal. It may not improbably yet be found there. 
 
208 paridjE. 
 
 the two species in Ireland is very different. To a few only of my 
 correspondents is the latter known with certainty, but all who 
 have bestowed attention on the subject, attest the presence of the 
 coal titmouse in their respective counties, viz., Donegal, Clare, 
 Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Wexford, and Dublin. In the north 
 generally, and wherever I have been in suitable localities through- 
 out the country, this bird has commonly occurred. It is interesting 
 in spring to listen to the notes or song of the great, the blue, and 
 the coal titmouse, all having a family resemblance, but each well 
 known from the other by the ornithologist, — 
 
 " By him who muses through the woods at noon." 
 
 Towards the end of August, after a long silence, we may some- 
 times hear the notes of the Varus ater renewed. 
 
 Seeds as well as insects, &c, form a portion of its food. In a 
 plantation consisting chiefly of the common pine (Pinus sylvestris) 
 and the alder, I observed for a considerable time in the middle of 
 December, some of these birds accompanied by the gold-crested 
 regulus and lesser redpole {Fringitta Linaria). They were all 
 occupied in flying from one alder to another, and were intent on 
 procuring the seed of this tree only. The various attitudes of these 
 three beautiful species were highly interesting, as clinging only 
 to the light bunches of pendent seed, they were not stationary for 
 a single moment. To observe a troop of titmice comprising three 
 or four species, in addition to the gold-crested regulus, and occa- 
 sionally one or two others of our smallest birds, moving about in 
 company, now pausing as if to display their graceful attitudes on 
 plantations with the esprit du corps of one species, has always 
 been to me, but especially in the depth of winter, a source of 
 much attraction : at such times their shrill little notes, evidently 
 more than sight, serve to keep them together. When in Colin 
 Glen on the 19th of November, 1833, I saw, as a matter of 
 course, the gold-crested regulus, the blue and coal titmice in 
 company. I was amused on observing both species of Parus 
 cling to the centre of the under side of the leaves of the 
 sycamore {Acer Pseudo-Platanus) still attached to the trees, and 
 
THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 209 
 
 describe a circle with their bills by picking with extreme rapidity 
 all around them, during which operation their weight did not bring 
 to the ground a single leaf, though all were " sere and yellow." 
 Mr. Poole remarks that the coal titmouse feeds much in the season 
 on the berries of woodbine, and that he has observed what ap- 
 peared to be a family of these birds, engaged in carrying the 
 berries one by one to their place of concealment. 
 
 About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, this was the only species of 
 titmouse that came under my observation during September, 1842, 
 and it was common in the plantations, especially those of Scotch 
 fir, to which decided preference was shown. Mr. Macgillivray 
 (vol. ii. p. 442) and Sir Wm. Jardine (B. B. vol. ii. p. 172), give 
 very interesting accounts of its habits. That it does not, how- 
 ever, feed exclusively on insects in Ireland, — as the former author 
 believes it to do in Scotland — I have had proof by finding seeds 
 in its stomach. I have also commonly found fragments of stone, 
 though they have not been met with in the birds examined by 
 Mr. Macgillivray. 
 
 The crested titmouse (P. cristatus) is a British bird confined to 
 Scotland, where it is but little known. Mr. Poole remarks, that its 
 habits do not differ much from those of its congener, the coal titmouse, 
 with which he has seen it associated in the depth of pine forests in 
 Germany. 
 
 THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 
 
 Partes cdudatus, Linn. 
 
 Is pretty widely disseminated over the island. 
 
 This interesting bird, though not well-known, in consequence of 
 its retired and wooded haunts, has long since been recorded as 
 indigenous to Ireland. It appears in the county histories of Cork 
 (Smith's) and Londonderry, and the Natural History of Dublin : 
 — in the last, Rutty remarks that it " was found in the county in 
 the winter of 1768." 
 
 At present, the long-tailed tit is less known in the south 
 than in the north, over which it is diffused, but not plentifully . 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
210 
 
 PARIDjE. 
 
 When my observations on this species were published in 1838, it 
 had not been met with in the province of Munster, by any of my 
 correspondents resident there, but since that period has been 
 noticed. Its distribution from north to south is now known, as 
 follows : — In the north-west of Donegal, it has been seen ; but 
 very rarely,* In Londonderry, the bird is not only said to occur, 
 as already mentioned, but to be more frequent than the common 
 species, the blue titmouse !f — which must be incorrect. In 
 Antrim, it has been once seen at Claggan, and at Portglenone : 
 from the latter place one was sent to Belfast, in January, 1837, 
 as a bird never before observed by persons accustomed to shoot 
 in that neighbourhood ; six or seven of them were together : 
 in ShaneVCastle Park I saw a few in May, 1838. Its num- 
 bers would seem of late years to have increased considerably 
 throughout the north, where the species occurred only twice to the 
 late Mr. Templeton. Within several miles around Belfast, in 
 Antrim and Down, this bird, for a number of years, has been met 
 with, wherever there is a sufficiently great extent of wood, this 
 being apparently the only essential requisite to its presence. It 
 alike inhabits the plantations of the mountain glen, with its 
 rocks and din of cascades ; those around the beautiful seats which 
 adorn the shores of the bay, and those ornamenting the most 
 improved demesnes in the rich and highly cultivated valley of 
 the Lagan. In Tollymore Park (Down), these birds were first 
 observed by the gamekeeper in 1836. Specimens from Fer- 
 managh have come under my inspection. It inhabits the county 
 of Meath; has been seen about Portumna, on the borders of 
 Galway ; and is said to breed in the small islands of the Conne- 
 mara lakes. § In the neighbourhood of Dublin tins bird has come 
 under my own notice, and is considered, by Mr. R. Ball, as not un- 
 common there; but around Youghal, in the county of Cork — his for- 
 mer place of residence — he never met with it. The species is not 
 uncommon near Cahir, and frequents the woods about Ballibrado, 
 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. f Sampson's Londonderry. 
 § M'Calla. 
 
THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 211 
 
 Tipperary. In 1838, it was first known to visit the neighbour- 
 hood of Clonmel.* Mr. Poole mentions this bird as common about 
 Ballitore, county of Kildare, but rare in Wexford, at least about 
 his residence. Mr. Neligan had not (1837) met with it in Kerry. 
 The species may not improbably be found in every county through- 
 out the island possessing abundance of wood. 
 
 To meet with a family of these birds is always interesting, but 
 they have particularly attracted my admiration when flitting over 
 the waters of a river, and about the overhanging trees that 
 border it. I have frequently noticed them among alders and birches, 
 and they often appear about hawthorn hedges, in the vicinity 
 of plantations. The first which came within my view excited 
 attention by its peculiar note uttered when stationary, and though 
 different from that of the other titmice, its generic similarity 
 satisfied me that it must proceed from some species of this 
 tribe. Its call, when in motion, is soft, thus differing from the 
 shrill little voices of others of the same genus, with which it seems 
 less to consort, than with the gold-crested regulus. In the middle 
 of March, I noted a couple of them at some little distance 
 from each other, uttering quite different calls, the one being of 
 two or three syllables, the other of several. The beauty of this 
 bird is much enhanced, when its breast exhibits a fine roseate hue. 
 A nest with eggs, taken at Bally drain, near Belfast, on the 1st of 
 August, 1843, and brought to me, resembled that figured by 
 Mr. Yarrell : it was covered over, or closely spangled, with bits of 
 lichen, and built in the fork of an old apple tree : — at Stran- 
 millis, a few miles distant, one was erected in a cytisus shrub. 
 Mr. Poole has seen the nest both in the hawthorn and the larch : 
 that in the latter tree was affixed to the stem about twelve feet from 
 the ground. A nest from the Phoenix Park, presented to the 
 Natural History Society of Dublin, was described as fixed in the 
 fork of a branch of black-thorn (Prunus spinosa), and com- 
 pletely screened from observation by the lichen Ramalina fasti- 
 giata, which grew profusely on the branches of the thorn. The 
 
 * Davis. 
 
 p2 
 
212 pariDjE. 
 
 lichen however, was not used in the construction of the nest, 
 this being chiefly composed of Parmelice (P. samtilis, fyc), 
 through which Kypna and the egg-nests of spiders were delicately 
 interwoven : the interior was lined with a profusion of soft moss 
 and feathers. 
 
 A note of May 13, 1832, describes, as an amusing sight, a 
 pair of these birds, seen feeding seven young ones, that having 
 left the nest, were clustered together on the branch of a tree, within 
 the space of about six inches. The manner in which a family of 
 long-tailed titmice crowd together for warmth during snow, and in 
 the cold wintry night, has been well described ; (see Habits of 
 Birds, p. 60, and note to p. 171 of White's Selborne, ed. 1837,) 
 but that it is the ordinary habit of the species, and not consequent 
 on the piercing breath of winter, is indicated in the following 
 note, dated, July the 5th, 1833. "Mr. Win. Sinclaire remarks, 
 that some days ago, he was much entertained by observing a family 
 of about ten or twelve long-tailed titmice going to roost in com- 
 pany, when each individual endeavoured to get as near the middle 
 of the group as possible, and that enviable situation was no sooner 
 attained by a few, than those from the outskirts used all their 
 efforts to insinuate themselves towards the centre, and foiled in this, 
 next exerted their powers to avoid being placed outside — in all 
 respects just the winter practice." A similar proceeding on the 
 part of the gold-crested regulus is described by Mr. Herbert, in a 
 note to White's Selborne (p. 180, ed. 1837). So many as 
 twenty long-tailed titmice have been seen in company about 
 Belfast. 
 
 The stomachs of four of these birds killed in January and 
 March, were, (with the exception of two seeds in one of them,) 
 entirely filled with insects, among which the remains of minute 
 coleoptera were in every instance discernible. 
 
 M. Temminck describes the female only as having the black 
 streak over the eyes ; Mr. Jenyns considers it common to both 
 sexes : in nine specimens of P. caudatus now before me, this 
 marking is apparent, but in some individuals is much better de- 
 fined than in others ; in one only of them the sex was observed. 
 
THE BEARDED TIT. 213 
 
 It proved to be a male bird : we may fairly presume that others 
 of the remaining eight individuals were of this sex. 
 
 A friend residing in Ayr-shire has frequently seen families of 
 long- tailed titmice on the banks of the Stinchar, and in other 
 wooded parts of that county. At the end of September, 1842, Mr. 
 E. Ball observed about ten or twelve in company, in the wood 
 adjacent to the canal at Fort-Augustus, Inverness-shire. Mr. 
 Macgillivray mentions, that the species has been met with in the 
 adjoining and more northern county of Boss-shire. 
 
 THE BEARDED TIT. 
 
 Calamojphilus biarmicus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Parus „ „ 
 
 Is believed to have been once obtained in Ireland. 
 
 I have never seen a native individual of this bird, and can only 
 repeat the short notice of it, as Irish, communicated by me to the 
 Zoological Society of London in 1834. " Mr. W. S. Wall, bird- 
 preserver, Dublin, who is very conversant with British birds, 
 assures me, that he received a specimen of this Parus from the 
 neighbourhood of the river Shannon a few years since." Zool. 
 Proc, 1834, p. 30. The species was determined from Bewick's 
 characteristic wood-cut. In March, 1833, when I first became 
 acquainted with my informant, he told me of its occurrence four 
 or five years before that period : the bird being only wounded, 
 was kept alive for some time. 
 
 This species is permanently resident where it occurs in England, 
 but, according to Yarrell, is not known north of Lincolnshire. 
 
214 MOTACILLIDiE. 
 
 THE PIED WAGTAIL. 
 
 Common Wagtail. 
 
 Motacilla Yarrettii, Gould. 
 „ alba. * 
 
 Is common and resident throughout the island. 
 
 We find it in localities of all kinds where water is to be met with, 
 from the iron-bound coast of the ocean and sea-girt isles, to the 
 pettiest streamlet and border of the " green-mantled " pool. The 
 last haunt to be mentioned, though not the least frequented by the 
 bird, is the vicinity of the manure-heap, winch, as well as the greater 
 places alluded to, presents its peculiar flies attracted by the oozing 
 liquid r Tins bird, though said to leave the northern, to winter 
 in the southern, parts of England, is permanently resident in the 
 northern counties of Ireland. One disposition towards a move- 
 ment may however be witnessed, which is their collecting in the 
 autumn in flocks, commonly consisting of about thirty indivi- 
 duals. I have seen them thus at the end of September, at Mas- 
 sareene Park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, and have observed 
 them come to roost upon the reeds [Arundo joJiragmitis) and the 
 adjacent ground, on the banks of the river Lagan, until after the 
 middle of November ; but I am not aware whether the bodies of 
 these birds so congregated ever move southwards. Mr. R. Ball 
 has likewise observed them in flocks about Youghal, in the south 
 of Ireland, during the month of October. 
 
 Dr. Farran of Dublin, favours me with the following evident in- 
 stance of migration : — " Being in the county of Waterford on the 
 16th of September, 1843, I visited Portlaw, the fine power-loom 
 factory belonging to Malcomson and Co., when Mr. Shaw, one of the 
 partners, related the following singular circumstance, which 
 occurred a few days previous to my arrival : — There is in the 
 pond that supplies the water-wheel, a small island, a few yards 
 from the bank, on which about half a dozen sallow-trees are grow- 
 
 * Of British authors prior to 1837. 
 
THE PIED WAGTAIL. 215 
 
 ing, that have attained a considerable size. These trees were 
 selected by a prodigious number of wagtails for the purpose of 
 roosting, which they did for four or five nights consecutively. 
 Their numbers were so great, and the noise they created so loud 
 as to attract Mr. Shaw's attention, and that of almost all the in- 
 habitants of Portlaw. They weighed down the branches to the 
 surface of the water, and when nearly immersed would rise like 
 a cloud and then alight again : after remaining a few nights they 
 suddenly disappeared. They were the pied wagtail. The birds 
 which were reared in the vicinity of the works did not join the 
 mass, but kept aloof and retired to their usual roosting place. 
 They appeared about the works in the morning as usual — indeed, 
 the day I was there, I saw a few very busy ' fly-catching ' on the 
 edge of the cistern placed on the top of the building, which is 
 six stories high." Dr. Farran, at my request, wrote for further 
 information, and received the following from Dr. Martin, dated, 
 Portlaw, Dec. the 3rd, 1843: — "I have made close inquiries re- 
 lating to the movements of the wagtails, from several of our 
 work-people, remarkable for their sharp observation of the habits 
 of animals, and they all concur in stating the number assembled 
 on the island, to have been enormous, about one or two thousand. 
 Smaller numbers still meet every night and do so during the win- 
 ter. The men also say that such meetings were never remarked 
 here before last year, but one of them remembers observing a 
 similar assemblage at Loughcrew, in the county of Meath." 
 
 Sir W. Jardine* and Mr. Macgillivray,t — who give very full 
 and good descriptions of the habits of the species, — mention its 
 collecting together in flocks, which take their departure even from 
 " the middle and southern parts of Scotland," though some re- 
 main throughout the winter; and that again a migratory move- 
 ment northwards is made very early in spring, when they spread 
 themselves over the whole of the country, and the Outer Hebri- 
 des. (Macg.) A few certainly may leave the north of Ireland, 
 but throughout the winter they are numerous : after frost of some 
 
 * Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 194. t Vol. ii. p. 230. 
 
216 MOTACILLIDiE. 
 
 continuance at the end of January, 1838, a note reminds me of 
 fifteen seen together at an oozy place, close to the town of Belfast, 
 daily frequented by the species throughout winter ; a grey wag- 
 tail, and a number of titlarks, being also of the party. 
 
 Towards the end of January, the song of the wagtail is fre- 
 quently heard in the north, and occasionally so late as October : 
 it sometimes sings when on wing. The situations generally 
 known to me as selected for its nest, were on the ground beneatli 
 piles of loosely heaped stones, the eggs four in number, and as 
 described by Mr. Selby. At Castle Warren (Cork), it is said to be 
 generally placed among ivy. A nest which I examined, was 
 entirely formed of cow and horse hair, excepting some thread and 
 bits of cloth in its foundation. 
 
 Montagu remarks of these birds, that " as the weather becomes 
 severe, they haunt marshes subject to the flow of the tide. In 
 such places on the coast we have seen them in abundance, when 
 none were to be found inland." (Orn. Diet.) In the north of Ire- 
 land, they are always to be met with in the interior of the country, 
 and during the most genial seasons of the year frequent the sea- 
 side when the tide has ebbed. I have in some localities observed 
 them daily attend upon the flowing tide in autumn, like the dun- 
 lin [Tringa variabilis), and other true shore birds ; and in others, 
 when in flocks, confine themselves, like the rock pipit, to the 
 fucus-covered stones along the margin of the sea. During the 
 breeding season, I have met with them on small and low rocky 
 marine islets. They are said to be as common in the island of 
 Bathlm,* as on the mainland, and to frequent Tory Island, off 
 the north of Donegal.t 
 
 The wagtails are very general favourites. It is interesting to 
 observe their confidence in man, which is well shown by their 
 closely following and keeping pace with the plough and harrow, 
 regardless of the load calling of the driver to his horses, 
 as if knowing that it is not addressed to them. In thus 
 feeding, one manner only of taking their prey is resorted 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall. f Mr. Hyndman. 
 
THE PIED WAGTAIL. 217 
 
 to ; but elsewhere, when winged insects are the objects of pur- 
 suit, we may see them, not only run, but also leap and fly; 
 in the last, they resemble the spotted fly-catcher, and I 
 have seen them pursue insects through the air as far as that 
 species. When this part is enacted above ponds, the bird is seen 
 to particular advantage. The white feathers of the tail being ex- 
 hibited in flight, add much to the beauty of this wagtail's appear- 
 ance. It is amusing to behold what appears to be its playfulness 
 of manner towards other birds, and the reception tins meets with. 
 I have seen one fly out to sea after a ring plover {Charadrius 
 Hiaticula), and strike it several times, the latter exerting all its 
 powers to avoid the wagtail, as if this species, not more than half its 
 weight, were a bird of prey. Again, when one of these birds and a 
 yellow bunting were feeding near to each other, the wagtail gave 
 chase to the latter, and after taking many turns, through all which 
 they maintained a regular distance of about a foot from each other, 
 they alighted peaceably on the same stone ; the chase thus seem- 
 ing to have been undertaken for mere diversion. On another oc- 
 casion, I remarked a pair of wagtails pursue, to its great annoyance, 
 a poor bat {Vesjoertilio Pipistrettus) that untowardly appeared 
 during one of the dark days of December (9th, 1832). Some 
 little impertinence had probably been shown by one of these birds 
 to a swallow, which I saw fiercely pursue it uttering the loudest 
 cries all the time : they flew very near to me, the swallow bearing 
 down upon the wagtail and almost touching it, when they dis- 
 appeared from my sight. 
 
 Throughout the month of September, 1842, this species was 
 common among the gravelly beds of rivers, in the district of Aber- 
 arder, Inverness-shire. In the latter half of September, 1843, 
 which I spent with a friend living on the banks of the Dhuisk 
 river, in Ayr-shire, they were more common about the dwelling- 
 house, than I had ever before seen them at a house of any 
 kind, several being always perched on the window-sills, tempted 
 doubtless by the flies, which frequent such places. Their un- 
 usual numbers may be attributed to the circumstance of the 
 house being situated near a gravelly river. 
 
218 MOTACILLID.E. 
 
 THE WHITE WAGTAIL. 
 
 Motacilla alba, Linn., Gould. 
 „ „ Yarr* 
 
 Is believed to be at least an occasional visitant. 
 
 It is included on the following testimony. In a letter to me from 
 Mr. R. Ball, dated Dublin, June the 19th, 1 846, it was stated, that 
 a few days before, when at Roundwood, he had seen a specimen 
 of the true Motacilla alba, as distinguished from M. Tarrellii. 
 He remarked: — "We watched it for some time, though at a 
 short distance from us, with a small telescope used for such pur- 
 poses; its beautiful plumage was very distinct from that of the 
 common species, and its habit much more sedate than is usual with 
 wagtails : it ' wagged ' but little, and walked about demurely. — I 
 am quite sure that I have often seen the species before." As the 
 bird was not actually obtained, its occurrence would not be in- 
 serted here, without my having perfect reliance on the knowledge, 
 and acute observation, of my informant. The preceding note was 
 communicated to the Annals of Natural History, vol. xviii. p. 311 
 (1846). Mr. R. Chute, of Blennerville, co. Kerry, had written to 
 me in Eeb., 1846, that he believed this species was found there. 
 
 This wagtail has only for the last few years been known as 
 British, from specimens obtained at Kingsbury, Carlisle, and 
 Falmouth. (Yarr., B. B. i. 404.) 
 
 GREY WAGTAIL. 
 
 Yellow wagtail (popularly in Ireland). 
 
 Motacilla boarula, Linn. 
 
 This beautiful and graceful species, though much less 
 common than the pied wagtail, is extensively, but 
 not universally, distributed over Ireland. 
 
 About the rocky islets off the coast, where the pied wagtail is 
 
 * Brit. Birds, Supp., p. 22, and vol. i. p. 403, 2nd edit. 
 
GREY WAGTAIL. 219 
 
 met with, I have not seen the grey one, and during a week spent 
 at the end of June, 1832, in the wild district of Dunfanaghy, in 
 the north-west of Donegal, where the pied was common, not one 
 of the grey species was observed. Such was also the case in other 
 localities of a similar nature, which I have visited on the northern 
 and western coasts. With respect to Scotland, Mr. Macgil- 
 livray, — who gives a very full description of its habits, — observes, 
 that " it is of very rare occurrence to the north of Inverness,"* and 
 is not met with in the Outer Hebrides." He notes it, as " gene- 
 rally distributed in the lower and more cultivated parts," vol. ii. 
 p. 240. 
 
 The grey wagtail, like the pied, is permanently resident through- 
 out Ireland, but in the north of England is little known, except 
 as a summer visitant, and in the south,t as a winter one ; as such 
 only it was noticed by White at Selborne, though now mentioned, 
 as occasionally breeding there. J For many years, I have remarked 
 its presence during every winter in the counties of Down and An- 
 trim, and about the mountain rivulets, as well as those adjacent 
 to the sea. When frost and snow have driven the woodcocks 
 from the mountain heaths to the covers, and the snipes from 
 the marshes to the unfrozen springs, I have observed the grey 
 wagtail in its summer haunts, about the ponds at the moun- 
 tainous locality of Wolf-hill. At this season, and late in the 
 autumn, it is occasionally seen in places of a very different charac- 
 ter — in the extensive tan-yards, &c, of Belfast. The curator of 
 the museum in this town informs me, that during the winter of 
 1843^44 (his own first season there) a pair of these birds regularly 
 frequented the yard, and that they disappeared at the end of March, 
 doubtless with a view to country quarters for the summer. 
 Towards the end of August, a pair re-appeared, which, from their 
 
 * It was occasionally seen about the door of my friend's shooting lodge at Aberar- 
 der, sixteen miles south of Inverness, during the month of September, 1842. I have re- 
 marked it in autumn, frequenting the rivulets of Ayr-shire, but perhaps less com- 
 monly than about Belfast. 
 
 t On August 28th, I saw it in the gravelly bed of the river, at Dole, in France ; in 
 the third week of March at Ogley Pool, North Wales. 
 
 + Yarr. B. B. vol. i. p. 372. 
 
220 MOTACILLIDiE. 
 
 familiarity and tameness, were supposed to be the same, and 
 were seen every day from this time until the end of winter. They 
 were occasionally half a dozen times, during a day, in the yard ; 
 where, and in the neighbouring tan-yards, they literally " picked 
 up " an honest livelihood. The museum itself has been entered 
 by one of them, which was found perching on the bannisters. 
 Since the first-mentioned period to the present — September 13th, 
 1848 — when their first appearance for the season was observed, 
 they have been regular autumnal and winter visitants. The pied 
 wagtail likewise frequents these yards. Mr. Poole correctly re- 
 marks that the species under consideration is very partial, espe- 
 cially in winter, to the vicinity of dunghills ; and will sometimes 
 pick food while on wing from the surface of the water. 
 
 The situations generally selected for the nest are holes in walls, 
 the preference being given to those of bridges, about mill-wheels, or 
 otherwise contiguous to water. In the romantic glens of the Belfast 
 mountains they also build, and for this purpose a pair generally 
 resorts to a fissure of the rock, beside a picturesque cascade at 
 " the Falls/' just such a place as would be chosen by the water- 
 ouzel. On the 1 8th of March a pair of grey wagtails, " with black 
 patch on throat," have been noted, apparently contemplating nidi- 
 fication, at Wolf-hill, by minutely examining their former breeding 
 haunts ; and on the 12th of May, the young of the first brood 
 were seen on wing, though still requiring their parents' aid to 
 feed them : occasionally there is a second brood. The nest is 
 generally formed of grasses or other delicate plants, and lined 
 with horse-hair. It is singular, that they generally manage to pick 
 up enough of this last material for lining : four nests at Wolf -hill 
 in one season were all lined with it ; the eggs were usually four 
 in number, and during incubation the beautiful and innocent bird 
 would admit of a close approach. I have invariably remarked the 
 female, as well as the male, to possess the black mark on the 
 throat in the nuptial season, but the colour was of a lighter shade. 
 After Montagu and Selby it may seem unnecessary to allude to 
 this, but Temminck's having described it as characteristic of the 
 male only, has induced the observation. Throughout the winter 
 
THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 221 
 
 the grey wagtails generally keep in pairs ; in autumn only have 
 I seen a whole family, and never more together. They may then 
 be seen roosting in company at the base of trees or underwood 
 overhanging the water. 
 
 Their prey is taken by the different methods described in 
 the notice of the pied wagtail. About the head of mountain 
 springs, I have frequently observed the attractive M. boa- 
 rula, but knew not the object of pursuit in these interest- 
 ing spots, until the examination of the stomach of one in 
 the month of December, proved it, at least in one instance, 
 to have been the minute river limpet, {Ancylus fltiviatilis,) of winch 
 there were many specimens, together with a few fragments of 
 stone. Of three others killed in localities of a different nature, 
 one contained a small fresh-water shell, Limnausfossarius ; and the 
 others the remains of insects, among winch some elytra of Coleop- 
 tera were apparent. 
 
 THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
 
 Bay's Wagtail. 
 
 Motacilla flava, Will., Ray. 
 Can only be announced as a summer visitant to one lo- 
 cality ; and as of occasional and rare occurrence 
 elsewhere.* 
 Mr. Templeton has remarked that it is rare, " appearing more 
 commonly about Lough Neagh than elsewhere," an observation, 
 which, though correct, requires explanation to prevent an erroneous 
 inference. About the lake generally, it is not common, nor have 
 I been able, during frequent visits to various parts of its shores, 
 ever to meet with the species, except on one occasion. Tins was 
 on the 3rd of August, 1846, when visiting its limited haunt at 
 the north-west extremity of this great sheet of water, about Toome. 
 Several were then seen at the side of the river Bann, ad- 
 joining Toome bridge; and on the following day, ten (old 
 and young) appeared at the margin of the lake below the 
 
 t It is marked resident and common in the list of the birds of Donegal, published 
 in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. p. 582, but M. boarula, commonly 
 called yellow wagtail in Ireland, must be meant. 
 
222 motacillid^;. 
 
 bridge. They admitted of a near approach, and both with the 
 naked eye and through a telescope, I saw that they were the true 
 M. flava. They seemed to take the place of the grey wagtail 
 (M. boarula) here, as during three days spent in the district, I did 
 not, though looking particularly for them, see one of this species : 
 — such however, may have been accidental. The pied wagtail 
 {M. Yarrettii) is remarkably abundant about Toome. Having 
 known the M. flava to be seen here in different years — perhaps 
 forty have elapsed since Mr. Templeton observed it — I conclude 
 that the bird is an annual visitant. I cannot but imagine that 
 it will yet be found regularly at some other favourite localities 
 in the island. 
 
 The observations of ornithologists in various parts of the 
 country, show that it is generally a rare species. To myself, it has 
 occurred but once in a wild state, except about Toome, on the 
 24th of June, 1832. In that instance, one was seen in a turf- 
 bog on the confines of the county of Donegal, a few miles from the 
 city of Londonderry. It has but once been met with by Wm. 
 Sinclaire, Esq., on the 28th of April, 1833, when a single 
 individual appeared, and on that day only, in an oat-field at the 
 Tails. One, shot at Einglass, near Dublin, about the 20th of 
 April, 1835, has come under my notice in the collection of T. "W. 
 Warren, Esq. A second specimen, which I have seen at Dublin, 
 was stated to have been shot in the vicinity of the custom-house 
 there, in 1837. The species is unknown to my correspondents as 
 visiting the southern counties. 
 
 On the 8th of April, 1 841, an old male bird shot near Belfast, 
 came into my possession. A good ornithologist is certain that two 
 wagtails, seen at the shore of the bay, near that town, on the 8th 
 of August, 1846, were of this species. About the 1st of May, 
 1847, three were procured between Portadown and Verner's 
 bridge, in the county of Armagh, by the Rev. G. Robinson. 
 
 In the month of July, I have remarked this wagtail at the 
 lakes of Hawes-water and Windermere, in England. 
 
 About forty miles east of Malta, on the 22nd of April, 1841, 
 two of these birds flew on board H.M.S. Beacon — one of them 
 
THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 223 
 
 into our cabin, and remained in the vessel all day. They 
 were very tame; and it was amusing to see them fly-catching 
 on the deck, where they appeared to great advantage, and met 
 with considerable success. They looked most ludicrous, poking 
 out the neck, opening wide the bill, and then, with such gestures 
 duly enacted, making the unerring dart at the victim. These 
 two individuals, together with the following, were noticed in the 
 Annals of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 125, et seq., as females of 
 M. neglecta, but they were set down at the time as M.flava, and 
 their characters noted. On comparing them with Yarrell's descrip- 
 tion of the female M. neglecta, it is evident they could not have 
 of been that species, as indeed a comparison of actual specimens 
 has further proved. 
 
 On the 23rd of April two alighted, and remained for some 
 time; we were then about eighty miles N.E. of Malta. On the 
 24th, when not very distant from the same place, several of these 
 birds arrived; one of them entered the cabin very boldly, 
 and entertained us much by its familiarity. Persons passing in or 
 out of the room did not for a moment deter it from fly-catching, 
 which was accomplished by running, leaping, or taking short flights 
 at its prey ; this bird even alighted on the persons present, and 
 picked flies off their clothes. 
 
 The other wagtails which came on board were the blue or grey- 
 headed species, M. neglecta. The first occurred on the 16th of 
 April, on our passage from Marseilles to Malta in the French 
 steam-packet, when two male birds alighted, about twenty 
 miles southward of the most southern point of Italy ; they were 
 very tame, and remained in the vessel for half an hour. April 26th, 
 when about eighty miles from Zante, and 130 from Navarino, 
 two or three arrived; and one did so on the following day, 
 when the vessel was about forty-five miles from Zante, and sixty, 
 west of the Morea. 
 
 This species has not yet been added to the Irish fauna. Several 
 individuals have been obtained in various parts of England, and 
 two are said to have been procured in Scotland ; but Mr. Macgil- 
 livray is of opinion that they were instead M.flava or M. Rap. 
 
224 anthid,e. 
 
 THE TREE PIPIT. 
 
 Anthus arboreus, Bechst. 
 Alauda trivialis, Linn. 
 „ minor, Lath. 
 
 Is not satisfactorily known as an Irish species. 
 
 On April 12th, 1827, I for some time gave attention to a bird at 
 "the Falls," that from general appearance, manner of singing, 
 &c, I concluded must be of this species, as described by Mr. 
 Selby. One or two ornithological friends likewise, have similarly 
 observed pipits in the neighbourhood of Belfast, which they pre- 
 sumed to be the A. arborens, but specimens have not been ob- 
 tained for examination. It is believed to have bred, about Balli- 
 tore, county of Kildare, * and at Eaheny near Dublin ; in the latter 
 locality in the summer of 1847, but could not be met with in 
 1848.t 
 
 Possibly the tree pipit may be alluded to in the following pas- 
 sage from Smith's History of Cork, published in 1774 (p. 338, 
 2nd edit.) : — "The Alauda pratorum, Aldrov., or titlark, which is 
 in England a bird of passage, is a stranger to Ireland. Dr. Rutty 
 informs me that an eminent bird-catcher is now introducing them 
 as a novelty in Dublin, being in much esteem for their sweet note. 
 Another species, called the pippit or Alauda minor, whose legs are 
 yellow, and a smaller kind of lark, is a constant attendant to the 
 cuckoo, as a good bird-catcher assures us." 
 
 The tree pipit is a regular summer visitant to England and 
 Wales, but would seem not to be generally diffused over those 
 countries. The first heard of by Mr. Macgillivray, as met with in 
 Scotland, was killed in 1833, and two others in addition to it, arc 
 all known to that author to have occurred there (vol. ii. p. 190). 
 Sir Wm. Jar dine merely notices its appearance "in the middle 
 and northern parts of Scotland." (B. B. vol. ii. p. 206.) 
 
 * Mr. R. Davis. t M. R. J. Montgomery. 
 
225 
 
 THE MEADOW PIPIT. 
 
 Titlark. Moss-cheeper.* 
 
 Anthus pratensis, Linn, (sp.) 
 Alauda „ „ 
 
 Is very common from meadows and bogs at the sea-side, 
 to humid mountain tracts of the greatest elevation. 
 
 It frequents the shore at all seasons. Dry sand-hills bordering 
 the seat or the ocean, are much frequented by tins species in 
 summer, not for their own sake, but for the little damp or marshy 
 hollows among them, in which the titlark especially delights. It 
 is permanently resident, but suffers much from frost and snow, 
 and during such times is occasionally driven for food to the 
 streets of Belfast; — even after two nights of frost has been 
 noticed there. One of these birds feigned being wounded 
 for the purpose of withdrawing the attention of my infor- 
 mant from its nest. Mr. J. E. Garrett has frequently found 
 the nest of the meadow pipit on the banks of water-courses and 
 drains, as well as on the level ground, in fields. One which was 
 known to him at the side of a drain, was discovered by some bird- 
 nesting boys, who pulled the grass away that concealed it. On 
 visiting the nest the next day, he observed a quantity of withered 
 grass laid regularly across ; having removed the grass, winch from 
 its contrast in colour with the surrounding herbage, was supposed 
 to have been placed here as a mark by the boys, the bird flew off. 
 The grass was found similarly placed on the following day, 
 and he perceived a small aperture beneath it, by which the bird 
 took its departure, thus indicating that the screen which harmo- 
 nized so ill with the surrounding verdure had been brought there 
 by the bird itself. J 
 
 * The bird is commonly called " moss cheeper " in the north ; by the name of 
 " wekeen " it is known in Kerry (Neligan). 
 
 f I was much amused by seeing one walk deliberately into the sea, and perform a 
 thorough ablution. 
 
 % A similar fact with regard to another species, is recorded in the following 
 words, in Hewitson's Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds. " Mr. Blyth mentions 
 a remarkable instance in which the skylark — its nest being laid open by the scythe 
 — constructed over it a canopy of dry grass to afford it the protection and conceal- 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 anthidjE. 
 
 The eggs in the same nest vary in colour occasionally, some being 
 greatly darker than others. The site of a nest seen by my informant 
 on the 15th of July, 1846, when the young were coming forward, 
 was the end of a plank forming part of a pile of timber, built against 
 the yard wall of a mill, at the outskirts of Belfast. The pied 
 wagtail built that season among some timber in the same yard. 
 The song of the titlark has rarely been heard about Belfast before 
 March, but, in a mild season (1 828), was so, as early as the 4th of 
 February. Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, 
 observes that he has known this species sing soon after the middle 
 of March, and commence nest-building in the first week of April; 
 the nest being composed of dry grasses, with some few black 
 horse-hairs for lining.* 
 
 The stomach of one of these birds, examined by me in December, 
 was chiefly filled with minute coleopterous insects, but contained 
 also worms, minute fragments of brick, and two perfect specimens 
 of the shell Bulimus lubricus ; another was filled with oats and 
 barley ; a third, with seeds and insect larvae. 
 
 The titlark has been already noticed as frequenting mountain 
 tracts of the very greatest elevation in Ireland ; — in the summer 
 and autumn it has occurred to me on very lofty summits in Scot- 
 land. About the top of Ben Lomond it was the only bird seen; 
 and frequented the almost equally high mountains at Aberarder, 
 Inverness-shire.t I have remarked it in summer, to be com- 
 mon — as may be expected — in the low grounds of Holland. 
 
 ment which the long grass amongst which it was snugly sheltered, had previously 
 afforded." p. 138 (1846). 
 
 * Belfast, September the 28tk, 1848. — A beautiful variety of the titlark came 
 under my notice. It was shot in a wild state, and sent to a taxidermist to preserve. 
 More than one half of its plumage was pure white. The top of the head and upper por- 
 tion were beautiful rich primrose-yellow, which colour, also, broadly edged the white 
 feathers of the back, and those of the upper surface of the wings and tail. The throat 
 and under side of the neck, were pure white. One wing was very handsome, owing 
 to the first four quills being pure white, the next four, of the usual dark colour, and 
 the several succeeding them, pure white. As usual in such cases, the feathers of the 
 opposite wing, were not similarly marked. One half of the tail-feathers were wholly 
 white, with the exception, as in the quills, of being broadly edged with primrose-yellow. 
 The only ordinary plumage remaining, except a few odd feathers, was on the belly, where 
 the deep buff, with its brownish markings appeared. The bill and legs were paler in hue 
 than usual. 
 
 f "When ascending Snowdon, in the summer of 1835, neither this nor any other 
 bird appeared towards the summit. 
 
227 
 
 THE ROCK PIPIT. 
 
 Rock-Lark. Field-lark, of Bewick. 
 
 Anthus petrosus, Mont, (sp.*) 
 
 „ aquations, Bechst. 
 Alauda obscura, Gmel. 
 
 Inhabits the sea-coasts throughout the year, 
 
 And has on those of the north, east, west, and south, commonly 
 occurred to me. Although this species does not appear in Mr. 
 Templeton's published Catalogue of Irish Vertebrata,t I find by 
 reference to his MS. that he was acquainted with it. Under the 
 name of Alauda petrosa, he remarked, " common about the rocks, 
 on the shore." It is nowhere more plentiful than about the rocky 
 marine islets, of which Tory, off the north of Donegal, J and the 
 south islands of Arran (off the bay of Galway), by reason of their 
 extreme position, may be particularized. 
 
 With the following observations of Montagu, my own entirely 
 agree. He remarks that the rock pipit "seems wholly con- 
 fined to the neighbourhood of the sea, and is never found, 
 even in winter, more remote than the contiguous marshes within 
 the occasional influx of the tide, depending chiefly on marine 
 insects for its subsistence, and has never been observed to be gre- 
 garious." (Art. Rock Lark in Orn. Diet.) Mr. Selby has ob- 
 served it to be " strictly confined to the rocky and abrupt shores ;" 
 (HI. Brit. Orn., vol. i. p. 259.) but close to the town of Belfast, a 
 coast of the very opposite character is frequented by this bird. On 
 the lowest and most oozy part of the beach, it may always be seen 
 about the rejectamenta of the tide, consisting almost wholly of the 
 Zostera marina, the accumulated masses of winch form the chief 
 attraction. To stony embankments, piers, and similar erections, it 
 
 * This species is named Alauda petrosa, and rock lark by Montagu, in a paper 
 published in the 4th vol. of the Linnsean Transactions, entitled " Descriptions of 
 three rare species of British Birds." The only synonyms there referred to are Alauda 
 obscura, Latham, and dusky lark, Lewin. The two other species are the wood wren, 
 Sylvia sylvicola, and the Phayrelarn sandpiper, Tringa nigricans. This note is in- 
 troduced here, in consequence of the paper being referred to in different works, without 
 the author's name being mentioned. 
 
 t Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i., new series. 
 % Several observed here in Aug. 1845, by Mr. Hyndman. 
 
 d2 
 
228 ANTHIDvE. 
 
 is likewise partial, as it is in Holland, according to Temminck. 
 In my previous publication on this species (Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. i. 
 1838), attention was called to the very different nature of the local- 
 ities stated by this author to be frequented by it, and I felt certain 
 that in connection with some of them, another species must be 
 meant. The subsequent publication of the fourth part "of his 
 admirable " Manuel," proved this view to be correct, and that two 
 species had been confounded. The name Anthus aquations, Bechst. 
 (p. 623) he now applies to the species inhabiting the south of 
 Europe, and " Ant. obscurus, Temm." (p. 628) to our bird, which 
 frequents the borders of the sea. 
 
 In pursuit of food, we find most of the true shore birds ( Gralla- 
 tores) frequenting the bare beach, whether oozy, gravelly, or sandy ; 
 but the rock pipit generally seeks its sustenance, either on the 
 masses of seaweed, which when growing are exposed at ebb-tide, or 
 on those which have been cast ashore. A favourite position is on 
 large y^ci-covered stones left dry between tide-marks. When 
 looking for the nests of terns on the 13th of June, upon the Mew 
 Island, off the coast of Down, where the rock pipit is common, 
 I observed one of its nests. This was wholly composed of 
 fine grasses, winch also served for lining, and was placed on the 
 ground, at the base of a narrow ledge of rock. It contained three 
 eggs, well incubated, which were greenish white, closely and pretty 
 uniformly speckled all over with pale brown. "When visiting 
 several of the islands of Strangford Lough on the 22nd of June, 
 1846, rock pipits were found numerous on them. Several of 
 their nests were observed, from all of which, both eggs and young 
 were gone. They were placed far in, beneath the shelter of pro- 
 jecting stones, and formed simply of the dried grasses which had 
 grown there ; no other material was used, even for lining. The 
 food observed in one winch was shot consisted of several small uni- 
 valve shells (Littorince) , in addition to Coleopterous insects. The 
 stomachs of three killed, on the shore of Strangford Lough, in the 
 first week of March, 184-7, were entirely filled with minute Crus- 
 tacea (Gammari). 
 
 Mr. Poole, writing of the county of Wexford, remarks that the 
 
THE BOHEMIAN WAX- WING. 229 
 
 nest is generally on the slope of a grassy bank, or in cliffs at no 
 great height above the sea, is composed of dry grass-stalks, and 
 lined with a few black horse-hairs. He has found nests containing 
 eggs, and others having young on the 7th of May : — a bird winch 
 he startled from her nest, feigned being hurt, evidently to draw his 
 attention thence to herself. 
 
 At the Giant's Causeway, where these birds are particularly 
 numerous, I have been much interested, in the middle of June, 
 by observing them ascend gradually to a great height in the air, 
 uttering continuously " cheep-cheep " between each beat of the 
 wings, and then descend in perfect silence as quickly, and at 
 about the same angle, perhaps fifty degrees. The descent was 
 accomplished with motionless wing, their little breasts being shot 
 out like puff-balls. Prom my always seeing a pair of these birds 
 about the wall at the neighbouring salmon-cuts (Bush-foot), I had 
 no doubt of their having a nest in some of its apertures. 
 
 I have remarked this species to be as common on the coasts of 
 Wigton-shire and Ayrshire, as in Ireland. 
 
 Eichard's Pipit {Anthus Ricliardi), which has on very few 
 occasions been obtained in England, has not been seen in Scotland 
 (Jard. : Macg.) or Ireland. 
 
 THE BOHEMIAN WAX- WING. 
 
 Waxen Chatterer. 
 
 Bomby cilia garrula, Linn, (sp.) 
 Ampelis garrulus, „ 
 
 Is an occasional, but rare, winter visitant. 
 
 Mr. Templeton has said of this bird: "Sometimes seen about 
 Belfast, but more common in Tullamore Park, county Down ; has 
 been several times'* shot in the county of Derry ;" Charlesworth's 
 Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 405. By a veteran sporting friend, the 
 wax-wing has twice been met with in the neighbourhood of Bel- 
 fast, and in both instances in wooded glens within the district of 
 the Palls : — in the lower part of Colin glen, and at Milltown. One 
 * " Once " instead of " several times," in Mr. Templeton's MS. 
 
280 AMPELIDiE. 
 
 of these birds was shot about thirty years ago, and the other, con- 
 siderably before that time, when severe frost and snow prevailed. 
 About the year 1820, one was killed at Castle Martyr, county of 
 Cork.* " In the winter of 1822-23, a specimen of the Bomby- 
 citta Bohemica, Briss., was found dead in the woods of Burton 
 Hall, in the county of Carlow." Zool. Journ., vol. i. p.* 590. 
 This note was contributed by Mr. Yigors, who informed me in 
 November, 1839, that since the winter of 1822-3, chatterers had 
 been obtained in three different years on the mountains, between 
 the counties of Carlow and Wexford. A specimen was pro- 
 cured in the Castlereagh hills, county of Down, about the 
 winter of 1825-26. Dr. J. D. Marshall has noticed a male bird 
 which was shot in the neighbourhood of Dublin, in January, 
 1829 ;t and in this, or the following winter, another was killed at 
 Ardtane, in that quarter. In the Belfast News-letter of Dec. 20, 
 1831,f the following paragraph appeared: — "In the early part of 
 last month a beautiful specimen of the Bohemian wax-wing (Bom- 
 by cilia Bohemica, Briss.), was shot in Newtownlimavady. It was 
 perched upon a rowan tree in a garden, and seemed busily em- 
 ployed in pickiDg off the berries ; many of them were found in 
 its craw when it was opened. It is preserved in the collection of 
 Dr. Tyler of Newtownlimavady/' On Feb. the 6th, 1835, an 
 extremely beautiful individual of this species, was shot in a 
 garden at Ballymacarrett, in the suburbs of Belfast, and on the 
 following day, another was seen at the same place. The former, 
 which came under my inspection, proved on dissection to be a 
 female; its stomach, which I did not examine until the 10th, 
 four days after death, was entirely filled with the haws of the 
 white-thorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha) , which exhaled an odour as 
 fresh, as if just plucked from the tree. Each wing exhibited six 
 plumelets, with their scarlet wax-like adornments ; some authors 
 have described the female as wanting these altogether, and the 
 greatest number I have seen attributed to her, are four or five. 
 (Tcmm.) In this or the following winter, a specimen was ob- 
 
 * Mr. R. Ball. f Mag. N. H. ii. 394. 
 % Two were killed in this month in the north of England. Phil. Mag., 
 1832, p. 84. 
 
THE SKYLARK. 231 
 
 tamed at Portmarnock : it is preserved in Mr. T. W, Warren's 
 collection. 
 
 In a few other instances, but without particulars, I have had 
 reports of the wax-wing's occurrence in Ireland. In all the years 
 of its visits to this island, positively known, it has been met with 
 in England likewise. It appears there as with us, only at rare 
 and uncertain intervals. 
 
 THE SKYLARK. 
 
 Common Lark. 
 
 Alauda arvensis, Linn. 
 
 Is common throughout Ireland, 
 
 And partial, according to my observation, to marine islets off 
 various parts of the coast. To judge from the British works in 
 which this bird is treated of, its song, re-commenced in the 
 autumn, would seem to be continued longer into the winter in 
 this island than elsewhere ; — a result attributable to the humidity 
 and mildness of the climate. It may be heard as frequently in 
 fine bright days during the month of October, even in the bird's 
 most elevated haunts in the mountain pastures about Belfast, as 
 at any other season. One note may be given on this subject ; 
 November the 1th, 1835 : — "I never heard more skylarks singing 
 at any period of the year, than in the early part of tins day, in the 
 high pastures bounded by the heath in the Belfast mountains, at 
 an elevation of about 1000 feet above the sea. The day was fine 
 and bright ; the ground very wet from continued rain throughout 
 the days and nights of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, early part of the 
 5th, and occasionally since, until this morning." Montagu 
 remarks, that this bird is " rarely seen on the extended moors at a 
 distance from arable land/' and later British authors repeat the 
 observation. The wild mountain pasture, however, is in Ireland 
 a favourite abode, and there, as mentioned in the following note, 
 the delightful voice of the skylark may occasionally be heard at 
 a rather late hour, mingling with the bleating of the snipe : — June 
 
232 alatjdidjE. 
 
 the 22nd, 1840. " At half-past seven o'clock this evening, when 
 on the highest part of the old road from Belfast to Crumlin, perhaps 
 850 feet above the sea, larks were busily engaged singing on every 
 side, at the same time that snipes (Scolopax Gattinago) were bleat- 
 ing, and giving utterance to their other calls. The mingling of 
 the notes of the two species, so very dissimilar, had a singular but 
 most pleasing effect." The skylark is generally noticed by authors 
 as singing only when on wing; yet it not very unfrequently 
 pours forth its song from the ground, and when perched on furze 
 or whins, &c. Mr. Poole remarks, that the skylark occasionally 
 mounts up to sing during rain, but does not remain long, merely 
 ascending and quickly descending again : nests are noted by him 
 as containing young birds in the middle of April, and which were 
 fledged by the 1st of May. An observant friend has on different 
 occasions known several circular holes to be made by pairs of 
 these birds, before fixing upon one for their nest. 
 
 In very cold winters, our indigenous larks congregate in large 
 flocks, which remain with us unless the weather become extraor- 
 dinarily severe, when they move more or less southward. Even 
 when the winter is mild in the north of Ireland, these birds gene- 
 rally migrate hither from Scotland, in small or moderate flocks, and 
 have repeatedly been seen crossing the Channel by my friend Capt. 
 Payrer, R.N., during the several years that he commanded the 
 mail steam-packet, winch plied between Portpatrick and Donagha- 
 dee.* Although the autumn of the year 1832 had been very 
 fine and mild, I saw so early as the 17 th of October, a very large 
 flock of larks, which had doubtless migrated to tins country. 
 In the winter of 1837-38, larks remained in flocks until a late 
 period — on the 24th of March I remarked not less than sixty 
 congregated. 
 
 The skylark occasionally exhibits variety in its plumage, though 
 
 less frequently than some others of our small birds. The collec- 
 
 * In the "Annual Register" under date of January the lOtk, 1814, it is stated, 
 that " The Hillsborough Packet, ou the passage from Portpatrick to Donaghadee, 
 was literally covered, on the rigging and deck, by a flock of larks : they had taken 
 their departure from some place at or near Portpatrick, and in order to have a rest 
 by the way, swarmed about the packet. So soon as they got near shore, they made a 
 rapid flight for the laud." 
 
THE SKYLARK. 283 
 
 tion of my friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., contained one of a black 
 colour, which was shot in a wild state among a flock, as was a 
 pure white one — a true albino, with red eyes — which is in 
 the collection of J. V. Stewart, Esq. One, with primaries, secon- 
 daries and tail, snowy white, and, like the others, shot in a wild 
 state, has come under my notice. Birds are of course more subject 
 to melanism when caged, than in a state of nature. A young male 
 skylark of 1843, kept by Mr. Darragh, curator of the Belfast 
 Museum, changed at the autumnal moult of 1845 to black, which 
 colour was assumed by its entire plumage excepting on the upper 
 portion of the neck, where on close examination, a little very dark- 
 brown might be observed. Tins bird was fed on bread, potatoes, 
 groats, and hemp-seed. Death ensued soon after the black plumage 
 was exhibited. It panted much, as if for want of breath, and on 
 dissection after death, a fleshy tubercle was found outside the lower 
 portion of the windpipe. In Dec, 1846, Mr. Darragh received 
 a black lark to preserve, which had been three years in the pos- 
 session of the person with whom it died, during the one half of which 
 period the plumage had been black . A considerable portion of its 
 food during the whole time was hemp-seed. Its skull was re- 
 marked to be extremely thin, so much so, as to be compared to 
 silk-paper. This was likewise the case in another black lark, 
 which he set up. Both birds were males and excellent singers. 
 The claws of caged larks kept by him have grown to the length 
 of two inches. A lark which had its liberty within the green- 
 house of a relative, lived eight years there, and was eventually 
 lost by effecting its escape. 
 
 Nowhere perhaps is the skylark more sought for as a caged-bird 
 than in Ireland, and the song given forth "right merrilie" from 
 the little patch of green-sward within its prison, seems to imply 
 that the bird bears confinement well. But it is always with re- 
 gret that we see the lark, whose nature is to pierce the clouds 
 when singing, so circumscribed, and we cannot but wish for its 
 own sake that it had the freedom of " fresh fields and pastures 
 new;" yet we do not, like a class of persons in the world, think 
 only of the skylark. To the poor artisan in the town, this bird is 
 
234 ALAUDIDjE. 
 
 of great service by enlivening him with its song, associated with 
 which in his mind are doubtless scenes in the country, the love of 
 which is instinctive to the human breast. The lark, too, is gene- 
 rally treated with affectionate care, and the first walk of its master 
 in the very early morning, before the day's task begins, has for its 
 object, the providing of a " fresh sod" for his pet bird. 
 
 The following anecdote, communicated by my late venerable 
 friend, Dr. McDonnell of Belfast, shows the high value once set 
 upon a skylark : — "A rather poor chandler in Belfast, called Hug- 
 gart, had a lark remarkable for its song. Mr. Hull, a dancing- 
 master and great bird-fancier, going into his shop one day, said, 
 he came to purchase his bird. ( Indeed/ replied the other, ' I do 
 not think, Mr. Hull, you are likely to get home that bird, which 
 delights all my neighbours as well as myself/ ' Well, I think I 
 am/ was the reply : ' here are five guineas for it/ The sum was 
 instantly refused; when ten guineas were offered, but also rejected. 
 He was then told, ' It is now the the fair-day, and the market full 
 of cattle ; go and purchase the best cow there, and I shall pay for 
 her/ But Huggart still declined, and kept his lark." 
 
 When looking at the great quantity of wheatears and larks from 
 different parts of England, exposed in their respective seasons in the 
 shops of the London poulterers and game-dealers, I could not but 
 think how much better small birds are treated in Ireland, than they 
 are even in England. The indiscriminate butchery of species in 
 France, Italy, and other continental countries, is shocking. True, 
 in the south of Ireland, there is the silly hunting of the wren on 
 one or two holidays, but even this has lately been interdicted, and 
 to his credit be it mentioned, by Mr. Richard Dowden, when 
 Mayor of Cork. 
 
 It is common for skylarks, as remarked by Sir Wm. Jardine, 
 to "bask in the sun and dust themselves, like the Rasores :"* as, 
 may be added, sparrows also frequently do. The stomachs 
 of several larks which came under my examination, especially 
 in winter, contained grains of wheat, seeds, and the remains 
 of other vegetable matter, with an occasional insect- larva : they 
 
 * Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 325. 
 
THE CEESTED LARK. 235 
 
 all exhibited fragments of stone. The occasional flying of this 
 species to man, for protection from birds of prey, is noticed under 
 sparrow-hawk. The skylark is most eloquently descanted on in 
 the "Recreations of Christopher North," vol. iii. p. 21. 
 
 Over the greater portion of Europe the Alauda arvensis is 
 common. The localities most distant from the British islands in 
 which this bird has come under my own observation, were the 
 Morea, and about Smyrna, where it was seen in April and May. 
 
 THE CEESTED LARK. 
 
 Alauda cristata, Linn. 
 
 Is said to have been once obtained in Ireland. 
 
 A description and figure of the bird which appeared in the Dub- 
 lin Penny Journal of February the 27th, 1836 (vol. iv. p. 276.), 
 contains all that is known of it. The writer, who signs "J. W. R.," 
 announces the bird under the name of Alauda cristata, and states 
 that he killed one near Taney, a few weeks before. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell informs us, in the second edition of his British 
 Birds, (vol. i. p. 456), that since the publication of the pre- 
 ceding notice, a crested lark has been killed in Sussex: the only 
 one known to have occurred in Great Britain. Major Walker, in 
 a letter to me, written in June, 1846, from The Lodge, Kyle, 
 co. Wexford, remarked, that he had " met with the crested lark 
 in great numbers in Hungary, almost always in the villages and 
 towns, rooting in the mud. Their German name is koth-lerche or 
 mud-lark. YarrelTs figure is unfortunately from a dead bird, 
 and so loses its resemblance to the living, in which the crest is 
 always borne erect, except when spreading its wings to fly. It is 
 so large that the bird attracts attention, and I for a long time 
 tried to shoot one, but in vain, as, although familiar as sparrows, 
 they were hardly to be met with except in towns, where I would 
 not fire." The same gentleman subsequently remarked, that as 
 soon as the first snow fell in the north of France, in the winter of 
 
236 ALAUDIDyE. 
 
 1846-47, the whole coast was covered with these birds. The 
 distance thence to England being so short, he is surprised they 
 are not occasionally co mm on in the latter country. But he is 
 certain that they could not escape notice, owing to the "constantly 
 upright position of the crest." 
 
 A specimen of this bird shot in the island of Paros-, in 
 June, 1841, came under my inspection. Alauda of some kind 
 flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th and 26th of April, 
 1841, between Malta and the Morea, but none of them being 
 taken, the species cannot be announced with certainty. For the 
 same reason, the species, or even genus of several Alauda or 
 Anthi, which we saw near the summit of the highest mountain 
 in the island of Syra, on the 7th of May, could not be positively told. 
 They were similar in size to the titlark {Anthus pratensis), but of 
 a lighter colour on the under plumage : legs flesh-colour. The 
 beautiful pied wheatear, as already noticed, was in the same 
 locality. 
 
 Very few examples of the Shore Lark, Alauda alpestris, have 
 been obtained in England : it has not yet been observed in Scot- 
 land (Jard. and Macg.) or Ireland. The Short-toed Lark, Alauda 
 brachydactyla, is only known as British, from a specimen taken near 
 Shrewsbury. (Yarr.) 
 
 THE WOODLABK. 
 
 Alauda arborea, Linn. 
 
 Is a resident, but very local species, 
 
 And one of those unobtrusive birds, little known except to the 
 lover of nature, by whom it is perhaps valued the more on that 
 account. It is not under any circumstances to be met with in 
 flocks like the skylark. So very choice is the woodlark in the place 
 of its abode, as to be singularly local. In the counties of Down and 
 Antrim, it frequents districts where the soil is warm, the country 
 well cultivated and wooded, or scenery, which, like its song, is of a 
 sweet, soft character; — cold clay districts, though equally im- 
 proved and sheltered, cannot, so far as known to me, claim it for 
 
WOODLARK. SNOW BUNTING. 237 
 
 a tenant. In its favourite localities here, the woodlark may be 
 heard singing almost daily, (chiefly in the morning,) when the 
 weather is fine, from September till June. In the counties named, 
 it is not very uncommon in the warm sandy district of Mai one; 
 is occasionally heard about the Down shore of Belfast bay, and on 
 the sides of the Castlereagh hills; about Ballynahinch ; Lord 
 Londonderry's deer-park in the Ards; Rosstrevor, kc* This 
 species is enumerated as one of the birds of Dublin, in Butty's 
 Natural History of that county, and has a similar place in Smith's 
 History of Cork. Mr. E. Ball informs me, that in the latter 
 county it is not unfrequent, and being much prized for its song, 
 is greatly sought after by bird-catchers. It is found about Water- 
 ford.f A friend living near Belfast kept woodlarks for a year or 
 more in his aviary, in company with other birds, but they 
 never sang. 
 
 The woodlark would seem to be only partially distributed in 
 England. Mr. Yarrell mentions the counties in which it is known 
 to occur, but in one which is not named — Oxfordshire — I met 
 with two or three of them in June, 1828, in the demesne at 
 Blenheim, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Marlborough. 
 To Sir Wm. Jardine or Mr. Macgillivray, it is not known as a 
 Scottish bird, but according to Mr. Heysham of Carlisle, is 
 occasionally taken by bird-catchers in the vicinity of Dumfries.;}: 
 
 THE SNOW BUNTING. 
 
 Tawny Bunting. Mountain Bunting. § 
 
 Plectrop/ianes nivalis, Linn, (sp.) 
 Mmberiza „ „ 
 
 Is a regular autumnal migrant to the more northern 
 
 parts of Ireland. 
 Towards the south, this bird becomes gradually scarcer, and in 
 its extreme portions, — although the highest mountains in the 
 
 * The Rev. G. Robinson, writing from Parkview, Tandragee (co. Armagh), on the 
 13th of October, 1848, stated, that two pair had frequented the neighbourhood of his 
 house for the preceding fortnight. 
 
 t Burkitt. % Yarr. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 461, 2nd edit. 
 
 § These two names are applied to females and young males, the plumage of which 
 differs much from that of the adult male. 
 
238 emberizidjE. 
 
 island are situated there, — can only be called a rare and occasional 
 visitant. Its numbers are stated similarly to decrease from the 
 north to the south of England. The island of Achil is said to be 
 regularly visited by the snow-bunting j* and small flocks are re- 
 ported as frequent in Connemara in very severe winters.t In a 
 catalogue of the birds of the south, kindly drawn up for my use 
 some years ago, by Dr. Harvey of Cork, the snow-bunting was 
 noticed merely as having been met with at Dunscombe wood, 
 near that city. In the Fauna of Cork since published (1844), 
 he states that it is not very uncommon, in immature plumage, in 
 winter: but one adult bird had been seen by him. In a com- 
 munication made to me in 1841, by Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, 
 the species was noticed as visiting that neighbourhood only in 
 January, 1832. In 1837, I was informed by Mr. T. F. Neligan, 
 that he had never met with it in Kerry ; but in the winters of 
 1840-41, and 1842-43, Mr. E. Chute became aware of its visit- 
 ing different parts of that county. All that can be said of it by 
 my correspondents in Tipperary and Wexford is, that one was 
 shot on a mountain to the south of Clonmel on the 25th of Dec, 
 1841, at which time four or five more were seen; J and that the 
 species was first observed in the latter county in the winter of 
 1846-47. § 
 
 The snow-bunting is truly a most attractive bird, not only from 
 its pleasing form and finely-varied plumage, but as one of the 
 very few species met with in the depth of winter on the mountain- 
 top, where, flitting overhead, uttering its pleasingly wild chirp, 
 the far-distant region within the arctic circle, whence it may have 
 come, is brought before the mind. Its earliest appearance about 
 Belfast noted by me, is the middle of October, 1831 and 1844, 
 and the 23rd of that month, in 1833. At the end of October, it 
 has been killed on the shore of Dublin bay. The latest date 
 noted of its remaining about Belfast is the 21st of March, 1832. 
 
 Although their haunts, in mild weather, are chiefly the mountain- 
 tops, one night's severe frost has been known to drive them to the 
 nearest roads for food : a friend has seen them here in frosty morn- 
 * Dr. W. R. Wilde. t M'Calla. % Mr. Davis! § Mr. Poole. 
 
THE SNOW BUNTING. 239 
 
 ings for a mile along the highest part of a road crossing the 
 Belfast mountains, picking like sparrows at the oats in the horse- 
 dung. When there is neither frost nor snow, they may be met 
 with occasionally in the lower grounds and on the sea-shore ; to 
 the latter they are obliged to resort when the weather sets in very 
 severe. During the great snow-storm, early in March, 1827, 
 flocks appeared in the outskirts of the town of Belfast ; and such 
 numbers were killed on the sea-shore in its vicinity, that they were 
 purchased by Mr. Sinclaire, as the cheapest food he could procure 
 for his trained peregrine falcons. Although of regular passage to 
 the Belfast range of mountains, snow-buntings are much more 
 numerous in other, and less frequented, mountainous districts in the 
 county of Antrim, as about Newtown-Crommelin and Clough. At 
 the former of these places, where the Rev. G. M. Black was 
 several years resident, he always observed them during the winter 
 in very large flocks, in which not more than one in twenty were 
 adult individuals. Prom the other locality, which is in the same 
 district, examples have been brought to me by Mr. J. E. Garrett, 
 who also supplied the following note. January the 4<tA, 1834: — 
 " When shooting to-day about two miles from Clough, I met with 
 an immense flock of snow-buntings, out of which I killed thirty 
 at one discharge, as they flew past me. Their call resembled the 
 chirping of the grey-linnet, and the number of wings made a 
 considerable noise, as the flock, consisting of several hundreds, 
 swept by : some were nearly white, and others of a dark-brown 
 colour." In any of the flocks which have come under my own obser- 
 vation, the adult males bore only a small proportion to the females 
 and immature birds ; but, except in very small flocks, they were 
 always present throughout the winter.' 35 ' This species is men- 
 tioned under the name of cherry-chirper !, in Butty's Natural 
 History of Dublin, as "found on the strand in December, 
 1747, and kept in a cage until December, 1748, and fed with oats, 
 hemp-seed, and cuttlings." — Vol. i. p. 317. 
 
 * Mr. Macgillivray's observation accords with this (vol. i. p. 465). In some of 
 the latest works on British ornithology (Yarr. p. 426, &c), the adult birds are stated 
 to appear in Great Britain only late in the winter, or when the weather is very severe. 
 The earliest seen in two years (Oct. 18th and 23rd,) about Belfast, were adult males. 
 
240 emberizidjE. 
 
 Since the preceding was written, snow-buntings have become 
 greatly more numerous in the vicinity of Belfast. By the " new 
 cut" in the channel of the river adjacent to the quays, an extensive 
 bank is left insulated, and being covered with a profuse growth of 
 Atriplex patula and Chrysanthemum lencanthemum, these birds 
 have, notwithstanding its proximity to a large town, come in great 
 numbers to it at the beginning of every winter for a few years 
 past. They remain there during the whole of that season, in all 
 kinds of weather, and until early in spring, when they take their 
 departure north-wards. In the winter of 1843-44, the plants 
 just named covered this tract — called Dargan's Island — and these 
 birds were remarkably abundant, about a thousand appearing in 
 one flock. The island having since been partially levelled and 
 sown with grass-seed, they have visited it in much smaller num- 
 bers, but from 200 to 300 have been seen there in a flock in the 
 winter of 1845-46. In consequence of this " preserve," the 
 species has been greatly more common than formerly about the 
 shores of Belfast bay, where the short grassy margin is their 
 favourite haunt. They are naturally easy of approach, allow 
 one to come within a few yards of them, but become wild after 
 continued persecution. Some adult males are always to be seen 
 in the earliest large flocks that appear. 
 
 Immense numbers came to the main-land opposite Bough Island, 
 Strangford, at the beginning of winter 1844-45, and throughout 
 a range of several miles, committed great devastation by picking 
 up the sown wheat, which they got at, along the edges of the 
 ridges. The farmers were literally up in arms against them, and 
 killed many, but the birds eventually became so wild, as not to 
 admit of approach. They had never been seen there before, and 
 were looked upon as some foreign species, that came to destroy 
 the wheat crop, by picking the seed from the ground. They re- 
 mained from early in November, until the beginning of March. 
 About the shores of Dublin bay, these birds are often met 
 with during winter, and sometimes in great numbers. The snow- 
 bunting, by thus frequenting the mountain-top and the sea-side, 
 reminds us of certain plants which are only found in either locality. 
 
THE COMMON BUNTING. 241 
 
 Wilson, Audubon, and Dr. Eichardson give most interesting 
 accounts of the snow-bunting from personal observation in North 
 America. The last author had the gratification of meeting with the 
 bird in its breeding-haunt on that continent. Mr. Macgillivray 
 treats fully of it in Scotland, and Mr. Selby favours us with the 
 result of his observations on the species in the north of England. 
 
 When ascending, in the month of July, above the perpetual snow- 
 line of the Alps of Switzerland, Mt. St. Gothard, Grimsel, Col de Four, 
 &c, and to the height of 11,000 feet, the snow-finch (Tringilla nivalis), 
 a bird which in size, marking, and note, reminded me at a little dis- 
 tance of the snow-bunting, was almost ever-present. Its feeble voice, 
 mingled occasionally with that of the alpine accentor {Accentor alpinus), 
 seemed in one sense, strangely out of unison with the stern grandeur of 
 the scenery, where rarely any other sound broke upon the ear, than 
 the rent of the glacier or the distant fall of the avalanche. 
 
 The Lapland Bunting (Plectrophanes Lapponica), which has in a 
 very few instances been met with in England, has not yet been obtained 
 in Scotland (Jard., Macg.) or Ireland. 
 
 THE COMMON BUNTING. 
 
 Corn-Bunting. Briar-Bunting. 
 
 Emberiza miliaria, Linn. 
 
 Is found throughout the island, and is permanently resi- 
 dent. 
 
 The Common Bunting, as it is called, is not by any means so 
 generally dispersed in Ireland, as the yellow bunting, and accord- 
 ingly, is not so common* or well known as that species, which 
 is one of the first birds that we become familiar with in child- 
 hood. The names of briar and com bunting applied to the bird 
 in the north, of Ireland are more correctly expressive ; in the south, 
 it is locally called corn-bird.f A few of these buntings were 
 
 * Since the preceding was writteD, it has been observed that Sir Wm. Jardine 
 comments in a similar manner on the name, as applied to the bird in the south of 
 Scotland— Brit. Birds, vol. ii, p. 306. 
 
 ' f Mr. Poole. 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 emberizidjE. 
 
 seen on Tory Island, off the north-west of Donegal, in August, 
 ,1845* 
 
 On reading the opinion expressed by Sir Wm. Jardine, in his 
 edition of White's Selbome, t that there is a migration of bunt- 
 ings to Great Britain in winter, I thought it might be likewise 
 applicable to Ireland ; but on subsequent consideration, did not 
 feel altogether convinced that there is any increase to the number 
 of these birds bred in the country. The change from the sum- 
 mer to the winter haunts of the bunting, might lead to such a 
 supposition, as about the time that our winter birds of passage are 
 arriving, flocks of buntings make their appearance in localities, — 
 (often hedges along road-sides) — which, frequenting through the 
 winter, they leave on the genial approach of spring : so late as the 
 end of March, they occasionally remain congregated. Mr. J. E. 
 Garrett is inclined to believe in a migration, from the circumstance 
 that early every winter during his residence at Cromac, near Belfast, 
 flocks consisting of from one to two hundred birds appeared, and 
 continued until spring. They were to be seen every evening in a 
 plantation of Scotch elm trees, where they remained like grey lin- 
 nets for about an hour before retiring to roost in an adjoining shrub- 
 bery. A few pair only were seen about the place during summer. 
 
 The song of the bunting may be heard in the north throughout 
 greater part of the year, including occasionally the months of 
 November and December. 
 
 My observation is quite in accordance with that of White, 
 who, in his history of Selborne, remarks of the bunting, that 
 " in our woodland enclosed districts it is a rare bird."" It is 
 rather an inhabitant of the bare arable, than of the rich and wooded 
 parts of the country, and where some little portion of wildness 
 still exists, such as is implied in the common name of fow-bunting. 
 The ditch-bank run wild with " briars " or brambles (Eubi) has 
 more charms for this bird than the " neat trim-hedge," and within 
 the shelter of such humble underwood its nest is made. It also 
 builds frequently on the ground in meadows. J In severe frost 
 
 * Mr. Hyudinan. 
 t It is not repeated in his subsequent work on Brit. Birds. \ Mr. J. 11. Garrett. 
 
YELLOW BUNTING. 243 
 
 and snow, buntings not only betake themselves to the roads for 
 subsistence, but may be seen at such times in the less-frequented 
 streets and stable-yards of the town of Belfast. The plumage of 
 this species is very liable to be varied with white or cream-colour, 
 and when with the latter, some which I have seen were of a very 
 rich and handsome appearance. Mr. B,. Chute mentions his having 
 obtained them in Kerry as yellow as the canary finch. On 
 opening buntings killed in winter, I have generally found them 
 filled with grain; sometimes with the seeds of weeds, in addition 
 to which were fragments of stone. They possess a very strong 
 gizzard. 
 
 YELLOW BUNTING. 
 
 Yellow Ammer. Yellow Yorlin. 
 
 Emberiza citrinetta, Linn. 
 
 Is common in suitable localities throughout the island, 
 and is resident. 
 
 This handsome bird, differing from the last-noticed species in 
 being a constant resident about the farm, and precincts of the rural 
 dwelling, is very well known in Ireland. Its monotonous, and to 
 my ear, mournful song, interpreted in Scotland as resembling the 
 words, " de'il, de'il, de'il, take ye, that is, the cruel nesters," f 
 is heard in mild weather throughout the greater part of the 
 year. It sometimes breeds very late. The nest, from being placed 
 in an open hedge or bare grassy ditch-bank, is often easily dis- 
 covered. A person well versed in the sites chosen by birds for 
 their nests, informs me, that he has most frequently found that of 
 the yellow bunting in furze. A note is before me of one situated 
 like a lark's on the ground in the middle of a field. It was lined 
 as usual with hair, and contained the full number of eggs on the 
 25th of April. In a friend's garden near Belfast, a pair of these 
 birds built their nest at the edge of a gravel-walk, and brought out 
 four young, three of which were soon destroyed. In consequence 
 
 * Macgillivray, B." B. vol. i. p. 449. 
 R 2 
 
244 embeuizidjE, 
 
 of this, the nest containing the fourth was for greater safety re- 
 moved to a bank a few feet distant, where the single young one 
 was so well provided with food by its parents, as quickly to grow 
 to an extraordinary size. A similar fact in the case of the red- 
 breast is mentioned in a preceding page ; but, in that instance, the 
 young one was presumed to have died from over-feeding. The 
 stomachs of such of these birds as have come under my observa- 
 tion in winter, generally contained wheat, or some other grain ; 
 together with particles of stone or brick. Yellow yorlin is the 
 common name bestowed on this species in the north of Ireland. 
 — Yellow-hammer is a term likewise used ; but as Mr. Yarrell 
 well remarks, the word should be Ammer, the German of bunting, 
 and not hammer, which is meaningless as applied to this bird. 
 
 About the shooting-lodge at Aberarder, Inverness-shire, a few 
 of these birds were seen by us in September, 1842, although no 
 sparrows were there, and but one robin appeared in the course 
 of several autumns. In Holland, France, and Switzerland, the 
 yellow bunting is commonly met with. The handsome species 
 resembling this, but with a black head — Emb. melanocephala — 
 flew on board H.M.S. Beacon when about eighty miles east of 
 Malta, on the 23rd of April, 1841; and another of these birds 
 was seen in a marshy place between Constantinople and the 
 Valley of Sweet Waters, on the 14th of May. 
 
 The Ciel Bunting {Emb. cirlus), as yet unknown in Ireland, is 
 chiefly confined to the more southern portion of England, where it is 
 indigenous. It has been recorded as occurring in Scotland* only once. 
 The Ortolan Bunting {Emb. hortulana) has in very few instances 
 been obtained in England, but not in Scotland f or Ireland. 
 
 * Jardine and Macgillivray. 
 t Ibid. 
 
245 
 
 THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 
 
 Reed Bunting. Reed Sparrow. 
 
 JEmberiza Schceniclus, Linn. 
 
 Is a resident species distributed over the island, which 
 from the prevailing humidity, is peculiarly well 
 suited to it. 
 
 The reed-bunting is one of those birds, which, though not rare, are 
 nowhere numerous. Owing to its abode being among the shrubby 
 underwood or herbage in moist places and at the edge of waters^ it 
 is not very commonly or popularly known. It is interesting from 
 being an inhabitant of localities in which comparatively few other 
 species are to be seen : — often have I been highly pleased by ob- 
 serving a few of these birds gathering in to roost for the night upon 
 the exposed roots of alders or willows that overhung the gently- 
 flowing stream. Like their congeners, however, reed-buntings will 
 betake themselves during the snow-storm to the public roads for 
 food, but at such times only, have I met with them out of their 
 favourite haunts.* Stomachs of reed-buntings shot in January, 
 contained seeds, and much gravel. 
 
 In different parts of Ireland, the reed -bunting has the undue 
 reputation of being a sweet songster of the night, and is believed 
 to be the veritable " Irish nightingale ; " — a name bestowed on 
 the mysterious bird, be that what it may, which sings through the 
 summer night. In strict justice, the sedge-warbler may lay claim 
 to the flattering appellation. Montagu, with his usual acuteness, 
 long since accounted for this error in the following words : — " It 
 is somewhat extraordinary that the manners and habits of so com- 
 mon a bird should remain so long in obscurity ; even modern 
 authors tell us it is a song-bird, and sings after sunset.f * * 
 
 * Mr. Macgillivray considers the species as " migratory in most parts of Scotland, 
 departing in October, and reappearing about the beginning of April." vol. i. p. 455. 
 
 f The omission here relates to tbe nest, respecting which Montagu was in error, 
 having described that of the reed, in place of that of the sedge, warbler. I have 
 altered a few words of the extract from plural to singular. A nest of this bunting 
 which came under Mr. Poole's notice, was placed among the stems of dry grass, on 
 the side of a bank overhanging water and was lined with cow-hair. The young were 
 nearly fledged on the 26th of May ; their mutings almost filled the bottom of the nest. 
 
246 fbingilledjE. 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that the song of the sedge- 
 warbler has been taken for that of this bird ; for, as they both 
 frequent the same places in the breeding-season, that elegant 
 little warbler is pouring forth its varied notes concealed in the 
 thickest part of a bush ; while this is conspicuously perched above, 
 whose tune is not deserving the name of song ; consisting only of 
 two notes, the first is repeated three or four times, the last single 
 and more sharp.' 55 '" Eeed-sparrow, and blackcap, are the names 
 commonly bestowed on this bird in the north of Ireland. 
 
 THE CHAFFINCH. 
 
 Fringitta Calebs, Linn. 
 
 Is a common resident species throughout the cultivated 
 and wooded parts of Ireland. 
 
 It frequents also the squares and gardens of the town, where 
 occasionally its song is heard. The beauty of the nest of this 
 bird, with lichens and moss intermingled in its formation, has 
 often been commented on ; but the lichen is in many localities of 
 necessity omitted, and the moss becomes externally the component 
 material. Particular notes of several nests are before me, all of 
 which (except one, built in a whin) were placed on the branches 
 of trees. A nest which came under the observation of Mr. J. R. 
 Garrett, was built against the stem of the common pine, and 
 rested on one of the branches, to which it was bound with a piece 
 of fine whip-cord. This was taken once round the branch, and 
 both of its ends Avere firmly interwoven in the material of the nest. 
 The chaffinch is said frequently to use " the nests of spiders in 
 the formation of the outward embroidery of her own most beau- 
 tiful structure." t It is remarked by Rennie of some species of 
 our small birds, that its nests about a cotton-mill in Ayrshire 
 were found to be lined with cotton. Mr. J. Grimshaw, junr., has 
 informed me that at Whitehouse, near Belfast, the chaffinches and 
 common sparrows, which built in the neighbourhood of two 
 
 * Ornithological Dictionary, f Poole. 
 
THE CHAFFINCH. 247 
 
 cotton-mills, always made use of cotton in the construction of 
 their nests. The mills were a quarter of a mile distant from each 
 other, and all the nests of these birds erected in the intervening 
 plantations, as well as in the immediate vicinity of the mills, ex- 
 hibited the foreign product, not only as lining, but exteriorly. 
 On remarking to my informant, that its conspicuous colour would 
 betray the presence of the nest, and not accord with the theory, 
 that birds assimilate the outward appearance of their structures, 
 to surrounding objects, he stated, that on the contrary, the use 
 of the cotton in that locality might rather be considered as ren- 
 dering the nest more difficult of detection, as the road-side hedges 
 and neighbouring trees were always dotted with tufts of it. 
 
 Chaffinches feed chiefly on seeds and grain through the winter, 
 as proved by my examination of many specimens : — in all of which 
 fragments of stone or brick were also found, — the gizzard was very 
 strong. Early in the month of May, when a choice of food was 
 to be had, I have on different occasions, observed these birds sud- 
 denly dart from the branches of trees after flies in the manner of 
 the spotted flycatcher. During the winter and early spring, a 
 flock consisting of both sexes was observed regularly to frequent 
 a merchant's yard situated on one of the quays of Belfast, 
 for the purpose of feeding on flax-seed, which was always scat- 
 tered about the place : this seed has proved a successful bait for 
 taking them in traps. Chaffinches, with other seed-eating birds, 
 have been observed in autumn employed in stripping the keys 
 from ash-trees ; getting the seed end in their bills, they chop it 
 until the contents are dislodged, when the capsule falls to the 
 ground.* They sometimes congregate in large flocks before winter 
 actually sets in : at the end of October I have thus remarked 
 them, and occasionally in company with green-linnets. 
 
 There has been much written from actual observation, both on 
 the continent and in Great Britain, and from the days of Linnaeus to 
 the present time, on the subject of the separation of the sexes of 
 chaffinches in the winter. Montagu, writing from Devonshire, says, 
 
 * Poole. 
 
248 fringillidjE. 
 
 the sexes do not separate with us, and Mr. Knapp makes a similar 
 remark with reference to Gloucestershire. White frequently ob- 
 served large flocks of females about Selborne in Hampshire. Mr. 
 Selby has noticed the females as keeping apart from the males, in 
 Northumberland ; and Sir Wm. Jardine remarks, respecting the 
 south of Scotland, that young males are intermixed with the females. 
 I have seen very large flocks in the north of Ireland, in which there 
 were no males, and once during frost in the month of December, 
 killed nine out of a flock, all of which proved to be females. 
 Again, I have observed flocks of moderate size, consisting of a fair 
 proportion of both sexes, and have always considered them to be 
 our indigenous birds. The others, I am disposed to beUeve, from 
 never having met with flocks of male birds, had migrated to 
 this island from more northern latitudes, where they left their 
 mates behind : — in the north of Europe, associations consisting 
 of males only, have been observed during winter. 
 
 In July, 1840, Mr. E. Davis, junr., of Clonmel, forwarded to 
 Belfast, for my inspection, a bird killed in that neighbourhood, 
 and sent to him as a white chaffinch. It had frequently been 
 seen in company with chaffinches, and was shot along with 
 them, in the preceding month of May. It is thus described in 
 my notes : — " This bird, which is singularly and beautifully 
 marked, is of the full adult size of the chaffinch in every 
 measurement. The prevailing colour of its plumage is pure white, 
 but the head is tinted with yellow ; the entire back is of the 
 richest canary-yellow; wing and tail-coverts likewise delicately 
 tinted with that colour. A few of the blackish-gray and 
 cinnamon-brown feathers of the ordinary chaffinch appear as 
 follows : — one or two on the head, some on the back, and 
 some very few on the wings and tail, but altogether they are 
 inconspicuous. The primaries and the long tail-feathers, as well 
 as their shafts, are pure white. The plumage, on the whole, 
 partakes as much of that of the canary as of the chaffinch." 
 Mr. J. Y. Stewart mentions a white chaffinch being shot in his 
 neighbourhood. In May, 1844, two young birds of this species 
 connected together by a fleshy ligament, like that of the Siamese 
 
THE MOUNTAIN FINCH. 249 
 
 twins, but placed lower down on the body, were presented to the 
 Belfast Museum by John Legge, Esq., of Glynn Park, Carrick- 
 fergus. They were taken in that gentleman's garden after they 
 had just left the nest. 
 
 When at Aberarder, Inverness-shire, and Ballochmorrie, Ayr- 
 shire, at the end of autumn, I have remarked that chaffinches are 
 not only very numerous, but take the place of sparrows about the 
 dwelling-house. In Holland, France, Switzerland, and Italy, we 
 commonly meet with this species. 
 
 The description of the chaffinch and its propensities, in the 
 Journal of a Naturalist, is admirable. Sir Wm. Jardine reports 
 on both the good, and the evil that it does.* Brit. Birds, 
 vol. ii. p. 302. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN FINCH. 
 
 Brambling. 
 
 Fringilla montifringitta, Linn. 
 
 Is a frequent, if not a regular winter visitant. 
 
 The Eev. G. M. Black remarked a few of these birds in mid- 
 winter for several years successively on the mountains about 
 Newtown-Crommelin, county of Antrim ; occasionally they were in 
 company with chaffinches. Almost every winter for many years 
 past, I have been aware of their occurrence in the north in very 
 limited numbers, and have learned from correspondents in all 
 quarters of the island that they are of occasional, but generally 
 unfrequent occurrence, in their respective neighbourhoods. They 
 have been met with in the most southern parts, but seem rather to 
 decrease from north to south. On the 18th of October, I once 
 received a mountain finch, which was shot in the vicinity of 
 Belfast, and in November, the species has been seen here, asso- 
 ciating with green-linnets and chaffinches, when for some time 
 before and after its appearance, the weather was mild. Such 
 birds had evidently come hither in the ordinary course of migra- 
 
 * A friend living near Belfast observed this bird to feed its young on the green 
 caterpillars which destroy the leaves of the gooseberry. 
 
250 FBINGILLULE. 
 
 tion ; but, in one instance, I had interesting circumstantial evi- 
 dence that others have been compelled to visit this island by 
 severity of weather. This was a day or two before the very great 
 snow-storm in the beginning of January, 1827, when one of these 
 birds, which was secured and sent to me, alighted on the Chieftain 
 steam-packet, on the passage from Liverpool to Belfast. It had 
 most probably been the forerunner of the many, which during the 
 deep snow immediately following, were shot in different parts of An- 
 trim and Down. They were chiefly met with about stack-yards, in 
 company with other small graminivorous birds. The snow-storm as 
 usual had commenced earlier in an easterly direction than in Ireland, 
 which, to birds flying before the storm, would be the last place of 
 resort in its latitude, in the eastern hemisphere. In like manner, 
 mountain finches may have crossed the Irish sea, in the very severe 
 weather early in the year 1841, as Mr. E. Davis, writing from 
 Clonmel, stated that a flock, from which several birds were shot, 
 was seen near that town on the 5th of February : * he had not 
 before known them as visitants to that neighbourhood. 
 
 In a preceding severe winter, 1837-38, they were much more 
 numerous than usual. Specimens, shot during frost in the spacious 
 yard of the Royal Society House, Dublin, came under my notice ; 
 and at the most inclement period of that season, I have been assured 
 that some of these birds took shelter in the houses in the town 
 of Dundalk. This was the first season in which they were known 
 to visit the neighbourhood of Cork : they were found associating 
 there, with sparrows, yellow buntings, &c.t In the winter of 
 1842-43 they were more numerous than I have ever known them 
 to be ; specimeus from the counties of Londonderry, Antrim, and 
 Down, came under my notice, and about thirty were seen in a 
 flock, on the shore of Belfast bay. My correspondent at Clonmel 
 too, reported them as of occasional occurrence there, towards 
 
 * When at Fresh-water bay, Isle of Wight, in the autumn of 1841, I saw 
 several stuffed specimens of the mountain finch on sale at the " Museum ;" and 
 learned, that they had been shot in the vicinity during the frost and excessive 
 cold above noticed, when many of them made their appearance : — a circumstance of 
 such rare occurrence, that their species was unknown. 
 t Dr. Harvey. 
 
THE HOUSE SPARROW. 251 
 
 the end of that winter, when he sometimes saw them picking 
 about the roads. Two were killed near Blennerville, county of Kerry, 
 the same season by Mr. R. Chute, who had known but a single 
 specimen to be previously obtained in that quarter. In England, 
 we learn as a matter of course, that they were particularly nume- 
 rous during the same time : — Mr. J. Lewcock writing from 
 Parnham on the 21st of April, 1843, stated that "this bird 
 appeared in immense numbers in the neighbourhood of Farn- 
 ham (Surrey), during the last winter, while for many years pre- 
 viously single specimens had only occasionally been met with."* 
 The Rev. George Robinson of Tandragee, informs me, that on 
 the 25th of March, 1 844, he saw a flock of some thousands, un- 
 mixed, so far as he observed, with any other species, in a beech 
 wood at Elm Park, county of Armagh. They remained about a 
 week there. Early in January, 1847, they were met with in the 
 county of Longford. 
 
 A pair of mountain finches, kept in a very large cage with other 
 species, in a green-house attached to the dwelling of a relative, 
 near Belfast, screamed so constantly throughout moonlight nights 
 as to disturb the family, and consequently had to be expelled from 
 the place. 
 
 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 
 
 Passer domesticus, Ray. 
 Fringitta domestica, Linn. 
 
 Is common in Ireland. 
 
 This bird is in some places much persecuted by individuals, who, 
 knowing the injury committed by it on the grain-crops and in the 
 garden, are yet ignorant of the great benefit conferred by its destruc- 
 tion of caterpillars, &c. A sparrow-destroying order given forth 
 in our juvenile days may here be mentioned. An old soldier, 
 who had been in the Peninsular War, was, on that account, selected 
 from the farm-labourers as being of course the best shot, and with 
 plenary instructions to destroy all sparrows, he spent day after 
 
 * Zoologist, p. 188. 
 
252 fringillidjE. 
 
 day in going about the corn-fields for the purpose of shooting 
 them. The report of his gun was frequently heard, but no testi- 
 mony in the shape of sparrows was ever produced, by which he 
 could be convicted of the shedding of blood. We spent one day 
 with him. Whenever he saw that two or three sparrows had 
 alighted together on the standing corn sufficiently near, which' was 
 by no means seldom, he fired at them. Often as he did so, not 
 a bird fell, though how much of the grain was thereby sacrificed, 
 we cannot take upon ourselves to say, for it could not be missed. 
 The shooter would not believe that this result was owing |to his 
 want of skill, and more than once trampled down the grain to 
 look after the imaginary fallen birds, which were in reality afar 
 off rejoicing at their escape. When the wages of this sportsman, 
 and the value of the ammunition he expended, together with the 
 grain destroyed by liim, are considered, there can be little doubt 
 that the amount of damage, which the sparrows could have done 
 (and nevertheless did do), must be trivial in comparison. Many 
 well-attested accounts have been published of the destruction of 
 crops by insects, in consequence of small birds, (sparrows in 
 particular,) being destroyed for their pilfering propensities. When 
 in France in 1841, I was made acquainted with a recent in- 
 stance of tins kind. ' In the fine rich district of Burgundy, lying 
 to the south of Auxerre, and chiefly covered with vineyards, small 
 birds had been some time before destroyed in great numbers. An 
 extraordinary increase of caterpillars, &c, soon became apparent, 
 and occasioned such immense damage to the crops, that a law was 
 passed, prohibitory of the future destruction of the birds. 
 
 The boldness and impudence of sparrows in obtruding them- 
 selves everywhere, are somewhat redeemed by the comicality of 
 their manners. I was once much amused by observing one 
 literally " dancing attendance " on a pet squirrel, as it breakfasted 
 on bread in the wheel of the cage : the bird hopped about all the 
 while, eagerly eyeing the squirrel, and picking up every crumb 
 that fell. 
 
 The freedom from all fear on the part of sparrows, is particu- 
 larly manifest by their feeding close to ferocious animals in zoo- 
 
THE HOUSE SPARROW. 253 
 
 logical gardens. They make themselves quite at home too, in the 
 company of the most gorgeous-plumaged birds. I recollect them 
 regularly breaking through the meshes of an aviary-net (merely 
 large enough to admit their bodies) covering over a high inclosure 
 in which a number of golden pheasants were kept, that they 
 might partake of their food. Cock- sparrows quite gain on one's 
 affections by the assiduity with which they feed their progeny. 
 I have frequently observed them on the highway and streets, at- 
 tended by some of their young, generally three in number, winch, 
 with quivering wings, besought and followed them for food, and 
 never in vain. The parents too, by their fine erect carriage at 
 such times, evidently showed much pride in their progeny. 
 
 The sparrow, though not an early rising bird, is awake betimes, 
 and as a colony will keep chattering for perhaps an hour about 
 their roosting-place before retiring for the night, so do they in the 
 morning make known their ' ' whereabouts " by the same means, 
 some time before they show themselves to the day : — on the 11th 
 of June, and a few mornings previously, I once noted, that on 
 awakening at ten minutes past three o'clock, a colony of these 
 birds frequenting the ivy which covered a town-house, were heard 
 loudly chattering, and that for half an hour afterwards none 
 stirred out.* 
 
 The proprietor of the nearest fields of grain to Belfast, in one 
 direction (about a mile distant), complains loudly against hosts of 
 town sparrows attacking his ripening crops. They go there early 
 in the morning, and after satisfying their appetites at his expense, 
 return to spend the day in town. In our own garden, these 
 
 * The entire note may perhaps he worth insertion. — Belfast, June the Wth, 1832. 
 At ten minutes past 3 o'clock, sparrows chattering vociferously in their ivied dwell- 
 ing, hut none stirring out until forty minutes after that hour : — forty-five minutes 
 past 3, jack-daws coming from the country, arrive on the town chimneys : — forty- 
 seven minutes past 3, canary-finch in the house commences singing, aud cocks in the 
 neighbouring yards crowing. At a quarter past 4, the American grey squirrel in the 
 house heard breaking his morning repast of almonds. At forty-five minutes past 4, 
 sparrows still " chaffing " in the ivy, — implying that some have not yet stirred out. 
 May the Ylth, 1846. — I heard sparrows in London beginning to chirp at half-past 
 3, a. M. Remarked them some days after (several at a time) washing in St. James' 
 Park ; so that dirty as the London sparrows look, they do perform their ablutions : I 
 never saw birds more thoroughly wet themselves. 
 
254 fringillldjE. 
 
 birds were for a number of years very destructive to growing 
 peas, almost living upon and amongst them, perching on the 
 pea-rods, and with their strong bills, breaking through the pods 
 to get at the peas, which they ate, just when in perfection for 
 the table. But in the same place I have several times seen spar- 
 rows in chase of the large white garden-butterfly (Pontia bras- 
 sier), whose caterpillars are so destructive ; and have remarked 
 them fly against the stem of the dandelion [Leontodon taraxacum) 
 and weigh it to the ground, that they might feed upon the seeds. 
 These birds sometimes prove very annoying, especially in lofty 
 houses, by placing their nests in spouts, and thus stopping the 
 course of the rain.* Erom a country-house whence their nests 
 were for tin's reason always ejected, they resorted to the adjacent 
 trees, and in them erected their large and untidy, though domed 
 structures. For this purpose, the branches of the balm of gilead and 
 spruce firs, which naturally offered a firmer, more level, and com- 
 pact basement, than those of the deciduous trees, were preferred, 
 and when the latter were resorted to, the larch-fir was generally 
 chosen: the nests were chiefly composed of hay — a hay-loft being 
 adjacent — and lined with a profusion of feathers. Its feather-bed 
 nest, and habit of its sunning itself on our warmest days, evince 
 the sparrow's love of heat. At tins place they were much perse- 
 cuted ; above fifty having more than once been killed at a single 
 shot. It need hardly be remarked, that sparrows frequently 
 build in rookeries, as well as occupy the nest of the house martin. 
 The latter is generally noticed by authors as a very dishonest pro- 
 ceeding ; and though it is not my desire to be the apologist of 
 any of the manifold errors of the sparrow, still, justice has not 
 been done to the bird ; for the " pendent bed " of the martin is 
 generally tenantless when taken possession of, and the sparrow 
 may have no anticipation of the rightful owner coming across the 
 seas to claim the property. In like manner, the sparrow occasion- 
 ally takes possession of the burrow of the sand martin before the 
 
 * A lady in Manchester, in the summer of 1841, lost a piece of valuable old lace, 
 which was left out to dry ; on the spouts being cleared of sparrows' nests, it was 
 discovered uninjured, partly lining one of them. 
 
THE HOUSE SPARROW. 255 
 
 vernal return of this species to the place of its birth ; and perched 
 at the entrance of its neighbour's burrow, the intruder certainly 
 peers about, and chatters with as much confidence, as if the domi- 
 cile were its own by "right of descent." But few writers on 
 natural history would seem to have observed the sparrow in such 
 situations. I have frequently done so, even when the sand-bank 
 was in the close vicinity of trees and houses, the ordinary nesting 
 places of the species. The following paragraph appeared in the 
 Glasgow Argus, in May, 1846 : — 
 
 "Sea Sparrows. Last week, on the Aurora leaving the Broo- 
 mielaw for Belfast, a sparrow's nest was discovered in the rigging, 
 but the birds did not choose on that occasion to accompany their 
 nest to the Green Isle. On the return of the vessel, however, the 
 sparrows again visited their former abode, which had not been dis- 
 turbed by the voyage, and deposited an egg in it, which attached 
 them so much to it, that they valorously left their native land, 
 and sailed with the Aurora for Ireland." A considerable time 
 after this was said to have occurred, I had inquiry made respect- 
 ing the circumstance. The mate of the vessel corroborated all 
 from his own observation, except the statement that the birds had 
 crossed the channel, but, he added that they might have done 
 so without his knowledge. The nest rested partly on the sail and 
 was destroyed, by its being unfurled, when containing one or two 
 eggs. The vessel then sailed every second day from Glasgow to 
 Belfast.* 
 
 Examples of this bird partly, and some altogether white, occa- 
 sionally occur ; a friend has seen three white individuals in one nest. 
 Mr. J. V. Stewart remarks, in his Catalogue of the Birds, &c, of 
 Donegal: — "I have had a female milk-white sparrow in confine- 
 ment for two years ; it was of this colour when taken from the 
 nest. At its moults there has been no change in the colour of 
 its plumage : it has got the red eyes of all albinoes."f Mr. R. 
 Davis, junr., of Clonmel, mentions in a letter, that in February, 
 
 * A representation of an unfortunate sparrow "hung by the neck," accidentally, 
 will be found in the Illustrated London News of January 20th, 1844, and YarrelTs- 
 Brit. Birds, 2nd edit. 
 
 f Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 583. 
 
256 FRINGILLIILE. 
 
 1841, he " got a singularly deformed female sparrow, in which the 
 upper mandible is slightly twisted to one side, the lower one nearly 
 two inches long, and turned down like that of a curlew : the bird 
 was seen to feed by laying the side of its head to the ground." 
 
 These birds are very common in the island of Bathlin,* and in 
 August, 1845, several were observed about the round tower, and 
 neighbouring cottages in Tory Island.t ' Sir Win. Jardine and 
 Mr. Macgillivray say nothing of the scarcity of sparrows in any 
 part of the mainland of Scotland, but about Aberarder, Inver- 
 ness-shire, none came under my notice in September, 1842, though 
 there are numerous corn-fields and cottages in the valley, nor were 
 they observed about Ballochmorrie, in Ayr-shire, in October of 
 the following year, but I am told that they do sometimes appear 
 there — in both localities their place was supplied by chaffinches. 
 They are said to be numerously dispersed throughout Shetland 
 and Orkney. J 
 
 On account of the propensities alluded to, sparrows are perhaps 
 the most amusing of our small common birds ; but all bounds of 
 propriety seem to be set at nought, when quite out of character 
 with the scene, they, so begrimed, squat, chatter, and take up 
 their abode on the stupendous cathedral of St. Paul's in London, 
 beneath whose canopy, the ashes of the mightiest only among 
 ourselves find a domeiile. 
 
 The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, 
 treats very pleasantly of the sparrow, as Mr. Knapp also does in 
 the Journal of a Naturalist. In the Eecreations of Christopher 
 North, a most ludicrous account of it will be found (vol. i. p. 45). 
 Bewick too, waxes warm and eloquent in its defence, against the 
 sweeping denunciation of Buffon. 
 
 The Tree or Mountain Sparrow (Fringilla montana) appears in 
 Templeton's Catalogue of Irish Vertebrate Animals " as a doubtful 
 native ; " but to my ornithological friends and myself is quite un- 
 known. The species is only partially distributed in England, (Yarr.) 
 and has not been found in Scotland (Jard. ; Macg.). 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall. f Mr. Hyndnian. 
 
 X Drum's Ornith. Guide to Ork. and Shet. p. 80. 
 
fringillidjP.. 257 
 
 THE GREEN LINNET. 
 
 Greenfinch. 
 
 Coccothraustes chloris, Linn, (sp.) 
 Loxia „ „ 
 
 Fringilla „ Temm. 
 
 Is common and resident in suitable localities throughout 
 the island. 
 
 This bird is generally described, simply as found in cultivated dis- 
 tricts, but this gives no correct idea of the true haunts of the 
 species, or of its partialities. These, I have seen set forth, with the 
 nice discrimination and fullness which are so desirable, in one 
 work only, — the ' British Birds ' of Sir ¥m. Jardine. 
 
 This author remarks on the green linnets, " frequenting culti- 
 vated districts in the vicinity of gardens and limited plantations. 
 During winter they congregate in large flocks, feeding on the 
 stubble ground on various small seeds, and resorting towards 
 night-fall to the vicinity of the plantations or evergreens surround- 
 ing some mansion. * * * In spring, when paired, they resort to 
 the garden and shrubbery!' The words in italics mark the nice 
 discrimination alluded to, and are in entire accordance with my 
 own observation on the favourite haunts of the green linnet, to 
 which alone they will strictly apply. By the plantation of shrub- 
 beries, I have known this handsome bird to be attracted to, and 
 soon become plentiful in, a rather wild district near Belfast, from 
 which it had previously been absent : the Portugal laurel (Prunus 
 Lusitanica), with its dense foliage being its favourite resort. 
 It is usually described as a late breeding bird; but in the 
 locality alluded to, which is at a considerable elevation, a journal- 
 note of April the 4th, 1832, mentions busy preparations for 
 building going forward in glen, shrubbery, and garden.* A nest, 
 found in a beech-hedge at this place, was so tastefully lined as to 
 be considered worth preserving. Outwardly, it was constructed 
 of roots interwoven with mosses ; but, mixed with black and white 
 
 * They commence breeding early, but have also nests very late in the season. 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 fpjngillidjE. 
 
 hairs in the lining, were swans-down and thistle-seed, this last 
 being evidently made use of on account of its plumed appendages, 
 all of which remained attached to the seed. Although these birds 
 cannot strictly be said to build in company, yet so many as 
 twenty nests may occasionally be reckoned in a moderate-sized 
 shrubbery; and not unfrequently, too, be found in the "same 
 plant. Portugal laurels, hollies, and large evergreen shrubs, are 
 the favourite sites. A correspondent mentions, that nests con- 
 taining the young, have been removed to a considerable distance, 
 without their being forsaken by the parent birds ; and, that in 
 several instances the males were observed feeding the females. 
 The latter left the nests on the approach of their partners, and 
 when partaking of the food brought to them, kept up a cry like 
 young birds when being fed. Mr. Poole has once known the 
 nest of this bird to be completed in the county of Wexford, so 
 early as the 26th of March. Its "throwing itself about on wing 
 at this season in a very striking and beautiful manner" has 
 not escaped my correspondent's observation. This peculiar flight 
 of the male bird is described by Sir Wm. Jardine. 
 
 That greenlinnets collect into flocks, and remain so for the 
 winter is well known. I have remarked about fifty together, 
 in the neighbourhood of Belfast at that season, feeding in the 
 highest cultivated fields adjoining the heath of the mountain-top, 
 as well as in low-lying tracts, distant from any plantation or 
 place, where they could roost for the night.* In summer likewise 
 they are occasionally congregated. On the 27th of June, a flock 
 of about thirty was once observed feeding upon a mountain pas- 
 ture, and numbers have at the same season come to meadows at 
 the sea-side when ready for being mown, apparently for the pur- 
 pose of feeding on the seed of the dandelion {Leontodon Taraxa- 
 cum), which was very abundant : — both localities were near to 
 cultivated ground, and plantations of trees and shrubs. 
 
 * In favourite localities, both in the north and south, flocks consisting of froni 
 200 to 300 birds are not unfrequent, late in the autumn and during winter ; when 
 they often feed about stack-yards. They arc much fonder of the seed of the corn- 
 marigold [Chrysanthemum, segetum) than of the grain itself, among which that 
 haudsome weedgrows j chaffinches and goldfinches are likewise so. 
 
THE HAWFINCH. 259 
 
 I have known greenlinnets taken young at Fort- William, near 
 Belfast, that after being kept for some little time, were given their 
 liberty every morning. In the evening they returned as regularly 
 to their cage to roost, as in a wild state they would have done 
 to their favourite tree or shrub.* Old birds very soon become 
 tame after capture. 
 
 The only food which I have found in the stomachs of a number 
 of these birds killed during winter was grain and seeds of different 
 kinds ; — in addition to which there were fragments of brick or stone. 
 
 THE HAWFINCH. 
 
 Grosbeak. 
 
 Coccothraustes vulgaris, Flein. 
 Loxia coccothraustes, Linn. 
 Fringitta „ Temm. 
 
 Is an occasional winter visitant. 
 
 A very fine specimen was shot near Hillsborough, county of Down, 
 upwards of twenty years ago. In the winter of 1832-33 (?), the 
 Rev. G. M. Black observed a pair of these birds feeding for a long 
 time upon the haws of some old thorn-trees at Stranmillis, near 
 Belfast ; — he managed to approach within about fifteen paces, so 
 as to see them weU. Mr. J. Y. Stewart, in his paper on the 
 Birds, &c, of Donegal, gives the following interesting account of 
 two of these birds, which he killed and examined anatomically. 
 The communication is dated from Ards House, Dec. 4th, 1828 : — 
 
 " I shot a pair of these birds a few days ago, in fine plumage ; the first instance, 
 I believe, of their occurring in Ireland. Their strength of beak, as compared with 
 the size of the bird, is quite wonderful ; it results from very strong and large muscles, 
 which, extending on either side from the eye to the occiput [hind head] reach from 
 the lower mandible to the top of the cranium, where they meet ; they are separated 
 from the eyes by deep bony ridges, to which they are firmly attached. By contract- 
 ing these muscles, which are thus so firmly attached to the skull, it exerts such a 
 force as enables it to crack, with its hard and strong bill, the thick stone of the haw- 
 
 * The canary-finch will rarely do this. But oDe which flew away from its cage at 
 Cromac, one morning in the beginning of September, returned on the following 
 morning at au early hour before any of the inmates of the house were up, and made 
 known its presence by tapping at one of the windows with its bill. On a cage being 
 presented, the bird flew eagerly into it. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 FltlNGILLID^E. 
 
 thorn berry, an operation requiring a strong exertion of the human jaw. On dis- 
 section, I found one of these stones thus cracked in one of their stomachs, with the 
 fresh kernel still in one half of the shell. A few hours after they were dead, I took 
 a strong pair of scissors and a knife, using them as levers, to force open their bills, 
 and found the muscle had so firmly contracted, that to effect my pm-pose I had to 
 use a wedge ; a forcible proof, it will be allowed, of their strength. Their bills alone, 
 however, are formed as a pair of nut-crackers, as the muscles of the neck, unlike 
 those of the wood-peckers, are not strong. Not so with the wings, which are fur- 
 nished with such strong muscles, that they could almost vie with the pigeon in 
 strength and rapidity of flight. They would, therefore, unlike many of our birds of 
 passage, be well calculated for distant migrations." * 
 
 Dubourdieu, in his survey of the County of Antrim, observes 
 respecting Lough Neagh, that "the grosbeak (Loxia), like a 
 green linnet, but larger, often resorts to the wooded farms in its 
 neighbourhood in winter." The crossbill, and not the species under 
 consideration, is most probably here alluded to. That the latter 
 cannot be so, at least correctly, seems to me sufficiently evident 
 from the circumstance, that Mr. Templeton knew and corresponded 
 with Dubourdieu, and in his catalogue of our native birds, he 
 makes no mention whatever of the grosbeak. On the 8th of 
 March, 1845, the gamekeeper at Tollymore Park, county of Down, 
 sent me a detailed and excellent description of two birds, belonging 
 to a species unknown to him, which had been lately shot there. 
 They proved to be grosbeaks. He stated that there were one or 
 two more still in the park, and that they fed on the stones of the 
 laurel trees. At the end of March, 1846, the hawfinch was again 
 seen there. 
 
 The Phcenix Park, Dublin, where there are woods of venerable 
 hawthorns, has, above all places in Ireland, produced examples 
 of this bird. Notes of its occurrence there in the following 
 years are before me : — in 1828-29, when the first of the season 
 was obtained on the 6th of November, and about a dozen more 
 at various dates through the winter ;f in 1830 (?), numbers 
 were killed and supplied to a bird-preserver in the metropolis at 
 the rate of a shilling each; in 1831, the Rev. T. Knox records 
 three individuals from this locality; % m 1832-33 several were 
 
 * Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 582. f Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
 
 % Ibid, p. 734. 
 
THE GOLDFINCH. 261 
 
 killed; — again in Jan., 1837, and early in Nov., 1844, others 
 were shot. The Phoenix Park — the natural beauty of whose 
 scenery is admirably depicted by Lady Morgan in her " O'Brien's 
 and O'Flaherty's " as a prelude to its being the scene of " the 
 Review " — is very well adapted to be the permanent residence of 
 the grosbeak. Although the greater portion of the park may be 
 too much frequented for so shy a bird,* it would be desirable to 
 ascertain whether in any of the retired glades, this remarkable 
 and attractive species may not " increase and multiply/' One of 
 these buds was shot near Milltown, Kerry, at the end of October, 
 1830 (?),t and during the winter of 1844-5, the species was ob- 
 tained in different parts of that county. J I learn from Dr. 
 Harvey of Cork, that a hawfinch was shot at Ardrum, about six 
 miles from that city by the Eev. Joseph Stopford, who commu- 
 nicated the fact to him in Peb. 1844, but without mentioning the 
 date of its occurrence. Another was killed at Cittadella, a mile 
 from Cork, in the winter of 1844-5 (?). In the winter of 
 1846-7, one was obtained near Youghal. 
 
 THE GOLDFINCH. 
 
 Goldspink.§ 
 
 Carduelis elegans, Steph. 
 Fringilla carduelis, Linn. 
 
 Is found in the four provinces of Ireland, but is by no 
 means generally distributed. 
 
 In some extensive districts which seem in every respect most 
 
 * See an excellent account of the species by Mr. H. Doubleday, in vol. i. of the 
 Magazine of Zoology and Botany. 
 
 t Mr. T. F. Neligan. % Mr. R. Chute. 
 
 § This name, which is the vulgar one for the bird in the north of Ireland, is 
 noticed by Mr. Hewitson as one of the names of the yellow bunting. He likewise 
 remarks, that " in the counties of Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester, the goldfinch is 
 universally known by the absurd name of proud tailor:" * — in reference, no doubt, to 
 the varied beauty of his dress. — In like manner, I have known that beautiful fish, the 
 variegated or striped wrasse (Labrus variegatus) to be called by fishermen on the coast 
 of Down, and, as I thought, very appropriately, by the name of livery servant; its 
 brilliant stripes of blue, orange, &c, fairly entitling it to the soubriquet. 
 
 * Eggs Brit. Birds, p. 145, l6l. 
 
262 fbingillidjE. 
 
 favourably circumstanced, this bird is not to be found, or only 
 as an occasional visitant. Of all our indigenous species, the 
 beautiful goldfinch seems the most capricious. In one instance, 
 it is known to me, as entirely deserting a part of the country winch 
 had been regularly frequented, after a small portion of a mountain- 
 side covered with thistles from time immemorial, was reclaimed, 
 and planted with forest trees. From other localities, I have known 
 the goldfinch, without any apparent reason, flit away, and, unlike 
 many other birds, never revisit the place of its nativity. As the 
 country around Belfast has become more populous, their numbers 
 have decreased. The romantic neighbourhood of Cushendall, 
 about forty miles distant, is now their stronghold in this quarter, 
 the goldfinch being there, a very common bird. It is pleasing 
 to witness the social manner in which they feed, several being 
 often engaged regaling upon the seed of a single thistle ; on a 
 moderate-sized plant of the more humble knapweed (Centaurea 
 nigra) I have seen four of them thus occupied at the same time : 
 — the seed of the ragwort (or ragweed, as it is called in the north 
 of Ireland,) is also favourite food. They are very easily alarmed 
 when feeding, and fly off hurriedly in little companies, uttering 
 their pleasing and lively call. In addition to seeds of various 
 kinds found in the stomachs of specimens killed in the months of 
 January and February, I have, though very rarely, observed the 
 remains of coleopterous insects : fragments of stone or brick were 
 always present. 
 
 Although this species frequents gardens and well-kept grounds, 
 especially for the purpose of nesting, it seems to prefer such 
 parts of the country as are in some degree wild. Its visits to 
 the farm are certainly not to be considered as complimentary 
 to the owner, for when most out of order and run to weeds, it 
 presents the greatest attraction to the goldfinch. During snow, 
 these birds have been taken in trap-cages baited with flax-seed; 
 sometimes in company with chaffinches. For two years succes- 
 sively, goldfinches built in a cherry-tree within ten paces of a 
 house in which I lived, when they and their young (in each 
 instance four in number) proved highly interesting. I have seen 
 
THE GOLDFINCH. 263 
 
 their nests in willows, sycamores, and pear-trees : in one of the last- 
 named of moderate size, the goldfinch and the thrush at the same 
 time reared their broods, both of which escaped in safety. One 
 correspondent had their nests in the elder, and another in apple- 
 trees, on the outer portion of the branches of which they were 
 generally placed. So early as the 9th of April, the eggs were once 
 found.* The goldfinch is common in the north-west of Donegal.t 
 In winter, flocks are seen in localities where the bird is quite 
 unknown in summer. Mr. Robert Patterson has favoured me 
 with the following interesting note : — 
 
 "When at Limerick in August, 1843, I had the pleasure of meeting Randal 
 Burough, Esq., of Cappa Lodge, Kilrush, county of Clare, who communicated to me 
 the following particulars respecting an unusual assemblage of goldfinches, observed at 
 his residence in the winter of 1836. Mr. B. had two pet goldfinches, which were 
 allowed not only to fly about the room, but also through the open window. The 
 winter was beginning to be severe, and the food suitable for small birds consequently 
 scarce, when one day the two goldfinches brought with them a stranger of their own 
 species, who made bold to go into the two cages that were always left open, and re- 
 gale itself on the hospitality of his new friends, and then took his departure. He 
 returned again and brought others with him, so that in a few days half-a-dozen of 
 these pretty warblers were enjoying the food so bountifully provided for them. The 
 window was now kept up, and the open cages, with plenty of seed, were placed on a table 
 close to it instead of on the sill, as formerly. The birds soon learned to come into 
 the room without fear. The table was by degrees shifted from the window to the centre 
 of the room, and as the number of the birds had continued gradually to increase, there 
 was soon a flock of not less than twenty visiting the apartment daily, and perfectly un- 
 disturbed by the presence of the members of the family. As the inclemency of the winter 
 decreased, the number of birds gradually diminished, until at length when the severe 
 weather had quite passed away, there remained none except the original pair." 
 
 After perusing the foregoing notes, Mr. Burough added : — 
 
 " This account is perfectly correct ; and I have only to remark that it was the 
 innocent cause of making many idlers, for several strange gentlemen were in the habit 
 of stopping for hours in amazement at the novel scene. My house is situated im- 
 mediately on the banks of the Shannon, the road only separating it from the shore, 
 •and scarcely any timber growing nearer than a mile. 
 
 " The two pet goldfinches must in their flight have gone a considerable distance to 
 make out new acquaintances, for they (goldfinches) are very scarce indeed close to 
 the sea — as Cappa Lodge is situated." — R. B. 
 
 * Mr. Poole. t Mr. J. V. Stewart. 
 
264 FRINGILLID.E. 
 
 The goldfinch is treated of in a very interesting manner in the 
 Journal of a Naturalist. This bird has come under my notice, 
 when travelling in Holland and Switzerland. 
 
 THE SISKIN. 
 Aberdevine. 
 
 Carduelis spinus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Fringilla „ 
 
 Can only be noted positively as an occasional winter 
 visitant. 
 
 Templeton, in his Catalogue of the Vertebrate Animals of Ireland, 
 calls this bird a " rare visitant," and to my ornithological friends 
 and myself, it is known only as a winter bird of passage, resorting 
 at uncertain intervals to this island. Rutty, in Ms Natural His- 
 tory of Dublin (1772), says, that siskins "come to us in the 
 beginning of winter, and go away in the beginning of spring," 
 implying their regular periodical appearance. That they may oc- 
 casionally even breed in some parts of the county of Wicklow, 
 and certain suitable localities in the north, is not improbable. 
 
 I first saw this species in a wild state, in the brickfields, west 
 of Belfast, in the winter of 1826 or 1827, probably the latter, as 
 in that year, siskins were met with, and for the first time, by Sir 
 Wm. Jardine, in Dumfries-shire. On November the 22nd, 1828, 
 one was shot near Belfast, as it was regaling on a thistle, and in 
 March, 1829, eight or nine were observed in our Botanic Garden, 
 busily engaged in feeding among the branches of some larch-firs 
 then partially in leaf. Early in 1835, many, both of old and 
 young, taken alive near the town of Antrim, were brought to Bel- 
 fast for sale. One shown to me, had been killed with a stone 
 about that time out of a flock of perhaps thirty, near Ballymena, in 
 the same county. . On the Christmas-day of that year, nearly 
 twenty were seen feeding together on thistles in the county of 
 Down; on the 25th of February, 1836, I met with a couple 
 (one of which was an adult male) on the wooded banks of the 
 
THE SISKIN. 265 
 
 river Lagan, near Belfast, where the alder predominates, and 
 so late as the 6th of April, saw one which had been then obtained 
 in the last-named county. During the winter of 1835-36, these 
 birds were unusually plentiful from the north of the island to the 
 neighbourhood of Dublin, where, as well as in the adjacent 
 county of Wicklow, large flocks were seen, and numbers killed : 
 specimens were likewise procured that season in the counties of 
 Cavan and Londonderry. Early in the winter of 1836-37, some 
 were shot in the counties of Dublin and Wicklow.* A friend 
 who has numbered nearly eighty years, and knows the siskin well, 
 recollects its visiting the north of Ireland occasionally throughout 
 his life, and its frequenting in some numbers a large garden 
 attached to a store in the town of Belfast to feed on flax-seed, 
 some of which was always strewn over one of the walks. 
 
 Of those before mentioned as brought alive to Belfast, a few 
 were purchased by my friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., who consi- 
 dered them very pleasing cage-birds. They were extremely lively 
 and active in all their movements ; their song, though not a 
 highly finished performance, was very varied and continuous, yet 
 not too loud for a room. When several were in one cage, they 
 all sang together in a most rambling and discursive manner. 
 
 In the winter of 1843-4, siskins visited Ireland from north to 
 south. The first communication received on the subject, was 
 from the Rev. Benj. J. Clarke of Tuam, who on the 4th of Nov. 
 mentioned his having lately, when on a visit at a country-seat on 
 Lough Mask, met for the first time with this species, which ap- 
 peared in flocks in the plantations, feeding on the seeds of the 
 alder : — in a letter, subsequently received two birds were men- 
 tioned as having been killed at the end of October, from a 
 flock of about twenty in the neighbourhood of Armagh. Early 
 in January, 1844, they made their appearance near Dublin; and 
 during that month were met with about Cork. On the 14th 
 of February, one came under my own observation at the Stran- 
 millis road near Belfast : it admitted of my approach within a few 
 yards, and continued feeding at no greater distance for some time. 
 * They had been obtained in these counties in the winter of 1829-30. 
 
266 fringillim:. 
 
 The next winter, in which siskins were met with over a great 
 part of the island, was that of 1847-8, when they were observed in 
 the county of Wexford for the first time. They were seen there on 
 the 26th of November and subsequently.* About Cork they ap- 
 peared in considerable numbers jf as they did also at Ranelagh, near 
 Dublin, where they were first noticed in December, and remained 
 until the first or second week of April. J In these three localities 
 they were associated with the lesser redpole; and in the two latter, 
 were feeding on the seed of the alder. On the 11th of February, the 
 Bev. George Robinson informed me that siskins had been com- 
 mon for the previous month in the county of Armagh generally, in- 
 cluding the neighbourhood of his residence, near. Tandragee; 
 they came almost daily under his notice, unassociated with any 
 other species, and about fifty were sometimes in a flock. They fed 
 almost wholly on the alder, and looked beautiful, hanging like 
 little parrots, picking at the drooping seeds of that tree : — some 
 were killed feeding on thistles. They admitted of a close approach, 
 and during a recent snow-storm were killed with stones by boys. 
 On the 9th of March, they were last observed about Tandragee. 
 In the vicinity of Belfast, I first heard of them on Christmas day, 
 from which period until the end of February, they were observed 
 in various parts of the counties of Antrim and Down. On the 
 trees bordering the bay about Mertoun, it was said that about a 
 hundred would appear in a flock ; even some hundreds are stated 
 to have been seen together, on the wooded banks of Lough Neagh, 
 at Rockland. Some were described as hanging like titmice, feeding 
 on the seeds of the birch : and elegant tins graceful tree must 
 have appeared at such a time. 
 
 An observant friend, residing in Ayrshire, saw several siskins 
 near Ballantrae, a few days before Christmas, 1839, — a season in 
 which they are not known to have visited Ireland, — and since 
 that period, they have often been common in winter, about the 
 
 * Mr. Poole. 
 
 f Dr. Harvey, who remarks that they visit a place ahout five miles from Cork, in 
 the winter, pretty regularly. 
 
 X Report, Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, June 9th, 1848 ; where also the species is 
 said to have hcen obtained near the metropolis in "the winter of 1846." 
 
THE GREY-LINNET. 267 
 
 wooded valley of the river Stinchar ; he has sometimes observed 
 them picking like sparrows at the horse-dung on the roads. The 
 bird-catchers believe that siskins breed in that quarter, as they 
 often take young birds, — but the period of their capture has 
 not been so precisely stated as to enable me to form any opinion 
 on the question. The siskin is known to Sir Wm. Jardine 
 and others, to have bred in different parts of Scotland. Goldfinches 
 are so scarce in the part of Ayrshire alluded to, that only one pair 
 has come under the notice of my friend. 
 
 THE GREY LINNET. 
 
 Common Linnet. Greater Redpole. 
 
 Linaria cannabina, Linn, (sp.) 
 Fringilla „ „ 
 linota, Gmel. 
 
 Is one of the most common birds throughout Ireland at 
 every season. 
 
 In nearly all kinds of localities, except the lofty mountain-ridge, 
 this species is to be met with,* either by itself, or associated with 
 other linnets ( L'marice ) ; sometimes with chaffinches. It is 
 partial to neglected pastures, or other grounds, where " weeds" are 
 permitted to flourish, and renders the farmer a great service by 
 feeding on their seeds. The cultivator of flax in the north of 
 Ireland, by placing no value on the home-grown seed, until of 
 late years, unwittingly presented a rich autumnal treat to the 
 greylinnet. After this plant had been subjected to steeping, the 
 seed parted freely from the stem, when the bundles were flung out 
 of the pool on the neighbouring banks, where these birds might 
 be seen congregated to feed upon it, so long as any remained. 
 The linnet has a great predilection for deserted quarries, especially 
 of limestone, for the sake, doubtless, of consuming the seeds of 
 the various plants which spring from the debris ; — as it also has 
 
 * About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, where there is not much choice of locality, 
 I have seen them about wild mountain banks, and have heard them sing when con- 
 gregated in the middle of September, on the rocky heights above Loch Cor. 
 
268 FRINGILLID.E. 
 
 for the borders of the sea-shore unaffected by cultivation, where 
 many hundreds may often be seen associated together. The seeds 
 of different species of mouse-ear chick-weed (Cerastium) are 
 favourite food. So early as the 10th of July, I once saw several 
 flocks, some containing fifty individuals, on the marine sand-hills 
 at Portrush, near the Giant' s Causeway : one of these birds which 
 fed within six paces of me was regaling on the seed of a dandelion, 
 which it extracted with great rapidity ; on rising from the ground 
 its call was uttered and repeated for some time on the wing.* 
 The following note was made on September the 21st : — For some 
 time past, I have daily seen flocks of from two to three hun- 
 dred grey linnets about the rocks at the sea-side near Bangor, 
 county of Down. As they were perched to-day, which was 
 very fine, on low rocks whose bases were washed by the sea, 
 they kept up a pleasing concert, reminding me of that produced 
 by an assembled multitude of redwings (Turdus Iliacus), on fine 
 days in the early spring. At the end of April, I have seen the 
 grey linnet perched on the top of Fucics-covered stones, — the legi- 
 timate haunt of the rock pipit, — singing most vigorously, though 
 whin-covered rocks, its favourite resort, were quite contiguous. 
 I have met with this bird in the month of June when visiting low 
 rocky islets in the sea, the breeding-haunts of terns (Sternce). 
 Occasionally in autumn as well as spring; the true song of the 
 linnet may be heard trilled forth by individuals which form part 
 of a large flock. 
 
 To witness a number of grey linnets feeding is a very pleasing 
 sight. Several may be seen in different attitudes, busied in extracting 
 the seed from a single thistle or ragweed, winch all the while keeps 
 moving to and fro with their weight. The ear is at the same 
 time gratified with their lively call, which is constantly uttered by 
 one or more of the party. When two or three are engaged on 
 the petty surface of a ragweed-top, and others fly to it, some of 
 the first comers, apparently on the principle, that the world is wide 
 
 * In this respect the lesser redpole is said by Mr. Selby to differ from the grey 
 linnet, which lie considers to be silent on the wing, but in the north of Ireland there 
 is not this distinction between the species. 
 
THE GREY LINNET. 269 
 
 enough for all, generally move off, and leave it to the later 
 guests; occasionally, indeed, the interruption produces a little 
 buffeting, but this soon terminates ; unlike the general melee of the 
 sparrow, where the row, originating with a pair, soon becomes 
 general ; or the regular " stand-up fight " of the robin, a couple 
 of which, when feeling " blown " after a set-to, literally stop to 
 take breath, after the approved manner of the Fives-Court ; and 
 tins done, battle again as hard as ever until the victory is decided. 
 Sir "Win. Jar dine, has very pleasingly observed,* that "every 
 one who has lived much in the country, must have often remarked 
 the common linn ets congregating towards the close of a fine 
 winter's evening, perched on the summit of some bare tree, 
 pluming themselves in the last rays of the son, chirruping the 
 commencement of their evening song, and then bursting simulta- 
 neously into one general chorus; again resuming their single 
 strains, and again joining, as if happy and rejoicing at the termi- 
 nation of their day's employment." I had daily for a season, 
 the gratification of thus observing them at Wolf-hill, where the 
 effect was heightened, by the black Italian poplars which they 
 alighted on, and dotted with their numbers to the very apex, having 
 pyramidal-formed heads, and accordingly, presenting several pyra- 
 mids of birds, each giving forth its peal of music. When this 
 ceased, the birds descended to roost in fine large Portugal laurels, 
 growing beneath and around the trees. The time, &c, of their re- 
 sorting to these poplars was noted on a few occasions during one 
 season : — " On Feb. 1 6th, a great number appeared at four o'clock ; 
 on the 9th of March, kept up their strain until half -past 5; March 
 30th, did the same until half-past six, and though their numbers have 
 become much thinned, 120 were reckoned. So late as the 5th of 
 May some came in flocks to roost ; fifteen were observed in com- 
 pany this evening." During the last few winters, grey linnets have 
 attracted much attention at the Botanic Garden of Belfast, by 
 coming in several hundreds every evening to roost. They fre- 
 quent, in the manner already described, the black Italian poplars, 
 which here, as at Wolf-hill, are preferred to all other trees. This 
 * Note to his edition of Wilson's American Ornithology. 
 
270 THE LESSER REDPOLE. 
 
 preference does not arise merely from the superior loftiness of 
 these trees, but has a ' deeper seat/ to which the fine evergreen 
 shrubs at their base may fairly lay claim : — in their umbrageous 
 shelter the birds warmly repose during the long winter night. 
 In wild districts, I have remarked that they roost among the more 
 lowly furze or whins. 
 
 In the north of Ireland the whin is the greylinnet's favourite 
 plant for building in, next to which, the hawthorn may be ranked, 
 whether in a hedge or growing singly. It is likewise partial in the 
 breeding season, and during summer, to the wild hill-sides in the 
 chalk or limestone districts of the north-east of the island, where 
 there is a profusion of humble underwood, as the various species 
 of rose, bramble, &c. On the 1st of September, I have seen 
 birds with the red on the breast as bright as in June. This 
 is a favourite cage-bird in the north of Ireland, and consequently 
 is much sought after by bird-catchers, who call it simply grey, 
 or whin-grey. 
 
 THE LESSEE REDPOLE.* 
 
 Linaria minor, Ray. 
 Fringilla linaria, Linn. 
 
 Is found from north to south of Ireland. 
 
 Although probably resident everywhere, it is more plentiful in 
 the north, but from the nature of its haunts, is not commonly 
 known like the greylinnet. The bird is mentioned in the Eauna 
 of Cork, as a rare winter visitant, but further observation will 
 doubtless evince its more frequent appearance. In Kerry, Mr. 
 R. Chute, considers the species so rare, that he has particularized 
 the year of its occurrence in the same manner, as he has those 
 in which the snow bunting and mountain finch were found. 
 At the end of May or beginning of June, the lesser redpole has 
 been observed on the banks of the Blackwater, in the county of 
 Waterford, and was presumed to breed there,t which it is known 
 
 * Redpoll it should rather be, but as authors have generally used the above ortho- 
 graphy, it is adopted. 
 
 tBall. 
 
THE LESSER REDPOLE. 271 
 
 to do about Clonmel.* Some authors state, that in England it 
 breeds only in the north.f 
 
 Mr. Selby, who treats most pleasingly of this species, — as he 
 always does when not confining himself to a brief description, — 
 mentions it as resorting to breed in localities of a wild char- 
 acter. In addition to such, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, 
 the most cultivated and improved districts are frequented for that 
 purpose. In the year 1845, it has built in large Portugal laurels in 
 the Botanic Garden, and in common laurels near to a dwelling- 
 house in the outskirts of the town. A nest in the former place, was 
 composed of moss, grass, and a cotton-like substance, and con- 
 tained five eggs on the 6th of May. In the latter, the pair com- 
 menced building on the 4th of May ; the nest was made of moss 
 and cotton, % strengthened with stems of withered grass, and lined 
 with hair ; it was completed on the 8th ; next day one egg was 
 laid; on the 12th, four had been deposited; on the 23rd, the young 
 made their appearance ; on the 4th of June they left the nest, 
 being then able to fly well, and almost as large as their parents. § 
 It likewise builds about gardens, and an humble goose-berry bush 
 was once the chosen receptacle of the nest, which was said to have 
 been lined with feathers. Hawthorn trees are also chosen; 
 from which circumstance, it is called by bird-fanciers in the north 
 of Ireland thorn-grey, in contradiction to the common linnet, 
 named whin-grey, on account of selecting the whin for its nest. 
 In the picturesque and wooded glens, this bird has chiefly come 
 under my own notice, and built in the Conifer a, the larch -fir appear- 
 ing to be the favourite species for the purpose. " It breeds in the 
 counties of Armagh and Tyrone. In the summer of 1844, two 
 
 * Davis. 
 
 t Mr. Hewitson, however, in the later edition of his beautiful work on the Eggs of 
 British Birds, remarks : — " Mr. Wolley, who lives at Beeston, near Nottingham, 
 informs me that it breeds in his neighbourhood, and that his brother has found its nest 
 near Rugby, in Warwickshire. Mr. Briggs also meets with it near Melbourne, in 
 Derbyshire." p. 166. 
 
 + A cotton -mill is in the vicinity. Sir Wm. Jardine remarks, that the down of wil- 
 low-catkins seems to be an indispensable material. Brit. Birds, vol. ii.p. 289. 
 
 § These particulars were noted by an accurate observer, Mr. Darragh, curator of the 
 Belfast Museum. 
 
272 THE MOUNTAIN LINNET. 
 
 nests were found in the garden of Tallaniskin glebe ; one in a 
 currant bush, the other among the branches of a honeysuckle not 
 more than four feet from the ground : they go farther south in 
 winter." * 
 
 During the season, the lesser redpole is dispersed very generally, 
 often in small flocks, consisting of about twenty birds, over planta- 
 tions from the highest on the mountain-side, to those which are but 
 little elevated above high-water mark. The late John Mont- 
 gomery, Esq., of Locust Lodge, near Belfast, at that season has 
 remarked it occupied in feeding upon the seeds of the tree-prim- 
 rose ((Enotliera) and crown-imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) in Ins 
 garden. A friend once noted his having on the 1st of February, 
 observed ten of these birds so busily engaged consuming the 
 seeds of the alder, that they were not disturbed by some horses 
 and carts passing close beneath them : they gave no attention to 
 his own presence, thus enabling him to perceive that two or 
 three of them had the pretty pinkish breasts and red foreheads of 
 spring, though all the others were deficient in that plumage. It 
 were idle to dwell longer on this interesting bird : — its partiality 
 to the seed of the alder; the varied and graceful attitudes so full 
 of animation and life assumed by a group when feeding ; and the 
 indifference shown to the close proximity of man at such times ; 
 all these traits having been fully expatiated on by Mr. Selby. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN LINNET. 
 
 Twite. 
 
 Linaria flavirostris, Linn, (sp.) 
 Fringilla „ „ 
 montium, Gmel. 
 
 Is found from north to south of Ireland, and is resident. 
 
 It is one of the least known of our indigenous Fringittida, and 
 was considered by Mr. Tempi eton as a "winter visitant" only. In 
 the heath-clad mountains of the more northern parts of the island 
 
 * Kev. George Robinson. 
 
THE MOUNTAIN LINNET. 273 
 
 this species annually breeds, and from its occurrence there at 
 mid-winter, I am disposed to believe that severity of weather 
 only, drives it to the lower grounds. In the north of Ireland 
 it is distinguished from the other linnets (Linaria) by the 
 name of " Heather-grey." These birds may be seen every winter 
 in large flocks about Clough, in the county of Antrim, where they 
 chiefly frequent the stubble-fields in the neighbourhood of the 
 mountains .* They are said to be common about Armagh in winter; 
 I have had specimens from the county of Fermanagh; they 
 have been obtained in Kerry ; t and have been shot in the middle of 
 February in company with the grey linnet on an island in Wex- 
 ford harbour, where "they seemed partial to the vicinity of high- 
 water mark, and had taken up their quarters among the grassy 
 banks."J In the north they frequently resort to the sea-side in 
 winter, and associate with the grey linnet. 
 
 A person to whom the species is well known, has often had its 
 nests on the heathery top of the Knockagh mountain near Car- 
 rickfergus. They were generally placed in the heath, but in some 
 instances were built near to the ground in dwarfed whins, which 
 grew among the heath. 
 
 A venerable sporting friend has always observed these birds 
 about their nests (placed in "tufts of heather"), when breaking 
 Ins dogs on the Belfast mountains preparatory to grouse-shooting. 
 The Rev. G. Eobinson has met with them breeding in bogs about 
 Stewartstown, county of Tyrone ; in the parish of Tullaniskin ; 
 and around Churchill, county of Armagh ; — also, at the base of 
 the Dublin mountains. It is common and breeds in the counties 
 of Cork § and Tipperary.|| 
 
 The Mealy Eedpole (Idnota canescens, Gould, sp.) has not come 
 under my notice in Ireland, but probably, visits, this island. Little 
 attention has yet been directed to it as a species distinct from the 
 lesser redpole. The localities named by Mr. Yarrell, in which it has 
 
 * Mr. J. R. Garrett. f Mr. 1m. Andrews. X Mr. Poole. 
 
 § Mr. Robert "Warren, juiir. This gentleman found a nest containing eggs in a 
 furze-bush, within a few feet of a much frequented public road at Carrigalina. He 
 placed one of the eggs under a canary, that brought it out, at the same time with her 
 own brood. She took the greatest care of the young linnet, which acquired the note 
 of its foster-parent. || Mr. Davis. 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 FRINGILLID.E. 
 
 been obtained in England, are towards the south-east. Near Edinburgh, 
 and Bathgate, — where single individuals were obtained, — are the only 
 Scottish localities mentioned by Sir Wm. Jardine and Mr. Macgillivray. 
 
 THE BULLFINCH. 
 
 Pyrrhula vulgaris, Temm. 
 Loxia pyrrkula, Linn. 
 
 Is one of those birds met with in the four quarters of the 
 island, and probably in every county ; but at the 
 same time is rather scarce. 
 
 Mr. Selby remarks, that it is " common in all the wooded districts 
 of these islands." This will not however apply to Ireland. In many 
 of the artificially wooded districts, the bullfinch is either not to be 
 found at all, or only known as an occasional visitant; but where an 
 extent of natural wood remains, and there is sufficient growth of the 
 more shrubby trees, it may be looked for, but cannot be reckoned 
 on with certainty. In some picturesque and extensive glens in 
 the county of Antrim, near Belfast, this bird was common so long 
 as the hazel and holly of natural growth maintained their ground, 
 but as these were swept away, the bullfinch deserted such locali- 
 ties, as abodes, and " few and far between" are now even 
 its temporary visits. In the neighbouring county of Down, it 
 finds a home in sequestered situations where the hazel predomi- 
 nates — as at Tollymore Park, the Wood House, near Bosstrevor, 
 &c, — and in this shrubby tree, commonly builds. In " na- 
 ture's wild domain," the bullfinch looks eminently beautiful, and 
 can be admired without the alloy associated with its appearance 
 in the garden or the orchard, where it proves so destructive by 
 eating the buds of the fruit trees* Its call-note and song have 
 generaUy met with* little admiration from the historians of the 
 species, but being sweetly plaintive, they are to me extremely 
 pleasing. These birds came in small numbers t in two successive 
 winters of late years to an unusual locality ; — a little garden apart 
 
 * It has been remarked, both in the north and south of the island, to be very par- 
 tial to feeding on the buds of the sloe or black-thorn (Primus spinosa). 
 
 f I have rarely heard of more than from 20 to 30 birds being seen in a flock 
 during winter. 
 
THE PINE BULLFINCH. 275 
 
 from plantations or shelter of any kind at the edge of Belfast bay, 
 a short distance from the town. The attraction was seeds, of 
 which those of the tree-primrose ((Enothera) seemed to be pre- 
 ferred. The birds were very tame in all kinds of weather, but, as 
 may be supposed, more particularly so during frost. Mr. Poole 
 mentions the food of the bullfinch as consisting, in winter, of a 
 variety of buds, of which those of the larch are much eaten, — in 
 autumn, of the seeds of ragweeds (Senecio Jacobaa), &c. Small 
 seeds were the only food in the stomachs of a few bullfinches 
 which came under my observation in winter — they contained frag- 
 ments of stone. 
 
 Mr. Selby* and Mr. Knapp give very interesting accounts of 
 the bullfinch from personal observation, and particularly with 
 reference to the plants which it attacks. 
 
 Different species of birds have, in the course of these pages, 
 been mentioned, as occasionally becoming black. The bullfinch, 
 when caged and fed much on hemp-seed, is particularly liable to 
 become so. Many years ago at Edenderry, near Belfast, where a 
 pair of bullfinches had been for some time kept, the male died, 
 and the female, whose grief for his loss was very evident, soon 
 afterwards moulted and assumed a full garb of black. Such being 
 considered equivalent to the widow's " weeds/' was looked upon 
 as almost supernatural : and more particularly so, when after a 
 year of mourning she, at moulting time, threw them partially 
 off, and exhibited some white feathers in her wings. I have known 
 a piping bullfinch to be kept about twenty years, and at the ex- 
 piration of that time to be in as good health as ever. Its age 
 when purchased was not remembered. 
 
 THE PINE BULLFINCH. 
 
 Pyrrhula enucleator, Linn, (sp.) 
 
 Loxia „ „ 
 
 Has, according to the following brief testimony, been once 
 
 obtained. 
 
 In the manuscript journal of that eminent naturalist, John Tem- 
 
 * In Illustrations of British Ornithology, and The Naturalist. 
 T 2 
 
276 FRINGlLLIDiE. 
 
 pleton, Esq., is the following note : — "December the 20th, 1819. 
 Yesterday heard from Mr. Montgomery of Belfast [a discrimi- 
 nating ornithologist], that Mr. Bradford had received a specimen 
 of the Loxia Enucleator which was shot at the Cave-hill [vicinity 
 of Belfast], and on showing the figure in the Naturalist's Miscel- 
 lany, he recognised it to be the bird " 
 
 This species is an extremely rare visitant to Great Britain, but 
 has been met with both in England and Scotland. 
 
 THE CROSSBILL. 
 
 Loxia curvirostra, Linn. 
 
 Has long been known as an occasional visitant to Ireland : 
 — it has bred here of late years. 
 
 As much popular interest attaches to this bird, on account of the 
 remarkable form of its bill, and the imagined rarity of its occur- 
 rence, I shall give particular notes on the subject. 
 
 In Harris's History of the County of Down (1744), it is re- 
 marked of crossbills, that " many of them were seen at Warings- 
 town in 1707." Smith, in his History of Cork (1749), observes, 
 that ' ' these birds have been seen in this county, but are rare." 
 Rutty, in his Natural History of Dublin (1772), says of the 
 crossbill : — " It has been seen at Ireland's Eye, and we have had 
 several flights of them to the counties of Wicklow and Dublin, 
 particularly in 1714." In the Memoirs and Correspondence of the 
 late Sir J. E. Smith, we find the following passage, in a letter 
 from Mr. Caldwell, dated Dublin, Feb. 3rd, 1802 :— "The winter 
 here has been severe. * * * Vast flights of crossbills, Loxia 
 eurvirostra, I believe, made their appearance the latter end of 
 August, and staid till the beginning of October. They made 
 great havoc in the orchards ; they never ate the apple, but cut it 
 to pieces, and picked out the pippins. They came first over to 
 the county of Cork, then proceeded to Waterford, Tipperary, 
 Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, and Dublin, but no further north. 
 * * * They were observed here, I am told, before the hard 
 
THE CROSSBILL. 277 
 
 frost, and once since ; and now this time, when there certainly 
 has been severer frost than usual," vol. ii. p. 153. Mr. R. Ball 
 informed me in 1842, that during his residence at Youghal, this 
 species was known to him as occurring but once in the scuth, 
 upwards of thirty years ago, when it committed great devastation 
 in the orchards : its appearance in the south of the county of 
 Cork, about that period, has been reported to me by others, 
 who state that it was looked upon as an extraordinary rarity ; — 
 probably the same flight of birds is alluded to by all. M'Skim- 
 min, in his History of Carrickfergus, mentions a flock being seen 
 there in July, 1811. Mr. Ensor, in an article contributed to the 
 6th volume of the Magazine of Natural History (p. 81), dated Ar- 
 dress, county of Armagh, remarks : — "There was a flight of these 
 birds in my plantations for weeks in 1813 or 1814."* In 1821, 
 when crossbills were so abundant in Scotland, they visited Ireland 
 also, and some were killed about Belfast. A venerable friend has 
 from Iris early years known them as occasional winter visitants to 
 the neighbourhood of this town, and has captured them, when 
 feeding, by means of fishing-rods smeared with bird-lime. 
 
 Since my own attention has been given to the subject, the crossbill 
 
 * Loxia coccothraustes is the scientific name applied to the bird referred to, but 
 from the observation that it is significantly called " cross-beak," it seems to me war- 
 rantable to conclude that Loxia curvirostra is meant. 
 
 Mr. Kobert Millen has mentioned to me, that near Ballyclare (co. Antrim), about 
 the year 1814, he became possessed of a crossbill by flinging a stone at a bird in a larch 
 fir, which he believed from its colour to be a green-linnet. It was only stunned 
 by the blow of the stone, and soon recovered. He kept it as a pet bird for about nine 
 months, and provided fir cones as food, from which the seeds were adroitly extracted. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Walsh, in his work entitled "A Residence at Constantinople," men- 
 tions his having obtained a crossbill {Loxia curvirostra) just after its being snared in 
 a tree near that city, and states, that " it became as familiar as a parrot, sat on my 
 shoulder while I wrote, and whistled to me for food. I discovered that it [the 
 species ?] particularly frequented Turkish cemeteries, and was most commonly met 
 with among the cypress trees. I collected, therefore, some of the cypress cones, and 
 whenever he whistled, I presented him with one. He took it with great dexterity 
 in one of his claws, and holding it up, he hopped to his perch on the other leg. He 
 then split open with his cross beak the tough divisions of the cone with a force, and got 
 out the seeds with a dispatch, that mandibles of any other construction could never 
 accomplish. I kept this familiar and interesting bird for several months, till a rapa- 
 cious kite, hoveriug over the palace garden, made a stoop, and destroyed it. I called 
 it Nepou7roXt, its modern Greek name, and it answered to the sound by a whistle." 
 vol. ii. p. 111. 
 
278 
 
 FRINGILLIDjE. 
 
 is recorded either in my notes or otherwise, as occurring at the 
 following times and places : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Month or 
 Season. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Observations. 
 
 i 1828 
 
 
 December. 
 
 County of Wicklow. "] 
 
 
 » 
 
 26 
 
 Winter. 
 
 Belfast, co. Antrim. V 
 Co.Tyrone or Armagh J 
 
 Winter 1828-29, not numerous. 
 
 1829-30 
 
 
 January. 
 
 Belfast. ■> 
 County of Wicklow. * 
 
 Winter 1829-30, ditto. 
 
 183l" 
 
 
 
 Co. Waterford. 
 
 Said to be very destructive to or- 
 chards near the city. 
 
 1833 
 
 
 July. 
 
 Belfast. 
 
 Several in red plumage obtained. 
 
 1835 
 
 22 
 
 December. 
 
 Crumlin, co. Antrim."] 
 Lurgan, co. Armagh. 1 
 
 Winter of 1835-36. 
 
 1836 
 
 "l 
 
 February. 
 
 Tandragee. „ ( 
 Belfast. J 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 Summer. 
 
 Tollymore Park, Down. 
 
 A pair bred, and frequently seen 
 with their three young by the 
 gamekeeper. 
 
 1837 
 
 
 End June. 
 
 Dargle, co. Wicklow. 
 
 Many seen ; two which were shot 
 came under my notice. 
 
 1837-38 
 
 
 Winter. 
 
 West of Ireland. 
 
 
 
 
 Oct.-Mar. 
 
 Co. Dublin. 
 
 Numbers seen, and some obtained. 
 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 Portglenone, co. Antr. 
 
 Flocks seen, „ „ 
 
 
 18 
 
 January. 
 Jan. & Feb. 
 
 Ballibrado, co. Tipper. 
 
 Hillsborough Park, 
 Finnebrogue and 
 Tollymore Park, well 
 wooded demesnes in 
 the co. Down. 
 
 ditto. ditto. 
 
 
 
 February. 
 
 Co. Carlow & Kildare._ 
 
 Numbers killed. 
 
 1838 
 
 
 Spring. 
 
 Portarlington, Queen's 
 county. 
 
 Several shot here. About Mount- 
 mellick (same co.) abundant a few 
 years ago (1831?); very destruc- 
 tive to apples. 
 
 1838 
 
 
 
 
 Said to have bred at Delgany, and 
 the Vale of Avoca (co. Wicklow) 
 and in the county of Meath, but 
 no particulars furnished. 
 
 1839 
 
 20 
 
 January. 
 
 Antrim. 
 
 In this or the following winter ob- 
 tained in Hillsborough Park, 
 Down. 
 
 1841 
 
 
 Late in au- 
 tumn. 
 
 Co. Wexford. 
 
 Flocks seen and some killed. 
 
 1842 
 
 
 Autumn. 
 
 
 ditto. 
 
 1845 
 
 4 
 
 March. 
 
 Between Killough anc 
 Dundrum, co. Down. 
 
 ditto. 
 
 1846 
 
 
 Feb. & Mai-. 
 
 Tollymore Park, Down 
 
 ditto. 
 
THE CROSSBILL. 
 
 279 
 
 In most of the preceding instances, these birds were seen 
 feeding on the cones of the larch fir and common pine (Scotch fir), 
 more especially on the former, with the seeds of which I have 
 found their stomachs filled : — once only were there any fragments 
 of stone in them. They generally attracted attention, by the 
 noise produced in splitting open the cones, compared by some 
 persons to that made by the breaking of sticks. When at Tolly- 
 more Park in June, 1838, the game-keeper informed me, that in 
 the preceding winter, crossbills were abundant there, so many as 
 fifty being sometimes seen in a flock. He pointed out a larch- 
 fir, upon which he and a gentleman visiting the park, saw fourteen 
 or fifteen engaged in extracting the seed, some of the birds being 
 at the time but a few yards above the spectators' heads, and 
 sending the cones to the ground in numbers ; — he remarked that 
 they are generally very tame when feeding. He had seen them 
 picking at the cones of the various species of firs and pines in the 
 park, and particularized the spruce-fir, as one on which they were 
 so employed.* 
 
 As the breeding of the crossbill is particularly noticed by Mr. 
 Robert Davis, junr., of Clonmel, his observations on the species 
 generally, are here brought together : — "About the 18th of Jan., 
 1838, a flock of these birds appeared at Ballibrado, near Cahir, 
 and five of them were killed : they were very tame, and were ob- 
 served to feed like parrots, holding the fir-cones in one claw. 
 On the 1 6th of August, the same year, four crossbills were thence 
 sent to me, where they still continued in considerable numbers. 
 I cannot hear of their occurrence anywhere else, except in the 
 neighbouring demesne of Kilcommon ; two more were sent to me 
 early in September, but like the others, were much damaged, as, 
 in consequence of their tameness, the person who shot them fired 
 
 * My informant states, that about thirty years ago crossbills came "in 
 thousands" to the plantations at Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, the seat of the 
 Marquis of Bute, "and did not leave a cone upon the firs." The year 1821 is pro- 
 bably alluded to, as these birds are reported to have been then particularly numerous 
 in other parts of Scotland, and some parts of England. Mr. Macgillivray (British 
 Birds, vol.i. p. 425), gives a most graphic account of a flock of some hundreds he met 
 with in the east of Scotland, feeding upon the fruit or seed of the mountain-ash 
 (Tyrus aucuparia). 
 
280 feingillim;. 
 
 from too short a distance. They appeared to be adult males; 
 males passing from the red state into the adult ; young males just 
 getting a few red feathers ; and females (?), in the brownish-grey 
 state: they seemed to be moulting rapidly. On the 11th of 
 January, 1839, they were still to be seen at Ballibrado, where they 
 have been all the winter, and when noticed about a week before, 
 appeared to have paired. I am of opinion that they bred here 
 last year, on account of their appearance very early, accompanied 
 by a number of young, and from the destruction of the cones of 
 the spruce-fir having been noticed throughout the year." On 
 the 18th of May, 1839, my correspondent transmitted the skins 
 of two specimens for my examination and remarked, — "from 
 ten to twenty crossbills have remained all the winter, and up to 
 the present time at Ballibrado, but, though some search was made, 
 no nest was discovered. About five or six weeks since, two or 
 more clutches of young birds were seen accompanying the old 
 ones, who were observed feeding them. The young bird sent was 
 shot in the act of taking food from an old male ; I received it 
 early in April ; the other bird sent varies a little in colour from 
 most specimens, and was shot about three weeks before that time. 
 The young one had every appearance of a nestling, feet soft and 
 weak, bill not strong, and a great number of the large feathers 
 not fully produced.* " On the 18th of July of the same year, it 
 was stated that crossbills had not been seen at Ballibrado for 
 two months. 
 
 Notes on the plumage, and sometimes full descriptions from 
 the recent specimens which came under my examination, were 
 drawn up ; but it is sufficient to observe here, that they were in 
 every state from that put on at the first moult, to maturity j by far 
 the greater number were in the bright red plumage : one only, 
 (that already noticed,) displayed the markings of the young pre- 
 vious to the first moult. 
 
 * This bird is of adult size : the head, back, and rump, or whole upper plu- 
 mage, is yellowish green, with a dark olive centre to each feather, this dark marking 
 occupying more of the feathers anteriorly than towards the tail ; the entire under 
 plumage is yellowish-white, with an olive-brown streak down the centre of each 
 feather ; tail and larger wing-feathers dark brown, with the outer margin yellowish- 
 green. — W. T. 
 
THE CROSSBILL. 281 
 
 Authors, generally, report the crossbill as arriving in Great 
 Britain in June, but it has usually been a late autumnal, or a 
 winter, visitant to Ireland, leaving the country again, early in the 
 spring, like other birds of passage.* Mr. YarrelTs remark with 
 reference to England, that crossbills " were more abundant during 
 the greater part of 1836, 1837, and 1838 than was known for 
 some years before," — might it not be said, than was ever known 
 before in three successive years? — applies to Ireland also, as 
 shown in the preceding notes. In endeavouring to account for 
 the cause of the more frequent visits of crossbills to the British 
 Islands of late years, we should know in the first place, if any 
 change has occurred in their metropolis, or the chief quarter 
 whence they come ; but, ignorant of this, we can only look at 
 home, and see if there be any attraction for them now, that the 
 country was deficient in before. Sir Wm. Jardine observes : " In 
 the south of Scotland, at least, where an immense extent of young 
 pine timber has been planted within thirty years, the crossbill has 
 undoubtedly become more common, and we know now remains 
 through the year."f In Ireland likewise, plantations including 
 the Conifera, but above all, the larch, have greatly increased 
 within the same period, and may be the means of prolonging the 
 stay of crossbills, or inducing them to remain occasionally through- 
 out the year. And as somewhat corroboratory of this, it may 
 be remarked, that plentiful as these birds were in latter years, we 
 have heard but little of damage done by them to orchards, as in 
 earlier times, the seed of the Coniferce having generally afforded 
 abundance of food. Still, I cannot but think that the primary 
 
 * The crossbill appears among the " Irregular Birds of Passage," in a paper by 
 M. Duval-Jouve on the Migratory Birds of Provence, published in the Zoologist, for 
 Oct. 1845. It is there stated, that "this bird is one of the first that arrives here 
 from the north. It is at the end of June and beginning of July that the migration 
 takes place. They are not seen every year, and a very long time often elapses be- 
 tween their visits. * * * They appeared abundantly in 1831, again in 1834, 
 some few in 1837, and in great numbers in 1842. * * * I do not think these 
 birds pass the Mediterranean ; they remain too long in Provence to justify such a 
 conclusion. We meet with them in the summer, sometimes even in the autumn, and 
 they disappear in the winter and spring to nestle I know not where. They sojourn 
 in our large pine-forests." — p. 1115. 
 
 f Naturalist's Library, British Birds, vol. ii. p. 340 (1839). 
 
282 FRINGILLIDiE. 
 
 cause of their more frequent migrations, must be looked for 
 in their princial abode. A friend of excellent judgment, to 
 whom this idea was mentioned, is, however, rather inclined to 
 consider crossbills as a wandering tribe, having no proper home, 
 but who pitch their tent, and take up their residence at a place 
 just so long as it suits them, without contemplating a return to 
 any particular region. 
 
 I have not had the gratification of seeing crossbills in a wild 
 state in Ireland; but early in September, 1837, my attention was 
 directed to them by Mr. Selby and Sir Wm. Jardine, as they were 
 on wing from one plantation to another, in the demesne at Twizell, 
 and at ChilHngham Park, Northumberland. On the 9th of Oct., 
 1847, when in a fine wood of oaks and beeches, adjoining the 
 beautiful village of Southborough, near Tunbridge "Wells, I was 
 attracted by the peculiar call-note of some bird that I had not 
 before heard, and discovered that it proceeeded from this species, 
 one of which was seen perched on the summit of a tall oak tree : 
 — its bill looked very large, from a considerable distance. 
 
 Bewick and Yarrell, in their respective histories of British 
 Birds, treat us with entertaining and copious accounts of the ap- 
 pearance of crossbills in England in the olden time, when like a 
 more potent enemy — " they were attacked with slings and cross- 
 bows," valiantly " never thinking of flying off till some of them, 
 stricken by stones, or apples, or leaden bullets, fell dead from the 
 trees." The grand point of view in which birds were considered 
 at that period (1593), is not omitted to be mentioned, as in one 
 account it is stated, that " their flesh was sufficiently savoury and 
 delicate," and in the other, that " they were very good meate." 
 
 The Parrot Crossbill (Loxia pytiopsittacus) is included in Tem- 
 pleton's Catalogue of Irish Birds, from the supposed occurrence of 
 the species in one instance. A coloured drawing of the specimen, of 
 natural size, was fortunately made by that accomplished naturalist. It 
 represents the L. curvirostra with the point of the lower mandible not 
 reaching beyond the profile of the upper. At the foot of the drawing, 
 L. pytiopsittacus is followed by a note of doubt, which does not ap- 
 pear in the printed catalogue. The bird was shot by Eainey Maxwell, 
 
THE TWO-BANDED CROSSBILL. 283 
 
 Esq., at Grenville, near Belfast, in May, 1802. Very few individuals 
 of this species have been obtained in England or Scotland. 
 
 THE TWO-BANDED CROSSBILL. 
 European White-winged Crossbill. 
 
 Loxia bifasciata, Nilsson. 
 
 Has once been obtained. 
 
 The first notice of the occurrence of this species in the British 
 islands, is that of Templeton, who communicated to the Linnean 
 Society of London a note of one having been " shot at Grenville, 
 near Belfast, January the 11th, 1802/' An extract at p. 276, in- 
 forms us, that the common crossbill was particularly numerous in 
 the southern half of Ireland that season. M. Le Baron De Selys 
 Longchamps, in his excellent " Eaune Beige," is of opinion, that 
 the bird called L. leucoptera, in works on British Ornithology, is 
 instead the L. bifasciata, which has been until lately confounded 
 with it: he describes the differences between them (p. 77), and 
 figures the heads and bills of the two species. The latter has 
 been obtained during whiter, in Sweden, Germany, and Belgium : 
 the former is a North- American species, which has been killed in 
 England within the last few years .* As Mr. Templeton made a 
 coloured drawing of the specimen, I was desirous that this should 
 be seen by M. De Selys, on his visit to Belfast in the autumn of 
 1844, but unfortunately it had been taken by Mr. Robert Temple- 
 ton, along with many other delineations and papers of his father's 
 to Ceylon. The drawing has, however, by the kind attention of my 
 friend just named, been since sent to me from that island, and 
 proves the Irish specimen to have been the L. bifasciata, as de- 
 scribed and figured by M. De Selys : it represents the bird of a 
 greenish-olive on the head and back, with dark-brownish mark- 
 ings ; rump yellow ; tail-feathers blackish, bordered with yellow ; 
 entire under plumage yellow, with dark streaks ; two conspicuous 
 
 * Noticed by Yarrell in the Zoological Proceedings, since the 2nd edit, of his 
 Brit. Birds was published in 1845. 
 
284 STURNID.E. 
 
 white bands across the wings, and the wing-feathers generally (but 
 not all) tipped with white. The form of the bill is identically 
 that of L. bifasciata. 
 
 But few individuals of the white-winged crossbill have been 
 obtained in England or Scotland. 
 
 THE STARLING. 
 
 Stare. 
 
 Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. 
 Is common, and breeds in many parts of the island. 
 
 Montagu remarks of this species, that " many stay with us the 
 whole year; but the vast flocks that are seen in severe winters pro- 
 bably migrate to this country [England] in search of food, and 
 return northward in the spring. We have observed continued flights 
 of these birds going westward into Devonshire and Cornwall in 
 hard weather, and their return eastward as soon as the frost breaks 
 up." Mr. Knapp observes that, — "towards autumn the broods 
 unite and form large flocks ; but those prodigious flights with 
 winch in some particular years we are visited, especially in parts 
 of those districts formerly called the c fen-counties/ are probably 
 an accumulation from other countries." The Bishop of Norwich, 
 in his ' Familiar History of Birds/ gives as his opinion, " that 
 they are partially migratory, quitting one part of the kingdom for 
 another;" and Sir Wm. Jardine states, that " in many parts of 
 Scotland where they do not breed, they are migratory, appearing 
 in autumn and spring." 
 
 It is now many years since Mr. Templeton, in his valuable 
 ' Naturalists' Report ' published in the Belfast Magazine, called 
 attention to the regular migration of starlings into Ireland. 
 
 In that portion of the north of the island with which I am 
 myself best acquainted, there is nothing irregular in the migra- 
 tion of starlings ; they do not await any severity of weather ; and 
 although they may occasionally change their quarters when within 
 the island, yet of all our birds, they present the clearest evidence 
 
THE STARLING. 285 
 
 of migration, as they are annually observed for several weeks to 
 pour into Ireland from the north, and wing their way ^southward. 
 To myself they have frequently so appeared, but I prefer giving 
 the more full and satisfactory testimony of trustworthy and intel- 
 ligent " shore-shooters," three of whom, being consulted, agree 
 upon the subject. They state that the general autumnal migra- 
 tion of stares or stars'* (as they are sometimes called) commences 
 towards the middle or end of September, according to the season, 
 and continues daily for about six or eight weeks. So early as the 
 middle of July, a flock was once observed flying southerly in 
 the autumnal course. When the weather is moderate, flocks 
 consisting of from half-a-dozen to two hundred individuals, 
 are seen every morning, coming from the north-east, passing 
 over a point of land where a river enters Belfast bay about 
 a mile from the town, and continuing in the same course 
 until lost to view. They are generally seen only for one 
 and a half, or two hours, — from eight to ten o'clock a.m., — none 
 appearing before the former hour, and rarely any after the latter, 
 except when the wind is high, and then the flight is protracted 
 until noon ; if very stormy, they do not come at all. When they 
 commence migration unusually late in the season, as was the case 
 in 1838, they make up for lost time by an increase of numbers. 
 Thus, they were first seen in that year on the 23rd of October, 
 when they made their appearance at half-past eight o'clock a.m., 
 and continued passing in flocks of from twenty to one and two 
 hundred individuals, until two o'clock. At the season of their 
 earliest appearance, there is daylight between four and five o'clock 
 in the morning, and the fact of their not being seen before eight 
 o'clock, leads to the belief that they have left some distant place at 
 an early hour. On the same morning, the flocks all take the same 
 line of flight, but the direction varies when the wind is sufficiently 
 strong to affect then movements. Those which come within the 
 hours already mentioned, very rarely alight ; but when a flock 
 
 * Similar abbreviations are in common use among the dealers in birds (living and 
 dead), in the north of Ireland ; thus, in grey linnet, chaffinch, green linnet, &c, an 
 economy of words is practised, and the first syllable alone is sufficient to indicate the 
 species. In the same manner, I have in Perthshire heard the hooded or grey crow 
 called simply huddy. 
 
286 STUHNIDiE. 
 
 arrives during the day, it occasionally does so, apparently, from 
 having flown a greater distance than the earlier comers, and 
 found rest and food to be desirable before proceeding farther. 
 The number of birds that come in this course is not very great. 
 The average of five or six flocks seen in a morning perhaps consisted 
 of 250 individuals ; the greatest number ever seen in one day 
 probably amounted to 1500 ; and those altogether seen through- 
 out the migratory period may be estimated at about 15,000. Of 
 my three informants, two lived in the district over which the star- 
 lings flew, and consequently had daily opportunities of seeing 
 them in their season. One has indeed done so for the last half- 
 century, and the other was in the habit of going to the place every 
 morning, in the hope that the flocks would pass over within shot, 
 which they often did. In only one instance, did any of these per- 
 sons see starlings return this way in spring, when, on the 1 3th of 
 March, a flock appeared passing north-eastward, in the direction 
 whence they come in autumn : — on the 23rd of that month, a 
 flock, consisting of sixty, was once observed by myself, returning 
 by this course. In the middle of March, flocks of starlings have 
 occurred to me in unusual localities, and were supposed to be 
 moving northward on migration. During the first week of 
 April, 1837, large flocks were seen at "unaccustomed places," in 
 Down and Antrim, having doubtless been kept from crossing the 
 channel, by the prevalence of the north-east wind and very cold 
 weather. 
 
 The autumnal flights of these birds can be traced as coming 
 from Scotland. Capt. Payrer, E.N., in a letter dated Portpatrick, 
 October the 23rd, 1831, and published in the Proceedings of the 
 Zoological Society of London, remarks, that " very large flocks of 
 starlings have arrived within the last few days. They start before 
 sunrise and steer to the southward." I have had circumstantial 
 evidence of tins fact myself, as some years ago, when shooting at 
 the latter end of October, about Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, flocks of 
 these birds were numerous, where, in a subsequent season, from the 
 12th of August to the middle of September, very few individuals 
 only, which built in the neighbourhood, could be observed. 
 
THE STARLING. 287 
 
 When my friend Mr. Richard Langtry was proceeding from Bel- 
 fast to London by sea some years ago, and again when returning 
 thence, many starlings flew on board off Cornwall, and northwards 
 during stormy weather in November and December. They, 
 apparently from fatigue, permitted themselves to be seized by the 
 sailors on the rigging, rather than attempt to escape by flight. 
 
 These birds very rarely stop anywhere in the vicinity of Belfast 
 on their southward migration ; but a low-lying tract of marshy 
 meadows, when flooded by excessive rain, has occasionally tempted 
 the latest comers to remain a few days, and till the end of Decem- 
 ber, 1833, a flock of about 200, frequented a district at the base 
 of the mountains, three miles from the town. In the low-lying 
 marshy tracts westward of these mountains, towards Lough Neagh, 
 and northward, towards Antrim and Templepatrick, they may be 
 seen during winter ; until the middle of March, large flocks have 
 come under my observation. About Belfast bay, starlings are 
 rarely seen except at the migratory period ; but during frost and 
 snow in January, 1823, 1 remarked them there. The only instance 
 in which one of the shore-shooters before mentioned, met with 
 these birds about the bay in winter, was some years ago during 
 heavy snow after Christmas, when they appeared in immense 
 flocks. So numerous were they, that the little grassy patches, 
 rising above the ooze near the shore, could not contain them, and 
 a portion of the flock kept hovering above their more fortunate 
 brethren, who had found a resting-place. On such petty islets of 
 green-sward, or on heaps of "sleech-grass" {Zoster a marina) only, 
 did he ever see them alight ; — the sand or bare beach was always 
 avoided. Like the snow bunting, the starling has however, of 
 late, become more common in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 
 During the greater part of the winter of 1844-45, a moderate 
 sized flock frequented Dargan's Island, adjacent to the quays, and 
 alluded to at p. 240. 
 
 Although the numbers seen about Belfast are on their way 
 southward, the extensive marshy tracts of the most northern 
 counties (Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal) display throughout 
 
288 sturnidjE. 
 
 the winter their hosts of migratory starlings.* Mr. Knapp re- 
 marks, that they sometimes associate, but not cordially, with field- 
 fares {Turdus pilaris). Smith, in his History of Cork, quaintly 
 observes : — " They company with redwings and fieldfares, yet do 
 not go off with them." The Eev. G. M. Black informs me," that 
 at Newtown-Crommelin, in the county of Antrim, where they are 
 in immense flocks throughout the winter, they are always asso- 
 ciated with these birds. It is interesting to observe the different 
 mode of flight of the three species, when roused from the same 
 feeding ground ; the fieldfares and redwings taking their departure 
 in a loose flock ; the starlings separating from them, and keeping 
 in a compact body. These birds feed much in company with rooks. 
 Mr. E,. Ball remarks, that " starlings seem to have fixed on our 
 celebrated round towers as favourite nestling-places," and certainly 
 these buildings are admirably suited to such a purpose, there is so 
 little danger of molestation.f Euins generally, old trees, rocks, J 
 
 * In parts of the county of Cork they appear in large flocks in winter, where rarely 
 one is seen in summer. Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, remarks : — 
 " The immense numhers of these birds to be met with here in winter, cannot possibly 
 be bred in this country. I should think that we owed nine-tenths of the flocks to mi- 
 gration. October the 6th and 7th are the earliest dates at which I have observed 
 flocks of these birds, and the 27th of March, the latest. They feed in company with 
 lapwings in low grounds, and during inundations, in the neighbourhood of water, some- 
 times almost in it. A solitary stare will sometimes be seen in company with a whole 
 flock of lapwings. They are very partial to the vicinity of sheep, and often feed close 
 to the heels of these animals, I suspect on the insects attracted by their warmth. They 
 are pugnacious, often leaping at each other like game-cocks. Large flights pass over 
 us every morning on their way to their feeding grounds, and come back the same way." 
 
 f Mr. Hyndman, when visiting Tory Island, off the north of Donegal, at the 
 beginning of August, 1845, saw a dozen of these birds about some loose rocks or 
 " boulders," which they were said to frequent generally, except at the breeding season, 
 when they resort to the round tower to build. 
 
 X When at the peninsula of "the Horn" (co. Donegal), and at the largest of the South 
 Islands of Arran, I was informed that they build in the lofty precipices which rise 
 above the ocean. At the latter locality, they also nidificate in ruined buildings. In Dr. 
 J. D. Marshall's memoir on the Statistics and Natural History of the Island of Rath- 
 lin, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy in 1836, it is remarked 
 of the starling : — " This is one of the most common birds in Rathlin. It is found 
 over the greater part of the island, but principally about Church Bay, where the 
 houses are more numerous, and where there are a few trees and shrubs. In July they 
 were assembled in flocks of from one to two hundred, dispersing themselves over the 
 fields and along the sea-shores. They frequented the more rocky parts of the pasture- 
 fields. * * * * They build among the rocks." From the " Fauna of Cork " we 
 learn that they breed " plentifully in the rocks at Renayne Bay, &c." 
 
THE STARLING. 289 
 
 and chimneys, are resorted to for building. These birds, it may 
 be remarked, are not generally spread over Ireland, as they are 
 over England in the breeding-season, but are confined to compa- 
 ratively few favourite localities, which are chiefly in pasture dis- 
 tricts Within the memory of old persons, they built annually in 
 the steeple of St. Ann's church, Belfast, and in other places within 
 and about the town, but for a long period ceased to do so. They 
 have within the last few years returned. 
 
 Mr. W. Darragh informs me of three instances of the star- 
 ling's having nests near Belfast of late. Once, in a fine old 
 cherry-tree in an orchard at Ballynafeigh, and twice — in the 
 summers of ]844 and 1845 — building in an ash tree standing 
 singly in a pasture-field at Seymour Hill. The nest was placed in 
 a hole within the tree, and both the aperture and the cavity were 
 so small, that persons enlarged them, not on the bird's account, 
 but on their own, that they might procure the eggs, for which 
 there was such a competition, that they were carried off almost as 
 soon as laid, and the poor birds were not allowed to rear a brood 
 in either year. The species was such a novelty in the district, that 
 its nest was known to every one, and the young birds in such re- 
 quisition, that a brood reared by their legitimate parents would 
 have gone but a short way in supplying the demand. Besides, as 
 every one feared that his neighbour might be the fortunate pos- 
 sessor of the prize, the eggs were abstracted, and placed in the 
 nests of blackbirds and thrushes, of which species each bird- 
 fancier had nests unknown to his neighbours : — but in no instance 
 did the young " come out."* Two nests were known to be built 
 in the town, in the summer of 1848. One was in an aperture 
 at the top of the gable wall of the loftiest house in Wellington 
 Place, a situation taken possession of by the birds at the end of 
 March. The other was placed in a hole in the fifth story of a 
 large occupied flax-mill. It was near the roof, within reach of 
 
 * The same informant likewise mentions, that at a place between Dundalk and 
 Ardee (county of Louth), and near to Fane Valley, there is a small building resembling 
 a dove-cot, erected on the roof of a house for starlings to build in. They frequent it 
 in such numbers for the purpose, that they may be compared to bees flying backward 
 and forward to their hive. He saw them in the breeding season for three or four 
 years ; — his last visit being in 1841. 
 
 VOL. I. U 
 
290 STURNIDiE. 
 
 the hand from an upper window, but fortunately the birds were 
 not molested, and the young escaped in safety.* 
 
 Massareene deer-park t and Shane's Castle Park, both well 
 wooded and extensive demesnes situated on the banks of Lough 
 Neagh, and far " remote from public haunt," J are now their regular 
 nesting-places. || Euined castles, both in marine and inland locali- 
 ties, in the north of the island, where not very many years ago 
 they built, have of late, without any apparent cause, been deserted ; 
 and the same has been reported to me with respect to districts in 
 the south. 
 
 The starling has been well described by authors, as one of the 
 most sociable of birds. Every month in the year it may be ob- 
 served in flocks, though in May and June but few individuals, 
 comparatively, are seen congregated in these islands. At the end 
 of May, I have observed nearly fifty in company in the Begent's 
 Park, London : but in Holland, I have at the same period of the 
 year remarked considerable flocks feeding in the pastures, and 
 flying from tree to tree on the road-sides. At the end of June 
 and very early in July, large flocks are not unfrequent : — around 
 Penrith, in the north of England ; in the neighbourhood of Bir- 
 mingham ; and in the very different scenery of the South Islands 
 of Arran, off Galway bay; I have observed flocks at this season. 
 
 * In Dunn's Ornithologist's Guide to Orkney and Shetland, we are told that 
 the starling " frequently builds its nest in the walls of the houses so low that it may 
 be easily reached with the hand, yet it is seldom disturbed by the people," p. 81. 
 
 f May 29, 1836. I remarked nine starlings associating together here, and about 
 the same time, saw a single bird hastening, its bill being filled with food, to its mate or 
 young. From the 6th of June to the second week of July, according to the season, 
 young starlings have been observed by the Bishop of Norwich to be able to leave their 
 birth-place in company with their parents. 
 
 | This observation, correct though it be, may seem strange to persons who have at 
 this season observed the starling about the parks of London, including the niuch- 
 frequented St. James's Park. "When in the Green Park, on the 19th of May, 1843, I 
 remarked four starlings, at half-past six o'clock in the evening, fly singly, with food in 
 their bills, to the tops of the houses north of the park, in the chimnies of which 
 they probably had young. Mr. Richard Taylor, F. L. S., mentioned in a note to my 
 paper on this species, published in the Annals of Natural History, that starlings still 
 frequent the precincts of the Charterhouse, in the centre of London. 
 
 || Starlings have been observed at Dromedaragh (co. Antrim), busily occupied in 
 and about the old nests of rooks ; but whether they were intent on building or food, 
 was not ascertained. 
 
THE STALLING. 291 
 
 I have been more than once entertained by witnessing starlings 
 spring into the air with lapwings, so much their superiors in size, 
 and guide their course ; as on the earth, the puny ass leads 
 strings of camels in the East. I have thus seen twenty starlings 
 lead about two hundred lapwings, backward and forward for a 
 long time. 
 
 The most interesting feature in the starling is its beautiful mode 
 of flight before roosting for the night. It is very rarely that such 
 a sight can be observed in the vicinity of Belfast. But on Octo- 
 ber the 24th, 1838, I had the gratification of witnessing a flock 
 consisting of about two hundred, going through their beautiful 
 evolutions, preparatory to roosting on a bank of Arundo pliragmitis 
 at the side of the river Lagan, near Stranmillis. They several 
 times swept down from a great height in the air, almost vertically, 
 to the reeds, and, though the flock in each instance seemed to 
 lose some of its numbers there, the great body sprang up again to 
 a considerable altitude, and renewed its elegant manoeuvres. 
 Every time they descended to the reeds, the stoop was made 
 from the highest range of flight : when passing over at half that 
 elevation, and they wheeled downwards, they never drooped so 
 low as the reeds. At twenty-five minutes past four o' clock they 
 had all alighted. Concealed by a high hedge, I had the oppor- 
 tunity of watching them from a short distance, and perceived by 
 their flitting from one part of the reeds to another, that they were 
 very restless for some time. In thus changing their quarters they 
 rarely rose above the tops of the Arundo, and when at rest, were 
 perched so low down as to be invisible. After alighting, they kept 
 up a very noisy concert, in which no sound like their whistle was 
 heard, but rather a medley different from, and more guttural than, 
 their ordinary chatter. 
 
 I have seen small flocks of starlings, on a few other occasions 
 during the time of migration, roosting here, and have remarked 
 single birds perch so high up on the reeds, as to sway them 
 horizontally. These plants were always preferred to trees for 
 roosting in, though the latter of various size, up to the most lofty, 
 were quite contiguous. Their apparent preference to reeds was thus 
 
 u2 
 
292 STUBNnxE. 
 
 noted on October the 18th, 1843. When walking about half- 
 past four o'clock on the wooded banks of the Lagan, I ob- 
 served a small flock of these birds flying in a southerly 
 direction, and, as they were high in the air, concluded that they 
 were migrating southwards. But when returning homewards, 
 half an hour afterwards, the same flock (as it was believed from 
 the number of birds being similar) appeared over the bed of reeds 
 already alluded to, and went to roost there. This place is two 
 miles westward of where they were first seen, in the vicinity of 
 which are no reeds, and it was believed that these plants had been 
 noticed in their flight, and were now resorted to, in preference to 
 trees, as a resting place for the night, which was cold and frosty. 
 By Mr. Wm. Todhunter, late of Portumna, I have been informed, 
 that after a hurricane, in September, 1836 (?), nearly nineteeii 
 hundred of these birds were washed ashore on the banks of the 
 Shannon. The reeds in which they placed their trust, were snapped 
 asunder in consequence of their weight. Starlings are stated by 
 Mr. Todhunter to be vastly more numerous during winter than 
 summer in that quarter. This gentleman remarked, that they fre- 
 quented the same woods, as roosting-places, for two or three 
 winters only : in the course of eight years, during which he lived 
 at Portumna, they thus changed three times. 
 
 In Saunders' Newsletter of March the 25th, 1845, Mr. R. 
 Ball published the following interesting note : — 
 
 " In the mass of thorn trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in the 
 Phoenix Park, sleep every night from the end of Octoher to ahout the end of March, 
 from 150,000 to 200,000 starlings ! This enormous number may appear an exaggera- 
 tion, yet it is the estimate of many observations. When the birds were first observed, 
 they were estimated at from 1 5,000 to 20,000 : but during three years they seemed 
 to have increased tenfold, if not more than this, in the recent frost. The congrega- 
 ting of these birds is very interesting. If an observer will at dusk place himself near 
 the gold-fish pond, he will perceive starlings, first in twos and threes, coming from 
 every point of the compass into the ivy-tangled thorn ; presently large numbers, in 
 flocks, will approach ; these seem a little more cautious, and make a partial circuit 
 before they, as it were, drop into their roosts, which they do (garrulous birds as they 
 are on other occasions) in perfect silence. They are scarcely located, when some of 
 the main bodies come in sight, consisting of many thousands each ; they approach 
 much more slowly than the smaller bodies, and hover aud rcconuoitre for a con- 
 
THE STARLING. 293 
 
 sfderable time ; then all at once drop into their places ; there are several of these 
 large bodies, but the largest seems to come from the direction of Lucan. After this 
 detachment (the last of the large ones) has located itself, stragglers only appear, and 
 they come in as long as light enough remains for us to see them. It is most curious 
 to observe starlings in this case, though so very wary in others, placing themselves 
 absolutely within reach of persons walking under the trees ; and it is perhaps not 
 less striking, that not one in one hundred of these persons seems to notice them. 
 Great care has been taken to prevent any undue disturbance of the birds in this rest- 
 ing-place, and it is hoped that any person induced by this statement to observe their 
 roosting, will not molest them. The entire silence of the starlings strongly contrasts 
 with the ceaseless noise of a comparatively small number of sparrows, which congre- 
 gate to sleep in some trees near the bear-pit. A number of blackbirds roost in another 
 part, but they are as nothing compared with the starlings. Fieldfares congregate 
 somewhere near the Viceregal Lodge, it is believed, as they may be observed, flying 
 close to the ground in that direction from various sides, while the starlings are soaring 
 on high towards the Zoological Garden. It is probable that the starlings come from 
 a very great distance to their roosting places ; as it would seem to require a very 
 large circuit to supply the enormous number which congregate in the gardens during 
 the early part of this mouth." Mr. Ball has informed me, that since the starlings 
 came in such numbers to the Zoological Garden, the Blackbirds there have congre- 
 gated to roost, and that he has seen about fifty together on one tree. Mr. Smith 
 O'Brien, M. P., has told him of a similar starling-roost near his residence, in the 
 county of Limerick, where the number of birds was so immense as greatly to injure 
 the trees on which they perched. 
 
 It is most entertaining to witness starlings feeding, so very 
 active and lively are all their movements ; not one moment are 
 they still, and well may it be so, for truly they are omnivorous. 
 
 The contents of the stomachs of starlings .often show, that a great deal of life of 
 various kinds is sacrificed to their appetite, and in quantity, as well as variety of 
 food consumed, they exceed all birds that have come under my observation. From my 
 notes a few examples may be selected. Dec. 17, 1834.— A starling was found to 
 contain five perfect and full-grown specimens of Bulimus lubricus, aud a Helix radia- 
 tula ; some minute Coleoptera, especially dung-beetles, and numerous insect larvae ; 
 a blade of grass, a few grains of oats, and fragments of gravel. 
 
 March 12, 1835. — On opening a starling, thirteen specimens of Bulimus lubricus 
 and two Helices, together with perfect Coleoptera of different species, aud numerous 
 larva?, were observed. 
 
 Dec. 29, 1835. — The stomach of a starling was filled with insects of various kinds, 
 or indeed families, but chiefly Coleoptera, some grain, and the following shells : — 
 twelve perfect adult specimens of Helix radiatula, a H. eel/aria, aud a H. hispida, 
 (both whole aud of ordinary size) ; with twelve examples of Bulimus lubricus nearly 
 all adult and perfect. 
 
 Nov. 25, 1S36. — Nine starlings examined, contained only the remains of insect 
 
294 STURNID^E. 
 
 and vegetable food. They were shot together near Lough Neagh. Clausilia rugosa 
 and Limneus fossarius, with earth-worms and seeds of many kinds, have been found 
 in others. 
 
 A caged starling, kept by a person of my acquaintance, when given grapes, 
 swallowed them whole, but always cast up the " stones " or seeds soon afterwards, as it 
 also did the stones of such small cherries as were eaten whole. The flesh of large 
 cherries was picked off the stone. Mr. Richard Taylor added to the preceding notes, 
 when being published in the Annals, that he once had " a starling which was exceed- 
 ingly fond of calcavella. After having sipped a teaspoonfol with avidity, he would 
 dance in an ecstasy of delight, repeating his own name, Jacob." 
 
 Mr. Waterton in his Essays on Natural History, treats of 
 the starling in a most interesting manner. 
 
 In the Familiar History of Birds and the Journal of a 
 Naturalist, its habits are admirably portrayed: in the former 
 work, the singular flight of a large body before retiring to roost, 
 is described in the most graphic manner. Mr. Knapp correctly ob- 
 serves, that " they seem continually to be running into clusters," 
 which, in the winter season, " brings on them death," as they be- 
 come thereby a temptation to the fowler ; but an instance to the 
 contrary may here be mentioned. A small flock, observed by a 
 shooter of my acquaintance, alighted in a field where his cow was 
 grazing, and clustering on the ground about her head, kept pace 
 with her movements, watching, as was believed, for some favourite 
 food which she aroused; hence the birds, though fairly within 
 shot, could not be fired at, lest the cow should be brought down 
 by the same discharge ! 
 
 The starling is to be met with very generally over the conti- 
 nent. Holland may, from the nature of the country, be called its 
 head-quarters. Southwards, I have seen it in August at the Pon- 
 tine marshes, between Home and Naples ; and eastwards, observed 
 numbers in the middle of the month of May, about the ruined 
 walls of Constantinople, near the celebrated Seven Towers. On 
 comparing an example killed in Ireland, with one from India, 
 labelled " Suharunpoor ; January," they proved identical in 
 species. 
 
295 
 
 THE ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR. 
 Rose-coloured Starling, Ouzel, or Thrush. 
 
 Pastor roseus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Turdus „ „ 
 
 Has at uncertain intervals, during summer and autumn, 
 visited all quarters of the island, including the 
 range of the most western counties. 
 
 In the course of three successive years, it has been met with. It 
 has generally appeared singly, and during the cherry season, 
 been taken alive in several instances. Mr. Vigors stated, in the 
 Zoological Journal (No. 4, p. 489), that one of these birds had 
 been shot near Wexford, in 1820. In the first volume of the 
 Magazine of Natural History, p. 493, the following communica- 
 tion from Mr. C. Adams Drew, dated Ennis, June 25th, 1828, 
 appeared : — " It is now above twenty years • since, on visiting my 
 friend Mr. Lane at Roxton, I found him in his garden endeavour- 
 ing to shoot a strange bird, which had for several days previous 
 been making sad havoc among his cherries. After two or three 
 unsuccessful attempts on the part of Mr. Lane, the bird at last 
 fell to my barrel. * * * Its cry resembled that of the water- 
 ouzel. It was quite a rara avis in this country, no one knowing 
 anything of it." A description of the bird follows, proving it to 
 have been the Pastor roseus. Dr. R. Graves of Dublin writing to 
 a mutual friend in Belfast, in Nov. 1830, mentioned, that among 
 his late acquisitions had been the P. roseus, shot in a cherry 
 orchard in the county of Clare (in the summer of 1830 ?) by one 
 of his pupils, whose father shot a bird of the same species thirty 
 years before, in the same orchard. A rose-coloured pastor " was 
 captured at Carrigataha, adjoining Ballibrado, county of Tipperary, 
 in June, 1833, by Mr. Win. Eennell, who baited a fish-hook with 
 a cherry, which the bird swallowed, and was thus taken. One 
 was shot in a garden near Dublin on the 20th of July, 1833. On 
 dissection, it proved to be a female ; the eggs were small and not 
 distinct ; gizzard muscular ; the skins of cherries visible, by which 
 
296 STURNID.E. 
 
 fruit the inside of the gizzard and mouth were stained bright 
 pink." * "When in Dublin on the 26th of June, 1834, I saw an 
 adult male P. rosens previous to its being skinned. It was taken 
 in the garden of R. Long, Esq., Longfield, Cashel, in a cherry- 
 net, on the 7th of that month, and had been kept alive for a 
 fortnight. In July, 1836, Lieut. Davis, R.N., of Donaghadee, 
 sent to the Belfast Museum an adult male, which was captured 
 early in the month, in a garden near that town. About the middle 
 of the month, a second example was shot at Hillsborough in the 
 same county. On the 12th of August, the same year, a third was 
 obtained in Ireland : it was shot near Kenmare, county of Kerry. 
 In the month of August, 1837, a rose-coloured pastor was shot 
 from among a flock of starlings on one of the islands of Arran, at 
 the entrance of Galway bay. In June, 1838, one of these birds 
 was obtained near Ashbourne, about ten miles from Dublin ; its 
 stomach was filled with cherries. On the 7th or 8th of July, that 
 year, a P. roseus was shot, when feeding on the same fruit, at 
 Newbarron, near Eieldstown, a few miles from Dublin. On the 
 13th of September, 1838, I saw two specimens which had been 
 killed in different parts of the north of Ireland. A male bird was 
 shot about the 1st of that month, in the plantations at Bangor 
 Castle, county of Down, where another was seen in company with 
 it ; they had been observed there for some time. The other was 
 shot by Alex. Tyler, Esq., at the Umbra, Magilligan, county of 
 Londonderry, about the 10th of September. Having the oppor- 
 tunity of examining this bird in a fresh state, I drew up the fol- 
 lowing description : — 
 
 inch. line. 
 Entire length 8 9 
 
 Bill from rictus to point . . 1 2£ 
 
 Upper mandible, measured along the ridge from forehead 
 
 to point 9 
 
 Wing from carpus to end of longest quill 5 
 
 Tail extending beyond closed wings 1 
 
 Tarsus 1 3 
 
 Middle toe and nail 1 3 
 
 Hind toe and tail, measured in a straight line 9 
 
 * Kev. T. Knox. 
 
THE ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR. 297 
 
 Tibia feathered to the tarsal joint. Colours, those of the adult 
 male, as described by authors (as are likewise those of the one above 
 noticed, from Bangor Castle), and as such contradistinguished from 
 the plumage assumed until the second year, according to Tem- 
 minck's description (Man. part 3, p. 76). On dissection, it proved 
 a male, and was in excellent condition. The stomach, with the 
 exception of a large coleopterous insect, was entirely filled with the 
 seeds of gooseberries. 
 
 In April, 1838, Mr. H. H. Dombrain of Dublin, received a 
 rose-coloured pastor, which had been captured some years before 
 at Woodhill, Ardara, county of Donegal : it was taken alive in 
 the green-house in an exhausted state, and died a few hours after- 
 wards. 
 
 With respect to the county of Kerry, Mr. E. Chute mentions 
 one being shot when picking at fruit in the garden at Ballyheigh 
 Castle ; another being obtained at Watteville, and a third in July, 
 1 841, when feeding on raspberries in the garden at Derraquin. 
 A bird of this species, killed in the middle of August, 1845, in 
 Rosc omm on (?), was sent to Dublin to be preserved. A pair 
 was often seen, during the summer of 1846, in the garden at 
 the Umbra, Magilligan, where they were remarked to be " very 
 fond of fruit." 
 
 This species appears under the head of "Irregular birds of 
 Passage," in a paper by M. Duval- Jouve on the Migratory Birds 
 of Provence, published in the Zoologist, for Oct., 1845, p. 1115. 
 It is remarked : — 
 
 " The rose-coloured pastor is sometimes seen in Provence. In 
 the autumn of 1817, many were observed ; in 1837, at the end of 
 May and June, some were seen and always in flocks ; they sought 
 the large trees on the banks of the brooks, were fond of cherries, 
 and might be easily approached." 
 
 On a comparison of Irish specimens, with some obtained at 
 " Suharunpoor," India, the species proved to be the same. 
 
298 couviDiE. 
 
 THE CHOUGH. 
 
 Cornish Chough. Red-legged Jackdaw * or Crow. 
 
 Fregilus graculus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Corvus „ „ 
 
 Inhabits precipitous rocks in various parts of Ireland. 
 
 It is noticed in Harris's Down (1744), and Smith's Cork (1749), 
 as one of the birds of those counties, and in the latter is said to 
 be " very common, frequenting rocks, old castles, and ruins upon 
 the sea-coast." The species is more generally diffused around 
 the rock -bound shores of Ireland, than British authors would lead 
 us to believe it is on those of Scotland and England* It may be 
 met with in such localities in the north, east, south, and west of 
 the island. 
 
 The basaltic precipices of the north-east are admirably adapted 
 to choughs, and about the promontory of Eairhead these birds 
 particularly abound. On one occasion, when visiting tins place and 
 the head-lands in the immediate vicinity of the Giant's Causeway, 
 on the same day (8th of June), during the breeding-season of 
 these birds, I remarked choughs only about the former locality, 
 and jackdaws only about the latter, both species being numerous 
 in their respective quarters : the choughs, too, were wonderfully 
 tame in this instance, permitting our approach within twenty-five 
 paces.t About Horn-Head, in the north-west of the county of 
 
 * Red-legged jackdaw of the north of Ireland ; cliff-daw of Kerry. Smith states 
 in his History of Cork, that the Irish name for this bird implies a Spanish jackdaw. 
 
 f In Dr. J. D. Marshall's memoir, on the statistics and natural history of the basaltic 
 island of Rathlin (lyi»g off the north of the county of Antrim), it js remarked of the 
 chough : — " This is called by the islanders, the jackdaw, and is by far the most 
 numerous species on the island. In the mouth of July, I found them everywhere 
 associated in large flocks, atone place frequenting inland situations, and at another 
 congregated on the sea-shore. They had just collected together their different families, 
 now fully fledged, aud were picking up their food (which consisted chiefly of insects), 
 either on the shore, in the crevices of rocks, or in the pasture fields. Mr. Selby men- 
 tions that the chough will not alight on the turf, if it can possibly avoid it, always 
 preferring gravel, stones, or walls. In Rathlin, its choice of situation seems to be 
 but sparingly exhibited, as I found it frequenting the corn aud pasture fields, in even 
 greater numbers than along the shores. * * * They breed on the lofty cliffs 
 overhanging the sea ; the eggs are of a whitish colour, speckled at the larger end 
 
THE CHOUGH. 299 
 
 Donegal, I saw many choughs and jackdaws in the month of June, 
 1832, and was told by the gamekeeper of the district, that they 
 never bred in company, or associated together there ; the nest of 
 the chough was stated by him to be placed so far within the clefts 
 of rocks, as to be difficult of access. In August, 1845, Mr. 
 Hyndman remarked that they were numerous about the rocks of 
 Tory Island. The nearest place to Belfast tenanted at present, or 
 within the last few years, by a pair or two of these birds, is a 
 range of marine cliffs, called the Gobbins, just outside the northern 
 entrance to the bay. Here on the 28th of May, some years ago, 
 a nest of young birds, which made known their proximity to 
 the summit of the rocks by their calls for food, was doomed to 
 perish, by a visitor to the place wantonly shooting both their 
 parents. In 1847, two pair bred there. When at Strangford 
 Lough, in June, 1846, I was credibly assured that the chough 
 breeds in Skatrick castle, and in an old castle on island Mahee. 
 There are no cliffs in that quarter. One of these birds, shot on 
 an island in Strangford Lough, in February, 1843, came under 
 my notice. That choughs will sometimes wander far from their 
 usual haunts, to a place in no respect suited to them, was 
 evinced on the 5th of March, 1836, when a pair appeared at Dun- 
 bar's Dock, Belfast, and one of them, in beautiful adult plumage, 
 was shot. That day and the preceding were very stormy : the 
 wind southerly. The stomach of the specimen procured was filled 
 with insect larvse. In that from Strangford were the remains of 
 such Crustacea, as are met with occasionally, " high and dry," upon 
 marine rocks, as Ligia oeeanica (small), Asetti, &c. ; there was 
 also some vegetable matter. 
 
 with brown. The chough is of a restless, active dispositioa, hopping or flying about 
 from place to place ; it is also very shy, and can with difficulty be approached. 
 Temminck says, that the legs of this bird, before the moult, are of a dark colour ; 
 while Montagu affirms, that they are orange-coloured from the first. The young 
 which I examined, were ahout sis weeks old, and in them the bills were of a brownish 
 orange ; not of that brilliant colour which marks the adult bird, but certainly exhi- 
 biting enough of the orange to lead us to conjecture, that they would become completely 
 of that colour after the moult. The legs could uot be called ' orange-coloured,' for 
 although there was a tinge of that colour, yet the brown predominated. I should, 
 therefore, agree with Temminck, in stating the legs aud feet to be ' dark-coloured ' in 
 the young birds." 
 
300 CORYIDM. 
 
 When on a tour with Mr. R. Ball in the summer of 1834 to the 
 west and south of Ireland, choughs were observed by us at Acini 
 Head, and the largest of the South Islands of Arran, &c, in the 
 west:* in the south, they were heard about the Lower .Lake 
 of Killarney, and seen at Cable Island, near Youghal. Other 
 parts of the coast of Cork are frequented by them. About the 
 cliffs at Ardmore, county of Waterford, they are said by Mr. R. 
 Ball to be numerous, and to congregate in the evening like jack- 
 daws before going to roost. Requiring two or three specimens for 
 friends, he one evening in July or August offered a man a shil- 
 ling each, for all that he would bring to him on the following 
 morning, when, at an early hour, the man duly appeared with 
 fourteen, and seriously apologised for the smallness of the number. 
 Col. Sabine has remarked, that they breed in the rocks at Bally- 
 bunian, on the coast of Kerry ; and the late Mr. T. I 1 . Neligan of 
 Tralee, in mentioning to me some years ago, that they were very 
 common about the marine cliffs of that county, stated, that 
 numbers built in the rocks of inland mountains, four or five miles 
 distant from the sea. The choice of such places is not rare in 
 Ireland. Some of the latest writers on British ornithology ap- 
 pear to think, that the chough never leaves the vicinity of the sea, 
 and in one work, it is stated, that the species is " never observed 
 inland," although Crow Castle has been noticed by Montagu as 
 one of its haunts ; this is situated in the beautiful vale of Llan- 
 gollen in North Wales, where the Lombardy poplar, spiring 
 above the other rich foliage around the picturesque village of the 
 same name, imparts, in addition to other accompaniments, quite 
 an Italian character to the scene. A pair of these birds were some 
 years since observed throughout the breeding-season, about a ruin 
 between Newtown-Crommelin and Cushendall, county of Antrim, 
 three miles distant from the sea : at Salagh Braes, a semicircular 
 range of basaltic rocks in the same county, and nearly twice that 
 distance from the coast, the chough builds. The gamekeeper at 
 Tollymore Park, county of Down, informed me in 1S36, that he 
 
 * "Cornish choughs with red bills and legs," are noticed in O'Flaherty's ' H-Iar 
 Connaught," written in 1684, as frequenting Arranmorc, &c, p. 67. 
 
THE CHOUGH. 301 
 
 had shot these birds in the mountains of Mourne, which are re- 
 gularly frequented by them : — they build in the inland cliffs. 
 For some years previously, he had annually taken the young 
 from two or three nests, with the intention of rearing them, but 
 was unsuccessful. 
 
 This intelligent gamekeeper assured me, that once among these 
 mountains, he came upon seven choughs attendant on a poor sheep, 
 which was in a particularly weak state when lambing. About 
 half of the young animal was protruded, and had been consumed 
 by these birds, three of which were at the time busily engaged 
 preying upon it.* He had not a gun with him, but was so wroth 
 at witnessing this act of the chough, that when armed, in the 
 latter part of the day, he sacrificed three of these birds ; all which 
 came within his range. He believes that choughs would even 
 destroy a weak animal. They are seen by him, commonly fre- 
 quenting the entrances to foxes' earths, for the purpose, he believes, 
 of feeding on " sheep-shanks " and other similar rejectamenta. As 
 the chough is not considered a carnivorous bird, I was particular 
 in questioning my informant as to the species, and his accuracy is 
 unquestionable. Montagu mentions that his tame bird was fed 
 partly on raw and boiled flesh-meat. Their liveliness, in addition 
 to their beauty, renders them attractive in captivity. In the 
 Zoological Garden, Regent's Park, they may generally be seen, 
 most industriously occupied, digging with their bills into the 
 chinks of the wall, or floor of their inclosure. 
 
 Mr. E. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, informs me, that the chough 
 has been shot within a mile of that town. He has seen the 
 species at Ilelvick Head, county of Waterford, and in great numbers 
 at Loop Head, on the coast of Clare ; — about the marine cliffs 
 generally of the latter county, it is common. Mr. Davis writes : — 
 c ' Although Mr. Selby says ' it has been remarked that the chough 
 will not alight on the turf if it can possibly avoid it, always pre- 
 ferring gravel, stones, or walls/ I have seen hundreds freely alight 
 
 * Mr. Hogg contributes to Macgillivray's British Birds, (vol. i.) a similar account 
 of the carrion-crow, with horrible details of what, to human sympathy, would seem 
 its cold-blooded cruelty to sheep, when in the act of parturition. 
 
302 CORVIDJE. 
 
 and feed on it, and have observed them feeding like rooks in a 
 ploughed field •" I have myself observed these birds on the short 
 pasture of the marine cliffs. It is further stated by my corres- 
 pondent, that " great numbers of choughs breed in the precipices 
 over the lake in the Commeragh mountains, county of Waterford, 
 about seven Irish miles from the sea, where they are very rarely 
 molested, on account of building in almost inaccessible spots. 
 Here the young were ready to fly on the 6th and 7 th of August, 
 1836 : on the 28th of April, 1841, four of their eggs were pro- 
 cured from this locality." At the Saltee Islands, off the "Wexford 
 coast, and about Howth, near Dublin, they are often met with.* 
 
 I have seen examples of the chough, which were killed at 
 Portpatrick, Wigtonshire, and along the Ayrshire coast ; and have 
 heard the cry of the species, in the evening, about the ruined 
 castle at Ballantrae, in the latter county. In July, 1826, when 
 in the valley of glaciers, on the south side of Mont Blanc, I was 
 attracted by the well-known, though somewhat distant call of the 
 chough, and on looking up, saw an immense flock wending its 
 way towards the pinnacles or aiguilles of that "monarch of 
 mountains." 
 
 The call of the closely allied Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Temm., 
 likewise an inhabitant of the Alps, is unknown to me, but in the 
 present instance, my attention was arrested by the similarity of the 
 note to that of our native bird. This, to my ear, is very lively and 
 pleasing, and cannot be mistaken for that of the jackdaw. The 
 flight of the chough too is peculiar, though as in others of the 
 Corvidce, the quills are much expanded, and give a deeply fringed 
 appearance to the wing, as the bird flies overhead. A friend re- 
 marks upon the flight as " singularly waving ; they flap their 
 wings, then sail forty or fifty yards, and so on gradually, until they 
 alight." 
 
 Borlase, in his Natural History of Cornwall (p. 243, &c), pub- 
 lished in 1758, gives, in a quaint and attractive manner, a full and 
 interesting account of this bird, which has often the prefix of 
 Cornish to its name. 
 
 * Major T. Walker. 
 
303 
 
 THE RAVEN. 
 
 Corvus Corax, Linn. 
 
 Is distributed over the island, and more especially to 
 be seen within a day's foray of the rocks in which it 
 roosts or builds. 
 
 As sites for the raven's nest, rocks are here preferred to trees, 
 and wherever there is a range of cliffs suited to the purpose, tins 
 bird is sure to be found, unless the eagle or buzzard monopolize 
 the locality, a remark which applies to the islets off the coast — 
 as the Copeland, Rathlin, Tory, &c, — as well as to the mainland. 
 In the range of lofty precipitous cliffs, called the Gobbins, rising 
 directly above the sea, a pair of ravens build. Their nest here, 
 in 1847, was robbed of its eggs ; a new nest was then constructed, 
 and the eggs, six in number each time, met with a similar fate. 
 From time immemorial ravens have been considered to inhabit 
 the same rock. In the lower districts of England, certain trees 
 have for such a length of time been resorted to by this species for 
 nesting, as to have acquired the name of Raven-trees. In like 
 manner, a wild and unfrequented locality in the Belfast mountains, 
 is believed to bear the name of the Crow Glen, from a pair of ravens 
 having for a series of years built in a cliff there. Persecution has 
 long since driven them from the spot, but the name is still re- 
 tained. Their place was for some years supplied by a pair of 
 kestrels (Falco Tinnunculus) , but as their nest could, though with 
 some difficulty, be reached, it was always robbed of its young 
 tenants, and this species, too, has ceased to nidify there. 
 
 Ravens are generally so very wary and distrustful of man, that 
 the following note, communicated to me, may be worth insertion. 
 "In the middle of March, 1828, a pair of ravens had a nest in 
 Grogan's glen, in the Black mountain, Belfast. It was near the 
 top of the highest rock, was formed of sticks and lined with wool, 
 and contained seven eggs of a dark green colour, blotched over 
 with black. The birds were very tame, approaching within three or 
 four yards, and so long as I remained, hopping about near me, 
 
304 corvidjK 
 
 when their glossy plumage looked very beautiful." Their tame- 
 ness, I have no doubt, arose simply from their being unmolested, 
 perhaps in consequence of a belief among the country people, that 
 it is " unlucky " to kill a raven ; for this very pair of birds was 
 known to carry off eggs, young ducks, &c, from the nearest .farm- 
 yards. But, as is usual in such cases, one of the poor ravens, 
 thus putting its trust in man, was shot a few days afterwards by 
 a vagrant gunner. 
 
 I have with much interest observed in the month of October, 
 about the fine basaltic cliffs of the Cave-lull, near Belfast, and long 
 after the breeding-season was past, that as evening set in, a few 
 ravens would appear together, hoarsely croaking about the rocks, 
 while at the same time hosts of jackdaws garrulously chattered, 
 and several kestrels, as they careered gracefully about in com- 
 pany, added their shrill voices. After some little time they all 
 retired to the rocks for the night. I have here remarked solitary 
 ravens utter notes in sound likes whe-ee-upp, the last syllable being 
 most guttural. 
 
 On one occasion I had interesting evidence of the power of 
 sight in the raven. A nest of young rats, not more than three 
 or four days old, had been dug up in a stubble field, and after 
 being killed, were left there. Very soon afterwards, two or three 
 ravens passed over the place at a great height, and on coming 
 above the spot, dropped almost directly down upon them. The 
 young rats had not been ten minutes dead at the time, and conse- 
 quently could hardly have emitted any effluvium. Besides, they 
 were so small, that even had they given out any to the air, it 
 seems hardly possible that the odour could have ascended to the 
 great elevation at which the birds had been. Sight alone, I con- 
 ceive, must in this instance have been the guiding sense. 
 
 Mr. R. Davis, junr., of Clonmel, remarks, that ravens, if taken 
 young, can be reared so as not to injure other birds, as he " for a 
 long time kept in one cage a raven, a hooded crow, a jackdaw, a 
 magpie, and a jay, all of which lived on good terms with each 
 other." Mr. R. Ball communicates the following anecdote of 
 this species. — "When a boy at school, a tame raven was very 
 
THE RAVEN. 305 
 
 attentive in watching our cribs or bird-traps, and when a bird was 
 taken, he endeavoured to catch it by turning up the crib, but in 
 so doing, the bird always escaped, as the raven could not let go 
 the crib in time to seize it. After several vain attempts of this 
 kind, the raven, seeing another bird caught, instead of going at 
 once to the crib, went to another tame raven, and induced it to 
 accompany him, when the one lifted up the crib, and the other 
 bore the poor captive off in triumph." 
 
 It was a common practice in a spacious yard in Belfast, to 
 lay trains of corn for sparrows, and to shoot them from a window, 
 which was only so far open as to afford room for the muzzle of the 
 gun ; neither the instrument of destruction, nor the shooter being 
 visible from the outside. A tame raven, which was a nestling when 
 brought to the yard, and probably had never seen a shot fired, 
 afforded evidence that it understood the whole affair. When any 
 one appeared carrying a gun across the yard towards the house 
 from which the sparrows were fired at, the raven exhibited the 
 utmost alarm, by hurrying off with all possible speed, but in a ludi- 
 crously awkward gait, to hide itself, screaming loudly all the while. 
 Though alarmed for its own safety, this bird always concealed itself 
 near to, and within view of the field of action ; the shot was hardly 
 fired, when it dashed out from its retreat, and seizing one of the 
 dead or wounded sparrows, hurried back to its hiding-place. I have 
 repeatedly witnessed the whole scene. The raven's portion of the 
 sparrows was as duly exacted, as the tithe of the quails killed 
 during their migration at Capri, in the bay of Naples, is said to 
 be by the bishop of that island. 
 
 Mr. E,. Patterson, in a note kindly contributed, remarks : — "In 
 September, 1831, I travelled from Portarlington, as far as New- 
 bridge barracks, with a very intelligent man, the colonel of a 
 Lancer regiment stationed there. This gentleman mentioned, that 
 when near Limerick on the preceding day, he saw from the coach- 
 top a raven alight among a flock of full-grown ducks in a field 
 adjoining the road, and after giving one of them a few blows, 
 throw it on its back, and begin to tear it up. I did not before 
 know that it ever carried its audacity so far as to attack a duck 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 corvidjE. 
 
 when fall-grown, as in this instance/' Mr. Waterton states, that 
 a tame raven kept at Walton Hall, " took a sudden dislike to an 
 old duck, with which, till then, he had been on the best of terms; 
 and he killed her in an instant." A raven which lived in the yard 
 attached to the chief inn at Antrim, for about fifteen years, had 
 occasional encounters with game-cocks brought thither to engage 
 it, and bets pended on the issue. The raven in every instance 
 proved the victor. Avoiding the blows of the cock, the former 
 acted only on the defensive, until it could manage to lay hold of 
 his head, which instantly was crushed in his powerful beak, and 
 its antagonist fell lifeless on the ground. 
 
 Mr. Robert Warren, junr., informs me, that when on the 27th 
 of April, 1848, at the Beanies, — lofty rocks, six miles southward 
 of the entrance to Cork harbour — where the common cormorant 
 (P/ialacrocorax carbo) breeds ; he observed a pair of ravens visiting 
 the nests for the purpose of carrying away the eggs : and saw not 
 less than five borne off on the points of their bills. Their depre- 
 dations were committed with impunity, as they only visited the 
 nests during the absence of the owners. As these ravens had a 
 nest about three hundred yards from the breeding haunt of the 
 cormorant, the number of eggs they will thus abstract in a 
 season, must be very great. 
 
 The late Mr. T. F. Neligan of Tralee mentioned to me, that 
 ravens chiefly frequent the sea-shore in the county of Kerry, 
 where he had often seen them feeding on putrid fish.* Great 
 numbers of these birds are in some works, (especially those treat- 
 ing of American ornithology,) described as frying in company. 
 Although ravens may be seen every day in the year around Belfast, 
 and usually in pairs, the most I have heard of being observed 
 on wing together, did not exceed twelve in number. About 
 Navarino and Athens, the raven has come under my notice — 
 
 * Along the coast of Norway, ravens were remarked by my friend, the late George 
 Matthews, Esq., of Springvale, to be " in great numbers everywhere, and very tame. 
 They perform the ollice of scavengers about the houses of the people, a very necessary 
 and useful occupation, considering the quantities of fish ofial thrown out " Grey 
 crows (C. comix) were also very numerous. 
 
THE CARRION CROW. 307 
 
 Chateaubriand introduces it at the latter place, in his description 
 of sunrise, as seen from the Acropolis.* 
 
 Mr. Waterton, in his Essays on Natural History, gives a 
 highly interesting account of the raven, but, to his great grief, this 
 bird has not for many years been seen about Walton Hall. Sir 
 Win. Jardine, with an accurately observant eye, points out (in his 
 British Birds) the favourite haunts of the raven. Mr. Macgillivray 
 treats very fully of its habits, and gives much desirable informa- 
 tion (vol. i.); as Audubon likewise does, from personal observation 
 in America. The raven is honoured with a place in those de- 
 lightful articles of Blackwood's Magazine for 1826, entitled 'A 
 Glauce over Selby's Ornithology/ in which the keen observer of 
 the habits of birds is evident, through the wit and imagination 
 investing the whole matter. 
 
 THE CARRION CROW. 
 
 Corvus cor one, Linn. 
 
 Though inhabiting this island, is much less common 
 than in England. 
 
 It is not equally diffused over Great Britain, being, as we are 
 informed, " very uncommon in the northern and middle parts of 
 Scotland, but in the southern division of that country and in 
 England, much more numerous than the raven or the hooded 
 crow."t When on a visit at Jardine. Hall, Dumfries- shire, in 
 October, 1845, I particularly remarked, that the carrion crow took 
 the place which the hooded or grey crow occupies in the north of 
 Ireland : — at Rammerscales, in the same neighbourhood, not less 
 than a dozen were seen congregated one evening at roosting time. 
 For its comparative rarity in Ireland, I cannot account. The 
 want of old trees at the present time might be imagined one 
 reason, but their scarcity cannot be the cause, as it appears from 
 the following extract, that at a period when there was much old 
 wood in the country, the bird was believed not to be found here. 
 
 * Itineraire dc Paris a Jerusalem. f Macgillivray, vol. i. p. 519. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 corvid^e. 
 
 In the 1st volume of Tracts printed for the Irish Archaeo- 
 logical Society, it is remarked, in ' A Brife description of Ireland, 
 made in this yeere 1589, by Robert Payne/ that, — "There is not 
 that place in Ireland where anye venomous thinge will liue. There 
 is neither mol, pye, nor carren crow." In a note to this, Dr. 
 Aquilla Smith of Dublin, who edited the memoir, observed : — " Of 
 the carren or carrion crow (Corvus cor one), we have not any 
 authority as to the date of its introduction into Ireland. Moryson 
 [in 1617] says, we have not the blacke crow, but onely crowes of 
 mingled colour, such as wee call Royston crows," part iii. b. 3. 
 p. 160. Although the attractive magpie may have been intro- 
 duced to this country, I cannot think that the carrion crow ever 
 was, but believe it to be strictly indigenous. Its comparative 
 scarcity in this island, and not being commonly distinguished 
 from its equally sable congener the rook, may account for its 
 having been overlooked, 
 
 This species was included by Smith, as one of the birds of the 
 county of Cork ; but that it was not well known in Ireland, is 
 sufficiently indicated by the absence of its name from Mr. Tem- 
 pleton's published catalogue of the native vertebrate animals. 
 That eminent naturalist has remarked in his MS. — " I have not 
 seen this bird, but from what I have heard, am inclined to think 
 it is found about Dundalk." About the river Lagan, within the 
 flow of the tide, and along the shores of Belfast bay, this crow is 
 sometimes met with, and feeds upon any animal matter cast up 
 by the waves, but more especially on the carcasses of horses, 
 which after being skinned, are left upon the beach. The refuse of 
 the slaughter-house, when spread on meadows for manure, parti- 
 cularly attracts it inland. 
 
 The carrion crow is known to me, as found in the north, east, 
 and west of the island : in the south, as already mentioned, it is 
 noticed by Smith, but was never seen by Mr. R. Ball during his 
 residence at Youghal ; nor by the Rev. Joseph Stopford, who has 
 given much attention to the birds of the county of Cork. The 
 species is well known to this gentleman, from his having often shot 
 it in England. About Clonmel, however, Mr. R. Davis, junr., 
 
THE CARRION CROW. 309 
 
 states, that it is always to be found, though not very common. In 
 the neighbouring county of Kilkenny, the attention of a gentle- 
 man of my acquaintance was one day attracted by a "black crow" 
 having an extraordinary white appearance about the head. It flew 
 about a hundred yards after being first seen, and then alighted on 
 the ground. On running up to ascertain the cause of the phenom- 
 enon, he was astonished to see the identical bird fly off, an ordi- 
 nary crow; but on reaching the place where it had "pitched," 
 a duck's egg was found, which, being carried in the bill, had pro- 
 duced the appearance described ; — the egg was still whole. - * 
 
 When at Glenarm Park, county of Antrim, in 1833, the game- 
 keeper, a native of England, who knew the bird well there, stated, 
 that he had seen a few about Glenarm, where, in the breeding- 
 season, one of them and a grey crow (67. comix) were con- 
 stantly associated together for some weeks, and, he had no doubt, 
 were paired. A Scotch gamekeeper, who soon afterwards sup- 
 plied the place of my informant, told me in the following year, 
 that he had occasionally killed the carrion crow in Glenarm Park* 
 but considered the species rather rare.f He assured me, that 
 when gamekeeper in Scotland, he had repeatedly seen the carrion 
 and grey crow paired, and had known an instance of such a pair 
 being mated for two or three years, and building in the same tree 
 annually. The identity of the grey one was sufficiently manifest by 
 its being minus a foot, which its owner had not improbably been 
 deprived of by some trap. In the instances which came under 
 the observation of my trustworthy informant, the grey crow was 
 considered to be the male, on account of its comparative absence 
 from the nest, &c. The young birds, in one nest examined by 
 this gamekeeper, were stated to have exhibited, some the plumage 
 of the grey, and others that of the carrion crow. 
 
 * In Macgillivray's British Birds (vol. i. p. 523), an instance of the carrion 
 crow bearing off the egg of a wild duck whole, is recorded by Mr. Weir, who witnessed 
 it : — this gentleman and Mr. Hogg communicate full and interesting narrations of the 
 bird to that work. The contributions of the latter, called a " Shepherd" in the pre- 
 face have all the racy spirit of the mountain air about them, Mr. Waterton states, 
 that the carrion crow carries eggs off, " not in his bill but on the pont of it, 
 having thrust his upper mandible through the shell." 
 
 f 1 saw specimens which had been obtained there, exhibited as " vennin. " 
 
310 corvim:. 
 
 This species is sometimes, if not generally, infested with para- 
 sitic insects (lice) to an extraordinary degree, so much so as in 
 one instance to deter a friend from skinning one he had received, 
 just after it was shot. On mentioning this to another amateur 
 taxidermist, he remarked, that in skinning one of these birds, 
 he became ' ' covered " with its parasites. According to my own 
 observation, birds of prey, or species partly carnivorous, are more 
 infested with lice than others ; and particularly with those belong- 
 ing to the most active and stirring genera of their attractive tribe ! 
 In Mr. Denny's Monographia Anoplurorum Britannia?, much 
 information will be found on this subject. 
 
 THE GREY CROW.* 
 Hooded Crow. 
 
 Corvus comix, Linn. 
 
 Is common in Ireland, and resident in all quarters of the 
 island. 
 
 In the north and east, it has come under my own observation at 
 every period of the year, and is fully as numerous in summer as 
 at any other time. At tins season, too, I have remarked the bird 
 as common in the west and south ; and my correspondents there 
 agree in noticing it as a resident species. Sir. Wm. Jardine 
 observes : — " So far as our information and observation have ex- 
 tended, this species is stationary through the year in the northern 
 parts of Scotland, while in the south, and in some parts of Eng- 
 land, it is migratory." f The Rev. L. Jenyns, in a note to 
 p. 143, of his edition of White's Selborne (1843), remarks, that 
 tins bird "has, very rarely been known to breed in England," and 
 
 * In the north of Ireland, it is commonly called by this, its most distinctive appel- 
 lation : in some parts of the south, Scald Crow is the name in frequent use. In a 
 foot-note to the starling, I have noticed the grey crow as called huddy iu Perthshire, 
 where I had been shooting. Hoddy, is applied by Mr. Macgillivray to the carrion 
 crow (vol. i. p. 516, and vol. iii. p. 715), and given in the former volume as one of 
 many of its names ; in the latter, the species is called simply " hoddy or carrion crow." 
 
 t Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 233. 
 
THE GREY CROW. 311 
 
 adds : — "There is a record, however, of its having done so near 
 Scarborough, on two or three occasions/' 
 
 From what has been written on the grey crow, as a bird of Great 
 Britain, it would appear to be more common in Ireland generally, 
 than in England, or on the mainland of Scotland.* Mr. Mac- 
 gillivray remarks, that it "is very abundant in the Hebrides, the 
 Shetland, and Orkney islands," vol. i. p. 531. I have observed 
 the species to be so, on the islands off the coast of Ireland ; where 
 rocks are necessarily its breeding places. Many build in the pre- 
 cipitous marine cliffs of the Gobbins, outside the northern entrance 
 to Belfast bay, as numbers of jackdaws also do ; together with the 
 raven and the chough. These cliffs are the haunt of innumerable 
 sea-fowl. The sea-shore or its vicinity is the favourite resort of this 
 bird — winch may occasionally be seen mingled with Grallatores 
 and gulls, at the edge of the in-coming waves at Belfast bayt — 
 but it is likewise resident in far inland localities. Sir Wm, Jardine 
 states, that according to his observation, rocks are preferred as a 
 nesting-place. Mr. Macgillivray (vol. i. p. 533) seems to 
 doubt its building at all in trees ; but around Belfast, trees in the 
 immediate vicinity of its " beat " are preferred to rocks a little 
 more distant, where the raven and jackdaw find a home. In 
 some very tall and fine beech trees, on a lawn bordering the bay, 
 several pairs of these birds have built for many years, and two or 
 three of their nests occasionally appearing in a single tree, suggest 
 the idea of an infant rookery. When, however, more nests than 
 
 * With respect to Swansea in Wales, we learn the following from Mr. Dillwyn's 
 Fauna and Mora of that locality : — "Hooded crow never common in this neighbour- 
 hood ; about forty years ago I watched a pair, which throughout the winter were 
 always to be seen on the sea-shore. * * * Thev disappeared in the spring." 
 p. 6. (1848.) 
 
 f Mr. Poole remarks : — " On the 10th of August, I saw these birds flocking along 
 the course of the Elbe, between Hamburgh and Magdeburgh. Large numbers were 
 distributed along the shores in company with gulls, whose habits they seemed to 
 imitate, for they frequently dipped down to the water while on wing, and stretched out 
 their feet to support themselves, while they picked up whatever morsel had attracted 
 their attention. In the mountains of Silesia they endure the utmost severity of the 
 winter to gaiu a scanty livelihood in the vicinity of towns, into the centre of which 
 they sometimes venture, or on hills which face the south, and from whose declivity the 
 snow has consequently been partially dissolved before the weak and glittering rays of 
 the sun. They flock together in considerable numbers, perhaps as many as 100 or 150 
 in a troop." 
 
312 CORVlDiE. 
 
 one appear in any tree, they are I believe the erections of different 
 years, or are not tenanted at the same time. In wooded glens 
 and other localities, where the Conifera bore a very small propor- 
 tion to the deciduous trees, I have remarked the partiality of this 
 bird for building in the pine. Mr. W. M'Calla, of Eoundstone, 
 states, that " the grey crow is very common in Connemara, and 
 breeds in all the wooded islands of the lakes, in other woods and 
 thickets, and even in thorn-bushes in the vicinity of houses : it 
 lays from three to five eggs.* These birds are not accused of 
 doing much harm to the keepers of poultry, the dead animal 
 matter, at all seasons on the shore, supplying abundance of food." 
 He further remarks, " that in the upper part of Eoundstone bay, 
 they may be observed picking up the Buccinum boreale, rising 
 with them into the air, and then letting them fall on the rocks to 
 break them : in which they are frequently unable to succeed, and 
 have to drop the shell from a height in the air several times, before 
 attaining their object." Mr. E. Ball has seen one of these birds 
 drop a cockle (Cardium edule) on a stone to break it, while another 
 stood cunningly by to snatch up the prey, and succeeded in the theft. 
 All this is but a counterpart of what is related by Dr. Fleming in 
 Ins Philosophy of Zoology, as having been observed by him in 
 Zetland. I have myself repeatedly witnessed t the mere act 
 of its rising into the air with shell-fish and letting them drop on 
 rocks. This bird is useful on the sea-shore by consuming any 
 animal matter cast by the tide upon the beach ; but is looked upon 
 by the gamekeeper as an evil-doer, is accused of sucking the eggs 
 of game, and of occasionally destroying the infant brood. Accord- 
 ingly it is persecuted. A pair of grey crows was believed to have 
 sucked a dozen or more eggs in a wild-duck's nest in the aquatic 
 
 * Six nests were built last season in trees, four of which were pines, in a demesne of 
 about sixty acres, near Cork. They were ascended to early in April, for the sake of 
 the eggs, three to five in number. The nests were composed of sticks, and lined with 
 wool and hair. (Mr. 11. Warren, junr.) 
 
 t In Leigh's Natural History of Lancashire, &c, it is remarked of the " sea crow 
 (C. comix). Its food for the most part is muscles, and I have often with admiration 
 observed these birds to pick up pobble-stones, and then to soar with them in the air 
 to a considerable height, then to let fall the stones among the beds of shell-fishes, 
 which most commonly break some of them : they afterwards alight and feed upon 
 their prey," p, 158. 
 
THE GREY CROW. 313 
 
 menagerie at the Falls, where a novel experiment to get rid of 
 them was resorted to. Four young birds in a nest were pinioned, 
 in expectation that their parents would continue feeding them, 
 until affording an opportunity for their being shot or trapped. 
 Disappointment was however the result, as the old birds, on 
 returning to the nest, and perceiving the mutilated state of 
 their progeny, left them to perish. 
 
 Two grey crows were once observed in pursuit of a full-grown 
 rabbit, in a large field, at Springvale (Down) . The chase was con- 
 tinued only whilst the rabbit ran : — when squatted, they never 
 attempted to molest it. The chase was continued for some time. 
 According to the testimony of several of the wild-fowl shooters 
 of Belfast bay, grey crows are not uncommonly seen in pursuit 
 of the smaller shore-birds ( Grallatores) ; and two of my informants 
 were witness to a couple of these crows pursuing a merlin 
 (Falco JEsalon), winch had captured a sandlark {Tringa vari- 
 abilis) until the prey was dropped by the hawk, when it was picked 
 up, and borne off by one of them from the surface of the water. 
 When these shooters kill great numbers of sandlarks at a shot, 
 with their punt or swivel- guns, the grey crows, which are always on 
 the beach, are sure to carry off several of the wounded in their 
 bills, before the men can reach the spot. The cries of the 
 poor sandlarks when thus seized, are described even by the fowlers 
 to be most piteous ; greatly more so, than when they lay hold of 
 them. A pet buzzard {Buteo vulgaris), kept at Fort William, was, 
 when flying about the demesne, always persecuted by grey crows. 
 
 One of these birds was shot by a friend at Springvale, when it 
 had young, and on the evening of the same day, he saw about ten 
 grey crows come to feed the nestlings : they however died in the 
 course of the night, which was very cold and wet. When engaged 
 in the construction of their nest, they are more heedless of 
 enemies than at other times, and then occasionally fall victims to 
 the gun : but if one should be killed, the survivor is soon pro- 
 vided with another mate. At this early stage of the breeding- 
 season, as remarked at " the Falls," near Belfast, neither these 
 birds nor magpies, were mated again for three or four days. A 
 
314 CORVIDiE. 
 
 new nest was then commenced, contiguous to, but not at the same 
 place as the former one. The twice-married crows and magpies 
 here, always proved too wary to be shot. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell observes, that " more than two are seldom seen 
 associated together, except when food is to be obtained." But at 
 all seasons of the year, I have seen them, occasionally to the num- 
 ber of fifteen, associating together in little troops on the shore 
 of Belfast bay, when there was no apparent cause for their meeting ; 
 and when there has been such in the inland neighbourhood, so many 
 as seventeen have been reckoned on a single tree. In a rabbit 
 warren, at the wild peninsula of the Horn, in the north-west of 
 the county of Donegal, I once, on the 27th of June, saw forty 
 of these birds in a dense flock. They cannot, like jackdaws, be 
 considered as native inhabitants of large towns, but on the 3rd of 
 April, and several previous mornings, some years ago, seven or 
 eight of them frequented an old garden in the town of Belfast : 
 one or two were occasionally to be seen perched on the back 
 of a cow kept there. A gentleman living at Springvale, had a 
 pet grey crow which followed him about the place, and when not 
 so engaged, went sometimes to feed with its brethren on the 
 shore. When whistled for, it hurried back to its master. 
 
 In the middle of May, I met with this species about the Valley 
 of Sweet Waters, near Coustantinople, and, at the beginning of 
 June, in the islands of Delos and Paros. 
 
 THE EOOK. 
 
 Corvus frugilegus, Linn. 
 
 Is as common throughout the cultivated and wooded 
 parts of Ireland, as in any other country. 
 
 This bird is generally looked upon by the farmer as an arch enemy, 
 of whose deeds he has ocular demonstration, — the evil that it 
 does being apparent in the headless stalks of grain, while its 
 virtues do not in a direct manner come under his cognizance. 
 The rook has always seemed to me a bird intended by its Creator 
 to check the undue increase of insects most injurious to the vege- 
 
THE ROOK. 315 
 
 tation of the field, and keep them within due bounds. Both 
 England and the continent furnish instances of the almost total 
 destruction of crops in particular districts, consequent on its ex- 
 tirpation. 
 
 The good done by this bird is generally admitted by the authors 
 who have written within the last sixty years, greatly to exceed the 
 evil it commits. Sir Wm. Jardine speaks of the good, as " at least 
 compensating for their destruction or injury to the produce of the 
 fields." It may be possible, that in particular localities the " Dr." 
 and " Cr." account will about balance. A gentleman whose ex- 
 tensive farm is situated in the valley of the Lagan, and little more 
 than a mile distant from three extensive rookeries, (his place 
 forming, as it were, the centre of the circle,) once remarked to me, 
 he would rather than ten pounds a year, that rooks never 
 alighted on his fields. His charges against them comprise about 
 the sum total of the evil propensities of the species : that, " when 
 the blade of wheat just shows itself above the ground, or the 
 pickle of grain is by frost, or otherwise, rendered accessible, these 
 birds pick it off at daybreak ; when grain is lodged, they utterly 
 destroy it, and when in stooks, do serious damage, not only by 
 eating the pickles, but by carrying away heads of the grain, which 
 are found scattered about the adjacent fields. They injure the 
 potato crop, by picking up the planted ' sets' in spring, 
 and in autumn, the young potatoes. This is only done where 
 the crop is thin and poor, as from such bare spots, they 
 can have a look-out against approaching enemies; where the 
 foliage is luxuriant, they never alight. They sometimes, too, 
 attack the cherries in the garden." * The only good attributed 
 to them is their " picking the grubs off lay ground, when broken 
 up and harrowed." That where very numerous, they do much 
 of the harm here alleged, is undoubted ; but to prove they 
 do much more good than is imagined, I requested to be allowed 
 
 * Mr. Jesse, who in his Gleanings of Natural History treats most agreeably of 
 rooks generally, (and particularly of the Royal rookeries,) remarks, that these birds 
 are " sad depredators on my cherry-trees, attacking them early in the morning and 
 carrying off great quantities." He is nevertheless satisfied, that the good done by 
 the species greatly counterbalances the evil. 
 
316 corvim;. 
 
 the examination of any slaughtered birds, that by exhibiting the 
 food they contained, my friend might be convinced of the evil of 
 his ways in destroying them ; but as usual in such cases, none were 
 ever sent to me. The propriety of having boys to guard the 
 lately-sown wheat, where the depredations are perhaps the most 
 serious, was suggested, but the very early hour was said to be an 
 insuperable obstacle. The rooks could, however, at trifling ex- 
 pense, be watched, and frightened away by boys at this time, and 
 when the grain is lodged.* Such precaution taken, very little 
 harm indeed could these birds justly be accused of doing. 
 
 One of the inimitable tail-pieces to Bewick's Birds (ed. 1832, 
 vol. i. p. 93), points to the inutility of one kind of scare-crow, 
 where a rook is represented peering curiously, but without the least 
 fear, at the wretched effigy of humanity, erected to frighten away 
 the species. In newly planted potato-fields, &c, I have remarked 
 hosts of these birds feeding, while among them hung their 
 gibbeted brethren, only lately killed. f At the more genial period 
 of the year, flocks of rooks occasionally visit the mountain pastures 
 near Belfast. 
 
 Win. Sinclaire, Esq., of Milltown, Belfast, has informed me, 
 that towards the end of autumn, for a dozen years or more suc- 
 cessively, after the harvest was gathered in, numbers of rooks came 
 every morning for about a fortnight, to the pine-trees (Pinus syl- 
 vestris) in that district, for the sake of the cones, which they 
 plucked from the branches and carried away. J When the cones 
 could not be detached in the ordinary manner, they seized them 
 in their bills, and launched into the air, that the weight of their 
 
 * The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, fairly weighs the good 
 and harm done by rooks, and is convinced that the former greatly preponderates. 
 He suggests this watching, as Sir Win. Jardiue, likewise, has subsequently done ; 
 and I have been pleased to see it carried into effect on the farm attached to Belvoir 
 Park, near Belfast, where boys provided with a watchman's rattle, or similar instru- 
 ment, were employed in frightening the rooks from newly sown fields. 
 
 f A friend who kept three eagles, procured rooks enough to feed them on in 
 summer, as these birds came to regale themselves at the troughs containing pig's- 
 meat, of which potatoes formed the principal part. 
 
 \ Mr. Poole, too, remarks, that in the county of Wexford, " the cones of Scotch firs 
 form a considerable part of the subsistence of rooks in the autumn. They generally 
 carry them to some distance from the trees and dissect them on the ground." 
 
THE ROOK. 317 
 
 bodies might separate them from the branches. Such was their 
 common procedure with unyielding cones, as witnessed with much 
 interest from the windows of my friend's house ; some pines, m 
 which this ingenious feat was regularly practised, being only a few 
 yards distant. The rook being an especial favourite with me on 
 account of the benefit it does mankind, I was much gratified to 
 learn this proof of its intelligence. Tins feat raises the species to 
 an equality with the grey crow, as evinced by this bird's rising 
 into the air with shell-fish, and dropping them on the rocks to 
 break them, and renders the rook not unworthy, on the score of 
 intellect, of being placed in the same family group with the raven. 
 What they do with the cones, has not been ascertained. It would 
 seem to me, that unless the scales be so widely open, that the seed 
 is ready to drop out, they could hardly reach it, and even then, 
 a portion only would be accessible; the scales themselves could 
 only, I conceive, be detached, when partially decomposed; un- 
 fortunately, the proceedings of the birds, subsequent to their 
 carrying off the cones, have not been watched.* 
 
 Great meetings of rooks, before the breeding-season commences, 
 have been alluded to by authors, some of whom consider that the 
 object is to settle preliminaries respecting that important period 
 — the correctness of which idea seems probable, though it must 
 be stated, that in the middle of October, I have remarked similar 
 assemblages. These meetings are sometimes long continued. 
 During four weeks in the year 1837- — from January 21st to Feb- 
 ruary 17th — whenever I happened to ride between two and three 
 o'clock, in the direction of two rookeries, I always saw, at a place 
 intermediate between them, and about a mile distant from each, 
 extraordinary numbers, amounting certainly to several thousands ; 
 more than I conceive the two rookeries could furnish — a third 
 
 * Mr. Blackwall, in his Researches in Zoology (p. 156), remarks, that "rooks in 
 the autumn frequently bury acorns in the earth, probably with the intention of 
 having: recourse to them when their wants are more urgent." Mr. Jesse, too, states 
 that these birds " are known to bury acorns, and, I believe, walnuts also, as I have 
 observed them taking ripe walnuts from a tree, and returning to it before they could 
 have had time to break them and eat the contents. Indeed, when we consider how 
 hard the shell of a walnut is, it is not easy to guess how the rook contrives to break 
 them. May they not, by first burying them, soften the shells, and afterwards return 
 to feed upon them ? " (Gleanings in Natural History, 1st series.) 
 
318 CORVIDiE. 
 
 rookery about a mile and a half distant must, I imagine, have 
 likewise contributed its numbers. Although they closely covered 
 fields of all kinds (pasture, meadow-land, and ploughed ground), 
 they were not congregated for the purpose of feeding, not 
 more perhaps than one in a hundred being ever so engaged. 
 Again, they would all be on wing at such a height as to look no 
 larger than swallows, and would keep within as limited a space in 
 the air, as they had occupied on the earth. 
 
 Rooks, as remarked by Mr. Macgillivray, " seem to calculate 
 upon the protection which they usually receive in the neighbour- 
 hood of their breeding-places." Here, it is highly interesting to 
 observe them become fellow-labourers with man when the plough 
 is at work, alighting at the ploughman's heels, and closely following 
 its track to consume the destructive larvse which are turned up ; 
 thus performing an important office that the lords of creation 
 could not accomplish for themselves. At such times, too, as if 
 conscious of the good in which they are engaged, they admit of a 
 near approach, and their finely polished plumage has a beautiful 
 effect, as it glances like burnished metal in the sun. Their time 
 of roosting varies a little, as the afternoon may be bright or 
 gloomy. Once on the 10th of August, I remarked a great 
 number busily employed in feeding at some distance from the 
 rookery so late as seven o'clock in the evening ; the day through- 
 out having been dull and dark. 
 
 Rooks sometimes do a great deal of injury to trees in or near 
 rookeries, by perching on their topmost branches. At Cultra, 
 county of Down, the upper portions of the branches of very large 
 sycamore and beech trees, have been wholly killed by them. At 
 Jardine Hall, they have proved very injurious to young trees, 
 especially larches of about fifteen years' growth, by building in 
 them, and destroying their leading shoots. I saw many instances 
 of this having been done, although old trees are in abundance, 
 not only in the demesne, but adjacent to the young ones selected. 
 The ring-dove, too, has greatly injured some beautiful and thriving 
 young Weymouth pines there by roosting on their top shoots. 
 
 The rook, like other birds mentioned in these pages, can be 
 
THE ROOK. 319 
 
 justly accused of having had valuable stolen property in its posses- 
 sion : some lace of a fine and costly kind, spread out to dry, at 
 Nelson Hill, Youghal, was lost to the owner for some time, but 
 eventually discovered in the nests of a rookery in the adjoining 
 demesne. Th'at the rook will sometimes carry building materials 
 a considerable way, I once had evidence by observing one 
 bearing a quantity of hay to its nest, a mile distant, and how 
 much farther off it was picked up, was unknown. 
 
 I was informed by Richard Langtry, Esq., in the spring of 
 1831, that a pair of herons having built in the rookery at 
 Dromedaragh, county of Antrim, the rooks tore the first nest 
 to pieces, but the herons eventually succeeded, and reared their 
 brood in safety. A few years before that time, about one hundred 
 and fifty young rooks had been killed there during a storm, by 
 being blown out of the nests. Among adult birds, there was an 
 extraordinary fatality in the county of Westmeath on the night of 
 the great hurricane of January 7 th, 1839. As noticed by me, in a 
 communication to the Annals of Natural History,* Mr. Ball was 
 assured by Dean Vignolles, on whose property the circumstance 
 occurred, that the amazing number of 33,000 f were picked up 
 dead on the shores of a lake some miles in length, and with ex- 
 tensive rookeries on its borders. So remarkably numerous were 
 
 * Note on the Effects of the Hurricane of January 7, 1839, in Ireland, on some 
 Birds, Fishes, &c, vol. iii. p. 182. 
 
 f Were a figure taken off the above number, it would be reduced to what I have 
 remarked to constitute a respectable rookery. Mr. Jesse, too, states that "the 
 average number of rooks' nests, during the last four years, in the avenue of Hampton 
 Court Part, has been about 750 ; allowing three young birds and a pair of old ones 
 to each nest, the number would amount to 3750." — Gleanings, p. 65, 1st edit. 
 
 A few years ago, these birds were considered too abundant at Purdysbum, near Bel- 
 fast, and a thinning of their numbers was commenced when the young were "branchers," 
 — a very fatal time. During three weeks, about twenty dozen a day were sacrificed, 
 — a number, which in eighteen days would amount to 4,320, and yet they were only 
 thinned. Sir Wm. Jardine is of opinion, that the rookery at Jardine Hall, which 
 cannot be called a very large one, contains not less than 12,000 birds. A few years 
 ago, when he wished to diminish them — as they are considered injurious when very 
 numerous, though useful when kept within due bounds — 3,000, were killed. 
 
 As that gentleman has remarked to me, he can well imagine vast numbers of 
 rooks being killed, by being blown against the trees, and into the lake, during such a 
 tremendous hurricane as the one alluded to. He was once witness to a covey of about 
 a dozen partridges, flying very rapidly down the river at Dryburgh, during a high 
 wind, when six of them were blown against the chains of the suspension bridge, and 
 fell dead beneath. 
 
320 corvim:. 
 
 the dead bodies, that as a matter of curiosity they were reckoned 
 by some boys, as they gathered them into heaps. Dean Vignolles 
 likewise submitted to Mr. Ball's inspection an unusually thick 
 panel of a new window shutter, which was driven in and. split, 
 by a rook being clashed against it, on the night in question : — 
 the innocent cause of the damage was found dead between the 
 window and the shutter, inside the room. Other fatalities occa- 
 sionally befall the rook. In the autumn of 1831 (?), there was a 
 dense fog over Lough Neagh and its neighbourhood, for two 
 nights and an entire day, during which time great numbers of 
 these birds perished in its waters, and were afterwards washed 
 ashore. I have been told that a similar circumstance occurred in 
 the harbour of Cove, in the south of Ireland, some years ago. At 
 mid-winter, I have remarked large bodies returning at roosting 
 time, across the broadest portion of Belfast bay, to their rookery. 
 
 At Eedhall, county of Antrim, a friend once saw a brood of 
 four young rooks, all of which were white, though both parents 
 were of the ordinary sable hue, J. V. Stewart, Esq., of Eockhill, 
 near Letterkenny, possesses two varieties of the rook, one entirely 
 of a clingy brown colour, and having a diseased appearance : 
 the other, with two white bars across the wings, the rest of the 
 plumage being of the usual colour. In the year 1839, I was told 
 by Mr. G. J. Allman, that several light fawn-coloured birds of this 
 species were shot near Bandon a few years previously, some of which 
 he had seen in company with other rooks, that freely associated 
 with them. 
 
 Mr. Poole has kindly furnished me with a history of the rook, 
 as observed by himself in the county of Wexford. The following 
 passages, &c, on points not hitherto treated of, are selected from 
 it:— 
 
 " At the commencement of our rookery, the infant colony con- 
 sisted of twelve pairs, the next season the number of nests was 
 forty-six, and on the third it had increased to 176 nests, thus in- 
 dicating, that allowing for deaths by disease or accident, the birds 
 quadruple their numbers every year. A rather curious accident 
 happened in our rookery. In a quarrel between two rooks one of 
 
THE ROOK. 321 
 
 them fell on its back into the fork of an ash tree, from which it 
 was unable to extricate itself, and died from the pressure.*" 
 Rooks sometimes scratch like hens, and I once in the month of 
 June saw some busily engaged tearing ants, of a small black 
 species, out of their ant-hills. They take great pleasure in 
 washing themselves, and will walk deliberately into a river up to 
 their bellies, and splash away like so many ducks. They frequent 
 the banks of rivers during inundations, and occasionally even 
 venture some way into the water in search of food." 
 
 My correspondent remarks, that in addition to its ordinary prey, 
 he has observed the rook repeatedly fly up from the ground like a 
 stonechat, to catch flies; to turn over the stones in very hot 
 weather in search, as was believed, of beetles and worms ; and 
 to exhibit a carnivorous propensity so far as to fly off with the 
 decayed body of a rat. 
 
 " About June and July, rooks suffer great privation, from the 
 burnt up condition of the ground rendering it almost impossible 
 to reach their natural sustenance : hence the proverb rife about 
 here, f As hungry as a June crow/ A large number of young 
 ones remain all night in the open country, resorting separately 
 to hedge-rows, or small groves, and seeming in a great 
 degree to lose the congregating instinct of their species. The 
 country-people think they can smell powder, and fear it even 
 before it is exploded. A woman came to me lately for a little 
 pinch to burn on a potato-ridge to keep off the crows/'t 
 
 In the winter of 1846, about Christmas, these birds were fre- 
 quently observed (by Mr. R. Warren, junr.,) to stoop down to the 
 water in Cork harbour, and pick dead or dying sprats (Clupea 
 
 * " In the beginning of the breeding-season of the present year, a rook unfor- 
 tunately got entangled in the thick branches of a large tree, adjacent to Castle 
 Warren, the seat of Robert Warren, Esq., county of Cork. The other rooks 
 seeing its hapless condition attacked, and soon put an end to its existence, notwith- 
 standing the vigorous but ineffectual efforts of its mate to defend it. Since that time 
 the dead body is daily visited by a rook, which also roosts by it every night. This 
 rook is supposed to be the mate ; if so, it is indeed " fidelity in death ! " * Mr. R. 
 Taylor of Belfast, who made the communication, has informed me that the rook 
 roosted regularly as described, beside its ill-fated companion, for two months. 
 
 f Mr. Poole. 
 * Zoologist, June, 1848, p. 2146. 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
322 CORVIDjE. 
 
 sprattus) from the surface with their bills. They seemed to live 
 for some time almost wholly on these fish, among which there was 
 a "Teat fatality. 
 
 In Scotland, these birds have, by suiting themselves to circum- 
 stances, come under my observation in different ways from what 
 they have done in Ireland. I have for many miles along the coast 
 of Ayrshire met with them in the autumn, feeding among the 
 fresh sea-weed or rejectamenta of the receding tide ; and at other 
 times they were crowded in search of food upon the heaps of sea- 
 weed collected on the beach for manure. About two miles inland 
 from Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, a few hundreds of these birds, in the 
 autumn of 1839, regularly roosted on the ground upon a rising 
 knoll in a pasture-field. I first saw them there at 8 o'clock, p.m., 
 on the 20th of August ; and afterwards, on returning late from 
 grouse-shooting in distant moors, they were always to be seen. 
 This roosting-place was in the midst of a cultivated district, in 
 which there was no wood of sufficient age to be patronized by the 
 rook. 
 
 At the commencement of a snow-storm in England, and 
 after the ground became well covered, I was once amused at 
 seeing a rook rolling in the snow, apparently enjoying itself as 
 much as a Newfoundland dog could have done.* In summer 
 I have met with the rook in Holland, France, and Switzerland, 
 and in some parts of the first-named country have observed it to be 
 as common as at its chief haunts in the British Islands. At the 
 Hotel Bellevue, which is situated close to the king's park at the 
 Hague, I for the first time experienced the evils of a rookery, the 
 cawing from a closely adjacent one being so incessant from day- 
 break, as to drive all sleep from me, unaccustomed as I was to 
 such music ; — this was at the end of May, when the calls of the 
 young are almost constantly uttered. 
 
 The rook has attracted the attention of authors possessing a 
 celebrity of very different kinds. In the Bracebridge Hall of 
 Washington Irving, an admirable chapter is devoted to it. Gold- 
 
 * Waterton, in his Essays on Natural History, mentions a tame raven acting 
 similarly. 
 
JACKDAW. 323 
 
 smith gives a very interesting account of it in the Temple Gardens, 
 London, as observed by himself. A most graphic description of 
 its manner of life about Selborne is furnished by White. Sir Wm. 
 Jardine introduces it in a picturesque manner as an adjunct to 
 the scenery of the park. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in one of his 
 series of very interesting papers on Scottish Eivers, published in 
 Tait's Magazine, * — that on the Tyne — gives in connection with 
 Ormiston Hall, a full account of the proceedings of a colony of 
 rooks, " from morn to latest eve f and Mr. Macgillivray, as if 
 conceiving that the subject of the bird's habits by day had already 
 been exhausted, imparts a new feature to the history of the species, 
 by visiting a rookery at night, and relating the proceedings at 
 that period. 
 
 THE JACKDAW. 
 
 Corvus monedula, Linn. 
 
 Is found throughout the island, especially where the 
 labour of man is evinced by buildings, the planta- 
 tion of trees, and the cultivation of the ground. 
 
 But it is much more interesting to meet with this bird in the bold 
 and precipitous cliffs, — be they inland or marine, — winch are its 
 natural abode. 
 
 The basaltic precipices of the north-east of Ireland are much 
 resorted to by these birds} as building haunts. I have also ob- 
 served them in the month of October, of different years, at the 
 approach of evening, to gather in as great numbers as during sum- 
 mer, to roost among the rocks at the Cavehill, near Belfast. At the 
 wild peninsula of the Horn, county of Donegal, they breed in the 
 marine cliffs, as they do within caverns of very small islands about 
 three miles distant from the coast of Kerry (Neligan). On the 
 29th of May, 1836, I saw many jackdaws at the precipitous 
 sandy banks rising above the beach of Lough Neagh, at Massa- 
 reene deer-park, where they breed in holes, all of which were said 
 by the gamekeeper to be the deserted burrows of rabbits. Jack- 
 * February, 1848, p. 98. 
 Y 2 
 
324 CORVIDvE. 
 
 (laws breed in numbers in the rabbit holes on low earthy knolls, 
 in Hillsborough Park (Down). The gamekeeper one morning in 
 May, 1847, took from 150 to 170 eggs out of the nests with Iris 
 hands, without any digging. They were about arm's length 
 from the entrance. The eggs were destroyed, on account of the 
 birds being supposed to annoy the rabbits by partly filling up 
 their burrows with sticks, numbers of which, that the jackdaws 
 evidently could not get into the holes, lie about the place. The 
 nests are built of dried grasses and roots, intermixed with a few 
 pieces of stick. The eyes of the young birds can be seen by 
 persons looking into the holes. Old trees are abundant in this 
 demesne, as well as in Massareene Park, where these birds simi- 
 larly take advantage of the burrows of the rabbit. At Spring- 
 mount, county of Antrim, three or four pair build annually, 
 like magpies, in the tree-tops. Jackdaws are more prolific than 
 the rook or the grey crow ; they occasionally lay six eggs. 
 
 June the 21st, 1842. At the cliffs adjacent to Dunluce Castle, 
 on the northern coast of Antrim, I was much amused by witness- 
 ing the attack of jackdaws on a grey crow, which appeared over 
 the cliffs where they build. Pirst, one sallied boldly after and 
 struck him repeatedly ; it was almost instantly joined by a second, 
 winch was immediately followed by a third, all of them dasliing 
 at the crow, and striking him both from above and below. The 
 persecuted bird turned back and alighted on the turf near the 
 summit of the cliff, as did two of the jackdaws also, but at a 
 respectful distance. The crow maintained his ground boldly, 
 and looked, — for all was conducted on both sides in solemn silence, 
 — as much as to say, " Come on, Fro. ready for you both." The 
 jackdaws too, for a time, remained perfectly still, but eventually 
 approached within a yard or two of their enemy, and then flew off, 
 leaving him at the very spot on which he had alighted. The whole 
 was pantomimic, not a note being uttered by any of the three birds. 
 Soon after the jackdaw's departure, the crow took wing and flew 
 again over the cliff, when he was attacked just as before, with the 
 difference, that on this occasion the jackdaws were very vociferous, 
 and the croak of the crow was occasionally uttered. He did not 
 
THE JACKDAW. 325 
 
 mind their bufferings in the air, this time, but held on his course: 
 — such, I have remarked to be the usual proceeding of grey crows 
 when driven by magpies from the vicinity of their nests. Though 
 they will return again and again after being beaten off, I have 
 never seen them offer the least violence to the parent-birds, thus 
 always seeming as if they were too much conscience-stricken to do 
 so. To-day, the crow could hardly be doing any harm, as a number 
 of the young jackdaws were able to fly about ; there may however 
 have been some young broods. When walking along Carnlough 
 bay, on the 25th of May, I remarked several jackdaws flying 
 singly towards the cliff in which they build, each of them 
 displaying beneath the bill a well filled pouch of food for their 
 mates or young. How singularly these and other species of the 
 Corvida sometimes drop down the perpendicular face of a precipice 
 as if they were shot ! 
 
 A. pair of these birds built annually for a number of years in 
 the same hole of a wall about twelve feet from the ground, at 
 Castle Warren. Jackdaws caused great annoyance for some years 
 by building in the chimneys of this castle, and filling them up 
 with sticks ; — of which, a few nearly six feet in length, were used. 
 Eventually a wire-grating was placed across the top of the chim- 
 neys to prevent their access, which it did effectually. They 
 continued, however, to re-visit them every season, with the view 
 of resuming occupation. 
 
 Church towers * and steeples, as well as chimneys,t are com- 
 monly resorted to for nesting-places. They are generally described 
 as late breeding birds ; but a most accurate observer once observed 
 them on the 22nd of March, carrying building materials to a 
 chimney in Belfast; as he did to other chimneys on the 20th of 
 that month : on the 7 th of April, he saw them conveying food, as 
 
 * In the tower of a country church near Belfast, jackdaws had in the course of 
 time accumulated such quantities of sticks, that cart-loads of them had to be removed 
 before some repairs on the building could be commenced. 
 
 f The burning of Shane's Castle (the mansion of Earl O'Neil, situated on the 
 borders of Lough Neagh), which happened about thirty years ago, was believed to 
 have been caused by the dry sticks forming the nests of jackdaws in one of the chim- 
 neys, having caught lire. One of the tires at York Minster has been attributed to the 
 same cause. 
 
326 CORVLDJi. 
 
 he believed, for their young. The first foray of certain country 
 jackdaws, in the early morning, is to the town, where they are very 
 punctual in making their appearance : on the 11th of June, I 
 once noted their arrival at 45 minutes past 3 o'clock.* Here 
 they are quite innocuous ; but in the country, they occasionally 
 levy contributions. Montagu has remarked, that they are " fond 
 of cherries," to the truth of which, many of the gardeners about 
 Belfast could bear testimony. Of all birds they are the most 
 destructive to this fruit. A friend on one occasion coming upon a 
 number regaling in one of his cherry-trees, fired at them, with- 
 out reflecting on the damage he must necessarily do to the 
 tree, and five fell dead to the ground. They and other species, 
 particularly blackbirds [Tardus Merula), for some years entirely 
 consumed the crop of cherries on a number of fine tall standard 
 trees which could not conveniently be netted, and in conse- 
 quence of their depredations, the trees were all cut down. The 
 cherry-trees in the garden of another friend, resident in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Belfast, were sacrificed for a similar reason. In a 
 district well known to me, jackdaws generally associate with rooks, 
 and hence participate both in the good and evil done by these 
 birds to the farm; though, as mentioned in treating of the rook, 
 the former greatly preponderates. In a wild and uncultivated 
 part of the northern coast of the island, I have in summer re- 
 marked flocks of these birds feeding on the sea-shore between 
 tide-marks, and among large stones, grown over with Fuci. 
 
 The sites chosen by the jackdaw for perching are frequently 
 amusing. I have observed four of them, in flying to a vane, 
 alight with the most correct regularity on the letters N. E. S. W., 
 while a fifth surmounted the ball, and thus would they remain 
 stationed for some time, looking "part and parcel" of the weather- 
 cock. On the head of Nelson, as he stands erect in all Iris 
 majesty on the top of the pillar which bears his name in Sackville 
 Street, Dublin, I have seen the jackdaw alight, and impart an air 
 
 * On the 15th of June, 1847, jackdaws were calling and flying ahout London at 
 3 o'clock in the moraine. 
 
THE JACKDAW. 327 
 
 of the ludicrous to the hero of Trafalgar.* But under similar 
 circumstances, this bird would not scruple to perch even 
 " On the bald first Cfesar's head." 
 
 Three jackdaws, entirely white, were reared in a chimney in 
 Belfast a few years ago, and about the same time two of a similar 
 colour were brought up at a demesne in the neighbourhood, 
 where they were observed associating, both in feeding and on 
 wing, with their sable brethren, who acknowledged them as 
 kindred. Unfortunately, they were persecuted to the death by 
 man on account of their colour. They proved to be perfect albinoes, 
 the bills and legs, as well as the plumage, being white ; their hoary 
 moustaches gave them a most venerable appearance, though in 
 reality they were young birds of the year. 
 
 On the 29th of June, 1835, I saw many jackdaws about the 
 fissures of the lofty chalk-cliffs rising above the river Derwent, 
 near Matlock in Derbyshire, where it was presumed they built, 
 and on the next evening heard them call there so late as ten 
 o' clock, winch tended to confirm the conjecture. In the spring 
 and summer of 1841, I observed jackdaws equally numerous in 
 the Morea and the Archipelago, as they are in similar locali- 
 ties at home. They appeared about the ruins of the old castle 
 at Patras ; the high western cliffs of the island of Sphacteria 
 (the scene of Byron's Corsair), and on the rocky islet, lying to 
 the north-east of the entrance to Port Nausa, in the island 
 of Paros. 
 
 * Mr. R. Patterson of Belfast has contributed the following note : — " I remember 
 several years ago, a near relative, who then lived in Dublin, had a pet jack- 
 daw, which answered to the name of Jack, and was regularly in the habit of per- 
 forming a feat, which might baffle many a person who talks about ' the centre of 
 gravity.' When my friend after dinner had mixed his tumbler of punch, and 
 called ' Jack,' the bird instantly came, and perched on the edge of the glass, where 
 he poised himself so nicely that it was never upset. I believe, that on such occasions 
 he used to get from his master a bit of white sugar, which he ate while thus resting 
 on the tumbler." 
 
328 corvidje. 
 
 THE MAGPIE. 
 
 Pica caudata. 
 Corvus pica, Linn. 
 
 Has long been common throughout the island. 
 
 Smith, in his History of the county of Cork, published in 1749, 
 remarks, that it ' ' was not known in Ireland seventy years ago, 
 but is now very common." Rutty, in his Natural History of 
 Dublin, observes, that ' ' it is a foreigner, naturalized here since 
 the latter end of King James the Second's reign, and is said to 
 have been driven hither by a strong wind." (!) Dean Swift thus 
 alludes to it in his Journal to Stella: — "Pray observe the in- 
 habitants about Wexford ; they are old English ; see what they 
 have particular in their manners, name, and language. Magpies 
 have been always there, and nowhere else in Ireland, till of late 
 years." * To a commentary on this, by Mr. Ogilby, published in 
 YarrelTs British Birds (vol. ii. p. Ill), the reader is referred. In 
 the Irish Statutes, 17 Geo. II. ch. 10, a reward is offered for 
 magpies, along with other "four, and two-footed vermin." f 
 
 * Derricke, who wrote his Image of Ireland, in Queen Elizabeth's time, says — 
 
 " No pies to pluck the thatch from house 
 Are breed in Irishe grounde, 
 But worse than pies, the same to burne 
 A thousande maie be iouude." 
 
 Letter xxvi, vol. ii. p. 309, 2nd edit. 
 
 f The following notice of the magpie appears in the 1st volume of Tracts, printed 
 for the Irish Archffiological Society. In " A brife Description of Ireland, made in this 
 yeere 1589, by Robert Payne," it is remarked — " There is neither mol, pye, nor car- 
 ren crow." In a note to this, contributed by Dr. Aquiila Smith of Dublin, it is 
 observed : " As to the magpie {Pica caudata), our author is probably correct, for 
 Derricke, who wrote in 1581, in his Image of Ireland, says — [ — the four lines above 
 quoted are introduced here]. ' Ireland,' says Moryson, in 1617, ' hath neither singing 
 nightingall, nor chattering pye, nor undermining moule.' Itinerary, part iii. b. iii. 
 p. 160. [The extract elsewhere given from Smith's Cork appears here.] The 
 earliest notice of this bird as indigenous in Ireland is in Keogh's Zoologia Medicinalis 
 Hibernica, Dublin, 8vo, 1739: he merely mentions the 'magpie or pianet, Hid. 
 Maggidipye.' This evidently Anglo-Irish word, for we have no name for it in the 
 ancient Irish language, favours the opinion held by our best-iufonned naturalists, 
 that this bird is of recent introduction into this country." 
 
THE MAGPIE. 329 
 
 This bird, like certain other species, has increased and multi- 
 plied to a goodly extent in Ireland. The intelligent and trust- 
 worthy gamekeeper at Tollymore Park (co. Down), the seat of the 
 Earl of Roden, informed me, in Sept. 1836, that having ranged the 
 country for many miles around the park, he, by robbing their 
 nests, shooting and trapping them, destroyed in one half year 732 
 birds and eggs. At the assizes held in the spring and autumn of 
 every year, he " presented " for vermin killed, and on the occasion 
 in question received 121. for magpies, &c. So long as a reward was 
 offered for their heads, he killed immense numbers of these birds.* 
 In some particular districts of the north of Ireland, where the 
 farms are small, and every cottage possesses a few sheltering trees, 
 the magpie's nest is almost a certain accompaniment. The trees there 
 being generally the open-topped ash, render the dark ball of the 
 nest visible from so great a distance, that I have often reckoned 
 a considerable number from one point of view. The magpie 
 builds rather early, and in all kinds of trees, none being greater 
 favourites than fine old hawthorns : the eggs not uncommonly 
 amount to seven in number. Wm. Ogilby, Esq., favoured me 
 with the following note, in 1847. It relates to a part of the 
 county of Tyrone : — " Erom the immunities accorded to this mis- 
 chievous bird by some of the peasantry in my neighbourhood, 
 under the apprehension that it is sure to revenge an injury by 
 carrying off the young ducks and chickens of its persecutors, 
 magpies had increased to so inconvenient an extent, that I last 
 year employed two lads to rob their nests and bring me the eggs 
 and young. The liberal reward of a penny per egg, and three 
 pence for every young bird, soon thinned their numbers, and in a 
 few weeks time there was not a nest to be seen for miles around. 
 The old birds mostly deserted the country, but in one instance the 
 persecution they met with only served to develope the extraordinary 
 sagacity of a pair of magpies. Late in the season, — if I recollect 
 right, about the middle of July, — one of the lads brought me a 
 young brood from a nest which I afterwards inspected, and which 
 was artfully concealed and built without down or any large collec- 
 
 * Rewards were diseontinued two or three years previous to 1836. 
 
330 corvidjE. 
 
 tion of materials likely to attract notice, at the bottom of a low 
 thick hedge not far from my own house. The labourers, though 
 constantly about the place, had never observed the old birds, and 
 the boy told me, that it was only by concealing himself for. a con- 
 siderable time, on observing the parent bird collecting food, that 
 he succeeded in watching her to her retreat." Mr. Hewitson in- 
 forms us, that " magpies, which with us are so suspicious of wrong, 
 build their nests under the eaves of the Norwegian cottages."* 
 Although protected themselves, they exhibit no more amiability 
 towards a wounded companion there than elsewhere. My late 
 friend George Matthews, Esq., observed in a note on these birds, 
 that he met with them in great numbers along the coast of Nor- 
 way, where they were very tame; and added, that one which 
 he knocked over with a stone, was immediately set upon and 
 killed by the others. The late Mr. John Montgomery, of Locust 
 Lodge, near Belfast, remarked, that ' ' when angry or alarmed for 
 the safety of its young, the magpie is not only very clamorous, 
 but pecks the branch on which it rests, violently tearing the bark 
 off in its rage." On the 9th of May, I once saw a grey crow 
 attack the nest of a magpie, when the latter, " single-handed," 
 boldly repulsed and drove the intruder to some distance. The 
 crow nevertheless returned to the nest several times, but was 
 always beaten off without effecting its evil purpose. Bold as the 
 magpie is in defence of its own nest, I have more than once seen it 
 beaten away by a pair of missel-thrushes from the vicinity 
 of theirs. 
 
 It has often been stated, that if one of a pair of magpies 
 having a nest be shot, another mate is soon found ; the period, 
 according to Mr. Selby, "sometimes scarcely exceeding a day;" 
 but a gentleman of my acquaintance assures me, that on his shoot- 
 ing one of a pair of these birds in the forenoon, the survivor had 
 found another partner before evening. Perhaps the most remark- 
 able instance of widowed magpies becoming provided with new 
 partners, is that recorded by the celebrated Dr. Jenner, in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for 1824 (p. 21). These birds are 
 
 * Eggs, Brit. Birds. Introd. p. xv. 
 
THE MAGPIE. 331 
 
 often so far gregarious as to roost in considerable numbers at 
 particular groves, near their feeding-ground, to which they 
 resort in straggling flocks : I have thus reckoned twenty-six 
 on wing together, when the distance between the first and last, 
 was like that of an ill-matched pack of hounds during the chace. 
 November the 20th, 1838, was a dull, dark, true November day 
 throughout, and so early as half-past two o' clock, p.m., I saw 
 about twenty of these birds that had evidently retired to roost for 
 the night. On being alarmed they flew from a fine old willow 
 on the banks of the Lagan, and looked very beautiful as they 
 rose together. 
 
 Magpies are very generally persecuted with us on account of 
 their evil propensities. One friend complains that Ins garden has 
 suffered much from their depredations on cherries and other fruit; 
 another, that the eggs of game, &c, are greatly destroyed by them: 
 — their propensity for eggs is taken advantage of for their destruc- 
 tion, and they become victims to the trap baited with those of our 
 domestic fowl. Grain, too, they certainly consume, but their 
 numbers are not anywhere so great as to do much injury to it. 
 That they do considerable good, I have had positive evidence from 
 an examination of the contents of their stomachs (supplied me by 
 bird-preservers) at various times, but particularly in winter ; when 
 almost every one contained insects (chiefly Coleoptera) , or the re- 
 mains of mice and slugs, (the internal shell of these, constituting the 
 genus Limacellus, Brard., only remaining), mixed with which occa- 
 sionally appeared oats and other grain. In winter, the magpie, 
 as well as others of the Corrida, is of great service to the public, 
 by resorting in numbers to such meadows as are manured with 
 the offensive refuse of the slaughter-house, and feeding on the tit- 
 bits.* On the 1st of Sept., 1847, I was interested in observing 
 one of these handsome birds perched on a tall rowan or mountain- 
 ash tree, close to Holywood House, picking off and eating the ripe 
 scarlet berries, as eagerly as any of the thrush genus could have done. 
 
 * Since writing my account of the magpie, I find that this and several other par- 
 ticulars noticed are treated of by Mr. Waterton, in his Essays on Natural History. 
 His description of the bird throughout is excellent. 
 
332 CORVID.E. 
 
 On mentioning the circumstance to my friends resident there, 
 they remarked, that in former years several of these birds were 
 seen perched at the same time in this tree, when the berries were 
 ripe, though no attention was given to whether they were feeding 
 on them or not ; judging from what I observed, they doubtless 
 were so. 
 
 By the late George Matthews, Esq., I was informed, that a 
 trustworthy warrener at Springvale, county of Down (the seat 
 of his grandfather, Major Matthews), assured him, that he once 
 saw a magpie fly some distance out to sea with a stoat or weasel 
 fastened to it, when he with some other men launched a boat, 
 and followed to observe the issue. They found the magpie lying 
 dead upon the water. The quadruped had disappeared, and as 
 they conjectured, had been drowned ; but Mr. Matthews thought 
 it might have made its way ashore, as he had often seen these 
 animals swim admirably. Montagu, in the Supplement to his 
 Ornithological Dictionary, mentions his having been witness to a 
 weasel killing a carrion crow on the ground, the latter being in 
 the first instance the aggressor. 
 
 Once, in the month of May, when driving between Larne and 
 Glenarm, I was surprised to observe a lesser black-backed gull 
 {Lams fuscus) hovering very low over, and making a stoop at 
 a ditch-bank near the road. On looking attentively, however, 
 a magpie was discovered changing its position from whatever side 
 of the bush the gull hovered over, to the other side. After a short 
 time, the gull took its departure, and then the magpie flew along 
 the bank with some whitish-coloured object in its bill. The gull 
 returned and played the same part over again, as the magpie like- 
 wise did ; the object of the latter, from the commencement, being 
 evidently to conceal itself from the gull's observation. On seeing 
 the food in the magpie's bill, I had no doubt of its being the gull's 
 prey, which having been accidentally dropped, was carried off by 
 the magpie, whose thievish cunning it was amusing to witness, 
 though I pitied the honest sea-bird, for being thus gulled. 
 
 Magpies are so bold, as apparently, through mere wantonness, 
 to persecute birds that would seem to be more than a match for 
 
THE MAGPIE. 333 
 
 them : the beautiful kestrel or windhover they occasionally annoy. 
 Towards the peregrine falcon they dare hardly show any imperti- 
 nence, but the curiosity which I once saw exhibited by a pair of 
 them towards a bird of this species, was highly amusing. A 
 trained falcon at Fort William, near Belfast, on being given its 
 liberty, alighted, after taking a few circuits through the air, in a 
 small tree, where first one, and then another magpie, likewise 
 perched, without exhibiting the least fear, and with the intention 
 only, to all appearance, of examining it more closely. They gra- 
 dually approached until almost touching the hawk ; one indeed 
 seemed to strike it, immediately after which, they both flew to a tree 
 close by, and commenced an incessant chattering. This was con- 
 tinued so earnestly for some time, that it could be nothing less 
 than a discussion upon the merits of the strange bird. When in the 
 tree with the hawk, they maintained a respectful silence. At the 
 same place, a tame magpie and a sheep of a peculiar variety, whose 
 fleece hung nearly to the ground, were great friends, and generally 
 associated together. The favourite perch of the bird was on the 
 back of the sheep, which animal became innocently a receiver of 
 stolen goods, as the magpie concealed his pilferings in the thick 
 wool of its body. It sometimes hopped after the sheep, biting 
 at its legs ; and, through mischief, or a natural carnivorous pro- 
 pensity, was very partial to pecking at the bare heels of beggars 
 who came about the house, very much, as may be supposed, to their 
 annoyance. Here, also, two magpies were proficients in talking. 
 One, without any teaching, learnt all the phrases of a parrot kept 
 in a neighbouring cage.* The other was taught several words 
 and short sentences, by their being repeated to it by its master ; 
 the most comical perhaps of which was " pretty -poll," as passing 
 strangers, on hearing the well-known words, turned round to look 
 at the parrot, and saw only impudent " mag " instead. But any- 
 
 * It would seem that, in a wild state also, either this species, or a nearly allied one, 
 will imitate the notes of other birds. Mr. Nuttall, who, from a knowledge of the 
 bird both in Europe and America, considers the common magpie of the two continents 
 identical, remarks : — "I one day observed a small flock, and among the fraternity 
 heard one chattering familiarly iu the varied tone of the cat-bird, as he sat on a 
 bough by the water, where birds might become his prey." — Audubon's Ornithological 
 Biography, vol. iv. p. 409. 
 
334 corvim:. 
 
 thing more on this subject, would be only taking a leaf out of the 
 history of a pet magpie, communicated by my friend Dr. Stevelly, 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy in Belfast College. He remarks : — 
 
 " When a boy, I succeeded in rearing a magpie that was taken from 
 the nest ; he became much attached to me, and long before he could fly, 
 would follow me about with a curious kind of sideling hop, and even 
 at this time of life began to show great archness, running after the 
 peasant children, who, in the south of Ireland, go for the most part 
 without shoes and stockings, and pecking at their bare heels ; and then 
 instantly looking up to see if punishment were meditated, of which if 
 he saw the least symptom, he would escape with wonderful celerity. 
 He became so adroit at length at this amusement, that the children who 
 came near the house were much afraid of him ; when his beak became 
 stronger, he also attacked dogs in the same manner, but always with 
 much and very droll caution. He flew well and strongly before I 
 attempted to confine him in the slightest degree, and roamed at large 
 round my father's place ; but when I wished him to come home in the 
 evening, one or two loud calls of his name ' Jack ' were sure to bring 
 him from some neighbouring high tree on which he perched, to my 
 shoulder, which was a very favourite resting-place ; when there, it was 
 a common practice of his gently to run his beak between my lips or 
 into my ear, with that peculiar motion which pigeons are observed to 
 use when they caress each other ; the tickling sensation which this pro- 
 cess caused, when my ear was in question, made me always submit with 
 difficulty, and I was frequently obliged to withdraw my head suddenly 
 with a shudder ; at this he always seemed highly delighted, and used 
 to chatter with a guttural sound not unlike Irish words. 
 
 " The country people in the south of Ireland have a manner of calling 
 each other from a distance by bending their fore-finger, putting it into 
 then mouth, and producing a very loud and shrill whistle. This whistle 
 ' Jack ' became very expert in imitating, and it was a favourite amuse- 
 ment of his, to sit on a very hot day on the top of the house, and if 
 he chanced to espy any person at a distance, as, for example, the mar- 
 ket-boy riding into town, a whistle from Jack, repeated if necessary, 
 was sure to bring him back, however great his hurry, under the im- 
 pression that some important commission had been forgotten, or that 
 his presence was required at the house or farm-yard ; the length of the 
 avenue, and a gentle slope in it at about a quarter of a mile distance 
 
THE MAGPIE. 335 
 
 from the house, rendered this trick very easy to be practised, and he 
 seemed to take great delight in it when successful, and many a hearty 
 curse he received from the wearied subject of his practical joke, as soon 
 as he had discovered the individual, who had so importunately called 
 him back. 
 
 " He was particularly fond of any shining article, such as spoons 
 and trinkets ; these he frequently stole, and we came upon his treasure- 
 house in a laughable way. There was an old gentleman, a great friend 
 of my father, who resided with us almost continually. He was of a 
 pecidiarly studious disposition, but from a deformity in his person used 
 generally to read standing, with his amis and breast resting on the 
 back of a chair, and the book placed on a table before him ; after having 
 read for a while, it was his habit to take off his spectacles, lay them 
 beside him, blow his nose, take a pinch of snuff, and after a few mo- 
 ments, pondering what he had been reading, resume the spectacles and 
 proceed. One very warm day, I lay reading at the end of a room, in 
 which there was an open glass door leading to the greenhouse ; in this 
 room the old gentleman was most intently pursuing his studies at a 
 Uttle distance from me. My attention was soon arrested by seeing the 
 magpie perched upon the chair near him, eyeing him most intently and 
 with a very arch expression, and at length, in an instant, he had with 
 a most active hop touched the table, secured the red leather spectacle- 
 case, and was out of the glass door with the most noiseless wing and 
 with a very graceful motion. I remained quiet, resolved to see the end 
 of the joke ; after a few seconds' absence, ' Jack ' was again at his post, 
 eyeing the old gentleman with a most inquisitive and yet business-like 
 glance ; it was nearly impossible to resist the ludicrous impression pro- 
 duced by the entire scene : at length off came the spectacles, and out 
 came the pocket-handkerchief and snuff-box ; quick as thought Jack 
 had invaded the table, and was out of the open door with the prize, 
 which I have no doubt had from the beginning been the object of his 
 covetous admiration, while they were on the nose of the old gentleman. 
 This time the magpie did not return, either because he found it more 
 difficult to reach his storehouse with the spectacles than with the case, 
 or because, having gained the object of his ambition, he conceived his 
 presence no longer necessary. At length the period of rumination 
 having elapsed, the old gentleman set about replacing the spectacles ; 
 as soon as his surprise had abated at not finding them with his hands 
 
336 corvid,e. 
 
 beside him on the table, he removed the chair and groped about on the 
 carpet, then raised the book and examined every part of the table. Not 
 being able to restrain myself any longer, I exploded in laughter ; and 
 of course I was instantly suspected of playing off a practical joke, and 
 charged with taking the spectacles, but at length succeeded in convincing 
 him I had never risen from the sofa on which I reclined ; but after a 
 good deal of laughing, and two or three other members of the family 
 having been attracted to the room by the hubbub, I was compelled, 
 under cross-examination, to own that I had witnessed ' Jack's ' ab- 
 stractions. The question then became serious how the articles were to 
 be recovered ; some person suggested to leave a teaspoon near him and 
 watch him. This was accordingly done, but his motions were so rapid 
 that he eluded us all, seeming at first to pop completely over the house ; 
 at length, by placing two or three persons in favourable positions, he 
 was '■marked' in a leaden valley between a double part of the roof; 
 and this having been closely searched, a deposit was discovered not only 
 of the things which ' Jack ' had that day carried off, but also of some 
 articles which had been for some time supposed to be lost, but respect- 
 ing which a breath of suspicion as to him had never been entertained. 
 This day's successful foray led to his losing his entire store, no doubt 
 in the midst of his triumphal rejoicing. 
 
 " His thieving propensities seemed to gather strength from this 
 period ; but I have little doubt many articles which were lost were set 
 down to his account, without sufficient evidence that he was the thief. 
 A valuable brooch, which belonged to a lady who was on a visit with 
 my mother, was at length lost, and every finger pointed to ' Jack ' as 
 the thief; this charge acquired probability from the fact that he had on 
 the previous day overturned and destroyed a very valuable writing-desk 
 in her room, while examining too anxiously some of the silver ornaments 
 of its bottles ; an order was forthwith issued by my father that a cage must 
 be made for him, and the absolute liberty he had heretofore enjoyed, 
 be somewhat curtailed. I submitted the more cheerfully to this order, 
 as his flights from home were now becoming obviously longer, and on 
 one or two occasions he had not returned all night ; and although at 
 these times he made his appearance next morning, hungry and cold, and 
 with a very rueful aspect, yet I was beginning to fear that he would at 
 length acquire the habits necessary for shifting for himself, and stay 
 away altogether. Accordingly he was caged ; at first he furiously 
 
THE MAGPIE. 337 
 
 attacked the wooden bars of the cage and broke some of them, but in 
 places so scattered, that in no one place did he succeed in making a 
 breach large enough for his exit. He pined very much at the confine- 
 ment, and the beauty of his plumage was much deteriorated, so that I 
 at length began to let him fly about : his delight on these occasions 
 was excessive and often laughably exhibited; but his distress when 
 again seized on, to be returned to his cage, was at least equally strongly 
 expressed. He used to screech long and loudly, and resist with beak 
 and talon ; hence he soon began, when Uberated, to fly straight off and 
 remain away for several hours. In one of these rambles, a woman re- 
 turning from Cork, was astonished to see him stand so tamely on the 
 public road beside a small pond at which he occasionally drank ; she 
 came near him, and held out a herring towards him, which he very thank- 
 fully began to eat, when she secured him, cut one of his wiugs, and on 
 reaching her home put him among some poultry, who beat him most 
 immercifidly. It was four or five days before I was able to discover his 
 prison, the woman living three or four miles off ; and when I did, and 
 had paid a few shillings for his ransom, he came home in most piteous 
 plight; his spirit was quite broken, his plumage much injured and dingy, 
 and except for the well-known ' Jack,' and one or two other words, 
 chiefly Irish, which he pronounced, I should have doubted or disbelieved 
 his identity. I however pulled the feathers off his wings (which were 
 mere stumps on one side), and by care he was beginning to recover his 
 vivacity ; when, attempting to drink at a barrel, in which, when he could 
 fly, he was in the habit of splashing, he fell in, and was drowned before 
 his danger was discovered. I never felt so bereaved as upon the death 
 of poor ' Jack.' " 
 
 On one occasion in my young days, a schoolfellow about four- 
 teen years of age, who had not before been at any dramatic repre- 
 sentation, was present at the performance of ' The Maid and the 
 Magpie/ in the Belfast theatre. On seeing that the woman was 
 about to be executed for the theft committed by the bird, he gal- 
 lantly roared out at the top of his voice, from the pit, that she was 
 innocent, for he had seen the magpie steal the spoons. I well re- 
 member the laugh of the school being turned against him on the 
 following morning. 
 
 This species rarely exhibits variety in its plumage : a white one 
 
 vol. i. z 
 
338 CORVIDiE. 
 
 frequented the demesne at Malone House, Dear Belfast, for two or 
 three years ; and a friend once saw three pure white ones, which 
 were brought from the neighbourhood to town for sale ; — they 
 had probably been reared in the same nest. In January, 1846, a 
 white specimen of the magpie was killed in the county of Down, 
 by John E. Garner, Esq., of Garnerville, at the same shot with 
 another in ordinary plumage. It was noted by me at the time, — 
 " as almost wholly white, but a few black feathers appear indis- 
 criminately over the plumage except in the tail, which, save a 
 small patch of black towards the point of one feather, is alto- 
 gether white. The tarsi and toes are pied flesh-colour and black ; 
 the bill wholly black." Tins bird and another, shot in the neigh- 
 bourhood in February, 1848, were presented to the Belfast Mu- 
 seum. The wings of the latter were almost wholly white, and all 
 the parts of the plumage usually black of different shades, ex- 
 hibited more white than black, the tail having least of this colour. 
 On one feather of its longest pair, a little white appeared for 
 about an inch along the edge from the tip upwards ; the next pair in 
 length had a good deal of pure white towards the tips; those ex- 
 terior to them retained their ordinary hue. The tarsi and toes 
 also were partially white, as usual in albino varieties of birds ; 
 the base (" plante ") of the toes were almost wholly white, as 
 well as the hinder portion of the tarsi, for about half an inch up- 
 wards from the base of the hind toes. 
 
 In the month of May, I met with the magpie about Smyrna : 
 it is common over the greater part of the European continent. 
 
 Sir. Wm. Jardine (in his work on British Birds) admirably 
 points out the favourite haunts of the magpie ; and Mr. Macgil- 
 livray gives a very characteristic description of its manners in a 
 wild state. The latter observes, that " in the Outer Hebrides, 
 the Shetland and Orkney islands, it is never seen/' vol. i. p. 565. 
 Dr. J. D. Marshall has remarked, that from the total want of 
 wood in the island of Bathlin, off the Giant's Causeway, the magpie 
 is very scarce. 
 
339 
 
 THE JAY. 
 
 Garrulus glandarius, Linn, (sp.) 
 
 Can only now be claimed as an indigenous bird by dis- 
 tricts in the southern half of Ireland. 
 
 Smith, in Ins History of the county of Waterford (1745), states 
 that " the jay is pretty common in our woods," and in his His- 
 tory of Cork, enumerates it among the birds of that county. Dr. 
 Burkitt now considers the species as not uncommon in the wooded 
 districts of the former, as about Curraghmore, &c. ; and Mr. E. 
 Ball views it as rare in the latter county; in the summer of 
 1837, he saw young birds which were taken from a nest near 
 Youghal. In 1839, I was informed that the jay, owing to its 
 being protected, had of late years become common in Lord 
 Bandon's park (Cork). One only has been heard of by Mr. E. 
 Chute as seen in Kerry : — in the demesne of Dromore. " The 
 jays must be indigenous about Clonmel, the oldest inhabitants 
 remember them to be much more plentiful than they now are : 
 they still breed in the adjacent woods, but were formerly to be 
 seen close to the town."* " In Eehill wood, county of Tipperary, 
 they have been considered indigenous, for two or three generations 
 back, at least." t In some parts of Kilkenny, Queen's county, 
 and Kildare, they are to be found. About Portarliugton, they 
 are particularly numerous, and to go out there for a day's jay 
 shooting is not an uncommon practice. About Portumna, they 
 are said to be met with, but not frequently. In Eutty's 
 Natural History of Dublin, the jay appears as one of the birds of 
 that county, which it still frequents. J 
 
 I am not aware of the existence of this bird either now, or for 
 a long time past, in the north of the island, although there are 
 many districts apparently well suited to its abode, and every year 
 becoming more so from the increasing age of well-grown timber. 
 Dubourdieu, in his Survey of the county of Antrim, remarks : 
 — " The jay was much more frequent before the woods at Port- 
 
 * Mr. R. Davis, 1837. t Dr. Harvey of Cork. % Mr. R. Ball. 
 
 z2 
 
340 CORVIDiE. 
 
 more were cut; it is still [1812] however to be met with about 
 Shane's Castle, and other woods at the borders of the lake [Neagh]." 
 I have been unable to verify its being there at so late a period. 
 It must not be taken for granted, that the bird called jay in the 
 north of Ireland is the Garrulus glandarius, as that name is fre- 
 quently bestowed on the missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus*). The 
 latest evidence known to me of the occurrence of the true jay in 
 that quarter, is afforded by a venerable friend, who more than 
 sixty years ago, received three young birds from a nest in Port- 
 more park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, once rich in fine 
 woods of oak, but which have long since fallen before the axe. 
 In the Irish Statutes, (17th of George II., chap. 10,) a reward is 
 offered for the head of the jay, together with that of the magpie 
 and others of the Corvida. Mr. Yarrell seems to imagine that it 
 is to the numbers killed in consequence of tins reward being 
 offered, that the species generally became less numerous with us ; 
 but as the jay can, like the Corvidce, for which a reward was at the 
 same time offered, take very good care of itself, I should attribute 
 its decrease to other and more natural causes. Tins author men- 
 tions the jay as frequenting most of the wooded districts of 
 England. With reference to its distribution in Ireland, it is de- 
 sirable to ascertain how widely it is found in Scotland. Sir Wm. 
 Jardine observes, that " as we proceed northward it becomes much 
 more local, though by no means rare, where it is found frequenting 
 generally the older wood around private seats, and in parks, and 
 some of the forests in the middle highlands. It is common both 
 in Perth and Argyleshire, but we are not sure that it extends to 
 the forests of the far north." f I should think that the jay is not 
 generally distributed throughout Perthshire, as I have been daily in 
 fine old woods well suited to the species, in the north-west of the 
 county without seeing it. In the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, 
 this bird is not uncommon. About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, 
 where there is a great extent of wood, though not so aged as the 
 jay prefers, it has not occurred to me. 
 
 * This bird is correctly remarked by Dubourdieu to be " now frequent," so that 
 the true jay would seem to be the bird he alluded to. 
 
 t Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 253. 
 
THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 341 
 
 I have never met with this beautiful bird in a wild state, in 
 Ireland, but have had the gratification of seeing it among the 
 natural wood about the northern extiemity of Loch Lomond, and 
 about Coniston Water, in Lancashire. In October, 1847, I re- 
 marked jays to be noisy, but difficult to be seen, in some of the 
 plantations, particularly of oak, about the neighbourhood of Tun- 
 bridge Wells. I was sorry to observe numbers of them nailed to 
 the gable wall of a barn of Mr. Waldo's, near Hever, along with 
 magpies, crows, and four-footed vermin. The jay has come under 
 my notice in Switzerland and Italy ; in the latter country, on the 
 richly wooded banks of the Nera, not far from its confluence with 
 the Tiber. 
 
 The Nutcracker {Nucifraga Caryocaiactes, Briss.,) cannot be an- 
 nounced with any certainty as having been met with in Ireland. The 
 late Mr. Templeton's MS. contains a note that one " had been shot at 
 Silvermines, county of Tipperary, by Mr. J. Lewis." Unfortunately, 
 no more information is given. This bird is a rare visitant to Eng- 
 land and Scotland. 
 
 THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
 
 Picus major, Linn. 
 
 Has in very few instances been noticed. 
 
 Templeton records one obtained in August, 1802, in the county 
 of Londonderry, having been sent to Dr. McDonnell of Belfast ; 
 and a second having been met with since : — of the former, a beau- 
 tifully coloured drawing made by Mr. Templeton is in the posses- 
 sion of his family. A specimen which I saw in the museum of 
 the Royal Dublin Society in 1834, was stated to have been killed 
 on the banks of the canal near the metropolis in December, 1831; 
 another was seen in company with it. About the same year a P. 
 major was procured at St. Johnstown, county of Tipperary.'* In the 
 autumn of 1835, one was killed near Drumcliff, county of Sligo.f 
 On Nov. 13th, 1839, a male bird of this species, — but not in 
 adult plumage, — was shot at Castlereagh, near Belfast, by Mr. 
 Greenfield, and liberally presented to the Belfast Museum. It 
 
 * Davis. t Ball. 
 
342 picidtE. 
 
 was " very tame," and was engaged pecking into a tree when fired 
 at. It seemed to be unaccompanied by any of its species. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1845, four of these woodpeckers 
 were obtained in different counties, ranging from north to south. 
 One shot on the 29th of October at Carrick, the seat of Colonel 
 Blacker, near Portadown, county of Armagh, was sent to Belfast 
 to be preserved, and came under my inspection. This bird had 
 almost attained perfect adult plumage, — a very few red feathers 
 still remained on the top of the head, — but was in high moult, and, 
 in the process of being skinned, so many feathers came out as to 
 render it unfit to be set up. Mrs. Blacker informed me, that this 
 woodpecker had kept about the old trees around the house at 
 Carrick, for a month previous to being shot, — which was done 
 contrary to orders, — and that the noise occasioned by its pecking 
 was heard for some time before this was known to proceed from a 
 bird. I have been told by T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, that 
 one was procured on the 15th of November, on the estate of the 
 Hon. Somerset Maxwell, near Newtownbarry, county of Wexford ; 
 and that on the 6th of December, another (a female) was killed 
 near Bagnalstown, county of Carlow : — they were seen by my 
 informant in a fresh state. On the 17th of December, a beauti- 
 ful specimen, shot the day before at Edenderry, near Belfast, by 
 Houston Russell, Esq., was brought to me for examination. It 
 exhibited precisely the markings shown in YarrelTs figure. The 
 only red appearing on the head, was in two small feathers tipped 
 with that colour. This bird was in pen-feathers, but was fit to 
 be set up : had it been killed a fortnight sooner, it would not have 
 been so. On dissection, it proved a female, although red appeared 
 in the plumage of the head; its stomach was entirely filled with 
 the remains of one species of coleopterous insect, " apparently an 
 Hylurgus" (A. H. Haliday). On October the 20th, 1848, one 
 of these woodpeckers was shot within three miles of the town 
 of Wicklow* 
 
 I have little doubt that these birds, and the one obtained in 
 1839, visited Ireland on their migratory movement southward, 
 * Mr. T. W. Warren, 
 
THE WOODPECKER. 343 
 
 like those noticed by Mr. Selby as frequently occurring in the 
 months of October and November, in Northumberland : — at which 
 period also, the few individuals known by Sir Win. Jardine to 
 have been obtained in the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh, 
 were met with. Mr. Selby has seen this species on the banks of 
 the Dee and Spey, but it seems to be known in Scotland, as in 
 Ireland, merely as an accidental visitant. In some parts of 
 England it is resident, especially in "the southern and midland 
 counties" (Yarrell). I have met with the Picus major in its 
 native haunts, only in the richly wooded and picturesque valley of 
 Sarnen, Switzerland. 
 
 Smith, in his History of Cork, remarks under " Hoopoe," — 
 " Mr. Willoughby ranks it among the woodpeckers, of which I 
 have not yet seen one in tins county." In the same author's 
 History of Waterford, there appears " Picus Martis, the wood- 
 pecker, a bird rare in tins county : " can P. martins be meant ? 
 Butty enumerates the " Picus varius minor, lesser spotted wood- 
 pecker," as one of the birds of the county of Dublin ; and it like- 
 wise appears in Dr. Patrick Browne's Catalogue of the Birds of 
 Ireland, probably copied from Rutty. All these notices of wood- 
 peckers are very unsatisfactory. Picus major is the only species 
 that can be positively announced as Irish. 
 
 The Great Black Woodpecker {Picus martins) is reported as a 
 very rare visitant to England. It was noticed by Sibbald among the 
 Birds of Scotland, but nothing else is known of the species in that 
 country. 
 
 The Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis), which is common to the 
 wooded districts of England, is not found in Scotland (Jard. : Macgil.). 
 I have been told that it frequents an old wood in the county of Donegal, 
 but no proof was ever afforded. When in Dublin on the 1st of Eeb., 
 1835, I saw in the possession of a bird-preserver, a fresh example of 
 this species, which was accordingly believed to have been shot in Ire- 
 land ; but on inquiry from the owner, I learned that it had been sent to 
 him from England ; its stomach was entirely filled with ants. Other 
 recent specimens have been received by bird-preservers in Dublin, but 
 no satisfactory statement respecting the place where they were killed, 
 could be procured. 
 
344 CERTHIADvE. 
 
 The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Picus minor) is found from 
 Yorkshire southward in England (Yarr.), but is not known in Scotland. 
 
 The Wryneck {Yunx Torquilla, Linn.). There is no record of 
 this species having ever been met with in Ireland. It is chiefly found in 
 the south-eastern counties of England, but also visits the western 
 and northern. It has rarely been seen in Scotland. On the 29th of 
 April, 1841, I saw one among some shrubby plants in the island of 
 Sphacteria, which bounds the western side of the fine bay of Navarino. 
 On the 25th of the same month, a wryneck, which alighted in H.M.S. 
 Beacon, when about sixty miles to the south-east of Calabria, was cap- 
 tured. 
 
 The Nuthatch (Sitta europcea) sent to a bird-preserver in the 
 metropolis, was, on the same presumptive evidence as the green wood- 
 pecker, mentioned to me as an Irish bird ; but on inquiry it was found 
 to have been killed in Wales. This species is not known to have ever 
 visited Ireland ; it is said to be pretty generally distributed in England; 
 but not to be found in Scotland. (Jard. : Macgil.) 
 
 THE TREE CREEPER. 
 
 Certhia familiaris, Linn. 
 
 Inhabits districts generally throughout Ireland in which 
 old wood prevails, and is everywhere resident. 
 
 Owing to its habits, this is perhaps of all our native birds the least 
 known. To the ornithologist it is particularly interesting, from 
 being the only one of the zogodactyle birds indigenous to the 
 island ; its presence, too, throughout the winter is an additional 
 attraction. In the woods of the counties of Down, Antrim, and 
 Fermanagh,* this bird has occurred to me. It is found in the 
 north of the county of Donegal ; t about Dublin and Youghal ; % 
 is common in some parts, of Westmeath, and about Killaloe ; || in 
 Tipperary ; § and in Kerry.^f Mr. Poole remarks that the creeper 
 
 * Here I have seen this bird close to the house at Florence Court ; and a friend 
 living near Belfast has observed it creeping up the yard-wall attached to his dwelling- 
 house. There is in reality nothing remarkable in such cases: they are mentioned, 
 as some persons imagine that the creeper never leaves the depth of woods. 
 | J. V. Stewart. \ Ball. || Rev. T. Knox. 
 
 § Davis. \ Neligan. 
 
THE TREE-CP.EEPER. 345 
 
 is not uncommon in the wooded parts of the county of Wexford, 
 adding, that " in climbing, it presses its tail very closely against 
 the trees, so that it looks like a moving excrescence of the bark." 
 
 Such of these birds as have come under my observation, though 
 apparently aware of my presence, never exhibited any shyness, 
 but admitted of a near approach, when it was extremely interesting 
 to observe the regular, quick, and business-like manner in which 
 they searched for their food. Now one would appear moving in a 
 straight line up the trunks of the largest pines, from near the base 
 until attaining the summit; then would be seen ascending 
 the next tree, by spirally winding round it, the effect being 
 much heightened by its breast appearing of a silvery whiteness, 
 in contrast with the dark-coloured bark. I was once amused 
 in Colin Glen by observing two of these birds for a long 
 time advancing through the plantation and evidently considering 
 themselves companions, though they were never nearer to each 
 other than the stems of neighbouring trees. Each left its tree 
 about the same moment to fly onwards to another, so that both 
 were to be seen at one view, scanning the bark of a tree on either 
 hand, beginning at the bottom and ascending in the usual 
 manner. 
 
 Mr. R. Ball has "known the creeper to be captured by boys 
 getting to the opposite side of a tree at the base of which it com- 
 menced feeding, and making a random stroke with a cap or hat, 
 at the place they supposed it had reached in its upward move- 
 ment." On the 4th of June, 1842, Mr. Thomas Garrett brought 
 me a specimen of the creeper which he had just killed with a 
 stone at Cultra, near Belfast. He remarked, that on being alarmed 
 by a stone striking the tree near to it, the bird clings closely 
 to the bark and remains motionless as if dead, not flying off until 
 the hand is all but laid upon it. He, to-day, found a nest of 
 young creepers at this locality, built in an old spout. In the 
 stomach of the specimen, I found the remains of insects, and the 
 husk of a pine seed, thus proving, that in summer, — and the 
 weather has been remarkably fine and warm for some time, — vege- 
 table food is taken. This species is generally stated by authors to 
 
346 CEIITHIAD.E. 
 
 live entirely on insects ; but the stomachs of the only two others 
 I have examined, contained each, in addition to such food, a few 
 seeds of the co mmo n pine {Pinus sylvestris ) : the latter specimens 
 were shot in the month of January. Wilson, in his American- Orni- 
 thology, mentions his having found the seeds of the pine-tree (of 
 course a different species from P. sylvestris) in the stomachs of 
 individuals killed in the United States, and likewise " fragments 
 of a fungus that vegetates on old wood." 
 
 Like most other birds, this species is partial to building annu- 
 ally about the same place. In holes of the yard- wall at Castle 
 Warren, a pair built successively for the last five years. The 
 female was killed one season within that period, when she had a 
 nest. The first nest and eggs of this year (] 848) were taken 
 away, and a short time afterwards, a second nest was erected in 
 the wall about a foot higher up.* They were composed of dried 
 grasses and lined with feathers. 
 
 Mr. MacgilUvray gives a very full and graphic description of 
 the creeper. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. 
 
 THE COMMON WREN. 
 
 Troglodytes Europceus, Cuv. 
 Motacitta troglodytes, Linn. 
 Sylvia „ Lath. 
 
 Prevails throughout the island ; 
 
 And though chiefly known as an inhabitant of gardens, planta- 
 tions and farm -yards, is found in summer and autumn far distant 
 from such localities, in the wild heathy tracts both of the low- 
 lands and mountain-tops. In similar places, it has been observed 
 by a sporting friend, and subsequently "by myself, in a fine grouse 
 district in Inverness-shire, where the vicinity even of the dwelling- 
 house is unfrequented either by the robin or the sparrow. 
 
 The nest is generally composed of moss, and placed in hedges, 
 
 *Mr. R. Warren, junr. 
 
THE COMMON WREN. 347 
 
 or in trees and shrubs of various kinds. Warmer sites are not 
 unfrequently selected ; once in a corn-stack, and four times within 
 houses at our country place, nests of the wren were observed. One 
 was placed on the wall-top, just under the roof of a coach-house. 
 A swallow's nest of the preceding year, built inside a shed and 
 against a rafter supporting a floor, was taken possession of by 
 another pair, and fitted up with moss, a considerable quantity of 
 which was introduced, though no attempt at a dome was made ; 
 indeed, for a proper construction of the kind there would not 
 have been sufficient room. Nor did the third nest present any 
 appearance of a dome ; it was built in the hole of a wall inside a 
 house, the only entrance being through a broken pane of the 
 window. The fourth was constructed in a bunch of herbs hung- 
 up to a beam across the top of the garden-house for the purpose 
 of being dried ; almost the entire nest was formed of the herbs, 
 and the bunch altogether was very little larger than the nest itself; 
 the door of this house was generally kept locked, the only mode 
 of entrance at such times being beneath it, where there was barely 
 room for the birds to pass through : — in all these instances the 
 broods were reared in safety. About Whitehouse, on the shore 
 of Belfast bay, where the grass-wrack {Zostera marina) is abundant, 
 and always lying in masses on the beach, I am informed that 
 this material is commonly used by the wren in the construction 
 of its nest, which externally is entirely composed of it. An ob- 
 servant friend agrees with Mr. Hewitson, that the nest is most fre- 
 quently lined with some feathers, though not thickly. He has found 
 upwards of a dozen of eggs in one, and notices, from his own ob- 
 servation, the well-known circumstance of its making two or three 
 nests before laying : — fourteen eggs have been reckoned in nests, 
 by two of my correspondents.* A gentleman of my acquaintance 
 was once much amused by witnessing a wren purloining materials 
 from a thrush's nest, which was built in a bush adjoining its own 
 tenement, then in course of erection. When the thrush was ab- 
 
 * Mr. Hewitson remarks : — " Notwithstanding the number of eggs which the wren 
 has been said to lay, I have never succeeded in finding more than eight, and rarely 
 more than seven, in the same nest." Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 200. 
 
448 CERTHIADjE. 
 
 sent in search of food for its young, which were nearly fledged, 
 the wren generally contrived to steal from it " two or three good 
 mouthfuls" to assist in the erection of its own edifice. Tins 
 species will sometimes, but not always, desert its nest and eggs, if 
 the latter have been but once handled. The food contained in 
 the stomachs of two wrens examined in January, was entirely 
 insects ; in the one, consisting of minute Coleoptera only. 
 
 Mr. E. Davis, junr., of Clonmel, communicated the following 
 note in Nov., 1841 : — " Being some years ago in want of the 
 eggs of the spotted flycatcher, I had been watching a pair which 
 had built in a garden near our house. The female had laid three 
 eggs, and on my going two days afterwards, hoping to find the 
 full number, five, my surprise may be imagined, when instead of 
 them, the nest was found crammed with young wrens just able to 
 fly ! they had apparently broken or thrown out all the eggs but 
 one : the flycatchers were gone. I suppose the wrens, being 
 ' brought out' for the first time, had taken refuge in the nest and 
 expelled the rightful owners; but it was rather a curious and 
 inexplicable circumstance." 
 
 I have often in winter seen the wren in a well-sheltered locality 
 frequenting the cow-shed and farm-stable in the forenoon of frosty 
 days, when there was bright and warm sunshine out of doors. It 
 nightly roosted in the former, winch was the warmest place that 
 could be found. This bird often resorts to the green-houses and 
 hot-houses in the garden of a relative, especially in winter. My 
 friend Wm. Ogilby, Esq., supplies the following note on this sub- 
 ject : — " These little birds associate in small families of from four 
 or five to a dozen or more, and take refuge in holes, or under the 
 eaves of thatched houses, during the severity of winter nights. 
 I have often, when a boy, watched the little party thus taking up 
 their lodging for the night, and have on more than one occasion 
 captured and drawn them from their retreat. They make a pro- 
 digious chattering and bustle before finally settling for the night, 
 as if contending which shall get into the warmest and most com- 
 fortable place, and frequently come to the mouth of the hole to 
 see that they are unobserved. I presume that these little parties 
 
THE COMMON WREN. 349 
 
 are composed of the nestlings of the previous year, with perhaps 
 the parent birds; but I have no proof of the fact beyond its 
 probability. If such be the case, however, it would show that 
 the bond of social union between the parent birds and their young 
 continues unbroken during the year, and is severed only when the 
 new season prompts the youug brood to become parents in 
 their turn." 
 
 On the yard- wall before my window in the country a wren once 
 appeared, on the 23rd of September, singing with such extraor- 
 dinary loudness, as immediately to attract other birds to the spot. 
 First came a hedge-sparrow to buffet it, followed by a male and 
 female chaffinch, also with sinister intent ; but bold as Fitz James, 
 
 " Come one, come all, this wall shall fly 
 From its firm base as soon as I," 
 
 it maintained its position against them all, and sang away as 
 fiercely as ever, its wings and tail drooping all the time. A robin 
 too alighted beside the songster, but, unlike the others, did not 
 seek to disturb it. For this strange proceeding on the part of 
 the wren there was no apparent cause. The uproar this species 
 keeps by the loud utterance and repetition of its call chit,* when 
 a cat appears in its vicinity is well known, and is of service to 
 other birds by warning them of the presence of their enemy. 
 
 Smith, in his History of Cork, written about a century ago, 
 remarks, — "as the wren makes but' short flights, and when driven 
 from the hedges is easily run down, to hunt and kill him is an 
 ancient custom of the Irish on St. Stephen's day." Mr. E. Ball 
 considers that " this persecution of the bird in the south is falling 
 into disuse, like other superstitious ceremonies." t " To hunt the 
 wren is a favourite pastime of the peasantry of Kerry, on Christ- 
 mas day. This they do, each using two sticks, one to beat the 
 bushes, the other to fling at the bird. It was the boast of an old 
 
 * Hence popularly called ' chitty wren ' in Ireland. Jenny wren is another 
 popular name. 
 
 t This gentleman remarks, that the hedge-sparrow ( Accentor modularis) is called 
 wrerC s-man in the south of Ireland, and that it often falls a sacrifice to the hunters 
 of the wren. 
 
350 CERTHIAD.E. 
 
 man who lately died at the age of 100, that he had hunted the 
 wren for the last 80 years on Christmas day. On St. Stephen's 
 day, the children exhibit the slaughtered birds on an ivy-bush 
 decked with ribbons of various colours, and carry them" about 
 singing the well-known song commencing 
 
 1 The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,' &c. 
 
 and thus collect money. "* In Dr. Wm. H. Drummond's Eights 
 of Animals, the cruelty practised towards the wren in the south 
 of Ireland (in the north the practice is unknown) is dwelt upon, 
 and a tradition narrated, attributing its origin to political motives. 
 In the first number of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's Ireland, a very 
 full and well-told account of the " hunting of the wren " appears.f 
 
 * Mr. T. F. Neligan, 1837. 
 f " As to the origin of the whimsical, but absurd and cruel custom [of huuting 
 the wren] we have no data. A legend, however, is still current among the peasantry 
 which may serve in some degree to elucidate it. 
 
 " In a grand assembly of all the birds of the air, it was determined that the sove- 
 reignty of the feathered tribe, should be conferred upon the one who would fly highest. 
 The favourite in the betting-book was of course the eagle, who at once, and in full 
 confidence of victory, commenced his flight towards the sun ; when he had vastly 
 distanced all competitors, he proclaimed with a mighty voice his monarchy over all 
 things that had wings. Suddenly, however, the wren who had secreted himself under 
 the feathers of the eagle's crest, popped from his hiding-place, flew a few inches up- 
 wards, and chirped out as loudly as he could : ' Birds, look up and behold your king ! ' 
 " There is also a tradition that in ' ould ancient times,' when the native Irish were 
 about to catch their Danish enemies asleep, a wren perched upon the drum and woke 
 the slumbering sentinels just in time to save the whole army ; in consequence of 
 which, the little bird was proclaimed a traitor, outlawed, and his life declared forfeit 
 whenever he was henceforward encountered." — Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's Ireland, 
 vol. i. p. 25. 
 
 The lines according to the same work, axe : — 
 
 " The wran, the wran, the king of all birds, 
 St. Stephen's day was cot in the furze ; 
 Although he is little, his family's grate, 
 Put your hand in your pocket, and give us a trate. 
 Sing holly, sing ivy, — sing ivy, sing holly, 
 A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy. 
 And if you dhraw it ov the best, 
 I hope in heaven yer sowl will rest, 
 But if you dhraw it ov the small, 
 It wont agree wid dc wran boys at all." — p. 24. 
 The subject has even been dramatised, or at least, selected for the title of a drama. 
 It was lately (Sept. 1848) posted on the walls of Belfast, as about to be performed at 
 " one of the minor theatres." Having a desire to see the nature of the piece, the 
 manager's copy was kindly placed at my service. The title is " The Wren Boys : or 
 the Moment of Peril ; an original drama, in two acts. By Thomas Egerton Wilks, 
 Esq. * * * Author of &c., &c. As performed at the London Theatres." 
 
THE COMMON WREN. 351 
 
 The legend there given as " current among the peasantry/' is not 
 however confined to them, for Mr. Macgillivray, apparently with- 
 out knowing anything of the Irish fable, relates the same as told 
 
 In Act. 2. Scene 1., is the village of Shanagolden, in Minister. The wren boys enter 
 confusedly, one bearing a bush with a wren in it, and the first four lines nearly as 
 above given, are sung, followed by the chorus. The wren boys are occasionally in- 
 troduced afterwards, wanting "money and liquor." They bear but a subordinate 
 part in the " romantic drama." It was printed and published in London. 
 
 The wren boys remind one of the swallow boys at Rhodes, whose song had better 
 be given here with some prefatory matter : — 
 
 " The household swallow was interwoven with the legendary history of Athens, by 
 the tragic poets of the Attic stage. The nightingale and the swallow were both of 
 them birds of passage. The children in Rhodes greeted the latter as herald of the 
 spring in a little song. Troops of them carrying about a swallow, sang this from door 
 to door, and collected provisions in return . — 
 " The Swallow is come ! 
 
 The Swallow is come ! 
 
 fair are the seasons, and light 
 
 Are the days that she brings 
 
 With her dusky wings, 
 
 And her bosom snowy white. — 
 
 And wilt thou not dole 
 
 From the wealth that is thine, 
 
 The fig, and the bowl 
 
 Of rosy wine, 
 
 And the wheateu meal, and the basket of cheese, 
 
 And the omelet cake, which is known to please 
 
 The Swallow, that comes to the Rhodian laud ? 
 
 Say : Must we be gone with an empty hand, 
 
 Or shall we receive 
 
 The gift that we crave ? 
 
 If thou give, — it is well. 
 
 But beware, if thou fail, 
 
 Nor hope that we'll leave thee : 
 
 Of all we'll bereave thee. 
 
 We'll bear off the door, 
 
 Or its posts from the floor, — 
 
 Or we'll seize thy young wife who is sitting within, 
 
 Whose form is so airy, so light, and so thin, 
 
 And as lightly, be sure, will we bear her away. 
 
 Then look that thy gift be ample to-day ; 
 
 And open the door, open the door, 
 
 To the Swallow open the door ! 
 
 No greybeards are we 
 
 To be foiled in our glee, 
 
 But boys who will have our will 
 
 This day, 
 
 But boys, who will have onr will." * 
 
 Hase's Public and Private Life of the Ancient Greeks, p. 23-25. 
 
 " A tradition is prevalent in some parts both of the north and south of Ireland, 
 
 that on one occasion James the 2nd's forces were on the point of surprising King 
 
 * Athenieus, viii., c. 60. 
 
352 CERTHIADiE. 
 
 by the inhabitants of the Hebrides (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 19) ; 
 and a detailed account of the wren being called a " king-bird/' 
 over a considerable part of the European continent, will be found 
 in one of the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, 
 entitled the Habits of Birds, p. 49. In the Literary Gazette of 
 February the 28th, 1846, p. 195, is a letter, occupying a column, 
 on the subject of both the wren and regulus, being called king- 
 birds. It was suggested by a communication which Mr. C. Croker 
 made to the British Archgeological Association, on the 4th of that 
 month, as reported in the Lit. Gaz. of the 7th (p. 131). A great 
 deal of information on the hunting of the wren, as well as on that 
 species and the regulus being called king-birds in various countries, 
 is given. It is stated, that in the Isle of Man, Wales, and the 
 south of Prance, the hunting of the wren is practised at Christ- 
 mas. Mr. Croker noticed the subject in connection with a pro- 
 clamation by Richard Dowden, Mayor of Cork, issued at the close 
 of 1845, with the intention, as headed, to "prevent cruelty to 
 animals." "The old popular ceremony long prevalent in Ireland, 
 of hunting and killing a wren on St. Stephen's day," was 
 forbidden. 
 
 Much the fullest description of the wren I have met with, is 
 from the pen of Mr. Weir, and published in Mr. Macgillivray's 
 work just mentioned. In Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, I have 
 met with the wren as commonly as in the British Islands. 
 
 William's army early in the morning, when some wrens, attracted probably by the 
 fragments of the preceding night's meal, alighted on the head of a drum which had 
 served for a table, and the noise of their bills in the act of picking awoke the drum- 
 mer, who instantly beat to arms, and saved William's army from defeat. The wren 
 accordingly, has been ever since a prime favourite with the Orange party, and an object 
 of persecution to the friends of James." — Extract from a small work entitled The 
 Rigbts of Animals, by Wm. H. Drummond, D. D., p. 142. (1838.) 
 
353 
 
 THE HOOPOE. 
 
 JJpwpa Bpops, Linn. 
 
 Has occasionally appeared in all quarters of the island. 
 
 Considering the western position of Ireland, this is more than 
 we should expect from what is said of its occurrence in Scotland. 
 We are told that it has been met with in several districts there 
 "even as far north as Caithness and Orkney, although not on the 
 western coast beyond the Frith of Clyde." * North and South 
 Wales, and about one half of the English counties are named by 
 Mr. Yarrell as having been visited by the hoopoe, and its occur- 
 rence is mentioned as most frequent in those of the east and south. 
 The southern counties of Ireland, — 'Wexford, Waterford, and 
 Cork, — are, as might be anticipated, the most frequently visited 
 by this remarkable and beautiful species ; but, it has occasionally 
 wandered to the most western, as Kerry, Limerick, Clare, and 
 Galway. In no instance has the hoopoe been known to breed in 
 this island, as it has done on two or three occasions in England. 
 Full details respecting the times and places of its occurrence must 
 be given. 
 
 Smith, in his History of Waterford, published in 1745, remarks 
 of this bird : — " I never heard of above one being seen in this 
 country ; this was shot upon the ruins of the old church of Strad- 
 bally, during the great frost of 1739, and was long in the posses- 
 sion of Mr. Maurice Uniacke, of Woodhouse." The same author, 
 in his History of the county of Cork, observes, that " the hoopoe 
 is with us a very rare bird," but gives no particulars of its occur- 
 rence. In M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus, it is related, 
 that " one was shot on the shore near the the town, Sept. 21, 
 1809 ;" and Mr. Templeton records another, as obtained there in 
 1818. The following information respecting the hoopoe has 
 been obtained since my own attention was first directed to the 
 subjecv : — 
 
 * Macgillivray, British Birds, vol. ill. p. 43 (A. 840). 
 VOL. I. 2 A 
 
354 
 
 UPUPIDjE. 
 
 Year. 
 
 1819? 
 
 1823? 
 1828 
 
 1833? 
 1833 
 
 1834 
 
 1835 
 
 1837 
 
 Month or 
 Season. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Sept. 19th. 
 
 Feb. or 
 March. 
 
 March. 
 
 Oct. 6th.* 
 
 "Winter of 
 
 September 
 (early in) 
 
 Sept. 26th. 
 Sept. 21st. 
 
 Oct. 20th. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Shot at Cloverhill near 
 the town of Ros- 
 common. 
 
 Near Ballynahinch 
 (Down) . 
 Killed at Balbriggan 
 (Dublin) 
 „ Lord Llandaff's 
 
 (Tipperary) 
 „ Cape Clear. 
 
 „ Kirkcubbin 
 (Down). 
 „ Kilbarry, near 
 Waterford, 
 
 Seen in King's county. 
 
 Shot at Banbridge (co 
 Down). 
 
 Seen at Killinick (Wex- 
 ford). 
 
 Shot near Coleraine 
 (Londonderry) 
 
 Mr. R. Ball, during the many years 
 of his residence at Youghal (co. 
 Cork), saw five of these birds, 
 and heard of others which were 
 procured in the neighbourhood 
 
 In fine adult plumage. 
 
 Killaloe (Clare) 
 
 Gal way. 
 
 Galway. 
 
 Observations. 
 
 A female. 
 
 By Dr. Farran from the top of a 
 coach. It was picking at horse- 
 dung on the road when first ob- 
 served ; and flew before the vehi 
 cle for about five hundred yards. 
 
 Its weight 3oz. ldr. ; contents of 
 stomach, caterpillars, and other 
 insect food. (Dr. J. D. Marshall.) 
 
 Remained during the winter, and 
 though much pursued, too wary 
 to be shot. (Major Thomas 
 Walker.) 
 
 Caterpillars and a beetle found in 
 its stomach (Rev.Thomas Knox) 
 
 A male bird ; its stomach filled with 
 the remains of beetles {Coleop 
 terd) ; — Dr. Farran. 
 
 * A hoopoe flew on board the Shannon steam-packet when on the passage 
 from London to Dublin, in September, 1834; it was seen by my informant 
 on the arrival of the vessel at the latter port, on the 20th of tbat month. 
 
THE HOOPOE. 
 
 355 
 
 Year. 
 
 Month or 
 Season. 
 
 d 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Observations. 
 
 1838 
 
 April 1st. 
 
 1 
 
 Shot in the couuty of 
 Kilkenuy. 
 
 
 ._ 
 
 September 
 
 1 
 
 Seen at Fairymount, 
 
 Pursued by magpies. It was found 
 
 
 (early in) 
 
 
 O'Brien's Bridge. 
 
 dead a day or two afterwards 
 in the neighbourhood, having, it 
 was thought, been killed by its 
 pursuers. (Limerick Chronicle.) 
 
 „ 
 
 Oct. 
 
 1 
 
 Shot near Londonderry. 
 
 
 
 (early in) 
 
 
 
 
 1839 
 
 March. 
 
 1 
 
 „ Kilbarry, Water- 
 ford. 
 
 At Tramore and Woodstown, in the 
 same county, the hoopoe has 
 been met with on a few occasions. 
 (Dr. R. J. Burkitt.) 
 
 1840 
 
 Oct. 
 (end of ) 
 
 1 
 
 „ Cork. 
 
 
 1841 
 
 Autumn of 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 „ In the county of 
 
 Westmeath. 
 „ Wexford. 
 
 
 " 
 
 Oct. 17th. 
 
 1 
 
 „ At Saunder's- 
 court, near Wex- 
 ford. 
 
 A locality in which the species has 
 occurred several times. 
 
 1842 
 
 
 1 
 
 „ Near Cork. 
 
 
 M 
 
 Autumn. 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ Waterford. 
 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ Wexford. 
 
 The shooter had the opportunity of 
 
 
 (middle of) 
 
 
 
 observing that the crest is borne 
 erect during flight. 
 
 1843 
 
 March ? 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 About the same time one in an ex- 
 hausted state, flew on board a 
 vessel in Wexford harbour. (Mr. 
 J. Poole.) 
 
 1845 
 
 May 
 
 2 
 
 „ In the Queen's 
 
 Sent to Dublin to be preserved ; 
 
 
 'middle of ) 
 
 
 county (?) 
 
 they were male and female. 
 
 ,, 
 
 July 2nd. 
 
 1 
 
 „ Near Cork. 
 
 
 1847 
 
 March, 
 (middle of ) 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 „ In the county of 
 
 Wexford. 
 „ In the county of 
 
 Waterford. 
 
 
 
 March 22d. 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 „ Near Portaferry 
 (Down). 
 
 „ Killarney (Kerry) 
 some years ago. 
 
 An adult male. In its stomach I 
 found some minute coleopteni 
 and vegetable matter. 
 
 From the preceding notes it appears that the hoopoe has 
 visited Ireland in six successive years — from 1837 to 1843 in- 
 clusive ; — in 1836 there is no record ; but tins may have arisen 
 from mere omission : in 1833, 1834 and 1835, it was obtained. 
 
 2 a 2 
 
356 cuculidte. 
 
 All of these birds, except two or three, said to have been met with 
 in summer and in winter, were evidently on migration, a few in 
 spring, and the greater number in autumn; — September and 
 October. The hoopoe generally appears singly. It is remarkable that 
 individuals should frequently wander so far west of the direct line 
 of their migration as this island, either when moving towards the 
 north of Europe for the summer, or towards Africa for the winter. 
 On the 24th and 25th of April, 1841, two or three of these 
 birds alighted, each day, on H.M.S. Beacon, when on the passage 
 from Malta to the Morea, and 50 to 130 miles eastward of Sicily : 
 they rested but for a short time, then proceeded on their north- 
 ward flight.* When travelling from Aix-la-Chapelle to Liege, on 
 the 17 th of July, I was gratified with the sight of a hoopoe, 
 which alighted on the road before the carriage. 
 
 THE CUCKOO. 
 Gowk. 
 
 Cuctikis canorus, Linn. 
 
 Is well known throughout Ireland as a regular spring 
 visitant. 
 
 It has been remarked with respect to Scotland, by Sir. Wm. Jar- 
 dine and Mr. Macgillivray, that localities of almost every character 
 are visited by this bird. It is likewise so in Ireland. The wild 
 and treeless wastes on different portions of the western coast 
 attract it equally with the most highly cultivated and best 
 wooded districts. Mr. R. Ball remarked, when visiting the largest 
 of the south islands of Arran, off Galway bay, accompanied by 
 the late lamented Dean of St. Patrick's, in June, 1835, that 
 cuckoos were particularly abundant there. This island is alto- 
 gether destitute of trees, except at one spot, where some half- 
 dozen appear ; its whole surface is either rocky or covered with a 
 
 * M. Duval-Jouve remarks, in the Zoologist for October, 1845, that — "this beau- 
 tiful species passes (through Provence) iu April, and early in May ; and in September : 
 it crosses the (Mediterranean) sea direct iu both its passages." p. 1123. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 357 
 
 short rich pasture. Along the romantic coast of Antrim, about 
 Glenarm and Carnlough, the peasantry look forward with the 
 greatest interest every spring, for what they call the " Gowk 
 (cuckoo) Storm" that takes place about the end of April, or the 
 beginning of May, when the note of this bird is heard. This 
 storm, which is from the east, casts on the beach vast quantities 
 of sea- wrack, used as manure for their potatoes. When staying in 
 that quarter at the latter end of May, 1842, I was informed, that 
 this was the only year in which a strong east wind had not 
 thrown ashore abundance of the wrack. The season was so 
 far advanced, that the people could wait no longer, and they 
 were busily engaged in boats, containing from one to three 
 men each, cutting it from the submerged rocks. This was 
 done very dexterously with a small sharp hook fixed at the 
 end of a long pole, the plant being cut and brought into the boat 
 at the one sweep. The tangle (Laminaria digitata) is the species 
 chiefly used. I saw potatoes planted on it a few hours after its 
 being cut from the rocks. It is carried in sacks by men up the 
 steep but arable sides of the glens, where horses cannot be used. A 
 sufficient quantity could not be obtained in the manner described, 
 and it was consequently feared, that much of the ground intended 
 for potatoes would lie fallow during that summer for want of the 
 gowk storm. In Tory island, off the north of Donegal, said to be 
 visited by the cuckoo about once in seven years, its presence is 
 imagined to be a good omen for the crops* 
 
 The vernal appearance of the cuckoo in the north of Ireland, is 
 as early as some authors report it to be in the south of England. 
 My notes bear witness to its arrival in the neighbourhood of Bel- 
 fast, in seven consecutive years — from 1832 to 1838 inclusive : on 
 April 16th, 20th, 21st, 10th, 22nd, 26th, 30th,— and on the 
 23rd in 1840 and 1842.f The adult birds generally leave the 
 north of the island at the end of June : on the 1st of July, 1832, 
 I saw two, find heard their call, near Dunfanaghy, in the north- 
 
 * Mr. Hyiidman. 
 t Dr. Scouler informs me, that he heard the call of the cuckoo at Coimbra, in Portu- 
 gal, on the 21st of March, 1845. In that year, it was heard about Belfast, on the 18th 
 of .April — in the three following years, respectively, on the 13th ; 30th; and 29th. 
 
358 cuculid.&. 
 
 west of the county of Donegal. The stay of the cuckoo was re- 
 markably prolonged in 1838, — in which year the period of their 
 arrival was also later than ever known. One was heard calling at 
 "The Falls" near Belfast, on the 7th of July * The young birds 
 of the year generally remain till towards the end of August ; so 
 late as the 27th of which month they have been observed in the 
 county of Antrim. The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar 
 History of Birds, records an instance of about forty cuckoos 
 being congregated in a garden in the county of Down, from the 
 18th to the 22nd of July, and with the exception of one or two, 
 which were smaller than the rest, taking their departure at that 
 time. It is not stated whether they were adult or immature birds, 
 and the time mentioned is between the periods of departure of 
 the old and young ; but from one or two remarks made, we may 
 infer, that they were the latter. On the 5th of October a few 
 years since, two young cuckoos were shot in a garden near Tralee ; 
 they were both in high condition.f An adult bird was shot at 
 the migratory period a few years ago when flying singly in a 
 southerly direction over the sea, about two miles off Dundrum, 
 county Down. 
 
 The singular economy of the cuckoo in depositing its eggs in 
 the nests of other birds, has been very fully treated of, from per- 
 sonal observation, by the celebrated Dr. Jenner, % Mr. Blackwall,§ 
 Mr. Weir, 1 1 and others. I have not anything novel to offer on 
 the subject, but will introduce a few observations made in Ireland. 
 In the north of the island,^" as in Scotland,** the nest of the tit- 
 
 * In M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus (1823), it is remarked, that — " During 
 20 years' observation, the earliest it has been heard calling, was the 17th of April, and 
 the latest, the 30th of June." 
 
 f Mr. R. Chute. % Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxxviii. § Researches in Zoology. 
 || Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. 
 
 If Mr. Poole writing from the county of Wexford, mentions the titlark's nest as the 
 usual receptacle of the cuckoo's egg there. Mr. R. Warren, junr., has seen the young 
 cuckoo in the nest of the hedge-accentor, at Monkstown, near Cork. When at the 
 Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, on the 8th of June, 1844, a young cucfto was pointed 
 out to me in a robin's nest, by Mr. W. J. Smith, the curator, who mentioned, that 
 iliis bird generally builds here on_the ground, as in the present instance. Wc had 
 circumstantial evidence of the nest being the property of a bird of this species, as a 
 robin with a worm in its. bill kept anxiously watching our movemeuts in its vicinity. 
 ** Jardinc ; Macgillivrnv. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 359 
 
 lark (Anthus pratensis) seems generally to be the receptacle of the 
 cuckoo's egg. George Elisor, Esq., of Ardress, county of Armagh, 
 in a communication to the Magazine of Natural History (vol. vi. 
 p. 83), mentions a tenant's son having taken home a young cuckoo 
 from a titlark's nest. " Two wrens who had a nest with eight 
 eggs in the eaves, and just above the window fronting the cage in 
 which the cuckoo was placed, made their way through a broken 
 pane, and continued to feed it for some time." The cuckoo was 
 at length taken away, when " the wrens repaired to their own 
 nest, and brought out the eggs that had been laid :" — we are not 
 informed how long they were absent from it. At Eockport, near 
 Belfast, a lady remarked, that when the cuckoo had attained 
 such a size that its foster-parents could not reach up food, they 
 alighted on its back to feed it. This proceeding was repeatedly 
 observed from the windows of the house, near to which the nest 
 was situated. The cuckoo is occasionally heard to call through 
 the night, when fine, though there may be no moonlight. On 
 the 8th of May, a dark morning, I noted that its call commenced 
 at half-past three o'clock. It was once heard at the Falls on the 
 16th of June, at a quarter past two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 In April, 1834, I made the following communication to the 
 Zoological Society of London : — 
 
 "May 28th, 1833. — On examination to-day of three cuckoos, 
 which were killed in the counties of Tyrone and Antrim within 
 the last week, I found them all to be in different stages of plumage. 
 One was mature ; — another (a female) exhibited on the sides of 
 the neck and breast the reddish-coloured markings of the young 
 bird, the remainder of the plumage being that of maturity ; — the 
 third specimen had reddish markings disposed entirely over it, 
 much resembling the plumage described by M. Temminck as as- 
 sumed by ' les jeunes tels qu'ils emigrent en automne ' (vol. i. 
 p. 383), but having a greater proportion of red, especially on the 
 tail-coverts, than is specified in his description of the bird at that 
 age. This individual proved on dissection to be a female, and did 
 not contain any eggs so large as ordinary-sized peas. The stomach, 
 
360 cuculidjE. 
 
 with the exception of the presence of some small sharp gravel, 
 was entirely empty, and was closely coated over with hair. 
 
 " Attention was called to this, that the hair lining that 
 organ might be observed. From its close adhesion to the inner 
 surface of this stomach, and from the regularity with which it is 
 arranged, I was at first disposed to consider this hair as being of 
 spontaneous growth ; but part of the stomach having been sub- 
 jected to maceration in water, and afterwards viewed through a 
 microscope of high power, the hairs proved, to the entire -satis- 
 faction of Mr. [now Professor] Owen and myself, to be altogether 
 borrowed from the larvae of the tiger-moth, Arctia Caja, Schrank, 
 the only species found in the stomachs of several cuckoos * from 
 different parts of the north of Ireland, which I examined in the 
 months of May and June, 1833/' Proceedings Zool. Soc, 1834, 
 p. 29. 
 
 An observant friend found the remains of coleopterous insects 
 in the stomach of a cuckoo, but does not remember whether this 
 was at a time when its favourite caterpillars are to be procured. 
 Mr. Poole remarks, that a young cuckoo which he shot on the 
 21st of July, "frequented a newly cut meadow, where it was 
 busily occupied looking for food among the swathes. Its stomach 
 was distended with caterpillars, together with some fibrous sub- 
 stance, like fine grass-stalks, some four inches long, and in consi- 
 derable quantity." An intelligent bird-preserver has remarked a 
 kind of tough gelatinous fat attached to the skin of the neck in 
 the cuckoo, which he has not seen in any other bird. 
 
 I have several times known young cuckoos to have been kept 
 for some months in good health, until winter fairly set in, when 
 with two exceptions, they died.f Of the survivors, one lived for 
 
 * The stomachs of all these were coated with hair like the one described. 
 
 f Mr. Jas. R. Garrett has favoured me with the following note respecting one ob- 
 tained since the preceding was written : — 
 
 "Belfast, Nov. 23rd, 1848. 
 
 " I have at present in confinement a young cuckoo, which I took, on the 21st of June, 
 from the nest of a titlark. It was then in the plumage represented in the vignette 
 in vol. ii. p. 199 of Yarrell's Brit. Birds (2nd Ed.), with the exception that its wing and 
 tail-feathers were much longer. The titlarks were hovering about the nest when I 
 approached, and close to it I found one of their eggs, containing a half-formed young 
 bird in a stale of decomposition. For several weeks after the cuckoo was placed in 
 
THE CUCKOO. 361 
 
 more than a year at Cranmore, near Belfast, the residence of that 
 well-known naturalist, John Templeton, Esq. But it will suffice 
 to give the particulars respecting another, kept for a longer period, 
 at the same place, and of which the following account, greatly 
 exceeding in interest any I have read, appears in the MS. journal 
 of Mr. Templeton : — 
 
 "January 10th, 1822. — Last night the cuckoo which E 
 
 got on the 26th of July, 1820, died in consequence of C having 
 
 hurt it with her foot on Tuesday last [8th] . Thus ended the days 
 of this innocent little bird, whose engaging manners were the 
 delight of the whole family and the admiration of strangers. It 
 was fed generally on hard boiled eggs, and occasionally with 
 caterpillars : it would sometimes eat forty or fifty at a time of 
 those of the Papilio brassica ; it, however, showed a decided 
 preference for rough ones, as those of the Papilio urticce. A 
 seeming treat was a little mouse, about one quarter grown, which 
 it would hold in its bill and beat against the ground, or anything 
 hard, until the animal became soft, when it exhibited great powers 
 of extending its throat and swallowing. What, however, was 
 most extraordinary, it was never known to take a drink ; though 
 when presented with a drop of water at the end of a finger or 
 straw, it would sip it, and seemed to delight, when seated on its 
 mistress's or other person's hand, to put its bill to their mouths 
 and sip saliva. It delighted very much in heat, and sitting in the 
 sunshine ; and as its feathers were so much broken by its striking 
 
 confinement, it uttered, when in want of food, a note so closely resembling that of the 
 titlark, that it would have been almost impossible to distinguish between them. By 
 degrees, however, its voice became more harsh, and latterly its only call has been a dis- 
 cordant one, uttered in the evening, and but once daily. This is very like the bark 
 of a dog, repeated four or five times in quick succession. Whether all young cuckoos 
 have, in the first instance, the same note, or whether they acquire, for a time, that of 
 the foster parents, (whatever it may happen to be,) I have been unable to ascertain ; 
 but the present case seems to support the latter supposition. For some weeks the 
 cuckoo's food (consisting of the yelk of hard boiled eggs, worms, or chopped flesh- 
 meat,) was placed in its beak, but it has learned to feed out of a cup placed in the 
 cage. The worms are invariably passed several times through its bill in the peculiar 
 manner described by Montagu previous to being swallowed. It prefers caterpillars 
 in the season to any other species of food, and seldom swallows anything without 
 bruising it for some time in its beak. No fluid of any kind has been given to this 
 bird. The irides are hazel, not blue, as stated by Bewick in reference to the young 
 of this species." A few hours after the preceding was written, the subject of it was 
 found dead in its case. 
 
362 CUCULIDiE. 
 
 them against the furniture that it could fly but very imperfectly, 
 it was apparently very thankful to any person who would help it 
 up on the first sash of the window. At other times it sat upon 
 the fender, turning itself in various directions, and spreading its 
 wings and feathers to receive the heat, of which it could bear a 
 temperature equal to 100 degrees for a considerable time with 
 seeming satisfaction. During cold weather it slept at its mistress's 
 bed-side, covered with a piece of flannel, which was well warmed 
 previous to its going to rest. With this attention, it generally 
 remained quiescent until morning ; but on feeling cold, sometimes 
 presumed so far as to creep under the bed-clothes. It was only 
 to those from whom it had received some hurt or persecution, that 
 it expressed dislike or fear, which it manifested by raising its neck- 
 feathers and putting itself into an attitude of defence. It never 
 uttered the cry of the male — ' cuckoo ' — but sometimes, when 
 persons in the room were laughing, it would apparently join, and 
 emit a noise somewhat like the barking of a little dog. At all 
 other times the only sound it made was a kind of low chattering, 
 expressive of pleasure, when it got into a warm place, or on seeing 
 its mistress after she had been absent for some hours. It received 
 the unlucky tramp, which finally killed it, by having lost too 
 much the apprehension of injury." 
 
 From Miss Templeton, I have learned the following particulars 
 respecting this cuckoo : — It moulted only a few feathers the first 
 year about Christmas ; the following year, about the same period, 
 moulting commenced, and the bird became so unwell, that its life 
 was considered to be in danger. Some of the adult plumage was 
 then exhibited, but before there was time for this to be perfected, 
 the poor bird met with its accidental death. This cuckoo was 
 never subjected to the confinement of the cage, but was kept in 
 the parlour through the day, and taken to its mistress's bed-room 
 at night. Its favourite food was a hairy species of caterpillar 
 found upon the oak, that being better liked than the hispid one 
 of the nettle butterfly ; but it would eat voraciously of either of 
 these, consuming fully three times as many, as of the smooth 
 caterpillar of the cabbage : — this was wholly rejected when the 
 
THE CUCKOO. 363 
 
 others were to be had. Every caterpillar was viscerated by the 
 bird previous to being swallowed, as were the mice also when 
 young enough for this process : the latter were always swallowed 
 head foremost, and for a considerable time afterwards, their tails 
 appeared dangling from the cuckoo's bill. When the season was 
 too far advanced for caterpillars to be procured, this bird was fed 
 on raw flesh-meat, and seemed to gain much strength in conse- 
 quence : with this, and hard-boiled eggs, it was supplied throughout 
 the winter. It never consumed less in a day than a couple of 
 eggs, in addition to a little of some other food. It is described 
 as having been apparently deficient in the power of. picking up 
 little fragments of anything, as bits of egg, &c. To the last, it 
 gaped to be fed with all bat caterpillars, — its natural food. Being 
 remarkably sharp-sighted, it would perceive from the opposite 
 side of the room, if a caterpillar had escaped, and with the utmost 
 rapidity dart at and seize the prey. This bird was, from its note, 
 presumed to be a female : it was originally taken from a titlark's 
 nest. Montagu, in the supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, 
 gives so full and interesting an account of a cuckoo which he 
 kept, that a portion of the above is but a counterpart of his nar- 
 rative. It seemed to me, however, that all particulars respecting 
 Mr. Tempieton's bird, were well worthy of being recorded. 
 
 In Holland, I have heard the call of the cuckoo, in the king's 
 park at the Hague, towards the end of May, and in Switzerland, 
 late in June. Its well-known cry was most gratifying to my 
 ear, when (on the 16th of May) riding over the bare wild hills and 
 through the forest between Constantinople and the picturesque 
 village of Belgrade, — once the residence of Lady Mary Wortley 
 Montagu. In the vicinity of Navarino, on the 28th of April, 
 a small flock of seven or eight birds, which were believed to be 
 cuckoos, flew near to me, proceeding in a northerly direction, but 
 the call was wanting to prove the species. This bird occasionally 
 utters the note " cu-cu " sharply several times successively, which 
 I have particularly remarked when two or three are in company. 
 
364 CUCULHLE. 
 
 THE GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO, 
 
 Cuculus glandarius, Linn. 
 
 Has once been obtained. 
 
 A lettek from A. Crighton, Esq., of Clifden, Connemara, to Mr. 
 R. Ball, gives the following information respecting it : — 
 
 " The cuckoo, pursued by hawks, was taken by two persons, 
 walking on the island of Omagh. It flew into a hole in a- stone 
 fence or wall, was caught alive, and lived for four days on potatoes 
 and water. The inhabitants of this country had never seen any 
 bird like it before, and as they are constantly in the habit of 
 fishing at Bofin and Arran Islands, if the bird were to be met 
 with, no doubt they would have recognised it. The bird when 
 chased by the hawks, appeared fatigued, weak, and emaciated, as 
 though it had taken a long flight, as woodcocks and other birds 
 of passage do on first arrival." The month of March, 1842, is 
 said to have been the time of its capture. On being sent to 
 Dublin to be preserved, an excellent coloured drawing of it, the 
 size of life, was kindly made by Miss Battersby, and forwarded 
 for my acceptance : the plumage represented agrees best with that 
 of the adult bird, as described by Temminck. The specimen has 
 subsequently been obtained by Mr. Ball for the museum of Trinity 
 College, Dublin. It is the only one known to have visited the 
 British Islands. 
 
 According to Temminck (part 3, p. 277), the northern parts of 
 Africa seem to be the chief abode of this bird, which occasionally 
 visits southern Europe — Spain, France (south of), Italy, &c. In 
 Germany also, it has been met with in different instances. 
 
 " Mr. Gould, in his well-known work on the Birds of Europe, 
 says, that the true habitat of this species is the w r ooded districts, 
 skirting the sultry plains of North Africa, but those that pass the 
 Mediterranean, find a congenial climate in Spain and Italy. Op- 
 portunities are still wanting to confirm the most interesting of its 
 habits." * 
 
 * Yarrell, British Birds, vol. ii. p. 202. (2ud edit.) 
 
365 
 
 THE YELLOW-BILLED AMERICAN CUCKOO. 
 
 Coccyzus Americanus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Cuculus „ „ 
 cinerosus, Temm.* 
 
 Has twice been procured in Ireland. 
 
 The first notice of the occurrence of this species in the British 
 Islands, and indeed in the Eastern hemisphere, is due to Mr. R. 
 Ball of Dublin, who contributed a note upon the subject to the 
 first number of the Field Naturalist's Magazine. He states, that 
 when at Youghal (co. Cork) in 1825, the butler of a neighbouring 
 gentleman brought him a specimen of this bird a few minutes 
 after its being shot, and when still warm and bleeding. In the 
 same communication, dated from Dublin Castle, October 20th, 
 1832, a second example is mentioned as having been recently killed 
 near Bray, a few miles from Dubbn. About the same period 
 ("autumn, 1832") one was shot on the estate of Lord Cawdor, 
 in Wales. Mr. Yarrell received a communication respecting the 
 occurrence of another in Cornwall, but no date is given. (Br. 
 Birds, vol. ii. p. 190.) These are, I believe, all the recorded in- 
 stances of the species having been met with in the British Islands. 
 Foreign ornithological works published down to 1845, do not 
 contain any notice of its occurrence on the European continent. 
 
 The specimen obtained near Bray was shown to me by Mr. 
 Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin, and I agree with Mr. Ball in 
 considering it identical in species with his own. This was 
 entrusted to me when about to visit London in the spring of 1835, 
 and on comparing it with the specimen presented by Lord 
 Cawdor to the British Museum, I found them to be of the same 
 species. Before leaving home, I had purchased in Belfast a yellow- 
 billed American cuckoo from a person who shot it at Long 
 Island (United States), and at a meeting of the Zoological Society 
 
 * See Temminck's Manuel, part 3, p. 277, for remarks both on the generic and 
 specific names. 
 
•366 meropidjE. 
 
 I exhibited this bird and Mr. Ball's for the purpose of showing their 
 specific identity.* 
 
 It was considered desirable to look as critically as possible to 
 these birds, on account of the singular fact of their appearance in 
 this hemisphere. Some ornithologists can hardly believe that they 
 crossed the Atlantic. Temminck conjectures that this cuckoo 
 must breed in the north of Europe, whence the individuals migrated 
 to the British Islands. But our knowledge of their occurrence 
 here only in the more western parts (Ireland, Wales, and 
 Cornwall), in addition to the fact, that at the very period of their 
 being met with, the species, according to Wilson and Audubon, 
 is in course of migration in the western hemisphere, seems to 
 me presumptive evidence of their having really crossed the ocean. 
 Audubon has seen this bird in summer so far north as Labrador. 
 It winters in temperate climates. 
 
 THE EOLLEE. 
 
 Coracias garmla, Linn. 
 
 Appears, on the following testimony, to have visited 
 this island. 
 
 Mr. E. Ball, when walking through the demesne at Carton, the 
 seat of the Duke of Leinster, in the middle of September, 1831, 
 had his attention attracted by a bird, pursued by a great number 
 of rooks. Instead of flying off to avoid them, it continued 
 for a considerable time (so long as he remained) to dash into the 
 midst of them, apparently for the sake only of annoyance. 
 From the size, brilliant plumage, and singular flight of this bird, 
 my friend was satisfied of its being a roller. Mr. Walker of 
 Granby Eow, Dublin, states that one of these birds, shot in the 
 county of Sligo some years ago, was preserved for a relative of his 
 who resides there. Another roller has been mentioned to me as 
 obtained in the south of Ireland some years since ; but as yet, no 
 example of the bird unquestionably killed in this island, has to 
 
 * Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, p. 84. 
 
THE BEE-EATER. 367 
 
 my knowledge come under the inspection of the naturalist. This 
 species is a rare and occasional visitant to England and Scotland. 
 
 THE BEE-EATER. 
 
 Merops Apiaster, Linn. 
 
 Has very rarely been met with in Ireland. 
 
 Dr. J. D. Marshall of Belfast, in a communication to the Maga- 
 zine of Natural History (vol. ii.), dated July, 1829, stated that 
 one " was killed in the county of Wicklow a few years ago." 
 Dr. R. Graves of Dublin, in a letter addressed to a mutual friend in 
 Belfast, in November, 1830, mentioned, that he had known three 
 bee-eaters to have been obtained in the interior of Ireland, one of 
 which was shot by Mr. Tardy, the eminent entomologist; its 
 stomach was found to contain many bees. It is doubtless the 
 same individual which is alluded to by Mr. Vigors in the Zoological 
 Journal (No. 4, p. 589) as being in the possession of that gentle- 
 man ; but is there stated to have been shot " on the sea-coast, 
 near Wexford, in the winter of 1820." (?) 
 
 I had the opportunity, as noticed in the Magazine of Natural 
 History (vol. ii. p. 18, new series), of examining in a recent state, 
 the only one of these birds yet recorded as obtained in Scotland. 
 It was said to have been shot on the 6th of October, 1832, by 
 Capt. James M'Dowall, 2nd Life Guards, at his seat near the 
 Mull of Galloway. The specimen was sent to Belfast by my 
 friend Capt. Eayrer, R.N., to be preserved, and set up for that gen- 
 tleman. But few of these birds have been obtained in England. 
 
 I have had the gratification of seeing the bee-eater in scenes 
 with which its brilliant plumage was more in harmony than with 
 any in the British Isles. It first excited my admiration in August 
 1826, when visiting the celebrated grotto of Egeria, near Rome. 
 On approaching this classic spot, several of these birds, in rapid, 
 swift-like flight, swept closely past and around us, uttering their 
 peculiar call, and with their graceful form and brilliant colours 
 proved irresistibly attractive. My companion, who, as well as 
 
368 MEROPID.E. 
 
 myself, beheld them for the first time, was so greatly struck with 
 the beauty of their plumage and bold sweeping flight, as to term 
 them the presiding deities over Egeria's Grotto. Rich as was the 
 spot in historical and poetical associations, it was not less so in 
 pictorial charms ; all was in admirable keeping : — the picturesque 
 grotto with its ivy-mantled entrance and gushing spring ; the grace- 
 fully reclining, though headless white marble statue of the nymph; 
 the sides of the grotto covered with the exquisitely beautiful 
 maiden-hair fern in the richest luxuriance ; the wilderness of 
 wild flowers around the exterior, attracting the bees, on which the 
 Merops was feeding ; and over all, the deep blue sky of Rome 
 completing the picture. 
 
 On the 26th of April, 1841, three bee-eaters coming from 
 the south flew close past H.M.S. Beacon, sailing from Malta 
 to the Morea, but did not alight. We were then about 90 
 miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 130 from Navarino. 
 On the morning of the next day, when 45 miles from Zante, and 
 60 west of the Morea, a bee-eater, coming from the south-west, 
 alighted for a moment on the vessel and then flew towards Zante, 
 in a north-east direction : soon afterwards, a flock consisting of 
 fifteen came from the same quarter, hawked about the lee side of 
 the vessel for a short time, and then proceeded north-east ; an 
 hour after their departure (ten o' clock), a flock of eight appeared, 
 and alighting on a rope astern the ship, remained there for nearly an 
 hour ; they were perched so close together, and so low down on the 
 rope, that by its motion the lowest one was more than once ducked 
 in the water, but nevertheless did not let go its hold, or change the 
 position for a drier one. These birds were but a few yards from 
 the cabin- windows, and looked- so extremely beautiful, that they 
 were compared, by some of the spectators, to paroquets, and 
 not very inaptly on account of their gaudy plumage. After these 
 left us, others were seen throughout the day, but generally singly; 
 they rarely alighted ; all flew in the same course.* 
 
 * When not very far to the westward of Cape Matapan, on the 1st of May, a 
 flock of twenty-nine of the Merops wpiaster flew close past the ship towards the 
 Morea. 
 
369 
 
 THE KINGFISHER. 
 
 Alcedo Ispida, Linn. 
 
 Is at least occasionally to be met with in suitable localities 
 throughout the island. 
 
 It is nowhere numerous. As many individuals, however, would 
 seem to be distributed over districts favourable for their abode in 
 Ireland, as in any other country. 
 
 The kingfisher is generally said by British authors to be partial 
 to clear streams, but to the correctness of this remark its haunts 
 around Belfast will not bear testimony. Here are streams, which, 
 though not on a grand scale, partake more or less of every natural 
 character, and gently flow or wildly rush through scenery the most 
 varied; yet the muddy, sluggish Lagan is its favourite haunt. 
 About waters of every description it may be seen, not excepting 
 the deep and unpicturesque brick-pits, near to which no tree or 
 shrub appears. 
 
 There is decidedly a partial migration or movement of these birds. 
 They came regularly every year about the same time in the month 
 of August, to ponds at our own residence in the country, con- 
 tiguous to the mountains, and elevated 500 feet above the sea. 
 They remained generally for about six weeks, and once only were 
 seen in winter. Their first appearance in the year 1831 was on the 
 4th of August; in 1833 on the 14th; in 1834 on the 14th; and 
 in 1835 on the 17th of that month.* Although more frequently 
 solitary, two were occasionally seen in company, and in one instance 
 three, of which a couple were believed to be young birds, from 
 being less brilliant in plumage, and more slow in flight than the 
 other. Their usual haunts here are the willowed banks of ponds, 
 one of which is not more than thirty yards distant from the dwell- 
 ing-house. At little more than this distance we were once amused 
 
 * Intelligent persons resident on the banks of the Lagan, near Belfast, state, that 
 kingfishers appear there in the autumn and remain until March, when they disap- 
 pear. This accords with the observation of Mr. Weir, who, writing from Linlith- 
 gowshire, remarks, — " In my neighbourhood, kingfishers are never seen before the 
 beginning of September, and they usually disappear about the end of March. They 
 then retire to the river Avon, where they breed." — Macgillivray's Brit. Birds, 
 vol. iii. p. 679. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 B 
 
•370 HALCYONIDiE. 
 
 by observing from the windows, a kingfisher perched on the handle 
 of a spade, and looking a miserable object from its being " all 
 droukit " with heavy rain. It did not betray any shyness, though 
 several persons passed within about a dozen paces, but remained 
 on this ungraceful perch * for not less than an hour, until driven 
 away by the owner of the spade going to resume his work. This 
 trivial circumstance is mentioned in connection with the chosen 
 haunts of the kingfisher at this locality ; some writers having de- 
 scribed it as a wild and unapproachable bird, avoiding the vicinity 
 of human dwellings. I have never found it so at any season. A 
 relative, who has bestowed much attention on kingfishers, has been 
 surprised by frequently observing them alight m beds of reeds 
 growing on oozy banks beyond his reach, whence they could not 
 again be raised either by his shouting or throwing stones. When 
 much persecuted, as this bird generally is on account of its splendid 
 plumage, it fortunately does become wild. 
 
 To my regret I was once guilty of the death of a kingfisher, 
 but under extenuating circumstances. When in pursuit of wood- 
 cocks and snipes along the partially wooded banks of a rivulet, 
 during frost which succeeded a heavy fall of snow, a small bird of 
 a peculiar appearance was sprung two or three times as we advanced, 
 and always within shot ; at lastl fired, and to my astonishment, on 
 going to the spot where the victim fell, found it to be a kingfisher. 
 Sportsmen must have remarked the changed aspect of birds rising 
 against a snowy background, but would hardly be prepared, as in 
 tins instance, to see a kingfisher lose all its brilliancy, and assume 
 a hue, dark and sooty as the water-ouzel; yet such it did. Had 
 the bird not appeared under false colours, the trigger would have 
 been untouched. Its. mode of flight should certainly have indi- 
 cated the species ; but over this, unfortunately, the negative 
 character arising from the absence of its wonted beauty prevailed. 
 Besides, it is not the snow-clad landscape that should bring to 
 mind the kingfisher, whose vesture is more in accordance with the 
 torrid zone than the arctic -circle. 
 
 •" I have seen the kingfisher perched on the not more picturesque brickbat, and 
 oil the mud of the river. 
 
THE KINGFISHER. 371 
 
 Mr. Yarrell observes that the kingfisher is " a difficult bird to 
 shoot on the wing ;" but from its usual flight being direct, like 
 that of the water-ouzel and quail, I should call it easy : — this will, 
 however, depend on the individual shooter. I sincerely hope 
 that those who follow the bird with evil intent may find that it is 
 " difficult " to be shot. Occasionally, both in summer and winter, 
 I have seen a couple of kingfishers, apparently in playful mood, 
 describing graceful curves after the manner of the sandpiper 
 {Totanus hypoleucos), as they flew gently over the surface of the 
 water. Their splendid plumage was at the same time displayed 
 to the best advantage, and they gave forth their peculiar shrill 
 piping call. This resembles the call of the sandpiper more than 
 that of any bird with which I am acquainted, but may perhaps be 
 termed louder, hoarser, and not so shrill. For several years suc- 
 cessively, a pair of these birds were known to have their nest in 
 holes in the banks of a rivulet at Seymour Hill, near Belfast ; and 
 at the Falls, an old pair with their four or five young have been 
 seen perched on the same rail, not far distant from their nest. 
 
 This species has already been mentioned as resorting to an up- 
 land locality in the month of August, and remaining there through 
 September ; after which period and through the winter, it is to be 
 met with about the streams and rivers of the lower grounds, and 
 occasionally about the estuary of Belfast bay. A couple of them 
 were remarked by my observant friend Mr. James E,. Garrett, 
 throughout the month of January, 1836, to frequent the river 
 Lagan where subject to the flow of the tide ; he has seen them, 
 when on wing, plunge after their prey in the same manner as the 
 gannet, and the tern. At the mouth of another river, where it enters 
 the bay, three or four have been seen in company. At ebb-tide, tins 
 species has been observed fishing here in shallow pools of sea- 
 water in its most picturesque manner, — suspended above the 
 water, and darting down upon its prey. This mode must necessa- 
 rily have been resorted to, as there was no branch of a tree or 
 perch from which the bird could be on the look-out; but at 
 rivers with wooded banks its prey is occasionally taken in the 
 same manner. I remember being once entertained by observing 
 
 2 b 2 
 
372 HALCYONIDyE. 
 
 a kingfisher perched on a branch overhanging a pond, and 
 about a foot above it, while trout, all too large for its mastery, 
 kept leaping up immediately beneath as if in defiance of their 
 enemy. From a branch fully six feet above the water, this 
 bird has been observed to dart down upon its prey. A gentleman 
 once informed me, that beside the nest of a kingfisher he had 
 found the perfect skeleton of a fish which induced him to believe 
 that the bird does not swallow the fish whole, but picks the flesh 
 off. That such, however, is not the case, the stomachs of the 
 few, — seven in number, — which I have myself examined, suffi- 
 ciently attested, as they all contained fish-bones only. The two 
 before alluded to, as frequenting the Lagan within flow of the 
 tide in January, 1836, fell victims to the gun at the end of that 
 month, and were found on dissection to have their stomachs filled 
 with Crustacea; said to be "shrimps" about an inch in length. 
 Mr. Poole remarks, that kingfishers perform a partial migration, 
 probably from some inland district to the vicinity of the shore of 
 Wexford harbour, where, during the winter months, they frequent 
 small rills, &c. communicating with the sea at high tides ; " multi- 
 tudes of shrimps and small fry of fish are wintered here, and furnish 
 their beautiful enemy with a readily obtained supply of food." 
 
 In the winter of 1830-31, a bird-preserver in Belfast received so 
 many as seven kingfishers in the course of a month. Of these, three 
 were shot at the Lagan,* one near Downpatrick, and two or three at 
 the Six-mile Water, one of the tributaries of Lough Neagh. 
 Within about a month on another occasion, from the middle of 
 October to that of November, I saw seven of these birds which 
 had beeu sent to taxidermists in Belfast. One of them was 
 from the last-named river, and two others from the Inver, 
 at Larne, and the Milewater, all county of Antrim streams; 
 one from Killileagh (co. Down), and three from Coleraine (co. Lon- 
 donderry). During a week in January, 1841, Mr. E. Davis, jun., 
 
 * On the 21st of September, 1833, kingfishers were said to be plentiful about 
 this river ; four were seen together on a bank of gravel, and on being frightened 
 away flew in company up the stream ; about a mile below where they were first ob- 
 served, my informant proceeding onwards saw two more : so many appearing within 
 such a limited space, is extraordinary. 
 
THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 373 
 
 of Clonmel, received six of these birds ; the extreme cold of that 
 month will be remembered.' 55 ' All these are remarkable cases. 
 
 My friend Richard Langtry, Esq., when grouse-shooting at 
 Aberarder, in Inverness-shire, in the season of 1840, met with a 
 kingfisher several times, from the middle to the end of September, 
 about a wild mountain-rivulet at a considerable elevation, whose 
 banks were destitute of wood or any cover. In the middle of 
 August I once saw three of these birds in company at the Pontine 
 marshes between Rome and Naples. 
 
 Mr. Waterton, in Ins Essays on Natural History, treats of the 
 kingfisher in a most pleasing manner. 
 
 BELTED KINGFISHER. 
 
 Alcedo alcyon, Linn. 
 
 Two individuals of this species have been met with about 
 
 the same period. 
 They were thus noticed in a communication which I made to the An- 
 nals of Natural History, for December, 1845. "I have the pleasure 
 to record the occurrence of tins North American bird in Ireland; 
 a specimen (as I learn by letter from T. W. Warren, Esq., of 
 Dublin, dated Nov. 21, 1845,) having been shot by Frederick A. 
 Smith, Esq., at Annsbrook, county of Meath, on the 26th of 
 October last. It has fortunately been preserved, and on being 
 shown to Mr. R. Ball, was identified as A. Alcyon : this gentle- 
 man considers that the full strong plumage of the specimen de- 
 notes a truly wild bird, and not an individual that had escaped 
 from confinement. According to the descriptions of Wilson and 
 Richardson, it is a female, and not, at all events, in younger 
 plumage, than that of the second year. Mr. Warren adds, 
 that when at the shop of Mr. Glennon, the well-known bird- 
 preserver, on the day before the date of Ins letter, the game- 
 keeper of Mr. Latouche of Luggela, county of Wicklow, called 
 to mention that he had, within the last few days, seen a very large 
 kingfisher, at a stream connecting the lake of Luggela with 
 
 * "In severe winters, they sometimes become so tame, that they even venture 
 within a few feet of the door of Bathgate Mill, which is situated in the immediate 
 vicinity of houses " Mr. Weir in Macgillvray's Brit. Birds, vol. hi. p. 679. 
 
374 - HIRUNDINEMS. 
 
 Lough Dan. He saw the bird very well, as it admitted of his 
 approach within twenty yards : his description agreeing with the 
 A. Alcyon, the specimen was shown to him, and he at once iden- 
 tified his bird as being of the same species. On his return to the 
 country, he again met with and shot the bird, winch proved to be 
 A. Alcyon. It is now in the collection of Mr. Warren; the 
 other was purchased for the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 " This kingfisher, said to be the only species inhabiting North 
 America, is migratory there, and like other birds which Tiave 
 visited Ireland and Great Britain from that continent, has ap- 
 peared about the period of migration. As an American bird, it 
 is fully treated of by Wilson,* Audubon,t and Richardson. % The 
 last author states, that in summer 'it frequents all the large rivers 
 in the fur countries up to the 67th degree of latitude/ It retires 
 to winter in the Southern States, and the West India islands 
 (Wilson and Richardson). Audubon remarks, that 'it is ex- 
 tremely hardy, and those individuals winch migrate northward to 
 breed, seldom return towards our Southern States, where they 
 spend the winter, until absolutely forced to do so by the great seve- 
 rity of the weather/ vol. v.p. 548. Tins is, I believe, the first notice 
 of the species being met with on the eastern side of the Atlantic." 
 
 THE COMMON SWALLOW. 
 
 Hirundo rustica, Linn. 
 
 Is abundant in summer ; much more so than the other 
 
 species of the family. 
 
 Arrival. It arrives the second in order, being preceded by 
 
 the sand-martin. The earliest appearance of the swallow that I 
 
 have known about Belfast, was in 1846, when on the 30th of 
 
 March, two birds exhibiting the long tail-feathers which denote 
 
 H. rustica, were seen flying over the bay. On the next day, a 
 
 single bird was observed on each side of its shores. A large 
 
 flock of brent-geese was in the bay ; birds representing summer 
 
 and winter being thus seen at the same time. The picturesque 
 
 * Sir W. Jardine's edit., vol. i. p. 348. f Orn. Biog. vols. i. and v. 
 
 % Fauna Bor. Amur. p. 339. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 375 
 
 Cave-hill, also in view, displayed snow in its ravines, proving, as 
 it were, that even two swallows do not make a summer. For ten 
 days afterwards, one of these birds was observed to remain with- 
 out a companion. On the 6th of April, a swallow was observed 
 between Antrim and Ballymena. But, though individuals arrived 
 so early that year, those which followed to complete the summer 
 number, were remarkably late in coming. In the first week of 
 April, they have been seen in other instances. The second week 
 of that month is the ordinary period, and they may often be ob- 
 served upon the tenth day.* 
 
 Although in the year 1836, the swallow was noticed in one 
 locality near Belfast on the 15th or 16th of April, the species was 
 generally late in arrival, and remarkably scarce. During a walk of 
 upwards of two hours, on the morning of the 1st of May, through 
 a well- wooded and cultivated district, where these birds usually 
 abound at this season, I could not see one. On the 2nd of that 
 month, when proceeding fourteen miles along the southern side 
 of the bay, and returning the same distance, swallows appeared 
 only at one place, where a few were in company. On the 3rd, 4th 
 and 5 th, not one was seen for miles along the banks of the river 
 Lagan, a favourite resort. In 1837 also, they were very late in 
 corning, and, as in the preceding summer, very scarce, f Iu the 
 following year and subsequently they made their appearance as 
 usual. The earliest observed by myself in 1838 were two, which 
 on the 1 5th of April kept flying over the grassy margin of Belfast 
 bay. It was a most unfavourable day for them, being excessively 
 cold, with occasional heavy showers of snow, and blowing a hur- 
 
 * Newspaper paragraphs occasionally announce a very early arrival. In the 
 Belfast Commercial Chronicle of April, 1835, it was stated that swallows had been 
 seen about Lame on the 2nd of the month. The contributors of such notices, how- 
 ever, rarely discriminate between the different species of Eirundo, but apply the 
 term swallow, generically, to the three species. The sand-martin may have been 
 alluded to. On the 10th day of that month, I saw single swallows in two localities 
 near Belfast. 
 
 f When travelling from Holyhead to Shrewsbury on the 12th of May, 1837, and 
 on the following day thence to London, I perceived that swallows were everywhere 
 very few in number. In Wales, one or two swifts only were observed. They ap- 
 peared near Corwen, not one being seen at Llangollen, where I had remarked them 
 to be particularly abundant in July, 1835. An excellent opportunity for observation 
 was afforded from the outside of the coach. 
 
376 hirundinidjE. 
 
 ricane. As the in-coming tide flowed over the banks, the wind 
 swept the spray (caught from the top of the small waves) before 
 it, over the shallower portion of the bay, presenting the appearance 
 of a dense hail-shower, careering for miles along the surface of 
 the sea. In the summer of IS 40 again, swallows were remark- 
 ably scarce in the north of Ireland. This was attributed by an 
 observant friend to the inclement summer of the previous year 
 having been unfavourable to their breeding, — it was considered 
 that there were fewer young birds in 1839 than he had ever 
 before known. On making a tour through the west of Ireland in 
 the summer of 1840, I remarked that the Hirundinida generally, 
 were very few in number. Although the month of April in 1842, 
 was so remarkably fine and warm, swallows were a fortnight 
 later than usual making their appearance in the north of Ireland. 
 It is remarkable too, that from the first day of their arrival about 
 Belfast until the 14th of May, or during three weeks, there was 
 no apparent increase to their numbers. On the two following 
 days, however, a sudden increase in all directions took place, and 
 without any particular change in weather or wind. In 1843, the 
 first was seen here on the 6th of April; in 1844, on the 9th ; and 
 in 1845, on the 5th of that month. In the north, the common 
 swallow has continued to be very scarce for a number of years 
 to the summer of 1845 inclusive, appearing otherwise in a few 
 choice localities only, or when congregated for migration. In 
 1846, an increase was apparent; in 1847, a still greater one, 
 though in some localities not one was yet to be seen; in 1848, not 
 only an extraordinary augmentation took place, but everywhere 
 for several miles around Belfast, swallows were as numerous during 
 the summer and autumn as I ever saw them at any period. 
 
 Food. Dr. Jenner * states, that swallows on and for some time 
 after their arrival, feed principally on gnats, but that their more 
 favourite food, as well as that of the swift and martin, is a small 
 beetle of the Scarabseus kind, which on dissection he " found in 
 far greater abundance in their stomachs than any other insects." 
 Two species of gnat, Culex pipiens and C. bifwrcatus, are particu- 
 
 * Phil. Trans., vol. cix. p. 24. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 377 
 
 larised by Mr. Main * as their favourite food. Sir Humphry 
 Davy f has " seen a single swallow take four [Mayflies] in less 
 than a quarter of a minute that were descending to the water." 
 Without having actually examined the contents of its stomach, 
 I have so often observed the swallow in localities presenting very 
 different species of insects, and sweeping in the su mm er evenings 
 through the midst of little congregated parties of various kinds, 
 as to be satisfied that its food differs very considerably ; in singu- 
 lar corroboration of which, an angling friend once resident near 
 the river Lagan, repeatedly captured these birds with artificial 
 trout-flies, presenting very different appearances. Izaac Walton 
 informs us, that swifts were in Ins time taken in Italy with the 
 rod and line ; and according to Washington Irving, one of the 
 present sports of the Alhambra, is angling for swallows from its 
 lofty towers. J 
 
 My correspondent, Mr. Poole, has found the mouth of the 
 young bird filled with Tipuhe. In the autumn some years since, 
 Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., a most accurate ornithologist, remarked a 
 number of swallows flying for a considerable time about two pol- 
 lard willows {Salix fragilis) which served as gate-posts to a field 
 at his residence near Belfast, and on going to the place ascertained 
 that the object of pursuit was hive-bees, which being especially 
 abundant beneath the branches, he had an opportunity of seeing 
 the birds capture as they flew within two or tliiee yards of Ins 
 head.§ The insect prey of the swallow and martin kept so near 
 
 * Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 413. f Salmonia. % Tales of the Alhambra, vol. i. 
 
 § In the British Naturalist (vol. ii. p. 381) the sand-martin (H. riparia) is men- 
 tioned as preying on the common wasp. In an article in the Field Naturalist's 
 Magazine (March, 1834, p. 125) on the 'Enemies of the Hive Bee,' an anonymous 
 contributor states, that having observed some swallows seize upon his bees in passing 
 the hives in his garden, he shot them, and on opening them carefully, found that 
 although " they were literally crammed with drones, there was not a vestige of a 
 working bee." Instances of the Hirundo rustica preying on bees have been very 
 rarely recorded. In a paper read before the Lyceum of New York in 1824, De 
 Witt Clinton, in his amiable admiration of the whole tribe of swallows, indig- 
 nantly declared that " they are in all respects innocent, and the accusation of Virgil 
 that they destroy bees, is known to be unfounded both in this country and in 
 Europe." But from Wilson's American Ornithology (Jardine's ed vol. ii. p. 153) 
 wc learn, that even in the United States bees constitute part of the ordinary food of 
 the purple martin (Hirundo purpurea). 
 
378 hirundinidjE. 
 
 the ground on the evening of the 14th of August, 1827, — which 
 was fine, after a day of excessive rain, — that in its pursuit, several 
 birds of both species were killed with walking-sticks and umbrel- 
 las in some of the streets of Belfast. In the year 1838, I was 
 informed by a bird-preserver in this town, that he had at different 
 times received not less than twenty swallows which had been 
 killed in the streets with walking-sticks or rudely -formed whips 
 used by mischievous boys. 
 
 Song, 8fc. The swallow is one of the very earliest of British 
 birds in commencing its morning song. About midsummer, this is 
 begun occasionally between a quarter and half -past two o' clock. 
 It is also continued late in the season. On the 13th of Sept., 
 1833, I heard one, when perched beside its nest, sing in as fine 
 mellow tone as early in the summer ; and on the 2nd of Sept., 
 another year, several out of a number congregated on a house- 
 roof, were engaged going over their amorous notes. Two pass- 
 ing near me on the 10th of Sept., 1841, sang sweetly as they 
 flew in company with a number of others. The swallow's habit 
 of following birds of prey, &c, has been observed by every one ; — 
 but a particular instance will be found noticed under kestrel at 
 p. 59. I have often remarked (as Mr. Main has done,*) that 
 these birds, on returning from a pursuit of the kind, " unite in a 
 song [apparently] of gratulatory exultation." 
 
 Nests-, Sjie. We read of the martin (H. urbica) being, of all 
 its tribe, the most partial to and dependent upon man, but from a 
 limited view only can such a conclusion be drawn. Tins bird, 
 though often claiming for its nest the protection of the same roof 
 that covers man himself, builds also against the wildest and most 
 stupendous precipices. On the other hand, I know not an in- 
 stance of the swallow selecting for its nest any place removed 
 from man's direct influence. The situations usually chosen in the 
 north of Ireland, are sheds, gateways, and outhouses of every kind, 
 the site once determined on, being generally occupied for a series 
 of years. All other nesting-places which have come under my 
 own observation, or of which I recollect to have read, were, with 
 
 * Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. iv. pi 413. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 379 
 
 one exception, within the sphere of man's works.* In some parts 
 of the county of Down, there was some years ago, and probably 
 still is, a superstitious feeling against the destruction of swallows, 
 when they build in cow-houses. The owners On such occasions 
 were most particular in cautioning their children and others not 
 to injure the birds, their eggs, or young, imagining that if they 
 did so, some evil would befal the cattle ; that they would 
 give blood instead of milk, &c. Indeed, in the north of Ireland 
 generally, the destruction of any of the swallow tribe is commonly 
 considered an act of wanton cruelty. Their familiarity, and the 
 trust which — like the robin — they repose in man, render them 
 general favourites. 
 
 In the north of Ireland, I have never known the nest of the 
 swallow to be built in chimneys, although on account of 
 its predilection for building within them, the species has re- 
 ceived the name of chimney-swallow in different languages.f 
 White remarks in his Natural History of Selborne (letter 18), 
 that " in general with us this Hirundo breeds in chimneys ; and 
 loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant fire, no 
 doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the im- 
 mediate shaft where there is a fire, but prefers one adjoining to 
 that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of the 
 funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of wonder.'" 
 It is singular that in certain countries only, the Hirundo rustica 
 should thus be partial to chimneys. That these are preferred for 
 
 * Mr. Hepburn states that he has " seen nests of this species on the rocks about 
 Tantallon Castle, opposite the Bass."- — Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 569. 
 Sir Wm. Jardine mentions the H. urbica as building there, in his edition of Wilson's 
 Amer. Orn., vol. iii. p. 320. 
 
 f Chimneys are stated in general terms by White, Pennant, Bewick, Montagu, 
 Selby, Yarreli, &c, (Montagu adds, that "it is not unusual to find the nest in out- 
 houses, upon beams or rafters ") to be usually resorted to in England for this pur- 
 pose. The sites preferred in Scotland, according to Sir Wm. Jardine and Mr. Mac- 
 gillivray, are similar to those above stated to be selected in Ireland. What Mr. 
 Hepburn says of East Lothian exactly applies to the north of Ireland. He remarks 
 that the nest " is built under arches, gateways, eaves and water-spouts, against the 
 beams, rafters and lintels of outhouses, and under wooden bridges." — Macgillivray's 
 British Birds, vol. iii. p. 569. Detailed information on the subject of the sites 
 selected by the swallow for its nest in Scotland, from the pen of Mr. Durham Weir, 
 and agreeing with my own observation in Ireland, will be found in Audubon's Orn. 
 Biog., vol. v. p. 411, &c. 
 
380 HIRUNDINIDiE. 
 
 heat alone, I can hardly agree with White in believing.* In 
 Sweden, it is called Laclu Swala, or barn swallow, from selecting 
 the bam for its nest ; in southern countries, as Italy, similar sites 
 are preferred, as we have indeed learned from Virgil, and to the 
 correctness of which, I can myself bear testimony. In the Morea 
 likewise, within the town of Patras, I remarked in June, 1841, 
 that they selected places similar to those chosen in the north of Ire- 
 land, their nests being built under the rude porticos in the streets. 
 One or two peculiar instances of the nidification of the swallow 
 in the neighbourhood of Belfast may be mentioned. In the 
 summers of 1831 and 1832, a pair of these birds built their nest 
 in a house at Wolf- lull, although the door by which alone they 
 could enter, was locked every evening, and not opened before 
 six in the morning; being an early-rising species, they must 
 consequently have thus lost for no inconsiderable part of the 
 season fully three hours every day. A similar fact is mentioned 
 in Capt. Cook's Sketches in Spain (vol. ii. p. 275), where it is 
 stated that ' c in the southern provinces they [swallows] sometimes 
 live in the posadas, their nests being built on the rafters, where 
 they are shut up every night/' In the Northern Wing (a Belfast 
 newspaper) of July 2nd, 1829, the following paragraph appeared : 
 — " We understand that a pair of swallows have built their nest 
 in Mr. Getty's school-room, at Eandalstown ; and notwithstanding 
 there are above forty scholars daily attending, the birds fearlessly 
 went on with their labour, and now have their young ones out. 
 One of the windows had been for several nights left down, at 
 
 * A singular preference to chimneys, though not for the purpose of building in 
 them, was noticed on the following occasions :— 
 
 On the 6th of August, 1845, a great number of swallows appeared flying to the 
 top of a tall " stalk " or chimney (perhaps eighty feet in height), isolated from other 
 buildings, and rising from a green mound in the neighbourhood of Belfast. The day 
 was close and warm, but the heat about the funnel (whence smoke issued) might have 
 tempted some particular insects to the spot. There was a constant stream or hue of 
 birds ascending and descending : their flight had a most singular appearance, from 
 the circumstance of their flying upwards from the ground to the chimney-top almost 
 in a vertical line, and coming down in a similar manner. So regular were they in 
 series, and so vertically disposed, as at once to remind me of a rope ladder up the 
 mast of a ship ; really not too extravagant a simile. On the 8th of September, a 
 calm warm day, I observed numbers^ of swallows and house-martins flying in like 
 manner, but not so vertically, to and from the top of a lofty chimney connected with 
 a manufactory on the river- side at Dundalk. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 381 
 
 which time the swallows found admittance, and after much appa- 
 rent deliberation commenced their structure, which they carried 
 on chiefly during the hours of the school ; and though they had 
 abundance of time to build, either before the school commenced, 
 or after it was dispersed, yet they always preferred a few hours 
 about noon for their labour, and seemed to do little at any other 
 time. The scholars, much to their credit, gave them as little 
 annoyance as possible, and the window is still kept down." 
 
 Under a very low shed in the hawk -yard at the Palls near Bel- 
 fast, where my friend John Sinclaire, Esq., kept his trained pere- 
 grine falcons, a pair of swallows, regardless of the almost constant 
 presence of four of these birds, constructed a nest in the summer 
 of 1832. The man in charge of the hawks tore down the partly 
 formed nest several times, but the swallows were not to be so de- 
 terred, and persisted in completing it within about three yards of 
 a block, on which one of the hawks constantly perched : in due 
 time the young appeared and got off in safety. Although such places 
 as the swallow usually prefers for its nest, are not only contiguous 
 to, but numerous in, the immediate vicinity of the hawk-yard, and 
 all the other sheds and office-houses are considerably higher than 
 the erection there, this singular locality was again selected in 1833. 
 The nest of the former year was once more used, most probably 
 by the same pair or their progeny, as it is an established fact that 
 swallows return to the same place year after year, and that the 
 young revisit the place of their birth.* The brood escaped from 
 it without any casualty. There were five falcons there that season. 
 Two new nests were also built and successfully occupied ; one of 
 which, I remarked on the 10th of August, contained eggs for a 
 second brood, and on the 19th of the same month, I had the 
 
 * We find a similar remark with respect to Lycia in Spratt and Forbes' work 
 on that country. " Frequently in the Turkish houses we saw the nests of swallows 
 stuck about all parts of the ceiling, each with a small piece of board fixed under to 
 prevent the droppings soiling the cushions of the divan or the carpets. * * * 
 The same birds, both among the storks and swallows, are said to return each year to 
 the old nests, so that an annual fight takes place between the young of the past year 
 and the parent birds for its possession. The noise they make during these combats 
 is by no means agreeable or conducive to sleep, as we found by experience, in the 
 village of Eski Hissar, where the walls of our dwelling-house were studded with the 
 nests of swallows."- — vol. i. p. 281, 282. 
 
•382 HIRUNDINID^E. 
 
 satisfaction of seeing it tenanted by young birds. This nest had 
 for its support the wing of one of the departed falcons nailed 
 against the wall, and on the centre of which it rested.* The 
 entire height of the shed, which was erected solely for the pro- 
 tection of the hawks, is not above seven feet. The nests are 
 about six feet from the ground, and built against a beam of timber 
 placed on the top of the low wall supporting the roof. The 
 height of the roof from the ground is four feet two inches, which 
 leaves only two and a half feet clear for the swallow's, flight 
 between it and the heads of the hawks, as they perch upon their 
 blocks. One of the nests is only six feet from the block occu- 
 pied by a hawk, and from which this bird has liberty to move to 
 half that distance. The swallows, however, flew closely past these 
 rapacious birds without being in any way molested by them. 
 
 Leaving their young to perish, . Mr. Blackwall in his Re- 
 searches in Zoology, mentions the remarkable fact from personal 
 investigation, that swallows, house-martins, and sand-martins not 
 unfrequently leave their last brood of young to perish, and occa- 
 sionally leave their eggs before they are incubated. He speculates 
 on the causes of this " voluntary act of desertion/' and combats 
 the opinion of Dr. Jenner, that it is prompted by " the desire to 
 migrate, produced by a change in the reproductive system" 
 Having given less attention to the subject than either author, 
 I should perhaps be silent, but a few remarks on so apparently 
 singular a proceeding may possibly not be considered presumptu- 
 ous. In the instances alluded to, the young broods and eggs 
 were deserted late in the season, and I should suppose at the 
 migratory period. The paramount object would then seem to be 
 migration, and when favourable weather and wind prevail, the 
 love of offspring yields to the stronger impulse, and the parents 
 take their departure. Had this favourable time been long enough 
 protracted, they would have continued to tend their offspring and 
 bring them to maturity. It is quite different at the season when 
 the first brood is being produced. The primary principle which 
 
 * In "White's Selbome an instance is mentioned, of a nest bnilt on the wings and 
 body of an owl, which hung from the rafter of a bam. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 383 
 
 then influences them is, the production of their species ; and no 
 matter how favourable every circumstance may be for migration, 
 they do not leave the country. I have attended to the departure 
 of the Hirundines for many years, and to the influencing causes, 
 and was at first surprised at the suddenness of their disappear- 
 ance when favourable weather arrived. At the end of August, 
 I have known the great body to depart, and at other times re- 
 marked them evidently waiting for weeks, and on to the month of 
 October, before they would take their flight. 
 
 Perching. In perching, the swallow, unlike the swift, occasion- 
 ally rests upon the ground by choice, roads being not uncom- 
 monly thus resorted to. On the sandy, and even the gravelly 
 sea-beach, I have remarked them to alight in the autumn to 
 repose, though objects were rarely picked up from the sand. 
 I have observed a number of these birds daily frequenting 
 a large mound of clay in the vicinity of houses throughout 
 the month of August, long subsequent to the time that such 
 material is required for their nests. On the occasions upon 
 which I particularly remarked the circumstance, food was cer- 
 tainly not the object — the birds were simply resting. Mr. Mac- 
 gillivray says of the swallow, that " it sometimes alights [on the 
 ground] as if to pick up insects, which it has observed there," 
 (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 564.) and such, we may expect is 
 occasionally done. On betaking themselves to trees, they generally 
 exhibit a singular choice in avoiding the flourishing branches and 
 alighting on those which are dead. It has been remarked to me 
 by Mr. ¥m. Sinclaire, that so soon as the young can provide for 
 themselves, they do not return to the nest in which they were 
 reared ; from which circumstance, and from seeing large flocks of 
 swallows fly in the autumnal evenings around the highest trees at 
 his residence, and invariably disappear in their direction, he con- 
 cludes that they roost on trees. White of Selborne, speaking 
 generally of these birds, mentions their thus roosting late in 
 autumn. 
 
 Frequenting the sea. The same author remarks, that "the 
 swallow is a bold flyer, ranging to distant downs and commons 
 
384 HIRUNDINID/E. 
 
 even in windy weather, which the other species seern much to 
 dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed seaport towns, and making- 
 little excursions over the salt water. The " excursions " of the 
 swallow over Belfast bay are of daily occurrence throughout 
 s umm er. It may be chiefly observed attendant on the in-coming 
 tide, where we may presume its food is most abundant, owing 
 probably to the insects being driven off the beach by the 
 encroaching waters. I remarked during the summer of 1S38, that 
 swallows course as regularly over the masses of Zostera marina 
 with which the beach is covered on the western shore of Belfast 
 bay, as they do over any meadows. On the evening of the 2nd 
 of August, they were perched in great numbers on stakes which 
 rise above the sea, and were likewise busily feeding over the sur- 
 face of the tide, on the insects roused probably by its flowing over 
 the Zostera. The stakes alluded to are just such as, — were they 
 more remote from a public road, — cormorants would alight on to 
 expand and dry their outstretched wings. August 4ttk. — Heavy 
 rain to-day till about 2 o' clock, when it cleared up. I then 
 walked out and the tide being full, remarked the tops of a number 
 of the large stones near Holywood, to be covered with H. rustica 
 (such as I saw distinctly, wanted the long tail-feathers). They 
 all sat with their heads in the same direction, like flocks of Gral- 
 latores awaiting the falling of the tide. There were perhaps 
 twenty on the largest stone. During the following summer, I 
 remarked the swallows' daily flight above the waves of the sea, to 
 be as regular as anywhere on land. When on different occasions, 
 in the month of June, on the low mass of rock called the Mew 
 Island (the smallest of the three Copeland Islands, off the coast of 
 Down), tins species, and it alone of the Hirundinida, always 
 appeared ; thus proving a propensity to range, as there is not a 
 spot on the islet that would afford accommodation for its nest. 
 
 Flying late, Sfc. Mr. White (of Selborne) remarks of the swift, 
 that " in the longest days it does not withdraw to rest till a 
 quarter before nine in the evening, being the latest of all day 
 birds." In the general terms in winch this was meant ta be 
 understood, it agrees with my observation ; but I have occasionally 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 885 
 
 at different periods during their stay, seen swallows on wing 
 at so late an hour that they could hardly be distinguished. 
 This occurred more especially throughout the month of June, 
 1832, which was remarkably cold and wet. On several evenings 
 towards the end of the month, I saw swallows fly about at a 
 quarter past 9, p.m. The wants of the nestlings doubtless 
 prompted this late flight, and in some instances it was of no avail, 
 as during the time young swallows were seen to fall dead from 
 the nest, owing, it was conjectured, to starvation ; this, too, in a 
 locality where food should have been comparatively abundant. 
 On the 12th of June, 1838, I observed a swallow flying about 
 Wolf-hill at half-past 9 o' clock in the evening. The day through- 
 out had been moderately warm, without rain. 
 
 In Mr. Francis Bailey's account of the eclipse of the sun, 
 July 8th, 1842, as witnessed by him at Pavia, he remarks, that 
 "the darkness during the time of total observation, was not so 
 great as I had anticipated. I had caused a lighted candle to be 
 prepared in order to be ready in case of need ; but I eventually 
 extinguished it, as I found I could read very small print and note 
 the time by my chronometer without its assistance. Prior to the 
 commencement of the eclipse, I had observed a great number 
 of swallows flying about ; but towards the middle of the eclipse 
 they had all vanished, and did not make their appearance again 
 till a few minutes after the first ray of light emanated from the 
 sun, when they were as active, and soon became as numerous as 
 ever." — Athenseum, 1843, p. 19. At the annular eclipse of the 
 sun, May 15th, 1836, it was observed near Belfast that the birds 
 not only ceased to sing, but hurried to trees, &c, as if night had 
 suddenly come on. The instant cessation of their singing was 
 remarked to be peculiarly striking. The swallows did not every- 
 where disappear on this occasion, for Mr. Macgillivray tells us 
 he thought it singular, that although " the rooks and sparrows 
 had gone to bed, thinking it was night, the swallows continued 
 flying about as usual." — Br. Birds, vol. hi. p. 565. 
 
 Variety of plumage. We occasionally see varieties in the colour 
 of the swallow. In the month of July, 1815, a pure-white bird was 
 
 vol. i. 2 c 
 
386 hirundinidjE. 
 
 seen flying about Stranmillis near Belfast, during ten days. In the 
 same month of 1819, one of that colour was killed in Down or 
 Antrim : in Donegal another has been obtained.* One was re- 
 marked throughout the summer of 1833 (?) at Portaferry, co. Down. 
 It returned in the following season to the same place, but no white 
 or pied progeny appeared in either year. A brood of four pure-white 
 swallows was reared in the summer of 1838 in an outhouse at Hills- 
 borough Park, in the last named county :— white ferrets {Mustela 
 furo) inhabited the ground floor just beneath this nest. "In the 
 autumn of 1843 (?) a white individual was observed flying about in 
 company with a number of other swallows near Dublin ; and in the 
 same season, another appeared in the glens, co. Antrim.t In the 
 summer of 1848, varieties occurred in three instances near Belfast. 
 One of a very pale whitish-fawn colour was taken from a nest in 
 Malone ; another, a young bird of the year, was presented to the 
 Museum by Richard Bateson, Esq., of Belvoir Park: — it is of a light 
 fawn colour of various shades ; the wings and tail being almost 
 white on the upper surface. In the old court-house, Newtownards, a 
 nest of what were called " white swallows " was procured. I have 
 always remarked that in particular seasons, birds are more prone 
 to assume variety in the colour of their plumage than in others. 
 I was not therefore surprised at the receipt of the following note 
 from Mr. R. Chute, of Blennerville, Kerry in Oct. 1848 :— " I got 
 a very pretty swallow lately ; its body, head, and all the under 
 parts buff; the wings and tail white. It was shot near Listowel : 
 I think it is this year's bird." 
 
 Departure. When wind and weather are favourable for migra- 
 tion, swallows, including many of the first brood, leave the neigh- 
 bourhood of Belfast towards the end of August, but about the 
 middle of September is the chief time of their departure. Until 
 the middle of October some remain every year. Mr. Templeton 
 notes his having observed a few on the 30th and 31st of October, 
 1813. On the 14th of November, 1815, one was repeatedly 
 seen flying about Stranmillis near Belfast, where also on the 28th 
 of October, 1819, three appeared after a severe fall of snow and 
 * Mr. J. V. Stewart. f Mr. J. R. Garrett. 
 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 387 
 
 a good deal of frost. In 1835 a swallow was remarked on the 26th 
 Oct. near the town just named; and on the 3rd of Nov., 1837, 
 Mr. H. Dombrain of Dublin shot one at sea near Lambay Island, 
 when it was flying towards land. For several days during the week 
 immediately before Christmas — from the 18th to the 24th Dec. — 
 1842, a number of swallows were seen about the village of Holy- 
 wood and elsewhere on the borders of Belfast bay, where from 
 the novelty of then occurrence at such a season they excited much 
 interest. The latest period at which these birds have been ob- 
 served by Mr. Poole in the south, was on the 5th of December, 
 the same year, when he saw two fly above the main street in 
 Wexford, the weather being moist, and remarkably warm for the 
 season : — he has not met with them there after the 10th of Nov., 
 (1844) on any other occasion. On the 28th of November, 1845, 
 an adult bird was seen on the border of Belfast bay. In 1846, a 
 swallow was observed at an inland locality near the town, and on 
 the 16th and 17th of the month, single birds appeared at diffe- 
 rent places near the margin of the bay. At the end of November, 
 1847, one was remarked at Castle Warren, co. Cork. 
 
 Seen on migration ; on the Continent, Sfc. In the years 1811, 
 1812, and 1813, when my friend Dr. J. L. Drummond, of Bel- 
 fast, was surgeon in H.M.S. San Juan, then anchored close to 
 the New Mole at Gibraltar, he each year, both in spring and 
 autumn, saw " swallows " (the species of which is not now 
 remembered) every day during a few weeks at the former season 
 flying northward, and at the latter southward. They kept flying 
 throughout the day, and invariably in autumn as well as spring 
 were in little parties, not more than three or four being generally 
 together.* In the course of a tour which I made in the year 
 
 * Capt. Cook, in his Sketches in Spain, remarks of the Hirundo rustica, that " a 
 few of these birds winter in the south of Andalusia. I saw them on the summit of 
 the Lomo de Vaca, far from the haunt of man, living with the H. rupestris " — a 
 species which, according to the same author, " winters in great numbers along the 
 southern shore [of Spain] ." Dr. Wilde states that when in the desert between the 
 pyramids of Gaza and Dashoor at the end of January, — " the swallow tribe were 
 in great plenty ; the red-breasted swallow and the small grey martin particularly 
 attracted our notice. I find that these little birds do not migrate like the swifts 
 (which, however, do not approach this part of the country,) but remain all the year 
 round in the vicinity of the pyramids." — Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, the 
 Mediterranean, including a visit to Egypt, Sec., 2nd Ed. p. 252. 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 HIRUNDINIDiE. 
 
 1841, the swallow was seen as follows: — On descending the 
 Ehone from Lyons to Avignon, some appeared on the 9th of 
 April at several places, bnt were nowhere numerous. On the 
 13th of that month, a very few were observed between Leghorn 
 and Pisa. At Malta, on the 17th, they were as abundant as we 
 ever behold them in the British islands. On the passage of 
 H.M.S. Beacon, from Malta to the Morea, two swallows flew on 
 board on the 22nd of April, when the vessel was about forty miles 
 east of Malta ; on the 25th, when nearly fifty miles from Calabria, 
 several appeared ; towards the evening of the next day, not less 
 than a dozen alighted on the vessel, and after remaining all night, 
 took their departure early on the morning of the 27th, when 
 ninety miles west of the Morea : throughout the afternoon and 
 towards the evening of the same day (at sunset we were about 
 sixty miles from the Morea) many more arrived, and all that came 
 having remained, they appeared towards the close of day flying 
 around the ship in considerable numbers.* On our arrival at Nava- 
 rino, on the 28th, the swallow was observed to be common, as it 
 likewise was, in the following month, in the island of Syra, at 
 Smyrna and Constantinople : in June, about the island of Paros, 
 at Athens and Patras ; in July, at Venice, Verona, Milan, &c. 
 At Trieste, where I spent ten days at the end of June, no swallows 
 were observed, although house-martins and swifts were abundant; 
 my not seeing them however, may have been accidental. When 
 crossing the Splugen into Switzerland, on the 10th of July, 1841, 
 swallows were seen flying about when we were at a great altitude. 
 About none of the southern or eastern localities mentioned, nor 
 in Holland, Prance, Switzerland, and Italy, are swallows, house- 
 martins, sand-martins or swifts, more numerous, than in the north 
 of Ireland, or the British islands generally. 
 
 I never met with swallows more plentiful anywhere than they 
 were on the 16th of May, flying over extremely rich lowly- 
 situated pastures, in which some of the Sultan's stud were grazing, 
 between Constantinople and the village of Belgrade. — On the 14th 
 
 * In the brig " Margaret Miller," belonging to the port of Belfast, a swallow was 
 taken in October, 1833, two hundred miles to the westward of Cape Clear, the most 
 southern point of Ireland. 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 389 
 
 of June, the young were all but fledged at Patras. At this date, 
 they are in favourable seasons equally far advanced in the north 
 of Ireland. — The only localities from which, in the midst of sum- 
 mer, I ever remarked all the Hirundinidce to be absent, were the 
 south islands of Arran, off Galway bay. Not an individual of 
 any of the species was seen here by Mr. R. Ball or myself, when 
 visiting the islands on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of July, 1834, the 
 weather being all the time very fine. Returning from them, we 
 had no sooner reached the coast of Clare, — the nearest land, — 
 than many of the H. rustica were observed. 
 
 In the later editions of Bewick's British Birds, a highly inter- 
 esting account of the fa mili arity of the swallow in confinement, 
 appears in a letter from the Rev. Walter Trevelyan. 
 
 THE HOUSE -MARTIN. 
 
 Hirundo urbica, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant. 
 
 Being much more choice in the selection of haunts than the 
 swallow, it is by no means so generally distributed over the island; 
 and in some of the less improved districts, may even be called a 
 local species. In Scotland, according to Mr. Macgillivray, the 
 house martin " is more widely dispersed " than the swallow. — Brit. 
 Birds, vol. iii. p. 575. 
 
 In the north of Ireland according to my observation, the house- 
 martin is invariably later in its arrival than either the sand-martin 
 or the swallow. It generally appears about the middle of April.* 
 
 The " trim and neat " style of the generality of houses, erected 
 
 * Mr. Blackwall states, that the average time of the martin's appearance at Man- 
 chester, is the 25th of April, and that of the swallow, the 15th of the same month. 
 It is observed by Mr. Hepburn, that " the house-martin arrives at the village of Lin- 
 ton on the Tyne, in the last week of April, though in 1839, a few were seen by the 
 17th of that month." — Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 580. In the same 
 work, p. 592, it is mentioned, on the authority of David Falconer, Esq., " that for 
 the very long period of forty successive years, a pair of them had come to Carlowrie, 
 either upon the 22nd or 23rd of April." 
 
390 HIEUNDINID^. 
 
 in the north of Ireland of late years, does not present such favour- 
 able sites for the nests of the martin, as that of an older date. 
 Not only the " buttress and coign of vantage " are wanting, but 
 the less feudal, though to the martin equally useful appendage, — 
 the antiquated holdfast of the wooden spout, is now disused. Upon 
 this the mud fabric was wont to be raised, ample room being 
 afforded for the nest between its base and the spout which it sup- 
 ported. When in Ballymena, in July, 1833, I observed the pre- 
 dilection of the martin for the older houses to be so strongly 
 marked, that against those in the more ancient part of the town, 
 their nests were numerous, while not one was to be seen 
 about any of the modern erections. With reference to this pro- 
 pensity, an instance may be mentioned, which suggests another 
 cause, that influences the choice of site ; — namely, the martin's 
 being prone to return to its birth-place.* During a week's stay 
 in the summer of 1833, at the picturesque sea-bathing village of 
 Portstewart (co. Londonderry), which had been lately built, not 
 one of these martins appeared, though the place was in many re- 
 spects peculiarly suited to them. Although their abode was not 
 taken up there, yet in the high and time-worn precipices which 
 rise above the ocean at only a short distance to the eastward of 
 the village, these birds were always to be seen. Particularly 
 graceful they appeared, when gliding to and from their nests, 
 placed beneath the summit of the stupendous basaltic arch that 
 pierces the isolated mass of rock on which the ruins of a castle 
 are situated. 
 
 This Hirundo is so partial to the noble basaltic precipices — 
 rising directly above, or contiguous to the sea — which form the 
 leading features of the north-east coast of Ireland, that it is 
 always to be seen about them during the more genial seasons of 
 
 * Mr. Jesse, in the second series of his Gleanings in Natural History, gives the 
 following extract from the unpublished journal of White of Selborne: — "July 6, 
 1783. Some young martins came out of the nest over the garden door. This nest 
 was built in 1777, ami has been used ever since." A nest built against a spout-hcad 
 iu York-street, Belfast, was occupied for four years successively. It has becu proved 
 by Capt. King, 11. N., and Mr. Weir, that the same birds return annually to the same 
 locality. — See Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 592. 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 391 
 
 the year. Clustering in numbers against these gloomy cliffs, its 
 " pendent bed " may be observed in many places throughout the 
 range ; among others, at the Gobbins, where some hundreds 
 annually breed. About the Giant's Causeway, their admirably 
 buoyant flight has particularly attracted me, as they skimmed the 
 varied surface of the shelving banks and rugged rocks, keeping 
 with an easy grace the same distance from the ground, not- 
 withstanding the extreme inequality of surface. The house-mar- 
 tin "is the most numerous of the genus in Eathlin, where it is 
 found in all parts of the island, as well inland as along the cliffs 
 which overhang the sea." It builds in " the range of white cliffs 
 running along the north-western side of Church bay."* I observed 
 considerable numbers of their nests in May, 1842, built in a 
 similar manner, against the high and white limestone precipices 
 of the Little Deer Park, Glenarm (county of Antrim). So many 
 as twenty of them were in some places in juxtaposition. They 
 almost overhang one side of the new line of road lately formed at 
 the base of the cliffs, previously washed by the sea.f 
 
 About the sea-girt rocks of the peninsula of the Horn, in Done- 
 gal ; those near to Ardmore in the county of Waterford ; at the 
 island of Lambay off the Dublin coast ; and other similar locali- 
 ties, I have remarked the presence of the martin. It is said 
 by Capt. Cook, | to breed in vast numbers among the rocks of the 
 Alps and Pyrenees, often far from the habitation of man. 
 
 Martins occasionally build under the arches of bridges. At 
 Toome bridge, where the river Bann leaves Lough Neagh, I saw 
 many of their nests in 1834, and was told that for a long period 
 it had been a favourite haunt. In 1846, the following notes were 
 made during a stay of three days at Toome : — August the 1 st. 
 
 * Dr. J. D. Marshall, in the same memoir, mentions, that one of these birds 
 which he shot, " had its mouth completely filled with insects, among which were a 
 large dragon-fly, and one of the Tipulce [T. oleracea]." White of Selborne has re- 
 marked, that swifts and sand-martins feed on Libellulce. 
 
 f In rocks of a similar kind, though in a very different scene, — the chalk-cliffs, 
 which rise above the river Derwent, near Cromford, Derbyshire, — I observed many 
 nests of the martin, in June, 1835. They were built as far in as possible beneath 
 the overhanging rocks, in the same manner as under a projecting roof. 
 \ Sketches in Spain, vol. ii. p. 275. 
 
392 HIRUNDINIDiE. 
 
 When we arrived at the bridge at twenty minutes past 8 o'clock 
 in the evening, great numbers of house-martins were most noisy 
 before retiring for the night, which they had done at half -past 
 eight. Next morning, their call-notes were equally loud; not 
 less than three hundred birds being on wing together. It is an 
 excellent feeding station. My companion (A. H. Haliday, Esq.,) 
 found quite a harvest of insects {JBliryganem, 8fc.) on the railing 
 of the bridge. Tins is a fine structure of nine arches, having 
 its walls surmounted by a stone coping with an iron railing: The 
 martins' nests are all in an unusual site, (though it would not be so 
 for the Hirundo rustica,) beneath the arches of the bridge. This 
 is not owing to any want of their usual building places, the eaves 
 of houses ; those in the village of Toome, distant only a few 
 hundred paces from the bridge being perfectly suitable for the 
 purpose, and similar to what are chosen in other parts of the 
 country : — but not a nest is to be seen there. Hundreds of birds, 
 too, covered the slated roof of the inn during the forenoons. 
 We went under the arches of the bridge on our way to and from 
 Church Island, and saw innumerable nests, looking most inter- 
 esting, from the variety of form assumed in consequence of the 
 nature of the locality ; many were of a rude Florence-flask-like 
 shape. The pellets of clay on the outside were remarkably large, 
 appearing at first sight like gravel of pretty uniform size. The 
 apertures to the nests on the southern side of the arches looked 
 south, as those on the opposite side, did north, doubtless on 
 account of the greater facility thus afforded during the progress of 
 building, and afterwards for the egress and ingress of the birds. 
 At ten minutes past 8 o'clock this evening, an amazing increase 
 to the number of these martins appeared above the bridge : there 
 could not have been less than five hundred together. At twenty 
 minutes past eight, the whole body made a sweep to the arches of 
 the bridge and a number retired to their nests, but several down- 
 ward sweeps from on high, like those of starlings to their roosting 
 place, were necessary, before they all got settled for the night. 
 Their numbers reminded me of a swarm of bees hurrying to their 
 hive. Until about roosting time they would seem to range to 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 393 
 
 some distance to feed. I saw many, early this evening, about 
 little bays of the lake, and believed them to belong to the Toome 
 bridge colony. After the martins had retired to roost, a few swifts 
 continued flying above the bridge, in the neighbourhood of which 
 only, they were before observed. On the following morning, a 
 sand-martin appeared at the bridge with its congeners. Not a 
 swallow (H. rustica) was seen there during the three days. 
 
 Houses are however, the best known building places of tins 
 species. 
 
 White, in the sixteenth letter of his Natural History of Selborne, says : — " It has 
 been observed that martins usually build to a north-east or north-west aspect, that 
 the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their nests ; but instances are also 
 remembered where they bred for many years in vast abundance in a hot, stifled inn- 
 yard, against a wall facing to the south." On this subject the following note was 
 made on the 15th of July, 1832: — I this day observed twelve or thirteen nests of 
 the Hirundo urbica built against a two-story house at Wolf-hill. These were all on 
 the north-west side or front, excepting one, which was at the north-east corner. The 
 other two sides of this house have iu part a southerly exposure (S.W. and S.E.), and 
 being fenced in, are consequently more private. A road passes those preferred by 
 the martin : — on every side the facilities for its building operations are the same. In 
 front of a thatched cottage not more than eight feet high, which is not only at the 
 side of the highway, but constantly resorted to as a public-house, I remarked several 
 nests of the martin. In the rear of this cottage, which is fenced off from the road, 
 and its walls (from the building being on the side of a hill) considerably higher than 
 in front, none of the nests appear. Some years ago a few pair built annually in front 
 of the dwelling-house at Wolf-hill, but not more than a single pair occupied either 
 gable. Nests were also displayed in considerable numbers in front of two lofty 
 four-story houses in Belfast. Judging from the situations selected by the martin for 
 its nests on these five houses (the three first mentioned being only a few hundred 
 yards apart), it would seem that the bird is more influenced by the front of a house 
 than by aspect ; as the first faces the north-west, the second and third the south- 
 east, and the fourth and fifth the south: In innumerable other instances, I have re- 
 marked that where facilities for building are s imil ar on all sides of the house, the front 
 was thus preferred by the martin, although the nests were opposite every point of 
 the compass. This is particularly apparent in houses situated in streets which inter- 
 sect each other at right angles. The aspect of the cliffs before mentioned, as being 
 tenanted by the martin, is as different as that of the houses. One reason for the 
 fronts of houses being thus preferred (in the instances mentioned, the low cottage 
 and the four-story house are equally so,) is probably, on account of the more open 
 space in front allowing of a freer range of flight to and from the nest. The following 
 was noted as a striking instance to the same effect. It refers to Hever Castle, in 
 Kent, a square building, fronting the south, well known historically in connection with 
 Henry the Eighth, and Anne Boleyn: — When there in October, 1847, I remarked 
 
394 hirundinidjE. 
 
 great numbers of house-martins nests about the tops of the fine old windows of all 
 the stories at three sides of the castle. They were equally common on each of these 
 sides, and picturesquely clustered on the top of each other with the apertures above, 
 below, and in all positions. The three sides on which they were, are the north, south, 
 and west, not one appearing on the east, although it presents every facility that the 
 three others do, in windows, &c. This side only is retired, and forms a boundary 
 to a garden, the gate of which is kept locked. There are doors in the three sides 
 of the castle resorted to by the birds, but no entrance on that they do not occupy. 
 In front, the bustle of an occupied farm-house is superadded. The colour of the nests 
 harmonises well with the lichen-stained sandstone building. 
 
 It has been remarked of this species, that the nest "is closed all around, except a 
 small orifice, usually on the most sheltered side," &c. My observation on the side 
 of the nest chosen for entrance in the north of Ireland, does not accord with this, as 
 in nests closely adjoining, the apertures are on every side. Of nine nests in front of 
 a house before alluded to, the entrances appeared on the north, south, and west sides, 
 the wall against which they were placed occupying the eastern. On this house, — 
 as is not unfrequently the case, — several of these architects had, like certain other 
 bipeds when erecting their habitations, taken advantage of their neighbours' gables, 
 and it may be presumed, for a s imila r reason, — that of being saved trouble and ex- 
 pense of labour: All the nests of the martin that I have particularly noticed here, 
 had, with a single exception, the entrance close to the top. In this instance, 
 although the nest was built against the wall of the house, beneath a projecting roof, 
 the aperture was placed rather above the centre, in the same manner as that in the 
 nest of the wren {^Troglodytes Europceus). The entrances to other nests on the 
 same house, were as usual. 
 
 Although the nest of the poor martin is often, in the north of 
 the island, torn away from the houses of persons who imagine 
 themselves to be possessed of good taste, yet there are others, who, 
 disliking the harsh contrast between its clay-built shed and the 
 snow-white walls of their mansions, are unwilling to disturb the 
 summer wanderer, and for the sake of uniformity, have had its 
 domicile whitewashed at the same time with their own. I first 
 noticed this in the town of Antrim, where, on two houses, several 
 nests thus appeared : their architects flying in and out, evinced 
 their contentment with the change. In Hillsborough, I afterwards 
 observed, that the same practice had been adopted, and without 
 annoyance to the birds. When visiting the old church at 
 Helmsley, Yorkshire, in Oct., 1844, I remarked that the nests of 
 the martin built at the top otthe windows so perfectly harmonised 
 in colour with the venerable lichen-stained structure as almost 
 to escape notice. 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 395 
 
 The statement of several continental authors, that house- martins, 
 on finding sparrows in possession of their nests, had been known 
 to rise en masse, and fill up the entrance when the intruders were 
 within, would seem, from the silence of some of the latest British 
 writers of authority on the subject, not to be credited by them. 
 The compiler of the Architecture of Birds sets it down as a "fan- 
 ciful legend;" but I have unquestionable testimony, that a case 
 precisely similar to those related by the authors alluded to, occurred 
 in 1832, in the next farm to our own, near Belfast. 
 
 When the house-martins returned in that year to a thatched 
 cottage, belonging to Mr. John Clements, where they had annu- 
 ally built for a long period — and winch then displayed fourteen of 
 their nests — a pair found that sparrows had taken possession of 
 their domicile. On perceiving tins, they kept up such "a chatter- 
 ing about the nest" as to attract the attention of the owner of the 
 house. After its continuance for some time, apparently until they 
 were convinced that the sparrow was determined to retain posses- 
 sion, they flew away, and did not return for a considerable time, 
 when they re-appeared with about twenty of their kindred. They 
 now immediately commenced "claying up the entrance to the 
 nest," which was done in the course of the day ; next morning, 
 the construction of a new nest was commenced against the side 
 of the old one, and in it they reared their brood undisturbed. 
 After some time, the proprietor of the cottage, who had never 
 heard of any similar case, pulled down both nests, and in that oc- 
 cupied by the sparrow found its " rotten corpse," together with 
 several eggs. A particular note of the entire proceeding, as re- 
 lated by Mr. Clements, was made by my brother soon after the 
 occurrence ; but to make " assurance doubly sure " before pub- 
 lishing the account in 184£, I inquired of Mr. Clements whether 
 he remembered such a circumstance, and he repeated it just as nar- 
 rated nine years before. Some other persons too of our mutual 
 acquaintance, were witness to the chief parts of the proceeding, and 
 saw the sparrow, together with the eggs, in the sealed-up nest.* 
 
 * Three recent occurrences of a similar nature are recorded by Mr. Weir (Mac- 
 gillivray, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 591), and two others are alluded to under the 
 head of " Swallow " by the Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, 
 vol. ii.p. 55, 3rd edition. 
 
396 hirundinid^. 
 
 What appears to me the most singular feature in this case is, 
 that the sparrow would remain in the nest, and allow itself to be 
 entombed alive. But this bird was sitting on the full complement 
 of eggs, probably in the last stage of incubation, at which period 
 we know that some birds leave the nest only to procure such a 
 scanty morsel as will barely support life. Occasionally, at such 
 times, they allow themselves to be lifted off their eggs, and when 
 placed on again, continue to sit as intently as if they had not 
 been disturbed. The filling up of the aperture is not in itself a 
 singular proceeding on the part of the martin ; * but on this 
 occasion, when the assistance of their neighbours was called in, 
 would almost seem to be intended as an act of retributive justice 
 on the sparrow. Their building against the side of the old nest 
 is quite a common occurrence. 
 
 I have heard the call of tins species exerted, to the no little 
 annoyance of persons engaged in the cruel task of pulling down 
 their nests, when the sufferers become as vociferous as their 
 " weak voices " will permit, and thereby attract their* neigh- 
 bours from all quarters. These make common cause with them, 
 by endeavouring to deter the spoiler from his work of destruc- 
 tion, " occasionally flying boldly, and at the risk of their lives, 
 within reach of his outstretched hand , and again, with all the 
 eloquence they can master, seeming most piteously to claim the 
 edifice as theirs.'" t Martins are generally silent birds, but when 
 congregrated for migration, their call is often almost incessantly 
 uttered. 
 
 * Mr. Blackwall, in his Researches in Zoology, states, that a pair of martins, on 
 returning in the spring to the nest of the preceding year, endeavoured to dislodge 
 the hodies of their young, which had been deserted ; but finding their efforts in vain, 
 " closed up the aperture with clay, thus converting the nest into a sepulchre." 
 
 f Audubon (Ann. of Lye, vol. i. p. 165) mentions a similar trait in the history of 
 an American species, Hirundo fulva, in the following words : — " The energy with 
 which they defended their nests was truly astonishing. Although I had taken pre- 
 caution to visit their nests at sunset, when I had supposed they would all have been 
 on the sycamores, yet a single female happened to be sitting, and she gave the alarm, 
 which immediately called out the whole tribe. They snapped at my hat, my body, 
 and my legs, passed between me aud the nests within an inch of my face, twittering 
 their rage and sorrow. They continued their attacks as I descended, and accom- 
 panied me some distance." 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 397 
 
 This species generally rears two broods during its sojourn. 
 Once, as late as the 23rd of September, several old birds were ob- 
 served to fly so repeatedly to their nests, that I had no doubt these 
 at the time contained young.* The second brood is generally 
 reared in the same nest as the first, but it is probable, that when 
 the nest is not found suitable for the purpose, a second erection is 
 undertaken, as on the 17th of July, I remarked seven nests in 
 front of a house, which, in the month of October, contained 
 nine. 
 
 Mr. White's remark (Hist, of Selborne, letter 18), that the 
 young swallows " at once associate with the first broods of the house- 
 martins, and with them congregate, clustering on sunny roofs, 
 towers, and trees," is quite in accordance with my observation in 
 Ireland. I have, more than once, noticed the martin in company 
 with the swallow in autumn, at places remote from its breeding- 
 haunts. On the 6th of September, 1832, immense numbers of 
 both species were in company at the Palls, and flying so close to 
 the ground as occasionally to stop for a moment, apparently to 
 take their food from the very grass. They also alighted in mul- 
 titudes on the fruit trees in the garden, and notwithstanding their 
 decided predilection for perching on dead branches, they on this 
 occasion chose especially for that purpose, two large cherry-trees 
 in full foliage. Amongst these birds appeared a solitary sand- 
 martin, a bird, winch, as well as the house-martin, was never be- 
 fore seen about the place, and near to which neither species builds. 
 From observing the swallow and the martin thus congregated 
 for some time previous to migration, I have little doubt, great as 
 is the disparity in their powers of flight, that they often leave the 
 country together ; indeed both species have been observed to alight 
 in company on vessels very far out at sea.f 
 
 Respecting the separate migration of the martin, it may be 
 
 * In a note contributed to Mr. Bennett's edition of White's Selborne, p. 61, a 
 particular instance is detailed of a pair of martins remaining behind for the purpose 
 of bringing forward their progeny, instead of migrating with the great body of their 
 companions. That the young are often deserted at such times by their parents, has 
 been fully proved by Mr. Blackwall. 
 
 f C. L. Bonaparte, in Zool. Journ. ; and Bloxham, in Mag. Nat. Hist. 
 
398 hirundinidjE. 
 
 mentioned, that on the 24th of September, 1834, I observed an 
 unusually large colony of these birds congregated at Toome bridge, 
 no other species of Hirundo being in the vicinity. On the 8th 
 of October, when riding near Belfast, a very strong south-west 
 wind prevailing, about twenty martins in a loose flock flew across 
 the road, and proceeded for some time against the wind, at not 
 more than from fifteen to twenty yards' distance from the ground. 
 Probably, owing to the wind being too strong against them, they 
 at length wheeled round, and rose very rapidly until they attained 
 a great elevation. While in the act of mounting still higher, 
 they disappeared from my sight, having all the time the wind with 
 them. These birds were beheved to be migrating. Feeling the 
 effects of a powerful contrary wind, they may (as some persons 
 believe the Hirundines generally do,) have ascended thus high in 
 search of a more favourable current. On this occasion, however, 
 the clouds, which were moderately high, were borne onwards in 
 the same direction as the wind that swept the earth. 
 
 The martin is generally stated to remain in England to a later 
 period than the swallow, but I do not recollect any year in which 
 the swallow was not the last of its genus to depart from the north 
 of Ireland. Mr. Poole mentions his having seen tne house-martin 
 near Wexford, so late as the 3rd of November in one year, and 
 the 16th in another (1847): a swallow was seen by him on tin's day 
 also. On the 1st of November, 1846, a martin appeared at 
 Holywood, co. Down; and a swallow, on the 16th of that month, 
 at the same place. At Seaview, on the borders of Belfast bay, 
 so late as the 20th of November, 1845, I, for a long time saw 
 three of the Hirundines disporting themselves. They were either 
 H. urhica or young H. rustica, I felt all but certain, the former 
 species, though the white plumage above the tail was not dis- 
 tinctly seen. They had not the long tail-feathers, but the size and 
 mode of flight indicated their species : on the 28th of this month, 
 a friend observed, at the same place, an adult H. rustica posses- 
 sing these feathers. Mr. Hyndman, when at Tory island, off the 
 north of Donegal, in August, 1845, was shown a specimen of 
 
THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 399 
 
 H. urbica, said to have been killed by flying against the glass of 
 the light-house there, in December, 1844. 
 
 My observation on the house-martin in Ireland, being in unison with that of 
 Shakespeare, who tells us that 
 
 " Where they 
 Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air 
 Is delicate." — Macbeth, Act I., Scene 6. 
 
 it was unexpectedly that several of them met my view, about one or two solitary 
 houses, situated near the highest and bleakest part of the road between Harrogate 
 and Bolton Abbey, in Yorkshire, on the 6th of October, 1844 ; I subsequently 
 learned with surprise, from Sir Wm. Jardine, that the house-martin is a sub-alpine 
 species, where it has come under his observation in Dumfries-shire. When on a visit 
 at Jardine Hall, in October, 1845, he called my attention to its nests about the win- 
 dows of the dwelling-house at Rammerscales, situated near the summit of the fine 
 range of hills dividing the valleys of the Nith and Annan. He mentioned also its 
 building at the toll-house at Tweedshaws — near the source of the Tweed — about the 
 highest part of the road crossing the lofty Moffat hills, and where, in one of the 
 windows, I afterwards saw three nests. The whole country around is very bleak 
 and wild. 
 
 In the spring and summer of 1841, I observed the house- 
 martin as follows : — When sailing from Malta to the Morea, and 
 about fifty miles from Cape Passaro (the nearest land), on the 
 23rd of April, one of these birds flew into the cabin, and died 
 soon afterwards : it had not met with any molestation on board. 
 No more were seen until the morning of the 27th, when, nearly 
 one hundred miles west of the Morea, a few appeared, and re- 
 mained through the early part of the day, confining their flight to 
 the lee side of the ship : in the afternoon still more were seen, 
 hawking about in company with H. rustica; as flies were numerous, 
 they probably obtained plenty of food : at four o' clock p.m., all 
 were gone. On the 30th of April, this species had just com- 
 menced nest-building against the houses in the town of Navarino; 
 in May, was common about Smyrna ; in June, at Patras, where 
 as usual, it was building against the houses in the town. At 
 Trieste, in the same month, the house-martin was numerous, as it 
 likewise was in July, about Venice, Verona, and Milan ; — having 
 in the last city fine nesting-places about the magnificent Arch of 
 
400 hirundinidjE. 
 
 Peace, its " cradle " being supported on the sculptured leaves 
 adorning the ceiling of the gateway. This notice, compared with 
 that of the swallow, as seen during the same tour, shows that as 
 in our own northern climate, the H. rustica is much more gene- 
 rally distributed than the H. urbica. 
 
 The most complete history of this species, as observed in the 
 British islands, appears in the third volume of Macgillivray's 
 British Birds, where the author and his contributors, Mr. Hep- 
 burn and Mr. Weir, treat very fully of it from personal observa- 
 tion ; the two latter gentlemen having watched the progress of nest- 
 building, frequency of feeding young, &c, with the most praise- 
 worthy and extraordinary patience. 
 
 THE SAND-MARTIN. 
 
 Hirundo riparia, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitaut. 
 
 As the swallow is much more abundant than the house-martin in 
 Ireland, so again is this bird considerably more numerous than 
 the sand-martin. Owing to the nature of its haunts, it is in all 
 countries a local species. It resorts to suitable places in all 
 quarters of this island. 
 
 The sand-martin arrives the earliest of the Hirundinidce in the 
 north of Ireland, appearing occasionally at the latter end of the 
 month of March. In 1828, several were observed in a moun- 
 tainous situation, near Belfast, on the 29th of that month, and 
 when pointed out to the respectable farmer, at whose place they 
 appeared, he assured us they had been seen there about a week 
 before that time. In the very late spring of 1836, they did not 
 appear until a month after the usual period, and very few even 
 then. The dates of their arrival in the neighbourhood of Belfast, 
 in the last few years, are: — in 1842, (a remarkably late season) 
 the 25th of April, when they at once appeared in numbers at 
 their chief haunt, about forty being on wing over one part of 
 the sand-pit, and thirty over another : on the 23rd of April, 
 there was not one, so that the whole colony appeared to have 
 
THE SAND-MARTIN. 401 
 
 came together. In 1843, a single bird was seen on the borders 
 of the bay, on the 28th of March, and at the same place in 
 1844, one was observed on the 31st of this month. On the 2nd 
 of April, 1845, I saw about twenty over the sand-pit already 
 alluded to ; and on the 6th, double that number. I remarked 
 them on the latter occasion, flying in and out of their burrows as 
 in the breeding season. In 1846, three or four were noticed 
 on the borders of the bay on the 7th of April ; and from twenty 
 to thirty in another locality, on the 9th of that month. The 
 earliest in 1847, were two, seen flying over the bay on the 5th of 
 April. I visited their chief haunt on the 14th, J. 6th, and 23rd ; 
 not one was seen on either of the first days, but numbers 
 appeared on the last ; the spring migrants generally were very late 
 in arrival that year. In 1848, they were, on the contrary, very 
 early. I saw a considerable number of sand-martins at their 
 chief burrow on the 2nd of April, and they probably came some 
 time before that date ; having been absent from home for a fort- 
 night previously, I had not the opportunity of noticing them 
 earlier. One was seen near Armagh, on the 29th of March. 
 
 The observation of the eloquent Wilson (Amer. Ornith.), that 
 the sand-martin " appears to be the most sociable with its kind, 
 and the least intimate with man of all our swallows," has been 
 objected to as erroneous by Rennie, in his edition of Montagu's 
 Ornithological Dictionary (p. 20), but my observation leads me 
 to consider it as critically correct. Although the sand-martin 
 never tenants the swift's favourite abode, the tower or the steeple; 
 attaches not its nest to our dwellings like the martin ; nor with 
 the swallow, claims the roof of our out-houses for protection ; yet 
 is it in a considerable degree benefited by the operations of man. 
 The excavations in the sand-pit, when carried to such an extent 
 as to form a high perpendicular front, are the means of affording 
 to this bird a place to rear its young in comparative security. It 
 appears to me, that such banks are selected, whether adjacent to, 
 or remote from houses, solely from their adaptation to the pur- 
 poses of the sand-martin, and not because the bird either seeks 
 or " shuns human neighbourhood." It is as partial to the preci- 
 
 vol. i. 2d 
 
402 HIRTJNDINHLE. 
 
 pitous banks, which, in the wildest and most secluded localities, 
 rise in picturesque beauty above the river or the lake, as to the 
 stratum of sand which overlies the quarry, or to the sand-pit, 
 where the respective operations [of quarrying for stone or exca- 
 vating for sand are daily in progress. 
 
 A colony of these birds annually resorts to the banks of a 
 spacious sand-pit within a mile of Belfast, and close to the old 
 Malone road. In consequence of the sand being in such request 
 here for building purposes, they have the labour of making entirely 
 new burrows for their nests at least once, and occasionally twice, 
 in the season. So much is this sand required for building, that, 
 although the perforation made by the bird, will, where the material 
 is soft, sometimes extend five feet inward, I have known the bank 
 colonized by it, required for use before the first brood had escaped; 
 when the labour of forming a second burrow in the same season 
 was commenced. The following details respecting this locality 
 may be given : — 
 
 On the 29th of April, 1832, a friend remarked, that the sand-martins had made 
 thirty-two hurrows in this place, and that about three days afterwards, two more ap- 
 peared : he observed the birds employed in carrying hay and feathers into them. 
 When visiting this place on the 18th of September of the same year, I reckoned 
 seventy of their perforations. 
 
 May 18, 1833. — On the south side of the Malone sand-pit, the sand-martins 
 have, since their arrival this season, made above eighty holes towards the top of the 
 bank, some of them not more than two inches apart, although there is abundance of 
 room ; so much indeed, that the colony does not occupy more than one-fiftieth part of 
 the banks suitable for their nests. In this locality, where the birds have a choice of 
 banks from thirty to forty feet in height, and the sand is of a similar nature through- 
 out, they always select situations most out of the reach of enemies of all kinds. It 
 cannot therefore be said that " they exercise their propensity [for boring] without 
 reflection." — Macgillivray's Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 599. Where they have not 
 thus had a choice of locality, I have frequently seen their burrows subject to be 
 destroyed. 
 
 This sand-pit, their chief haunt in the neighbourhood of Belfast, was entirely de- 
 serted by them in the summer of 1836 ; and from the progress of the excavation, 
 not a burrow of the preceding season remained to denote that the species had ever 
 been there. In 1837, I omitted to look after them, but in 1838, they were in num- 
 bers as usual. On visiting the locality on the evening of the 11th of May, I saw 
 not less than sixty flying about, and so many were giving utterance to their feeble 
 
THE SAND-MARTIN. 403 
 
 note, as to produce considerable noise.* Their burrows of this season were scattered 
 over the eastern fagade of the sand-pit ; aud, as usual, all placed near the top of the 
 bank.f Sparrows were stationed at the entrances to three of these holes. The bur- 
 rows of the sand-martin in 1840, were fewer than ever known to me, except in 1836. 
 There were but a few holes at the western and at the southern side, about a dozen at 
 each place. The repeated injuries these poor birds have suffered here, from the banks 
 containing their nests being excavated during their stay, led me to believe that they 
 might have changed their quarters, but in the season of 1842, they were as numerous 
 as ever. 
 
 August the 31st, 1843. I remarked on different occasions, that sand-martins were 
 plentiful this season about the sand-pit, and went there this evening to see what per- 
 forations had been made. They had the north side of the bank near the top honey- 
 combed, containing apertures very close together to the number of about 300, and I 
 should think the whole of these were made this season, though certainly not all, nor 
 nearly all, occupied by pairs of birds, as we know they will sometimes make two or 
 three excavations before settling on one for a nest. Numbers flew into the holes in 
 my presence, and two or three were seated in some instances at a single aperture : 
 the sand is soft and " easily worked," so that the entrance here is large. Numbers, 
 perhaps 100, appeared occasionally on wing together above the sand-pit. In the 
 middle of summer I saw not less than 150 together on wing here, before the young 
 of the year were able to fly. At the east of the sand-pit about 70 of the sand- 
 martins' excavations appeared together, but they evidently belong to a former year ; 
 not a bird now looked near them. The gregarious habit of the species is admirably 
 exemplified in this very spacious sand-pit, where, having abundant room to scatter 
 themselves, they nevertheless huddle together as closely as possible. 
 
 1845. The common swallow, as already stated, has become very scarce of late 
 years. In one of its favourite haunts, — about a public road, bordered on one side 
 by tall trees near this sand-pit — where numbers were daily seen throughout the period 
 of their stay, not one appeared on the different occasions during the last few summers 
 when I particularly looked for them. The sand-martins had however taken their place, 
 although they kept to quite a different beat when the swallows were there. On one 
 evening in August, I reckoned about 120 on wing together. The house-martin as 
 well as the swallow, has become much scarcer of late years ; and martins and swifts 
 were more numerous than I had ever seen them in the summer of 1845. 
 
 1846. 1847. The two latter species continued to be as plentiful as in 1845, and 
 
 * July 29, 1846. These birds were very numerous in pursuit of prey over the 
 reeds at the Lagan side ; where by listening for a long time, I did not hear them utter 
 a sound. This is noted, in consequence of their being generally noisy, after their 
 weak fashion, when in numbers about their colony. I have remarked many of these 
 birds — thirty at a time — alighting on dead reeds at the side of this river, 
 
 f " The martins usually make their holes near the top of the bank, being evidently 
 most in fear of enemies from below. I once saw a colony in great consternation, 
 without being able for some time to discover the cause of alarm ; when I observed a 
 weasel, which made its entree from above, passing from one hole to another, and no 
 doubt making dire havoc either amongst the old birds or their young ones." Hewitson, 
 Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 219. 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 hirundinid^;. 
 
 the sand-martin in various localities around Belfast, (as about trees at road-sides, &c.,) 
 which they had not hitherto frequented, assumed the swallow's place in considerable 
 numbers. 
 
 Of the places around Belfast resorted to by this species, were 
 two, differing much in character ; the one, a portion of the bank 
 of the river Lagan, elevated not more than six feet above the 
 usual level of the water;* the other, a stratum of hard sand only 
 a few feet in breadth, overlying the limestone of an extensive 
 quarry, at an elevation of about 600 feet above the sea; but at 
 these places a few pair only bred. The burrows at the latter were 
 within about eighteen inches of the top. 
 
 Where banks suitable to the mining operations of the sand- 
 martin offer a secure abode in the vicinity of Lough Neagh, the 
 species, as may be inferred from its partiality to water, is abundant. 
 The precipitous sandy cliffs rising above this great expanse of 
 water in Massareene deer-park; near Langford Lodge; and at 
 Glenavy river ; — three localities within the distance of a few miles, 
 are resorted to by great numbers. On the 16th of August, 1836, 
 Mr. Hyndman remarked several hundreds of these birds congre- 
 gated, where the Glenavy river falls into Lough Neagh, and that 
 about fifty at a time alighted on the earthy and gravelly beach of 
 the lake. The weather was very stormy, and the wind blowing 
 upon the shore. The birds did not appear to be feeding when on 
 the ground. Sir Wm. Jardine records a proceeding, similar in 
 some respects, in the following words: — "We once observed 
 many hundreds of the sand-martin resting on the sands of the 
 Solway Pirth, upon a space not exceeding two acres ; a small 
 stream entered the sea, and they seemed partly resting and wash- 
 ing, and partly feeding on a small fly that had apparently come 
 newly to existence, and covered the sands in immense profusion." 
 
 The most exposed locality in which I have noticed this species, 
 was about the banks where the river Bush joins the ocean near 
 the Giants' Causeway. I had seen numbers here many years ago; 
 and in the month of June, 1842, when staying for some time in 
 the neighbourhood, had frequent opportunities of observing them, 
 either sweeping the sands where the river disappears in the 
 
 * I have known them at another place, not more than four feet above the water. 
 
THE SAND-MAKTIN. 405 
 
 mass of waters, or flying above the ocean's waves. They breed at 
 each extremity of this bay in miserable situations, burrowing at 
 the one side, in a narrow belt of loose clay, above basaltic cliffs, 
 the bases of which are accessible at low water ; in the other, in 
 hard clayey sand between stones, in the face of a gravelly and 
 stony bank rising about ten feet above the beach : I never heard 
 the species so noisy as when in the vicinity of this burrow. Their 
 partiality to water or to the insects about it, seemed very evident 
 here, as I have remarked all within view sweeping over the waves 
 of the sea or the surface of the river, when various species of 
 insects were abundant above the land. About a similar locality, 
 the sandy bay west of Portrush, in this quarter, I likewise 
 noticed sand-martins, and have no doubt that they breed there. 
 Of the seven colonies of sand-martins already noticed in the 
 county of Antrim, five are contiguous to water, to which I con- 
 sider the species partial, although, to use the words of Mr. Mac- 
 gillivray, they " take up their abode in situations favourable to 
 mining, whether there be water near them or not." 
 
 These birds are so widely distributed over Ireland in situations 
 similar to those described, that it is needless to particularize other 
 localities. The bridge of Errif, in the county of Mayo, between 
 Westport and Glenaan, shall alone be named, on account of the 
 combined picturesqueness and grandeur of its scenery. They 
 came under my notice there, on the 26th of July, 1840. 
 
 Departure. On the 18th of September, 1832, no sand-martins 
 appeared at the Malone sand-pit. The whole colony, excepting a 
 very few birds, were said to have taken their departure about a 
 fortnight before that time. On the 1st of October, 1833, I was 
 informed, that they had departed ten or twelve days previously. 
 In both of those years, after the great body of these birds had 
 migrated, I remarked a single individual, in one instance asso- 
 ciated with the swallow, and in another, with the house-martin 
 and that species together : in both cases remote from their bur- 
 rows. They alighted on houses and trees along with their con- 
 geners, as well as accompanied them in flight. In neither year were 
 these sand-martins seen after the other species were gone ; hence it 
 
406 HIRUNDINID./E. 
 
 may be presumed that they set out with them on their migration. 
 On a visit to the sand-pit, on the 10th of September, 1840, 
 not a bird was to be seen, but less than a mile distant I saw 
 a few associated with house-martins and swallows, the latter of 
 which especially were abundant.* 
 
 On the 2nd of September, 1842, I observed several of these 
 birds fly into their burrows in a layer of hard sand about two feet 
 in thickness, surmounting the high gravelly bank of a wild 
 mountain stream, before the shooting-lodge at Aberarder, in Inver- 
 ness-shire. 
 
 During a tour to the south of Europe and the Levant, made 
 by the author in the spring and summer of 1841, tins bird was 
 only observed: — On the 9th of April, about the Rhone, between 
 Lyons and Avignon, where very few appeared; on the 17th, when 
 a number were seen about Valetta in Malta, in company with 
 many swallows, house-martins, and swifts; on the 30th, when 
 several were observed between Navarino and Modon. Aristotle 
 having mentioned the sand-martin as frequenting the valleys of 
 Greece, I was much gratified by thus meeting with it in the first 
 valley, or rather defile, of the Morea that I visited. 
 
 Macgillivray's British Birds (vol. iii.) contains a very good de- 
 scription of this species by the author, enriched by valuable con- 
 tributions from Mr. Weir and Mr. Duncan. Audubon gives a 
 very full and interesting account of it as an American species. He 
 remarks : — " The sand-swallow is a rather hardy bird ; for I ob- 
 served, that the transient cold weather that at times occurs in the 
 Floridas at night, seldom forces them to remove farther south. 
 On one occasion, however, when the ice was about the thickness 
 of a dollar, many were found dead along the shores, as well as 
 floating on the water." Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 587. 
 
 * Mr. Poole, with reference to the departure of the sand-martin from the county 
 of Wexford, mentions its having heen seen on the 31st of October, but he has not 
 observed its arrival there so early as we have in the north. He remarks, that " they 
 frequent our fields towards the latter end of autumn, though we never see them at 
 any other time," and describes nests which have come under his notice, as being 
 " from twelve to twenty-four inches from the entrance of the cavity ; — composed of fine 
 sea-grass, with a few pieces -of dry grass-stalks ; the burrow, as nearly as may be, hori- 
 zontal, and of almost uniform diameter so far as the nest, where it is enlarged to a globu- 
 lar form. Eggs taken in the middle of May, and first week of June ; five in number." 
 
407 
 
 THE PURPLE MARTIN. 
 
 Hirundo purpurea, Linn. 
 
 Is said to have been once obtained in Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell states in his British Birds, that the species is " in- 
 cluded, in consequence of a letter received from Mr. Prederick 
 M f Coy of Dublin, informing me that a female example of the 
 species had been shot near Kingstown, in the county of Dublin, 
 which had been sent for dissection to Dr. Scouler a few hours 
 afterwards, and when preserved was placed in the Museum of the 
 Royal Dublin Society." vol. ii. p. 257, 2nd edit. The date of its 
 occurrence is not mentioned : the communication respecting the 
 bird was published about March, 1840. 
 
 We are further informed by the same author that " during the 
 first week of September, 1842, two other examples of this same 
 species were shot by Mr. John Calvert of Paddington, at the 
 Kingsbury reservoir." One of these is a young bird of the year, 
 with the outside tail-feathers not fully grown, and the other an 
 old male, which circumstance, taken in connection with the fact 
 that two or three days intervened between those on which they 
 were killed, inclines Mr. Yarrell to believe that a brood of them 
 may have been reared there. These additional instances of an 
 American species occurring in the British Islands ; — see observa- 
 tions on Carolina cuckoo, belted kingfisher, American bittern, &c, 
 — and in no more easterly part of Europe, strengthen the opinion 
 that such birds crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Audubon, in the first volume of his Ornithological Biography 
 (p. 115), gives a very full and interesting description of the habits 
 &c. of this species. He remarks that, — "the circumstance of 
 their leaving the United States so early in autumn [they leave 
 Boston, &c, about the 20th of August] has inclined me to think 
 that they must go farther from them than any of our migratory 
 land birds," p. 120. He adds in vol. v. p. 408, that "although 
 this beautiful swallow reaches the vicinity of the Arctic Circle 
 earlier than others, it is said to migrate far within the tropics, as, 
 according to Mr. Swainson, it was observed in numbers around 
 Pernambuco 8t° south of the line." 
 
408 hirundinidjE. 
 
 THE COMMON SWIFT. 
 
 Cypselns opus, Linn, (sp.) 
 Hirundo „ 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant. 
 
 Although this bird is common in favourite localities, the species 
 must be noticed with reference to Ireland generally, as but par- 
 tially distributed. Along much of the wild western range of the 
 island it is rather scarce, and in some extensive districts is never 
 to be met with. It is stated by Mr. J. V. Stewart to be rare in 
 Donegal. During a week of the fine summer weather spent in 
 the north-west of that county in June, 1832, not a bird of this 
 species came under my notice. The swift, unknown in Connemara 
 (M'Calla) ; is very rare about Tralee, where it never breeds 
 (Neligan) ; and in the county of Kerry one pair only was ever 
 seen by Mr. R. Chute. They remained but for a few days fre- 
 quenting an old windmill in the village of Blennerville. 
 
 The swift is more regular as to the time of its appearance 
 around Belfast than any species of the allied genus Hirundo, or, 
 indeed, than any migratory bird. It may generally be seen during 
 the first week of May, and frequently on the second day of that 
 month: — even in 1842, when the arrival of birds generally was 
 remarkably late, it was noticed on the 10th of May. Mr. Selby, 
 in his Illustrations of British Ornithology, observes : " It has been 
 remarked that these birds delight in sultry weather, with ap- 
 proaching thunder-storms, at such times flying in small parties 
 with peculiar violence : and as they pass near steeples, towers, or 
 corners of buildings, uttering loud screams, which White, in his 
 Natural History of Selborne, supposes to be a sort of serenade to 
 their respective families. This is fanciful and pretty; but I 
 should rather be inclined to reason the opposite way, and to con- 
 sider this action and cry as the consequence of irritability, excited 
 by the highly electrical state of the atmosphere at such times." 
 I agree with Mr. Selby in considering the remark of White 
 respecting the scream of the swift to be merely " fanciful and 
 pretty," as I have heard these birds scream in the manner 
 
THE COMMON SWIFT. 409 
 
 described, so soon after their arrival, as to afford sufficient proof 
 that the cry did not proceed from the " males serenading their 
 sitting hens/' as incubation had not then commenced.* Nay, 
 from the time that it has ceased until that of the bird's departure, 
 the screaming is continued to the same degree as at any other 
 period. But I cannot coincide in the opinion that ' ' this action 
 and cry are the consequences of irritability excited by the highly 
 electrical state of the atmosphere at such times." This idea 
 differing from my own, previous to the publication of the ad- 
 mirable work in which it appeared, I gave some attention to the 
 subject for two summers, to see how far my preconceived opinion was 
 justified. In the years 1832 and 1833, from the 7th and 9th of 
 May, the days on which the swifts first came under my observation 
 about Belfast, until the 1st and 3rd of June (when I left home), 
 they daily kept flying about in small parties, screaming loudly, in 
 dull and gloomy, as well as in bright and cloudless weather. 
 
 The following particular notices on this subject are abbreviated 
 from my Journal : — 
 
 May 24th, 1832. — For the last eight or ten days the swift's scream has been 
 daily heard ; and when present this evening at the meeeting of an Historic Debating 
 Society, the swifts obtruded themselves on my attention by flying, "in small parties," 
 closely past the windows, screaming most furiously. Though amusing to the orni- 
 thologist, it must have been very annoying to the assembled company, to be "sere- 
 naded " by their ill-timed scream, which not only jarred most discordantly with the 
 " eloquent music " discoursed within, but for the time being entirely drowned the 
 voices of the speakers ; indeed almost seemed to be intended as a mockery of what 
 was passing there. During these ten days the weather has been rather dark and 
 cloudy ; the barometer remarkably stationary, and very high. With the exception 
 of a few showers on one day, no rain has fallen. 
 
 May 27th and June 3rd, 1832. — Weather remarkably fine and warm: sky almost 
 cloudless. The screaming of swifts heard above every other sound, about the localities 
 frequented by them. 
 
 * In the last two years, — 1847 and 1848, — my attention was directed to the 
 earliest swifts of the season which I saw at Belfast by their loud screams. The date 
 was the 9th of May in both years. In the former year, they had been seen over that 
 town by another person on the 7th of the month. On the 4th, they were observed 
 between Newry and Portadown. I have often remarked what doubtless led White to 
 conjecture that the cry of the swift is the serenade of the males to " their sitting 
 hens," as, at the season of incubation, these birds (but of which sex I cannot say) 
 may often be observed flying about in the neighbourhood of their nests, and heard 
 screaming only " when they come close to the walls or eaves." 
 
410 hirundinidjE. 
 
 May 22nd, 1833. — After eight this evening, which was very warm and the sky 
 cloudless, swifts, as noisy as usual, were flying about in little parties of three or 
 four : two of these parties would occasionally join, and continue together for a short 
 time, screaming vociferously. Their evolutions with that accompaniment, have always 
 seemed to me manifestations of pure enjoyment. When these parties were about to 
 meet, and when just separating, their power of screaming was exerted to the utmost.* 
 Evolutions, in which a much greater number of these birds participated, were wit- 
 nessed on the 24th inst., the weather being similar to that on the 22nd. The 
 state of the barometer and weather has been mentioned, that some idea may be 
 formed whether or not the atmosphere could have been " highly electrical " through- 
 out the varied weather described, or indeed daily throughout that of any two- months 
 in this climate.f 
 
 Swifts particularly delight in flying about the squares and 
 large open spaces in towns. Lofty edifices, especially when in a 
 state of dilapidation, are preferred by them for building in; but 
 in the north of Ireland, where these do not often occur, they con- 
 tent themselves with more humble dwellings. J In many of our 
 northern towns (where swifts are as plentiful as in any country) 
 they select as their domicile the eaves of the oldest houses, or those 
 from which the fast encroaching spirit of improvement, has not 
 yet banished the thatched roofs. On the 8th of July, 1833, I 
 observed many of these birds flying under the eaves and clinging 
 to the walls of occupied two-story houses of this kind, in the 
 town of Antrim. Although they and the martins appeared an 
 indiscriminate multitude when flying about the streets, their places 
 of nidification were quite distinct, the martins building on the 
 south, and the swifts confining themselves to the north side : on 
 a house just opposite the chief abode of the latter, I reckoned 
 
 * Mr. Macgillivray remarks, " that the loudest and most frequent cries are heard 
 when birds are evidently in active and successful pursuit." At the times above 
 alluded to, they certainly were not feeding. 
 
 f Mr. Macgillivray, in his British Birds, vol. iii. pp. 619 and 622, enters fully 
 into the subject of the swift's screaming. His observations of 1837 very generally 
 agree with mine, made a few years before. Dr. J. D. Marshall, in his memoir on 
 the Statistics and Natural History of the island of Rathlin, where swifts are plentiful, 
 states that the result of his observations is opposed to the views of White and Selby. 
 He believes the loud screaming of these birds to be particularly induced by fine 
 weather and an abundance of food. 
 
 | When on Ram's Island, in Lough Neagh, in the month of June, 1833, I re- 
 mained several of these birds flying in the vicinity of the ancient round tower, whose 
 " rents of ruin " were most probably then - breeding place. 
 
THE COMMON SWIFT. 411 
 
 about twenty nests of the martin. When in the town of Bally- 
 money, on the same day, I observed several swifts to fly under the 
 thatch of a house similar to that described, while some inhabited 
 nests of the martin appeared against it. On the 24th of June, 
 1834, the swift was remarked to have similar nesting-places in 
 Lisburn and Banbridge. In all the above-mentioned localities, 
 these birds were flying about in groups, screaming violently, the 
 weather being delightfully warm, and the sky " purely, beauti- 
 fully blue," not a cloud being visible. For a week after the 
 former date the weather continued very warm and dry. Spirited 
 horses that I have ridden, have occasionally been startled by the 
 loud scream of the swift, as it swept closely past. 
 
 In Belfast, where houses such as those described are not to be 
 met with, I have known the swift's nest to be placed under the 
 window-sills of houses newly erected, to winch the bird gained 
 access by means of an aperture, about an inch in width, that the 
 careless builder had neglected to close up. An ornithological 
 friend has seen swifts fly under the eaves of low thatched cottages 
 in the village of Magheralin (county Down), where they doubtless 
 build. 
 
 Two swifts' nests manually examined by my informant in the 
 summer of 1839, were placed on the wall-top of a two-story 
 thatched house, and were like a sparrow's nest in a similar situa- 
 tion, but contained fewer feathers. In the one nest, were two 
 eggs which had been long incubated, and therefore the full 
 number ; in the other, were three young birds. Swifts for some 
 years previously had built at this house, inside of which the com- 
 mon swallow as regularly did so. From two nests in the same 
 house, two and three eggs were severally taken, in 1848. 
 
 Swifts, like martins, frequent the basaltic precipices of the 
 north coast of Ireland, from the southern extremity of the range 
 at the Cave hill near Belfast, to their northern termination above 
 the sand-hills of Magilligan. Their being always present about 
 them during their sojourn, indicate that they have dwellings in 
 the crevices.* 
 
 * White of Selborne mentions swifts " breeding in the sides of a deep chalk-pit at 
 
412 HIRUNDINIDCE. 
 
 In the fifth volume of the Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 736, Mr. Couch 
 remarks : " It is not long that swifts have frequented stations con- 
 venient for my observation. At first they were about two pairs, 
 but they have now increased to four or five ; and it is singular, 
 that according to my observation, there is always an odd bird." 
 A similar circumstance was, for the first time, remarked by me in the 
 summer of 1829, when three swifts resorted to Wolf -hill,* and 
 took up their abode between the slates and window-frame of a 
 loft not more than twenty feet in height. Here, where a shot 
 was not permitted to be fired, and the odd bird could not have 
 lost its parent by the fowling-piece, the circumstance was consi- 
 dered as " passing strange." During three months, the usual 
 period of the swiff s presence in this country, the three mature 
 individuals only appeared. The following year, also, an odd 
 number of these birds was observed at Wolf-hill, there being 
 either five or seven. During those two summers, the houses 
 there had, with respect to fallen plaster and the growth of lichens, 
 mosses, &c, rather more of a picturesque appearance than is con- 
 
 Odiliam." At the end of June, 1835, I observed numbers of these birds about the 
 high limestone cliffs which rise in picturesque beauty above the river Derwent, at 
 Matlock in Derbyshire, where it was presumed they had nests. 
 
 * This locality, situated about three miles from Belfast, and elevated 500 feet 
 above the sea, was a favourite haunt of the Hirundinidce. During the sojourn of the 
 swift, this species, with the three others, might frequently have been seen at one view, 
 the swallow, martin, and sand-martin, sweeping in company over the ponds, while 
 the swift, though generally maintaining a superior altitude, occasionally broke through 
 their ranks ; the whole of the species, on such occasions, and indeed at all times, ex- 
 hibiting the most perfect amity. The swift built under the eaves of an outhouse, the 
 rafters of which displayed the nest of the swallow beneath them ; under an adjoining 
 roof, the " cradle " of the martin appeared, and not more than a furlong distant was 
 the burrow of the sand-martin. It was extremely interesting to the lover of nature 
 thus to behold at a glance all the species of these attractive summer wanderers that 
 regularly visit the British Islands ; and where they do thus appear, there are gene- 
 rally some charming features of natural scenery. 
 
 I observed the four species when (accompanied by Mr. Selby and the Rev. Edw. 
 Bigge), in July, 1839, at Kilrea, where the banks of the river Bann are picturesquely 
 wooded, and the expansive stream is impeded in its progress from Lough Neagh to 
 the ocean by low and scattered rocks rising occasionally above its surface, so as to 
 change the smooth mirror into a scene of active and "lusty life," delightful to the 
 angler's heart. Swifts to the number of not less than a hundred, kept almost on the 
 same level with the others. 
 
 In Malta, on the 17th of April, 1841, the day being very fine and warm, our four 
 Hirundinidce were in like manner observed in company, flying low, wherever we 
 walked about the island ; all the species were in numbers similar to what they are in 
 their most favoured haunts in the British Islands. This is a fortnight earlier than 
 the swift generally appears in the north of Ireland. 
 
THE COMMON SWIFT. 413 
 
 sistent with the most perfect order, but in the autumn of 1830 
 they were all repaired and roughcast, the swift's eyrie being care- 
 fully protected from the hands of the renovator : the species has 
 not, however, since tenanted the place. 
 
 Swifts generally keep at such an altitude, that the vicinity of 
 water is not enlivened by their presence as it is by that of some 
 of the Hirundines, yet they may occasionally be seen flying over 
 Belfast bay (particularly about the time of high-water), as well as 
 skimming the surface of ponds and rivers. 
 
 In and since 1842, 1 have remarked, that the borders of the bay 
 are very frequently visited by great numbers of swifts, during the 
 period of their stay, although they have no contiguous breeding- 
 places. Their favourite haunt on the Down side is about Rich- 
 mond Lodge, where trees — backed at some little distance by a 
 high terraced bank — bound one side of the road ; between which, 
 and the sea, at the opposite side, is a narrow belt of pasture, 
 perhaps 300 yards in breadth. They are often as numerous here 
 as swallows about an advantageous locality; — 150 to 200 being 
 seen together. During the last few years when swallows were so 
 scarce, their place here has been entirely monopolized by swifts. 
 These birds visit the opposite side of the bay about Tort William, 
 &c, in similar numbers, and seem to be particularly fond of feed- 
 ing above pasture-fields. I have no doubt that these large bodies 
 move about as flocks to feed in company. Indeed, that such is 
 the swift's habit may be inferred from the circumstance, of my 
 having observed numbers feeding about the mountain-tops on one 
 or two successive evenings, where on the following, though similar 
 as to weather, not an individual would be seen. Over the town of 
 Belfast, they were more numerous in 1842 than I had before 
 known : — about forty individuals would occasionally appear career- 
 ing together. 
 
 Swifts have continued very numerous to this year, 1848, inclusive, 
 and often frequent in great numbers the Richmond Lodge " beat." 
 Here, on the 12th of July, 1846, I considered there might be 150, 
 while above the road at Westbrook, less than a mile distant, simi- 
 larly open to the bay at one side and bounded by trees on the 
 
414 HIRUNDINID.E 
 
 other, not less than 120 were seen. Of the Hirundines, a very 
 few house-martins only, mingled with them at the former 
 locality, and at the latter, not an individual of any other species. 
 Both places were favourite haunts of the swallow until the pre- 
 ceding few years, when it became so scarce. It is very singular 
 thus to observe the swift occupy its place, as the sand-martin has 
 done elsewhere, both these species having had entirely different 
 beats, when the swallow appeared in ordinary numbers. 
 
 Once only have I witnessed these birds keeping regularly at 
 a lower elevation than swallows. This was on the 3rd of July, 
 1838, a beautiful sun-bright day, when numbers of them ap- 
 peared flying over Strangford Lough, near Portaferry, at from 
 twenty to forty yards above the surface of the sea, while, in the 
 higher stratum of air, swallows were abundant. I have observed 
 the swift flying over low islets of this lough, remote from any 
 breeding-place. 
 
 Bewick remarks (vol. i. p. 267, ed. of 1821) that swifts "are 
 said to avoid heat, and for this reason pass the middle of the day 
 in their holes [and that] in the morning and evening they go out 
 in quest of provision." Mr. Macgillivray, too, observes, that " in 
 dry and sunny weather [the swift] generally rests in the middle 
 of the day/' This has, I conceive, been assumed from the cir- 
 cumstance that swifts are not seen about their breeding haunts 
 throughout the day, like the swallow and martin. Instead, how- 
 ever, of lying concealed at such times, they are ranging far abroad. 
 During the very warmest and brightest days I have commonly 
 seen them sweeping in great numbers over mountain heaths and 
 around the summit of Devis, the highest mountain in our neigh- 
 bourhood,* and near to which they have not any nesting-places : 
 — in warm days, too, without sunshine, they may be seen feeding 
 
 * 1575 feet above the sea. When here on the 15th of May, 1836 (a remarkably fine 
 day), to witness the eclipse of the sun, I saw fully as many swifts as had ever ap- 
 peared when the season was farther advanced. 
 
 I observed them in like manner on the 6th of May, 1841, about the lofty moun- 
 tain-tops, and there only, in the island of Syra, one of the group of the Cyclades. 
 Captain Cook, in his Sketches in Spain, thus mentions a similar propensity of the 
 alpine swift : — " I have heard they were not uncommon in Catalonia, but I never met 
 with them, probably from their habit of going to feed at vast heights and distances in 
 the daytime, which prevents their being seen." (Vol. ii. p. 276.) 
 
THE COMMON SWIFT. 415 
 
 here, when skimming merely above the top of the heath. Towards 
 evening, — often about an hour before retiring to roost, — they 
 return from these comparatively distant nights, and are then seen 
 near their accustomed haunts for some time previous to retiring 
 for the night, having thus led persons to believe that the evening 
 is one of their favourite times for stirring out. Swifts may like- 
 wise be occasionally seen on wing in the vicinity of their nests 
 throughout the very finest weather. The remark that the swift 
 "in high windy days, will remain for hoars in its retreat, motion- 
 less, and in the dark," * I consider equally erroneous with that just 
 commented on. At such times, and during storms, as I have 
 frequently observed, they wander abroad to feed in congregated 
 numbers ; on account of their prey then keeping low, they are 
 generally to be seen in sheltered localities. 
 
 The following note was made on swifts as observed at Dunluce 
 Castle, near the Giants' Causeway. On the 12th of June, 1842, 
 I was attracted by, and remained for some time watching, a number 
 of these birds, which, although the day was beautifully bright and 
 warm, kept flying low, within a very few yards of my head. They 
 occasionally, I thought, — but could not be certain, owing to the 
 rapidity of their flight and the presence of house-martins, — 
 uttered a short pleasing note, lower than that of the Alpine swift ; 
 but their loud shrill cry was stilled. The last place I had paused 
 to observe Cypseli was in the island of Sphacteria, where the C. 
 melha was the attraction, consequently the C. murarius was to- 
 day brought into direct comparison with that species, on which 
 remarks will elsewhere be found. It was highly interesting to 
 witness their motions as they flew noiselessly — with the occasional 
 exceptions already noticed — a few yards above my head. The 
 tail would at one moment be drawn to a point, the next, appear 
 square at the end ; would then present a " tender fork," and the 
 next instant, its full furcation : again, it would be expanded to 
 the uttermost, with the feathers simply touching at their margins, 
 and the whole tail appearing so membranous that the light shone 
 
 * Yarrell, B. B. vol.ii. p. 262. 2nd edit. 
 
416 HIRUNDINULE. 
 
 through it ; lastly, it would be thrown into the form of an arch, 
 winch had a singular effect, and generally when thus exhibited 
 the whole body was bent like a well-strung bow, — an appearance 
 which was several times observed with very high interest. Within 
 a few seconds of time all these appearances were assumed by the 
 one bird. It is rarely, except in the warmest and finest weather, 
 and amid attractive scenery, when everything around from earth 
 or sea to the sky above, is redolent of joy and beauty, that 
 we feel disposed thus to pause, and patiently observe. 
 
 On such an occasion at Mount Pagus, crowned by the ruins of 
 the Castle of Smyrna, and commanding one of the most magnificent 
 prospects in the world, the swallows, as they gently floated " on 
 the bosom of the air " a few yards beneath, exhibited the tail 
 expanded to such a degree, that the beautiful white portion towards 
 its base was quite conspicuous ; presenting in this respect so great 
 a difference from its ordinary appearance, that I did not feel certain 
 at the moment, of their being our own common bird. 
 
 White in the Natural History of Selborne (Letter 21) remarks 
 of the swift, that " in the longest days it does not withdraw to 
 rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, being the latest 
 of all day birds." At Belfast, it may be seen about midsummer at 
 nine, and not unfrequently for some time after that hour. I have 
 noted them as heard, on the 27th of June, at a quarter after 9 
 o' clock; on the 8th of August, at five minutes after 8 o' clock, 
 both days having been fine and warm ; they occasionally remain 
 on wing until it is almost dark. The three species of Hirundo 
 usually retire before them. 
 
 The swift generally leaves Belfast about the 12th of August, 
 but in 1840 I saw a number on the 19th of that month, 
 and in 1832, on the 20th; in 1845, they appeared above the town 
 as numerous as in June on the evening of the 18th, after which 
 I did not see them, and the latest heard of in the neighbour- 
 hood, was a single bird observed on the 22nd and 23rd; in 1833, 
 I remarked about twenty in company, near Belfast, so late as 
 the 30th. They were pursuing their prey most leisurely, at about 
 thirty yards from the ground, many swallows and martins occu- 
 
THE COMMON SWIFT. 417 
 
 pying the space immediately beneath them : the Cypselus and 
 Hirundo each occasionally broke through the other's ranks. The 
 month of August was much colder than usual that year, a cir- 
 cumstance, however, which could hardly have influenced the swift 
 in remaining beyond the ordinary period. The first assemblage 
 of swallows and martins, constituting a vast multitude, was congre- 
 gated for migration at the same time and place ; on the same day 
 they and the swifts departed. In 1848, swifts became gradually 
 scarcer, from the end of August until the 1st of Sept., on which 
 day, two appeared at Belfast. On the 4th of September, 1835, 
 some were observed by a scientific friend about Dunluce Castle ; 
 on the 11th of that month in the following year, three of these 
 birds were seen by myself at Hillsborough (county Down), and 
 many more of the Hirundinidce, which appeared at some distance, 
 were believed to be of this species.* About the same place, many of 
 the Hir. rustica were congregated preparatory to their departure. 
 I have never witnessed any unusual assembling together of swifts, 
 towards the time of their migration, like that of the swallow and 
 martin. During the period of their stay, they are, in favourite 
 localities, generally numerous and fly in company. 
 
 In the course of a tour which I made to the south and south- 
 east of Europe, &c, in 1841, the swift was met with at Malta on 
 the 17th of April, when many appeared in company with the 
 three common species of Hirundo, — H. rustica, H urbica, and H. 
 riparia. None were seen during the passage of H.M.S. Beacon 
 from Malta to the Morea, though numbers of H. rustica and H. 
 urbica alighted on the vessel. On the 6th and 7th of May, 
 swifts were next observed about the mountain-tops in the island 
 of Syra, the weather being very fine and warm. Towards the end 
 of the month they appeared at Smyrna, and were abundant at 
 Constantinople. Early in June they were numerous about a rocky 
 islet north-east of Port Nausa, in the island of Paros, and were 
 breeding in the fissures of low marine cliffs. At the end of this 
 
 * Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, notes the earliest appearance of 
 the swift during four years to be on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of May ; the latest Sept., 
 11th and 20th. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 E 
 
418 hirundinim;. 
 
 month they were plentiful at Trieste; and in July at Venice 
 (remarkably so there), Verona, Milan, &e. 
 
 White of Selborne and Macgillivray give very copious and 
 interesting accounts of the swift, from personal observation. 
 
 THE ALPINE SWIFT. 
 
 White-bellied Swift. 
 
 Cypselus melba, Linn, (sp.) 
 Hirundo „ „ 
 
 Cypselus alpinus, Scop, (sp.) 
 
 Is an extremely rare visitant. 
 
 My attention was called by the Dublin Penny Journal, of March, 
 1833, to a rare bird, said to have been killed at Rathfarnham, in 
 the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and added to the fine col- 
 lection of native birds belonging to Thomas W. Warren, Esq., of 
 Dublin. On calling to see this bird (as subsequently stated in 
 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1834, p. 29) I found 
 it to be the Cypselus alpinus, a species then unrecorded as having 
 occurred in any part of Ireland. . The specimen recognised as the 
 alpine swift by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, and communicated by him to 
 Mr. Selby as an addition to the British Eauna, was obtained off 
 Cape Clear, at the distance of some miles from land. Mr. War- 
 ren's specimen is incorrectly stated in the Journal, to have been 
 captured in the month of February, as, according to a note made 
 by that gentleman at the time, the bird was sent to him from 
 Rathfarnham, on the 14th of March : it was in a perfectly fresh 
 state. 
 
 I am informed by Robert Warren, Esq., junr., Castle Warren, 
 county of Cork, that an alpine swift was shot near Doneraile, 
 in that county, in June, 1844 or 1845, by a friend in whose 
 company he was at the time. Common swifts and swallows were 
 flying about the locality. 
 
 Since Mr. Sinclaire's bird was obtained, four individuals of this 
 
THE ALPINE SWIFT. 419 
 
 species have been met with in England, as particularly noticed in 
 the works of Yarrell and Macgillivray. 
 
 The first place I met with the alpine swift, was about ten miles 
 to the north of Naples, on the 12th of August, 1826, when a 
 great number were observed associated together in .flight, at a high 
 elevation. Their evolutions in the air were similar to those of the 
 common swift. Independently of their superior size, which at 
 once distinguishes them from that bird, the white colour of a 
 portion of the under plumage, from which they have received the 
 name of "white-bellied swift," is conspicuous, even when the bird 
 is at a considerable altitude. 
 
 When on the continent, in 1841, (with my friend Professor 
 E. Eorbes,) tins species was first seen by us on the 9th of April, 
 as we descended the Rhone, from Lyons to Avignon. About 
 half-way between these cities, several appeared flying over the 
 river, and a few at all suitable places thence to Avignon. On 
 the morning of the 28th of April, as we entered the splendid bay 
 of Navarino, great numbers appeared careering high overhead. 
 When walking through the petty town of the same name later in 
 the day, alpine swifts were observed flying very low over the streets 
 and houses, although the weather was delightfully warm and fine. 
 On my visiting the island of Sphacteria, the western boundary of 
 the bay, on the 29th, these birds were very abundant. The 
 attraction here was a range of noble precipitous cliffs rising 
 directly above the sea, at the western side of the island. These 
 swifts inhabited the cliffs, which are similar to those tenanted 
 by the common species in the north of Ireland. Although 
 the day was as fine and warm as our northern summers ever are, 
 these birds, as I walked along the top of the cliffs, swept about 
 low and in numbers, occasionally within a few yards of my head : 
 — this remark is made from the circumstance of the common swift 
 being generally high in the air in fine weather ; we do, however, 
 occasionally observe it sweeping near the earth at such times. 
 Though larger, they in general appearance and flight strongly re- 
 semble the common swift : they are very noisy, almost constantly 
 uttering a loud twitter ; besides which, they occasionally give a brief 
 
 2 e 2 
 
420 HIRUNDINHLE. 
 
 scream, nowise resembling the long-drawn and shrill cry of the com- 
 mon species. Towards the end of May, I saw a few alpine swifts at 
 Constantinople, wheeling about the heights of Pera, and near the 
 high tower of Galata, in which they probably build. In the 
 month of June, I met with this species at the island of Paros, 
 and about the Acropolis at Athens. Throughout this tour, the 
 common swift was more frequently seen than the C. alpinus, and 
 at one locality only did they both appear ; — this was at Constan- 
 tinople, where the former species was abundant, and a few of the 
 latter were observed. This seemed rather remarkable, as in no 
 scene did I meet with the one species, in which the other would 
 not have appeared equally at home. The only difference in their 
 habits which struck me, was, that the alpine swift is apparently 
 more partial to cliffs than buildings, the common swift more 
 partial to artificial structures than to rocks. 
 
 As but little has been written on the alpine swift, the following 
 interesting extract from Captain S. E. Cook's Sketches in Spain, 
 is introduced : — 
 
 " Cypselus Alpinus. — "Were living at the Breche cle Roland, 
 skimming the glaciers in July. I could not ascertain whether 
 they bred in the mural precipices there, or below in the villages. 
 I never saw them in Spain, excepting at Merida, where they were 
 in April, in company with innumerable martins and others of the 
 tribe flying very low, with a note not unlike some of the terns 
 {Sterna) . When high in the air, as I have seen them in descend- 
 ing the Rhine, they have a loud and melodious whistle. I have 
 heard they were not uncommon in Catalonia, but I never met 
 with them, probably from their habit of going to feed at vast 
 heights and distances in the day time, winch prevents their being 
 seen. They arrive at Naples at the end of March, and then fly 
 low. I believe they depart early." — vol. ii. p. 276. 
 
421 
 
 THE NIGHTJAR. 
 
 Goatsucker. Fern-Owl. 
 
 Caprimulgus Uuropaus, Linn. 
 
 Is a regular summer visitant to favourite localities in all 
 quarters of the island ; but of rare appearance 
 elsewhere. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Belfast it is very seldom seen. A vene- 
 rable sporting friend, who has been shooting here regularly in the 
 season for above sixty years, has not during that time met with a 
 dozen of these birds, although there are several districts appa- 
 rently well suited to them. In the wooded glen at the " Falls/' 
 one was observed by Mr. Win. Sinclaire and myself, some years 
 ago, perching lengthwise (as the species is well known to do), 
 instead of across the branch of a fine beech tree, then displaying 
 the tender and beautiful green of its young leaves. I am aware 
 of five only having been killed, within twelve miles of Belfast, 
 during the last twenty years. Of these, the first was shot at Bel- 
 voir Park, on the 28th of July, 1827 ; the second, in the summer 
 of 1835, in the district of Malone; the third, on the 25th of 
 September, that year, in Hillsborough Park ; the fourth, on the 
 1st of June, 1840, at Bangor Castle : its stomach was filled with 
 the remains of several individuals of the dor-beetle [Geotrupes 
 stercorarius) ; the fifth was killed near Langford Lodge, on the 1st 
 of June, 1843. The late George Matthews, Esq., informed me, that 
 in the district of the Ards, county of Down, the goatsucker has 
 not unfrequently been observed ; he had seen it on different occa- 
 sions at Springvale ; and a few have been shot about Echinville. 
 It is a regular summer visitant to the Mourne mountains, and 
 particularly to those in the vicinity of Tollymore Park.* The 
 gamekeeper there, stated in 1836, that he had frequently found 
 
 * In Templeton's Catalogue of Vertebrate Animals (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. new 
 series), this bird is noticed as " rare about Belfast ; but [not] uncommon at Mourne, 
 county Down." The not before " uncommon " was omitted in the printing of the 
 paper. 
 
4-22 CAPEIMULGIDiE. 
 
 nests of the goatsucker, and rarely observed more than one egg 
 in any of them. On the 28th of June, 1838, he pointed out to 
 me one of their nests, if such it may be called, at the base of a 
 young tree planted in the spring of that year in a plantation on 
 the mountain side. The bird was seen on the ground from some 
 distance, and did not take wing until we approached within seven 
 or eight paces : — it flew but a short way before alighting. Two 
 very young birds on the bare earth, whence their parent rose, were 
 observed \ and about the distance of a foot from where they were, 
 the eggs had been incubated. A nightjar was shot at the deanery, 
 Armagh, a few years ago ; and two appeared on the 24th of July, 
 1843, at Knappa, in that county.* 
 
 The nightjar is common in the north-west of Donegal.f It is 
 said to be a regular vernal migrant to the county of Wick- 
 low, — the Yale of Avoca (a name familiar to the lovers of 
 the " Irish Melodies,") being one of its favourite haunts. This 
 bird is not uncommon, and breeds annually in some heath- 
 clad mountains near ClonmeljJ it seems to be very generally 
 distributed in the county of Wexford, preferring for its abode the 
 lower declivities of rocky mountains where fern and heath abound. 
 About the 1st of May, it arrives there, and from its note has 
 obtained the name of Spinner. § It is occasionally shot in the 
 neighbourhood of Bandon, county of Cork ; and is said to breed 
 on the mountains above Blennerville, county of Kerry. || A 
 young plantation of limited extent, on the high banks above the 
 river Blackwater, near Youghal, was pointed out to me by Mr. R. 
 Ball, in July, 1834, as annually resorted to by these birds. In 
 three specimens sent to him from this locality, the remains of the 
 ghost-moth (Hepialus Humuli) only were found; one stomach 
 containing nine of these insects. When visiting the lakes of Kil- 
 larney, with that gentleman, in July, 1834, we had the gratifica- 
 tion of seeing three nightjars hawking about in company, as we 
 passed from the upper to the lower lake, near the highly pic- 
 turesque mountain called the Eagle's Nest. The white markings 
 
 * Rev. George Robinson. f Mr. J. V. Stewart. % Mr. R. Davis. 
 
 § Mr. Poole. || Mr. R. Chute. 
 
THE NIGHTJAR. 423 
 
 on the tail of one, — said to denote the male bird, — were quite con- 
 spicuous in the twilight. On the following evening we saw 
 another between Innisfallen and Ross Island. 
 
 Dr. J. L. Drummond informs me, that when H.M.S. San Juan 
 (of which he was surgeon) was anchored near Gibraltar, in the 
 spring of the year, a few nightjars flew on board. During the 
 passage of H.M.S. Beacon, from Malta to the Morea, in April, 
 1841, some of these birds appeared on the 27th about the ship 
 and alighted. We were then about 50 miles from Zante (the 
 nearest land) and 60 west of the Morea. They came singly, with 
 one exception, when two appeared in company. A couple of 
 them were shot in the afternoon. A few others had been seen 
 about the vessel on the two or three days preceding. On the 
 evening of the 1st of June, two were killed, and others seen, in the 
 once celebrated but now barren and uninhabited island of Delos. 
 
 White, in his History of Selborne, gives an extremely interest- 
 ing account of the nightjar ; Sir Wm. Jardine very fully notes 
 its various modes of flight; in Macgillivray's British Birds, an 
 ample description appears from the author, to which are added 
 valuable contributions from Mr. Harley and Mr. Weir; the ob- 
 servations of the former having been made near Leicester ; those 
 of the latter at Bathgate, Linlithgowshire. The species has com- 
 monly been seen by a sporting friend, about the wooded banks of 
 the river Stinchar, in Ayrshire. 
 
 Note to p. 206. Blue Tit, Parus coeruleus. — Since the account of this bird was 
 printed off, a very beautiful variety, worthy of especial notice, has been ldndly 
 brought to Belfast for my examination, by the Rev. G. Robinson of Tandragee. It 
 was shot in a wild state in the county of Armagh, in company with others of its 
 species. It does not retain any of the ordinary colour. The entire under surface 
 and the back, are of the richest canary yellow, with which the upper portion of the 
 wings also, is partially tinged. The tail is pure white. The few first quills are white, 
 the succeeding ones pearl-grey, but of a darker shade at the tips. The head is singu- 
 larly parti-coloured with white, blue, greyish -brown, and canary-yellow. Bill, legs, 
 and feet, of a whitish hue. 
 
424 
 
 BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH. 
 
 Having now disposed of the Irish species of Insessores, it may 
 be desirable to offer a few brief remarks on the birds of this Order 
 which are found in Great Britain, and not in Ireland. Occasional 
 notices of some of them have already appeared in connection with 
 the Irish species to which they are most nearly allied, but all will 
 be here brought together. 
 
 Species obtained in Great Britain and not in Ireland. 
 
 Laniadse. 
 
 Muscicapidse. 
 
 Merulidse. 
 
 Sylviadae. 
 
 Family. 
 
 Paridse. 
 
 Motacillidae. 
 
 Anthidae. 
 
 Alaudidfe. 
 
 Emberizidse. 
 
 Fringillidre. 
 
 Sturnidffi. 
 
 CorvidcC. 
 Picida). 
 
 CerfhiacUe. 
 Hirmidinidii' 
 
 Species. 
 
 Red-backed Shrike. 
 Woodchat. 
 Pied Flycatcher. 
 Rock Thrush. 
 Alpine Accentor. 
 Blue-throated Redstart. 
 Nightingale. 
 Savi's Warbler. 
 Great Sedge Warbler. 
 Lesser Whitethroat. 
 Melodious Willow- Wren. 
 Wood Wren. 
 Dartford Warbler. 
 Fire-crested Regulus. 
 Dalmatian „ 
 
 Crested Tit. 
 Blue-headed Wagtail. 
 Richard's Pipit. 
 Tree 
 
 Shore Lark. 
 Short-toed „ 
 Lapland Bunting. 
 CM 
 
 Ortolan „ 
 Tree Sparrow. 
 Mealy Redpole. 
 Parrot Crossbill. 
 American White-winged. 
 Red-winged Starling. 
 Nutcracker. 
 Green Woodpecker. 
 Lesser-spotted „ 
 Great-black „ 
 Wryneck. 
 Nuthatch. 
 
 Australian Spring-tailed ■> 
 Swallow. > 
 
 Lanius collurio. . . . 
 „ rufus. . . 
 Muscicapa luctuosa. 
 Petrocincla saxatilis. . 
 Accentor alpinus. . . 
 Phosnicura Suecica. 
 Philomela luscinia. 
 Sylvia luscinioides. . . 
 
 ,, turdoides. 
 
 „ garrula. . . 
 
 „ hvppolais, Temm. 
 
 „ sibilcdrix. 
 Melizophilus provincialis. 
 Regulus ignicapillus. . 
 
 „ modestus. . 
 Parus cristatus. 
 Motacilla neglecta. . . 
 Anthus Richardi. 
 
 „ arboreus. . . 
 Alauda alpestris. 
 
 „ brachydactyla. 
 Plectrophanes Lapponica. 
 Emberiza cirhis. 
 
 „ hortulana. 
 Passer montanus. . 
 Linaria canescens. 
 Loxia pytiopsittacus. . 
 
 „ leucoptera. 
 Agelaius p/iceniceus. 
 Nucifraga caryocatactes. 
 Picics viridis. . 
 
 „ minor. . 
 
 „ martius. 
 Yunx torquilla. 
 Sitta Europcea. 
 
 Acanthylis caudata. 
 
 ~~ 
 
 o> 
 
 ■2-2 
 
BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH. 425 
 
 It is worthy of special remark, that all of the regular annual 
 visitants are summer birds. Among the occasional visitants, are 
 winter as well as summer migrants. 
 
 Resident Species. The Crested Tit is confined to Scotland, 
 and has not been found southward of the neighbourhood of Glas- 
 gow ; — the Cirl Bunting inhabits the more southern, and is very 
 rare in the northern, counties of England : a single individual 
 only has been seen in Scotland, near to Edinburgh ; — the Dartford 
 Warbler frequents the south of England chiefly, but has been 
 obtained as far north as Leicestershire ; — the Tree Sparrow is rare 
 in most of the extreme southern counties of England, and found 
 northwards to Northumberland ; — the Nuthatch and Green Wood- 
 pecker inhabit the greater part of England and Wales ; the latter 
 bird becoming more rare northward in the former country;* — 
 the Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker is found in most of the English 
 counties, but seldom in the more northern. None of the last five 
 species has been observed in Scotland. 
 
 Regular annual summer visitants. The Wood Wren is rather 
 generally distributed over England and Wales, inclusive of the 
 most western parts, and northward "to the middle districts of 
 Scotland/' The Tree Pipit frequents suitable localities throughout 
 England and Wales; three individuals have been obtained in 
 Scotland. The Lesser Whitethroat is found pretty extensively to 
 the north of England, but is "rare in Cornwall and Wales;" 
 very few have been met with in Scotland; and only in the south. 
 The Wryneck is diffused somewhat generally over England, but 
 particularly over the south-eastern counties ; a few have been seen 
 in Scotland. The Red-backed Shrike frequents England rather 
 commonly to the west and north inclusive. The Pied Flycatcher 
 is found from south to north of England, but " rarely in Dorset- 
 shire and Devonshire," according to Yarrell, who does not name 
 Wales as visited by the species, nor is it included in the Cornwall 
 
 * Macgillivray, (B. B. vol. iii. 94) to whom, as well as Sir Win, Jardine, this bird 
 is not knowu north of the Tweed. 
 
426 BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH. 
 
 Fauna of Couch. The Nightingale has been seen as far north 
 as Carlisle in England, but not so far westward as Cornwall or 
 Wales.* The last three species are unknown in Scotland. 
 
 Occasional or irregular visitants. Many specimens of the 
 Mealy Redpole have been obtained in England, and some in Scot- 
 land. The Nutcracker, Parrot Crossbill, Blue-headed Wagtail, 
 and Great Black Woodpecker," have several times been procured 
 in different parts of England ; the three former, each twice, and 
 the last, once in Scotland (on the authority of Sibbald). None 
 of the following seventeen species has been met with in the 
 latter country. A few individuals of the Woodchat, Blue-throated 
 Redstart, Savi's Warbler, Eire-crested Eegulus, Richard's Pipit, 
 Shore Lark, Lapland Bunting, and Ortolan Bunting, have been 
 killed in different parts of England. The Alpine Accentor and 
 Red- winged Starling, have each been thrice met with; the Rock 
 Thrush, twice; the Great Sedge Warbler, Melodious Willow- 
 Wren, Dalmatian Regulus, Short-toed Lark, American White- 
 winged Crossbill, and the Australian spiny-tailed Swallow, have 
 each occurred but once.f 
 
 As all the species included in the preceding table, except four, 
 frequent the continent of Europe, and are unknown in the 
 
 * " The nightingale, I think, appeal's to migrate almost due north and south, devi- 
 ating but a very little indeed either to the right or left. There are none in Brittany, 
 nor in the Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c. ; and the most westward of them 
 probably cross the channel at Cape La Hogue, arriving on the coast of Dorsetshire, 
 and thence apparently proceeding northward, rather than dispersing towards the 
 west ; so that they are only known as accidental stragglers beyond at most, the third 
 degree of western longitude, — a line which cuts off the counties of Devonshire and 
 Cornwall, together with Wales and Ireland." Mr. Blyth, as quoted in YarreU's 
 Brit. Birds, vol. i. 303 ; 2nd edit. 
 
 Dr. J. L. Dnrmmond informs me, that when he was, many years since, in H.M.S. 
 Renown, at Gibraltar, in spring, some nightingales on migration, flew on board. 
 
 In the History of the Early part of the Reign of King James the Second, by 
 Charles James Fox, there is an interesting letter from the author, addressed to 
 Lord Grey, on the singing of the nightingale. See preliminary address " To the 
 Reader," p. xii. 
 
 t The data respecting the distribution and occurrence of the preceding species in 
 England, are taken from YarreU's beautiful volumes ; those for Scotland, from Jar- 
 dine's and Macgillivray's works. Four of the species,— Sylvia turdoides, S. hippo- 
 lais, Temm., Loxia leucoptera (as distinguished from L. bifasciata, Nilsson), Acan- 
 thi/lis cavdacuta, — have been added to the British catalogue since the appearance of 
 the 2nd edit, of YarreU's work in 1845. 
 
IRISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS BRITISH. 427 
 
 western hemisphere, we should rather, on account of the compar- 
 ative proximity of Great Britain, expect them to be found there 
 than in Ireland. The exceptions are the Lapland Bunting, 
 Mealy Redpole, American white-winged Crossbill, and Red-winged 
 Starling ; the two latter being North American birds, which rarely 
 visit Europe, might as likely have occurred in Ireland as in Great 
 Britain ; the two former, inhabiting the northern parts of both 
 Europe and America, should rather — taking it for granted, that the 
 individuals which visited the latter island came from the north of 
 Europe — be expected to visit Great Britain than Ireland. The 
 occurrence of the Australian Spiny-tailed Swallow in England is 
 paradoxical. ' 
 
 Several of the species in the preceding list will doubtless yet 
 be ascertained to visit Ireland ; a few indeed have already been 
 said to do so, but I have not been able to obtain any satisfactory 
 evidence : — the Green Woodpecker is even stated to be resident 
 in some well-wooded parts of the island, but no positive infor- 
 mation on the subject could be procured. 
 
 Species obtained in Ireland and not in Great Britain. 
 
 Gold-vented Thrush. Turdus aurigaster. 
 Great-spotted Cuckoo. Cucukis glandarius. 
 Belted Kingfisher. Alcedo alcyon. 
 
 These are mere accidental visitants ; a single individual of each 
 of the first two was procured, and two specimens — about the 
 same time — of the last. The Gold- vented Thrush is a native of 
 Africa; the Great Spotted Cuckoo of Southern Europe and 
 Northern Africa ; and the Belted Kingfisher of North America. 
 They will be found treated of in the preceding pages. 
 
 The Ash-coloured Harrier (Circus cineraceus, Mont., sp.), 
 alluded to at p. 83 and p. 107 has since been obtained in Ireland. 
 
428 THE ASH- COLOURED HARRIER. 
 
 The first intimation of its occurrence was communicated to me by 
 T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, who stated that a bird believed 
 to be this species, had been shot about the 1st of Oct., 1848, 
 by James Walsh, Esq., near Bray. The attention of Mr. R. 
 Ball being called to the specimen, he after a critical examination 
 reported it to be a female of this species as described by Jenyns. 
 It differed only from the description in the two central tail- 
 feathers not being uniformly brown, but being instead very faintly 
 barred with black. 
 
 END OP VOL. I. 
 
ENGLISH 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX 
 
 TO VOLUME I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Aberdevine 264 
 
 Bee-eater 367 
 
 Blackbird 142 
 
 Blackbird, mountain 149 
 
 rock ib. 
 
 water 116 
 
 Black cap 183 
 
 Blue bonnet 203 
 
 Brambling 249 
 
 Bullfinch 274 
 
 Bunting, black-headed 245 
 
 briar 241 
 
 common ib. 
 
 corn ib. 
 
 mountain , 237 
 
 reed 245 
 
 snow 237 
 
 tawny ib. 
 
 yellow 243 
 
 Butcher-bird, ash-coloured ... 112 
 
 Buzzard 72 
 
 honey 77 
 
 moor 78 
 
 rough -legged 76 
 
 Chaffinch 246 
 
 Chatterer, waxen 229 
 
 Chiff-chaff 195 
 
 Chough 298 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Creeper, tree 344 
 
 Crossbill 276 
 
 European white-winged . 283 
 
 two-banded ib. 
 
 Crow, carrion 307 
 
 grey 310 
 
 hooded ib. 
 
 red-legged 298 
 
 Cuckoo 356 
 
 Cuckoo, great spotted 364 
 
 ■ yellow-billed American . 365 
 
 Dipper 116 
 
 Dunnock 156 
 
 Eagle, golden 3 
 
 rough-footed 13 
 
 sea 14 
 
 spotted 13 
 
 white-tailed 14 
 
 Falcon, Greenland 31 
 
 Gyr ib. 
 
 Iceland ib. 
 
 Jer , ib. 
 
 peregrine 33 
 
 red-footed 50 
 
 Felt, big, blue, or pigeon .... 130 
 
 small 140 
 
 Fern-owl 421 
 
 Fieldfare 130 
 
 2 F 
 
430 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Field-lark 227 
 
 Flycatcher, spotted 113 
 
 Garden warbler 185 
 
 Goatsucker 421 
 
 Goldfinch. 261 
 
 Goldspink ib. 
 
 Goshawk 62 
 
 Grasshopper warbler 179 
 
 Greenfinch 257 
 
 Grosbeak 259 
 
 Gowk 356 
 
 Gyr falcon 31 
 
 Harrier, ash-coloured 428 
 
 hen 78 
 
 marsh 81 
 
 Montagu's 428 
 
 Hawfinch 259 
 
 Hedge-accentor 156 
 
 Hedge-warbler ib. 
 
 Hobby 49 
 
 orange-legged 501 
 
 Hoopoe 353 
 
 Jackdaw 323 
 
 red-legged 298 
 
 Jay . 339 
 
 Kite.. 70 
 
 King-fisher.. 369 
 
 belted 373 
 
 Kestrel 55 
 
 Lark, common 231 
 
 crested 235 
 
 sky 231 
 
 wood 236 
 
 Linnet, common .' 267 
 
 green 257 
 
 grey 267 
 
 mountain 272 
 
 Magpie 328 
 
 2 
 
 Page 
 
 Martin, house 389 
 
 sand 400 
 
 Martin, purple 407 
 
 Merlin 51 
 
 Moss-cheeper 227 
 
 Mountain finch 249 
 
 Nightjar 421 
 
 Oriole, golden 154 
 
 Osprey 29 
 
 Ouzel, ring 149 
 
 rose-coloured 295 
 
 water 116 
 
 Owl, barn 92 
 
 eagle 85 
 
 fern 421 
 
 long-eared 86 
 
 scops-eared 85 
 
 short-eared 88 
 
 snowy 95 
 
 tawny 94 
 
 • white 92 
 
 Pastor, rose-coloured 295 
 
 Petty chaps, greater 135 
 
 — — lesser 195 
 
 Pipit, meadow 225 
 
 rock 227 
 
 tree 224 
 
 Eaven 303 
 
 Redbreast 158 
 
 Eedpole, greater 267 
 
 lesser 270 
 
 Redwing 140 
 
 Reed sparrow 245 
 
 Redstart 169 
 
 black 171 
 
 Regulus, gold-crested 197 
 
 Ringtail 81 
 
 Robin 158 
 
 f2 
 
INDEX. 
 
 431 
 
 Rock-lark 227 
 
 Roller 366 
 
 Rook 314 
 
 Sedge warbler 180 
 
 Shrike, great grey 112 
 
 Siskin 264 
 
 Skylark, 231 
 
 Sparrow, hedge 156 
 
 house 251 
 
 reed 245 
 
 Sparrow-hawk 63 
 
 Stare 284 
 
 Starling ib. 
 
 rock 149 
 
 rose-coloured 295 
 
 Stone-chat 172 
 
 Swallow, common 374 
 
 Swift 408 
 
 alpine 418 
 
 white -bellied ib. 
 
 Thrush, gold- vented 153 
 
 missel 121 
 
 rose-coloured 295 
 
 song 134 
 
 White's 128 
 
 Tit, bearded 213 
 
 blue 203, 423 
 
 coal 207 
 
 Page 
 
 Tit, great 201 
 
 long-tailed 209 
 
 marsh 206 
 
 Titlark 227 
 
 Tree-creeper 344 
 
 Twite 272 
 
 Vulture, griffon 84 
 
 Wagtail, common . . 214 
 
 grey 218 
 
 pied 214 
 
 ■ Ray's 221 
 
 white . . 218 
 
 yellow 218, 221 
 
 Waxwing, Bohemian 229 
 
 Wheatear 176 
 
 Whin-chat 174 
 
 White-throat 186 
 
 Wind-hover 55 
 
 Woodlark 236 
 
 Woodpecker, greater spotted . 341 
 
 Wren, common 346 
 
 gold-crested 197 
 
 reed 183 
 
 ■ willow 191 
 
 wood 189 
 
 Yellow Ammer 243 
 
 Yellow Yorlin ib. 
 
LATIN 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX 
 
 TO VOLUME I. 
 
 Accentor modularis 156 
 
 Accipiter nisus 63 
 
 Alauda arborea 236 
 
 arvensis 231 
 
 ■ cristata 235 
 
 obscura 227 
 
 pratensis 225 
 
 trivialis 224 
 
 Alcedo alcyon 373 
 
 ispida 369 
 
 Ampelis garrulus 229 
 
 Anthus aquaticus 227 
 
 — arboreus 224 
 
 petrosus 227 
 
 pratensis 225 
 
 Aquila chrysaetos 3 
 
 fulva ib. 
 
 ncevia; 13 
 
 Aster palumbarius 62 
 
 Bombycilla'garrula 229 
 
 Bubo maximus 85 
 
 Buteo lagopus 76 
 
 vulgaris 72 
 
 Calamophilus biarmicus 213 
 
 Caprimulgus Europseus 421 
 
 Carduelis elegans 261 
 
 spinus 264 
 
 Certhia familiaris 344 
 
 Cmclus aquaticus 116 
 
 Page 
 
 Circus seruginosus 78 
 
 Montagui 428 
 
 rufus ib. 
 
 cyaneus 81 
 
 Coccothraustes chloris 257 
 
 ' vulgaris 259 
 
 Coccyzus Americanus 365 
 
 Coracias garrula 366 
 
 Corvus corax 303 
 
 cornix 310 
 
 corone 307 
 
 frugilegus 314 
 
 graculus 298 
 
 monedula 323 
 
 pica 328 
 
 Curruca atricapilla 183 
 
 cinerea 186 
 
 hortensis 185 
 
 Cuculus Americanus 365 
 
 canosus 356 
 
 cinerosus 365 
 
 glandarius 364 
 
 Cypselus alpinus '418 
 
 apus 407 
 
 melba 418 
 
 Emberiza citrinella 243 
 
 miliaria 241 
 
 nivalis 237 
 
 Sclioeniclus 245 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 Page 
 
 Erythaca rubecula 158 
 
 Falco seruginosus 78 
 
 aesalon 51 
 
 apivorus 77 
 
 buteo 72 
 
 candicans 31 
 
 cineraceus 428 
 
 cyaneus 81 
 
 Grcenlandicus 31 
 
 gyrfalco ib. 
 
 haliaetos 29 
 
 Islandicus 31 
 
 lagopus 76 
 
 maculatus 13 
 
 milvus 70 
 
 nisus 62 
 
 nsevia 13 
 
 ossifragus 14 
 
 palumbarius 62 
 
 peregrinus 33 
 
 rufipes 50 
 
 rufus 78 
 
 subbuteo 49 
 
 tinnunculus 55 
 
 vespertinus 50 
 
 Fregilus graculus 298 
 
 Fringilla cannabina #267 
 
 carduelis 261 
 
 chloris 257 
 
 coccothraustes 259 
 
 coelebs 246 
 
 domestica 251 
 
 flavirostris 272 
 
 linaria 270 
 
 linota 267 
 
 montifringilla 249 
 
 montium 272 
 
 spinus 264 
 
 Page 
 
 Garrulus glandarius 339 
 
 Haematornis chrysorhaeus .... 153 
 
 Haliaetos albicilla 14 
 
 Hirundo apus 408 
 
 melba 418 
 
 purpurea 407 
 
 riparia 400 
 
 rustica 374 
 
 urbica 389 
 
 Lanius excubitor 112 
 
 Linaria cannabina 267 
 
 flavirostris 272 
 
 minor 270 
 
 Loxia chloris 257 
 
 coccothraustes 259 
 
 bifasciata 283 
 
 curvirostra 276 
 
 enucleator 275 
 
 pyrrhula 374 
 
 Merops Apiaster 367 
 
 Milvus regaHs 70 
 
 Motacilla alba 214, 218 
 
 atricapilla 183 
 
 boarula 218 
 
 flava 221 
 
 modularis 156 
 
 cenanthe 176 
 
 ■ phcenicurus 169 
 
 regulus 197 
 
 rubecula 158 
 
 rubetra 174 
 
 rubicola 172 
 
 sylvia 186 
 
 tithys 171 
 
 trochilus 191 
 
 troglodytes 346 
 
 Yarrellu 214 
 
 Muscicapa grisola 113 
 
434 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Otus brachyotus 88 
 
 vulgaris 86 
 
 Oriolus galbula 154 
 
 Pandion haliaetos . . 29 
 
 Parus ater 207 
 
 biarmicus 213 
 
 caeruleus 203 
 
 i caudatus 209 
 
 major , 201 
 
 palustris 206 
 
 Passer domesticus 251 
 
 Pastor roseus 295 
 
 Pernis apivorus 77 
 
 Phcenicura ruticilla 169 
 
 tithys 171 
 
 Pica caudata 328 
 
 Picus major 341 
 
 Plectrophan.es nivalis 237 
 
 Pyrrhula vulgaris 274 
 
 enucleator 275 
 
 Kegulus cristatus 197 
 
 Salicaria arundinacea 183 
 
 phragmitis 180 
 
 locustella 179 
 
 Saxicola cenanthe 176 
 
 rubetra 174 
 
 rubicola 172 
 
 Scops Aldrovandi 85 
 
 Strix brachyotus 88 
 
 bubo 85 
 
 flammea 92 
 
 nyctea 95 
 
 otus 86 
 
 scops 85 
 
 stridula 94 
 
 Sturnus cinclus 216 
 
 vulgaris 184 
 
 Page 
 
 Surnia nyctea 95 
 
 Sylvia arundinacea 183 
 
 atricapilla ib. 
 
 cinerea 186 
 
 hippolais 195 
 
 hortensis 185 
 
 locustella ] 79 
 
 cenanthe , 176 
 
 phoenicurus -. . . 169 
 
 phragmitis 180 
 
 regulus 197 
 
 rubecula. 158 
 
 rubetra 174 
 
 rubicola 172 
 
 rufa . . , , 195 
 
 salicaria 180 
 
 sibilatrix 189 
 
 ■ sylvicola ib. 
 
 tithys 171 
 
 trochilus . , . 191 
 
 troglodytes 346 
 
 Syrnium aluco 94 
 
 stridula ib. 
 
 Turdus aurigaster 158 
 
 chrysorhaeus 153 
 
 iliacus 140 
 
 merula 142 
 
 musicus 134 
 
 pilaris 130 
 
 — ■ — roseus 295 
 
 torquatus 149 
 
 viscivorus 121 
 
 Whitei 128 
 
 Troglodytes Europseus 346 
 
 Upupa Epops 353 
 
 Vultur Mvus 84