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NATURAL HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2011 with funding from

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

http://www.archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03thom

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

IRELAND.

VOL. III.

BIRDS,

COMPRISING THE ORDER

NATATORES

Wm. THOMPSON, Esq.,

President of the Natural Ilistoiy and Plillosophical 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 AND BENHAM, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1851.

PRINTED BY EEEVE AND NICHOLS,
HEATTICOCK COURT, STRAND

PREFACE.

The present volume, concluding the Birds of Ireland, contains
descriptions of all the weli-footed or swimming species (A^afa-
fores). These include the swans, geese, ducks; divers, auks,
cormorants, gannets ; terns, gulls, and petrels.

If a want of generalization of the facts contained in these
volumes be objected to, it should be remembered, as stated in
the preface to the first volume, that they are merely put forward
as supplementary to several works on the Birds of England and
Scotland, in all of which generalization will be found, though
not invariably based on sufficient data. The author of the pre-
sent volumes considered it better to content himself with pub-
lishing the facts, as a contribution of materials for that purpose,
rather than attem])t to generalize on insufficient grounds.

The detail he feels must often be wearisome to those not
specially interested iii the subject, or who do more than
refer to one species at a time. It M'as never imagined by tlie
author that the work would be read continuously by any indi-
vidual ; it was drawn up simply as one of reference, and hence
pains were not taken to render the style more flowing, or to
free it fn^m tlic constant impedinuijits Jo an even course of

vi PREFACE.

perusal which, almost at every step, beset the reader's path, in
the form of dates, localities, &c.

The author very much regrets that the list of Irish names of
native birds is not yet ready (as he had hoped it would have
been) ; the gentleman who has the catalogue in progress being
unable to complete it in time.

This volume cannot be allowed to go forth without the remark,
that so great has been the mania for collecting birds' eggs during
the last few years — though not in one case out of ten, with
any scientific object in view — that the author has often, in the
course of preparation of the last two volumes, been obhged to
pause and consider whether he should name particular breeding-
haunts of those grallatorial and natatorial birds whose nests being
placed upon the ground, are easily discovered, lest he should be
the innocent cause of their banishment from the locaKty. He
feels well assured that if the rage for egg-collecting continues,
many a species will be driven from its present haunt.

The cruelty of shooting great numbers of marine birds in the
breeding season has been mentioned in connexion with different
species in this work, and it is feared will not be abated, so long as
the proprietors of islets or rocky headlands permit such slaughter
to be committed upon their property. Everywhere around the
coast, and at inland lakes where birds are not specially pro-
tected, their rapid decrease is apparent, in consequence of wanton
persecution. The birds at Lambay Island, off the Dublin
coast, having decreased remarkably of late years, inquiry as to
the cause was made, and the following reason, among others,
communicated :— About the year 1842, an officer laid a wager
that he would shoot 500 birds here in a day, and went to
the island with every requisite for his murderous purpose.

PREFACE. VU

Servants were constantly employed loading his guns and filling
hampers with the slain ; but, long ere the sun had set, liis object
was accomplished and his bet won. Five hundred birds at this
season, be it remembered, may be reckoned equivalent to twice
or thrice as many, according to the species killed, and to the
number of young they would respectively have produced.

Such is iin instance of what, on a smaller scale, is being
commonly enacted.

BIRDS OF IRELAND.

Order NATATORES.

swimming birds.

VOL. III.

BIRDS OF IRELAND.

Order NATATORES.
{Swimming Birds.)

THE GREAT WILD SWAN.

Hooper ; Whistling Swan.

Cy gnus ferns, Ray.

„ mtisicus, Beclist.
Anas cygnus, Linn.

Visits Ireland occasionally, — perhaps regularly, — in

winter.

Op this species, as distinguished with certainty from Cygnus
Bewickii, I have the foUowing notes. In the winter of 1829-30,
a couple, shot in Strangford Lough, two miles from Newtownards,
were brought on sale to Belfast. An old male, shot on the coast
of Wexford in 1830, and a young male, since obtained, Avithin
four miles of Waterford, were purchased by Dr. R, J. Bm-kitt,
of that city, for his collection. Two birds, shot on the Wexford
coast in March 1837, were sent to Dublin, where they came under

B I

ANATID.E.

my notice in the liancls of a taxidermist, who was preserving them
for the museum of the Royal Dublin Society.

In the following year I saw, with the same person — Mr. W. S.
Wall — another bird, wliicli had been obtained, early in March
1838, in the Queen's-county. He at the same time mentioned
that, in the severe weather of the winter of 1837-38, eight wild
swans were seen for two days in the bay, " close to the city of
Dublin,^' In January 1838, a flock of fourteen appeared in
the neighbourhood of Ballynaliinch, county Down ; one of them
which was wounded, lived in Montalto demesne, until the 9th of
July following, when it was killed by a dog. It was sent to a
taxidermist in Belfast to be preserved, and came under my notice
previous to being skinned, when the following description was
drawn up : —

Length 5 feet 2 inches ; bill from point to forehead 4 inches 2 lines, — to rictus
4 inches 3 lines, — from eye to point 5 inches 3 lines. Tarsus 4 inches 9 lines ; mid-
dle toe and nail 6 inches lOi lines. Tail-feathers 20 in number. Colour : — feathers
from lower part of neck to vent, including those under the wings, tipped with rust-
colour ; remainder of under surface (from throat to neck, and from vent to end of
tail) white, with occasional faint indications of rust-colom*. Feathers on sides and toji of
head, nape, and neck for some distance below the nape tipped with rust-colour, which
is very intense on the forehead ; remainder of upper siu'face white. Legs and feet
greyish-black ; upper mandible at base gamboge-yeUow, which colom- advances on
its sides rather before the nostrils, remainder black ; lower mandible blackish at sides
and tip, yellowish horn-colour along centre, — short feathers covering the tibia tipped
with rust colour.

A letter from John Vandeleur Stewart, Esq., dated Rockhill,
Letterkenny, September 21, 1840, informed me that he had
procured there, in winter, about two years before that time, a
specimen of Cygimsferus. A description of the bird was kindly
forwarded, fully proving, from anatomical as well as external
characters, that it was the species named. This individual
was most probably obtained in the great Anatida winter of
1837-38, when the birds of this family were remarkably plentiful
on the coasts of Great Britain and temperate continental Europe.
It is singular that although many more specimens of C^g. Bewickii
than of C. ferns killed in Ireland have come under my own obser-
vation and that of my correspondents, I do not possess a single

THE GREAT WILD SWAN. O

note of one being met with during that winter. I shall, therefore,
introduce, under C. ferns, two notes of wild swans — of which
the species is not kno^^^l — having been seen that season.

On the 26th of January, 1838, and for some days previously,
four or five of these birds frequented Conswater, Belfast Bay ; and
several shots were fired at them, but without effect. Mr. Gage,
jun., of the island of Eathlin, off the northern coast of Antrim,
considered that for twenty years, wild swans had not been so
numerous there as in the winter of 1837-38. The following note,
which appeared in the Northern Whig of Dec. 10, 1842, bears
upon that season : — " For a fortnight past Lough Swilly has
been visited by several flocks of wild swans. It is four years
since these beautiful birds were seen in these waters ; and this
year they have appeared more numerously than they are recol-
lected to have done on any former occasion."

In January 1841, Mr. G. C. Hyndraan saw, in Coleraine, a
swan of this species, which was killed with two others and twenty-
two wigeou, at the same shot from a swivel-gun on Lough
Foyle about the beginning of that month.

In the severe winter of 1849-50, many rare birds were ob-
tained in Ireland ; and during that season, as in the one of 1837-
38, the only wild swans that came under the notice of my orni-
thological friends and myself were the C. ferns. On the 13th of
February, 1850, two of these birds were killed somewhere inland
(it was said in the county Longford), and sent to Dublin. One
of them (reported as being probably in its second year's plumage)
was procured for the University Museum, and the other (also
immature) by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver. The tail-feathers in
each are twenty in number.* f About the same time, a fine
adult female of this species was sent for preservation to Belfast,
by Henry S. B. Bruce, Esq., of Ballyscullion House, who, on
learning that the specimen would be desirable for the collection
in the Belfast Museum, liberally presented it. That gentleman

* Mr. R. Ball.

t A young wild swan, but of which species could not be learned, \^as shot on a
poud near Dingle, county Kerry, this season.

6 anatidjE.

informed me that this swan was shot by his gamekeeper in the
heather on the borders of Lough Beg at day-break, on the
1 4th of February. Hearing on the previous day that a swan was
on the lake, Mr. Bruce went in pursuit, and got two or three
shots at it with a rifle ; but being in a boat, and a stiff breeze
blowing at the time, he could not strike the bird with a ball,
though he did so more than once with shot, at too great a dis-
tance, however, to do much injury. Night coming on, the chase
was given up, and on the following morning the keeper was sent
to where the bird was last seen, when, managing to approach
within fifty yards of his victim, he shot it. This swan had been
about tliree weeks on the lake by itself, where, during the winter
at an earlier period, a single bird was seen by my informant, as
well as flocks of five, six, and fourteen, at dift'erent times.
Lough Beg is contiguous to Lough Neagli, with which it is con-
nected by the river Bann.

I made the following notes on this swan previous to its being skinned. Weight

17i lbs.

ft. in. liu.

Length from point of bill to end of tail . . . . . .489

of wing from carpus to end of longest quill . . . . 1 11 'J

bill from first feathers on forehead to point ... 43

rictus to point . . . . . . . 3 11

eye to point ....... 4 11

tarsus ........... 49

middle toe and nail ....... 6 U

'['he black colour of the upper mandible extends fi'om the point") . 3 2

Leaving of yellow thence to forehead .... J . 11

The black extends, in an angular direction, from its termination on

the ridge of the biU down through the middle of the nostrils, until

it strikes the base of the upper mandible at the distance from its

point of .......... 1 y

Tail-feathers 20 in number.

This bird is wholly of a white colour, excepting a very few rust-coloured feathers

close to the base of the upper mandible. This is of a deep lemon-yellow towards

the base, and shining black towards the point. The under mandible is black on the

outer horny part, lemon-yellow down the central or fleshy portion. Legs and toes

with webs of both upper and under siufaces black ; nails blackish ; iridcs blackish ;

— the precise shade coidd not be ascertained, owing to the bird having been two or

thi-ee days dead. On dissection it proved to be a female ; the stomach was quite

empty.

Wild Swans, Ci/gnus ?

The following notes relate to these birds as observed without
reference to species. In " A Brife description of Ireland made
in this yeere, 1589, by Robert Payne/^ we are told that "There
be great store of wild swannes, -^ ■»«• -J^- ^ -k- -x- njuch
more plentiful than in England." Harris, in his History of the
county of Down published in 1744, says, of Cygmis ferus, —
'' Great numbers of them breed in the islands of Strangford lake"
(p. 234) ; and in another part of the volume, when enumerating
such of the islands as are known to him by name, and reckoning
fifty-four, remarks : — " Four of these islands are called Swan
Islands, from the number of swans that frequent them" (p, 154),
Smith, in his 'History of Cork^ (vol. ii. p. 351), states that
" wild swans are very common in the north of Ireland, but were
only observed in the south parts of the kingdom in the great frost
of 1739 ;" — what is said of the north maybe copied from Harris,
as Smithes work is dated 1749.

In the month of October 1824, a Hock of about fifty wild swans
appeared in Belfast Bay. Captain Cortland G. Macgregor Skinner,
when quartered with Iiis regiment at Athlone, about the year
1830, saw seven of these birds (which he describes as having been
nearly as large as tame swans) that were killed on Lough Ree by
the discharge of a double-barrelled gun. In 1839 I learned that
for a number of years past a flock of eleven came to Portlough,
near Bogay, county of Donegal, early in winter, and remained
during the season.* The late Mr. John Nimmo, of Round -
stone, county Galway, had often observed wild swans passing
over that neighbourhood on wing; and about the year 1838, he
saw six or seven on Maam river, at the head of Lough Corrib,
to which place he was assured the species came regularly
every winter until the preceding few years, when, owing to the
country having become more frequented, they had been less
commonly there. Wild swans appear occasionally in flocks about

* -Mr. Geo. Bowcu.

N ANATID^.

Baiiiiagher aud the Upper ISiiaimon ; ^ they have been fre-
quently shot near Cashel, and have appeared in severe winters on
the Bog of Allen and in Bantry Bay.f

Mr. G. Jackson^ gamekeeper to the Earl of Bantry, at Glen-
gariff, Bantry Bay, wrote to me thence, in 1849, in reference to
Cij(jimsferu8 and C. Bewickii. His description of size, markings
of the bill, &c., shows that both species were obtained by him.
He often saw grey immature birds. His statement is as follows : —

" I never saw any Wild Swans in this part of the country ;
but in aU the counties of Connaught they are plentiful in the
winter season, generally arriving about the begimiing of December
and leaving at the latter end of February. They appear in flocks
of from two to a dozen in number. — I do not recollect ever hav-
ing seen more than twelve together. On January the 28th, 1836,
I shot five out of a flock of seven with a rifle and ball at five con-
secutive shots, on a large sheet of water, the overflowing of the
river, at a place called Bridgogue, between Frenchpark and Boyle.
I was concealed behind a rick of turf on the fii'st being shot ; the
others did not rise, but swam round him with outstretched
necks, as if in amazement, which the survivors, gradually
diminishing in number, continued to do, although shot after
shot was fired at them and one killed at each discharge.
They never attempted to take flight until a dog belonging to a
countryman ran and took the water, when the two remaining
birds rose on wing and fled. I never killed more than one at a
shot, but have on different occasions, when waiting for duck, &c.,
at flight-time, procured two out of a flock with the double gun,
right and left. When flying with the wind their velocity is
astonishing. I used to pay as much attention to getting them as
my time would allow, as their down was beautiful, and the
females of my family made pelerines, boas, &c., of it, and the
black or darker feathers of the wild goose interspersed fancifully
ill rings, spots, &c., alternately. These sold at a very high price,
and were well worth their attention. The dressmakers, even of

* Kev. T. Knox. f ^li'' K- Davis, jiin.

THE WILD SWAN, 9

Dublin, were completely at a loss to know where the black down
and such beautiful white down could be obtained."

A flock of twenty-seven wild swans was seen some years ago on
Lougli Conn, county Mayo, by Mr. B. Ball, who could not pre-
vail on any of the fowlers of the district to shoot one, on account
of a local superstition. A story is told there, and currently be-
lieved among the peasantry, of something direful that happened
to a man who had shot a wild swan.

We might expect these birds to be plentiful amid the wilds of
Connaught ; but on some of the small inland lakes of tlie north-
east of the island also — particularly in Down — they are frequently
observed, and they remain on them for some time dm-ing tlie
winter of several successive years. They frequent Lough Orau
in that county, distant about four miles from Newry, where, in
1844, they made their first appearance on the 26th of January."^
(3ne which was wounded remained during two or three summers
on tlie lake, but eventually recovered so as to join its companions
on their northern flight. The words of ' Alastor ' might have
been applied to this poor bird, which,

" With strong wings
Scaling tlie upward sky, bent its bright course
High over the immeasurable main.
His eyes pursued its flight ! — ' Thou hast a home
Beautiful bii'd — thou voyagest to thine home.
Where thy sweet mate will twine her downy neck
W'ith thine, and welcome thy return with eyes
Bright in the lustre of their own fond joy !' " — Shelley.
Lough Achery in Down — a narrow river-like lake about a mile
in length — is often visited by these swans. Four of a grey colour
frequented it for a considerable part of the winter of 1844-45, and
until spring. Tliey were several times fired at from the shore,
but none were killed. When shot at, they merely swam farther
out, and did not leave the lake. They were not pursued in boats.
Li the winter of 1847-48 again, wild swans w^ere there. On
Lough Clay, near Killileagh, Down, a flock of six alighted in the
first week of February 1848, and one of them was killed.

* Rev. Geo. Ilobinson.

10 ANATID,«.

On the 30th of January, IS^^S, during which much snow i'ell,
a flock of twelve wild swans appeared on Brackenhill mill-pond,
near Dromedaragh, county Antrim, and remained there for a few
days, regardless of the presence of men occupied in cutting drains
around the pond. They were described as keeping " a strange
hooping or whirring noise." Six of these birds were seen here
again on the 16th of February. Early in this month a flock of
foui-teen or fifteen appeared on Lough Neagh, opposite Mr.
Fforde's, at Rockland. Two small flocks, perhaps the former one
divided, remained there for several days. On a large pond at
Dromedaragh, a flock of about thirty ahghted and remained dur-
ing a day in November 1848 ; — their call was compared to that
of " a young child crying." Remarks on the call are noticed, as,
if well described, they should indicate whether the bird were C.
ferns or C. Beivickii.

In the neighbouring marine loughs of Larne, Belfast, and
Strangford, the following observations were made during the last
three winters. In 1847, five wild swans were seen about Cons-
water, Belfast Bay, during a few days in the last week of January,
where they associated with a pair of tame swans. On the 20th
of February, a flock of twenty appeared flying above the bay in a
southerly direction. Their call, on being first heard, was believed
to be distant music ; — as they approached it was remarked to
consist of two different notes. In 1848, five wild swans appeared,
on the 3rd of February,^ coming from the south over Strangford
Lough, on wliich they alighted beside some Brent geese ; on tak-
ing flight again they flew northward. On the 8th of that mouth
four were seen flying at the same place in company with five
wild geese, with which they kept on wing for several miles from
the time they were first perceived until they disappeared from
view. They were observed for that distance owing to their flying
somewhat circuitously. Wild swans, in flocks of from ten to fifty
(not less than a hundred are said to have been once seen), visit
Strangford Lough ahnost every year at the end of January or

* Numljcrs of wild swaus were lepoiied to have been secu about Ihis time on the
sea at Belniullet, eounty of Mayo.

THE WILD SWAN. 11

beginning of February. On their arrival, persecution awaits
them, so that it is not known how long they would remain
if unmolested. About three weeks is the longest time that a
flock has been observed. On the 13th or 14tliof February, 1848,
twenty-two birds were seen near Kirkcubbin, by my informant,
some of wliich were grey or young birds ; ten wliich had come
under his notice there in a preceding year were all white : both
of these flocks were driven away on the day of their arrival. They
always alight near the shore, but have not been observed on the
sea-banks either at high or low water. Odd birds have frequently
been shot when separated from the flock.^ In 1849, four \\ild
swans (two wliite and two grey) were seen, on the 28th and 29th
of January, far up Larne Lough, above Magheramorne. The
weather had been mild before their appearance, and was so at
the time, and afterwards.

In reference to the last-named winter (1848-49) it may be
mentioned, that a gentleman staying in the county of Dublin,
near Bray, at the end of November, heard, on a frosty clear moon-
light night, the loud hooping cry of swans, and saw two flocks
consisting altogether of seventeen birds flying very rapidly, the
one closely after the other. They called so long as within hear-
ing.t Another gentleman, while waiting, on the 1 1th of January,
1849, at a point near Coolmore, on the borders of Cork harbour,
to get a shot at some wigeon, had his attention drawn to a flock
of nine wild swans by their loud calls. These were Hke a repe-
tition of the sounds /loo, /wo, and were continued incessantly as in
the former instance. This cry resembles " hoop" so nearly, that
we feel inclined to consider the birds as hoopers ; but the note of
Cygims Bewickii is not very dissimilar, and may be compared to
the sounds hong-aw-aw, with occasionally one or both of the last
syllables omitted.

The Cyynus ferus, as I learned at Islay, Scotland, in January
1849, comes every winter to that island. Not more than seven
have been observed in a flock by the gamekeeper at Ardimersy ; out

* Mr. Fiuncib Kaukiu, kirkcubbin t Mr. Robert Tii_vlor (Belfast).

1 2 ANATID^.

of wliicli number he killed live iu November 18i8. He has seen
them but of one size, similar to a living hooper, which he pointed
out to me on a pond at Islay House. On Loch-in-daal, a flock
of fifteen wild swans appeared early in the winter of 1848-49.

Very interesting descriptions of the habits of wild swans, as
observed in Scotland, are given in St. John's ' Wild Sports of
the Highlands' (chap, xxiv.), and his 'Tour in Sutherlandsliire.'
A most eloquent passage on these birds will be found in the
' Recreations of Christopher North' (vol. i. p. 73).

The distinctive characters of the wild (C. ferns) and tame
swan [C. olor) are correctly pointed out by Harris, in connection
with the extracts given from his work at p. 7. Among the
fifty-four islands of Strangford Lough named by him, there
are Big Swan Island of twenty, and Little Swan Island of five,
acres ; a second one bearing the latter name ; and a fourth called
simply Swan Island, each of which is one acre in extent.
The map attached to the work is on so small a scale that these
islands are not laid down in it ; and witliin the present century
they seem to have been almost forgotten, or to have been called
by other names. In Williamson's large map of Down, published
in 1810, there are no Swan islands, nor do any appear in the
Ordnance index map of the county; but a Swan island is inserted
in one of the Ordnance baronial maps, on a very large scale, as
situated near the town of Strangford. There can be little doubt that
the islands originally received their names from being frequented by
these birds, which, in all probability, also bred there at one period.
Long subsequent to the date of Harris's volume — towards the end of
the last century — Low, in his ' Fauna Orcadensis,' informs us that
" a few pairs build in the holms of the loch of Stenues," in Orkney.*
The data, which will be found in the present volume under C.ferus
and C. Bewickii, will probably tend to the conclusion that in the
middle of the 19th century, as well as in 1589 (according to the
extract given at p. 7), wild swans are ''much more plentiful than

* Noticed in preface to vol. i. p. xvii.

Bewick's swan. 13

in England." This might, however, naturally be expected, from
the comparative scarcity of lakes throughout the latter country.

Many of the other islands of Strangford Lough were, in Harris's
work, called after their productions, as certain birds, fishes,
plants, &c., nearly all of wliich are at present to be found upon
them at some season of the year. A Goose island, indeed, ap-
pears, but, like those deriving their name fi'om the Swan, it has
vanished from the later maps. Doubtless the island was named
from the circumstance either of the bird breeding there or fre-
quenting it ; but, as in the other case, when the bird ceased to do
so, the locality lost its distinctive appellation. In winter, wild
swans (as already mentioned) and wild geese still occasionally
visit Strangford Lough. There is a Swan island also in Larne
Lough, county Antrim.

BEWICK'S SWAN.

* Cygmis Bewickii, Yarr.

„ Islandicus, Brelim.

Is probably a regular winter visitant ;

But cannot at present be announced with certainty as more than
an occasional one, to the coast and inland waters.

I published the following matter on this species, to the note
of March the 17th, 1836, inclusive, in the first volume of the
'Magazine of Zoology and Botany,' previous to which time I
had recorded its occurrence in Ireland : —

" In the winter of 1829-30, a specimen of Bewick's swan, shot
on Lough Neagh, was brought to Belfast market. It was pur-
chased for the Natural History Society of that town, and set up
for their museum — the sternum, trachea, &c. being carefully pre-
served. In February 1830, a flock containing seven of these
swans alighted in a flooded meadow near Belfast, where tliey were
shot at, and two of them so disabled by the one discharge, as to
be, after some difficulty, secured. They were purchased by my
friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq. ; and on their wounds being found so

1 l ANATID^,.

trivial, as merely to incapacitate tliem from flight, were placed in
his aquatic menagerie, where, in company with many other species
of wild fowl, chiefly Anatidce, they have ever since remained. On
March 13, 1830, another specimen of this swan appeared in our
market, and was purchased by Richard Langtry, Esq., who has it
preserved in his collection.^

" On a comparison of the first-mentioned individual with the
description of Ci/gnus Bewickii by Mr. Yarrell,t Mr. Selby,t and
Sir William Jardine,§ I found the internal structure to agree;
but in the external characters there was one important difference,
the number of tail-feathers being twenty instead of eighteen, as
specified by these distinguished ornithologists. Tliis discrepancy
induced me, in February last (1836), to examine Mr. Sinclaire's
birds, which I did, with the assistance of that gentleman. These
individuals difi^ered from the descriptions above referred to : — In
the number of tail-feathers, which in both birds amounted to
twenty; II and in their irides, being blackish instead of orange-
yellow ; a narrow ring, however, of yellow extends round them.*
The feathers on the forehead and region of the eyes, though of a
rust-colour when the birds were captured, are now wliite, which
colour prevails over the entire plumage. The two preserved
specimens also have this rust-colour above the head, but do not,
like the immature birds described by Mr. Yarrell, exhibit the
least appearance of it on ' the under sm-face of the belly,' this
part of the plumage being white ; hence we may conclude that
the specimens under consideration were older than those so de-
scribed by that gentleman, and that the head of the C. Bewickii
retains the reddish plumage for a longer period than the under
parts. Mr. Yarrell has correctly remarked that the plumage of
this species is 'ultimately pure- white;' but Sir Wm. Jardine

* The 2ud and 3rd quills in this specimen nre half an inch longer than the 1st
and 4th, which are of equal length.

t ' Linnfean Transactions,' vol. xvi. p. 445 et seq.

+ ' Illustrations of British Ornithology,' temporary letter-press, p. 119.

§ Jardine and Selby's ' Illustrations of Ornithology,' part vi.

II In the ' Fauna Bor. Amer.' (part ii. p. 465), a specimen killed at Igloolik is
described as having eighteen tail-feathers, and the irides of an orange-colour.

Bewick's swan. 15

and Mr. Selby have assumed that the ferruginous markings on
the head are permanent, as they thus describe them in the dia-
gnostic characters of tlie bird :— ' fronte genisque ferrugineo macu-
latis.' In one of the living individuals there is not even, up to
.the present time, the slightest appearance of a tubercle or knob
at the base of the upper mandible. This swan seems to be a
female ; her neck, whether on land or water, is always borne in
such a manner as to appear much shorter than that of her
companion ; the yellow of her bill is of a pale lemon-colour,
whilst that of the other bird is orange : there are also such other
differences observable as indicate the sexes of swans and geese in
a living state.^ In conclusion, I shall only remark that these
swans were similar in length and breadth, each being 3 feet
10 inches from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail,
and 6 feet 4 inches 'across the wings : that the tubercle on the
bill of the assumed male has not, during four years, increased in
size ; and that the ridge of the upper mandible in the assumed
female is black from base to point, a small patch of pale yellow,
irregular in outline, appearing on the sides only of that mandible
about 3 lines from the base ; the yellow colour is indeed differently
disposed on the bills of all the four specimens.

"Every spring and autumn since Mr. Sinclaire had these swans,
they have regularly, about the months of March and September,
become very restless, and for the period of at least three weeks
liave wandered from the enclosure, within which they are con-
tented to remain all the rest of the year. It was noted, on April
the 8th, 1833, that they have been at their migratory turns for
some weeks. They walk from the pond in a north-east direction,
until stopped by a hedge about 250 yards distant, then wheel
about and fly as well as they are able, with pinioned wings, back
to the water. Tliey continue this practice during the day, and at
night they and the bernacle are heard flapping along the pond.
In disposition they are timid and extremely gentle, and never

* Notwitlistaiuliug appearances, this male-like bird, which was killed by a dog-
about the 1st October, 1837, proved on dissection to be u female. The other bird
met with its death from the same cause two years afterwards. It did not come under
my examination.

16 ANATID.'E.

attempt to molest any of the wild fowl confined in the same pond
with them, though all of these are their inferiors in strength and
size. Their call, chiefly uttered at the migratory periods, is a low
deep-toned whistle once repeated. On the water, the carriage of
the Cj/gnus Bewickii is intermediate in its character, between that
of the mute swan and common goose. Their necks are not thrown
boldly back, nor their wings raised above the body as in the
Cygnus olor ; but if they do not exhibit the grace and majesty
of this species on the liquid element, they appear to much more
advantage on land, where by choice the greater portion of their
time is spent.

" The Museum of the Royal Dublin Society contains a specimen
of Bewick's swan, which was shot, in November 1830, in the
west of Ireland. It exhibits the rust-colour on the head, in-
dicative of immaturity. In the collection of WiUiam Massey,
Esq., of the Pigeon-house Port, Dublin, I recognized another
bird of tliis species in the immaculate plumage of maturity.
This was, along with a second individual, killed by Mr. Massey,
out of a flock of five, in Dublin Bay, on the 18th December, 1829.

" On a fine sheet of water in the demesne of the Marquis of
Sligo, at Westport, county of Mayo, in June 1834, I observed a
swan of this species, in matui'e plumage, but could not learn any
particulars of its capture. On January the 4th, 1836, two
' strings' — as they are called when flying in single file — of wild
swans, consisting of twenty-eight birds, were seen at the bog-
meadows, near Belfast ; and on the following day, Mr. Wm.
Sinclaire saw a string of nineteen flying with extreme slowness
from the direction of Belfast Bay to the same place. From their
call being, though somewhat hoarser, like that of the individuals
in his possession, and from their apparent similarity in size, he
was fully satisfied that they were Cygnus BewicFii. In a letter
dated February 5, 1 836, Mr. R. Ball mentioned having recently
obtained three specimens of this swan. Two of them were shot
in the county Fermanagh, the tliird he bought in Dublin market,
where another was exposed for sale at the same time. It couhl
not be ascertained where the two latter were killed.

BEWICK S SAVAN. 17

" March 17, 1836. I examined a Ci/gnus Bewickii which was
shot at Lough Beg, adjoining Lough Neagh, on the 12th instant
Its length is 3 feet 9 in. ; tail-feathers 20 f knob on bill very
small ; feathers on forehead deep rust-colour ; on sides of head
tinged with pale rust-colour at their extremities ; tips of feathers
on breast and entire under surface of belly of a rust colour, so
extremely pale as to have the appearance merely of being soiled ;
bill on the ridge, as far as nostrils, pale orange : this colour advanc-
ing a little farther on the sides, thence to tip black. On dissec-
tion it was found to be a female. Its stomach was fflled with minute
seeds and gravel. As I have heard of flocks of wild swans being
frequently seen on Lough Neagh during the last two months, there
IS little doubt that they have been there since first observed in
January, and that they will most probably remain until the period
of their vernal migi-ation. The five remaining birds of the flock,
out of which Mr. Sinclaire's specimens were obtained in 1830^
went off in the direction of Lough Neagh ; and a similar number'
presumed to be the same individuals, were a few days afterwards
seen in the flooded meadows, where they had been fired at. This
is mentioned as indicative of their continuance in the same part
of the country.

"Although the Ci/gms Beivickii is considered to visit England
less commonly than the C^gnus ferns, it is certainly of more fre-
quent occurrence in Ireland."'

The following matter has not hitherto been published :— In
the sprmg of 1836, 1 saw two of tliese swans at Mr. W. S. Wall's
(bird-preserver), DubKn, both of which were shot in the King's
county. He received them in a fresh state on the Uth February
and 3rd March, of that year.

About tlie month of January 1837, one was purchased in Dub-
Im market.t lu the middle of that month, a specimen, sent
fi'om Colerame to Belfast to be preserved, came under my notice.

* Since attention was , ■ailed in lliis paper to the difference in tl-.e nnnibcr of tail
feahersrt has been admitted by ornithologists that the nnmber at first as i^ed
to the C. Bewicku is not of specific value. 'issigneci

t Mr. H. H. Doiubraiu.

VOL. ni. p

18 atstatidtE.

Its jjlumage was pure white everywhere except on the top of tlie head, where some
faintly rust-coloured tips to the feathers appeared. Its total length (stuffed, and
hence uncertain) was 3 feet 11^ inches ; wing from carpus 20 inches ; bill above,
from point to forehead, 3f inches ; bill to eye 4^ inches ; yellow colour on bill ex-
tends fi-om the forehead to \vithin half an inch of nostrils ; tarsus 4i inches ; middle
toe and nail 4f inches.

A^Hien in Shanes Castle demesne with my ornithological friends,
Wm. and Richard K. Sinclaire, Esqrs., on the 10th of February,
1837, three of these swans appeared on Lough Neagh, not very
far from the shore, where they kept swimming so long as we
could give attention to them; — for half an hour. Their size,
carriage, &c., satisfied us that they were C. Beivichi, as in these
respects they exactly corresponded with the two individuals in my
friends' aquatic menagerie at the Falls : the yellow marking of
their bills was quite apparent when they were viewed with the aid
of a pocket telescope. They did not seem intent on any object,
but kept moving over the water very leisurely, never stooping
their necks for food ; yet the large space traversed by them in this
listless manner surprised me. They appeared of a pure white
colour, from which circumstance, they, as wild creatures, looked
strange and beautiful as the sun shone brightly on them.

On the 19th of January, 1839, I purchased a swan of this
species, which was shot on that morning by a person awaiting the
fl}dng of wigeon, about daybreak, near Comber, and a mile dis-
tant from Strangford Lough. It was accompanied by two others ;
the shooter described the three as coming "whistHng" over him.

Its total length was 3 feet 9i inches ; bill, from forehead to point, 3 inches 6
lines, and from ricius to point 3 inches 4 lines; wing, from carpus to end of longest
quill 19 inches 9 lines (2nd quiU longest, 3rd longer than 1st, which exceeds the 4th
in length) ; tnrsus 3 inches 9 lines ; middle toe and nail 5 inches. The forehead is
rust-coloured ; the cheek slightly so ; the under surface faintly tinged with the same
hue, so as to appear like soiled white; 19 tail-feathers. Weight 11 lbs. It was
ascertained to be a male on dissection ; the stomach, in addition to sand and minute
pebbles, contained a number of seeds.

Early in February 1839, a Bewick's swan was shot near Cole-
raiue, and came under my inspection at a bii'd-preserver's in
BeKast. It was in full white plumage, and the first adult one
killed in Ireland, that I had seen. This bird was very large ;
the wing, from carpus to end of longest quill, was 22^ inches ;

Bewick's swan. 19

bill^ from forehead to pointy 3 inches 5 lines ; from eye to point
■i inches 5 lines ; rictus to point 8^ inches ; tarsus 3j inches,
and in some parts of a brown, in others of a black colour ; middle
toe and nail 5x inches. A gentleman resident at Portumna,
situated near the river Shannon, and Lough Derg, one of its ex-
pansions, told me, in 1889, that wild swans are often there in
winter : he had observed them in the course of three successive
seasons. On showing liim two stuffed specimens of C. BewicHi,
he stated with certainty, that those which had been killed were not
of larger size, but that they differed in having a greyish tinge over
their plumage ; — consequently they were young birds. Another
gentleman, once resident at Portumna, supplied me with informa-
tion to the same effect, and mentioned his having seen three grey
wild swans which were shot there.

In the mouth of October 1840, I saw, at Plorence Court,
county of Fermanagh, a living Bewick's swan, that had been there
for about ten years, and which was wounded in the neighbourhood.
This bird was at first placed with a pair of tame swans, but they
would not keep company with it. That the stranger might have the
advantage of some society, it was considerately ])laced with a flock
of common geese, which welcomed it as a friend, and thenceforth
they became associated together ; — in the midst of a flock of these
birds, this swan first attracted my attention."^ The Hon. J. L.
Cole informed me at that time, that previous to the four pre-
ceding winters, he had annually seen small flocks of wild swans
on Lough Macnean — a fine and extensive lake within tlu'ee miles of
Florence Court, — and occasionally observed, at the same view,
two flocks, each consisting of six or seven individuals. Arthur
Young remarks, in reference to Lough Erne, in his ' Tour in
Ireland,' under date of August 17, 1776: — "Large flights of
swans sometimes appear here in winter."

A Bewick's swan, wounded on the Shannon, in the middle of
February 1811, was procured there by Colonel Jones, of the
Board of Works, and presented by him to the Royal Zoological
Society of Ireland. It was received at their garden on the 18th

* About two years afterwards, it met with an aeci(leut:il dealli.

c 2

20 ANATID^-.

of that montli.''^ On the 19th of February hi the same year, a fresh
specimen of C. Bewlckii was kindly sent to me from Dublin by
the Earl of Enniskillen. Two of these sw^ans, as mentioned by
Dr. Burkitt, of Waterford, in November 1841, are in his collec-
tion— a young bird shot at Kilbarrey Bog, outside the liberties of
Waterford, — and an old one from Clones, county of Monaghan :
the years in which they were killed are not stated. On the 1st
of February, 1844, a Ci/gnus BewicJcii was obtained in Wexford
Harbour ; three or four more accompanied it.f

On the 5th February, 1845, two of these swans, which had
been kiUcd on the Shannon, were on sale in Dublin market. J
Within the preceding few weeks, the C. Bewickii had been met
with in the counties of Wexford and Roscommon. § On February
the 17th, 1845, five wild swans — three old and two young (the
latter, grey) — were seen, for about six hours, by H. Bell, wild-
fowl shooter, on Ballymacarret Bank, Belfast Bay, within half a
mile of the town. He passed in his boat, wdth a mounted swivel-
gun, at less than a hundred yards^ distance, without their regard-
ing his proximity, or leaving off their feeding for a moment. He
could easily have got a shot at them, but feared they might be
tame swans. They were eventually frightened away by his firing
at wigeon close by, when they rose to a great height in the air,
to an elevation that he imagined would carry them over the range
of mountains between this locality and Lough Neagh, in the
direction of which they proceeded. This fowler, as well as others,
some years ago saw a flock of about eighty wild swans in Belfast
Bay, wdiere they remained some days, and were fired at, but with-
out effect. On the 19th February, 1845, the Marquis of Down-
sliire mentioned to me that four wild swans had, for the last three
weeks, frequented one of the artificial lakes in Hillsborough Park,
his seat in the county of Down.

* December 1849. — This bird is still living here. It was placed on a pond with
a pair of Polish swans {Cyg. immutahiUs) , a male black swan, and several kinds of
geese, with all of which it seems to live quietly and contentedly, though not so fami-
liar with visitors as the others. The black swan coupled with it on two successive
seasons, but there was no produce. Its voice is a single, sweet, metallic note, re-
peated at short intervals. ||

t Mr. Poole. + Mr. R. Ball. § Mr. R. Davis.

THE TAME OR MUTE SWAN. * 21

Beceviher 16, 1849. — Wlieu walking along tlie new Antrim
road, about a mile from Belfast, to-day, wliicli was fine and mild
for the season, with dark and heavy clouds impending about the
mountains, I saw a flock of six wild swans for a considerable
time. At first they came in view above the town reservoir, and
then went in the direction of Devis mountain, beating about aU
the while as slowly as they could fly. The day was of such a
kind that only their back and the upper surface of their wings
showed white when these happened to be turned towards me ;
otherwise they were wholly in shade, and appeared quite dark ;
so much so that, at first sight, they were imagined to be wild
geese. Their snowy plumage, thus occasionally seen aloft in the
air, in strong contrast with the lurid masses of clouds, had a
singular and even grand effect.

Since 1837, when the fact was mentioned that Bewick's swan
is much more common than the hooper in Ireland, I have found
it to continue so (1849). In addition to my own observation on
the subject, Mr. R. Ball considers that four-fifths of the wild
swans brought to Dublin market are C. Bewickii. A similar
proportion, too, occurred in Connaught, to Mr. G. Jackson, game-
keeper, as of about forty or fifty wild swans killed there by
him during several winters, all excepting five or six were of this
species. It is the only swan which has been observed on the
coast of Kerry, where it appears in very severe winters."^

Mr. Blackwall, in his 'Eesearches in Zoology" (p. 171), gives
a most interesting — in part, affecting — account of the attach-
ment of a pair of these birds. t

The Tame or Mute Swan, Cycjnus olor, Giuelin (sp.), is not
kuowii to have occurred iu a wild state in Ireland, though it is believed
to have occasionally wandered to Great Britain, from its native abode
in north-eastern Europe. The date of its introduction to the more
western island is unknown to nie. Smith, in his 'History of Cork'
(1749), remarks that — " The tame swan is frc([iiently met with near
gentlemen's seats on their ponds and reservoirs."

* Mr. 11. Chute, Dccumber ISl'J. f It is copied into Yaiicll's work.

22 ANATIDJi.

Since childhood, this bird has been well known to lue from being-
kept on our own and on friends' ponds ; but I do not feel satisfied that
anything I can say on the subject is worth relating. The period of
the male becoming bold varies of course with the season. A relative
notes him as being so at Wolf-hill, at the end of January in 1832, and
not until the beginning of March the following year, when the entry
appears — " Swan getting bold ; turned on me in the yard.'' The bold-
ness is sometimes continued late in the season, though quite uncalled
for in defence either of mate or progeny. At a very spacious sheet of
water in Belvoir Park, near Belfast, whither, on the 9th October, I
once went to ascertain what species of the smaller bivalve shells it pro-
duced, I was at that late period as savagely attacked by one of these
birds as I could have been in the breeding season. On endeavouring,
at various parts of the lake, to ply the tiny net, my enemy always
boldly met me, though occasionally having to use his wings along the
surface of the water. Eventually, finding that he was determined to
be " sole monarch of all he surveyed," I was obliged to forego my
intended pursuit, rather than incur any risk of injuring the bird in
self-defence.

The boldest swan I ever saw was one kept at Wolf-hill for
many years. When any person appeared within 100 or 150 yards
of his pond in the breeding season, he hurried, half flying, to assail
him, and as boldly attacked horses as men, rushing up and striking
them about the hind legs, to the astonishment of their riders ; fortu-
nately for the swan, they always dashed forward when struck, instead,
as we might expect, of trying the effect of their heels against the
assailant.*

On the subject of nidification, &c., it was noted by a relative at the
same place, in 1833 — " Our tame swans had their nest this spring as usual
beneath the hovel at the side of the dam : the male bird carried the

* The Cjjgnus Betvickli, as ah'eady mentioned in reference to the individuals which
have come under my owTi notice, is gentle at all periods of the year. I have had
no opportunity of observing, for any length of time, the habits of the great wild
s\^an {C. ferns). But one of these birds, which has been kept without the company
either of its own or other species, at Seaview, near Belfast, for the last few years,
was remarked to call for the lirst time in the season, on the 2Gth of February, 1850,
which it coutiuucd to do for some days afterwards, when I was informed of the
circumstauce. It likewise became so far bold as to advance to the banks of the pond
and leave the water, to march conhdently up to a person walking there. This bird
had before, open-billed, pursued chOdren who ventured on the banks of the pond
(which is largej, so that they had to be forbidden to go there.

THE POLISH SWAN. 23

straw and made the nest himself, then sat on it for some days before the
female, as if to induce her to follow his example. After she did begin
to sit, he sometimes relieved her by taking her place. When the nest
was approached he came up and stood beside her. One morning that
I stood by, he placed himself under her wings lest the egg might be
disturbed : the wings of both birds continued trembling all the while
that I remained." In the preceding year my friend remarked : —
" The swan beginning to sit on two eggs on the 2nd May ; the first
appearance of the young on the 13th June ; moulting ' of the old birds
commencing early in July.' "

Late in September, I was once amused at the occupation of a
pair of old swans at the Falls. They were seated in the furrow of a
potato-field, busily engaged delving their bills into the sides of the
ridges where potatoes were exposed to view, bringing them out and
eating them.

It is a common practice for the old female swan to carry her cygnets
on her back on the calmest and stillest ponds, as well as under other
circumstances (see Yarrell, 'Brit. Birds') ; and beautiful do the inno-
cent, lively little creatures appear, with their fine bright eyes, when
thus under the expansive snowy canopy of their parent's wings.
Though not a songster, the swan has, as remarked by Yarrell, " a
soft low voice, which may often be heard in spring, and when moving
about with its young."

Waterton, in the second series of his ' Essays on Natural History,'
gives a very pleasing description of the domestic swan, concluding with
a most graphic narrative of the last illness and death of a favourite
one at Walton Hall.

The Polish Swan, Cygnus immutabilis, Yarr., is not known to
have visited Ireland in a wild state, as it has the eastern shores of Eng-
land. It was first distinguished as a species there in 1838 ; — and
has not yet been obtained in Scotland (Jard., Macg.). In August
1843, a bird-preserver in Dublin showed me a cygnet of a whitish-
grey colour, which puzzled him very much. He stated that it was
the produce of a pair of swans purchased by a gentleman (living in the
neighbourhood of Dublin) a few years previously, in London, and
whose cygnets were always " white," instead of the ordinary grey
colour. It was the young of this bird. I was pleased to hear such
an account of it from one to whom the species was unknown even by

24 anatidte.

uame. The geographical distribution of the Polish swan is yet to be
ascertained, It is, however, known to frequent the Baltic Sea.

The Sw'an, Guinea, or Cape Goose, Anser cygnoides, Linn. ;
A. Guineensis, Briss. We have, at Wolf-hill, found pairs of this
introduced species to breed freely in a domestic state ; whicli the
gander will likewise do with the tame goose. They have generally
inclined to breed early. A note before me mentions a pair of purely
bred birds having a nest with five eggs beneath a laurel in the lawn,
on the 18th March : the female, when seated on the nest, had the
gander's company at her side. This species is truly said, by Bewick,
to be more noisy than the common goose, so that " nothing can stir
in the night or day without their sounding the alarm by their hoarse
cacklings and shrill cries" ('Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 257, edit. 1821).
It is a fine spifited bird, though not, like the Canada goose, to an
annoying extent. The motions of its long neck are very comical,
particularly when playing the bi-avado, and running after a person
with neck outstretched to its whole length, and carried so low as
almost to touch the ground. The superior length of neck compared
with tliat of the common goose, renders this attitude the more
grotesque. On such occasions, both the gander and his flock are
evidently proud of his prowess in driving away persons who are quietly
walking of!" from his vicinity, and are quite regardless of his menaces.

THE CANADA GOOSE.

Cravat Goose.

Anser Canadensis. Gmel. (sp.)
Anas „ „

Has, in a very few instances, been shot on different
parts of the coast ;

And I am disposed to beheve that in some of them the victims
may have been truly wild. It seems to me as likely to visit this
country occasionally as some other American birds which do so,
and wliicli, from not being kept by man in a living state, are known
to be fcra nainr<r, Tlic fact of the Canada goose being semi-
domesticated, and sometimes disposed to wander, is the only

THE CANADA GOOSE. 25

argument against the birds which have been shot on the coast,
having migrated thither.

Notes upon their occurrence are as follow : —

February 1 , 1838. Tour Canada geese appeared, most appro-
priately, on the pond in the Phoenix Park, DubKn, which may be
called the aquatic menagerie of the Eoyal Zoological Garden.
About the end of April the same year, one was shot at the low
hne of coast called the Murrough of Wicklow ; and about the
same time a second was procured, in the vicinity of Rathmines,
not far from Dublin. Both birds are stated to have been very
wary, unlike individuals which had escaped from confinement.

In Jpril, 1839, one was shot in Larne Lough, county of
Antrim : — it is preserved in the Ordnance Museum.

January 27, 1840. I learned, by letter from Dr. C. Farran,
that he received at this date, from Mr. John King, Bremore,
Balbriggan (county Dublin), a Canada goose, which he shot,
after sedulously watching the bird for two or three days. He at
last got within reach of it, on a small pool of fresh water, near
the shore, during a gale from the south-east. The bird was in
rather poor condition, and weighed S^ lbs.

June 12, 1844. A pair were shot at Dundrum, on the coast
of Down. The male bird weighed 13, the female lO-i, lbs. A
fowler saw a pair, and perhaps the same, in Belfast bay, a few-
days before the birds were killed at Dundrum. The specimens
were preserved for the Marquis of Downshire, and came under
my inspection when in the hands of the taxidermist : the wings
of both were quite perfect.

According to the Annual Eeport of the Dubhn Natural History
Society for 1848, ''Mr. E. P. Williams presented to the Society a
fine specimen of the Canada goose {Anas Canadensis), shot by
Mr. El. Quin, of Firgrove, Innishannon, on the Bandon river,
between that place and Kinsale, in March, 1846. It appeared
in a flock with five others, after a severe snow-storm. Mr. Quin
had observed a flock of the same birds in the preceding winter,
but imagined that they had escaped from some neighbouring
l)reserve."

26 ANATID^.

Of the birds mentioned in the preceding instances, those which
occurred in 1838 are the most likely to liave been truly wild, as
that winter (1837-38) was quite remarkable for the number of
Anatidce — swans, geese, and ducks — which, in the severe portion
of it, visited Great Britain and temperate Europe. The occur-
rence of the species, however, on the continental coasts of Europe,
is not noticed in the works of Temminck, Keyserling and Blasius,
or Schlegel. Much information respecting this goose is brought
forward in Yarrell's 'British Birds' (vol. iii. p. 91); since the
publication of which, Mr. Waterton has, in the second series of
liis 'Essays on Natural History' (p. 107), given a very inter-
esting account of it at Walton Hall. Wilson, commencing his
description with, " This is the common wild goose of the United
States," treats very pleasingly of the species (vol. iii. p. 71?, Jar-
dine's edit.), in which Audubon follows him, devoting seventeen
pages to its habits (vol. iii. p. 1).

The Canada goose, being kept on ponds in the neighbour-
hood of Belfast, has, in a semi-domestic state, been long familiar
to me. It is a spirited, bold species, and remarkably vigilant, more
so even than the common goose. Its loud clanging note is
heard at a great distance ; and when given fortli in the spring,
sans intermission, often proves more deafening than agreeable to
persons near to it. This is the boldest of birds in spring, next
to the tame swan ; and when paired, the gander will attack every
living creature, not excepting man liimseK, that approaches the
neighbourhood of his watery domain. The first bird of the
species known to me was a goose, which, in the absence of a
mate of her own kind, paired with a common gander, and pro-
duced numerous young. Some years afterwards a male of her
own species was procured, with whom she associated ; but though
eggs were laid, they were not prolific, probably in consequence of
her age. This male bird was one of a flock of six or seven, which
visited Ballantrae, on the coast of Ayrshire, where he was cap-
tured, though having the full use of his wings. He was brought
here by a friend on returning from shooting, in the autumn, and

THE CANADA GOOSE. 27

jjlaced iu a yard in town for the night, previous to his intended
removal to the country on the following morning. Not content,
however, with his temporary domicile, he made his escape over
the high wall of the yard into the street. Here, being unable to
give a good account of himself, like many another wanderer of the
night, he was apprehended by "the watch," and borne off, a
second time prisoner — but, in this instance, to the police-office,
where, with other vagrants, he was confined during the night.
How one wishes to have heard Dogberry and Verges descant
upon his case ! In the morning, the owner, after some difficulty,
traced the Canadian's "whereabouts," and, having duly proved
his property in the same, had the prisoner liberated. He was
kept for several years afterwards, and permitted to have the free
use of his wings all the time ; but to these he was most unwilling
to resort, submitting even to be caught rather than do so. If
his owner wished to see a flight, the bird had to be laid hold of,
taken to a distant field, and then set down, when he would at
once rise into the air and return to the pond. He was extremely
bold in spring, and attacked every human being who had the
temerity to come near his " beat." He once beset a poor woman
unexpectedly, and, fl}ang up, alighted between her shoulders,
and flapped both sides of her head so violently with his wings,
that she fell to the ground in the utmost terror, unaware of the
nature of her assailant. I once suffered this bird to strike me
with his wing, that I might have some idea what the blow of a
swan's wing — said to be so severe — might be, but which difectly
I had no desire to feel. The blow pained me very considerably,
and the front of my leg, where struck, did not lose its black and
yellow complexion for about three weeks.*

The male bird of a pair kept on a pond in the Belfast
Botanic Garden was, from his boldness in spring, the terror of
all the youngsters that approached even the vicinity of the water.

These birds, like many other species, can foretell the coming

* The latu Ur. Ferrar stated to a friend, tliat when rcsideut-surgeon in one of the
Dublin hospitals, a luan who had his leg splintered by the blow of a swan's wing,
was brought to him for treatment. Some of the small pieces of bone eame away,
and the sutFerer was permanently lamed.

28 ANATID^.

snow, when the " lords of the creation" do not anticipate it.
This is indicated by their exceeding restlessness, and by flap-
ping with their wings along the surface of the water. Their
doing so in one instance particularly noted (in January, 1837),
together with the tameness of the robins, led me, from having
before observed such indications, to predict the approaching change;
and next morning the ground was covered deeply with snow.

THE GREY LAG GOOSE.

Anser ferns, Gessner.

„ cinereus, Meyer and Wolf.
Anas anser, Linn.

Is of occasional, but rare occurrence in winter.

To the fifth volume of the 'Annals of Natural History' I contributed
the following notice of the species : — " In the collection of R. Ball,
Esq. there is a specimen of this goose purchased by him in Dublin
market early in the winter of 1837, and stated to have been shot
in this country with two others exposed for sale at the same time.
Judging from its small size, the specimen is a female : it displays
the blackish markings disposed irregularly over the lower part of
the breast and the belly, considered by Temminck indicative of
very old individuals of both sexes (Man. d'Orn. TEur. t. 2. p. 819)
and which have generally been unnoticed in the descriptions of the
species. This is the fu'st Irish specimen of the true Wild Goose
or Grey Lag that I have seen, the Bean Goose being in this
country, as in England and Scotland, the common species, and,
with the White-fronted, on sale in our markets every winter."

I have subsequently seen a few other Grey Lag Geese which
were brought from the interior of the country to Dublin market.
One was obtained in the winter of 1847, and three were there in
December, 1848.* On the 23rd of October, 1849, a fresh bird
offered for sale to the University Museum by a dealer in wild
fowl, who knows the species as distinct from the bean and white-

* Mr. K. J. Montgomery.

THE GRAY LAG GOOSE. 29

fronted geese^ was bought for the collection. Happening to be
there myself on the 20th of November and 5th of December,
others were brought, which I purchased. My two birds were said
to have been killed in Westmeath, and the other in the west of
King's County. The three specimens exhibited black transverse
markings from the breast to the vent; an appearance caused by
single blackish feathers appearing irregularly, and exliibiting their
dark tips among the others. One only of them has the nail on
the bill all white ; a second has the upper third, and the other the
lower third, of that hue ; the remainder, in both birds, being-
pale reddish horn- colour. In the plumage at the middle of each
side and at the top of tlie upper mandible in one bird, a speck of
white appears, and is faintly indicated in the other two specimens.
The stomach of the last obtained was filled, according to the
preserver, with tender grass or blades of young wheat. We ate
this bird and found it good in quality; the flesh was very dark-
coloured. A few more of these geese were brought on sale to
Dublin about the middle of Pebruary, 1850.*

Mr. G. Jackson (game-keeper) has met with the grey lag
goose — which he distinguishes accurately from the bean and
white-fronted — in various parts of Counaught. He remarks,
" They never mingle with the others, nor do I recollect ever
seeing more than seven or eight in a flock, and oftener three or
four. They frequent the upland pastures and cultivated lands
more than the other species. They were rather scarce, but a few,
at least, were to be found every winter; From their being larger
and considered a better goose, there was more attention paid to
them by the fowlers. I have shot many of them. In the winter
of 1834 I killed a grey lag goose with a piece of linen cloth
sev^ed round one leg ; it did not appear to be the manufacture of
this country."

The grey lag goose is unknown to ray correspondents in the
south, and has never come under the notice of ornithologists in
the north of Ireland. The central parts of the island as to latitude
would therefore seem to be those visited by it.

* Mr. R. BaU.

3U ANATlDiE.

"Mr. Donovan had, about the year 1811, near the Cove of
Cork, a large flock of wild geese [A. ferus'?) which he allowed to
fly about liis place, where they bred. Tliey came to his whistle
regularly. The young birds were sometimes killed for the table,
and were considered by him much better than tame geese." ^

The only positive notice of wild geese breeding in this island that
I have met with, is that of Rutty, whose words are — " There are
two sorts [of " wild goose, Anser ferns "], 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 Alleu.''^ Harris, in his ' History of the County of Down'
(1744), remarks : — "In a red bog in the Ardes, near Kirkiston
^ ■^ * is also [i. e., in addition to the "land barnacle"]
found the great harrow goose." Smith, in his ' History of
Waterford' (completed in 1745), simply enumerates the "wild
goose, Anser sylvestris," among the birds of the county ; and, in
liis 'History of Cork' (completed in 1749), says : — "The wild
goose {Anser ferus) is common in winter, and frequents the more
uncultivated parts of this county." The " larger kind," named
by Eatty as breeding, implies at least that the white-fronted, from
its being considerably smaller than the bean and grey lag species,
is not meant. At that period, the latter is stated to have bred
plentifully in the fens of England, though of late years they, as
well as the bogs of Ireland, have been deserted by it. Although
Harris says nothing of what he calls the " great harrow goose "
breeding at the locality he names, an octogenarian friend informs
me that a relative often told him of his liaving robbed the nests of
wild geese at Kirkiston fo/o — " red bog " of Harris — near Kirk-
cubbin : the period at which he did so was previous to the year 1775.

Mr. Yarrell observes that " now whole winters pass away
without a single example [of the grey lag goose] appearing in
the London market" (vol. iii. p. 56). Sir Wm. Jardine and
Mr. Macgillivray are silent on the subject of its occurrence at
any period of time or season of the year in Scotland, consequently
it was not met with during the breeding season in Sutherland,

* Mr. R. Ball.

THE GREY LAG GOOSE. 31

when the former gentleman and Mr. Selby visited that county and
ascertained that the bean goose breeds at several of the lakes.
But Mr. St. John, in his Tour in the same county, at a subse-
quent period, assures us that the grey lag goose breeds at Lochs
Maddie, Laighal, Urigil, &c., and arrives a month earlier for that
purpose than the bean goose. He states that, to make sure of the
species, he shot some of the old birds (vol. i. pp. 35, 139, &c.).
The grey lag has generally, until of late years, been considered
the original of the domestic goose, but this is now doubted by
some authors. On comparing wild and domestic birds, I have
been unable to perceive any difference worthy of note, except
the superior size of the latter, and this may, I conceive, be fairly
attributable to domestication. The form of their bills is similar,
and differs from that of the bean and white-fronted species.
There is considerable variety, however, in domestic geese, not only
as to size, but colour of the bill, legs, &c.^

Although numerous instances of the affection of the tame
goose have been recorded — in Daniel's ' Rural Sports,' Stanley's
'Familiar History of Birds,' &c. — one or two more may be added.
In November 1841, a lady of my acquaintance mentioned the
following circumstance which had just been witnessed by herself.
In the summer of 1840, a goose was brought up at the same time
Avith a couple of ducks at a house situated very near the sea, in
the vicinity of Port BaUantrae. The goose and ducks associated
together, and, on the latter being killed for the table, the goose
made known its affliction by going about screecliing most violently
for some days, and visiting every spot that it had been in the habit
of frequenting with them ; — it wholly refused food the first day
after their death.

Mr. G. C. Hyndman has often heard his father mention a
gander which he saw at Belmont, county of Tyrone, that formed
an attachment to an old blind mare, a favourite charger, retired
like her master from the wars. Every morning the mare was
let out of the stable to take a drink, and the gander preceded her

* See note ou the Grey Lag, at the conclusion of the White-fronted Goose, p. 44.

32 ANATTD^.

to the water, turning round from time to time, and cackling so as
to guide lier aright. After this the two proceeded to the hall-
door, where a feed of oats was given to them, the mare and gander
eating together out of the same vessel. The mare was commonly
ridden into the neighbouring post-town for letters, and the first
indication of her return was announced by the gander, who knew
the sound of her feet long before she came in sight. The gan-
der's feet were severely injured by the mare having accidentally
trodden on them.

Towards a wounded comrade that has been lamed by being
cruelly struck with a stone, or otherwise, the reverse of affection
is, however, generally shown by the tame goose. Even after the
sufferer is driven from the flock and severely worried for presuming
to join its stronger brethren, I have remarked one after another
of the main body pursue the unfortunate individual for the pur-
pose of driving it still further from their vicinity.

On the acute hearing of geese much has been written since the
time they saved the Roman Capitol ! but, in another sense, that
of vision, they are perhaps as acute. I have been often struck
with their keenness of sight, as evinced by sudden and loud
cacklings the moment any objects they were unaccustomed to would
come in view, as, for instance, one day at Wolf-hill, when a small
flock of curlews flying very liigh and quite silently over the pond
on which were four geese, these birds, from the first moment of
the cui'lews' appearance, became most vociferous, so as to attract
my attention to the cause.

This note appears in the journal of the late John Templeton,
Esq. — "December 13, 1806. I was greatly entertained with
observing a gander searching for and raising carrots. With
considerable exertion he removed the earth around the root with
liis bill, which, on becoming clotted with earth, he shook until
cleared ; and when he had bared the root sufficiently to get a firm
hold with his bill, he then, sometimes with considerable exer-
tions, pulled it entirely out."

The value of the tame goose, as estimated by Montagu in tlie
Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, is extraordinary.

33

THE BEAN GOOSE.

Anser segetum, Gmel. (sp.)
Anas ,, ,,

Is a regular winter visitant.

This is tke wild goose, and the bird to whose English name Aih<ier
fenis is often affixed, although this term applies to an entirely
different species ; — to the true grej lag.

The bean goose remains during the winter in suitable localities
throughout the island. About Belfast, with its highly culti-
vated neighbourhood, little is known of it, except as a passing
visitant.

On the 12th of March, 1846, a flock of ten (their species
ascertained by means of a telescope) was seen by an ornithological
friend on the north-west side of Devis mountain, behind the
town. They were sprung several times, at the height of from
800 to 1,000 feet, and an unsuccessful shot was fired at them ; but
instead of leaving the mountain, they merely alighted again at
an elevated marshy part of it. They were said to have frequented
the place during the winter. At the bog-meadows, within two
miles of Belfast, flocks of beau geese occasionally alight, and
remain for some days ; but persecution soon drives them away.
A couple, shot there from a flock of twelve birds, so late as the
18th of March (1841), were brought to me.

A relative noted (Dec. 2, 1 832) that he saw, through his tele-
scope, a flock of fifteen wild geese feeding in the bog-meadows,
apparently on grass. During an hour that he and a companion
observed them, they all continued feeding but one, which, acting
as sentinel, would look around for a little time, and, if lio cause
for alarm appeared, would begin to feed. Another bird then
played a similar part, so that one of the flock always kept on the
watch.

At the King's Moss, a few miles distant from the town just
named, a flock of six bean geese was met with by snipe-shooters,
on the 4th of Dec, 1849, and one of them killed with snipe-shot

VOL. III. D

34 ANATID^.

from a distance of about twenty yards. This bird had more
white round the base of the bill than I had before seen in the
bean goose. Its stomach was wholly filled with stems and
leaves of the shamrock trefoil.

Wild geese, probably of this species, sometimes appear on
wing near BeKast early in the autumn. On the 20th August,
1836, I observed six, perhaps one family, fly over Wolf-hill,
apparently on migration.

On the 22nd of August, 1849, a fine day, (the weather mild
for some time past,) I saw a flock of thirty wild geese fly low and
in silence over the road near Holywood House entrance. They
were proceeding in a south-east course. Though I observed them
on wing for nearly a mile, I did not hear a call.

Early in the last week of September, 1838, a small flock was
seen over Ballymacarret, flying low, and proceeding in a southerly
direction. On September 15^ 1840, the first wild geese of the
season — a flock of thirty — were noticed ; and on the 30th of that
month about a hundred appeared. On the 12th September, 1841,
five were remarked flying south-westerly, and in the middle of
November two or three flocks were similarly observed. On the
8th of September, 1843, I saw, near Templepatrick, a flock of
twenty-five wild geese, flying in a south-east course. The day
was very fine and warm, such as the weather had been for
the preceding ten days. In 1845, a flock of sixteen birds was
observed, on the 12th of September, flying over Belfast Bay; and
during the follomng six weeks great numbers appeared ; many
flocks occasionally on one day. Some of them alighted, though
very seldom, to rest on Ballymacarret bank at low water, but they
never remained so long as an hour. Throughout every month
until January inclusive, and when there is no severe weather here,
wild geese are occasionally seen passing in a southerly direction :
in the last week but one of December, 1837, several flocks, each
of about twenty birds, appeared over the bay, the weather dm-ing
the week being extremely wet. The wedge-shaped form in which
wild geese fly has often been commented on ; but I have gene-
rally seen them fly in " strings," or single lines. Many species

THE BEAN GOOSE. 35

of grallatorial, as well as natatorial birds, occasionally fly in
wedge-shaped flocks, one side of which is, however, usually longer
than the other.

The birds seen early, flying southwards, have been rarely
known to alight in the neighbourhood of Belfast Bay or Strang-
ford Lough, as those coming later occasionally do. This is an
illustration of what has always seemed to me the general law
with regard to birds breeding in high latitudes and moving-
southward for the winter, namely, that those which appear
earliest proceed farthest to the south ; and those wliich arrive
latest, if belonging to species that remain at all, are the indi-
viduals which continue with us during the winter.

Prom November until Marct the bean goose, of all ages, is
occasionally brought to Belfast market.

On the 12th of Februaiy, 1 838, the finest specimen that I had seen came under my in-
spection at a bird-preserver's. Its weight was 8 lbs. 10 oz. The measurements, taken
before it was skinned, were: — Entii-e length, 33 inches; wing, from carjras to end
of quills, 19i in. : tarsus, 3^ in. ; bill, from centre of forehead to point, 2 in.
5 lines ; from rictus to point, 2^ inches. Upper part of nail of the bill white ; a
central stripe, of the same colour, on the nail of the lower mandible ; on part of the
nails of the middle toes a whitish tinge ; nails of outer and inner toes of both feet
white and pale horn-colour ; bill and toe-nails otherwise colom-ed as usual.*
Plumage at base of forehead, for an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in
breadth, white, a little of which colour also appears on each side, from the middle
portion of the upper mandible : tliis white at the base and sides of the biU, according
to Temminck, marks the young birds. Wings pass the tail about half an inch.
Mr. Jenyns observes (p. 223), that when the naQ of the bill is white, &c., it is
extremely difficult to distinguish J. segetum from A. ferus ; but his own good
description, notwithstanding, instantly proved this to be the former species, by the
colour of the bill generally, orange legs, and wings passing the tail. With respect
to the bean geese, of which the bills are figm-ed by Sir Wm. Jardine (Bnt. Birds,
vol. iv. p. 66), aU the hirds which have come under my examination in Belfast and
Dublin agreed, in the form and size of bill, with his No. 2, as in pliunage, four of
the specimens looked to critically, also did, except in the trivial diflerence that the
greater coverts of the wing were greyish-brown of a more uniform tint throughout,
than the other feathers of the upper surface of the wing.

* I have observed that the ordinai-y colour of the nail at the extremity of the
bin, and of the toe-nails, of A. segetum, is bhick, while that of A. albifrons is
white; but these colours arc not always constant to either species. Of this fact
Montagu shows us that he was aware at the time of writing the Appendix to his
Supplemcjit of the Ornithological Dictionary.

D 2

36 ANATID.E.

Wild geese are not seen about Belfast flying northward to-
wards tlicir breeding haunts in spring, as they are southward, in
autumn and winter, toward their quarters for the latter season.
Their line of flight, like that of most other migratory birds appearing
in the north of Ireland, is quite different according as they proceed
north or south.

The bean goose frequents annually, in winter, the bogs about
Dromedaragh and Clough, county of Antrim, from ten to twenty
birds usually keeping together in flocks. Their appearing much
on wing is considered to foretell an approaching storm long before
it is denoted by any other means. Over the wilder and more humid
l)arts of the northern counties generally, the species is found during
winter.

From an old man, one of the aborigines of the wild moun-
tainous district of Monterlony, county of Tyrone, I have heard
of various sporting and poaching exploits of the peasantry there,
one of which was the practice of going out to the bogs in foggy,
or, still better, snowy winter nights, to catch wild geese. The
parties carried with them blazing torches of bog-fir, and the geese,
attracted by the light, flew dhectly to it and were captured.

A few years previous to 1842 (when the fact was communicated
to me) , a flock of from two to three dozen wild geese, believed to
be of this species, on a snowy winter evening, about seven o'clock,
flew towards a gas-lamp in Cecil-street, Limerick, around which a
few of them were knocked down and captured.* In foggy nights I
have heard godwits and other grallatorial birds flying through the
glare of gas-light above Belfast for hours, apparently not knowing
whither to go, and uttering their loudest cries all the time.

It is well known that migratory and other birds often fly
towards the lanterns of lighthouses, and are killed by striking
against them. A newspaper paragraph, headed. Birds taken at a
ligJdhouse in hazy weather, informs us that — " It is very common
for birds to flock about sea-lights at night, in certain states of the
weather ; but we have not met with an occurrence to the same ex-
tent as the following : — The Pentland Skerries lighthouse (Orkney

* Mr. R. Davis, juii.

THE BEAN OOOSK. 37

Island) return for October states, tliat on the night of the 11th
they had light airs of wiud with hazy weather, when nine dozen
of larks, snipes, and woodcocks were caught fluttering about the
lantern; and had more assistance been at hand, double that num-
ber might have been secured.""^

The following note of the species of birds which had been
killed at various times by flying against the lighthouse on Tory
Island (off the northern coast of Donegal) and preserved by
Mrs. Bailey there, was kindly communicated by Mr. G. C. Hynd-
man, who saw the specimens in August 1845 : — fieldfare, red-
wing, house-marten (killed in Dec. 1844), dunlin? ringed plover,
oyster-catcher, woodcock, landrail, wigeon, puf[iu,and stormy petrel.
The wigeon struck the copper dome above the light with such
force that the sound was mistaken for that of a cannon, as
a signal of distress, and the lighthouse-keeper actually sallied
out to ascertain the state of the case. The wigeon, of course, was
killed. Tennyson, in his last poem, " The Princess," describes
the heroine, on one occasion, as

" Fixt like a beacon-tower, above the waves
Of tempest, when the crimson rolling eye
Glares ruiu, and the wild sea-birds on the light
Dash themselves dead." — (p. 89, first edit.)

A friend, when woodcock-shooting for two days in Decembei',
1819, at Mountainstown demesne, near Navan, county Meath,
saw wild geese, in flocks of from ten to twenty, during the time ;
occasionally they came very near, though keeping out of range of
gun-shot : the firing at the woodcocks roused these geese from the
neighbouring bogs, which they frequent throughout the winter.

Mr. G. Jackson (gamekeeper) informs me that " Wild geese
are very plentiful in all the counties of Connaught, where they
generally appear at the full of the moon after the middle of
October, and leave at the full of the moon in April. AVhen
d(!parting they generally take their flight in the after part of the
day, and bend their coiu'se towards the nearest point of sea-coast,

* Bull'ast Comm. Chromdc, Dec. 16, 1839.

38 ANATID^E.

altliough that should be sometimes in a west or south-west direc-
tion. They arc very numerous on the extensive flat bogs and
swamps of those counties. The .most plentiful are the bean
goose, called erroneously by the country people the barnacle
goose. I have shot hundreds of them. The duck and teal were
so plentiful there that the gentry never made use of other water-
fowl, so geese, wigeon, &c., used to fall to my own share, and
no inconsiderable quantity of them."

I have seen various specimens of the bean goose which had
been purchased in the market of Dublin, where neither it nor any
species of wild goose is in esteem for the table. At Waterford it
has been obtained ; * about Youghal was considered rare, but is
noted in the ' Fauna of Cork' as occasionally plentiful in some
parts of that county. It visits the bogs in the northern parts
of Kerry every winter in large numbers. t Many persons, who
have attended to native bii'ds in Ireland, know little more of wild
geese than by seeing them pass on wing ; and consequently are
ignorant of the species; — this applies, among other places, to
Roundstone, on the coast of Connemara, which is named on
account of its western position. { They are met with in gi-eat
numbers on the Bog of Allen during the winter months, and
small flocks are very often seen flying over the town of Cloumel,
on the mountains near to which they are met with occasionally,
but, being extremely wary, are seldom shot.§

The Eev. G. M. Black remarks : — " Altliough wild geese
appear to be slow on the wing, they can, when pressed, make
good way. I saw a large flock pursued by an adult sea-eagle,
A. alhkilla (the white tail being distinctly visible), near Clougli,
county of Antrim, in the winter of 1832, but this bird did not,
within my sight, overtake or appear to gain much on them. They
were heading towards a lough at a short distance."

Mr. Yarrell, after mentioning that a gander of the grey lag at

* Dr. R. J. Burkitt. f Mr. R. Chute.

\ The grey lap; ami beau geese are not found in North America, but the white-
fronted goose is.

§ Mr. It. Davis, jun.

THE BEAN GOOSE. 89

the Zoological Gardens, Loudon, would not associate with a beau
or a white-fronted goose, but did so immediately with a tame
goose placed there, considers this an indication of the pair both
belonging to the same original stock. Although disposed to be-
lieve that our domestic goose is descended from tlie grey lag, I do
not attach much weight to the circumstance alluded to by Mr.
Yarrell, as geese of different species kept on ponds will often pair
together. At Springmount, near Clough, a male bean goose,
slightly wounded in the wing, was placed with a flock of common
geese, from among whom he at once selected a partner, and
thenceforth paid no attention to any others of her sex. He
was evidently most unhappy when separated from her, even in
winter, and on one occasion was the means of saving her life.
The cook, being ordered to kill one of the geese, laid hold of the
fii'st that came to hand, which happened to be the wild gander's
partner, when so remarkably vehement were his cries, that even
the uplifted hand of the murderess was stayed, and some members
of the family, with others of the household, hurrying to the scene
of uproar, the cause of the bird's anxiety was discovered, and the
intended victim set at liberty. This was told to me in January
1838, and no further attempts have since been made on the fair
one's life. In November 1848, they were removed to a new
residence, where they continue apparently as happy as geese can be.
For several successive years after this pair became associated, the
goose laid a full complement of eggs, and sat on them even beyond
the usual time, the gander keeping company at her side during the
interesting period, but, unfortunately, no issue appeared. On a
subsequent year, the goose sat closely on an empty nest in the bog,
her partner never leaving the immediate vicinity and guarding her
most courageously. To test his courage, a person once lifted the
goose off the nest, and tlirew her into the water, when her brave and
faithful partner instantly advanced, making a loud hissing noise,
and, flying at the offender, struck liim with his feet and wings
with all liis might. During the last smnmer (1849) the goose
laid a few eggs, but was too much disturbed by dogs to incubate
them long. To the calls of his wild brethren passing over head

40 ANATIDiE.

the gander habitually replied, and, in one instance, it was feared he
had bade adieu to the place, as he took wing and joined a flock
liigh in the air ; but, after holding a little converse with tliem,
he returned like a true lover to his mate. This gander, perhaps
in right of a higher descent than his associates who merely " walk
the earth," at once, when put with the common geese, took the
lead of the herd, sometimes numbering fifty or more, always heading
them and keeping about two yards in advance. None of the tame
ganders had ever the bad taste to dispute the chieftainship with
him, and he proved a trustworthy guardian, as when his associates
made an occasional sally into a corn-field he took Ids station
on the fence, and sounded an alarm when the enemy was seen
approacliing.

At Spriugmount, in fine open weather, a wild bean goose
alighted beside a flock of tame geese, so close to the dwelling-
house that it was shot from the back-door. A bird of this species
wounded there soon recovered the use of its wings, and would
fly away and remain absent for a few days, but always returned,
until eventually killed on one of these experimental trips. It
was there for part of a season with the hero of the preceding nar-
rative. " In the spring of 183S a wild goose, which had evidently
been wounded, remained after the others had departed, and was
seen feeding on the marshy lands of Bella, the residence of the late
Edward French, Esq., near Frenchpark, and frequently joining
company with some tame geese belonging to a tenant of that
gentleman. After some time it walked into the farm-yard with
its newly-formed acquaintance, and became quite domesticated." "^
A wild goose caught during a heavy fall of snow at Mourne
(Down), in the winter of 1845, associated freely with a farmer's
geese during tlie following spring and summer. In the suc-
ceeding spring, however, its wing, which had been clipped,
recovered from the mutilation, and the bird, taking to flight, was
heard of no more until the following autumn, when it (or a goose be-
lieved to be the same) paid a passing visit to its former associates by

* Mr. G, Jackson.

THE SHORT-BILLED GOOSE. 4-1

alighting for a few minutes among them^ after which it flew onward
and was seen no more.'^

I have known a wounded bean goose eat bread, potatoes,
and oatmeal dougli from the hand, the second day after capture.
Although partaking of boiled potatoes, it much preferred them
uncooked.

A sporting friend, residing in the south of Ayrshire, has occa-
sionally met with bean geese in the bogs there, and sprung them
from among beds of wild roses, on the fruit of which (" a small
mountain species,") they must have been busied feeding, as proved
on dissection of those killed. In Ireland, also, he once remarked
the gizzard of this goose to be fdled with the fruit of the rose.f
I have found roots of plants in one. Water-cresses are said to be
much eaten by this bird at Dromedaragh. The bean goose was
the only one known to the gamekeeper at Ardimersy, Islay, in
January 184*9, as frequenting that island, which it does regularly
in winter. It does not breed there.

A very interesting account of this species and of the white-fronted
goose wiU be found in St. John^s ' Wild Sports, &c., of the High-
lands,' chap. xix. p. 151-158.

The short-billed or pink-footed Goose — {Amer brachyrhyn-
chus, Baillou, Anser phoenicojms, Bartlett) though not uncommon in
England or Scotland, cannot yet be announced as obtained in Ireland,
though particularly looked for of late years. This is very singular,
and more especially if there be no error in the statement that the
bird breeds in numbers in some of the small islands of tlie Hebrides. J
If it do so, we should expect flocks at least to pass over, and
occasionally alight on Irish ground when migrating to or from those
haunts. All the wild geese wliich I have seen in a fresh state in Belfast
were either A. segetum or A. albifrons ; and in Dublin, those species,
with the addition of A. ferus.

* Olev. G. M. Black.

t Dr. Kiehardson, iu the ' Faiina Boreali- Americana,' remarks that (he "Anser
albifrons and A. hi/perhoreus feed chiefly on berries" (p. 439).

\ Mr. John Matgillivra\'.

42 ANATID/E.

The geographical distribution of this bird has yet to be ascertained.
It was first described in 1833 from a specimen proem^ed in the north
of France, and has since been noticed in Holland and Belgium.*

THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.

Laughing Goose.

Anser albifrons, Gmel. (sp.)
Anas „ „

„ eryth'opus, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant to Ireland ;

Where, as in Great Britain, it is, next to the beau goose, the
species most frequently met with. About Belfast this bird, is
little known; occasionally — not so often as every winter — one or
two are brought on sale to the town. One was noted, on account
of the rarity of its appearance under such circumstances, as kiUed
on the 26th October, 1822, by a wigeon-shooter from his barrel,
near Conswater, Belfast Bay, as he was awaiting the flying of
these birds: it was accompanied by two others; its weight was
five pounds, the irides of a hazel-colour. A young bird of the
year, killed at Strangford Lough on the 19th December, 1834,
came under my inspection, as did two others obtained there on the
12th, and a third on the 30th of January, 1836. About the 1st
of December, 1844, two of these birds, of which the black-barred
bellies, marking the species, were distinctly seen by my orni-
thological informant, flew low over the shore of Belfast Bay,
proceeding in a southerly direction.

Like aU the geese, this species soon becomes familiar, and
sometimes even bold. An iimnature one, brought from North
America and sent to the Belfast Botanic Garden, was particularly
fond of human society, probably from the kindness it had expe-
rienced on shipboard, and would at all times leave its pond to join
men at work in the vicinity. But its gala day was when a military

* De Selys, ' Fauuc Beige,' p. 138.

THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 43

band attended at the Garden, and from two to three hundred
people were assembled. So soon as they broke up into groups, after
the cessation of each piece of music, the goose took the part of
clown on such occasions at a theatre, and was " the observed of
all observers," as it paid its respects to party after party by running
towards them with its neck outstretched almost on a level with
the ground. On one of these occasions, in particular, it caused
much amusement by following like an humble servitor at the
heels of the lady of highest rank present (a marchioness) for,
perliaps, a couple of hours, and bestowing no attention or bold-
ness on any other party. In justice to the goose, we must, perhaps,
rather attribute this partiality to something attractive in the dress
of the lady, than to any unworthy tuft-hunting propensity. After
being about a year in the Garden, the goose disappeared, and not
much to the curator's regret, as it showed little regard to the
" Arrangement of British Herbaceous Plants " in the vicinity of
its pond being preserved intact, having often levied considerable
contributions from the soft and more tender kinds; among
the saxifrages, sometimes not a leaf was left to tell of their former
whereabouts.

To the wilds of Connaught this species resorts every winter, and
associates commonly with the bean goose."^ It is brought during
that season of every year to the market of Dublin, where more
individuals of the white-fronted than of the species just mentioned
have been seen by Mr. R. Ball. An extensive hawker of wild fowl
also states that it has come more frequently under his notice there
than the bean goose. It has not been seen by Mr. Ball at Youghal,
on the southern coast, and, indeed, in the south generally, the
species is considered very rare. The 'Fauna of Cork' announces
it merely as having been met with in that county. " In Kerry, two
individuals have been obtained, one of wliich was rescued from the
claws of a raven, and lived some time afterwards in confinement,
becoming quite familiar." f In severe weather, a very few have
occasionally been killed in the counties of Wexford J and Watcr-

* Mr. G. Jauksou. f Mr. K. Gliiite. + Major T. "Walker.

44 ANATID/E.

ford.^ January and February are the months (according to
my notes) in which the white-fronted goose has chiefly been
procui'cd.

Audubon gives, from personal observation, a pleasing account
of this species, vol. iii. p. 568.

M. Duval- Jouve, in an interesting paper on the 'Migratory
Birds of Provence/ published in the 'Zoologist^ for October
1845, remarks that the "Grey- legged goose. Anas anser, passes
in March and April, and re-passes from the first cold of autumn
until the beginning of winter : it only rests here when the weather
is very cold. Bean goose, Anas segetum, passes at the same
periods as the preceding species, but is more rare. White-
fronted goose. Anas alhifrons, passes with the two preceding, but
is more rare than either" (p. 1130).

GiiEY Lag Goose. — Since the matter on this species was printed
off, the following note was obtained, which it is considered better
to bring in here than reserve for the appendix.

March 1850. — Some of these birds were introduced to a lake
at Castle Coole, the seat of the Earl of Belmore, in the county of
Fermanagh, by Colonel Corry, about one hundred and twenty
years ago, and by their breeding there annually since, the stock
has been kept up. They build — with straw which is supplied to
them — on an island in the lake, where there are usually from
sixteen to tw^enty nests, but not more than ten pair usually
hatch ; — three birds have sometimes laid eggs in one nest. These
geese have always kept entirely by themselves, and never bred
with the tame goose or any other species. The flock has some-
times numbered from ninety to one hundred individuals, but has
been decreasing of late years, and at present contains only twenty-
four. The diminution has arisen from their being shot outside
the demesne, particularly during the late year of the famine, and
from less care being bestowed on them, as to feeding, &c., than
formerly. Some of the young are annually devoured by pike,

* Dr. K. J. Burkilt.

THE GREY LAG GOOSE. 45

wkicli abound in the lake ; and an old swan which frequents it
also kills them, in addition to disturbing and beating the old
birds. These geese are as free as in a state of nature, but gene-
rally admit of a pretty near approach on the banks of the lake,
their chief resort, and then take flight either across the water,
which is about an English furlong and a half in circuit, or alight
in the middle of it, where they are free from intrusion. In
severe weather they not only permit a close approach, but come
to be fed.

For the whole of this interesting information I am indebted to
the kindness of Lord Enniskillen, who told me of this singular flock,
and had all my queries respecting it replied to, the chief in-
formant being an old man resident at Castle Coole for sixty years.
One of the birds was shot and sent to me on the 14th of this
month, that I might satisfy myself respecting the species.
This was a very old male, ll|-lbs. imperial weight, and much
the handsomest in plumage that I had ever seen, but rendered
imperfect as a specimen, by a vile practice in this country, with
respect to wild geese, of pulling out the quills, which renders
the birds unfit to be " set up." The tarsi, toes, and webs of the
feet were of a flesh-colour similar to that of the human hand ;
bill flesh-red with pale orange towards the base of both mandibles.
Nad. of bill, white ; that of middle toe, dark grey ; of outer toes,
white : irides hazel. The blackish markings on the breast and
belly appeared as in the other Irish specimens noticed at pp. 28
and 29. The gizzard contained the remains of vegetable matter
and a quantity of small pebbles. Though the skin of tliis bird
was preserved, the body was cooked, and was partaken of by
several persons, all of whom considered the flesh of a delicate
flavour, though it was hard and tough, probably from \M\nt of
being long enough kept ; it was very dark in colour.

4G

THE BERNACLE.

White-faced Bernacle. .

Anser bernicla, Elem.
„ leucopsis, Beclist.

Is a regular winter visitant to the coast.

The food of this bird being different from that of the brent goose,
the haunts of the two species are wholly distinct. The extensive
sandy coast exposed by the receding tide, bordered by short
pasture, or having islets of this nature rising here and there
above its level surface, is the favourite abode of the bernacle.
The brent goose, on the contrary, revels in the soft oozy bays
where the Zostera marina, or grass-wrack, grows profusely, and on
it alone is content to feed.

The greatest haunt of the bernacle known to me is an immense
shallow sandy iDay, on the coast of Louth, bordered by an extensive
tract of pastui-e and marshy ground, called Lurgan Green. Erom
tliis locality the bird takes its name, and is called the Lurgan Green
bernacle over a consideraljle part of the island, to distinguish it
from the brent goose, which bears the simple appellation of the
bernacle. The latter bird is generally higlily esteemed in Ireland
for the table, while the former is not at all relished. Yet, in other
places, it is so. Mr. Selby, writing from Northumberland, says,
"its flesh is sweet and tender and highly esteemed ^^ (p. 269).
The author of ' Wild Sports of the West ' bears his testimony to
what he terms " land bernacle" being " very delicious when kept
a sufficient time after being shot, before the cook transfers them
to the spif (p. 292). To quote further from tliis work, it is said
of " the barnacle," meaning most probably, from the great num-
bers seen, the brent goose, — " I saw a considerable extent of
sand literally black with this migratory tribe : they come here in
immense multitudes, but, from their coarse and fishy flavour,
afford little occupation to the water shooter. The land barnacles
are less numerous, although they are found in tolerable abundance.

THE BERNACLE. 47

During the day I saw two flocks, of one or two hundred pairs,
upon the bogs. They are, when sufficiently rested from their
joui'uey, sought for with great avidity by tlie few gunners in tliis
district, and are very delicious," &g., as already mentioned. This
was written as " winter was coming on." 0\^'ing to wild geese
being commonly called bernacle in Connaught, I cannot feel
certain that they are not meant. Harris, in his ' History of the
County of Down,' published in 1744, after enumerating the
" barnacle" as one of the birds met with on the coast, remarks :
— " There is also the land barnacle in tliis county, particularly in
a red bog in the Ai'des, near Kirkistown, but the flesh of it
is rank, unsavoury, and unfit for, at all events, the table."
Here, again, the wild goose may possibly be alluded to, as it fre-
quented the locality. La7id bernacle is, however, a common name
for the species now specially under consideration, and a distinctive
one, as the bird spends much of its time on land, whereas the
other bernacle, properly called brent goose, lives wholly on the
water and the sea-banks.

xVt Lurgan Green immense numbers of bernacle spend all the
year, except the period appropriated to the reproduction of their
species ; they are about five months absent, from tlie middle of
April "^ to that of September. This locaHty is known to me per-
sonally only from my passing it on the way from Belfast to Dublin,
which I have rarely done without seeing large flocks of these
birds (numbering sometimes between 300 and 400) either on the
sands or greensward little raised above it. My notes on them here,
chiefly with regard to season, are; — March 31, 1833 ; saw a very
large flock on the sands near the road: — April 21, 1835; none
seen ; on inquiry of the guard of the coach, it was stated that he
had remarked them here daily until the last eight days, when they
had disappeared, at least from view of the road : they had probably
migrated northward at the time he ceased to observe them : —
November 15, 1839; a large flock was stationed at the grassy
plain, a considerable way from the border of the sea, as I had

* ]\Ir. Selby, in allusion it may be presumed to the uorth-cast of England, observes
that, " by the middle of March the whole have retired " northward (p. 209).

48 ANATID.E.

before remarked them in spring, but not so near to the road. I
have seen them within shot of the coach, and as regardless of its
passing as a flock of tame geese, indeed more so, for the latter
would have had the impudence to cackle, while the bernacle had
the good taste to remain silent. They were never feeding when
I observed them, though, doubtless, they partake of the pasture.
!No person having been permitted to fire a shot about Lurgan
Green was the reason of their tameness. They were captured
here in little pitfalls dug in the earth, without being in the least
degree injured. Several were so obtained at one time to be placed
on the aquatic menagerie at the Falls near Belfast, where they at
once became tame, and proved to be of a mild and gentle dispo-
sition, like the brent geese ; — more than can justly be said for all
our Anatidce. The ground alluded to, on which the bernacle was
seen from the coach-road, was embanked from the sea a few years
ago, and brought under cultivation ; since which period I have not
learned anything of the bird there.

On the 20th of October, 1849, and about the same period of the
preceding year, flocks of about twenty bernacle were observed (by
the Eev. G. M. Black) flying over the sea and points of land in a
southerly direction off Annalong, at the base of the mountains of
Mourne. They were supposed to be proceeding to Lurgan Green.
" They flew in a line like wild geese, but differed from these birds
by keeping always low — about twenty yards from the sea or ground
— and, when viewed through a telescope, were headed by an
old stager, whose adult plumage was strongly defined."

To Belfast Bay the bernacle is but a rare visitant, and chiefly
early in the winter ; but, at the beginning of August, a single bird
was once obtained. One which came under my inspection was shot
on the 1st of November, 1826, upon a little green islet which rises
above the sands at a place called Harrison^s Bay. A small flock
to which it belonged frequented the little green knolls rising
above the sands, and the boggy fields bordering the bay, for some
weeks. Persecution at last drove them away. One was killed
on the Long Strand close to the town, on the 26th of March,
1827, when a flock of ten birds visited this locality and the

THE BERNACLE. 49

neighbouring pasture-fields. At the end of September 183 0^ a ber-
nacle was obtained at Kilroot, below Carrickfergus,and in November
1833^ six were shot about the same time on the banks, at different
parts of the bay, within two miles of Belfast. Early in the winter
of 1846, one was seen on a bank in company with curlews. A
bernacle was noted as being on sale in the market of this town on
the 14th, and six on the 19th of September, 1837 ; but, as it is not
mentioned where they were procured, the only use of the note is
to show that at the time, the species was on some ])art of the
coast ; — these birds may have been brought from Lurgan Green,

On Ballydrain Lake, a beautiful sheet of fresh water near Belfast,
covering about twenty acres, (and, perhaps, five English miles in a
direct line from the sea,) a flock of eleven bernacle was seen by
Mr. Darragh on the 2nd of April, 1849. It was stated by persons
living on its borders, that these birds had frequented the locality
for a considerable part of the winter. They were very wild,
keeping about the middle of the lake, and, when any person ap-
proached its margin, they took wing to its opposite extremity.
During the entire day they remained on the water, but were not ob-
served by night, when, probably, they fed on the short grass upon
the banks. In the following winter three bernacle made their
appearance here at the latter end of November ; soon afterwards,
two, and before long, four more joined them. These nine birds re-
mained nntil the end of the first week in February, when, farm-
ing operations being commenced on one side of the lake, they
took their departure. Eour of them appeared again several times
during the ensuing week, but the bustle of the season always
frightened them away. This is the only instance known to me of
the species resorting to fresh water in the north of Ireland. On
the 15th of February, a female bernacle in fine condition, and
probably one of the same birds, was shot at "the bog meadows,"
about three miles distant. Its stomach was filled with the sham-
rock trefoil — Trifolmm repens (of which there were a few pieces
from four to six inches in length that had been pulled up by the
root), pieces of Ranunculi, and grasses.

The only regular haunt of the bernacle known to me during

VOL. III. E

50 anatid;e.

every winter, on the Irish coast, was that of Lurgan Green. Every-
where else that the bird has come under the notice of my corre-
spondents it is of rare occurrence ; in the nortli-west of Donegal,
on the coasts generally of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork,
Kerry, and Clare, it is reported to be scarce. Twenty-nine birds
were killed at one shot from a swivel-gun a few years ago at Mala-
liide, on the coast of Dublin. A flock was observed in Dublin
Bay on the 20th of January, 1850.^ In December, 1847, three
were shot in the harbour of Wexford. The first seen by Mr. E.
Chute, in Kerry, was a male bird, killed from a small flock on a
little lake to the west of Dingle, in the middle of November, 1848.

Montagu; in the Supplement to his 'Ornithological Dictionary,^
remarks : — " This species has generally been said to be abundant
on the coast of Ireland in the winter-season; we are, however,
informed by Sir William Elford, that it is certainly a mistake ;
the brent being commonly called by the same name has probably
occasioned the assertion, for that bird is taken in the bay of Belfast,
and other northern parts of that island in great abundance, but he
never could discern the ErytJiropiis among them."

When visiting Loch-in-daal, island of Islay, in January 1849,
I observed that it possessed suitable feeding-ground for both the
bernacle and brent goose; extensive tracts of sand, with abun-
dance of low bordering greensward for the one, and spacious banks
of Zostera marina for the other. A flock of about two hundred
brent geese was seen standing by the edge of the retiring tide. I
was gratified to learn from Mr. Murray, formerly gamekeeper at
Islay House, that the loch is frequented by both species. The A.
leucopsis is called there " land bernacle ;" it has been becoming
scarcer of late years.

Willughby (1678) remarked of the bernacle and the brent
goose, (which two species he was the first author to distinguish
properly,) that: — "we have seen both alive among his Majesty's
wild-fowl kept in St. Jameses Park," p. 360. It is pleasant to
the ornithologist to think, that, although the keeping up of a stock

* Mr. J. Watters, jmi.

THE BRENT GOOSE. 51

of wild fowl here was neglected for a long period, both these
species may now again, more than 170 years after the above
was written, be seen in St. James's Park, and in company
with species which were wholly unknown at that period.

A number of the strangely fanciful old stories respecting tliis
and the following species being produced from the Cirripede of
the same name, which adheres to the bottoms of ships, are brought
together in the volume of the 'Library of Entertaining Know-
ledge/ entitled ' Habits of Birds,' p. 363. The belief is still
current among the Irish fishermen and those who dwell about
the sea.

THE BRENT GOOSE.

Amer brenta, Elem.

„ hernicla, Linn, (sp.)
„ torquatus, Belon. (sp.)

Is, except in summer, a constant inhabitant of suitable
localities around the coast.

This species is commonly described by British authors, as much
more frequent on the eastern coast of Great Britain than on the
western, on which the bernacle is said to be chiefly found. Even on
the coast of the county of Sutherland, which stretches across Scot-
land, the distribution of the two species is stated to follow the same
rule.* This cannot be owing to any laws of geographical distri-
bution, as the brent goose is in Europef abundant still farther to
the west than Great Britain ; — namely, in Ireland, where it is found
on each side of the island, according to the simple rule of the suita-
bleness of the locality — an abundance of Zoster a marina, in so far
as my observation extends, determining that point. Montagu, too,
had remarked, in reference to this island, that brent geese " arc
in greatest abundance in those rivers that empty themselves into

* St. John, ' Tour in Sutherland/ vol. i. p. 139.
t It is common on the coasts of the United States, &c., of America.
E 2

U. Of itL UB.

52 ANATID.E.

the northern part of the Irish channel/' Their chief haunts
known to me are, to begin northward, l^oughs Swilly, Foyle,
Lame, Belfast, Strangford, Dublin Bay,"^ the harbours of Wex-
ford, Waterford, Youghal, and Cork. In Kerry they are confined
to Tralee Bay, being abundant there during winter ;t and are
stated to be so likewise in the bays of Connaught.

The bird is thus mentioned by the following authors : —
According to Boate's ' Natural History of Ireland,' published in
1726, " barnacles are of the wild-goose kind, and like them migrate
from foreign countries to Ireland ; they commonly come into Ireland in
August, and leave it about March ; their taste is very different, accord-
ing to the places where they feed ; in most places they are so rank
that no curious palate can dispense with such unsavoury food ; but in
other places they have a most dehcious relish, rather better than either
a wild duck, teal, or snipe.t This is the case of the barnacles at
Londonderry and Wexford, and I hear the same concerning those at
Belfast : the difference, I understand, arises from the food ; at London-
derry, in the bay commonly called Lough Foyle, there grows a grass
that sends out a stalk above a fathom long, the root of which is white
and tender, and continues such for some space above the root, and it
is almost as sweet as a sugar-cane : § the barnacles dive to the bottom
and lay hold on it as near as they can to the root, and pull it up with
them to the surface of the water, aud eat the tender part of it, the rest
they let drive with the wind to the shore, where it hes in great heaps,

* Very common from November to April, (Mr. R. J. Montgomery.)

t Mr. R. Chute.

+ In works published in 1848 and 1849, opposite opinions are expressed re-
specting the quality of this bird as food. The Rev. E. S. Dixon, in his volume on
'Ornamental and "Domestic Poultry,' when expatiating on white-fronted geese, al-
ludes to an unfounded supposition that "their flesh would be fishy, as in the scai-cely
eatable brent goose" (p. 94) ; and in another place mentions this bird as "fishy
strong, and oily" (p. 151). Mr. Knox, on the contrary, in his 'Ornithological
Rambles in Sussex,' remarks on it :— " This is the best bii-d I ever tasted; the flesh
is as tender and juicy as that of a teal, and there is a total absence of the fishy flavour,
which renders so many of our water-fowl unfit for the table" (p. 236).

§ Hence, we may presume, set down in a work published in 1837 as Tunis sac-
charinus ! In the description of the county of Londonderry, in Lewis's ' Topogra-
phical Dictionary of Ireland' (vol. ii. p. 294), we learn that " Among wild-fowl, one
species is very remarkable, the barnacle, which frequents Lough Foyle in great num-
bers, and is h'ere much esteemed for the sweetness of its flesh, in lijce manner as at
Wexford and Strangford, though elsewhere rank and unsavoury; tliis difterence
arises from its here feeding on the lucus saccharhms."

THE BRENT GOOSE. 53

and when rotten is good manure for land : * and from tliis sweet grass
it is supposed proceeds the sweetness of their flesh ; they are taken
by nets set in proper places on the shores. 'Tis observable that the divers
and wigeons, which are very rank and unsavoury elsewhere, undergo
the same change of theii' flesh when they feed in this place" (p. 192).

Harris, in his ' History of the county of Down ' {11 4-4:), says of the
" Barnacle, called by the English, Brant Goose," — " All along the flat
oozy sands, from Three-mile Water to Belfast and Holywood, grows a
very sweet grass affording food to great flocks of these birds, as well as
to duck, wigeon, and teal, all which are as good here as in any part
of Ireland, and some imagine them better than in the neighbouring
loughs of Strangford and Larne ; but this is only the effect of fancy,
for they often fly from one lough to another, and feed promiscuously.

" They are birds of passage, and know their seasons so well that they
arrive every year in the north parts of Ireland, on or very near a cer-
tain day, that is, the first flights of them, for they do not always come
together. They are seldom seen sooner than the 34th of August, and
are rarely missed about tliat time. But they are not so regular in
their flights from this country, some going away in April, and some
staying till the middle of INIay. * * * After their young are
ready for a strong flight, they return to us, by which time they find
a new harvest of sea-grass ready for them here" (p. 234).

Smith, in his ' History of the county of Waterford,' completed in
1745, speaks of — " Barnacles, which we have in plenty in winter,
being of as good a relish as at Londonderry, Wexford, or elsewhere ;
we have the same kind of grass described in the appendix to Boate's
' Natural History of Ireland,' which it is said they feed upon, and
which gives them that peculiar sweetness in those places where this
grass is found. The roots of this grass are white and tender, and of
a sweetness resembling liquorice ; great quantities of it are often cast
up on the coast after a storm."

In Mason's 'Statistical Account of Ireland' (vol. iii. p. 400), pub-
lished in 1819, the following notice of wild-fowl appears in a history
of the 'Union of Tacumshane [county of Wexford], by the Bev. Wra.

* This plant, the grass-wrack {Zostera marina), or slcech-grass of Belfast Bay, is
still used most extensively as manure by farmers, both poor and rich, who are little
aware how much they are indebted to the brent geese, wigeon, and otlur wild-fowl,
for rooting it up. Partaking themselves of but a small portion of the plant, these
birds let the remainder float off to the shore, wliere it is appropriated by num to his use.

54 ANATIDiE.

Eastwood, Kector :' — " Besides the advantages already described from
its local situation, this country has the peculiar benefit of possessing a
certain grass or sea-weed which maintains myriads of wild-fowl, and
gives them a taste and flavour superior to those of any other place or
country. The most abundant crop of this grass is found inside the
harbour, fi'om the island of Woodtown to within two miles of the town
[of Wexford], and to the extremity of the bay eastward. There are
two loughs at some distance, where it also grows, though not so pro-
fusely, and to these outposts the birds take theu' flight when the tide
rises in the bay above the weed, and make a pass through the aii' as
regular as if it were meted out, from which they never deviate. Under
these lines fowlers take their stand, often with great success, particu-
larly in dark and blowing weather. The number brought to market is
not easily ascertained ; it is, however, reasonable to state it at 200
couple a week for six months every year. The average prices may be
thus — barnacle, 6s. ; whinnard, 3s. ; wigeou, 2s. 6d. ; teal. Is. 8d. ;
and duck (least liked), 2s. a pair. Besides these, there is a great
supply of sea-fowl of an inferior quality, which are bought i;p and con-
sidered very good ; this sale produces =£80 a month, or above i61,000
a year [£500 for "six months"]. They are purchased by carriers,
who convey them through the country and into the adjacent counties,
and make a good livelihood by retail. Some are despatched in the
mail and day coaches to Dublin, where they are esteemed, and, as it is
said, many baskets are sent across the channel."

All the statements respecting the habits of the brent goose
contained in these extracts is not correct ; but as it is pleasant to
see that the subject has long since engaged attention^ I shall
not be so ungenerous as formaUy to criticize them. I shall,
instead, describe in full detail, as at present known, the

Habits of the Brent Goose in Belfast Bay.

The old accounts of the time of arrival and departure are cor-
rect. The earhest period I have noted is the 20th August j"^ and

* Their appeai'ance in this month is of common occurrence. The three latest
notes I made on the subject are — August 27, 1845. Brent geese have arrived in
Belfast Bay ; — August 24, 1847. A flock observed on wing above Lanie Lough ; —
August 25, 1848. Four lulled in Belfast Bay ; the eaiiicst this season, and no more
yet seen.

THE BllENT GOOSE. 55

by the first week of September tliey are generally here. They
sometimes remain until May ; and in 1841, a few were seen
so late as the 20th of that mouth. In Wexford harbour, also,
they are said to arrive in September and leave in May.^ They
come later to the Northumbrian coast in the autumn, and depart
northwards earher in the spring. Mr. Selby, writing of it, re-
marks : — " In this locality tolerably-sized flocks usually make
their appearance in the early part of October, wdiich are increased
by the repeated arrival of others till the beginning of November,
at wliich time the equatorial movement of the species in this lati-
tude seems to be completed. -5^ -J^- -h- jj^ i\^[^ haunt they
remain till the end of February, when they migrate in successive
flocks, ^ -J^- ^- and before April the whole have disappeared "
(p. 272). A flock of these birds, supposed to be on migration,
was heard on the 9th of September, 1845, at 12 o'clock in the
night (which was very dark), flying over Holywood bank, Belfast
Bay. The weather being calm, they were heard from a great
distance as they approached, and afterwards as they passed over-
head ; — they kept a direct southerly course.

Owing to their being so much disturbed of late years in this
locality, chiefly by the increase of shipping, they have not (unless
in severe weather) been in such abundance early in the winter as
formerly ; but in Strangford Lough they are as numerous as ever
at that period. About the month of March, the greatest num-
bers now appear in Belfast Bay ; and wild-fowl shooters believe
that they leave the comparative quiet of Strangford Lough after
having exhausted its Zostera pastui'e, as they have remarked the
banks to be closely cropped of the plant at this time.

Dr. Fleming mentions this bird as " a winter visitant, frequent-
ing meadows and grass-fields ;"t and Mr. Jenyns says it " frequents
the sea-coast and also inland marshes" (p. 224) ; but is not the
bernacle, instead of the brent goose, tlie species thus alluded to ?
Those of Belfast Bay at least are strictly marine ; and I have never
heard of a single individual here, even when wounded, flying to

* Major T. Walker. f Brit. Aniiii., p. 1^7.

56 ANATID^.

laud, or to fresh water, as other marine birds in that case do.
Their nearest approach to laud known to me was during the night
of a hurricane, when a great number remained on the Long
Strand, within haK a shot of the fields bordering the bay : — they
were known to do this only in the one instance.'^

Although they may occasionally feed by night, such is not their
habit : they are day-feeding birds. When a south-east wind
drives them towards the Antrim side of the bay, they may
sometimes be seen with the naked eye busily feeding, and in so
doing, dipping half the body under water, and exhibiting, con-
spicuously, the white under plumage from the legs to the tail. They
likewise feed while walking on the Zostera banks, left bare by the
faUing tide. In seasons when there was a continuance of easterly
winds, opportunities were daily afforded during several weeks in
spring, of observing great flocks of brent geese going tlirough
all their evolutions within about three shots of the road which
borders the bay on the western side, and at a distance of from one
and a half to two and a half miles from town. A railway embank-
ment, constructed within the last few years, has, however, shut
out this prospect ; and fields of corn now wave where banks of
Zostera then prevailed. They fly to the deep water in the after-
noon, and remain there during the night. At sunrise — not before
dawn, like the wigeon — they commence flying to their feeding-
grounds, at which time, particularly in March and April, they
were formerly shot at low water by fowlers, using ordinary guns,
and having their small boats in the creeks. These men required
to be cautious of exposing their countenances, as the " human
face divine" alarmed the birds much more than the body of the
shooter. Many brent geese were commonly thus killed before
swivel-guns came into use, but that mode of shooting has since
been rarely followed. Another method, cliiefly practised late in

* Mr. R. Davis, jun., writing from Cloumel, in 1842, remarked; — "One of
these bii'ds was shot in our river by an nucle of mine some fifty years ago." A
friend of Mr. J. Poole's (as noted in his jomnial in January 1848) informed him that
" he once shot a breut goose from the bridge of Enuiscorthy, a town nearly twenty-
five miles up the Slaney. A heavy snow-storm, wliich made it impossible to discern
objects at any considerable distance, may account for these geese finding their way
such an lumsual distance from the sea."

THE BRENT GOOSE. 57

the season and during the day, has likewise been discontinued.
I allude to fast-sailing "cots"'^ and yawls — the latter being
preferred, — wliich, with a brisk wdnd, would sometimes bear dowai
upon large flocks before they were aware of their danger; and
in such case, the brent geese, by rising against the wind as they
always do, and the boat still bearing on them, would be half a shot
nearer to the fowlers than they were when swimming. As they
fly at a later hour in the morning than the wigeon, so in the
evening they retire earlier than that species. They were some-
times sought for when on then' seaward flights, by fowlers await-
ing them in their boats in the creeks ; but as they were then
in large bodies, fewer chances were afforded of getting shots.

They very rarely appear " up the bay" in moonlight nights.
When seen there, some of the shooters imagine that when the
moon rises it is mistaken by them for the morning dawn. In
stormy nights they will occasionally " come up" for shelter,
and I have known them, at least once, to be killed, but they are
never sought after at night like other wild-fowl.t It should
be stated, that when flying up in the morning, they generally
proceed in smaU flocks, and alight altogether about the same
place, thus, after the flight has continued for a long time, forming
a great multitude ; but in the afternoon, this whole body will rise
en masse to retire to deep water for the night. If high water,
early in the morning, at their usual hour of flight, they await the
ebb before leaving their night quarters. They are very wary, and
avoid in their flights approaching objects with which they are
unfamiliar, as new beacons, &c., erected in the harbour. A
branch of a tree brought down the Lagan by a flood, and covered
with sea-weeds so as to give it a dark appearance, will alarm
them, as will the smoke of the steam-vessels even from a distance.
Any thick smoke seen overhead by the Anatida, generally, wdien
on the water, excites their fear, and prompts them to take wing.

* Small flat-l)ottomecl boats.

t Sir Wui. Jardiuc observes that ; — " lu Ticland Uiis goose is also abimclaut, and
furnishes most of the night-shooting which is much followed on various parts of the
coast." — ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 81.

58 ANATID^.

One of my notes descriptive of their mode of flight, &e., may be
copied : — March 9, 1839. Day beautifully bright, but very cold,
and the wind east. I saw, on the Antrim shore of Belfast Bay,
a very large flock of brent geese, apparently from 700 to 800,
first on wing, forming a "long, drawn-out" body, and then
alighting. The mingling notes of those on the water, and of the
others still on wing, but crowding down to join them, was so like
the cry of a pack of hounds, that it would have deceived any one
who knew not whence it really proceeded. As my walk was
continued, there was a constant succession of bodies of these birds
of from ten to twenty-five flying to join the main phalanx, until
probably not less than a thousand were assembled together ; — a
number not greater than I had frequently observed here before.
The whole of them looked beautiful on wing. When seen backed
by the sky, the black and the wliite portions of the body were
distinctly apparent ; — when their backs were turned towards me
they seemed all black, and their whole form was distinctly marked ;
but in another aspect, and with the land of the opposite shore as
a back-ground, they all shone merely white, the lower portion of
their plumage of that colour being alone visible. The great
flock did not long remain stationary, but rose en masse and flew
towards the entrance of the bay until entirely lost to view. The
appearance of the flock, though generally irregular, and " float-
ing in fragments" through the air — their ordinary manner of
flight — occasionally exhibited a series of lines, all of which be-
came darker towards the front, reminding me of water-spouts
darkening towards the end before they burst. The broken, irre-
gular fhght of a great body of brent geese has more than once
called to my mind Moore's lines, —

" When heaven's rack, H\vist earth and sky.
Hangs like a shattered canopy."

Their call is commented on in another note : — April 2, 1837. I
observed, to-day, when near low water, several hundred brent geese
standing on the ooze at the edge of the rething waves like a flock
of ' waders.' They were calHng at the time, and, when they rose

THE BRENT GOOSE. 59

on wing, continued their notes in the air, as they likewise did after
having settled on the water. The rushing sound this ilock produced
when rising at about a mile distance from me, resembled some
" elemental war." Their call, as heard at two miles^ distance, was
quite loud. Audubon remarks : — " As to its cry, although I have
often seen hundreds of individuals at a time, I have not been able
to tune my ears so as to liken its cacklings to the sounds pro-
duced by ' a pack of hounds in full cry,^ as alleged by Wilson"'^
(vol. V. p. 24). True, when the cry is borne dii-ectly to one from
a flock of birds swimming in order, it is not sufficiently varied to
be musical ; but when the birds are veering about on wing, or
swimming in different directions, it strongly resembles what Wil-
son has compared it to. But I shall call a witness in favour of
the statement, that, under cross-examination, will not break down.
March 8, 1840; a delightful, warm, calm day: on riding from
Belfast to Holywood at liigh water, birds of various species were
abundant. Opposite Clifden, and very near the shore, were perhaps
.500 brent geese in a flock, keeping up their usual concert, like the
music of a pack of hounds in fuU cry. The moment that, borne on
the gentle gale, my horse heard it, he became quite impatient, as
hunters do on hearing the hounds at a distance, and continued very
spirited and restless so long as he was within hearing of the sound ;
just as he would have done had it proceeded from a genuine pack.
Thus have we the acute hearing of the horse bearing testimony to
the resemblance ; and this sense in the quadruped is superior to
that of his lord and master — Man. I have often, when going
to join the hounds, had evidence of this, as on gaining the
ridge of hill that overlooked the hunting ground a few miles
distant, our horses indicated that they recognized the cry before
we did ourselves. I do not remember having been in any
other instance on horseback witliiu hearing of " the cr/' of the
brent geese.

The rate of swimming of these birds is quick. Once, when
walking along the side of the bay, and a flock of about 300, not

* Wilson also alliicliis to their " honking" voice, which, in the north of Ireland, is
called " cronkin," both words representing the sound produced.

60 ANATIDiE.

far off, swam in a direction parallel to that in which I proceeded,
I was surprised to find that their progression, when quite at
ease and undisturbed, considerably exceeded mine ; it could not
have been less than about four Irish miles an hour — my rate of
walking at the time being three of these miles. When their
speed was increased by seeing the small old-fashioned shooting cot
approaching, they swam faster than it could be " set on them."

January 1847, — The following information was communicated
to me respecting the brent goose at Lame Lough, where it is
numerous during winter. Every evening, at this season, they fly
down the lough to remain on the deep water near its entrance or
outside, in the open sea, for the night. After sun-rise — the sun
being always up before they leave — they invariably fly up the lough
to their day station. Later in the season, they all betake them-
selves out to sea in the evening, and every morning then, a
line of boats containing shooters is stationed at regular intervals
across the narrowest part of the entrance of the lough (at the ferry),
to intercept them in their flight. The water is rarely too rough
for this proceeding, the boats being often almost invisible among
the breakers. Notwithstanding this daily practice of the shooters,
the birds always take the same course of flight, above the water,
but generally keep so liigli that not many are killed from the
boats. Once only has my informant observed the brent goose
to feed by night here, when a few birds out of a flock were so
noticed by moonlight.

During the last week of this month (January, 1847), brent
geese were very numerous and tame, both in Larne and Belfast
loughs, though the weather at the time, as well as that preceding
and subsequent to it, was fine. They appeared in such long,
solid masses, as to be compared to highways on the water. At
such times, the fowler speaks of shooting " along a mile of them."
They were higher up both loughs at night than previously known
to be, and, in the latter estuary, approached within about two fur-
longs of the quays of the town. Seventy-nine birds were killed
here during the week by a wild- fowl shooter, fourteen of which

THE BRENT GOOSE. 61

fell at one shot. Fifteen were at the same time obtained at a
shotj in Lame Lough, by another fowler. In Strangford Lough,
the person first alluded to, procured twenty-three at one discharge
of his swivel-gun, in the winter of 1843; in January 1848, thirty
were thus laid low, twenty-five only of which were bagged, as the
great black-backed, and herring gulls secured their share of those
which fell wounded or dead at a distance. Above thirty lay upon
the water after a shot by him there, in December, that year,
though only twenty-tliree were picked up, as it was growing dark
at the time, and the wounded, hurrying to rough water, escaped.
Twenty-six wigeon were bagged by him from one shot, the
same week. Tliirty-two brent geese have been obtained at a shot
in Larne Lough. Shooters waiting at night on the borders of
tliis lough until the flowing tide brings wigeon within shot of
them, have occasionally killed brent geese, thus brought witliin
range. In the winter of 1842-43, Buckle (well-known to the
readers of Colonel Hawker^s work on Shooting) killed twenty-five
of these birds at a shot with his punt-gun in Dingle Bay, Kerry.

Winged brent geese flock together, and it is difficult to sepa-
rate them. Those struck by the shot from a swivel-gun, no matter
how far apart, swim towards each other, and move off in a flock,
which is not easily broken up. Wlien they become so by a cliace
from a boat, or otherwise, as many as can succeed in keeping toge-
ther still do so. They hasten to the deep water when wounded,
and never attempt to dive until the last extremity, such as being
struck at with an oar. They are indifferent divers, and remain
but a short time under water. When disabled birds were much fired
at with the old flint locks they dived from the flash of the pan.

The food contained in brent geese from the loughs of Larne,
Belfast, and Strangford, examined by myself, was always Zostera,
of which were portions of the leaf from one to two feet in length,
as well as of the root : in addition to the plant there was always
sand. An observant shooter and bird-preserver,"^ who has looked
to the food in a considerable number of these geese, never found

* Mr. Darragli ; to whom I am indebted for various particulars respecting the
brent goose.

62 ANATID^.

anything but Zostera. This was generally in pieces about a foot
in length, which, when so long, were always folded neatly up,
sometimes as much so as a ribbon, but short pieces were not so
arranged. He well remarks that they must fold this narrow leaf
with the tongue, and that it is a nice provision of nature to enable
them to swallow such food with convenience : he has found it in
the folded shape in the throat."^ Until November, these birds
are not much sought after for the table in Belfast. They have
been becoming gradually cheaper of late years. In the winters of
1843 and 1844, I noted them, as generally sold in the shops, at
2s. a bird, but as formerly dearer, and that the shooters then
obtained from Is. 3d', to Is. 6d. each for them ; — in the winters
of 1848 and 1849, Is. was about the usual sum they received.
Brent geese vary much in size and weight.

Mr. Jenyns remarks that " the young of the year" have no white
on the side of the neck, and Mr. Yarrell says, little or none. In
their infancy such may be the case ; but to the young of the year,
as this term is understood by ornithologists, it is not applicable.
I do not remember ever to have seen one from the end of August,
when they are first killed, without some indication of white on the
sides of the neck, where, in adult birds, the patch of this colour
is conspicuous and well-marked. By much the greater proportion
of brent geese killed here, especially early in the season, are the
young of tlie year. Looking to this point particularly in 1840,
it was noted under the 2nd of November, that although for the
last six weeks these birds were constantly on sale, I had not seen
an adult until that day : on the 9th of the mouth, three out of
four which I saw hanging at a shop-door were old birds.

Montagu states : — " We are informed some of these birds breed
in Ireland.'' I have not seen any record to that effect, but am
credibly informed that, about thirty years ago, one pair built a
nest on Swan Island, Larne Lough, in which eggs were laid,

* March 1850. I examined a number of folded pieces of the Zostera from a brent
goose (taken from tbe throat to the stomach inclusive), and found the longest piece
to be 18 inches ; its breadth was \ of an inch.

Wilson, in his ' American Ornithology,' remarks that " their principal food is a
broad-leaved marine plant, but that they also eat small shell-fish" (vol. iii. p. 166).

THE BRENT GOOSE. 63

but these were carried off. The birds were supposed to have re-
mained in consequence of having been wounded, as were others,
since seen and shot there in summer.

Although the brent goose is a wary species, it becomes at once
tame, when wounded, and on the first day of its captivity under
the cabin roof of the wild-fowl shooter, has eaten of oats or por-
ridge. In one instance known to me, it drank water from a cup
held in the hand, and nibbled over the fingers of its cup-bearer as if
seeking for food. This bird preened its plumage, too, on the floor
of the house, some hours after capture, and seemed in all respects
as much at home as if it had been on the high seas. I have fre-
quently known these birds, when slightly wounded, and secured
from again taking flight by being pinioned, kept at couptry seats,
where there were ponds, about Belfast. They remained there ap-
parently quite contented at all times, except at the migratory sea-
son, when they became very uneasy, running backwards and for-
wards, flapping their pinioned wings in extreme anxiety to be off
to far northern summer haunts. Some kept at the Falls, without
being enclosed, had to be narrowly watched every year when under
the influence of the vernal migratory movement. They then wan-
dered as far northward as they could proceed with their disabled
wings. One, kept at Cranmore, the residence of John Temple-
ton, Esq., for nineteen years, acted like those just described every
spring for about the first twelve years ; after which period it
ceased to exhibit any particular feeling at that season. These
brent geese either fed on grass, like the tame geese, or took
share of whatever food was supplied to poultry or other domestic
birds about the place. A flock of seven — all birds obtained by
being wounded — kept for the last two or three years by Mr. R.
Chute, in Kerry, resort to the fields and feed wholly on grass.
Brent geese are mild and gentle in disposition. At the Falls,
where they were kept for many years, they were never seen
either to quarrel among themselves (of wliich bernacle there
were occasionally guilty), or with other birds, as Wilson accuses
their American brethren of doing. The shooters of the north of
Ireland bear testimony to the good and amiable character of the

64 ANATID.E.

wild brent geese towards each other, and towards all kinds of
ducks; — they call them "innocent birds/^ Wigeon, mallards,
&c., may frequently be observed mingled with them on the water,
towards the extremity of the flock. On wing, they do not asso-
ciate with any other of the Anatidce.

THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE.

Anser nijicollis, Pall.

Cannot be recorded with certainty.

When in Dublin, in March 1833, I was informed by a person
to whom tJie species was well known, that about five years pre-
viously he had seen a specimen in the shop of Mr. Glennon ; on
inquiry of whom, I learned that the bird had been sent to him in
a fresh state, to be preserved, but he was not aware where it had
been killed. That it was procured on our coast is at least a fair
inference.

Very few individuals of this species — of wliich little is known
in any country — have been obtained in England, and none in
Scotland. The bird is a native of the north of Asia.

THE EGYPTIAN GOOSE.

Anser ^gyptiacu8y\j\xm.{%-^)

Has occasionally been shot on the coast.

But from the circumstance of the species being kept on ponds,
whence it sometimes wanders, I have not always committed to
writing the instances in which it was obtained. Two notes only
on the subject are before me. The first mentions one bird as
having been shot near Moira, county Down, in the middle of
January 1833. The second, my having, on the 12th of October,
1834, seen two individuals which were shot from a flock of fifteen
on the river Lagan, near Belfast, on the 9th of that month. A
gentleman of my acquaintance, on seeing these specimens, stated

THE BUDDY SHEIJ.DEAKE. 65

that on the 10th or 11th (the following day or the second
after the pair was killed), he saw a flock of about eighteen fly-
over his ship-yard at Belfast, very low, and proceed in the direc-
tion of Lough Neagh. Subsequently, but in what year I do not
recollect, I saw a couple on sale in a poulterer^s shop in that
town.

I cannot think that the birds here noticed were truly wild,
though this species may, possibly, as well as others from the south-
east of Europe and north of Africa, occasionally visit this island.

A place is given to the Egyptian goose among British birds by
Yarrell and Jardine, and among those of Belgium by De Selys
Longchamps.

About thirty-five years ago, Egyptian geese were kept in num-
bers on lakes in Hillsborough Park, county Down, and the only
time at which any could be captured was the moulting season.
A friend, who had lost one of his, wished its place supplied, and
with permission from Lord Downshire to take a bird from his
stock, went thither, where, after considerable difliculty, he suc-
ceeded in rowing one down.

The Spub-winged or Gambo Goose {Anse)- Gambensis, Briss.) has
a place in the British catalogue, from tlie circumstance of a single in-
dividual having been obtained in Cornwall, in June 1821. The species
is a native of northern and western Africa.

THE RUDDY SHELLDRAKE.

Eerruginous Duck, Bewick, edit. 1826,

Tadorna rutila, Pallas (sp.)
^ Anas casarka, Linn.

Has once been obtained ;

As noticed by me in the 'Annals of Natural History^ (vol, xx.
p. 171). The bird was shot on the Murrough of Wicklow by
Mr. John Moreton, of that town, on the 7th of July, 1847. The
Murrough is an extensive, low, sandy tract bordering the sea,
VOL. III. r

66 ANATID^E.

such as is resorted to by the common shelklrake {T. vtdpanser)
for the purpose of breeding. On the next day the specimen
came into the possession of T. W. Warren, Esq., in whose col-
lection it now is. Its plumage indicates a male nearly adult.

Three individuals only of this species have been procured in
England — the first in 1776, the last in 1834 — and none in
Scotland. The ruddy shelldrake rarely visits any part of western
Europe ; its abode on that continent being in the eastern parts.
It is found extensively over Asia.

THE SHELLDEAKE.

Shieldrake ; Burrow Duck.

Tadorna vulpanser, Leach.
Anas tadorna, Linn.

Is found around the coast, and is indigenous.

But very few of these beautifully-marked birds now breed on the
sandy coasts compared with what formerly did so. According
to Harris's 'Down' (174-4) : — "The shelldrake breeds in rabbit
burroughs on the shores of this county, particularly about KiUi-
leagh and the south of the barony of Lecale •'' — whether or not
it now frequents these localities is unknown to me ; the following
notes relate to other parts of this county. When visiting the
islands of Strangford Lough, in June 1832, I was told that
"scale-drakes" bred annually on some of them, and imagined
that this species might be meant ; but on cross-examination of
my informants, I ascertained that the reel-breasted merganser
must be the bird so called. This was soon afterwards confirmed
by one of these coming in sight, to which the name of scale-
drake was applied. AVhen visiting Dundrum in 1836, 1 was told
that the shelldrake still breeds on the extensive marine sand-hills
there. On the largest of the Copeland Islands they bred annu-
ally until the beginning of the present century, when it became
inhabited. The chief farmer there, in 1827, imagined that they

THE SHELLDRAKE. 67

and the rabbits were contemporaneous, telling me that so long as
the rabbits were numerous the shelklrakes bred regularly ; bat
since the former were all destroyed, the birds ceased to visit the
island for that purpose. At the Kinnegar, near Holywood, Belfast
Bay, it is said that they annually bred until a late period, when
the locality became too much frequented : — a pair, however, made
the attempt in a rabbit -burrow here in the summer of 1832, but
the nest was discovered and robbed of several eggs.

Even on the extensive sands of the wild peninsula of the Horn,
in Donegal, where if these birds require the aid of rabbits to
burrow for them, there are thousands of such pioneers, I was
told, in the summer of 1832, that they had ceased to breed. The
shelldrake still continues to resort to the rabbit-holes in the
great sandy tract of Magilligan, on the coast of Londonderry.
Their eggs are sought after by the neighbouring peasantry, who
place them under hens, and when the young are reared, a ready
market is found for them among the gentry, by whom they are
kept for ornament. The nests are discovered by the old birds
being observed on their way to the chosen burrows, whence the
eggs are procured by being dug out. A sergeant employed on
the Ordnance Survey informed me that he had killed several
male birds here, chiefly in the breeding season, when it was very
easy to obtain shots at them, owing to their flying after his dog
in the manner of the lapwing, and not minding himself. He
stated, indeed, that at all seasons, and over the land, as well as
about the edge of the water, they thus flew after his dog : — the
greatest depth at which he had found their nests within the bur-
rows was six feet. Similar localities are thus resorted to on all
sides of the coast. In the south, there was one near Youghal ;^
and the birds still breed in the rabbit-holes at Inch and Ross-
begh, on the coast of Kerry ; but the numbers have much de-
creased of late years. t

With reference to bu-ds that fly inland when the flowing tide
covers their feeding-gi'ound and return at the ebb, Mr. St. John

* Mr. R. Ball. f Mr. R. Phutp, 1840.

F 2

68

ANATID3:.

observes : — " I have remarked the same instinct in the female
shelldrakes when sitting on their eggs. Although several feet
underground, they know to a moment when the tide has suffi-
ciently ebbed ; and then, and only then, do they leave their nest
to snatch a hasty meal on the cockles, &c., which they find on
the sands/'*

Belfast Bay. — So soon as the young are able to accompany
their parents in their flight, shelldrakes are seen here. According
to ten years' observation by a wild-fowl shooter, reported to me
in September 1838, they appear regularly in August. In that
y{;ar, one was seen at the end of the third week ; about the last
day of the month, ten ; and two or three days afterwards three
more joined the party : they frequented one part of the Antrim
shore, about a mile from the town, for about a week, and a
limited portion of the opposite coast for a similar period ; — al-
though very wild, several of them were killed. On the 12th of
August, 1844, two young birds of the year were shot. Shell-
drakes habitually approach very near the beach. They are
observed throughout the winter months, and occasionally until
March. An old shooter has often remarked them in the bay in
spring, when the other Anat'ulce were chiefly gone. A small
flock of five, of which two or three were adult males, was seen so
late as the 1st of May, in 1849. They very rarely appear here in
large numbers ; but after severe frost and snow, about the end of
I'ebruary 1888, a flock consisting of not less than from seventy to
eighty birds appeared ; and afterwards, in similar weather, that
same season, not less than 200 were remarked together. At the
beginning of February 1842, a flock of fully one hundred was
seen within a mile and half of the town : on this occasion, as
well as for some time before and afterwards, the weather was mild.
All such flocks are, I consider, on migration to their breeding
quarters in more northern latitudes. Such, too, is Mr. Selby's
opinion with regard to still larger flocks which visit the Northum-
brian coast in early spring.f

* 'Tour ill Sutherland/ vol. ii. p. 53. f Vol. ii. p. 290.

THE SHELLDRAKE. . "

On examination of the gizzards of nine birds killed in Bel-
fast Bay, Strangford Lough, and Dundrum Bay, in winter wea-
ther of all kinds, and in the mouths of March, April, and July,
I found them all to contain a number of minute univalve shells,
in addition to which was only sand or gravel. A few of them
from the two first-named localities were entirely filled with Palu-
dina muriatica, Lam., a most abundant species. Although they
exliibited " shell-fish" only, food of various kinds — vegetable and
animal — was abundant where they were obtained. The tenth
individual— shot in BeKast Bay, in February 1849, during mild
weather — had its stomach wholly filled with minute mollusca, Mon-
taciita purpurea"^ (in profusion), Skenea depressa, and Falndina
muriatica (few of these). Its crop was full of the two former
species, chiefly of very small Skenea ; it alone containing not less
than nine thousand of these shell-fish. The stomach produced still
more, so that 20,000 of these minute mollusca were estimated to
be in the bird at the same time.f To give an idea of their size,
the Skenea is about that of clover-seed, or one-eighteenth of an inch
in diameter ; the Montacuta, when large, is one-twelfth of an inch
broad. The bird was very fat, as might be expected from such
nutritious diet ; — the same on which the grey mullet {JSIugil
clielo) attains a great size in this bay.

From the evident partiality of the species for such food, I had
naturally imagined that it was originally called *S/^e//- drake,
and that Shiel-iS.fsk.Q would turn out to be an unmeaning corrup-
tion. The latter term is often quoted froui AVillughby, though
" Sheldrake" is his orthography ; J and he tells us that " they
are called Sheldrakes because they are particoloured" (p. 363),
Mr. Yarrell suggests that " the term Shield-drake may have had
its origin in the frequent use made of this bird in heraldry. §
Willughby's may, however, be the correct version, when we
tliink of the red-breasted merganser and the goosander, birds

* Mija jmrpurea, Mont.

t L'ive hiiiulred were reclconed by Mr. Darragh (Curator of the Belfast Museuin)
and myself, and the remainder carefully divided into portions of similar size.

+ Edition 1678. § Vol. iii. p. \V^.

70 ANATID^.

with pied plumage like that under consideration^ often bearing
the name of shell-duck.

On all quarters of the coast this bird is at least occasionally
met with, — is " in considerable numbers in Dingle Bay/' and on
the shores of Connemara, as well as elsewhere ; — it is not found
in North America. Very rarely is it killed in a wild state on
fresh water."^ It is generally considered to be bad as food ; but
a person of my acquaintance considers the flesh of the young bird,
when just able to fly well, very good, while that of the old he
regards as strong and having a heavy disagreeable smell.

Males of this species vary much in size, increasing apparently
until they attain the fullest maturity. The old birds of this sex
are always, from their superior bulk to the others, singled out
and fu-ed at amidst a flock, by the wild-fowl shooters in Belfast
Bay ; — they are sometimes as large as brent geese. The finest I
have seen was one of seven birds killed here at a shot from a
flock of eight. The knob at the base of the upper mandible,
which is hard in winter, increases very much in spring, becoming
then soft, fleshy, and filled with oily matter : at this season it is
as figured by Bewick.

A fine male shelldrake kept for some years at the Falls near
Belfast, was extremely attractive, owing to his brilHant plumage,
light graceful walk, and rapid flight. He became so domestic as
never to leave the place, though his wings were fi-eely used in fly-
ing about it. He would take food from a person's hand, was a
very bold bird, and could even master the tame swans. This he
managed by alightin'g on their backs and buffeting them with
his wings. The swans when so attacked did not attempt to re-
taHate, but invariably made the best of their way from the tor-
mentor. The peculiar and quick whistHng caU of this bird, heard
at a considerable distance, was frequently uttered. He paired with
the common duck, for two or three years successively, producing
a beautiful progeny. Several others which were kept here never
bred, either with their own species or with the common duck,

* An immatui'c male was shot on the river near Clonmcl, January 19th, 18il.

THE SHOVELLEll. 71

though the males — like those mentioned by Montagu — were bold
and gallant in spring, and manifested every disposition to do so.
The manners of the species on such occasions are well described by
Mr. Selby, who gives a full and excellent account of the bird
generally. Mr. Yarrell offers a good hint to persons wishing to
breed them, mentioning the method successfully adopted at the
Zoological Garden, Regent^s Park, London (p. 143). Colonel
Hawker, too, in his ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen,' supplies
some information on this buxl, which he calls burrough duck, and
tells the way to keep the young."^

One pair of shell-ducks out of several lately kept by Mr. Trum-
bull of Beechwood, Malahide, bred three years successively. The
first year there were eight young, all of which were brought to
maturity ; the next, the whole brood was carried off the night
after being hatched ; the third, they were brought to as successful
an issue as in the first year. The owner of these birds, observing
the old ones apparently looking about for a breeding-place in a
yard, made a burrow there, like that of a rabbit, and in it the nest
was formed each year.f

I was told in Islay (January 1849), that the shelldrake is com-
mon and breeds there ; but leaves the island (or part known to
my informant) in autumn, and returns again about the last week
of December. The oystercatcher is said to do the same.

THE SHOVELLER.

Blue-winged Shoveller.

Spathulea clypeata^ Linn, (sp.)
Anas „ „

Is a regular winter visitant to some parts, of Ireland.

My notes bear witness to its presence in different localities on
the Down coast, in three successive winters — 1835-36-37 — and
again in 1839. Birds of all ages occm- in fair proportion. Two,
which I obtained, were killed in Belfast Bay in the winter of

* The matter is all copied into YarrelFs work. f Mr. T. W. Warren.

72 ANATIDiE.

1829-30, but the species is not procured here regularly every
season. One, shot on a pond of fresh-water near Mount Stewart,
county of Down, in the middle of August 1833, came into my
possession, and on the 11th of September, the same year, I saw
a recently killed bird which was purchased in the inland town of
Lisburn. One was shot on the fresh- water dam at Beers' Bridge,
near Belfast, on the 21st of October, 1844. But nearly all the
shovellers seen in this town are killed in the bay. Eour, shot
here, from a flock of seven, on December 15tli, 1847, came under
my notice immediately afterwards.^ A practised wild-fowl
shooter imagined, from their manner of feeding, that they were
wild ducks. They did not attempt to dive until wounded and
endeavouring to escape, and then dived but badly. Two of them
were in the beautiful plumage of the adult male. In weight,
they varied from 12 ^ to 15 ounces, and were all in very fine con-
dition, so much so, that I measured the tliickness of fat on one of
them, and found it to be an inch on the breast. The stomachs
of the five contained minute pebbles only. Yarrell describes the
adult male as having the bill lead-coloured, but this organ in
both birds is wholly — above and below — of a shining black ; a
third male, all but adult (the next spring moult would have made
him so), has the bill blackish, with a reddish-brown tinge apparent,
when viewed with the Hght upon it ; the bill of the fourth, a
female, is dusky-black with a reddish-brown tinge. Tarsi and
toes of all four are reddish-orange, those of the female palest.
Irides of all are dark, golden-yeUow ; those of the female the least
pure in colour.

The latest period of the spring in which this species has come
under my notice here, was on the 3rd of April, 1849. A sj)lendid
adult male, then shot, was accompanied by another in similar
plumage, which was wounded. The specimen was 18 oz. in
weight ; its length 1 9 inches ; wing, from carpus to end of quills,
9 inches ; first quill of each wing longest, and not the second, as
mentioned by Yarrell ; — in another specimen examined, the second
is the longest in the wing ; the character of comparative length,
* A couple were on sale in Belfast market about three weeks previously.

THE SHOVELLER. 73

therefore, is not positive. The gizzard exhibited the remains of
vegetable matter. Of two other birds killed in the month of
January, the gizzard of the one contained vegetable matter of dif-
ferent kinds ; the other, only sand, gravel, and fragments of a Lit-
torina. One, examined in November, was filled with the remains
of vegetable matter, including a number of seeds ; — in a second,
looked to this month, were a number of the univalve shell, Ris-
soa ulvce, and a full-grown Littorina neritoides, in addition to
which were fragments of stone, as there were in all the others.
The contents of one, procured in Wexford market in this month
(and examined by Mr. J. Poole), were similar to those in the last
bird. The shoveller has been seen on the fresh-water at Caledon,
county Tyrone.

On calling, in the month of March, 1833, at two bird-pre-
servers' in Dublin, I found that one had just received an adult
male shoveller, and the other, two fresh specimens, including
an old male. When in this city, in the same month of the
following year, Mr. Glennon informed me -that he had preserved
seven or eight of these birds during the winter just then past, all of
which had been taken in a decoy. Down to the present period
(1850), one or two pair can, at any time during the season, be
procured in a decoy in a midland county, whence the birds are
sent to Dublin.

In August 1836, Mr. W. S. Wall stated, that he procured shovel-
lers every winter in the Dublin market, and that in the preceding
season, he had purchased about eight or nine : in the winter of
1837-38, several fresh specimens were brought to him on sale,
the earliest on the 12th of October — in the lirst week of May,
1838, a recent adult male was offered to him. A few of these
birds appear in Dublin Bay occasionally in winter.^" An indivi-
dual, shot on fresh-water in the middle of August, in the north,
has already been noticed, and, on the 17th of that month, in 1846,
one was sent on sale to Dublin.t These two birds, and the one
just mentioned, as obtained in May, suggest that the shoveller
may possibly breed in Ireland, as it docs sparingly in England.
* Mr. R. J. Montgomery. f Mr. J. Walters, jiin.

74 ANATIDiE.

This bird is occasionally shot iu Westmeath, and visits Wex-
ford harbour (whence at least half-a-dozen are brought to market
every winter), where it bears the name of inaiden-ducJcJ^ At Water-
ford, it is called wldnyard — a name applied to a knife and a sword
of a peculiar shape, resembling the shoveller's bill in form.f
One of these birds was shot in the harbour of Cork, in January,
and another (adult) in April, 1846. One or two, at most, are seen
in Cork market every winter, adults as frequently as young.J
Two were shot in the winter of 1836-37, near Tralee, where a
few occasionally appear, § and the species is sometimes seen on
the river Shannon. The term "whinyard^^ reminds me of the
" whinnard" noticed in Mason's ' Statistical Account of Ireland'
(vol. iii. p. 400), by the Rev. William Eastwood, in his obser-
vations on the wild-fowl of Wexford harbour. " The average
prices," he remarks, "may be thus : — barnacle [brent geese], 6s. ;
whinnard, 3s. ; wigeon, 2s. 6d. ; teal. Is. 8d. ; and duck (least
liked), 2s. a pair." The whinnard I presume to be the shoveller,
and it is not rated comparatively too high. A friend, who has
eaten of birds killed iu Belfast Bay, considered them the best
wild-fowl of which he ever partook ; and much better than teal.
They were thickly covered with fat, of a delicate flavour. Authors
on both sides of the Atlantic bear testimony to the superior quality
of the shoveller as an article of food. Wilson speaks of " the ex-
cellence of its flesh, which is uniformly juicy, tender, and well-
tasted" (vol. iii. p. 87, Jardine's edit.). Audubon even prefers
it to the canvas-back duck, so celebrated for its gastronomic vir-
tues. The latter author gives, from personal observation, some
very interesting particulars of the species, vol. iv. p. 241.

The shoveller is perhaps about equally common in England and
Ireland ; but much less so in Scotland than in the latter island.
To Mr. Macgillivray it was even unknown there when his
Manual was written (vol. ii. p. 172), and it does not appear in
Mr. St. John's copious list of the birds of Sutherland. || Sir

* Mr. J. Poole. f Mr. 11. BaU. ; Dr. J. R. Harvey, 1850.

§ Mr.T. F. Neligan. |1 'Tour in Sutherland,' vol. i. ^. 140.

THE WILD DUCK. 75

William Jardine haSj however, generally seen one or two speci-
mens (though where obtained is not stated) during the winter and
spring in Edinburgh market, and according to the ' Historia Na-
turalis Orcadeusis' (p. 75), published in 1848, the species is not
unfrequent in Orkney.

THE WILD DUCK.

Mallard.

Anas hoschas, Linn.

Is cominoii around the coast ; on fresli-water lakes, &c. ;
and is indigenous.

Although great numbers of these birds migrate from more
northern countries to our coasts and inland waters every winter,
the species breeds tlu-oughout the island wherever it can find
suitable localities. At a sheet of water, about two miles from
Belfast, in Belvoir Park, two or three pair annually build, and a
similar number at Bally drain Lake, four miles distant ; — in 1832,
the young were noted as swimming about here at the beginning
of May. Numbers breed about two lakes at Hillsborough
Park, at the distance of ten miles. A person visiting them on the
lOtli of June, 1845, saw about a dozen broods of young, the fe-
male parents of which exhibited various stratagems to induce
him and the gamekeeper to follow her instead of the duck-
lings ; if on the ground, dragging herself along it apparently by
the aid of her wings alone ; if at the edge of the water, rushing
along the surface flapping her wings ; the bill in either case being
wide agape, and a loud cry kept up. The young, in the mean-
time, became secreted among the herbage or escaped into the water;
once into which, they instantly dived, and continued doing so until
they got so far out as to be inapprehensive of danger, when they
formed a little flock and swam quite composedly after their parent.
The keeper here believes that pike, of which there are many in
one lake, consume a number of the young birds, as he has often

76 ANATID.E.

seen these dive but never come up again. Various instances of wild
ducks building in trees are on record ; thirty feet being the greatest
height of the nest from the ground mentioned in the latest work
on ' British Birds/ Some years ago, a nest was formed in a tree
in Hillsborough Park, about forty feet from the ground, and in
1848, a magpie's nest was taken possession of as the site for an-
other, although it was very near the top of a fine silver fir, one
of the loftiest trees in the demesne, and not less than eighty to
ninety feet in height. This tree, too, was at least a furlong dis-
tant from the lake or water of any kind. The nest was disco-
vered by a boy who is in the habit of annually destroying the eggs
of " winged vermin" (hawks, crows, magpies, &c.), and wdio
ascended the tree to this one for the purpose, but, when near it,
was astonished to see a wild duck instead of a magpie fly off. On
examination of the nest, he found it to contain fifteen eggs. When
my informant visited the place soon afterwards, the climber was
sent again to the nest to see what progress had been made, and
the egg-shells, broken, &c., in the peculiar manner of those from
which young birds have made their exit, only remained. None
of the ducklings being found on the ground around the base of
the tree, it was presumed that they had all been carried by their
parent in safety from their lofty birth-place. Even a wild-duck,
the occupant of this nest, might be able fairly to boast, that

" Our eyrie buildeth in the cedar's top,
Aad dallies in tlie wind, and scorns tlie sun."

I have been credibly informed that in the demesne at Castle
Coole, county of Fermanagh, a tree, selected by a wild duck for
building in, was that on which a large bell, in daily requisition at
particular hours, was hung : the nest was placed about fifteen or
twenty feet above the ground, and the eggs were incubated for
the usual period, but without success.

On the borders of Lough Neagh, great numbers of these birds
breed ; and some of the best haunts there were, until a few years
ago — and perhaps are still — annually resorted to for the unsports-
manlike purpose of " flapper-shooting," /. e., kilHng the young
birds when nearly full grown, but before they are well able to fly.

THE WILD DUCK. 77

They are not, however, so easily obtained as might be imagined,
owing to their diving and concealing themselves among the dense
aquatic herbage. About the wild lakes of Donegal and Connaught
I have often come unawares upon wild ducks in their breeding-
haunts. It is unnecessary to specify localities, of wliich there
are some in every county in the island. Mr. R. Davis, jun.,
observes (1842) that "Wild ducks seem to admire tliick fiu'ze-
covers as nesting-places. A fox-cover near Clonmel is frequently
resorted to for this purpose. They sometimes build on the tops
of old walls covered with herbage — brambles, &c.^^

The first time I rode through the finely wooded and watered
Shane's Castle Park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, in the
month of January, now many years ago, I, with surprise, remarked
that of the immense numbers of these birds which arose into the
air, a duck and drake almost invariably sprang together, or soon
joined in flight, thus giving indication of their being already
paired. In the month of December, too, I think that I have'
observed them paired in that park, but have no positive note
on the subject. In the autumn, also, when they frequently
betake themselves in the evening to the corn-fields in the
neighbourhoood of Lough Neagh to feed, they are said com-
monly to fly in pairs.* Mr. Waterton has since, in his
' Essays on Natural History,'t 'given as his opinion " that the
old birds remain in pairs through the entire year, and that the
young ones which had been hatched in the preceding spring
choose their mates long before they depart for the Arctic regions
in the following year." An observation similar to the above has
been made on the other side of the Atlantic. Audubon observes :
— " The mallards that remain with us during the whole year, and
breed on the banks of the Mississippi, or Lake Michigan, or in the
beautiful meadows that here and there border the Schuylkil in
Pennsylvania, begin to pair in the very heart of winter.''^ This
author gives a full and interesting history of the mallard, but to

* Oa such occasions they are shot by fowlers, who not only conceal themselves
behind the fences, but within the stocks of corn.

t Vol. i. p. 200, 3rJ eilition. + Vol. iii. p. 07.

78 ANATID.T..

one paragraph I must make exception. I allude to that at p.
168, where, in the imaginative strain of Buffon, the " un7iatural
barbarism" of a male is protested against as caring nothing for
his progeny. Surely it is, instead, natural, and agreeable to the
instinct with which the bird has been endowed, that the male
leaves the whole charge of the young to the female. As a differ-
ence of opinion has existed on this subject, it may be stated, in
the words of Mr. Selby, that " the care of the young devolves
entirely upon the duck, and is not partaken by the male as Wil-
son and others appear to think ; and this fact," he observes, " I
have had frequent opportunities of verifying" (p. 308). Accord-
ing to the observation of Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, at his pond at the
Falls, where several of tliis species were always kept, the mallards
never sat upon the eggs, and were not only pugnaciously disposed
towards each other in spring, but annoyed the ducks by their
pertinacious pursuit, sometimes even causing them to leave their
nests. A nest here, in 1845, was made on the ground in an
open meadow, and contained eleven eggs. On being visited seve-
ral times in the absence of the duck, the eggs were always con-
cealed from view, by having been covered over with mosses.

A gentleman informs me that once when in Kensington Gar-
dens, London, he had seen a person throw a stone at a brood of
wild ducks that wounded one of them, when, to his surprise, the
mother, on perceiving her young one hurt, rushed at and pecked
it so \Tiolently as in a few minutes to deprive it of life. He saw
an almost similar instance in St. Jameses Park, but the young
was able to make a better fight, and when attacked by its mother,
it, after a slight struggle, succeeded in freeing itself. A trivial
incident of an opposite kind was thus noticed in Mr. Templeton^s
journal : — August 31, 1819. I was delighted, to-day, with seeing
an instance of thought and affection in a duck. One of her
young ones having fallen on its back in a dish of meat, the mother
uttered a scream and ran to its assistance, and lifting it gently in
her bill, placed it on its feet." In the amiable light of a peace-
maker— as separating two fighting redbreasts — a duck will be
found rioticed in the first volume of this work (p. 166).

THE WILD DUCK. 79

Mr. Selby, who gives a full and good account of the species
under consideration^ has remarked that, '' in a natural state, wild
ducks always pair, though in a state of domestication they are
observed to be polygamous. This pairing takes place towards
the end of February or beginning of March, and they continue
associated till the female begins to sit, when the male deserts her,
joining others of his own sex similarly situated ; so that it is
usual to see the mallards, after May, in small flocks by themselves"
(p. 307). Tliis subject has been touched on in Mc Skimmings
' History of Carrickfergus.' It is there said of wild ducks : —
" Often shot during winter at Loughmorne ; and until a few
years ago some pairs bred in the most remote bogs of this parish.
Their eggs have been hatched under hens, and the young thus
domesticated ; but they have been observed to be always shy, and
easily alarmed on the least noise ; and in the spring, the drake
has been remarked to attach himself wholly to one duck for that
season." With respect to the " wild" habits of the young birds,
I may state that, although of correct general appHcation, it is not
universal. Large broods of young wild ducks, captured when
half grown, about Lough Neagh, have become quite tame ; and
until spring, when they were disposed of, remained, except when
taking occasional flights, with the domestic birds of their own
species about the house where they were fed.

Adult birds of both sexes may occasionally be seen flocked
together in summer. On the 15th June, 1833, I remarked a
number of them so about Ram's Island, and the neighbour-
ing parts of Lough Neagh ; and on the 15tli May, 1834,
observed thirteen thus associated on the beach of this lake. On
the 21st June, 1832, I met with a small number of old birds of
both sexes together on an islet in Strangford Lough. Birds thus
seen had probably not bred.

In winter the males sometimes keep together in immense
flocks. This was particularly remarked by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire
and myself in the month of January 1824, during severe frost with
much snow and sleet, when they came far up Belfast Bay, close
to Thomson's embankment. The water was literally covered with

80 ANATID-E.

multitudes of them, and "beautiful exceedingly" they looked,
without a single dull-pluraaged female among them.

Belfast Bay. — My few notes of the early and late appearance
of the species here are: — In the middle of August 1882, a few
were seen, and also at the end of the same month in 1839 : on
the 23rd of August, 181^0, a flock of twenty-eight appeared on
wing, proceeding in a southerly direction, and were supposed to
be on migration. So late as April 7 (1838), a flock of about
thirty was seen.'^ They sometimes frequent rocky islets in great
numbers late in autumn and in winter : on the 7th December,
1833, in particular, I remarked them in the afternoon, between
two and three o^ clock (three hours before high-water), covering
over such islets off Rockport. They probably resort thither as
the only safe places of refuge on land, when tired of the water.
They looked like Grallatores (see Curlew, Vol. II.) awaiting the fall-
ing of the tide and consequent uncovering of their feeding banks.f
The period already noticed, when so many mallards appeared in
tliis bay, was in very severe weather ; but in the mild winters of
1843-44 and 1844-45, both ducks and mallards associated to-
gether (they do not mix much with other species) were very

* At Ballydrain lake a greater number were observed about the same date in
1849. On the 31st March, 1843, the wild ducks from the lake at Lurgan House,
county of Armagh, had not betaken themselves to their breeding haunts, as numbers
of them (many more than would breed there) sprang in pairs as we walked around
its banks.

t " Two small islands on the south coast of the county of Wexford, called the
Keroes, about a mile from the shore, are, in the winter season, the daily resort of
immense flocks of Anatida. These birds lie on and around the islands during the
day, and at nightfall resort to the maiuland, over which they spread themselves in
all suitable localities. On these flights they fly at a considerable height, and are fre-
quently shot by fowlers, who wait for them on hiU-tops which lie in their course.
They arrive at the islands about the first grey of the morning, and remain in the
vicinity during the day. If the weather be very fine, and the sea calm, they lie
much of the day on the water and between the islands. Duck, teal, and wigeon
form the bulk of these flocks. The first that arrive in the morning are most vigilant,
and least easily approached. A small salt-water pond among the rocks is nearly ex-
clusively occupied by teal, which often lie on it in numbers.

" I observed a common tame duck, while washing and cleaning its feathers, fre-
quently sipping up a little water at intervals, as if for the purpose of assisting in the
operation, possibly by diluting the fluid of its gland. AVhen it had moistened its
bill with a fresh supply of water, it took the feathers sepai'ately, and di-ew them
through that organ, champing them diligently until it had brought them to a satis-
factory condition." — Mr. Joseph Poole.

THE WILD DUCK. 81

plentiful. Early in the winter of 1 842-43, they were likewise
so, and were seen coming in immense numbers every evening
from some inland lakes, to feed in the bay during the night.
First, a few small flocks appeared, then as many in broken
parties as would cover the fourth of a square mile, and, lastly, the
rear was brought up like the advanced posts, by a few small
flocks. In mid-winter they disappeared ; but in the severe weather
beginning in February, they were again most abundant — all
other species of ducks were scarce here that season. At the
breaking up of a frost, it is very interesting to walk along the
shores of the bay, and witness the ever-varying flights of the Ana-
tida. Among others, little flocks of wild ducks are so restless, as
to be constantly getting up from some quarter or other, and
sweeping through the air.

I have remarked at the Falls ponds, how much these birds suffered
from frost, after it had been very intense for a few nights, and the
ground had been covered with snow. Several of them, after walking
two or three yards, would sit down, and, evidently from the cold-
ness of their legs and feet, draw them up into their plumage.
When warmed in this way, they would start again on foot, but not
go farther than before without sitting down and playing a similar
part : I witnessed this frequently, and, though pitying the poor
ducks, could not but be amused at the very slow progress which
they made. Birds wholly wild, would probably have taken flight
instead of walking. Those alluded to, which had the use of their
wings, were content to remain on the ponds (some of which
are small) during the day, but in the evening often flew to the
neighbouring feeding-grounds of the wild individuals of their
species, where they were sometimes killed by fowlers.

I had annually, at the Falls, the opportunity of observing the
singular change of plumage which takes place in the mallard early
in summer, when, losing his brilliant colours and markings,
he becomes similar in garb to the duck. This change, which
has long been known to take place, is very particularly and
agreeably described by Mr. Waterton. Not only the mallard,

VOL. III. o

82 anatiDjE,

but the old male wigeoii and male pintails liere cliangcd in like
manner^ yielding up all the beautiful characteristic colours and
markings of their sex (except that the white patch on the wigeon^'s
wing remained unchanged), to assume the dull hue of the females
of their respective species, from which they diflcred only in the
colours being of a darker shade — at the ordinary autumnal moult
they all again assumed their proper male attire. Towards the
end of May, the mallards' masque commenced ; and by the middle
or end of September, they were themselves again.

Having frequently mentioned Anaticlce kept on the ponds at
the Tails, near Belfast, by Mr. Sinclaire, it may be desirable to
notice all the species which were there at one period ; viz. : —
Bewick's swan.
Brent goose.
Bernacle.
Mallard.
Shelldrake.
Wigeon.
Teal.
Scaup.
Tufted duck.
Pochard.

Summer duck of North America, Bendronessa sponsa.
The above were kept on an enclosed pond. There were at large the
Tame swan. ''^

Canada goose.
Egyptian goose.
Once, when walking round the aquatic menagerie in the middle
of June, I remarked that nearly all the plants of Equisetum fluvia-
tile or Telmateia (of which there were many) had been divested
of their branches by these birds, though, excepting grass, they
had not eaten of any other of the numerous plants growing within
the enclosure.

The following is extracted from the journal of the late Mr.
Templeton : —

"In the spring of 1807, 1 received, from John Sinclaire, Esq.,

THE WILD Drriv. 83

a duck, the third remove from a wikl one, which had been carried
in a basket from the Falls, two miles from Belfast, to his house
in town. Its wing was either pulled or cut, on being turned into
his town-yard, where it was kept for four or five weeks. He
then sent it to my residence in Malone, two miles from Belfast
in a different direction. It remained there, frequenting a pond
in my garden, for about three weeks, when it disappeared. On
going to Belfast, I found, by Mr. Sinclaire, that it had gone home
to his dam whence it had been brought." "^

Wild ducks rarely collect into dense flocks, like brent geese
or wigeon ; they are more scattered, and hence do not offer such
tempting shots. They — and teal also — differ from those birds
and from other wild-fowl by suddenly bounding from the water
right into the air, without giving any warning to the shooter;
whereas, the otliers swim a little off, or give some indication that
they are about to rise. They continue numerous as ever — at
least, as for forty years past — in Belfast Bay, visiting it chiefly
at night, though brent geese, wigeon, and teal have become much
diminished. In Dublin, too, I learned, in December 1849, that
they are as abundant as ever in the decoys, &c., whence the mar-
ket of that city is supplied. They are very highly esteemed for
the table. In Belfast, the shooters usually get from Is. 3d. to
Is. 6d. each for them, from the dealers, which is twice as much
as they do for pochards or scaup ducks.

In Belfast, the common species of Anatida are generally pre-
ferred as food in the following order : — Wild duck, teal, wigeon,
brent goose, pochard ; the scaup is not very saleable — the tufted
duck and golden-eye still less so.f The pintail, of which very few
are obtained, is considered of equal value with the wigeon ; and
the shoveller, still more rare, does not yield to any species in the
fine flavour of its flesh.

* Aug. 3, 1810. — This was communicatecl to Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, for her
' Anecdotes of Auimals.'

t I have known the golden-eye brought to table at the end of March, when,
though not too long kept, its smell was so strong and disagreeable, that it had to be
sent out of the room.

a 1

84 ANATID.E,

The food coutaiiied in wild ducks, killed in the north of Ireland,
and examined by me, was almost invariably, in mild weather, of
a vegetable nature. In addition to this, the birds procured
during frost in Belfast Bay included, or sometimes were exclu-
sively filled with, minute shells, of several species, but especially
tlie Rissoa ulvce. Of two shot here (February 1848), just after
arrival from fresh water one had in its bill a horse-leech {Hirudo
sanguisugd) — the other ejected several of them. The stomach
of an omnivorous mallard, killed at Larne Lough in October 1848,
and brought to me by Mr. Darragh, curator and taxidermist to
the Belfast Museum, contained the following : — An eel, four
inches in length; a crab [Carcinas mcenas), an inch broad across
the carapace, or shell, and perfect ; of marine univalve and bi-
valve shell-fi.sh, 1 Lacuna quadrifasciata, 2 Rissoa interrupta, 4
Rissoa alhella ?, 5 Modiola discrejMrtS (fry), about 20 of the
young of Littorina vulgaris and L, retusa, 40 Montacuta [Mi/a)
purpurea, 391 Bulla ohtusa, and 475 Rissoa alha : it contained
also above 4,500 of the handsomely sculptured seeds of the grass-
wrack, Zostera marina ; nor was this all, as fully one-tenth of the
matter — that which adhered to the coats of the stomach — was not
taken into account.

Montagu, in the Supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary/
remarks, under "Cuckow," that : — "There are some insects and
worms that appear to be rejected by most birds. The thrush
most greedily devours the Umax of the Helix oiemoralis, but will
not eat a naked Umax ; this is left for the duck, which is almost
the only bird that will swallow this slimy morsel/^ But, the
Hon. and Rev. Wilham Herbert, in one of his many interest-
ing notes to White's 'Selborne,''^ observes : — "I have in vain
flattered myself that ducks would deliver the garden from this
nuisance [slugs], and have never found that they would touch
them." In the north of Ireland tame ducks eat slugs most
greedily, and are commonly turned into gardens for the purpose
of destroying them. I have, myself, very frequently observed

* Bennett's edition, p. 44.3.

THE WILD DUCK. 85

tliein so engaged in various places. The Curator of the Royal
Botanic Garden, Belfast, informs me that they eat of them so
voraciously there as to become surfeited, and to be obliged to sit
down and rest, apparently sick from being overgorged. Another
observant person has often known ducks to be " all but choked"
from the quantity of slugs they had eaten, so that their owners,
believing them to be at the point of death, killed them, that the
birds might not be lost as food. Lvmax agrestls, the chief
destroyer of the vegetation of the garden, &c., is their chief prey.
So well is their feeding on slugs established here, that there
are some persons who refuse to eat of these birds on account of
the foul diet (as they consider) on which they have fattened.

Wlien proceeding from Utrecht to Gorcum, on the 2nd June,
1S26, I was surprised to observe among the reeds, in the wild
fens, numerous long narrow hampers, like those used in the north
of Ireland to pack potatoes in for exportation, and, on inquiry,
learned that they were placed there for wild ducks to breed in, so
that the young brood might be secured before they were able
to fly.

This species is fully as plentiful in Ireland as in England. If
tlie observations of Sir William Jardine'^ and Mr. Macgillivray,
respecting the numbers seen in winter, apply to Scotland, the
wild duck is more abundant during that season in Ireland than it
is there. One eloquent paragraph from Wilson must be here
given. .lie remarks : — "This is the original stock of the common
domesticated duck, reclaimed, time immemorial, from a state of
nature, and now become so serviceable to man. In many indi-
viduals, the general garb of the tame drake seems to have under-
gone little or no alteration ; but the stamp of slavery is strongly
imprinted in liis dull indifferent eye and grovelhng gait, while the
lofty look, long tapering neck, and sprightly action of the former,
bespeak his native spirit and independence."t

* 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 10'.).

t ' Amer. Ornit.,' vol. iii. p. 141. Jardinu's edit.

86 i\NATlD/E.

THE GADWALL.

Anas strepera, Linn.

Is of rare occurrence in Ireland.

The first individual recorded* is one which I saw in March 1833,
in the collection of Dr. R. Graves of Dublin, who informed me
that it was shot at Wexford, and sent to him thence in a recent
state, in the winter just then past. When in Dublin in May
] 838, I was told by Mr. Glennon that two gadwalls, which were
brought to him, had been shot on the coast of Malahide a few
miles distant on the 24th of January preceding, and that, early
in the month of March, a bird of this species was sent to him for
preservation by Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., of Knockdrin Castle,
Westmeath. I subsequently learned from this gentleman that
the specimen was shot at that inland locality. Mr. W. S. Wall
(bird-preserver) received a young male, killed in the same winter
at Bakloyle, and purchased another (a female) in the market of
the metropolis : — it will be recollected that the winter of 1837-38
was particularly productive of the Anatida.

In a paper read before tlie Dublin Natural History Society on the
4th of December 1840, Mr. H. H. Dombrain mentioned his having
procured a fine male gadwall, which had been shot at Malahide in
the preceding week. Male and female specimens, presented to
that society in 1841 or ] 842, by Mr. Massey, of the Pigeon-house
Fort, are believed to have been obtained in the Bay of Dublin.
I have seen a bird of this species in the collection of Mr. J. Watters,
jun., of that city, by whom I am assured that he saw two fresh
specimens, male and female, in the market there on the 8th of
December, 1846, and an immature bird about the 18th of that
month in 1849; also, that he has seen at least one on sale by
wild-fowl dealers in the course of every winter for some years past :
all of which were killed in Ireland. f

* Proceedings Zool. Soc. ] 834, p. 30.

t This siiigulai'ly agrees with what is said of the gadwall iu the east of Euglaiul.
The Rev. Mr. liUbbock informs us that il "is generally to be seen in Norwich niai'-
ket once or twice iu (he winter." — ' Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 119.

THE PINTAIL. 87

A young male gadwall was shot in Beaulieu pond, near Drogheda,
on the 5th of March, 1849, by R. J. Montgomery, Esq., a week
before which time there was a gale from the east, and, immediately
afterwards, another gale from that quarter, accompanied by snow.
This bird is said to have emitted a very strong and peculiar odour,
which was communicated to the hands of the person touching it,
and was equally strong from the time that it was picked up until
sent to be preserved two days afterwards. The same gentleman sent
a female or young male from Drogheda to DubHu to be preserved,
on the 21st of January, 1850.* A young male was shot about
the 3rd of this month in a bog near Blarney, county of Cork.t

A male gadwall, partially exhibiting adult plumage, was shot
by Mr. Francis Eankin in a snipe bog, nearly a quarter of a
mile from the sea, in the Ards, near Kirkcubbin, county Down,
about Christmas 1847. Only the one appeared; it was liberally
presented by that gentleman to the Belfast Museum.

The gadwall is considered a rare bird in England, and is not
positively known to Sir William Jardine or Mr. Macgillivray to
have occurred in Scotland, but, at Sanday, one of the Orkney
Islands, { it was lately stated that a gadwall occasionally appears.
The British Islands, generally, lie too far west to be much visited
by the species.

THE PINTAIL.

Anas acuta, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant, in small numbers, to our
coast and inland waters.

Belfast Bay. — Some two or three of these birds are almost sure
to be obtained here every month of September. § The earliest

* I have since Icaraed that this bird was Icillcil at tlie iiihmd locality of Elphin,
county lloscomraon.

t Dr. J. R.Hai-vey. % Hist. Nat. Oread, p. 75.

§ From Lough Foyle, county of Londonderry, I have likewise seen them in
September, and occasionally during the winter.

88 ANATlDiE.

known to nie were a couple shot on the 2nd of that month, in
1842, Adult as well as young bhds are killed at this season;
and of the former there seems, relatively to the immature, a larger
proportion than in any other species of the Anatidce. Prom the
circumstance of pintails being cliiefly shot in the latter half of
the month of September, and early in October, I have been dis-
|)Osed to consider them on migration, in Kttle families ; five, six,
or seven birds being the most that are usually seen together.
On the 7th October, 1844, six of them and a wild duck were
killed at a shot from a swivel-gun ; — the whole flock annihilated
at one fell swoop. After this time, chiefly single birds, and these
rarely, are killed ; — generally in company with wigeon. The
name commonly applied to them by the wild-fowl shooters
is pintail wigeon. Severe weather seems to have no efl'ect in
increasing their numbers. The latest period at which I have
known them here was the 3rd of April (1848). The food con-
tained in the stomachs of tlu-ee individuals from this locality,
killed in January and February of diflerent years, was : — In the
first, portions of Zostera marina ; in the second and third, the
remains of soft vegetable matter, with the addition, in one, of
a few of the small univalve shell, Rissoa ulv<x ; in both were frag-
gments of stone, and, in the third, sand. Seeds and other
vegetable food were found in a bird killed on fresh water, at
Lough Neagh. The pintail is considered a very good bird for
the table.

Audubon remarks, that the pintail is "scarcely nocturnal.''
I once knew it to be shot on wing at the evening " flying-time''
of wild-fowl, at " the bog-meadows," Belfast. A couple were
killed by Sir Wm. Jardine, feeding at dusk in some wet stubble
in company with mallard and teal.

The pintail is pretty generally — though very sparingly in
numbers — distributed over the fresh-water lakes, large and small,
of this island. From Lough Neagh, and its little adjunct, Lough
Beg, it has been brought to me. About Tandragee (Armagli) it
has been shot. A few were taken every winter in the decoy at
l\Iountainstown, county Meath, the residence of the late Arthur

THE PINTAIL. 89

Pollock, Esq., and they can still be had at any time during that
season, but more particularly in (and after) the month of January,
from decoys, which supply Dublin market. Three or four couple
are taken during the winter in the decoy at Caledon. On Lough
Derg, on the river Shannon, near Portimma, about five or six
are generally killed every season. Daniel, in his ^Eural Sports,'
tells us that^ in the month of February only, these birds are
found in great abundance in Connaught ;^ but in that finely
watered province they are, instead, met with frequently through-
out the entire season.

The author of ' The Wild Sports of the West' remarks, " When
winter is coming on, the pintail was noticed in the estuary .'' To
the bays of Kerry this bird is a regular winter visitant, and has
been noticed in the market of Tralee at the end of October and
first two weeks of November (1848) .f In the harbours, &c., of
the southern line of coast comprising those of the counties Cork,
Waterford and Wexford — in which last it is called harlan — as well
as those on the other thi'ee sides of the island, the pintail annually
appears, and it seems to be in about equal numbers from north to
south; sparing as these are, they have not diminished of late
years like those of various other species.

In Dublin, this bird bears the name of lady-duch ; owing,
we may presume, to its graceful and elegant appearance ; it was
particularly numerous in the market there in the great Anatidce
winter of 1837-38. On the coast at Malahide, they occurred in
large flocks, in the winter of 1849-50. J

A couple of male bii'ds (young of the year), shghtly wounded
in the wing, were purchased for the pond at the Palls, where
they frequently came under my notice.

One of them lived for thirteen years, when it was kdled by a
mischievous boy; the other had been previously given away.
They were very mild in disposition, and became at once quite
tame. A female bird was introduced soon after the males, and
one of them associated with her. They seemed duly paired,

* Vol. iii. p. 273. f Mr. R. Chute. + ^i'- R- •'■ Moutgomcry.

90 ANATID^.

and "the season of courtship" was indicated, as described by
Montagu, in the supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary ; '
but no eggs were produced. Their ordinary call -note is a
peculiar brief whistle, somewhat resembling that of the teal.
The shooters state that the cry of the pintail, when wounded and
pursued, is like that of the mallard, or duck, though more
weak, and that they quack much at such times.

The pintail seems to be about equally common in Ireland as in
England, and more so in both countries than in Scotland. In " the
western islands and northern coasts" of the last-named country
tlie long-tailed duck is believed by Mr. Selby to have been
mistaken for it by those who have recorded the frequency of
the species. Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that this bird is not met
with in the northern islands f" but in the most recent work upon
them it has been noticed as a winter visitant to Orkney ; t — in
Sutherlandshire, likewise, it is said to be so, and is enumerated
among the wild-fowl frequenting the lochs of Spynie, &c., Moray-
sliire, in March. J

Wilson (vol. iii. p. 95) and Audubon (vol. iii. p. 214) both
speak of the pintail as seldom frequenting the sea-coast of Ame-
rica, and consider it rather an inhabitant of fresh-water : the
latter author gives a full and interesting account of its habits. §
A friend, writing from Belvoir Cottage, West Hoboken (New
Jersey), in March 1850, inquires, " Why is the pintail omitted,
as a species of this continent, in the Prince of Canino^s 'Com-
parative Catalogue of the Birds of Europe and North America^ ?"
He adds, " It is quite common here, and always to be seen,
during the season, in New York market." In Wilson's 'Ame-
rican Ornithology,' it is stated to be common, which leads to the
inference that the omission alluded to was accidental.

* ' Manual Brit. Birds/ vol. ii. p. 170 (1846).

t ' Hist. Nat. Oread.,' p. 76 (1848).

X St. John's ' Tour in Sutherlandshire/ vol. i. pp. 139 and 195.

§ Wilson erroneously remai-ks, that "great flocks of them are sometimes spread
along the isles and shores of Scotland and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both
these comitries."

THE GARGANEY. 91

The Bimaculated Duck, or Teal (Jnas bimaculcda, Penn. ;
Anas gloc'Uuus, Gmel.), unknown in Ireland, has on three occasions,
from 1771 to the present period, been procured in England, on one of
which, two individuals were captured in a decoy at the same time. In
the third instance, the bird was merely purchased in the Loudon mar-
ket, and no information given where it was killed. The bimaculated
duck has not been obtained on the mainland of Scotland, but is believed
to have "been twice observed in Orkney."* It inhabits Northern
Asia, but is very little known to ornithologists.

THE GARGANEY.
Summer Teal.

Anas querquedula, Linn,
,, circia, „

Is of very rare occurrence in Ireland.

I HAVE, myself, seen but one specimen of this very handsomely
marked duck properly authenticated as killed in this island ; it
is an adult male, which was shot about the month of April 1841,
at Edenderry, King^s-county, and is in the collection of Dr. 0.
Earran, of Dublin. Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, of this city,
told me in May 1838, of a fresh specimen having been sent to
him in the winter of 1835-36, by Sir Eichard Levinge, Bart., at
whose seat, in Westmeath, it was said to have been shot. An
adult male bird, which J saw in Glennon^s in August 1843, was
stated to have been received in a fresh state, but where obtained
was unknown. Mr. E. Ball has observed a very few fresh speci-
mens (which it may be fairly presumed were killed in Ireland) on
sale in Dublin, but is not aware where they were procui'ed. Dr.
Harvey, of Cork, has seen one individual (an adult male) which
was killed in that county. On the first three days of March
1847, Eichard Elack, a wild-fowl shooter, to whom the garganey
is well known, saw one of these birds, and, as was presumed, the
same iiulividual each day, on Strangford Lough. It admitted
''■ ' Hist. Nat. Oread.; p. 76 (1848).

92 ANATIDiE.

of a very close approach^ aud seemed to have no apprehension of
danger ; but its observer, being in every instance in pursuit of
large flocks of wild-fowl, was unwilling to lose his chance of a
shot at them, by firing at a single bird, although that was a gar-
ganey. His description of the markings on the head, &c., showed
it to have been an adult male. In Tighe^s 'Kilkenny,^ the fol-
lowing observation is made : — " Anas querquedula, a bird which
goes by various English names, as garganey, easterling, lady-fowl,
and on the Nore is sometimes very improperly called diver, and
even wigeon, appears in winter, sometimes in small flocks, some-
times alone ; the female, which is nearly brown, without any of
the beautiful plumage of the male, is described by Ray under the
name of Phascas," p. 156. It is difficult to know what species
is meant in this extract, which I have thought proper to give,
lest I be accused of having passed over information on the
subject of the bird under consideration. Certainly the first two
names used pertain to it; but ^^ easterling" is applied both to
the smew (Montagu) and wigeon (Yarrell) ; the pintail is often
called " lady-fowl " in Dublin and the south of Ireland ; and
Ra/s " Phascas" is the wigeon.

A few pair of the garganey have been known to breed in Nor-
folk, but it is considered a rare bird in England, and is regarded
by Mr. Selby and Sir William Jardine as visiting that country at
" the period of its migratory flight towards its summer or breed-
ing quarters.""^ These range so far north as Sweden, although
the species breeds in the countries of southern as well as of central
Europe, The latter author considers that " the southern half of
England is the boundary of its nortliern range, except in acci-
dental instances." One record only of this bird's occurrence in
Scotland — when six were kiUed in Stirlingshire, in March 1841
— appears in his work and that of Macgillivray. It is subse-
quently stated to have been met with in the Orkney Islands. t

* IMr. Kuox informs us that immature birds are not unusual in the winter on the
coast of Sussex, but adult specimens, particularly males, are rare (p. 237).

t ' Hist. Nat. Oread.' p. 77.

93

THE TEAL.

Anas crecca, Linn.

Is common around the coast and on inland waters, and is
to a considerable extent indigenous.

Belfast Bay. — Small flocks, containing at most about forty
birds, have generally appeared here so early as the month of August,
from which period, until the end of November, they generally
remained, and afterwards were seldom seen, except when the in-
land lakes became frozen over ; under such circumstances they
have been abundant in the months of January and February : in
March they have been sometimes obtained. These birds have
very much diminished in numbers during the last twenty
years ; the wild-fowl shooters considering that there is not now
(winter of 1849-50'^) above one teal here for every fifty or sixty
previous to that time. From 400 to 500 birds were frequently
then seen in a flock, during frost, and occasionally many
more, when they appeared alighting, and covering over masses of
floating ice in numbers like the common grallatorial birds.
During snow-storms, especially, but at other times also, they
were frequently killed on the water, by being fired at from behind
the ditch-banks near the margin of the bay; and often in com-
pany with wigeon. Part of one winter, within the period named
— that of 1837-38 — they were plentiful; and about fifty were
obtained by the discharge of a swivel-gun. In another in-
stance, thirty-two were procured at a shot. The female birds,
when wounded, are said to quack like the duck, but in a much
weaker tone.

The diminution of teal, alluded to in Belfast Bay, might be
attributable to the increased quantity of shipping and steam-
vessels, — a great extent of their feeding-ground being enclosed
within railway embankments, and constant persecution by the
wild-fowl shooters liaving swivel-guns, although their numbers

* About a liiindved in a Hock were seen tliis winter dnriiig severe frost.

94 ANATID^E.

were not affected elsewhere. But the decrease is only too
general. Dublin market is much less numerously supplied from
decoys and otherwise than formerly. A fine decoy, exclusively
for teal, at Mountainstown, near Navan, county Meatli, in
which immense quantities were taken, has, for many years past,
ceased to be worked. Its proprietor remarked, in 1845, that " the
country has been so drained and improved, that all kinds of wild-
fowl are now very scarce, and a decoy is among the things we
read of, rather than see."

On looking to the contents of the stomachs of twenty-seven
teal, killed in the north of Ireland at various times, from late in
autumn until the beginning of spring, I have ascertained that they
feed chiefly on the seeds of aquatic plants of various kinds —
among others, of rushes, duck-weed {Lemna), &c. — also, on other
vegetable matter, and occasionally on insect larvae : a quantity of
sand and gravel likewise is taken into the stomach. One bird, killed
in February, near Donaghadee, contained six of the remarkable-
looking rat-tailed larvse of Elophilus tenax, Latr., which were quite
fresh, so that they must have been taken alive, or very soon after
death ; some husks, together with several grains of flax-seed, were
also included. Audubon has remarked of the green-winged teal of
America, which he considers the same as the European species,
" that being more select, or confined to vegetable food, than most
other ducks, their flesh is delicious."

Sir "William Jardine is of opinion, that there is no migration of
teal to the south of Scotland ; but, to the shores and fresh-waters
of Ireland, I feel satisfied that there must be, or, in other words,
that the numbers which appear in winter cannot have been all
bred in the island. The birds generally inhabiting marine loca-
lities, as well as a proportion of those living on inland lakes, &c.,
are, probably, from higher latitudes.

They breed in suitable localities, in all parts of Ireland, that are
sufficiently retired, often in those resorted to for the same purpose
by wild ducks. A few of these in the county of Antrim, and not
far from Belfast, may be mentioned : — Lough Morne, near Car-
rickfergus (according to Mc Skimmin, some years ago) ; — Dro-

THE TEAL. 95

medaragli, where, in the middle of July 1833, a relative was
shown a nest, in boggy ground, on the summit of a liigh hill, and
about a quarter of a mile from water : it contained at least a dozen
of eggs, which were quite concealed from view, by being covered
over with feathers ; — Lough Beg, adjoining Lough Neagh (on the
eastern side), whither an acquaintance was accustomed to go in
the season, for the purpose of shooting young wild-ducks, or
" flappers," and young teal ; — Spriugmount, near Clough, where
some annually breed. About Baldoyle, near Dublin, teal and
wild ducks are said to nidify ; — also^ in the county of Wex-
ford; at Anagh bog, between Cork and Bandon (in 1849) ;t
in the county of Kerry, J on the islands of the Connemara
lakes, where the young are described as " fierce Httle things," fol-
lowing the canoe of the person who was observing them.§ On
the 11th of June, 1842, a couple of young teal, "nearly fledged,
except the wings," were sent, from the Bog of Allen, to Mr. R.
Davis, jun. (of Clonmel), who remarks, that on their being placed
in a large vessel of water, they dived with surprising swiftness
whenever he approached, and seemed, from their diving inces-
santly and remaining down a long time, as much at home be-
neath the surface, as little grebes or dabchicks [Podicejos minor). \\
Teal, to the number of at least twenty pair, are considered, by the
decoy-man, to breed in the demesne at Caledon.

The teal is naturally the least wild of any of our Anatida, though
it soon learns to beware of its enemy, Man : in localities of all
kinds, where a little water, or sometimes even moisture, prevails,
we occasionally come close upon this beautiful little duck. I was
once much interested with three teal that came to a pond at
Wolf-hill. They were old birds (a male and two females), and,
being at fii'st somewhat wild, evinced that they had learned the
evil of man's ways towards their kind. By making very gradual
approaches — almost from day to day — towards them, taking care

* Mr. R. J. iMontgomcry. t Mr. Robert Warren, jun.

+ The late T. F. Neligan (1837). § Mr. W. M'CaUa.

II When at the Island of Islay, in January 1849, I learned that the teal breeds
commonly there.

96 ANATTD^.

never to cause alarm, they soon learned that they were in a place
of safety, and eventually admitted of a close approach without
taking wing. As a gun was not permitted to be fired on the
grounds, they were always to be seen during the day for about six
weeks. But, unluckily, trusting themselves outside the place,
though only at a few yards' distance, they fell a sacrifice, which
I learned by my next neighbour boasting what a fine shot his
son had made that morning, killing two teal on the water with his
first barrel, and a third, as it rose, with liis second one ; — a lament-
able result, caused by my having taught the poor birds that they
might trust to man. I have known several instances of a similar
kind with respect to other birds.

Teal remain congregated late in the season. On March the
31st, 1843, I saw immense numbers on and about the lake at
Lurgan House, county of Armagh. They rose in very large
flocks, and, during the forty minutes occupied in walking round
the lake, their cries were as incessant as the cawing at a rookery
in the breeding season. A lady of our party remarked, that they
are so abundant here in winter, and so many flocks are on wing at
the same time, that their numbers and constant crossing of each
other have often reminded her of the figure of a Scotch reel. In
the first week of April, 1849, small flocks were seen on Bally-
drain lake.

That locality, where they are protected, is a favourite haunt of
teal during the day in autumn and winter. By night, which is
their feeding-time, they are all scattered far abroad. In my mind,
this splendid little duck — the smallest of European Anatida— is
associated with the beautiful in winter scenery, with the vari-
ously-hued wooded banks of the lake or river, lowly bordered
with pale yellow reeds, green rushes, grey willows, or all com-
bined. In the bare flooded bog or brickfield^ — for any little
plashy spot attracts it — I have thought nothing comparatively of
the teal as, when it rose on wing, and added to an already

* Not only a few birds, but a flock of a dozen or more, have come under my notice in
the old brick-fields close to Belfast, on the western side.

THE TEAL. 97

highly finished picture a graceful element of life. Its sight is
amazingly acute. On my quietly advancing to the banks of this
lake, at a great distance from a large flock, they would, when
first seen, be reposing on the water in silence ; but the next
moment, having perceived me, would commence calling in a
manner grating to the ear, and nearly resembling the sound
produced by the solid wooden wheel of an old-fashioned Irish
car wanting grease. They would then lightly spring into the air,
wheel through it with amazing rapidity, within a few seconds of
time, appearing backed by the transparent medium of the water
of the farther part of the lake, by the " evergreen pine," or mass
of towering silver firs, by the soft golden floating clouds, or
sweeping before extensive ranges or broken groups of majestic
deciduous trees ; their colour appearing difl'erent every moment as
they were " relieved" by these difl'erent objects, the greatest contrast
being when they seemed all dark in hue, with the upper surface of
their bodies turned towards me, or shone like silver in the sun-
light when the white under plumage was exposed. So rapid are
their movements, that it requires an effort — almost a straining —
of the eye to follow them. Being intent on alighting, they will
now from on high repeatedly sweep down towards the water,
into which some individuals from the flock descend at every
circuit until the whole are gradually reposing on a more distant
part of the lake, where their call, occasionally unheard during
their more distant flight, is again distinctly given forth.

Audubon, in the third volume of his work (p. 219), gives an
admirable description, as a sportsman, of the habits of the green-
winged teal of America, now considered distinct from the Euro-
pean species. Wilson^s observation, that the blue-winged teal
{Anas cUscors, Cuv.) "is the first of its tribe that returns to us in
the autumn from its breeding-place in the north," and that "they
fly rapidly, and, when they alight, drop down suddenly, like the
the snipe or woodcock, among the reeds or on the mud," applies
equally to our native species, as indeed do the general habits
attributed to that bird.''^

* ' Amer. Oni.' vol. iii, p. 97. .Tanline's edit.
H

98 ANATID^.

THE WIGEON.

Anas penelojoe, Linn.

Frequents the marine loughs, &c., in great numbers for
above six months of the year.

Arrival and Departure. — Its first appearance in Belfast Bay, after
the breeding season, is generally in the month of August. In
several consecutive 3'ears it was thus observed : — August 21, 1840,
four arrived — September 9, 1841, about thirty — August 29, 1842,
wigeon and teal killed in company — August 23, 1843, an adult
male, and on the 25th, three others obtained — August 30, 1844, a
few seen — August 27, 1845, wigeon re-appeared, as well as brent
geese — August 27, 1847, two wigeon shot; teal and wild ducks
have been here for some time : — on the 11th of September, 1847,
such large flocks of wigeon and teal were seen as to induce two
wild-fowl shooters to give up their summer avocation (at which they
earn from 10s. to 12s. per week) and commence the winter cam-
paign ; — August 23, 1848, a couple of wigeon killed. They
gradually increase in numbers from the period of arrival. On the
1st September, 1839, a fowler observed a flock of about twenty;
on the 10th, he, with the aid of a telescope, reckoned seventy-five
in a flock ; and, a day or two afterwards, saw not less than a hun-
dred together ; — from this time to the end of the month great
numbers arrived. The adult males are rarely seen or shot before
November. The oldest shooter in the bay considers that wigeon
are the first of the migratory wild-fowl (not including ducks and
teal) to appear here after the breeding season, and the earhest to
depart in spring ; and that, by the end of March, they are nearly
aU gone. Other fowlers agree that they are the first to leave in
spring ; and, though some remain considerably later than the end
of February, that the great mass then take their departure. On
the 16th of April, 1837, one was killed on Lough Neagh"^ ; to

* Late in the season chiefly — in March, &c. — I have seen wigeon broxiglit from
this locality. On the 31st INIarch, 1843, I saw large flocks on the lake in the
demesne of Lurgan House (county of Armagh) ; where the old males, admitting of a
near approach, looked very beautiful.

THE WIOEOX. 99

the end of which month in the same year many remained in
Belfast Bay. In 1838, soine also continued there until a late
period, as did a number of other migratory species of birds, in
consequence of a prevalence of east and north-east winds ;— on
the 23rd of April a flock of about forty was seen.

The decoy-man at Caledon saw an old pair of wigeon frequently
there in the summer of 1849 ; and, very early in the autumn,
remarked that they were accompanied by three others, which he
imagined might be their young. There was no marked disparity
in size between the old and the supposed young, when these were
first observed ; — the dates weee not remembered. Numbers of
wild ducks and teal breed in this demesne.

Fowlers at Lough Corrib (Mayo) state, that during the time a
part of the lake and the adjoining lands were strictly preserved by
a proprietor, who died about two years ago, wigeon bred annually
there; but as his successor has allowed shooting over the pro-
perty, these birds are now only to be seen in winter."^

A fowler, who went with liis swivel-gun for a week's wigeon-
shooting at Strangford Lough, in 1846, reported, on his return,
that either during a hurricane, which took place on the nigjit of
Tuesday the 3rd of March, or immediately after it, the wind being
from the south, the great body of wigeon left the lough, probably
on their northern migration, as on the four following days none
but weak birds were to be seen. On the 1st of April, a flock of
about two hundred was observed in Belfast Bay : when ap-
proached, they went right off northward, as was supposed, on mi-
gration ; — on the 17th of this month, six adult males appeared
together ; on the 20th, a flock of twenty birds was noticed ; and
on the 22nd, a flock was heard at twilight flying towards the bay.
In 1847, a flock of thirty wigeon was observed on the 22nd of
April, and one of half that number, from which three were shot,
on the 1st of May.f These birds gather in such dense flocks, in

* Mr. R. J. MoEtgomery, Feb. 1850.

t Mr. R. J. Montgomery, in a letter to me dated April 26, 1849, remarked that
he had shot wigeon ia Drogheda Bay about ten days previously. He had not before
seen them there so late in the season. The adult male is called golden-head (a nor-
thern name for it also), tie female and the young, black wigeon, in that bay.

H 2

100 anatida:.

spring, in the sea, otf the Gobbins, northward of Belfast Bay,
that in the very early morning, soon after daybreak, they have,
on the calm water, been mistaken for drift-timber, and the people
have gone off in their boats to obtain it. Mr. J. Watters, jun.,
informs me that, during the night, he hears great flocks of wild-
fowl pass over the house in which he lives (in Crow-street), in the
midst of the city of Dublin, particularly early in winter and
spring. Between ten and eleven o'clock, on the night of the
20th March, 1850, flocks of wigeon continued to pass over for
nearly three-quarters of an hour, the loud clear calls of which
afforded evidence of their species. . In the demesne at Caledon,
I saw a flock of about a hundred birds on the 23rd of March,
1850, many of which were adult males. So late as the 12th of
April, 1850, flfteen wigeon were killed at a shot from a swivel-
gun on Larne Lough.

From the preceding notes it appears that the wigeon regularly
comes earlier to the north of Ireland, and occasionally remains
later, than on the Nortliumbrian coast. Mr. Selby informs us
that "they usually make their first appearance in this county
about the 20th day of September, in small companies, which are
on the gradual increase till about the beginning of November,
when the migration appears to be completed.^ Early in March
they again commence their polar movement, or return to summer
quarters ; and, by the month of April, the coast is entirely de-
serted" (p. 325).

Belfast Bay ; — different modes of shooting in, Sfc.

The wigeon, where not disturbed, feeds much during the day :
but it is regarded here, by the three most experienced wild-fowl
shooters, two of whom have made a trade of wigeon-shooting
for above twenty years, as essentially a night-feeding bird. They

* Mr. St. John remarks : — " The earliest day on which I ever killed or saw
wigeon in Morayshire, was on the 8th of September, on which day I shot a brace.
* * * The flock altogether consisted of eight or nine." — ' Tour in Sutherland,'
vol. i. p. 286.

In another place (vol. ii. p. 22) this date is mentioned as " a month before their
usual time of arrival."

THE WIGEON. 101

have all seen the species feeding by da}', but consider that it is
more than doubly busied by night. Often, in fine weather, flocks
will float idly about during the day where food is abundant ; but
during the night, all is activity with them. They become rest-
less so soon as the shades of evening begin to appear, equally on
the inland lakes, where they remained undisturbed all day, as on
the marine bay, where persecution was their lot. Under all
circumstances, they then leave their day-haunt on flight to their
night feeding-ground. The more frequent whistle of the male
bird, and — as it were — answering, purring cry of the female by
night, evince that the birds are then most actively alive. The
fowlers often remark at such times : — " Hear them answering each
other ;" and judge, from the whistle being unreplied to, or its
being frequently uttered and answered, whether there be few or
many birds together. Some of these observations have been made
in consequence of Mr. Waterton's statement, in his essay on the
wigeon, that a number of these birds remain during the night on
the lake at Walton Hall, in consequence, as he considers, of their
feeding on grass during the day. His observations are, doubtless,
critically correct as to liis own locality ; but, owing to the protec-
tion afl^orded tliere^ we may fairly regard his wigeon as in a semi-
domesticated state. Under similar circumstances, I have frequently
seen wigeon grazing like geese by day. The bird wisely accom-
modates itself to circumstances.^ It is very interesting to observe
it feeding where no enemy is feared. The last place of this kind,
in which wigeon came under my notice, was in retired and most
picturesque little bays in the island of Islay, where no human
eye but my own was upon them at the time. Being afloat, they
would commence their repast when the tide had sufficiently fallen
to admit of their reaching the Zostera, and at low water they were

* Mr. St. John, in his 'Tour in Sutherland' (vol. ii. p. 21), remarks .- — "Unlike
the mallard and the teal, both which are night-feeding birds, the wigeon feeds at any
hour of the day or night indiscriminately." In Belfast Bay, both the mallard and
teal have been observed by the three most intelligent wild-fowl shooters (who were
questioned on the subject) to feed by day at all times that they are there during the
season. The latter end of February and lieginning of March — e.vccpt diuiiig frost —
is the period when they are chiefly in the bay by day. They are now all paired,
though sometimes in large flocks.

102 ANATID^:.

left, like grallatorial birds, to regale upon the banks. Here they
remained until the advancing sea raised them on its surface, and
then continued to feed so long as the water was shallow enough
for the purpose. When it deepened too much, they iioated on
its bosom, and resigned themselves to rest or sleep, " high
water" being the time of their repose. On the short grass of
some of the islets off Islay, they were remarked by a friend to
graze by day.

It has been particularly noticed by Mr. Darragh and others,
that the weaker and stronger birds keep each together in flocks
during the entire season. They may even, suiting their strength
of flight individually to each other, have divided into flocks
before starting on migration. The weaker consist of both sexes,
of all ages, but of fewer adult males than the stronger flocks.
Any number, up to four or five hundred, of either kind, will be
found together. Every individual shot from the weaker party
is smaller and lighter, as every one killed from the stronger flock
is of a larger and heavier kind. The weak and the strong resort
to different feeding-grounds in Larne, Belfast, and Strangford
loughs ; the former keeping nearer the shore, and coming farther
up the loughs, than the stronger birds. Some shooters in the
two latter localities term the smaller birds fresh-toater wigeou,
from an idea that they feed chiefly inland, and only occasionally
visit the sea. It cannot, however, be owing to this cause that
they are inferior, as the scaup duck, which is given as much as
the wigeon to division into strong and weak flocks, dwells upon
the sea, very rarely, indeed, visiting fresh-water here.

Wigeon frequent Belfast Bay in such mmibers that two or
thi'ee persons have always earned their livelihood in the season
by shooting them, brent-geese, and wild-fowl generally, as several
other persons have partially done. An account of the manner
in which wigeon were formerly shot here, or until witliin the last
twenty years — ^when the few owners of swivel-guns have had the
s})ort nearly all to themselves — may perhaps be interesting.

Barrels, large enough to contain the shooter and his dog, were
sunk in (he ooze, until their top was about two inches above its

THE WIGEON. 103

surface ; and were at various distances, not exceeding a mile, from
the shore. To these the shooters resorted when the ebbing tide
had left the banks sufficiently bare for their access at the usual
flying-time of the birds ; — from the commencement of dusk until
quite dark, or, for about twenty minutes. This regular flight
over, the wigeon continue feeding about where they aliglited, on
the watery ooze, and do not " fly " again, if the night be dark,
but if moonlight, they partially fly at intervals, from one part of
the feeding-ground to another, so long as the banks are uncovered
by the tide. If the moon, therefore, were soon to rise after the
first flight, the shooters would remain for two or three hours in
their barrels. In addition to the birds which get up of their own
accord, others, disposed to be quiescent, would now be raised to
flight by the report of the guns, and more being thus on wing
over the feeding-ground, afforded a greater number of shots.
After the regular flying-time, the shooter had another chance
when the flowing tide lifted the wigeon on its surface, and
brought them within shot of his barrel. This, of coarse, was
always filled with water when the shooter first went to it, so that,
for the purpose of baling it out, he had to be provided with a
small bucket, which, turned upside-down after that operation,
served as a seat in the barrel. When properly "appointed," he
was attended by a water-spaniel, who lay close at his feet in the
barrel, and served to keep his lower extremities warm. A success-
ful shot being made, the dog sallied out to pick up the victims,
in doing which, practice made liim wonderfully expert, and intel-
ligence taught him to secure the wounded before lifting the dead
birds. The dog took fully as much delight in the sport as his
master, and looked out as anxiously for the approaching wild-fowl.
As the season advanced, the wigeon became very wary, from
persecution, and sprang high into the air on coming within range
of any well-marked object on the banks, such as the barrel,'
&c, A black hat, especially, was so easily seen by them, that
the shooters were obliged to wear caps, though not more of the
head than sufficed to enable them to see around, was exposed
above the edge of the barrel. Wigeon, on perceiving any object

104 ANATIDJi:.

that alarms tlieui, evcni when in full or rapid flight, instantly
throw themselves upwards with surprising quickness. On the
occasions alluded to they sometimes fly singly, but more fre-
quently in small flocks, so many as twenty rarely appearing in
company; but, in frosty weather, from two to three hundred
have been seen on wing together. The males often utter their
whistling note during these flights. The most I have heard of
being obtained by a barrel-shooter, during the brief period of
flying-time, was from fifteen to twenty wigeon, and the greatest
number in a week, sixty birds. Other species of ducks were
sometimes killed, and more particularly scaups, of which, when
very abundant in the bay, hundreds have, late in the season,
after Christmas, been seen in a flock at flying-time. On the first
occasion that they were thus observed by a shooter of my
acquaintance, he was so alarmed at the tempestuous rushing
sound they made, as to be incapable of shooting, else he might
have brought down a dozen at a shot. Pochards, too, and tufted
ducks were sometimes obtained from the "barrels/' once, only,
am I aware of a wild goose being brought down from them, on
Mhich occasion three of the wliite-fronted species flew within
range, and one was killed. Wigeon, after feeding during the
night, or part of it, on the banks, are in the habit of fl}ing at
earHest dawn to the water to wash themselves, and at such times,
when there was not light enough for the shooter to see them, the
flapping of their wings has from a distance attracted him to the spot.
Another place and time of shooting, is on some promontory
or embankment jutting out into the bay, over wdiich the wigeon
fly on moonlight nights, when the rising tide puts them off their
feeding-ground, and they resort to a part of the estuary where
the water has not yet risen sufficiently to prevent their feeding,
or betake themselves to some inland locahties. At these times,
the shooter, by hearing, perhaps at a distance, the most pleasing
loud and lively notes of the males {tvJiee-o-ing , their clear and
quickly-uttered whistle is here called^) where they are con-

* Thf softly guttural, or purriit//, notes of the female are inaudible from a
distance.

THE WIGEON. 105

gregaied^ stations liimseK according to the direction in which
he imagines they will fly, and often succeeds in getting shots
as they pass overhead. But there are occasionally attractions
connected with this shooting, incomparably superior to the sport
itself. In a fine winter night, we behold the moon riding in
majesty, the stars softly twinkling, the position of some beauteous
planet marking unerringly the onward march of time since the
last month, when, under similar circumstances of moon and tide,
we visited the place. Driven from their marine pasture by the
advancing waves-, little flock after flock of wigeon will then appear
between us and the pale blue sky. Others, too, of the duck tribe
may chance to pass, and we are sure to hear the enlivening and
loud calls of the curlew, and various other Grallatores, as they are
impelled by the encroaching waters to leave their feeding-banks.
Wigeon-shooting, under these circumstances, is now almost
wholly discontinued here.

The wigeon is so much persecuted in Belfast Bay, that before
the dawn of morning multitudinous numbers rise from the banks
on which they have been feeding all night and betake themselves to
Strangford Lough, as a place of comparative security, where they
remain all day, but return at twilight to the former locality to
spend the night. Some, however, constantly remain here through-
out the day, the only exception to which (that I have heard of)
was, that during a week^'s frost, commencing on the 24th of
December, 1836, none were seen during the day by one of the
professional shooters; but they were in abundance by night,
when, at a single shot, twenty-three fell by a discharge of his
swivel-gun. The same number was subsequently (January 11,
1850) procured by another person. The most of these birds killed
by a thii'd wild-fowl shooter here at any time, were eighteen by his
shoulder-gun and twenty-seven by his swivel-gun. At a more
fatal shot (January 20th, 1848), twenty-two wigeon, twelve wild
ducks, and one teal were bagged : — a number of wounded birds
escaped. In one instance, soon after the introduction of a swivel-
gun to Larne Lough, sixty-six, and in another seventy-six, wigeon
were picked up from one discharge ; — in addition to the lattre

106 ANATID^.

number obtained by the fowler himself,^ eighteen more were pro-
cured by other persons. f

The greatest number of wild-fowl killed in Belfast Bay within
tliirty years were obtained about twenty-two years ago, on the
introduction of the first swivel-gun. The owner of this great
engine of destruction killed during one w^eek under the most
favourable circumstances of weather — a continuance of severe
frost when birds were driven from the inland waters to the
estuary — 168 couple of brent geese, wigeon, wild ducks, and
teal. Sold at the low price of Is. 8d. a couple to the dealers (an
average rate at which he was paid for the four species during the
season), they produced £14. This shooter — who was a stranger
— ^lived during the winter in a boat in the midst of the best of
the shooting, and shot both by day and night. Since that period
about the extreme number of the above species killed in a week
by the various shooters here may have amounted to from 100 to
135 couple, of which wigeon were always the most numerous; —
occasionally not twenty brace would be had in a week. The wild-
fowl shooters, until the last few years, received from Is. 6d. to
2s, 6d. a couple for wigeon from the dealers, who sold them at
about 6d. a couple profit ; but the former price was near the
maximum in the winter of 1849-50. Although these birds have
been reduced in numbers in the north of Ireland of late years,
the markets are better supplied with them than formerly, owing
to the much greater quantity killed by the swivel-guns than by
the ordinary fowling-piece. This serves to keep down the price ;
and, besides, game of all kinds, having become much cheaper,
is generally preferred.

Wigeon, when wounded by boat-shooters, retreat in aU direc-
tions, seeking the sea-banks or sometimes the land, where, con-
ceahng tliemselves in drains, &c., they are more difficult to be
captured than if they kept, like the brent gees'e, to the sea. They

* Mr. Johnston of Glynn.

t Mr. R. Chute " counted seventy-five wigeon that the celehrated Buclde, Col.
Hawker's man, shot in Dingle Bay, in the winter of 1842-43, at one sliot with his
punt gun. It was duskish at the time ; and fifteen more that had been killed at the
same shot were found dead on the following morning."

THE WIGEON. 107

are very expert divers^ and conceal themselves by sinking the
body beneath the surface^ leaving a portion of the bill only above
it ; a feat which they will perform days after having been winged.
They seldom^ when wounded^ attempt to dive from the flash of tlie
gun, as the diving ducks, under such circumstances, are in the
habit of doing. An experienced wild-fowl shooter has remarked,
that the golden-eye dives from the flash even of a percussion gun
before being wounded, though he has never seen the scaup or
pochard do so until afterwards — of the tufted duck he has had
little experience. Wigeon, wounded when flying over land adjacent
to water, betake themselves to it, contrary to what has been stated
of them when struck by shot at sea.

Wigeon have latterly become very much scarcer in BeKast Bay,
owing to different causes ; — the annually increasing shipping of
the port ; the steam-vessels with their black smoke particularly
alarming them; extensive portions of the sea-banks being re-
clairhed ; the gas-lights of the town ; each and all of these
together have had a tendency to make them change their quarters.
" But worse remains behind " — the swivel-gun shooters, three of
whom at least are at some portion of every day in pursuit of
them. Their persecution, commencing soon after the arrival of
the birds in autumn, has them pretty well driven away early in
November, and few are killed between this time and Christmas :
from which period until they leave in spring the most are now
procured.

The swivel-guns, by which alone any quantity of birds have
of late been obtained, are large guns, 7^ to 8 feet long in the
barrel, and from l^- to 1^ inch wide in the bore. They are either
placed on swivels, or otherwise fixed in small flat-bottomed boats,
made for the purpose, and only large enough to contain one wild-
fowl shooter. The charge for one of these guns is from 2-i- to
3 ounces of coarse powder, and from f to 1 pound of large shot
("No. 1 to aa"). The ordinary distance from which this is
fired at a flock of birds is 100 yards; sometimes, with the larger-
sized shot, 150 yards. "When pellets are used, the latter is an
ordinary distance ; and above 200 yards an occasional one, with

108 ANATID/E.

fatal effect. The birds are generally fired at on the water^ but
sometimes on wing also. They have^ as a natural consequence,,
become much wilder and more on the alert since these large guns
have come into use.

Inland Shooting. — Strangford Lough has its own immense
stock of wigeon, which remain always there during the season, as
well as its daily visitors fi'om the neighbouring bay, for it also
produces the favourite Zostera in abundance. A chain of high
hills lies between these two marine loughs, and, as the wigeon
flew pretty much over the same track, it was a regular practice of
shooters to station themselves behind the fences about the hill-
toj) before daybreak, to get a shot at the birds as they passed over-
head. Hence some persons regularly went from Belfast, a distance
of three Irish miles, in the dark, on the chance of getting a
passing shot. When quite calm and tine, the birds generally ilew
high and out of range, but when blowing hard, and especiallyif
against them, they kept low, and shots were tolerably certain to
be had. They flew so very low, when it blew a gale, that, in the
words of the shooters, " the flocks had to rise to get over the
ditches \"^ But this sport, like the barrel- shooting, has been
discontinued on account of the diminished number of birds.

"When a low tract of marshy ground, called the bog-meadows —
commencing about a mile and a half from the town of BeKast,
and extending a mile in length — is flooded in winter, wigeon,
and others of the duck tribe, resort to it at twihght to feed.
The ditch-banks, which divide the fields, remaining dry, are then
frequented by fowlers to get shots at the birds as they pass. If
it be about the time of high water, when they cannot feed in the
bay, different species fly thence to these meadows, and do so
regularly from inland places of security where they have been
throughout the day ; but not very many were killed here during my
own experience of wild-fowl shooting, and now the pursuit is
almost abandoned. I have often gone for this sport, and felt a
kind of wild joy in hearing the ringing of the pinions througli

* ' Ditrh' in the north of Ireland is ajiplied to the bank of earth, and not to the
sunken portion of the fence.

THE WIGEON. 109

the air. From the sound of the wings alone the mallard, wigeon,
teal, pochard, &c., could be distinguished, and, though invisible
from the darkness at the time of flight, or the height at which
the birds passed overhead, the sportsmen, returning homeward,
could each recount what species had passed his way. Just before
the wild-fowl appeared, and when the flood was not too high for the
snipes' feeding, these birds came, as if from the clouds, falling,
almost shower-like around, and in the momentary glance we had
of them between us and the light sky of the dying day, they, with
their long bills directed downwards, had quite a spectral aspect,
as with ear-piercing "screagh'^ they sought the earth. But
once on the ground and in great profusion, " a solemn stillness "
reigned until the wild-fowl came, when oui* shots ronsed the
" lang-nebbed things," screeching into the air again. As in the
bay, the flying time continued for about twenty minutes/ after
wdiich the fowlers took their departure homewards, unless the
moon were soon to rise, when they would remain for a second
flight of the birds already there, from one part of the meadoAvs to
another, as well as of new comers ; but this was less certain than
the flight at twilight. At the lattey, particular places were
selected for the birds flying from special localities, as Bally-
drain lake, the bay, &c. ; but for the flight at the rising of the
moon it was mere chance what course would be taken. The
appearance of the birds viewed between us and the moon, sur-
rounded by beauteous groupings of clouds, may readily be ima-
gined. There was much wildness too — an aspect of original
nature — in the scene around : an expanse of water in which the
moon and clouds were mirrored, with the surface most pic-
turesquely broken by little patches of ground uncovered by the
water, and single tufts or variously-sized masses of rushes, rising
here and there throughout the whole extent.^

* A mode of obtaining wigeon not noticed in the preceding pages may here be
mentioned, though it is a very old one. —

In 1837, I was informed that it had long been and was then a common practice
to place nets on the salt marshes at BallykcUy, near Newtownlimavady, for the cap-
ture of wigeon, and tliat many were thus procured.

110 ANATIDyE,

The following note on the instinct of a wigeon appears in the
MS. journal of the late John Templeton^ Esq. : — " August 3,
1810. Being accustomed to have tamed wild-fowl ^ ^ ^ X
have remarked that the cry expressive of danger was understood
by all, though of different species, and never heard by them be-
fore. Some years ago I had a tamed wigeon {Anas penelojpe),
wliich was accustomed to go about my house. On a hawk
appearing in sight, a common hen gave the scream of terror, and
the wigeon, perfectly understanding that danger was at hand, fled
to me for protection, and remained crouched close to my feet till
all apprehension of peril was past.""^

A wild-fowl shooter has remarked to me, from his own expe-
rience, that shelldrakes, scaups, wigeon, teal, and brent geese, are
much more easily tamed than the mallard or wild duck. Winged
wigeon, placed on the pond at the Falls, soon became tame, but
never bred either among themselves or with other species. The
males were pugnaciously disposed towards each other.

On examining the food contained in a number of wigeon shot
in Belfast Bay at various periods, and in weather of all kinds, I have
found only the remains of vegetable matter and sand. Their
food, like that of the brent geese, is the Zostera. As this plant
is to be had duiing their stay, they are considered good for
the table all the time ; unlike those on the Northumberland
coast, that are obliged to resort to a different kind of food which
renders them rank after Christmas. t An observant shooter is of
opinion that the brent geese and wigeon nip off the withered top
of the Zostera, and eat the heart and root of the plant — but they
certainly eat the sound portions of the long leaves also. Our
wigeon, thus Hving in the midst of plenty, are not disposed
or compelled, like the American species described by Wilson, to
rob either the canvas-backed duck or any of its tribe of their
labours. J In February 1848, I was sent a plant found in a
wigeon by one of our oldest wild- fowl shooters, who reported his

* Communicated to Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, for her ' Anecdotes of Animals.'

t Selby, vol. ii. p. 325.

i Sir William Jardiue's edition of ' Amer. Ornith.' vol. iii. p. 110.

THE WIGEON. Ill

having never seen it before in this or any other species of bird.
It was the Eriteromorpha claihrata, which profusely covers parts
of the shallow mud-banks of Belfast Bay. Wigeon shot in the
fresh-water of Lough Neagh^ in March^ have contained the tops
of Equiseta and various subaquatic plants.

Sir WUliam Jardine remarks, on Mr. Waterton's considering
the wigeon " a more familiar bird than either the pochard or teal/'
that, " in our own shooting practice, we have always found it much
more difficult to approach than the latter." In bogs and marshes
where the teal is feeding, as it does when undisturbed during
the day, I have found it the most easy of access of all its tribe.
But on small lakes or sheets of water — as Ballydrain lake —
frequented by various species of ducks tliroughout the day, and
where they reposed in perfect safety, I have remarked that the
flocks of teal were the first to spring into the air at my approach ;
the mallards next; after them the wigeon; and, lastly, the diving
species (pochards, tufted ducks, and golden-eyes). It is a beau-
tiful sight to behold them all wheeling through the air before they
alight at a more distant part of the water : flocks of the elegant
little teal being, perhaps, the most interesting from their sudden
turning and rapid flight, one moment rising liigh into the air, and
as quickly wheeling down again towards the water as if to alight,
but having no such intention when thus at their utmost speed ;
their cry, too, all the time ringing acutely on the ear.'^

The wigeon is plentiful in the numerous suitable localities
around the coast, and on the lakes and rivers of Ireland.
Although not so restricted to particular haunts as the brent
goose, it prevails wherever that bird is found, the Zostera being
the attraction to both species. Captain May (late of the Innis-
killing Dragoons) has mentioned to me that twelve and a half brace
of wigeon, ducks, and teal were shot by himself and his sporting
friends on a pool near the Salten river (Norway) on the 13tli of
July, 1849.

* This may seem contradictory to what is stated under that species at the same
locality, but diflerent days are alluded to, and the observations of each correctly
noted down.

112 - ANATID^.

In Colonel Hawker's ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen ' an
excellent account of wigeon, and the methods of shooting them, is
given.

THE AMERICAN WIGEON.

Anas Americana, Gmel.

Is, on the following testimony, believed to have been

obtained.

As recorded by me in the ' Annals of Natural History' for 1845
(vol. XV. p, 310) : — Henry Bell, an intelhgent man of middle age,
who since he could carry a gun has been a vvigeon-shooter in
Belfast Bay, and for the last eight or nine winters has given up
his whole time to the pui'suit, by which he earned his livelihood,
visited Strangford Lougli "professionally'' towards the end of
February 1844, with his punt and swivel-gun. Hearing on a
dark night the call of wigeon,^ he fired towards the place whence
the sound proceeded, and picked up a single bird, which differed
in plumage from any he had ever seen. Its form at once marked
this bird to his eye as a wigeon of some kind, but in a state of
plumage unlike that of the common species of either sex at any
age : of this he was a good judge, from many hundreds having
passed through his hands, and from his being very observant of
the species of birds and the changes of plumage which they
undergo. He described it as a wigeon in the plumage of a teal.
The large markings on the lower part of the sides of the neck and
on the breast, instead of being roundish as in the teal, were some-
what of a semicircular form, and varied in size from " one half to
nearly the whole size of a man's finger-nail." On the top of the
head it was wliitish like the old male wigeon, but of a purer
colour, and, like it, had the white marking on the wing, both

* According to Wilson's description of the call of the American wigeon, it is very
like that of the European species.

THE AMERICA^' WIGEON. 113

characters denoting an old male bird of its species. On the
figures of the American wigeon in the works of Wilson (Jardine^s
edit.) and Yarrell being shown to the shooter, he felt confident
that his bird was of the same species, the former representing its
plumage the better of the two, and the latter its form, as the
neck was thicker than that of the common wigeon. Although he
thus noted the bird particularly, and, with another fowler who
accompanied liim to Straugford, held a kind of inquest on its
species, it was unfortunately sold with his other wild-fowl, as, from
his having seen singular varieties of birds in the hands of bird-
preservers, he thought this might be a remarkable state of plumage
of the common wigeon : — of a second species he had not at that
time heard. He is certain of having killed birds of the same
kind in Belfast Bay, but never any so far advanced towards addJt
male plumage. Placing entire reliance on the discrimination and
accuracy of Bell, I have not hesitated to notice this bird as a
visitant to our coast. To him also we are indebted for the only
Tringa platyrhpicha obtained in Ireland ; he at once perceived
that the specimen was distinct from the dunlins killed at the same
time, and preserved it accordingly.

The only notice of the American wigeon having been obtained in
Great Britain to the date of publication of the second edition of
Mr. Yarrell's work in 1S4.5, is, that in the winter of 1837-38
two of these birds were seen by Mr. Bartlett at the same time in
the London market, but where they were killed was not known.
In works on the birds of Europe, published down to 1844,
this species is not noticed as having occurred on any of the
coasts of continental Europe. It is common to those of North
America, where the rice-fields of Carolina are favourite feeding-
grounds.^

* The Summer or Wood Duck, Dendronessa sponsa, Linu. (sp.), has occasioually
been killed in Ireland, but the victims had probably escaped from confinement. Dr.
Harvey of Cork informed me of a couple (an adult male and female ?) having been
shot by Wm. Crawford, Esq., on the Carrigaline river, within, and not far fi-om the
mouth of, Cork harbour, on the TOth of October, 1845. The two only were seen.
On mentioning the subject at that time to ]\Ir. R. Ball, he stated that some of these
birds had been kept on ponds in and about Cork, and that six or eight individuals

114 ANATID^.

THE EIDER DUCK.

Somateria mollissima, Linn, (sp.)
Anas ,y „

Is an extremely rare visitant.

In 1834, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin,
that he had set up, for Sir Richard Levuige, Bart., a specimen
which was shot at Wexford. In 1838, he mentioned that since
the former period he had been sent two or three fresh birds, but
where they were killed was unknown to him. Dr. C. Earran
kindly wrote to me on the 23rd of May, 1840, that he had just
received from Mr. John King, of Bremore, Balbriggan (county
Dublin), a fine male eider alive. Its captor, attracted by the size
and unusual plumage of the bii-d, when struggling to get up
some rocks, launched a boat and secured it. On examination, it
was found to have received a severe injury in one of the thighs.
This individual was noljiped by me in the ' Annals of Natural His-
tory^ (vol. V. p. 365), as the first obtained in Ireland, of which I
had certain and full information. In January 1842, the Rev.
H. H. Dombrain announced, at a meeting of the Dublin Natural
History Society, that he had just received two fresh specimens of
the king eider, from the coast of Mayo, one of which he would
present to the Society,'^ This bird was a female, and in that state
of plumage in which the king and the common eider are scarcely

liacl flown away from the Zoological Gai'den, Plioenix Park, Dublin. Two very fine
adult males, which had been shot on the river Blackwater, near Youghal, about the
month of December 1849, came under the notice of Dr. Harvey. There are many
fine demesnes on the bauks of this noble river. About Belfast too — where they were
kept on ponds — one or two are said to have been killed.

The summer duck is noticed as having been shot in England, in the ' Zoologist '
(vol. vii. pp. 2353, 2382, and 2421).

Wilson informs us that this " most beautiful of all our ducks * * * jg
familiarly known in every quarter of the United States, from Florida to Lake Ontario,
* * * and is equally well known in Mexico and the West India Islands. During
the whole of om- winters they are occasionally seen in the States, south of the
Potowmac. * * * lu i\^ more northern districts, however, they are migra-
tory."— ' Amer. Omit.,' vol. iii. p. 120. Jardine's edit.

* Report Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, 1841-42, p. 1.

THE EIDER DUCK. 115

distinguishable ; the form and size of the bill alone determining to
which species an individual belongs. As I required positive in-
formation respecting the bird, the attention of Mr. Wm. Andrews,
the present secretary of that society, was called to it. This gentle-
man kindly examined the specimen, and favoured me with drawings
of the bill, which proved it to be the common eider. This
and the individual noticed immediately before it, are the only
birds obtained in Ireland that can positively be announced here
as the Somateria moUissima.

The most southern breeding-haunt of this species, on the
British coast, is the Farn Islands, off Northumberland, which are
in latitude a little to the north of the extreme northern point of
Ireland. Southward of this, in the British and European seas,
the eider duck seems to be only of occasional occurrence. It
breeds on various islands, &c., both on the eastern and western sides
of Scotland, as weU as on some of those off its northern coast.

The late Mr. G. Matthews, on return from his sporting tour in
Norway, supplied me with the following note: — "Eider ducks
were observed on all parts of the coast from Trondjeim to the
Alten Eiord, and, I beheve, are quite as numerous southwards.
The ducks are very tame ; the drakes very wild. We seldom
shot any of these birds, as they are valuable, and preserved on
account of their doM'n. This is not of any use taken from the
duck after death, but is obtained from the nests after the brood
is hatched, the parent birds having plucked it from their breasts
to line them with. At Nerse Sound, Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and
Volkvar, we saw great numbers, especially at the last place.
They appeared at all seasons of the year." The eider is one of
the northern birds of America as well as of Europe,

I t

116 ANATID.E.

THE KING EIDER.

King Duck.

Somateria spectahilis, Linn, (sp.)
Alias „ „

Is extremely rare.

In the ' Annals of Natural History' (vol. v. p. 6), I recorded
the occurrence of a female bird which was shot at Kingstown
harbour, near Dublin, about the 1st of October, 1837, and a few
hours afterwards came into the possession of Mr. R. Ball : when
first seen it was accompanied by two others. The specimen is
preserved in the University Museum, Dubhn. Mr. R. Chute
has obtained two king eiders on the coast of Kerry (as determined
by comparison of their bills with drawings of those of the eider
and king eider), one in the winter of 1843, from Derrynane, and
the other in that of 1845-46, from Tralee Bay : they were either
females or immature males. On the 11th of March, 1850, a bird
of this species, while swimming alone, was shot in Belfast Bay,
and came under my examination on the 12th. Its weight was
3 lbs. 5 oz. The entire bill was dusky, having the colour and
general appearance of india-rubber as it is sold at the stationers\
Tarsi and toes very pale olive or dull fawn-colour; the membranes
dusky. Irides very dark brown. On dissection, it was found to
be a female; the eggs only one-twelfth of an inch in diameter. The
stomach was tilled with the remains of Crustacea and moUusca,
viz., an Inachus of middle size, the largest Portumis arcvatus that
I had seen (and perfect excepting the arms), a Nucula margari-
tacea, and a small buckie-whelk {Bticcinum uiidatum).

The preceding notes relate to more king eiders than are on
record as obtained in Great Britain, south of the Orkney Islands,"^
at least until 1845. Mr. Macgillivray mentions the species as

* It is n.lv " a rare occasional visitant" to these islands. — 'Hist. Nat. Oread.'
(1848),

THE KING ElDEll. 117

not having occurred soiiili of that group, while Sir Wm. Jardine
and Mr. Yarrell merely notice the individual, said by Mr. Jenyns
to have been killed in Sussex. According to Mr. St. John, it is
rarely seen at the Kyle of Tongue."^

The king eider is still more of a northern species than the com-
mon eider, and breeds abundantly on the shores and islands of the
arctic regions. It does not retire far southward during the winter,
but frequents the Northern Atlantic in large flocks. These birds
often afforded a valuable supply of fresh provision to the crews
of the vessels employed on the arctic voyages. t According to
Dr. Eichardson, they " have not been seen to the southward of
the 59th parallel."^

During a sporting tour to Norway, made in a yacht in the sum-
mer and autumn of 1849, by Captain May, late of the Inniskilliug
dragoons, and two other officers of that regiment, the common
and the king eider were thus observed; — the common species
frequently, from the middle of June to September, between
Copenhagen and Bodo, and a little to the northward of the latter
place. Some were shot on tlie islands of the Kattegat, between
Copenhagen and Clu-istiansand, at the first-named period. They
became gradually scarcer towards the arctic circle, and far north,
towards Hammerfest, none were seen. Here their place was
supplied by the king eider, which appeared commonly in the
fiords from July till September, from Bodo northwards, and in-
creased thence in numbers towards the North Cape. Some of
them were killed : they " carried away" a great deal of shot. A
few w^ere baked in pies when nothing better could be had, but
were considered to have a very strong disagreeable flavour.

Steller's Western Duck, Somateria ? Stelleri, Pall, (sp.), Ana/i
dispar, Sparm., has been included in the British catalogue from a single
individual procured in Norfolk, in February 1830. Since the publica-
tion of the 2nd edition of Yarrell's work (1845), another of these birds
is stated to have been obtuhied — in Yorkshire, in August 1845. ||

* 'Tour in Sutherland,' vol. i. p. 140. f Sir .lames C. Ross.

X ' Faun. Bor. Anier.,' p. 437.

!| R. J. Bell, in ' Zoologist' for 1846, vol. iv. p. 1249.

118 ANATIDiE.

This species is of occasional occurrciice in tlic more northern countries
of Europe to Germany inclusive, and in similar latitudes of Asia and
North America, but is very rare in both hemispheres.

THE SURE SCOTER.
Surf Duck.

Oidemia perspicillata, Linn, (sp.)
Anas „ „

Has been once obtained.

I PUBLISHED the following notice of one in the 1 8th volume of
the ' Annals of Natural History' : —

"A beautiful adult male of this species was shot at Bally-
holme, Belfast Bay, on the 9tli of September, 1846, by Snowden
Corken, Esq. It was alone, about two hundred yards from the
shore, allowed three shots to be fired at it before attempting to
dive, and was killed at the fourth or fifth shot, on reaching the
surface after having dived. ^ TSvo of these birds had, a day or
two before, been observed in company in the same locality, and
one individual was seen several times in the course of a few weeks
after the subject of this notice had been killed. ' The weight of
the specimen was 1 lb. 14 oz. ; its length, 21 inches ; wing, from
carpus to point of quills, 9 inches 2 lines ; tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ;
middle toe and nail, 2 inches 8 lines ; breadth across the wings,
27 inches / — as noted during my absence from home, by Dr. J.
D. Marshall, but for whose kindness, and the considerate atten-
tion of Mr. Darragh (curator of the Belfast Museum), 1 might
not have had the opportunity of seeing the bird, and certainly

* Audubon remarks, that "it is an uncommonly shy bird, and therefore difficult
to be obtained, unless shot at while on wing, or when asleep, and, as it were, at
anchor on our bays, or neai' the shore ; for it dives as suddenly as the velvet and
scoter ducks, eluding even the best percussion-locked guns." — ' Orn. Biog.,' vol. iv.
p. 163.

THE SUKF SCOTEll.

119

could not have known the kind of food which it procured on our
coast, or the form of its trachea. Tlie contents of the stomach,
preserved for my inspection, consisted of ten perfect specimens of
the bivalve shell, Nuciila viargarttacea, from small to adult size,
and a portion of the shell of a very large Solen ^^eUucidus, with
fragments of the shells of other species. The bay where this bird
was shot, is of a sandy nature, such as Wilson remarks to be
frequented by the surf scoter on the coast of North America.
' Spoutfish [_Solen] and small bivalve shell-fish,^ according to
him, are its principal food ; — one of the only moUusca that he
particularizes was therefore found in the present individual. As
the species of Nttcula mentioned is generally dredged in from
three to five fathoms (18-30 feet) water in Ballyholme Bay, we
must suppose that the bird dived to that depth to obtain these
shell-fish — a supposition in accordance with Audubon^s remark,
that this duck ^is frequently observed fishing at the depth of
several fathoms.'

" AU the general descriptions of the colours of the surf scoter
sufficiently mark the species, but none that I have read gave me
a proper idea of the beauty of the head and biU — more especially
of the latter, — as exhibited in this bird. Its entire plumage is of
a rich black colour, with a reddish violet reflection, excepting the
pure white marking in front of the head between the eyes, and
that of the same colour extending down the nape. The former
is heart-shaped, 1^ inch in length, and the same in breadth; the
latter occupies 2|- inches in length, is 10 lines in breadth at the
top, and gradually narrows downwards to a point. The irides
are pure white. A peculiar and handsome feature is presented
in the plumage advancing so far down the ridge of the bill as to
be half-way between its lateral base and the tip, and in a vertical
line with the nostrils. The whole of the elevated portion of the
upper mandible next the frontal base is of a carmine-red, shading
into rich yellowish-orange, which occupies the portion from the
nostrils forward to the unguis, tliis being of a paler shade of the
latter colour. The anterior half of the space between tlie nostrils
and the lateral base of the bill arc white, of a pearly lustre ; the

120 ANATID^.

posterior half cliiefly occupied by a nearly square black spot
(7 lines in diameter), in a ^setting/ as it were, of three colours ;
the portion of the mandible between it and the lateral base (a line
in breadth) being carmine-red ; that above it, gamboge-yellow ;
below it, white, of a pearly lustre, as it is anteriorly. Under
mandible white, except towards the nail, where it is orange;
nail, a mixture of white and brownish-orange. Legs and toes
deep red, inclining a little to uraiige, and blotched more or less
M ith black ; this latter being the colour of the webs and nails,
with the exception of one nail, which is white.

" A very full description of the trachea of the surf scoter, with
measurements of the different portions, is given by Audubon
(vol. iv. p. 106), who correctly remarks, that it presents the same
structure as that of the velvet duck {Old. fused).

" The specijic differences, however, seem to me worthy of being
figured — which, in so far as I am aware, has not yet been done —
and for that purpose I have made a drawing of the trachea of the
present specimen. This, for the sake of comparison with that of
the velvet duck, figured by Yarrell, has been drawn on the same
scale. It will be seen from my figure, that the surf scoter, as
well as the species just named, exhibits within the upper expan-
sion of the trachea " an aperture on each side," &c., as particu-
larly noticed in tlie case of the velvet duck by Mr. Yarrell (B. B.
vol. iii. p. 219, 1st edit., or p. 316, 2nd edit.).''

The figure alluded to, and measurements of the different parts
of the trachea, will be found in the 'Annals,' vol. xviii. p. 370.

" Although the peculiar form of the trachea, as well as the
external characters generally, place this species next to the velvet
scoter, yet in the form of the bill the two species differ very con-
siderably. This difference has been admirably pointed out by
Mr. Selby in the following words : — 'In this species \Oul. per-
spicillata] the bill has not that flatness and expansion in front of
the nostrils that are so conspicuous in Oid. nigra and Oid. fusea,
but assumes, in a great degree, the characters of the succeeding
germs Somateria (Eider), by tlietip being suddenly contracted, and
the nail (which is also more convex than in the other species)

r

m

. 0

3

. 1

4

. 2

6

. 2

4

. 1

4

the; surf scotek. 121

being brought to a narrow rounded point ; the entering angle of
the forehead also projects, as in the common eider, as far as the
nostrils. The lateral parts of the bill at the base are very tumid,
and are particular from the marking there displayed, these swell-
ings being entirely exposed, and not in part concealed by the
feathers, as in the velvet scoter/"^ The highly arched form of
the bill above the nostrils requires, however, especial notice. t
In the absence of a figure, some idea may perhaps be given by
the following two notes of its depth : —

in. lin.
Depth of bill at base of ridge where plumage teriniuates-
lines fi'om tip .......

Depth of bill at 10 liaes from tip .

Length of bill above (not following curve)

Length of bill to rictus ......

Length of bill to base of lateral protuberances
Breadth of bill between the lateral protuberances .

" The specimen which has furnished the subject of this com-
munication was in course of being preserved for Dr. Charles
Cupples, of Lisburn, who, on being informed of its rarity, liberally
presented it to the Belfast Museum.

" The surf scoter is known only as a British species from its
having been obtained at the Orkney and Shetland Islands, with
the exception of one individual, recorded by Mr. Gould as ob-
tained in the Trith of Eorth, and ' a recently shot one, sent to
Mr. Bartlett for preservation,' as noticed in Yarrel^s work,
vol. iii. p. 322, 2nd edit. ; but the locality where it was killed is
not mentioned — the 'Naturalist,' vol. iii. p. 420, is referred to
for the original notice of this specimen.

"Wilson (briefly) and Audubon (very fully) give interesting

* 'lUust. Brit. Orn.,' vol. ii. p. 335.

t YarreU's figure of this species is admirable, with the single exception that
the peculiar form of the bill is not represented. The arched profile of the upper
mandible in the specimen under consideration (probably fi-om its being a vei'y old
male) is still more strongly marked than in IMr. Selby's figure, representing a male
bird of life size.

132 ANATID^.

descriptions of the habits, &c. of this species, which is commou
on the North American coast, increasing in numbers northward."

THE VELVET SCOTER.
Velvet Duck ; Double Scoter.

Oidemia fusca, Linn, (sp.)

Is an occasional winter visitant to the coast.

In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1835^
(p. 79), I noticed a specimen as having been shot at Clontarf,
near Dubhn, on the 2nd of December, 1833. In March 1834,
Mr. Glennon informed me that he had, in the course of many years,
received only two fresh specimens which were killed in Ireland; —
and subsequently mentioned that one was shot on the river Liffey in
the winter of 1837-38. A fine male bird w^as got at Portrane,
on the DubHu coast, on the 13th of January, 1838. This species
was procured in Wexford harbour previous to 1836, when the
circumstance was made known to me.* An immature velvet scoter
obtained in September 1847 at Dublin, in a recent state, has the
white mark on the wing, but no white on the head ; the plumage
of the breast is of a mottled white and blackish-brown. It does
not agree with the description of a young male, and is, I pre-
sume, a young female; — wliich I have not seen described. This
specimen, with the adult bird already noticed, from Portrane, is in
the University Museum, Dubhn : both were purchased in a recent
state by Mr. E. Ball. Mr. R. J. Montgomery, waiting from
Queensborough, Drogheda, in March 1849, mentioned that a
velvet scoter had been killed in the bay there " last winter," and
informed me, on May the 10th, that an adult female had been
taken that day on a hook set by a fisherman in Drogheda Bay.

* Major T. Waliicr.

THE VELVET SCOTER. 123

My informant, a few days afterwards, saw a male bird there, which
he imagined to have been her mate, and tried to obtain a shot at
him but, unsuccessfully, owing to his wildness. About the 1st of
March, 1850, an adult male of this species was shot near the
lighthouse in Youghal harbour.*

The only occasion on which I have seen the velvet scoter satis-
factorily in a wild state, was during a visit at Twizel House, Nor-
thumberland, in the autumn of 1838. When on the beach, one
day — about the 1st of September — in company with more than
one describer of the species (Mr. Selby, Sir Wm. Jardine, and the
Rev. L. Jenyns), several of these birds appeared, swimming between
us and the Tarn Islands ; and though at a considerable distance,
the white mark on the wing unerringly distinguished them from
the common scoter, with which only they could be confounded.

In the month of March, Sir Wm. Jardine has pointed out to
me, in the Trith of Forth, off PortobeUo, what he knew to be
small flocks of these birds ; but they were too distant for the
species to be distinguished from the beach. This author's obser-
vations upon velvet scoters in that locality, where he has gone in
pui'suit of them in boats, will be found noticed in his work on
'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 164.

On the eastern coast of Scotland and that of the north of Eng-
land, the velvet scoter is chiefly found, and it continues there in
little flocks all the winter. In Ireland it has hitherto been ob-
served— as the foregoing localities denote — chiefly on the eastern
side of the island, and there very rarely. Velvet scoters were ob-
served by Captain May on the coast of Norway, in 1849. Late in
autumn he saw a number of them, in company with king eiders,
&c., near Tromsoe. This handsome duck is of occasional occur-
rence in winter as far south as the Mediterranean, but is properly a
northern species, in both the eastern and western hemispheres.

* Dr. Harvey, of Cork.

124 ANATID^.

THE BLACK OR COMMON SCOTER.

Black Duck.

Oidemia nigra, Linn, (sp.)
Anas ,, „

Is a regular visitant to certain localities on the coast.

The places of its regular or occasional occurrence known to me
shall be noticed from north to south. At Malin Head, the
extreme northern point of Ireland, and Portrush, near the Giant's
Causeway, it has been obtained ; — at the latter locality in ]\Iarch
1840.'^ One, kUled at Dundrum, on the coast of Down, on the
13th of March, 1824, came under my notice, and tlu'ee of these
birds were seen in the river which falls into the bay there in
the winter of 1 831-32. t Numbers of scoters were observed at
Lurgan Green, county of Louth, so early in the autumn as
August 1839. J I had seen a specimen — one of five — killed near
Dundalk, a few years before that time.

The fullest information respecting the scoter has been com-
municated to me by R. J. Montgomery, Esc[., and relates to
Drogheda Bay. In the months of September and October of
1842, 1843, and 1844 (in August also of the last year), flocks,
amounting to some hundred individuals, were seen there by that
gentleman in the course of a day, forty to fifty birds at least
being generally in one flock. In other years, also, they came
under his notice, but were not so plentiful ; not nearly so in the
winter of 1848-49, when the information respecting the species
was supplied to me. They are well known to all the fishermen
by the name of " black ducks," and are often captured on their
hooks. They formerly frequented the mouth of the river, but
are now generally to be seen farther out in the bay.

My correspondent remarks : — " I have been endeavouring to
ascertain the reason of the diminution in numbers of the scoters

* Colonel Portlock, R.E. f The late Mr. Joha Montgomery,

i ^Ir. II. H. Dombrain.

THE BLACK OR COMMON SCOTER. 125

here, and the only one I can assign is this : there were immense
beds of mussels in the mouth of the river, and in some places
along tlie shores of the bay, which I suppose attracted them in
such numbers. There has now sprung up a new trade in
mussels to Liverpool, and from two to three hundred people,
chiefly women, are sometimes employed in collecting these shell-
fish at low water, at the entrance of the river. They are washed
there, put up in bags, and sent to Liverpool for consumption,
where they meet with a ready sale. The mussels are becoming
scarce, as well as other small shell-fish, which I think accounts
for the diminution of the scoters : certainly there is not one to
be seen now for fifty formerly." To this interesting statement
I shall only add, that the gatherers of the mussels would not
disturb the birds at their feeding-time, as tlie banks are then
covered with water.

About Dublin, scoters have not unfrequently been procured.
Mr. W. S. Wall informed me, in 1834, that he had, at different
times, received three, which were killed at Clontarf. In the
winter of 1837-38, one shot on the coast at Malahide; a second
at ChapeHzod, on the Liffey, a few miles inland ; and a third on
fresh-water, at Pinglass Bridge, were sent to him to be preserved.
About this period one was shot at Balbriggan, on the sea-coast,
and at the end of December 1848 an individual was killed in
Dublin Bay : — a flock was seen here on the 20th of January,
1850.* At the island of Ireland's Eye, near its entrance,
Mr. R. Ball, when once looking for mollusca among the rocks,
was startled by a flock of about twenty scoters passing almost
close past his head. The boataien who observed them remarked
that they were " common black ducks."

A fine adult male bird (which I have seen in Mr. Warren's
collection) was shot in December 1833, on the river near Bless-
ington, county of Wicklow, nearly twenty English miles from
the sea. Two male scoters were obtained about the 1st of April,
1843, by Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, one of which was shot

* Mr. J. "Watters, jun.

126 anatidjE.

on the river Suir^ near the town of Thurles^ county Tipperary,
more than forty miles in a direct line from the sea. The
other, sent from Wexford, may be presumed to have been killed
in the harbour there, where the species is not unfrequent."^
Scoters have been kiUed near Tram ore, in the county of Water-
ford, and they are not uncommon — immature birds particularly
— ^in Cork harboui'.f In Kerry, scoters frequent the mouth
of Tralee Bay, about the Maharee Islands, in small flocks during
the winter : seven birds kiUed at one shot there a few years ago,
came under the notice of Mr. R. Chute. When visiting the
island of Achil, in 1834, I learned from Lieutenant Reynolds,
R.N., that he had shot scoters there.

Mr. Yarrell correctly remarks, that "the scoter is not very
often found on fresh-water, inland, during winter," and gives one
instance of its so occurring, in the first edition of his work, and
two instances in the second edition. Of the Irish localities just
mentioned, where this bird has been obtained, several are inland.

An interesting note appeared in the 'Zoologist^ for 1848, to
the effect that in the first week of July that year, fourteen scoters
appeared opposite Wray Castle, on Windermere, which is visited
by the species every year about that period. They never remain
more than one or two days. Two of the fourteen birds were killed.
On the previous 23rd of May, a male velvet scoter was shot there,
and a female was seen about the same time. J In like manner both
species are sometimes observed about the Lake of Geneva, on their
migratory route ; the latter being noticed as of accidental passage
in April, and single individuals of the common scoter as being seen
in May. II

Mr. Selby says, and no doubt from personal observation, that
the scoter frequents shores particularly of a rocky character.
In Ireland, however, it has chiefly been met with in sandy bays,
as at Dundrum, Lurgan Green, Drogheda Bay, localities on the
Dublin coast, &c.

* Mr. Poole. t Dr. Harvey.

% Thomas Gough. Kendal, vol. vi. p. 2230.
II Necker's Memoir on the Birds of Geneva.

THE POCHARD. 127

On the English coast, the velvet scoter is considered more
rare than the A. nigra, which is likewise the case in Ireland, but
on the coast of Scotland the latter is the more uncommon of the
two species."^

The Eed-crested Pochard {Fuligula nifina, Pall, (sp.), Anas
rufina, Pall.) was introduced to the British catalogue from a
specimen obtained in England, in January 1826, since which
period a few others have been met with in that country, though
none have been procured in Scotland or Ireland. The east of Eu-
rope, a part of Asia, and of northern Africa, are the chief abodes
of this species. It has occurred in most of the countries of the
more southern half of Europe.

THE POCHARD.t

Red-headed Pochard; Dun-bird.

Fuligula ferina, Linn, (sp.)
Anas „ „

Is a regular winter visitant, but varies much in numbers
in different years.

Belfast Ba7/.-^J.n some seasons scarcely any are to be seen
here, and the more severe the winter they are generally the more
numerous. During portions of two or three successive winters,
about the years 1837, 1838, and 1839, they were very abundant.
AVhere the river called Conswater joins the bay at "Adam^s point, '^

* Jardine. Mr. St. John, in enumerating the birds of Sutherlandsliirc, does not
name the common scoter as at all found there, but notices the velvet scoter, as " in
abundance during the winter on the east coast." — ' Tour in Sutherland,' vol. i. p. 140.

t Sometimes called noldhcad, fresh-water wigeon, and bull-headed wigeon, in the
north of Ireland. The name of wigeon-diver is a])))licd to it in Cork Harbour, and
Whinvard at Wexford.

128 ANATID^.

is a favourite place of resort, and one day in particular, during a
very severe snow-storm, they were literally in thousands there ; —
the sui'face of the river exhibited one living mass of them. Tor
many seasons before and after those, pochards were very scarce.
In the winter of 1847-48, the chief wild-fowl shooter in the
bay obtained only a couple, and, during some other winters, none
at all. Occasionally they associate with scaup and tufted ducks.
They appear the second of the Fuligida — after the scaup, and
before the tufted duck — and generally arrive by the latter end of
October ; but December* is usually the earliest winter month in
which they are met with in quantity. January or February, espe-
cially the former, is the height of their season. They generally
take their departure in March, throughout which month, until the
25th, they were here in 1836 : — about two dozen Fidigula, believed
to be of this species, were seen on Ballydrain Lake, on the 15th of
April, 1832. On the same day of that month, in 1850, one was
obtained near Lurgan.

Pochards, as well as scaups and tufted ducks, fly at the dusk
of the evening, like the wigeon, to the sea-banks to feed, but at
a later hour. I have known several of the two first-named species
to be brought by the flowing tide within range, and shot from the
barrel in which a fowler was awaiting the flight of wigeon. Po-
chards and scaups, when wounded on their feeding-banks, run very
fast, assisted by their wings, and, when pursued, always move
towards the water, in the hope of being the better able to save
themselves by diving. A wild-fowl shooter gives an amusing
account of the chase of a pochard. He had at one shot wounded
two or three, and, as he thought, killed four. The most active of
the wounded was fu'st looked after, as it was hurrying with all
speed towards the water, which was distant. The shooter followed
as quickly as he could, knee-deep, through the soft muddy
banks, until weakness and want of breath rendered him unable to
move a step farther. The bird, fortunately for him, stopped at
the same time, i)erhaps equally requiring to " draw breath.^^ So

* In this mouth they were once plentiful, when other Anatidm were scai'ce.

THE POCHARD, 129

soon as my informant was able to renew the chase, this was
recommenced, and continued in the same manner for some time
longer, the bird always running when he ran, and stopping when
he stopped. At last the object of pursuit was captured, and no
mercy shown, though it deserved a better fate. The four slain were
now sought for, but the chase had lasted so long as to enable
two of them to recover themselves sufficiently to make their
escape : they were not even seen again. Pochards and scaups,
when wounded on the water, steal to the banks if they can quietly
reach them, and are so much incHned to remain there, that from
this habit alone disabled birds are known from others.

When either species was wounded by one of our shooters, in
calm weather, and the water was clear, instead of following them
with his gun, he and his companion pursued them, armed with
the setting-pole of the boat, which had an iron A^-formed fork at
the end. The birds were struck with this weapon while urging
their way through the water from near the surface, to the depth
of eight feet, which was as far as the pole would strike them
effectively. In this manner they moved at least as quickly as
they could have done by swimming on the surface. The sport
was very exciting, from the quick rowing of the boat that was
requisite, in consequence of the progress made by the birds,
and the frequent change of tack necessary on account of their
sudden turnings. They were merely struck by the pole, not
brought up on its fork. One person rowed, wliile the other
managed the pole. Many birds have been thus secured.

The same observant shooter has often seen pochards and scaups
that dived when wounded, keep close along the bottom, busily
using their wings and feet all the time that he was in close
pursuit. But, when merely feeding, both species dive down in
water from three to nine feet in depth, and scoop along the
surface of the mud at the bottom, for shell-fish. That they do
so, is evident when the tide is out, by narrow zigzag lines, the
breadth of their bills, being then observable. These lines are
from one to five yards in length, and of a sinuous form, such as
would be produced by the motion of the wings and body during

A^OL. III. K

130 ANATID.E.

tlie onward progress of the birds. My informant and another
fowler having remarked the two species feeding at high -water,
and then only at a particular part of the bay, examined the
bottom there, when the tide was out, and observed these lines.
They picked up some shells from the stratum of ooze above the
sand, and, on shooting the birds, foimd the same kind in their
stomachs ; — these shells being brought to me, proved to be Tellina
solichda,oiB\n2iW. size, not exceeding one- third of an inch in diameter.

Mr. Selby remarks, that " the flesh of this bird is tender and
well-flavoured, unless killed in the neighbourhood of the sea,
when it frequently acquires a rank and fishy taste" (p. 349).
Mr. Yarrell observes more fully : — " Dun-birds [pochards] are in
general remarkable for the excellence of their flesh, and probably
but little inferior to the far-famed canvas-backed duck of the
United States, which it very closely resembles, in the colour of
its plumage ; but our dun-bird is the smaller of the two. As
the canvas-backed duck of America is considered to derive the
goodness and flavour for which it is so much esteemed from its
taking a considerable portion of a particular vegetable food [said
by Pr. Nuttall to be Valisneria Americana, Zostera marina, and
Riippia marifmia,'] and is much less prized in spring when
deprived of it, and obliged to live entirely at seaj so our dun-
birds are best while they feed at the mouths of rivers, and about
fresh- water ; but when they feed at sea on fishes, Crustacea, and
moUusca, I have found them coarse and ill-flavoured" (vol. iii.
p. 235). Wilson and Audubon mention the pochard as highly
esteemed in America, and the latter author states that he found
food of various kinds in those killed in the shallow ponds of the
interior. The pochard, though considered better than the scaup
in Belfast, is but little esteemed for the table, and brings no
higher price to the shooter than that species — from six to nine-
pence each. The dealers rarely purchase them, except as a favour
from the regular shooters, who supply them with wigeon and
brent geese. Yet pochards should be particularly good here, as
they always find abundance of vegetable food. Nothing else

THE POCHAED, 131

(except sand and gravel) did I find in the course of several years,
in a number of them dissected, from the beginning of December
to the end of March.^ The shell-fish noticed at p. 130 were
subsequently found. That Zostera is not a favourite food, is
evident from their predilection for fresh-water, in which it does
not grow, and even those killed in Belfast Bay do not contain
tliis plant like the brent geese and wigeon, in which we very
rarely find anything else. Soft green vegetable matter, and
seeds of various aquatic plants,t are the favourite food of the
pochard with us. It should be in the highest condition on these,
but justice, I fear, has not been done to its " flesh ^' here, the
market being regularly supplied with wild-fowl of well-known and
long-established character, as wild ducks, teal, wigeon, and brent
geese. It is, however, considered the best of the diving ducks.

In an article on Walker's ' Original,' published in the ' Quar-
terly Review ' (vol. Iv.), there is a good deal said of the weight,
&c., of different kinds of game and other birds (p. 466). The
following information, which appears there, I could not resist
extracting : —

" Tlie greatest novelty, perhaps, is the pochard, or dun-bird, a species of wild-
fowl, supposed to come from the Caspian Sea, and caught only in a single decoy
on the Misley Hall estate, Essex, in the month of January, in the coldest years.
The mildness of the season kept them away during the winters of 1833-1834 and
1834-1835 ; but a few have arrived within the last month (January 1836), and
were generally admired by those who had the good fortune to become acquainted
with them. Their flesh is exquisitely tender and delicate, and may almost be said
to melt in the mouth, like what is told of the celebrated canvas-back duck of
America ; but they have little of the common wild-duck flavour, and are best eaten
in their own gravy, which is plentifiJ, without either cayenne or lemon-juice. Their
size is about that of a fine wigeon." — p. 464. |

A taxidermist has remarked to me that as the spring advances,

* A shooter and bird-preserver, who has killed many of these birds in Belfast
Bay (generally in company wdth scaups, and sometimes with tufted ducks), states,
that the pochards ditfcred from the others in containiug vegetable matter, in
addition to minute moUusca, ou which alone the other species had fed.

t Two pocliards, purchased in Belfast market (Nov. 11, 1848) had both crops
and gizzards entirely fiUed with oats. One (Jan. 1849) was wholly filled with
extremely minute seeds, excepting a few small frcsh-watcr bivalve shells of the genus
Pisidium.

X Two mature females of the pncbard and scaup, shot in Belfast ]5ay at the end of

K 2

132 ANATID.E.

all birds of tlie cluck kind, and tlie bernacle, smell strongly when
he is skinning them, much more so than in frosty weather ; —
this applies, also, to gulls generally. The flesh looks much more
delicate to the eye during frost, the fat being white in cold weather,
and yellow, or even orange in some species, late in the spring.
He was once tempted by the delicate appearance of the flesh
of a gull during frost, to eat of it, and found it good.

In the winter of 1847-48, a pochard was captured near
Wexford, when lying on its back upon the surface of the water,
and its feet in violent motion. When examined, it had no visible
mark of injury. The gentleman into whose possession this duck
came, saw it occasionally afterwards attacked so violently with
what he believed to be cramp, as to be entirely disabled. The
symptoms being precisely similar to those under wliich it was
originally taken, he considers that the bird was captured during
one of these fits."^

A wounded pochard refused to partake of oatmeal steeped
in water, and placed before him, but on his bill being dipped
into it, he quickly discovered his mistake, and thenceforth ate of
this food with avidity. I have remarked that these birds, which
were kept from time to time on the pond at the Falls, were of
a gentle quiet disposition.

Audubon remarks that this species is " equally fond of salt and
fresh water" (vol. iv. p. 199). It frequents fresh-water much in
the north of Ireland, and has been several times, in December and
January chiefly, brought to me from Lough ISTeagh. It is partial to
Ballydrain Lake by day, as mentioned under Tufted Duck ; — Nov.
the 17th, 1833, was noted as early in the season for their appear-
ance here, when about thirty were seen in company with that
species. In the following month, both kinds were much more

January, weighed, the former 2 lbs. 2 oz. ; the latter 1 lb. 10 oz. : the pochard was
in every respect considerably larger than the scaup ; its length was nineteen, that of
the scaup seventeen inches.

The colour of the eyes of the pochard, according to Mr. Darragh, is, in young
females, dark brown; in old females, yellowish-brown. Young males, red and
yellow prettily mixed ; and in old males bright red.

* Mr. J. Poole.

THE POCHARD. 183

numerous on this lake, at tlie same time with quantities of wigeon,
tealj and wild ducks. On the 8th of December, 1837, 1 saw eight
pochards, which, with three more, had been killed at a shot on some
water near Hillsborough, county Down. Seven of these were
adult males, the other was a female ; of ten shot in Belfast Bay on
the 3rd of January that year, nearly all were likewise old male birds,
1 have remarked that a singularly large proportion of the pochards
visiting this quarter are so; and a wild- fowl shooter, who has
killed a great number of them at all periods of the winter in
many years, considers that there were at least four males, old and
young, to one female.

At Clay Lake, a small sheet of fresh-water, distant about a mile
from Strangford Lough, I am credibly informed that a pair of
pochards bred in the summer of 1849, as a pair had also done
about two summers previously. The species has occasionally
been known for many years past to breed in Norfolk, as a few do
annually in Holland.

The pochard visits the sea- coast on each side of the island
and, also, the inland w^aters pretty generally. My correspond-
ents residing near the localities about to be named, consider it as
follows : — rare in the north-west of Donegal, common in Dublin
Bay, and not uncommon in Wexford and Waterford harbours.
In Cork harbour it is not rare, but is so in Kerry, where it
has been seen on Lough Beg, near the shores of Brandon Bay.''^
It has been killed on the coast of the island of Achil.t The
species appears every winter on the rivers and fresh-water lakes of
Connaught rather plentifully, but in detached flocks, consisting of
from three or four to ten or a dozen birds. J "Pochards, tufted
ducks, and golden-eyes, as well as mallards, wigeon, and teal, are
in flocks on the Shannon all the winter.''' ||

Mr. Selby remarks of the pochard, that " in the northern parts
of England and in Scotland it is comparatively of rare occurrence,
either from the deficiency of some particular aquatic plants and

* Mr. K. Cliute ; — tlie late jNIr. T. 1*\ Ncligan markt'd it witli doubt as a
visitant to Kerry.

t Lieut. Reynolds, R.N., 18:34. t ^^^- G- Jaekson. || Kev. T. Knox.

184 ANATIDiE.

grasses, or from these districts beiug out of its migratory line,
from the north- eastern parts of Europe ^^ (p. 347). To the latter
cause its scarcity cannot be owing, as tlie preceding information
respecting the species in the more western island fully shows.

The Nyroca Duck, or White-eyed Duck,* FuUgula nyroca,
Gmel. (sp.), F. leucoplithalmos, T?lem. Bechst. (sp.), has not been ob-
tained in Ireland. One has been seen in the Edinburgh market by Sir
Wm. Jardine, but where killed is not stated. The species is said to have
"been observed in Orkney." f According to Yan'ell, a "few are an-
nually taken " in England, generally in " the eastern counties between
the Thames and the Humber." The east of England would, therefore,
appear to be the western limit of its regular migration ; the few indi-
viduals which have been killed more to the westward (as two procured
near Oxford, &c.), being stragglers. The more southern portion of
Europe eastward of England seems to be its chief habitat on that con-
tinent. Its distribution extends over a great portion of central Asia,
and the more eastern part of northern Africa.

THE SCAUP DUCK.J

White-faced Duck ; Bridle Duck.

"■ FuUgula 7narila, Linn, (sp.)
Anas „ „

Is a regular winter visitant to the coast, and the most
plentiful of the Fidi(julcB.

» Belfast Bay.

The scaup duck is the earliest of its genus in arriving here, gene-
rally making its first appearance in September. For seven suc-
cessive years — 1838-1844 — it was first seen in that month; the

* Ferruginous Duck of Montagu and Yarrell. Bewick figui'es the ruddy shell-
drake under the same name.

t ' Hist. Nat. Oread.' p. 80.

% The scaup is sometimes called Norioaij dtick, and the old male yreen-headed
diver in Belfast Bay: bridle duck is one of the names for it in Dublin market. It
is called mule by the fowlers at Wexford (J. Poole). In reference to the first of
these names it may be mentioned that the scaup is called Norwegian teal at Banff,
Scotland (Rev. J. Smith, in ' Zoologist/ vol. vi. p. 2293). '

THE SCAUP DUCK. 135

earliest date beiug the 14tli (181.0), the latest, the 29th (1838) ;
at the end of August in 1837 it was observed. Mr. Selby re-
marks that on the coast of Northumberlciud the scaup " seldom
arrives before the end of October, or the beginning of the
month following'^ (p. 355); and Sir Wm. Jardine makes a
similar observation,'^ probably with reference to the south of
Scotland.

Scaups sometimes remain to a late period in this bay. On the
26th April, 1838, two were shot ; the north-east wind, which for
a time had prevailed, probably detained them : the two days pre-
vious to their being killed were bright and very fine. In 1847
again, a flock of between twenty and thirty appeared, on the 24th
of that month, about 400 yards from the quays of the town; on
the 9th of May, five, and on the 11th, three birds were observed
not far from the same place. On the 1st of May, 1849, a flock
of twelve, including some fine adult males, was seen. Those con-
tinuing here until this period would, I conceive, migrate northwards;
but not any remaining so late as the 7 th of June, on which day, in
1838, one was shot in the bay : — on being skinned, no indication
appeared of its having been previously wounded. Dui'ing the
first week of June 1840, also, a pair of these birds, in full plu-
mage, frequented a part of the bay near the town, and occasionally
visited the neighbouring fields. The male was shot, and the
female remained about the place for some time afterwards.

Adult males are occasionally killed among the first of the spe-
cies that appear ; but the relative proportion of them seems rather
to increase towards spring. Scaups, though commonly associating
with the other diving ducks, are very rarely, except in severe wea-
ther, seen in company with wigeon ; but their first appearance in
one season at the end of September, was with that bird ; and in
the middle of October of another year both species fell at the
same discharge. I have only myself shot the scaup on its flight
about the margin of the sea, or when swimming within range of
embankments which were approached too nearly for its own
safety.

* 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 13y.

136 ANATID^.

A fowler of much experience^ who followed it in boats,
has remarked of this duck, that when approaching the centre
of a large flock, in calm weather, the birds divided into two
bodies, and swam away in opposite directions, allowing the " cot "
in which the shooters were — they keeping so low as to be invisible
— to pass between. Each of these flocks, if similarly approached,
would again divide, to the annoyance of their pursuers, who could
only get a few birds sufficiently near each other to be killed at
one discharge. Scaups were seldom so difficult to be approached
as wigeon or wild-ducks, and always made the attempt to swim
away ; but if the boat approached too quickly on them, they took
wing.

They are considered very hard to kill when struck. Eight or
nine birds have been obtained at one shot with a shoulder-gun, and
frequently about a dozen with the swivel-gun; by its means so many
as twenty-four were procured at a shot on the 4th of March,
1845, more than half of which were adult males. On this
occasion the shooter approached them unseen, at an unusually
early hour in the morning, when they w^ere not expecting an
enemy. At such times they float lightly and buoyantly on the
water, but, when danger is apprehended, sink themselves in it, so
that little more than the line of the back appears above the sur-
face. The scaup and other diving ducks, when wounded, swim
very low in the water, often only with the bill from the nostrils
exposed. "When keeping thus and the surface is ruffled, they
cannot be seen by the shooter, though when calm, the ripple
made by the bill betrays them. The disappearance of the
wounded birds may have given rise to the belief of some old
shooters here, that the tUving ducks, or divers, as they are com-
monly called, when wounded, go to the bottom, and laying hold
of some objects, such as sea-wrack, &c., die there !

Scaups are, excepting wigeon, the most numerous of all ducks

in Belfast Bay."^ They sometimes appear in very large flocks,

and were particularly abundant in the great Anatida winter of

1837-38; three flocks of above a thousand birds each, and

* On the coast of Sussex also they are said to be so by Mr. Knox.

THE SCAUP DUCK. 137

several smaller, could be seen at one view. So many of these
birds as lOjOOO are considered to have been seen together in the
seasons of their abundance. The last date of their thus appear-
ing was in the middle of February ISSO."^ One of these great
flocks is described as rising from the water with thundering
noise. They do not all rise at once, but, commencing at one end
of the flock, gradually take wing, keeping up a continuous noise,
which may be compared to that of feu de joie, until the whole
are in the air : those which sprang first would be past the farther
end of the flock before its time came to take wing. The noise
kept by a multitude of these birds feeding in the little shallow
pools exposed at low water on the sea-banks in the stillness of the
night, is described as resembling the sound of a waterfall: — shooters
hearing it on such occasions at the distance of more than half a
mile have been tempted to go in pursuit of them. In the middle
of February 1845, when scaups were remarkably plentiful, they
appeared in thousands far up the bay, and remained there for
some weeks.

I remarked from a steam-vessel proceeding towards Belfast, on
the 29th of January, 1840, that when near a mile from the town,
about 150 birds appeared ranged along the edge of the ebbing
tide, like Grallatores. They looked white and brilliant as oyster-
catchers, which they seemed to be, until on taking flight they
were observed to be ducks, and the white marking at the base of the
bill becoming apparent, proved them to be scaups : a short way
from them was another flock of about 100, which, like the others,
as they rose on wing appeared very beautiful. Their white aspect
on the ground led me to believe that they were adult males ; but the
marking just mentioned being that of the old female and imma-
ture birds disproved this, and I subsequently learned that adult
males were extremely scarce that season. The wliite appearance
of the birds must therefore be attributed to a particular cfl'cct of
light. Of forty-five of these ducks killed in the course of a
week by tlu"ee shooters at this time, there were about two

* They have appeared in a flock, covering the suilacc of the water (o an extent,
as was considered, equivalent to six English acres.

138 ANATIDiE.

females to one male, and of this sex only one bird in full
adult plumage.'^ At niglit, as is not unusual, tliey now
came to the quays of the town, and among the shipping, to
feed, though the weather was moderate. A fowler, having fired
at a flock here from his boat on a moonlight night, imagined on
rowing to the spot that great execution had been done, from the
circumstance of between twenty and thirty birds rising to the
surface about the boat, all of which he considered had been
wounded ; they had instead been simply feeding beneath, jDroof of
which was soon given by their taking boldly to wing ; — with the
exception of four birds that had been killed. About a hundred
scaup ducks have been obtained in a week during seasons when
they were most numerous.

When scaups are near the shore, and shooters, having the
wind in their favour, advance towards them in boats, they
are sure of a shot, as, though the birds may not admit of a sit-
ting one, they will fly back over the water, rather than escape from
the shooter by flying over the land. In this respect they differ
from wigeon and other species, as, indeed, they do generally in
,their avoidance of flying over land ; if, for instance, proceed-
ing up an estuary river, they will follow all its sinuosities, while
the wigeon, &c., will take the shortest course by making direct to
the desired point.

The scaup, though feeding by day, is a regular night-flying
bird, as will be found noticed under Pochard, where also its mode

* The following note on this species appears in my journal. " Belfast, Feb. 20,
183'.). I saw to-day in one shop eight, and in another seven scaup ducks, each
number kiUed at one shot in the bay. They were aU adult birds : five of the eight
were males. Although I caU these adults, the whole of the breast was not of a full
black, but at its lowest portion some of them exhibited deep mottled brown. Its
upper portion and the neck were black in all, and their heads of the rich fidl green
colour." An experienced wild-fowl shooter and taxidermist, who has examined a
great number of scaups in reference to the point, states, that he never saw young
males display the white colour' at the base of the bill, like old females, as they are
generally described to do, but that birds of that sex were always deficient in the
white, whereas females of every age displayed it. The irides of birds of both sexes
and all ages he has remarked to be yellow. One instance, however, of a male
scaup having white for one-eighth of an inch at each side of the upper mandible,
but none of this colour above it, has been made known to me. This bird was just
beginning, at the end of February, to exhibit a few of the light-coloured waved feathers
of the adult male.

THE SCAUP DUCK. 139

of feeding, in ■which both species participate, is mentioned. On
looking to the stomachs of a number of these birds killed in
the north of Ireland, cliiefly in the locality now treated of, from
November until March in various years, and in all kinds of wea-
ther, I have found that minute univalve shell-fish almost exclu-
sively constitute their food. These are Littorina littorea and L.
retusa, Lacuna quadrifasciata, Rissoa tilvce, CeritJuum reticulatum,
^iW^Nassa macula. One was filled with fragments of the bivalve Nu-
cula margaritacea, and another contained a number of the seeds
of Zostera marina, in addition to Rissoa tilva, this being the only
instance in which any vegetable matter was found. Minute Crus-
tacea, as Idotece, &c., I have likewise met witli ; — large pebbles,
even half an inch in diameter, are sometimes in them. Wil-
1 ugh by remarks that this bird "is called the scaup-duck hec2iVi?,e
she feeds upon scaup, i. e., broken shell-fish^^ (p. 365).

Wounded scaups (as has been remarked by Montagu) soon
become familiar. An acquaintance, endeavouring to ])et winged
birds at different times, could not induce them to eat until a large
vessel with water was introduced, into which their food was
thrown, and then, on every occasion, they at once partook of it.
He believed tliey would have died rather than take any food in a
dry state. I have seen them a few days after capture foUow per-
sons round a pond for bread, &c. ; and have been amused at
their preference to diving for food, rather than taking it on the
surface. When oats, for example, were tlu'own on the water,
they dived, after the odd grains that fell towards the bottom, in-
stead of taking them oft' the top, where they floated in quantity.

Mr. E. Ball has supplied the following note : — " A scaup duck
had a nest and about seven eggs, in the spring of 1 843, at the
Gardens of the Royal Zoological Society, Phoenix Park, Dublin ;
but I could not discover what male she was paired with ; she sat
for some weeks, until the eggs disappeared, probably having been
stolen : I have seen her since occasionally. As tliis duck was
able to fly, and there was no record of her being placed on the

14<U anatidtE.

pondj she may have come with other visitors, as the tufted duck
and mallard, wild birds of which regularly take up their residence
on the pond in winter."

The scaup is not approved of as food on either side of the At-
lantic. Mr. Selby remarks, that " its flesh is rather rank and
fishy" (p. 355) ; and Audubon characterizes it in similar terms.
In Belfast, this bird is not esteemed, and the fowler sometimes
cannot find a purchaser for it.

Montagues remark (in liis ' Supplement '), that the scaup is
" rarely observed upon fresh-water," is applicable to the north of
Ireland. It, has not been brought to me from Lough Neagh,
nor have I known it to be killed at any inland localities, though
no doubt such rarely does occur. A small flock, — among which
were several adult males, — was observed on Ballydrain Lake, on the
2nd of April, 1848.^ It is said occasionally to visit Lough Beg,
in Kerry, as well as the pochard.f I was told by the chief hawker
of wild-fowl in Dublin, in December 1849, that he had never
received it from inland waters, though nearly all the wild-fowl he
disposes of are sent thence. In America, Wilson believes the
scaup to be strictly a marine species ; but Audubon met with it
commonly on the rivers and lakes in the western parts of the
United States. J Tliis bird frequents suitable localities around
the Irish coast; is noticed as rare in the north-west of Donegal, §
as met \^'itll on the coast of Dubliu^ Wexford, Water ford, Cork,
Kerry, on which last it is considered to be very common, || and has
been obtained at Achil.^

The scaup duck appears to be about equally frequent in Ireland
as it is described to be in England and the south of Scotland.

The Ameuican Scaup Duck {Fuligula mariloides. Vigors), about
the specific distinction of which from the common scaup, ornithologists
are not generally agreed, has a place in the British catalogue, from the
circumstance of a single individual having been purchased in Loudon
market. Its name indicates the abode of this bird ; — the European
scaup duck is common on the coasts of North America.

* Mr. Darragh. t" Mr. R. Chute. + Vol. iii. p. 226.

§ Mr. J. V. Stewart. || Mr. T. F. Ncligan. 1[ Lieut. Reynolds, R.N.

141

THE TUFTED DUCK.

White-sided Diver.

FuUgula cristata, Steph.
Anas fidigida, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant.

AccoKDiNG to the testimony of an experienced fowler^ it is the
latest of the Fuligida arriving in Belfast Bay ; even the month
of December J, in which he killed the first birds seen by him there
in 1839 and 1840, being considered early. On fresh water,
to which these ducks are partial, they appear earlier ; — in the
middle of November I have observed them on Ballydrain Lake,
and have received specimens from Lough Neagh, among which
were adult males, as well as young birds. They have frequently
been brought to me from the latter locality from this period until
April ; December and January being the months in which they
were chiefly procured. But I have known them to remain there
until May, on the 4th of which I saw one, in 1850.

At the beautiful sheet of water — Ballydrain Lake — this species
is seen to great advantage. The following one or two notes made
by a friend relate to it there : — When the lake was frozen over on
the 37th of January, 1833, in addition to a few wild ducks and teal,
a number of tufted ducks (of which some were old males) appeared
in company with pochards. During February, the tufted ducks con-
tinued there ; and on the 3rd of March, a very warm day for the
season, " twenty-six males, with fine crests and pure white sides,
and twenty-five females with apparently no crests, brownish sides,
and generally of a brownish-black colour, were congregated toge-
ther." Above a dozen of pochards, too, appeared, with their
bills concealed amid their dorsal plumage, — a favourite position
of the Fidigulce, when quietly resting on the calm waters of the
inland lake or of the sea by day ; — at full tide, in particular, they
are generally thus seen, sleeping, or enjoying their rest after the
toil of flight and feeding during the preceding night. There

142 ANATID.E.

were few wild clucks or teal ; coots were as usual busied diving,
but no grebes were visible, though looked for particularly all
round the edges of the lake and islands. On the 15th January,
1837, I observed a large flock of diving ducks here, about fifteen
of which were ¥. cristafa, in adult male plumage, and about the
same number old male pochards. It need hardly be remarked,
that a pocket telescope was in requisition on such occasions.

The greater proportion of males th»n females of the tufted
duck, pochard, and scaup, in Belfast Bay, has been particularly
noticed by wild-fowl shooters, according to whom, the number of
male tufted ducks to females has been fully as four to one ; of
pochards, four or five to one ; and of scaups, nearly two males to
one female. Male wigeon, too, exceed the females in number,
but not as two to one.

Tufted ducks are much less plentiful in this bay than scaups
and pochards, and in one season only were known to be as nume-
rous as golden-eyes. They are chiefly in little flocks of from
five to ten birds, so many as thirty or forty being very rarely asso-
ciated, and when so, generally mixed with other species ; on one
occasion so many as 200 were seen in company. At twilight they
fly, usually in little troops of from two to four, to feed on the sea-
banks left exposed by the tide. At high water, they, with the other
three species just named, occasionally approach the shore so near
as to be killed from it. When crossing the Long Bridge at Bel-
fast, on a frosty day at the end of January 1827, on my return
from shooting along the shore of the bay, a flock of seven or
eight ducks appeared on the river within shot of May's embank-
ment. By hastening to the place I succeeded in killing a couple,
which proved to be young birds of this species, with white feathers
bordering the bill, as in the scaup, but to a much less extent.*
This circumstance is mentioned on account of the alarm occa-
sioned by it, and which proved a useful lesson. I had no dog
with me, and, annoyed at seeing the dead birds floating down
the stream, offered a reward to any boy of a party playing

* Old females, too, frequently exhibit white around the bill. ]\Ir. Yarrell men-
tions his having seen a little white on one old female.

THE TUFTED DUCK. 113

about, who would swim for and bring the ducks to land. One
fine manly little fellow at once engaged to do so, and swam out
boldly — perhaps more so than his strength warranted — until
near the middle of the river ; when, being almost within reach of
the bird, he became faint, either from the cold of the water or over-
exertion, and for some time I greatly feared for his safety. But his
spirit was not to be beaten ; he rallied, — at a few more bold strokes
laid hold of both ducks, and returned safely with them to the shore.

In my young days, a duck, most probably of this species, came,
in the month of October, to a pond at Wolf-hill, covering, per-
haps, an English acre — I have obtained tufted ducks killed on
still smaller ponds — and remained about a week. Such an occur-
rence being quite a novelty, the members of the family were so
pleased watching the bird, that care was taken it should not be
disturbed. The visitor then departed, and, as was feared, alto-
gether ; but not so, for it soon returned with two or three com-
panions. After remaining for a short time, they all went off and
reappeared in a day or two, when the number was increased to
seven or eight, which continued there for two or three weeks. So
persecuted are these poor birds almost everywhere they appear,
that it is interesting thus to see how they avail themselves of a
locality in which they are unmolested. A female bird of this
species, kept in the pond at the Palls, with a number of other
wild-fowl, was of a gentle, quiet disposition.

I am informed by Mr. E. Ball, that " three pinioned tufted ducks
have been for some years on the pond at the Royal Zoological
Society^s Gardens, DubHn. They keep out as far from the sides
of the pond as possible, and in winter are joined by a flock of
from five to ten wild males and several females. Thirteen males
have occasionally been counted ; the females, being mixed with
the various species on the pond, were not so easily reckoned, but
appeared not to be so numerous. The wild birds stay four or
five months. Last week (the communication is dated November
13, 1848) five arrived. They seem generally to be in pairs.^'

On the 17th June, 1834, a fresh specimen of a fine old male,
killed near Lough Neagh, came under my inspection, and, from

144

ANATID-E,

its not having the sh'ghtest appearance of any previous wounds,
suggested that it might possibly have remained there for the
purpose of breeding. I could not learn whether or not a second
bird had been seen.

On looking to the food contained in thirteen of these ducks,
killed from November to March in different years, I found those
from fresh-water to exhibit the seeds of several species of plants,
remains of soft vegetable matter, insects of various kinds, among
which were the Notoneda, or boat-fly, and some of the minute
bivalve shells Pisidia. In one were four of the Limneus pereger,
full grown — shells and animals both being perfect ; — frequently
they contained seeds only. Those from Belfast Bay presented
minute mollusca, Rissoa ulvce, other Rissoce, together with Lit-
torincB, and small shells of Mytllus ediilis : all contained sand and
gravel, in addition to the food.

The tufted duck is naturally subject to considerable changes of
plumage until it attains the adult state. A specimen, exhibiting
a singular departure from the ordinary appearance, killed on the
Dublin coast, on the 20th January, 1838, was kindly sent to
Belfast for my inspection, by Mr. H. H. Dombrain. The follow-
ing comparative description of it was made : —

Mr. Dombrain's
bird,
in. lin.

Adidt specimen of
Fuliffula cristata.
in. lin.

Length (stufTed) total .
of wing .

. 17

. 8

0
3

(stuffed also) 17
. 8

6
3

bill above, from central

point, not reckoning curvature
Length of bill to rictus .
tarsus .

1
1
1

Hi

4

1
2
1

7i
Oi
4

2

3

2

4i

2

.^i

2

^2

4i

■-^,

]

•^2
10

1

11

0

8

0

9

Height of biU at base .

0

H

0

n

Breadth of ujiper mandible at nostri]

s 0

H

0

10

Greatest breadth of upper niandib]
between nostrils and point

^\o

n

0

lOi

THE TUFTED DUCK. 145

In the characters which come under " form," this bird differs only from F. cris-
tata in the shape of the upper mandible, which is narrow generally, and increases
more in breadth towards the point.

CoLOTjR. In several points of view it appears the young male F. cristata as-
suming in part the adult plumage, which the next moult would have rendered com-
plete. It has the entire head and neck, except in the foUovving particulars, marked
with the green and violet or purple reflections of the tufted duck, though less bright,
also the crest only partially developed ; the exceptions are that the throat is pure
white for an inch from the base of lower mandible ; and that, about 2^ inches from
upper sm-face of head, the neck is sm-rouuded (except for four lines at the back) with
a pure white collar about a quarter of an inch in breadth. This collar is not exactly
transverse, but rises higher in front than elsewhere. Plumage of the back, rump,
and tail only differing from that of F. cristata in being less dark in general hue.
Wings differing only in the primaries and greater coverts, and in the latter on the
left wing only, but here in a remarkable manner. In the right wing the first five
primaries are pure white including shafts, the sixth has white down its centre on the
inner web only, the succeeding are of the ordiaaiy colour of those on the old
male tufted duck ; in this wing the greater coverts are hlach. In the left wing the
greater coverts are pure white, including shafts ; the first three primaries are pure
white, including shafts ; the fourth, fifth, and sixth pure white, except the shafts and
a narrow hue of black on either side of them, which is carried to the point ; the
succeeding ones are entii'ely dark at the tip, but above it, as in the right wing, are
of a dull white on the outer web, like that of the old male F. cristata. The entire
breast and the under parts have the plumage partly of the immature, and partly of the
mature male tufted duck, — in this respect just like the head. The colour of the bill
differs only from that of F. cristata in having the nail of the under mandible white,
and a considerable part of this mandible pale horn-colour. The legs and feet differ
in colom- from those of the tufted duck in being generally of a rather paler hue; in
having the outer nail on both feet white and pale horn-colour, and a blotch of white
on the adjoining web ; this latter marking, too, being present on both feet towards the
margin of the membrane connecting the middle and inner toes.

February 19, 1838. — I received the trachea of an adult male F. cristata ; and, on
comparing it with Mr. Dombrain's sketch of that taken from his bird, found them
quite identical in form.

The irides of a few specimens examined by me were bright
gamboge-yellow in the adult male and female, and in the latter,
when immature, brownish-yellow.

The tufted duck is considered rare on the north-west coast of
Donegal."^ In the little iidand lakes of the county Armagh, it is
the most common species of duck during winter, and remains un-
til a late period of the spring ; as many as fifty may sometimes be

* Mr. J. V. Stewart.
VOL. 111. L

146 ANATID.^.

seen together on very small sheets of water.^ They are called
white-sided divers there, and considered very bad for the table ; —
being sold as wigeon,, they bring this excellent bird into bad re-
pute.t Tufted ducks are sent in quantity from various inland
localities to Dublin market, and have been obtained about Clon-
mel.J Along the eastern coast in particular, they are numerous ;
two hundred having been seen in company in Carlingford Bay ;
in the bays of Drogheda and Dublin, and in Wexford harbour, §
they are common ; are obtained in the harbours of Waterford
and Cork, and on other parts of the coast, but apparently become
more rare westward. In Kerry, the tufted duck was unknown
to Mr. T. F. Neligan in 1837 ; and but one bird obtained there
— (at Rossbegh, Dingle Bay) — had been seen by Mr. R. Chute
until December 1849. It is common on lakes in Mayo.jj Its
scarcity in the south-west of Ireland accords with what we find to
be the case in the south-west of England. The Rev. George
Robinson informs me that, during four years' residence at Ply-
mouth, he never saw one either in the market or in a wild
state, but that he had known of two or three having been killed
there within that time. Its frequency in Dublin, where he resided
for the three follo^\^ng years, was therefore quite striking, as the
tufted duck is very commonly brought to the market there during
winter. In Couch's ' Cornish Fauna,' this species is set down as
" scarce/' but in the south-east of England, as in the same part
of Ireland, it is common, being "almost as abundant as the
scaup" in Sussex.*[[

It is said to visit Orkney every winter, but does not appear in
Mr. St. John's list of the 'Birds of Sutherland.' During the
month of January 1849, I remarked a few of these birds (some

* Rev. Geo. Robinson.

t Mr. Yarrell, on the contrary, remarks that, unlike the scaup, " its flesh is
generally excellent, so much so, that from its goodness this bird is sometimes called
the black wigeon."

% ISIr. R. Davis, juu., who Las also procured the species from Dungarvan, on the
coast of Waterford.

§ Called gold-eye duck, here, by the shooters (J. Poole).

II Mr. R. J. Montgomeiy. ^ Knox, ' Birds of Sussex.'

THE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 147

of which were adult males) frequenting two small lakes in the
moor above Ardimersy Cottage, in the island of Islay, where they
are well known, by the name of " douckers/' The tufted duck is
not found on the eastern shores of North America.

THE LONG-TAILED DUCK.

Harelda glacialis, Linn, (sp.)
Anas „ „

Is an occasional — probably a regular — winter visitant to
the coast of Ireland in very limited numbers.

The first pubUshed notice of its occurrence that I have seen,
was made by Mr. J. V. Stewart, in his paper on the ' Birds,
&c., of Donegal.' This appeared in ' Loudon's Magazine of
Natural History' for 1832 (vol. v. p. 584), where it is remarked :
— " [December 4, 1832 ?] I got a specimen of Anas glacialis a
few days since; the fh-st I have met with in this country. Though
with nearly the perfect plumage of the female, and without the
the long tail-feathers, it proved on dissection to be a male." The
species had, however, been known to Mr. John Montgomery
some years previously. In his journal of January 27, 1823, he
states having, on that day, purchased a female bird M'hich was
shot at Killileagh, Strangford Lough ; and under the date of
November 8, 1824, is a notice of another female having been
killed near the new market, May's ground, BeKast. The follow-
ing notes relate to individuals since met with in

Belfast Bay.
December 20, 1837. — I purchased a long-tailed duck to-day,
one of two seen in company yesterday at Garmoyle, where it was
shot ; the other is described as having had less white in its
plumage.

in. lin.

Length (total) of specimen is . . . 1 .5 0

of wing fi'om carpus ... 8 0

of bill above .... 1 0

of bill to rictus .... 1 9

L 2

148 ANATID^.

Length of bill to tarsus .

— of middle toe

uail

' of outer toe

n.

lin.

1

3

1

10

0
2

0

0

2f

Colour of irides very dark-brown ; pupil dark bluish-black ; upper mandible
dusky, except from nostrils to base, where it is of a dull leaden-blue ; lower mandible
of a similar colour except the tip, which is dusky. Base (" plante") of feet and
back of legs black, of which colour also are the webs on the upper side ; tarsi and
toes of a pale bluish lead-colour, which also prevails in a longitudinal line on each
side of the toes, thus giving the feet a very handsome appearance, resembling that
of the gaunet. Tail-feathers fourteen in number. On dissection it was found to
be a female.

With the exception of two pebbles and five or six of the Rissoa
lahiosa, the stomach was entirely filled with full-grown specimens
of Lacuna quadrifasciata, of which many were perfect.

November 12, 1838. — H. Bell^ who killed the individual
just noticed, saw another similar one in the bay, when out in his
boat looking for wild-fowl. It allowed him to approach so near
that with his oar he pushed it under water, where, becoming-
entangled in a mass of sea-weeds, the bird was captured; he
could not perceive that it was in any way wounded. The wings
being fixed so as to prevent its escape, the duck was laid in the
bottom of the boat, where he was quite captivated by its tameness,
evinced (to use his own expression) " by its going swattering with
its bill into the little water that lay in the bottom of the boat."
He regretted the want of bread to give it, believing that the bird
would have eaten from his hand. So pleased was he with his
captive, that he set it at liberty lest it should be injured by any
one ; — a great stretch for a man who earns his livelihood by wild-
fowl shooting. He would have taken it to the taxidermist,
whom he supplied with all rarities, but was afraid the latter would
kill it. The next day he was grieved to find the poor bird,
not far from the place of its liberation, lying dead, with its eyes
picked out, and the body partly eaten, no doubt by some of the
larger species of gull.

November 6, 1839. — A long-tailed duck, which was alone, was

THK LOKG-TAILED DUCK. 149

shot near the Long Strand. It is an adult female^ and agrees
with Jenyns^ description of that sex. The bill and legs are
coloured as in the specimen of December 1837. Its stomach
was about half filled with gravel and fragments of Mytill and
Rissoa. Octoher 31, 1840. Two of these birds were seen in
company, to-day, off Adam's Point, one of which was killed and
the other winged. They were remarked to be extremely expert
at diving, — as much so as the golden-eye. The former was an
immature male ; its stomach contained different species of Rissoa,
small specimens of Cerithmm reticulatimi, and fragments of stone.
November 13, 1843. Two long-tailed ducks were shot in the bay
in company with golden-eye ducks, the first time they have
been observed here associated with any other species. On the
18th of this month one was obtained at Adam's Point, in a dif-
ferent (younger ?) state of plumage from any I had previously
seen, and which proved on dissection to be a female. The
stomach was fiUed with small Crustacea [Gammarula) and tes-
taceous mollusca ; — three of Nucula margaritacea and several of
Rissoa ulva. December 21, 1844. Two of these birds, which
admitted of a close approach, were seen in the bay, at this date,
and likewise for some days before, by Eichard Flack. Just after
having fired at godwits he pushed his boat over the spot where
they had been, they having dived rather than take wing when the
fowler thus came to close quarters with them. Neither was an
adult male ; but a third one, seen with them, though not satis-
factorily, from its always flying off when nearly approached, was,
from that reason, believed to be an old bird. It always returned
to the others when the alarm was over. Octoher 21, 1847. A
young male was shot near Ballymacarrett, and only the one seen.
Its stomach contained Rissoa ulvce and the remains of shrimps
{Crangon vulgaris). December 27, 1848. A beautiful specimen
of the adult male was shot in the bay. Coming under my in-
spection when quite recent, I noted it as fully agreeing with
Yarrell's description of the bird in tliis plumage, except in the
following characters : —

BUI : the nail, and half of the side of the upper mandible next its base, black.

150 ANATID.E.

while tlie whole upper surface aud anterior part of the side were of a deep rose-
colour. Irides very light yellowish-hazel. Cheeks and ear-coverts pale greyish-
di'ab, except a small space of pure white margining the eye. Forehead pale grey,
which colour also extends round the throat, and continues downward so as to margin
the entire inner or lower side of the dark chestnut-brown patch on each side of the
neck. Central line of lower part of throat, between the two approximating edges of
the chestnut patch, white. Top of head very pale buff. Back and lower part of
neck all round pure white, which colour extends down between the " shoidders."
Scapulars and sides beneath the wings, or " flanks," pale slate-colour. Entiie breast
dark chestnut-brown, of the same hue as the patch on the head. Belly and under
tail-coverts, white. Tail-feathers : two outer pair pure white ; the tkree next, with
a dark longitudinal line near the centre, becoming gradually broader in those ap-
proximating the middle of the tail. The second longest pair all black, except a nar-
row line of white on each side of their basal portion. The longest paii- wholly black.
Tarsi aud toes very pale lead-colour ; webs greyish-black ; nails blackish.

Length, from point of bill to end of longest tail-feathers

of wing from carpus

of bill from rictus to point

forehead to end of nail

of tarsus ....

of middle toe and nail

in.

lin

22

0

9

0

1

7

1

1

1

3

1

6

3

3

1

6

Longest tail-feathers exceed the others .
Next

Its stomach contained only a Rissoa ulvce. Tliis specimen came
into the possession of Capt. Bradshaw, R.N., of Holywood; I
purchased all the others.

Most of the preceding birds appeared in the estuary within
a mile of the town, and all of them within three miles. of it. I
have never known them to be driven here by severity of weather,
under the influence of which alone they are said to visit the coast
of Sussex.^ October, November, and December, have hitherto
been the mouths of their visits, aud they have chiefly been im-
mature. The statement of Wilson and Audubon, (when writing
of this bird as a North American one,) that the species lives
chiefly on shell-fish, has been corroborated by an examination of
the food in the individuals just noticed, in which both univalve aud
bivalve forms were found. The latter author (vol. iv. p. 103) gives

* Knox.

THE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 151

an iuteresting account of a whole nursery of young birds that came
under his observation.

In March 1834, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, of Dublin,
that he had at one time received two fresh specimens of the long-
tailed duck from Wexford ; and subsequently, a sportsman resi-
dent in that town mentioned to me that he had known tliis bird,
as well as the pintail, to have been killed in the harbour there.
In Saunders's Neiosletter of February 13th, 1835, it was said
that Sir Hussey Vivian, on a late sporting excursion on the estate
of Sir Robert Gore Booth, in the west of Ireland, had shot the
Anas glacialis — which was correct : — the specimen was seen by
some of my ornithological friends. Mr. H. H. Dombrain in-
formed me that a fine male bird, sent to him in December 1836,
was caught at Lurgan Green (county of Louth) when asleep, by
a little girl, who stated that there were two of them, and that she
chose the prettier one with the long tail — the other had been a
female or young male. The same gentleman announced a female
bird as having been shot at Malahide, on the Dublin coast, at the
end of November 1840, in company with a gadwall. Another
was kdled there in the early part of the winter of 1843.^ I have
seen one which was stated to have been found dead on the
beach of Dublin bay on the 27tli of October, 1846, where,
in the winter of 1847-48 and in December 1848, single indivi-
duals were also obtained ;t the last was a female; — the tlu-ee
were immature. At the end of February in the last-named year,
a fresh specimen of an adult bird was purchased in Dublin.

An old male from the Galway coast, said to have been killed
in the month of August, has come under my notice. J Three of
these ducks were killed in Drogheda Bay in the winter of 1848-
49, and in the month of March of the latter year an adult male
was seen there by Mr. E. J. Montgomery, and twice fired at by

* Rev. Geo. Robiusou. t Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

\ In the collection of Mr. J. Walters, juii., Dublin. lam informed by the Rev.
G. Robinson that an immature bird was sliot so early as in the month of August '
(1841 ?) in Plymouth Sound, by .lohn Getcombe, Esq. The species is very rare
there at all times.

152 ANATIB^.

him, but iiusuccessfully. This species, according to Mr. R. Chute,
is an occasional winter visitant to the coast of Kerry; an "old
pair " shot in Dingle Bay is in his collection.

The preceding notes indicate that this beautiful species is rather
rare on the coast of Ireland, which it visits in very limited num-
bers, as it does the coast of England generally, though it is com-
mon on a great part of that of Scotland, increasing much in num-
ber northwards. Very interesting accounts of its habits there
are given in St. John's 'Wild Sports of the Highlands' (p. 131);
and in the ' Zoologist' (vol. vi. p. 2292) by the Rev. James Smith,
as observed by him near Banff. The late Mr. G. Matthews, on
his return from Norway, reported these birds to me as plentiful
all along the coast, particularly at Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and at
a large island near the latter place, called Dyroe. He once killed
ten with one barrel, and tliree with the second, out of a large
flock, and with No. 7 shot ; this supply came very opportunely,
as his party were at the time " hard up " for food. September
and October were the months in which the greatest number of
these birds were seeu there.

The Harlequin Duck, Clangula histrionica. Anas histrionica, Linn,
(sp.), not yet met with in Ireland, lias, in a few instances, been killed
on the coast of Great Britain, at widely different localities, on each
side of the island, as the Orkneys and Devonsliire,* Norfolk and
Cheshire. On the 10th and 11th of July, 1849, a flock, consisting of
four adult males, was seen by Captain May on a lake close to the en-
trance of the Salten Fiord, Norway. He and his party, wishing to
obtain them for specimens, went in pursuit, and tried for a long time
to get a shot, but in vain, owing to the wildness of the birds. France
and Germany are the two most southern countries in Europe, named
in Yarrell's work as visited (and very rarely) by this bird. One in-
dividual is recorded in De Selys' ' Fauna of Belgium' (p. 147). It is
a northern species of the European and American continents.

* According to Dr. E. Battersby, of Torquay, a small flock frequented the bay
there during the winter of 1 846-4-7, from which he procured a male and female. —
' Zoologist,' vol. V. p. 1697- A few odd birds had previously been obtained on the
gouthem coast of Devonshire (Yarr.)

153

THE GOLDEN-EYE DUCK.

Morillon (female and young males).

Clangula vulgaris, Leacli.
Anas clangula, Linn.
Anas glaucion, Linn, (females and young males.)

Is a regular winter visitant to the coast and inland

waters.

Belfast Hay.
This bird is late in arrival here after the breeding season, the
5th of October being the earliest date known to me. It remains
generally the latest of the migratory ducks in spring, occa-
sionally until May:"^ — on the 1st of June, 1840, a couple fre-
quented a particular part of the bay." This species exhibits its
partiality for fresh or brackish water by feeding chiefly in the
creeks — or " guUets,'' as they are here called — at extreme ebb,
and but rarely at the margin of the flowing tide. It does not, like
the wigeon and other ducks, frequent the banks exposed at low
water as feeding-ground, nor does it, like them, fly at dusk ; it
is a day-feeding bird.

Golden-eyes come to the bay every season, and their numbers
are not considered to be increased by severe winters. They are
less numerous than the scaup, are particularly given to diving,
and more expert at it than either scaup or pochard. They are
wilder than these and the other diving ducks, and difficult to be
approached within range even of the swivel-gun. They generally
keep by themselves in little parties which rarely come near the
shore ; but in very fine weather I have not unfrequently known
single immature birds to be killed from the road bordering the bay.
Occasionally, however, they associate with other species : of eight
ducks killed at a shot on the yOth November, 1838, there were five

* At BallyJrain lake, three birds, females or youug males, were observed on the
SOtli of April, 1S48 : on the second of which month, in the following year, a flock
of six adult males was there.

154 anatidjE.

scaups, two pochards, and one golden-eye ; and several times
during the ensuing month of December, the three kinds fell at
one discharge from a swivel-gun. They appear in flocks of from
fifteen to forty birds, but much more commonly iu smaller num-
bers. So many as from 150 to 200 golden -eyes, unmixed with
any other species, have occasionally, but very rarely, been seen
together; these large bodies do not come so far up the bay
as the other diving ducks. Towards the end of January and be-
ginning of February 1845, flocks containing about a thousand
birds, of which the only species positively recognized were old
male golden -eyes — and all may have been of tliis species — were
frequently observed off Cultra quay. The beautiful adult male is
much less frequently procured than the females and immature
birds — not more than one for twenty of the latter. Sometimes none
at all, and generally a few only will be seen in the largest flock.
They are rarely here early in the season, but in the winter ending
the year 1838, when the species was particularly numerous,
several of them were procured by one of the wild-fowl shooters, in
the months of October and November, before there had been any
frost : the weight of one of these (a fine bird) was 2 lbs. 5 oz."^
Of four golden eyes, killed at a shot here (December 18, 1847),
two were adult males, — a circumstance mentioned on account of
the rarity of two falling at the same discharge.

Wild -fowl shooters remark that scaups, pochards, and tufted
ducks never dive from the flash of the flint or percussion gun
until wounded and unable to fly away ; but the golden-eye occa-
sionally dives from both before being wounded. In one instance,
an old male, fired at with a percussion gun from a distance of
about twenty yards, dived before the shot could reach the spot ;
and its emerging and flying right off from the bosom of the deep
were the act of the same instant. It is difficult to obtain any of
these diving ducks when wounded, and most of all the golden-eye,

* The male is considered by Mr. Darragh as not attaining fiilJ size until it
exhibits adult plumage.

THE GOLDEN-EYE DUCK. 155

SO that the experienced fowler will rarely bestow time on the
pursuit.

A wild-fowl shooter, who spent the first week of March 1847
at Strangford Lough, following his vocation, saw tliis species
only of the diving ducks. They appeared, at low water, about the
rivers which take their course through the shallower parts of the
lough, and at high water came from the lough proper into the
sandy inland bays on the surface of the flowing tide. They are
often called here fresh-water wigeon. Topping wigeon is a name
for them (and the red-breasted merganser) in Drogheda Bay;"^ —
the golden-eye " pops " down or dives so suddenly, that the
adjunct is very characteristic.

As the golden-eye seems to have a partiality for fresh-water, it
is, as may be expected, a constant inhabitant of Lough Neagh
during its sojourn in Ireland. On tliis vast lake, and on the
river Main, which joins it after flowing through Shanes-Castle
Park, where its banks are most richly and beautifully wooded, I
have seen splendid adult males to perfection, and, in addition to
their personal beauty, have been attracted by the fine ringing
sound of their pinions tlu-ough the air. That some idea might
be formed of the relative numbers of different kinds of ducks
shot on Lough Neagh, I engaged a man living on its banks,
who brought them on sale to Belfast, to call on me regu-
larly with his stock, during two or three winters. In this manner
I ascertained that more of the golden-eye were procured there
than of any species : among those brought frequently from the
5th of November to the Gth of April (the earliest and latest
dates) were several adult males. The other kinds were tufted
ducks, pochards, wigeon, wild ducks, teal, pintails, and goosanders ;
but one individual only of each of the last two species. The
golden eye is commonly shot here from the beach after the manner
described by Colonel Hawker and Sir William Jardine. To use
the words of the former author — " If you see a single curre

* Mr. R. J. MonigoniPiy.

156 ANATID^.

[golden-eye] by day^ wlien lie dives you must ruji; and the
moment lie comes tip, squat down. So you may go on till within
ten yards of him, and then stand ready to shoot him as he flies
up, which he will do on coming up again and seeing you suddenly
appear so close.""^ The only difference in Sir W. Jardine's
observations, is, that he has in this manner approached within shot
of several " curres " diving simultaneously, t This is also a
Connaught practice. Of the golden-eye on inland waters there, it
is remarked by a correspondent — " They appear rather early on
the rivers, and feed in the shallows and fords. There is a pecu-
liarity in the whole flock diving simultaneously : I have many
times remained at a distance until they were all down, and then
had a run for it, and been within range when they came up.
They are not so plentiful as the pochard.'" J I remember being
once much amused by witnessing from Ormeau Bridge, over the
Lagan, near Belfast, a simultaneous operation of the kind de-
scribed, on the part of four golden-eyes. They were close to the
edge of the river, and so extremely busied feeding as to be
generally quite beneath the water, though, fi'om its shallowness,
hardly requiring to dive. Their appearance at the surface was
so momentary that they evidently came up only to breathe, and
the ra]ndity with which they en masse went beneath it again, was
almost ludicrous : the rapid curling of the water above them
betrayed of itself a busy scene beneath.

The golden-eye occasionally resorts to very small ponds as well
as rivers — an attack made on one that unfortunately visited a
pond at the Falls will be found noticed in the first volume of
this work, under Peregrine Falcon.

The food observed in several of these ducks examined by me
in different years from November to March was various : six pro-
cured on fresh-water exhibited the remains of subaquatic plants,
seeds, insects and their larvse, together with entomostracous Crus-
tacea of the genus Cj/pris — of five killed on the sea (Belfast Bay)
one included a shrimp with the remains of other Crustacea ; a

* ' Instructious to Young Sportsmen,' p. 310, 6th edit.

t ' Brit. Bii-cls,' vol. iv. p. 152. + Mr. G. Jackson.

THE GOLDEN-EYE DUCK. 157

second, some Idotetd, a Littorina lUtorca, and a few fish-scales -^ a
third was entirely filled with Icloteai.'\ A fourth (an adult female shot
at the end of January 1849) contained 218 beautifully perfect
and fresh-looking shells of Lacuna quadrifasclata, and 19 equally
fine and perfect ones of Rissoa labiosa, all the specimens of both
being full-grown or nearly so. Besides, there were above a dozen
of Montacuta purpurea, and single specimens of our two common
species of Littorina. A number of broken shells of the two
first-named species were also present. An adult male bird,
killed a few days afterwards, exliibited a mass of decomposed
shells. They all contained sand or gravel. In a bird brought
from Westmeath to Dublin were (according to Dr. C. Earran)
several species jof fresh-water shells, above twenty of Linmeus
pereger (nearly all the variety called. Galnaria lacustris, by Dr.
Leach), a Linmeiis fossarius, with Anci/his fluviatilis, and Neritina
flnviatilis ; there was likewise some vegetable matter. A corre-
spondent mentions, as favourite food of the golden-eye, very
small leeches {Hiruclines), with which he has found the bill filled.
The golden-eye is widely spread over the coasts and inland
waters; is common in the north-west of Donegal; J in Dublin
Bay; and is frequently brought from inland localities to the
market of the metropolis, — old males, however, being very rarely
seen there. According to Mr. J. Poole, this bird is plentiful during
some winters in Wexford harbour. On the 11th of February he
once noted^in reference to tliis place : — " The golden-eyes are now
to be met with in small parties of eiglit to twenty or more. They

* This is the only instance in which I have ohserved the remains of fish, of
which, Mr. Yarrell remarks, their food principally consists. This varies, of course,
in different localities. The scaup and tufted ducks are also mentioned by this author
as feeding on small fish, the remains of which I have never met with in them,
and rarely are they found in any species of duck in the north of Ireland, exclusive
of the genus Mergus.

t The mention of these Crustacea reminds me of Audubon's having witnessed
the extraordinary partiality of some of these birds to a certain locality in a North
American river, and ascertained by shooting some of them that the attraction was
cray-fish. A full and interesting description of the habits of the golden-eye will be
found in the 4th volume of this author's ' Ornithological Biography,' p. 320.

X Mr. J. V. Stewart.

158 ANATlDiE.

scarcely cease diving and splashing about, sometimes the whole
company being down together, but remaining below only a very
short time. They will allow a small boat to approach within
about 200 yards, but, after having got so near, you may expect to
see some at least of their number, with much splash and splutter,
taking their flight, while the sharp ringing of their wings makes
assurance doubly sure that they are on the look-out for more
secure and agreeable quarters. Their food is small univalve
shells." On the coasts of Waterford and Cork this duck is found,
but is not now considered common in the harbour bearing the
latter name ; and is very rare in Kerry ; — a couple killed on the
the lakes of Killarney are in Mr. R. Chute^s collection. One
correspondent of much experience terms the golden-eye common
on the inland waters of Connaught, and another mentions a
magpie diver* — so called from being pied with black and white,
and probably this species — as frequenting Lough Conn and the
River Moy, where he has often seen moor buzzards " stoop " to
them when on the water.f The author of ' Wild Sports of the
West' remarks, that he " noticed the golden-eye upon the
estuary." Sir Richard Levinge, writing to me from Knockdrin
Castle, county Meath, in October 1838, stated that many moril-
lons and golden-eyes were on the waters there in the preceding
winter. The species is said to be commoii on the River Shannon,
near Portumna.

Judging from what is said of the golden-eye in England and
Scotland, it is perhaps equally numerous in Ireland as in those
countries.

The Buffel-headed Duck, Clangula albeola, Anas albeola, Forst.,
not known as having ever visited Ireland, is positively recorded
in the British catalogue, from one individual having been obtained
at Yarmouth, and another in Orkney (Yarrell, 1845). It is a common
North American species.

* This is a name for the smew in England. f Mr. B. Ball.

159

THE SMEW.

White Nun.

Red-headed Smew and Lough Diver (females and young males).

Mergus albellus, Linn.

Is a very rare winter visitant to the north ; but an an-
nual one to some of the central parts of the island.

A SIMILAR difference prevails, not only between Scotland and
England comparatively, but between the northern and southern
parts of the latter country. Sir WilHam Jardine remarks : — "■ Li
Scotland it can only stand as an occasional straggler,"^ and Mr.
Selby observes : — " In severe winters the smew is not uncommon
in the eastern and southern parts of England : "^ * "^ in the north-
ern counties it is always of rare occurrence."t Montagu, in the
Supplement to his work, says of the smew : — '' This is by far the
most plentiful species of merganser that frequents our coasts and
fresh-waters in the winter •" — it will be remembered that he wrote
from Devonshire.

In the north of Ireland, this bird is instead " by far the rarest"
of the three species of Mergus. To Mr. Templeton it was
altogether unknown as a visitant to the island ; nor was it
recorded as such until I noticed it in the ' Proceedings of the
Zoological Society of London' in 1834. The first specimen
which came under my inspection was a beautiful adult male, shot
about the Long Strand, Belfast Bay, in the winter of 1829-30.
About the last day of Eebruary, 1832, two were seen on a river
called the Six-mile Water, near Doagh, county of Antrim, and
one (an old male) killed. In August 1836, the gamekeeper at
ToUymore Park (Down), described a bird to me which he had
shot on the river there in winter about five years previously, that
must have been a female smew in adult plumage. A specimen
obtained about this period was said to have been killed in the

* ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 175. t Vol. ii. p. 386.

160 ANAT1D.«.

county of Monaghan. At Lurgan Green, county of Louth, a
male bird was procured"^ in the winter of 1832-33 (?).

The following information was acquired in Dublin, In the
winter of 1814, an adult male (of which a beautiful drawing was
made by Miss Battersby) was shot near the city. A bird in
similar plumage was killed there in December 1828, and, at the
end of the following month, another old male and two females,
which I saw, were procured about the river Shannon, and sent to
the metropolis to be preserved. In the winter of 1829-30, two
smews were shot at Dalkey, Dublin Bay. Mr. W. S. Wall, bird-
preserver, told me of his having received one of these birds on the
14th December, 1835, and that the smew is brought to the
market of the metropolis every winter ; Mr. Gleimon, also, who,
for many years, has followed the business of taxidermist there,
informed me that he received about five or six smews to set up
every winter, as many as are sent to him of the shoveller {Anas
clypeatd), and hence he believes these two species occur in about
equal numbers. Mr. Dombrain reported the following to me from
Dublin: — " January 1837, a smew in the market; January 20,
1838, four in the market, three males and one female; middle of
February, same year, obtained a young male -" at a later period of
the season he remarked that, altliough smews were plentiful that
winter in Dublin market, he had not seen a Mergus serrator there.
In the winter of 1837-8 Mr. Wall purchased fourteen smews,
and saw several more ; three wliich he preserved were adult males.
On the 23rd of December, 1844, an old female bird was ob-
tained; in December 1846, a female and j^oung male were on
sale together; and, one day in December 1847, five appeared,
three of which were old males : a very fine bird in this plumage
was brought there in March 1849. At the end of this year I was
informed in Dublin by two persons (neither of whom has been
previously alluded to in connection with the sj)ecies), that a few
smews are brought from inland localities to the market of the
metropolis every winter.

In the collection of Mr. T. W. Warren there is a sinew which
* Mr. H. H. Dorabraiu.

THE HOODED MERGANSER. 161

was killed at Wexford, aud this gentleman, on the 24th February,
1838, saw four of these birds which were brought from that
county : — this winter will be remembered as remarkable for the
occurrence of the AnatuJa in great numbers. The species has
been procured at Waterford. It must become more scarce
westward, not having been included in the ' Fauna of Cork,^ and
being unknown to my correspondents as a visitant to Kerry.

This falling off westward in Ireland is interesting, the smew
being more a bird of eastern than of extreme western Europe.
It is considered a very rare and accidental visitant to the eastern
coasts, &c., of North America. Mr. Selby observes that " the
majority of such as visit our shores are females, or immature
males, in similar plumage -^ * "f^ "f^ the male, in his mature
garb, being comparatively seldom met with'''' (p. 386) : — of the
Irish specimens, which have come under my cognizance, there
were fuUy as many adult males compared with the others as I
should expect to find among the smew population.

In Ireland, this bird is much less common than in England, but
more so than in Scotland.

THE HOODED MERGANSER.

Mergus cucullatus, Linn.

Has once been obtained,

In winter, about the year 1810, at Dingle Bay on the coast of
Kerry, by Dr. Chute.'^

This bird was first known to visit England in the winter of
1829, since which period two others have been obtained there,
and one on the coast of AVales (Yarr. 1815) ; none, as yet, have
been met with in Scotland (Jard. Macg.). The hooded merganser
is a common North American species, of which the individual
that have visited Europe must be considered as stragglers.

* Mr. K. Chuie.

162 AN ATI D.*:.

THE EED-BREASTED MERGANSER.

Scale Duck (north of Ireland) .

Mergus serrator, Linn.

Is indigenous in Ireland ;

But, as in the instance of various other species which breed here,
the numbers are greatly increased in winter by migration from the
north. Sir William Jardine observes, that it is a winter visitant
to the south of Scotland, and is not nearly so common on fresh-
water at that season as the goosander.'* Mr. Selby remarks that,
" upon the Northumbrian and other coasts of the north of Eng-
land, this species is a regular winter visitant^' (p. 379) ; and
Montagu, in the supplement to his work, states that " this may
be considered a rare species in the south of England." The red-
breasted merganser thus appears to be, in Great Britain, the re-
verse of the smew ; — more common towards the north, and rare
towards the south of the island. According to the information
supplied by my correspondents in the south of Ireland, the red-
breasted merganser is also more common in the north than there.
The M. serrator breeds on some of the islands in Strangford
Lough. An old sporting friend, many years ago, obtained from
a nest there, eleven eggs, and placed them under a muscovy duck,
by which, in from six to eight days, they were all " brought out,"
having, of course, been partially incubated by their proper owner
previous to their abstraction. The young all lived until they were
able to fly away, when they made their escape, my friend not
wisliing to retain them after he saw that they were scale-ducks
instead of shell-ducks, whose eggs he thought had been procured.
These young birds are said to have cleared all the waters,
within a mile of their birth-place, of fishes and frogs. A very
graphic account is given of their activity in scudding along the
surface of the water, as if it were land, when they saw a fly alight,

* -Bnt. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 181.

THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 163

and of the great rapidity with which they ran and dived. Ahhough
tlieir foster-parent was very assiduous in her attention to them,
they proved, after the first three days, quite indifferent to her ;
came to the yard with the poultry, and ate potatoes freely.
When visiting the islands of Strangford Lough, on the 20th and
21st of June, 1832, I saw two pair of these birds, each pair
flying in company. The species was said, by intelligent farmers
who accompanied us, to breed here, on Island Mahee, Island
Eeagh, and Scatrick. One of our party had often found their
nests, which he described as situated in " scroggy'^ places, or
where there is some short, thick brushwood : when he has ap-
proached the nest, in the absence of the parent, the young birds
have left it, and run towards him. The name for these birds,
here, is scale-cluck, which my friend, as has been stated, believed to
apply to the shell-duck, when he sought to obtain the eggs from
this locality. The birds noticed under Goosander (the next species
to be treated of), by the latter of the two names, and said to breed
about the river Shannon, are probably M. serrator. Sir William
Jardine remarks, in one of the excellent notes to his edition of
Wilson's ^American Ornithology,' that: — "In Hudson's Bay
(according to Hearne) they are called shelldrakes ; the name by
wliich they are also distinguished by the common people in all
the rivers of the south of Scotland" (vol. iii. p. 90). Audu-
bon, too, informs us that "the red-breasted merganser is best
known through the United States by the name of shelldrake"
(vol. V. p. 93).

I have met with the red-breasted merganser in Strangford
Lough different times in summer since the date last mentioned ;
but it will be sufficient to give the following observations, made
by Mr. J. R. Garrett in 1849. He remarks :— " On the 3rd of
June I saw three pair at Island Gabbogh. The boatman (who is
a shooter in winter and a tisherman in summer) showed me a
spot on the island where he had, two or three years ago, caught
a ' scale-duck ' on her nest, containing twelve eggs. On the
smaller Bird Island I saw anotlier pair of mergansers, but could
not find their nest. At C'liapel Island I discovered a nest of

]\r 2

164 ANx\.TID.E.

this species, containing two eggs, on tlie 6th of June. It was
situated under a closelj-matted briar [Bulns] or rather mass of
briars, on the sloping side of a hill, about thirty yards from high-
water mark, and was very carelessly constructed, the materials
being merely fragments of the decayed briar and withered herbage,
with a few downy feathers. The eggs were almost wholly con-
cealed by these substances. The pair of mei'gansers were flying
about the island when we landed. We saw another pair on the
Lythe Rock, but searched in vain for their nest.''

A friend, boating on Lough INTeagh, near Toome, about twenty
years ago, saw one of these birds fly closely past him several
times, and, on his landing upon a small island, he discovered its
nest, containing many eggs. When I was at Shanes Castle, on
the banks of this lake, on the 2Sth of July, 1833, a female
merganser " pushed out " from the sliore with her six young,
which were about the size of three-weeks-old ducklings. The
parent kept considerably ahead of her progeny, no doubt to
induce them to follow with celerity, which they did for only a
short way from the beach, and then collected into a close little
group, displaying by their gestures the greatest affection towards
each other : all this time the old bird continued to retreat.
On the 29th of May, 1836, I again saw at Lough Neagh, but at
the opposite side, tlu'ee old birds. In these breeding localities
I believe that the species remains permanently, and that the
individuals seen upon the coasts, except in weather so severe as
to drive them from inland waters to the sea, are migratory birds.
They seem to frequent Belfast Bay chiefly when migrating south-
ward in early winter and northward in early spring — thus to be
of " double passage ;" — they are considered to be more common
at these periods than in mid-Avinter.

My notes on them here are : — March. 1831, two killed. April 9,
1838 ; two beautiful specimens shot in the bay, both in the plumage of
Bewick's red-breasted merganser, with two black stripes across the white
on the wing ; a third was in company with them.* September 20, 1837 ;

* Major T. Walker remarked in a letter to me resi^eetiug Bewick's figure, that it
does not represent the crest as this usually appears. In birds which he had living,

THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 165

three obtained. Nov. 7, 1838; four killed at a shot; one having
caught a fish, the others flocked to their apparently more fortunate
neighbour, and thus all fell victims : on examining the stomachs of two
of these, one was found to contain only fragments of stone, of which
there were many ; and the other, a small fish, and a number of the " ear-
bones" of some of the cod-tribe {Gadidcs). September 27, 1810 ; two
seen in the bay. It is late in autumn and in spring chiefly that they
are brought to Belfast from other northern localities : in the first week
of October, I have seen specimens from Green-castle, on the London-
derry coast, and on the 9tli of March, 18.36, I purchased two from
Killinchy, Strangford Lough : their stomachs were filled with the re-
mains of fish. I have noted them twice as obtained in mid-winter ; —
one at Strangford Lough on January 6th, 1838, and on the 26th. of
the same month, an immature male, having one bar of black on the
white speculum, was shot on a dam of fresh-water, near Carrickfergus :
its stomach contained many pebbles and the remains of fishes, and in
its oesophagus were five large three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus
hraclnjcenirm). The late Mr. John IMontgoraery noted this species as
received from Dundrum Bay, county Down, in November and Decem-
ber, and as being there every winter, where the different sexes are re-
spectively called bar-drakes and bar-ducks.

A fowler endeavouring to obtain some of these birds in Larne. Lough
during three successive days in the middle of March 1850, was imable
to do so, even with a swivel-gun, in consequence of their wildness. At
least fifty birds were seen very far up the narrow part of the lough each
day, some in pairs, and not more than a dozen in any flock. They came'
up daily from about its entrance, feeding Avith the flowing tide, and
continued, on its ebb, to feed downwards. Within the preceding two
months, fully a hundred mergansers daily frequented this locality for a
considerable time, and flocks of twenty birds were common. Some
years ago, nine were killed here at one shot with a swivel-gun.

Localities in Antrim and Down only have hitherto been noticed
in connection with this bird. In the north-west of Donegal it is
said to be of " autumn passage, common;" "^^ is frequent during win-
ter in Carlingford Bay, county Louth, and likewise in Dublin Bay,

"the crest was always upright, unless when it sloped a little backward, /«//7^/^/ .:
it never lay down entirely."'

* Mr. J. V. Stewart.

166 ANATIDiE.

where " it is the tirst of the Anatidce to appear in autumn, and the
last to depart in spring ; — being sometimes seen before the end of
August, and so late as the middle of May/^'^ Mr. R. Ball,
writing from Dublin on January the 16th, 1837, mentioned his
having procured three mergansers that day, the stomach of one of
which was enormous. The bird was gorged to the mouth with
sand-eels [Ammod^tes lancea), twenty-four of which were found
in it.t This species is considered rare at Wexford, where it is
called land harlan : a bird which came under examhiation here
was filled to the oesophagus with Crustacea. J In Waterford har-
bour, and at Dungarvan,§ on the coast of the same county, this
merganser has been obtained, but is considered rare, as it w-as also
in Cork harbour until the last few winters : during them, however,
Mr. R. Warren, jun., has observed flocks there regularly. On the
23rd of January, 1849, he shot a very fine old male as the bird was
fishing among some rocks at the opposite side of this harbour from
Cove; on being skinned, a young hake and a pipe-fish were found
in its cesophagus. Mergansers were more numerous than usual in
the winter of 1 849-50. On the 1 1th of January, in particular, be-
tween one and two hundred were seen on the water and on wing
at the back of Cove Island. They were very wild, and would not
admit of a boat approaching them within gun-shot. To Bantry
Bay, and the bays and harbours on the coast of Kerry, they are
regular winter visitants : || — several have been killed in the first-
named locality by my informant.^ Inland, they are common on
the lakes of Galway in winter, and about Lough Conn, in the ad-
joining county of Mayo, they were often seen on sale by Mr. Bent
Ball in autumn, having been killed as " flappers " (before well
able to fly), in the neighbourhood of their birth-places.

* Mr. 11. J. Montgomery.

t Audubou remarks : — " Gluttonous in the extreme, it frequently gorges itself so
,is to be miable to rise. I have several times seen one of them obliged to eject a
great part of the contents of its stomach and gnllet before it eould tly off, and some
which I have kept a day or two in confinement have died in consequence of swal-
lowing too many fishes" (vol. v. p. 93).

X Mr. Poole.

§ "Whence an adult male was sent me, February 11, 1838." — R. Davis, jun.

II Mr. R. Chute. ^ Mr. G. Jackson.

THE EED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 167

Mr. Yarrell does not mention any breeding-haunt of this species
in England either at the present or any former period. Scotland
and its islands, however, have always been known as resorted
to for the purpose of nidification, and we hud both the fresh-
"water and marine loughs of Ireland to be so. Pennant mentions
this bird as breeding in the island of Islay, which it does
at the present time. When there, in January 1S49, several,
among which were adult males, came under my notice — I learned
that a pair bred in the preceding summer near the sea-beach of
the island, at Ardimersy, but that they do not nidify about the
little inland fresh-water lakes, or tarns, in at least the south-east
portion of the island. They are called grei) divers. Numbers
breed annually on the marine islets off Islay, laying from ten to
twelve eggs.

The late Mr. G. Matthews informed me, on his return from
the coast of Norway, that a species of Merg\is {M. senator most
probably, from description) was seen in numbers at Bergsfiord in
September and October. Several were shot there, and, though
tame and easily approached, they generally, unless killed dead,
escaped by diving, having, as was remarked, ''the power appa-
rently to remain under water for ever. The manner in wliich
they out-manoeuvred us gave us some hearty laughs.''^ Captain
May was told during his sporting tour in 1849, before alluded
to, that — " the Quiins, who live along the banks of the Alten in
Norway, make boxes and place them in the birch-trees at the
river-side for the mergansers to lay in, and when a good number
of eggs have been deposited, they rob the nests." The Mergns
merganser, or goosander, may, however, here be meant, as it is
well known to build in trees in Scandinavia. A statement just
similar to that given, but in reference to the golden-eye duck, has
been contributed by Mr. Dann to Mr. Yarrell's work.

North America, as well as Europe, claims this very handsome
species.

1 68 ANATID.fC.

THE GOOSANDER.

Dun Diver (females aud young males).

Mergus merganser, Linn.
Mergiis castor, Linn, (females and young males).

Is probably an annual winter visitant, but in very limited
numbers, and cliiefly to fresh-water.

Mr. Templeton made a drawing of an adult male in full plumage,
which he saw in the museum of the Eoyal Dublin Society, and
was told had been shot at Wexford. In his journal, one is noticed
as having been sent to him in March 1808 by Mr. James Eoss of
Comber House, county Londonderry, and of another (" Mergus
castor") seen in Belfast market on the 7th of November, 1808.

My own notes and those of my correspondents on the species are as
follow : — In the year 1833, a person to whom it was well known told
me that, a few years before that time, he had seen two of these birds
in full plumage in Belfast market : they had been only wounded,
and bit wdckedly at the tame ducks placed in the same basket
with them for sale.

Dec. 30, 1836. — I purchased a fresh specimen, which was shot
about the western shore of Lough Neagh.

Its weight was 3 lbs, 3 oz. Leugth 26^ iuclies. Bill, from forehead to point, 2^ ;
to posterior extremity, Sf ; to rictus 3^ inches. Tarsus 2^^ inches. Cai-pus to end
of wing 11 inches. The throat being thickly spotted with black, and other charac-
ters, indicate its being a young male of the second year (according to Jenyus'
description). Upper mandible pinkish-red on sides, blackish horn- colour on ridge;
nail of both mandibles black on the posterior, white on the anterior half. Under
mandible, excepting a few irregular markings of black, wholly of a pinkish-red
colour. Tarsi and toes bright orange ; webs orange, shaded with brown. Irides
deep golden yellow.

On dissection, it exhibited a young pike [Esox lucms), 8-i- inches
long, and quite perfect, except the lower jaw (which the gastric
juice had acted upon) ; the posterior portion of another pike
of ecpial size, and that of a third which had been considerably

THE GOOSANDER. 169

larger than the others. These three fish had been swallowed head
foremostj and the two latter were entirely consumed by the gastric
juice, except the bones and the hinder portions, which, not having
come in contact with it, were uninjured. Jan. 3, 1837. An
adult male shot on the river Bann at Portglenone came under my
examination. Its weight was 3 lbs. 9 oz. Length 26| inches.
Measurement of bill and wings as in the last. It contained an
eel Hi inches long, perfect and fresh-looking, except a little dis-
coloration at the tail caused by the gastric juice. It lay tail
foremost in the stomach, the eel being the most unaccommodating
of fish in suiting itself to the wishes of its captors. There was
another eel, much digested, which had been of similar size. The
stomach also exhibited some small pebbles, and a full-grown
Trochns cinerariiis. About the 10th of March, 1837, two adult
males, which came under my notice, were shot in Belfast Bay, and
on the 13th of February, 1839, as splendid an old bird of this
sex as I have seen was killed on the river Lagan, near Liaburn.
Presh specimens of a nearly adult female shot at Down-
patrick, and an immature male, obtained in Belfast Bay, have
come under my inspection ; the former on the 24th of January,
1848, and the latter on the 8th of December, 1849 ; an adult
male was in company with the young bird. Early in March, 1850,
an old male was distinguished in company with red-breasted
mergansers on Larne Lough.

On the 3rd of December, 1837, a male goosander (apparently
in the plumage of the second year) was purchased in Dublin
market : the dealer's name for it w^as " land cormorant." About
the 20th of January, 1838, a female was sent by Sir Richard
Leviiige, Bart., to Dublin to be preserved, and, on opening it,
forty-nine perch, averaging three inches each in length, and a
young pike, seven inches long, were found.* I subsequently
learned from this gentleman that the bird was shot at his seat,
Knockdrin Castle, Westmeath. On the 1st of December, 1842,
a young male was obtained in tlie market of the metropolis, by a

* * Mr. 11. 11. nouibrniii.

170 ANATID^.

friend, who saw one or two others (females or young males) there
that season. In the winter of 1846_, two goosanders were seen
there, and in that of 1848-49, the same number ; — an adult male
and female.* In the severe season of 1849-50, nine were sent
to Mr. Glennon to be preserved ; — of these, I saw an immature
male in December, in which month, and in January, a female with
two males in their beautiful adult j)lumage were received ; one of
these was shot in the county Wicklow, and another on the river
Barrow, at Monasterevan. This species is enumerated among
the birds obtained in Wexford harbour,t and is sometimes pro-
cured in that of Cork, but not so frequently as every winter; J —
in that of 1849-50 one was killed there. Old and young males
and females are seen almost annually in the little harbour of
Glengariff, where they are called spear wigeon. They frequented
it commonly in the season of 1848-49, but in the following
severe winter none were seen. All the birds of a little flock
dive almost simultaneously, like golden-eye ducks. § In the
county of Kerry these birds are considered scarce, but Mr. R.
Chute has procured for his collection an adult pair ; one of
which was shot at a salmon- weir at the head of Dingle Bay.

Latham informs us, on the authority of Mr. Jackson, that
" the dun diver inhabits Ireland, and breeds upon the islands of
the Shannon, near Killaloe, and is frequently seen there the whole
summer through. ■'•'|| In a catalogue of native birds, kindly drawn
up for my use, in November 1836, by the Rev. Thomas Knox,
who for a time resided at Killaloe, it was remarked, under
the head of M. merganser : — '^ A bird comes to the Shannon in
spring, and stays all summer, called by the country-people shell-
duck ; but I am almost sure it is this bird. * ^ ^ I also hear
that a similar bird comes in summer to lakes in the county of
Clare ;" — this was written without any reference to the passage

* Mr. R. .J. Montgomery. f Major T. Walker.

I Dr. J. R. Harvey has, in a letter to me, corrected the remark made in the
Fauna of Cork, implying that the goosander is more frcqnent there than the
merganser.

§ Mr. G. Jackson, February 11, 18.50.

II ' Synopsis of Birds.' Supplement, vol, vii. p. 2'iO.

THE GOOSANDEK. 171

in Latham. On my representing to Mr. Knox the desirability
of procuring a specimen of the bird in question, he endeavoured
for a long time to do so, but ineffectually. I have not the least
doubt, however, that the bird alluded to is the M. senator, which
is indigenous, and regularly breeds about our northern and other
lakes, at some of which it is called scale-duck, as already men-
tioned.

Audubon gives a very complete description of the habits of
the goosander, from which I shall extract a few sentences. He
states : — " I have found fishes in its stomach seven inches i]i
length, and of smaller kinds, so many as to weigh more than
half a pound. Digestion takes place witli great rapidity, inso-
much that some which I fed in captivity devoured more than two
dozen of fishes about four inches in length, four times daily, and
yet always seemed to be desirous of more :" — the rapidity of
digestion in the specimens which came under my own examina-
tion was most striking, as it likewise was in the case of the red-
breasted mergansers. The same author remarks : — " The fiight
of the goosander is powerful, and as rapid and sustained as that
of the red-breasted and hooded mergansers. When fairly under
weigh and at a good height, they advance in an almost direct
course, and proceed with surprising velocity, so that when sud-
denly apprised of the vicinity of man, they at times find it diffi-
cult to check their speed so quickly as may be necessary for their
safety. I well remember that on several occasions having watched
one of these birds flying directly up a creek, and towards me, I
have taken aim at it and fired when it was at the proper distance,
and yet, such had been its velocity, that it would advance after
being shot many yards towards me.''^ — ' Orn. Biog.^ vol. iv. p. 262.

The goosander is apparently less common in Ireland than in
Scotland, but is perhaps as frequent as in England.

172

COLYMBID^.

THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE.
Crested Grebe. Tippet Grebe.

Podiceps crlstatus, Linn, (sp.)
Colymhus „ „

Is occasionally obtained, particularly in winter, on the
sea and fresli- water lakes ; — at some of these it
annually breeds.

Though next to the little grebe, the most common of the
genus, its numbers are very limited, and but few specimens are
obtained, except during very severe winters. The following notes
on those which have come under my inspection in the hands of
bird-preservers in Belfast, will give some idea, at least, of the
number killed in the north-east of the island. The species was
not knowii to Mr. Templeton as Irish.

January 1827 — One was shot on Lough Neagh.

Jan. 2, 1831 „ ,, inland, near Comber, Down.

,, 21, „ „ „ in another part of the same county.

Feb; 1833 „ „ near Lisburn, co. Antrim.

June 1834 „ „ on an artificial lake at Hillsborough Park (Down), by

the gamekeeper.

April 1, 183-5 „ ;, on a lake in the county Cavan; — a beautiful bird, in

adult summer pUunage.

June 9, 183G ,, „ on a pond in the district of Loughgall, co. Armagh ; —

a fine adult male.

January 7, 1838 „ „ on Lough Neagh.

Mai'ch 28, „ „ „ on Loughgall; — an adult bird.

April 27 „ „ „ „ an adult female, which, like the last,

was in full breeding plumage. I found many eggs in it.

Oct. 19, 1839 „ sent to a bird-preserver, without any mention of locality.

March 1 840 „ shot in Belfast Bay ; — immature.

Aug. 26, 1840 „ captured in a net set for fish, about the middle of Lough
Neagh ; — adult bird, in full summer plumage.

Dec. 14, 1841 „ shot on Lough Neagh ; — adult male.
,, 27, „ ,, ;, in the neighbourhood of Castledawson (co. London-

derry)^— which is near Lough Neagh.

April 27, 1842 „ „ near Banbridge, co. Down ; — a fine adult bird.

July 1844 ,, „ on Lough Neagh ; — -adult male.

Summer, 1844 ,, sent to a bird-preserver, without any locality being mentioned.

THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 178

From the last-named period I ceased taking particular notes of
their occurrence; but in 1845 I heard of one having, some years
previously, been shot on Lough Achery, a few miles from Hills-
borough ; ^\here the one only had been observed. In the last week
of December 18-17, a young bird of the year was shot on Lough
Neagh; on the 15th of April 1849, an adult female, on Acton
Lake, county of Armagh; and on the 30th of March, 1850, a
bird in full adult plumage, on Lough Neagh ; — the crest on this
individual was so large and fine, that I considered it a male (the
female bears the same appendage), which it was found to be on
dissection. On the 13th of May the same year, an adult male was
shot on this lake, near Lurgan.

One striking fact is learned from the preceding data, namely,
that all the birds excepting one were killed upon fresh-water,
Audubon, who gives a very good account of this species, remarks,
that he never observed it near the sea-coast in North America.*
During and after severe weather in winter, it is met with, sparingly,
on the coast of Ireland.

The following notes bear witness to native specimens in Dub-
lin.— March 1833. I saw one in Mr. Massey's collection at the
Pigeon-house Tort. ]\Ir. W. S. Wall, bird-preserver, stated that
within the last few years he had received not less than 20 speci-
mens, which were killed in various parts of Ireland. May 1837.
He has now a bird in adult plumage, which was purchased early
in April last, in Dublin market. I saw, in Mr. Warren^s collec-
tion, two adult birds, in full nuptial garb, which were shot in the
preceding month of March, by the gamekeeper at Knockdriu
Castle, near Mullingar, the seat of Sir Eichard Levinge, Bart.
On dissection, they proved to be male and female : their plumage
is similar, both having the ruff or crest. In this collection were
three more of these birds, but wanting the ruff : one of them
was shot in Kingstown Harbour, near Dublin. One only of these
five specimens is bare of feathers on the abdomen, and it is in
full summer plumage. All of the others are abundantly furnished

* ' Orn. Biog.," vol. iii. p. 595.

174 COLYMBID.E.

with them, and exhibit no indication of any having been eaten,
though all the grebes of this' species opened hj me had the
stomach cither wholly or partially filled with their own feathers.
In March 1838, several great-crested grebes were brought on sale
to Dublin. One has been shot on the sea, near the island of
Ireland's Eye. In Mr. Watters' collection there is an immature
bird, obtained fresh in February 1848 (said to have been killed
on a river in Ivildare), and one in adult summer plumage, shot on
the 29th of July, 1849. In the very severe weather of January,
1850, several were sent to the metropolis.

This grebe has been procured during winter in Wexford Har-
bour,* and more than once on the coast of Waterford ; — at Dun-
garvan, one (" between two and three years old," as described by
Jenyns) was killed about the 1st of March, 1888.t Immature
birds only, obtained in Cork Harbour, are noticed in the ' Fauna'
of that county. On the 16th of January, 1849, one of these grebes
was shot there below Cove, when in company with some divers ;
and on the 5th of February a flock of five was seen on the sea, at
the back of Cove Island. J On the coast of Kerry it is occa-
sionally procured. § The Eev. T. Knox, of Toomavara (Tippe-
rary), and previously resident atKillaloe, on the Shannon, wrote to
me, on the 24th of j>fovember,1836, that several great-crested grebes
had, at different periods, come under his notice. Three of them
(one in adult summer, the others in immature or winter, plumage)
were, in July 1837, kindly sent by Mr. Knox for my inspection.

In 1840, 1 learned from a person resident in Connemara, that tliis
species is found "in winter" on Loughs Corrib and Mask. || Mr. E. J.
Montgomery, visiting the west of Ireland in February 1850, heard
from fowlers that "loons" are in considerable numbers on those
two lakes. He went in pursuit of them, but was unable to ap-
proach within shot, or near enough to determine the species, which
most probably is the great-crested grebe. He was told that they
are more numerous in summer than in winter. Their nests or

Major T. 'Walker. t Mr. I?. Davis, juii. X Mr. R. "Warren, juii.

§ Mr. Vx. Chute. II Mr. AV. WCalh.

THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 175

eggs had not beeu seen by any of the persons questioned respect-
ing them. Two of these grebes, shot about the river Shannon
or Lough Derg, on the 2nd of March, ] 847, were sent to the
Belfast Museum by the late Mr. J. J. Marshall, of Portumna. The
one was in full suiumer plumage, and the other in the next stage
to maturity. The lower pin mage of the adult was greatly more
shining and silky in appearance than that of the other. Dissec-
tion showed both to be males.

Breeding Haunts. — Under this heading, such of the instances
as have already beeu mentioned that relate exclusively to the
breeding season will be repeated.

The great- crested grebe is known to nidify in lakes situated in
a few of the Irish counties, and probably does so in a number of
them. In the summer of 1834, one was shot at a small lake in
Hillsborough Park (Dowm), wliere the species is said to breed
annually. The gamekeeper, before firing at the bird, was struck
by the singular appearance of its back, and afterwards found, to
his surprise, that this was caused by its having a young one under
each wing.^ An ornithologist visiting this park on the lUth of
June, 1845, saw one of these birds on the lake, and was told by
the keeper that its mate was probably on her nest, as, when not
there, the paii" are generally together. As a second bird had not
been observed for a few days, it was concluded that the female
was engaged in incubation. A pair only breeds here. None
have been seen in any winter, excepting in that of 1847-48,
during which two birds are said to have remained. No matter
how many are produced here, never more than one pair returned
to breed. Portion of a nest of the preceding year was brought to
me from this lake in June 1849, and proved to be whoUy com-
posed of Charce. The eggs arc usually three in number.

Adult birds in full summer plumage, shot on the 26th of
April, 1842, and in the first week of the same month in 1845,
came under my notice; the former obtained in the neighbourhood

* Pennant was aware of its thus protecting its brood : and rcmari<cd — " It is a
careful nurse of its young, being observed to feed them most assiduously, com-
monly with small eels ; and when its infant brood arc tired, will carry thcni either
on its back or under its wings" (p. 420).

176 COLYMBID.i:.

of Baubridge, and the latter at a small lake near Ballyuahinch ;
both localities in the county of Down, where there is little doubt
the birds were about to nidify. On the 26th of August, 1840, a
a bird in full adult plumage was taken in a net set for fish, in
Lough Neagh; in July 1844, an old male was shot there; and
another on the 30th of March, 1850 — circumstances implying its
breeding about that great lake. An old sportsman has frequently
seen these birds when shooting and fishing there, as well as on
other Irisli lakes ; — often, he remarks, after tliey dived, he never
saw them come uj) again. ^ From Loughgall, county of Armagh,
I have seen adidt birds obtained on the 9th of June, 1836, on
the 28th of J^Iarch and 27th of April, 1838, and presumed they
had a nesting place there. At Castle DiUon, in the same county,
I am assured that a pair annually builds. t In Loughs Eaghish
and Kilcorm, county of Monaghan, they are stated to do so an-
nually; J and also at Glasslough.t A bird in full plumage shot
about the 1st of April, 1835, on one of the lakes of the county
Cavan, indicates a breeding-haunt there. From an old pair
having been shot in March 1837, on the lake at Knockdrin
Castle, Westmeath, this locality may be added to the others.

The great-crested grebe is said to breed. in some of the lakes
of Wales, and in those of four of the English counties. || Sir
Wm. Jardine remarks — " Although Mr. Heysham has recorded
the occurrence of the bird in Cumberland, we have never been
so fortunate as to meet with it on the border during summer.
It may be considered, indeed, there and in Scotland, rather as a
winter visitant, and that in no great abundance."^ The species
is not included in Mr. St. John's list of the birds of Sutherland,
nor in the last-published one of those of Orkney, as appearing at
any season of the year. If it does not breed in Scotland, this
can hardly be owing to the northern position of the country, as
it nidifies farther north, both in Europe and America.

* June 1850. Since the above was put ia type, the Rev. G. Robinson has (iu the
present month) found five nests of this grebe, each containing eggs, within a limited
space on the borders of Lough Neagh. Molronken is the name applied to it there.

t Gamekeeper at Caledon, 1850. % Mr. R. Evatt, IS^.i.

II Yarrell ; — who has added one county to those named by Pennanl.

% ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 20.?.

THE GEEAT-CllESTED GREBE. 177

The name of tlppd grebe was bestowed on tliis species in
consequence of its plumage being used by ladies in the now,
exploded adornments bearing that name, and consequently the
poor birds were much persecuted. But, though tippets are to
be numbered with the things that were, we have the indubitable
authority of my friend Mr. Yarrell, that grebe-skins are still
"in great request for making into muffs^ for ladies, or, more
frequently, to cut up into narrow strips as trimming for pelisses."
Pennant (in 1776), writing of their "beautiful skins," mentions
that " the under side of them being drest with the feathers on,
are made into mutfs and tippets ; each bird sells for about four-
teen shillings, * * "^ as high a price as those that come
from Geneva : * * ^ its skin is out of season about February,
losing then its bright colour : and in the breeding-time its breast
is almost bare."t The Lake of Geneva has always been a great
resort of this species, and in the admirable memoir of M. Necker
on the birds of the neighbourhood of the city of that name, the
Focliceps cristatus is fully descanted on.| Towards the end of
October numbers of young birds arrive there, and become objects
of the chase. The mode of proceeding is fully described (p. 85),
and it is stated that many boats are occupied during winter in
the pursuit of the grebe, which is often very lucrative, as for each
bird the furriers give from six to eight francs. Mr. Yarrell, too,
(p. 301) pubhshes an account of grebe-hunting on the Lake of
Geneva, communicated to him by an English gentleman who had
been witness to the sport. Li 18 iC, I was informed by M. Alex.
P. Prevost of Geneva, that the bird had then become very scarce
on the lake. Mr. Selby (p. 395) briefly describes the chase of one
of these grebes by Sir William Jardine and himself, on a lake in
the vicinity of Eotterdam ; — " an hour and a half's severe exer-

* They are always on sale in Dubliu for ladies' cuffs, for a pair of wliich the skin
of one bird is requisite. Seeing tliree pair exhibited in a furrier's window there in
July 1850, I inquired the price, which was only 7s. 6d. a pair. They were stated to
liave been brought from Switzerland.

t Pennant describes the species as two, under the names of tippet etud great-
crested grebe.

X Mc'raoires Soc. Tiiys. and d'Hist. Nat. Geneve, vol. ii. (1823).

VOL. III. N

178 colymbiDjE.

tion/^ in rowing after it by men accustomed to the business was
required before the bird was approached in such a manner that it
coukl be fired at.

A fine adult bird^ kept on the water in St. James's Park, Lou-
don, is mentioned by Yarrell. This is probably the same indi-
vidual which aflbrded much amusement to a friend and myself
one evening at the end of April 1843, by the extreme agility dis-
played in fly-catching. It pursued its prey in all possible w^ays,
shooting its neck vertically upwards for any passing overhead,
the next moment to one side or other, and again making a rush
along the surface of the water for two or three yards after some
winged insect. I never saw so much agility displayed by any
bird in this pursuit : all the numerous species of Anatida on the
water, though busied fly-catching also, were the veriest dolts
compared with the grebe.

This species has been already alluded to as more frequent in
Ireland than Scotland, and, judging from general works on
British birds, I should have believed it to be as common in the
former country as in England, According, however, to the fol-
lowing extract from the Rev. Mr. Lubbock's ' Pauna of Norfolk,'
and the communication from John Gatcombe, Esq., of Plymouth,
which succeeds it, greater numbers have been observed there than
I ever heard of in Ireland. Mr. Lubbock gives from personal
observation much the fullest and most interesting account of the
habits of this bird that I have seen, having had fine opportunities
for studying them on the " broads " of that county. He states
that " fifteen or sixteen might be seen in the same day and at the
same time in different parts of South Walsham broad " (p. 84) :
whether all old birds, or old ones with their broods, is not men-
tioned. In the summer of 1833 he knew of five grebes' nests
" upon a pool of water a good deal overgrown with reed" (p. 88).
Nests of that year are, of course, meant, but there may be a fal-
lacy in such a case. Two nests were reported as being on the lake
in Hillsborough Park in one season, and correctly so ; but, on exa-
mination, one of them proved to be the nest of a former year !^

* Two pair, however, bred here in the summer of 1850, the yomig of the first

THE GBEAT-CRESTED GT?EBE. 179

Mr. Gatcombe writes, in 1850 — " Specimens of the crested
grebe are obtained almost every winter in the small bays along the
shores of Plymouth Sound, especially near the entrance of the river
Tamar; but large flocks appeared during severe frosts and strong
easterly winds many winters ago. They remained off the sea-
wall, near the Devil's Point, through the months of January and
February, and during that time a great many were killed. My
brother and I alone shot about twenty specimens, all in that state
of plumage in which they are called the ' tippet grebe,' some
of the younger birds bearing traces of the peculiar dark stripes
on the cheeks and down the neck. We kept the skins of fifteen,
intending to have them made into a tippet or muff; but, owing
to our not being able to divest them of the thick layers of fat
covering the skin of the breast, they became so rancid that we
were ultimately obKged to throw them away. I \^'as much struck
with a habit the crested grebe had when on the water of suddenly
erecting and shaking the plumage of the back, just in the man-
ner of a bird after having charged its plumage with dust. On
the eve of diving they would invariably sink their bodies deep in
the water, showing only their long necks and a portion of their
backs. During very rough weather they kept so near the shore
that they were often obliged to dive suddenly through the waves
to prevent their being dashed against the rocks. Many Sclavo-
nian or dusky grebes were obtained in company with them. I
have not known either species so plentiful since that time."

On the subject of feathers contained in the stomach of greles,
Dr. Fleming, in his ' Philosophy of Zoology,' remarks : — " We
have found in the stomach of the eared grebe {Fodiceps auritus),
in the month of January, a large ball of its own breast feathers ;
probably pulled off and swallowed to satisfy its hunger" (vol. i.
p. 31G). Further allusion is made to this circumstance in the
same author's ' History of British Animals,' where, after referring

brood being lialclied about tlic last day of IVIay ; two weeks afterwards four eggs were
fouivd in the nest of tlie other pair. One of the feuiak:s which was killed contained
five eggs nearly of full size, from which circumstance there is uo doubt that a second
brood would have been produced.

N 2

180 COLYMBID.E.

to Montagu's having obtained feathers in the red-necked and the
crested species, it is asked — " Are these to be considered as ana-
logous to bezoars ?" (p. 132.) Mr. Allis, of York, states that
" in the stomachs of the larger grebes" he has " uniformly found
a considerably- sized ball composed principally of feathers."* The
Rev. T. KnoX; in a contribution to Loudon^s ' Magazine of Na-
tural History' (vol. ix. p. 302), remarked on one of these birdsf
received by him on the 5th of January, 1836; — its "first sto-
mach contained tliree perch, one iive inches long and quite per-
fect, and the colours almost as bright as if just taken ; the giz-
zard, which was very muscular, contained a gi'eat mass of feathers,
and among them two or three perch partly digested, one of them
three inches and three-quarters long, another one inch and a half.
I washed the feathers, and, on comparison, found that they cor-
responded with those on the sides of the bird under the wing, or
with those on the tliigh. They were chiefly in a half digested
state, and, as there were no traces of them on the lower intestines,
it appears extremely probable that they may be finally assimilated
with the food : or, is it necessary, in the economy of the larger
species of grebe, that the gizzard should be always full ?" Au-
dubon, in describing an American species, the Vodiceps Caroli-
neiisis, mentions having taken from their gizzards " a quantity of
a feather-like substance, which he found to be the down of certain
plants, such as thistles, &c." It is likewise remarked that he has
obtained " similar substances in the stomach of many individuals
of Podiceps cristatug"X (Orn. Biog. vol. iii. p. 362). He states,
at p. 432, under Tod'iceps cornutns, " I have observed, in the sto-
machs of almost all that I have examined, a quantity of hair-like
substances rolled together like the pellets of owls, but have not
ascertained whether or not these matters are disgorged. They
certainly cannot pass through the intestines. But unless birds

* Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 733.

t This individual is doubtfully called Podiceps cristatus in the communication ; —
having, with other grebes, been sent to Dublin for my examination, it proved to be
that species.

\ I cannot but think that the light downy feathers of the bird were mistaken for
the seeds of plants, which they superficially resemble.

THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 181

of this kind are kept in an aviary and watched, this matter must
remain unknown." Mr. Yarrell remarks that " there is cause to
suspect these birds [grebes] reproduce at will from the stomach
the more indigestible parts of their last meal, as hawks, owls,
shrikes, and some other birds are known to do.''^

The stomachs of great-crested grebes which came under my
examination contained as follows : — April 1, 1835 ; — that of an
adult bird from a lake in the county Cavan was, apparently, quite
filled with feathers, but on looking carefully among them, I de-
tected the bones, scales, &c., of a small fish and the remains of
some aquatic insects : the feathers did not consist wholly of those
of the breast and under parts, but some partially black and brown,
such as compose the crest, appeared : it is therefore evident that
they do not always restrict themselves, as has been stated, to the
feathers of the under surface of their bodies, March 28 and
April 27, 1838; — adult birds killed at Loughgall, had their sto-
machs filled with their own feathers. December 10 and 27, 181<1 ;
— an old male obtained at Lough Neagli at the former date, and
an immature bird shot on or near it (sent from Castledawson to the
BeKast Museum) were apparently filled with feathers ; but among
them, in one specimen, were some small Crustacea {Gammanis
aquations). March 2, 1847 ; — of two male birds (one adult and
the other in the next stage to being so) from the neighbourhood
of Portumna, one was filled with feathers and the other nearly so,
but in it were the remains of fislies ; both contained black and
brown, as well as white feathers. One, procm'ed on the 15tli of
April, 1849, had, in addition to the usual feathers, many bones
of fishes, fragments of coleopterous insects, and a few portions of
the stems of vegetables. March 30, 1850; — an old bird killed
on Lough Neagh contained bones of fishes among a large mass
of feathers ; the entire contents, as usual, having a greenish tinge,
owing, we may presume, to a secretion from the stomach. An
adult, obtained on the 13th of ]\lay, the same year, on that lake,
had the stomach densely packed with feathers, among which were
small bones and ' ear-bones ' of fishes, and the remains of coleop-
terous insects.

182 COLYMBIPiE.

It will be seen, in the following pages, that the stomachs of
tlic rctl-neckecl, the Sclavonian, and the eared grebes that came
under my own examination, all contained feathers, but that those
of the little grebe never did so. Mr. Darragh has remarked to
me, with respect to the great-crested grebe (of which he has pre-
served a number of specimens), that at all seasons of the year
feathers are ready to drop out on the slightest touch ; a provision
wliich we may conceive made to supply the wants of the digestive
organs without any pain attendant on pulling the plumage from
its body.

As I have never seen any satisfactory reason given for the in-
variable presence of feathers in the stomach of this species, the
bodies of the last tliree birds were submitted to the examination
of Dr. Gordon, Professor of Surgery, Queen's College, Belfast, in
the hope that he might be able to throw some light upon the
subject. He very kindly undertook the task, and examined a
red-necked grebe also, obtained on the 28rd of February, 1850.
His observations are as follow : —

" The proventriculiis, or circle of glandules, occupying the lower end
of the oesophagus, when o])eued and measured, was, in the crested grebe
{Podlceps crisiatiis), one inch six lines in the vertical, and two inches
four lines in the ti'ausvcrse diameter ; whilst in the red-necked {Fodi-
ceps ruhicoUis) the vertical diameter was one inch and four lines, and
the transverse two inches. The glandules are larger in the former than
in the latter.

" The muscular coat of the gizzard is not so thick as in the Rasores,
or gallinaceous birds, but exceeds that of the Eapiores, or birds of prey,
and is proportionably more largely developed in the crested than the
red-necked grebes. The inner membrane or epidermic coat in both is
nearly a line in thickness, and gradually becomes more dense and horny
as we approach the pylorus, where it resembles that of the GalUuacea;.
The general cavity of the gizzard does not open abruptly into the small
intesLiue, but forms a funnel, half an inch in length, with strong mus-
cular walls, much constricted at its termination, so much so, indeed, as
not to allow of the exit of at least the larger bones into the small in-
testines. It is therefore admirably adapted for retaining its contents
and crushing the bones and other substances which may enter it. In

THE GllEAT-CRESTED GREBE. 183

the Podiceps cristatus this tubular prolongatiou was full of feathers,
which consisted of the shafts and barbs deprived of the barbules. These
were not wound up confusedly in a ball, but lay parallel to each other
and to the long axis of the tube. In the general cavity there were a
large quantity of feathers, many fish-bones, portions of coleopterous
insects, and a few pieces of the firm stems of vegetables. Some of the
feathers are perfect, but slightly broken ; others with the shaft and
barb, but without the barbules ; or the barbs alone, the shaft and
barbules being removed. Had I not carefully examined the gradual
but progressive alteration in the general cavity, I would undoubtedly
have said that the tubular prolongation was occupied by a bundle of
hairs, and not feathers, so close is the resemblance. The amount of
barbules in the gizzard far exceeds that of the barbs or shafts, so much
so, that it would require twenty times the number of feathers to pro-
duce an amount of barbules equal to those present. The bones in the
gizzard seem to be little if at all acted upon by the proventricular
fluid, and, from the thickness and density of the inner coat, it is pro-
bable that there is no secretion except that fluid. Now these circum-
stances deserve consideration, as they seem to imply that the proven-
tricular fluid, which dissolves the soft parts, has no action whatever
upon the bones, and that they, after being triturated, especially in the
tubular prolongation of the gizzard, pass onwards into the small intes-
tine, and there being mixed with the biliary and other secretions, form
the dark-coloured and friable masses found in its upper part, which, as
they pass onwards towards the vent, are gi'adually assimilated and con-
. verted into fluid excrement.

" In the gizzard of Fodiccps ruhrlcollis there are, comparatively, few
feathers, and they are also less worn. There is also a less degree of
muscularity, and a more perfect solution of the solid parts of its food
by the proventricular fluid. From the preceding obseiTations I infer
that the feathers perform a threefold office. First, as a protecting
medium, to defend the epidermic coat from laceration by the sharp
edges and points of the fish-bones. Secondly, as a triturating appa-
ratus. Thirdly, as a filter, the tubular prolongation allowing the fluids
and triturated bones to pass into the intestine, whilst the coarser por-
tions arc retained, to be subjected to further action."

184* C'OLYMBIDyE.

THE RED-NECKED GREBE.

Podiceps rubricollis, Gmel. (sp.)
Colynibus „ „

Is only known as an extremely rare Avinter visitant.

It is the rarest of the grebes in Ireland. The first recorded
specimen that came under my inspection was an immature one
procured late in the autumn of 1831 (by Dr. J. D, Marshall), from
the captain of a vessel, who shot it on the coast of Down :* it is
preserved in the BeKast Museum.f One wliich I have seen in
collection of Mr. Warren, of Dublin, was noted as sent to the
metropolis from the county of Wexford, on the 24th of February,
1838 ; but as the note was not made until some time after the
receipt of the bird, possibly it may be the same individual that a
correspondent informed me had been found on the shore near
Arklow, on the 1st of that month. J It was said to be a female,
and to agree with Jenyus^ description of the " young at the age
of two years." One was shot in December 1842, at the mouth
of i\\Q Glengariff river, Bantry Bay, by Mr. G. Jackson, game-
keeper, and was the only individual he ever met with. In the
collection of Mr. John Watters, jun,, DubHn, I have seen a spe-
cimen of this grebe, stated to have been shot on a lake at Sandy-
mount, near that city, on the 21th of January, 1848. One only
of these birds has come under my examination in a recent state.
It was shot in Belfast Bay on the 23rd of Eebruary, 1850, where
it had been observed for the few preceding days, and was alone
all the time. The following notes were made on it a few hours
after death, and previous to its being skinned.

* Zoolog. Proceediugs, 1835, p. 79.

t In Templeton's catalogue, one of these birds is stated to have been " caught in
thrf spring of 1797, at Beers Bridge, county Down;" but probably the little grebe
{P. minor) in its red-necked summer plumage is meant, as I have received specimens
from that locality, where it breeds.

% Mr. H. n. Dombrain.

ill.

lin.

17

0

1

7

2

0

1

0

7

0

2

4

2

9

2

7

2

0

0

8

THE RED-NECKED GREBE. 185

Length (total) from point of bill to end of tail

„ of bill from forehead to point ....

,, ,, „ rictus ,, ....

„ „ ,, nostrils „ ....

„ „ wing from carpus to end of longest quiU (whichl

is the second) ..... J

„ „ tarsus ........

„ „ outer toe and nail (nail not extending beyondT

fleshy portion on this toe) . . . j

„ „ middle toe and nail .....

„ „ inner toe and nail ......

„ „ hind toe and nail ......

Weight, avoirdupois, 1 lb. 14f oz.

Colour of irides inconspicuous, bi'ownish-yeUow.

„ bill bright yeUow towards base, greenish horn-colour towards tip.

„ outer side of tarsi and base of aU the toes and webs dusky.

„ inner side of tarsi and upper side of all the toes and webs or

membrane grceiiish-yeUow.
„ plumage agrees precisely with Jenyus' description (p. 252) of the
" young at the age of two years."
Dissection proved it to be a female.

The stomach contained the remains of several shrimps {Crangon
vulgaris) and fishes, with ' ear-bones ' of small GadiJa. A pipe
fish [St/ngnathus acus), ten inches in lejigth, was perfect, excepting
the head, which had become decomposed. The fish was so long,
that, retaining its straightness, as it did, the caudal fin appeared
in the throat of the bird. A number of feathers (but not a ball
of them) from the bird^s own body, were mixed with the food.

None of the preceding five individuals were adult, if the
plumage of tliis age be similar in winter and summer. Two of
them were obtained in the most severe winters (1837-38 and
1849-50) we have had within the period that the bird has been
noticed. All the species of Podlceps are most frequently procured
on the Irish coast during severe frost and snow. The red-necked
grebe is considered rare in England. About the time that the
last one occurred in Ireland, tlu'ee individuals were stated at a
meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Club — on Tebruary 6tli,
1850 — to have "come under the inspection of Mr. Graham

186 COLYMBID^.

(bird-preserver). One shot on the Ouse, in the middle of York,
a fortnight ago, and two at Acaster, a few days since. The
irides of all thi'ee were of a dirty yellowish-white colour, and not
red, as is usually stated."'^ Those of the bird which came under
my own examination were brownish-yellow, and those of the
individual obtained in 18-18 were noted as " primrose-yellow .'''

This species has not been sufficiently numerous anywhere to
become an object of the chase, like the great-crested grebe, but,
like it, is most difficult to be " run down " on the water. Mr.
Knox tells us that " during March 1817, one of these birds
having been observed for some time swimming and diving near
the beach opposite Brunswick Terrace, Brighton, was pursued by
a party of active rowers in a gaUey, and captured after a long
chase."t

The red-necked grebe is of more frequent occurrence in Eng-
land, and apparently in Scotland also, than it is in Ireland.

A pair of these birds was shot by Captain May, on the 13th
of July, 1849, on a swampy lake near the junction of the Salten
river with the Fiord, in latitude 67°. This may be a breeding-
haunt of the species. No others were seen by that gentleman on
any part of the coast, rivers, or lakes of NorM^ay.

THE IIOENED OR SCLAVONIAN GREBE.

Podiceps cornukis, Gmel. (sp.)
Colymhus „ „

Dusky Grebe (young).

Pod'icejis ohscurus, Gmel. (sp.)
Coli/niLus „ „

Can be positively announced only as an occasional winter

visitant.

In the journal of the late Mr. Templeton, one is mentioned
as having been seen by him in Belfast market on the 23rd of

* 'Zoologist; March 1850, p. 2747. t ' Oruilh. Kamblcs,; p. 240.

THE HORNED OK SCLAVONIAN GREBE. 187

December, 1808. A few individuals killed in the north in winter
have come under my examination. One obtained in November
1831, in Strangford Lough, and now in the Belfast Museum, is
in the plumage of Bewick^s dusky grebe. On the 9th of Fe-
bruary, 1831, one was shot near Wliitehouse, Belfast Bay. In
the last week of February 1833, another, in similar plumage,
was shot in that bay, below Holywood, about which locality one
had previously been killed. In January or February 1835, two
were procured at the same time there. On the 0th of March
1835, one of these grebes was sent from Coleraine to be pre-
served, and came under my examinatioii in a fresh state. The
following notes were made upon it. —

in. lin.

Leugtli (total) 14 0

„ of wing from carpus to end of first qidll . . .5 10

„ „ biU above, from forehead to point . . .0 11

„ „ ,, from rictus to point ..... 1 4

„ „ „ „ nostrils to tip . . . . .0 7i

„ „ tarsus ........ 1 11

„ „ middle toe and uail ...... 2 1

„ „ outer toe and uail ...... 2 3

Lore red (colour of raw beef), irides vermilion-red. This bird
was ascertained to be a male : but not the least appearance of
adult summer plumage was visible on the head, though the great-
crested glebe often exhibits its nuptial garb as early in the season.
The stomach was entirely filled with feathers. On the 1st of
February, 1838, one of these birds was obtained in Belfast Bay,
near Bangor.

The * dusky grebe ' is a very rare winter visitant to the north-
west of Donegal."^ Mr. Warren wrote me of four individuals
having been shot near Dublin at the end of February 1838; —
two of them, which I subsequently saw in liis own collection, were
in the plumage of the dusky grebe. One, scut from the county
of Cavan in that winter (1837-38) to Mr. Wall, bird-preserver,
Dublin, was the oidy individual of the species ever received by
him. Ill the month of January 1838, an immature bird was

'■'' Mr. J. V. Stcvvait.

188 COLYMBID^.

killed at Clogheen.'^ One " in the plumage of the swimming
bird, figured in Yarrell's work" (immature) was shot in the last
week of May 1843, on the canal near Blenuerville, comity Kerry. t
Tts being in this plumage at such an advanced period of the sum-
mer leads to the conclusion that the species does not reach
matm'ity in one year.

Specimens of this grebe were obtained in Dublin market, or
sent to the city for preservation, as follows. One in the winter
of 1842-43? — now in the University Museum. One, said to
have been shot on the Wexford coast, 10th of February, 1847,
during severe frost. One in February, and another in October,
1848. The last of which I have been informed, w^as killed on
December 19, 1849 : all of these are in the plumage of the
dusky grebe. J

Not one of the above specimens seen by myseK, or described
to me by others, was in adult summer plumage. All were, indeed,
what are considered by Mr. Selby to be the young of the year.
It Avill be remarked that most of them were obtained in the
last great Anatidce winter of 1837-38, and that they occm'red
from the north to the south of the island. The still more rare
red-necked and eared grebes were also procured that season.

This grebe is of more frequent occurrence in England and
Scotland than in Ireland. Sir William Jardine considers it the
most common species, next to the little grebe, in Scotland, and
remarks — "Specimens occur during the whole winter in the
Edinburgh markets, and we have frequently shot it in the river
Annan during winter : it never attempted to fly, but was not
nearly so watchful as the little grebe, diving, but coming up
again in sight, and allowing itself to be approached within shot.
The little grebe, on diving, immediately seeks some cover, and is
not again seen."|| The Sclavonian grebe is said to be, "though
in small numbers, a constant inhabitant in Orkney,"^ and to

* Mr. R. Davis, jun. + Mr. R. Chute.

% I have seen two of those alluded to iu Mr. Watters' collection.

II ' Brit. Birds," vol. iv. \^. 207. If ' Hist. Nat. Oread.' (184S) p. 83,

THE EARED GREBE. 189

remain permanently in Sutherland.'^ Nothing is said of its nest
having been observed in either place. A few pair are believed
to breed in England.

Audubon gives an excellent account of this bird from his own
observation. t

THE EARED GREBE.

Podiceps auritus, Linn, (sp.)
Colymhus ,, „

Can only be recorded with certainty as an extremely rare
winter visitant.

One was shot in January or February 1835, in Belfast Bay, when
two young horned grebes were likewise obtained. On the 30tli
of November, 1846, two eared grebes were killed at a shot in
Belfast Bay after a few nights of severe frost, accompanied by
snow ; but either these individuals, or birds of the same species,
had been seen singly in the bay for the preceding two months.
The first time that they appeared in company was the day of their
death. Two of the wild-fowl shooters attempted, but in vain, to
procure the birds when observed singly. The rapidity of their
movements under water surprised them, as " one moment they
would be close to the shore, and the next far out in the water."
Grebes are very seldom seen in this bay. The two fowlers alluded
to, though shooting here regularly for a period of from fifteen to
twenty years, had never observed any grebes but these two, except-
ing the Podiceps minor. One of them was so injured as to be unfit
for preservation; the other was set up for the Belfast Museum.
Their irides were vermilion-red. On dissection, both were ascer-
tained to be males. Theii" stomachs exliibited quantities of feathers
from different parts of their bodies, among which were several of
a black colour from their dorsal plumage. They contained two large
specimens of the doubly-spotted goby {Gobius Ridhensparii), a

* St. John's ' Tour,' &c. vol. i. 140. f ' Oru. Biog.' vol. iii. p. 429.

190 COLYMBID.E.

number of common shrimps {Crangon imlgaris), and of opossum
shrimps {3Ij/sis). On the 11th of November, 1847, two more
of these grebes were killed at the same shot to the west of Gar-
moyle, Belfast Bay, but unfortunately were not saved for preserva-
tion. All of the preceding birds were in winter plumage.

On the 24<th of Tebruary, 1838, several specimens of the
eared grebe were sent to Mr. Glennon from the county of Wex-
ford."^ An immature one was obtained at Muskerry, county Cork,
in 1847.t Two birds, in full adult summer plumage, have come
under my notice. One of these was shot near Dublin, on the
15th of June, 1847, and is in Mr. Waiters' collection. The
contents of its stomach, having been preserved, were shown to
me, and consisted wholly of downy feathers, with the exception
of a quantity of the remains of coleopterous insects that glittered
among them; two large beetles were in its throat. The other
individual, in full summer plumage, was shot early in June 1849,
near Benburb, Armagh, and is in the possession of the Eev.
George Robinson, of Tartaraghan rectory in that county.

The eared grebe would appear, from the preceding records of
its occurrence, to be about equally scarce in Ireland as in England
and Scotland. In both of these countries it is considered the
rarest species of the genus Fodlceps ;t but iu Ireland, the P.
rnhricollis is still more rare.

THE LITTLE GREBE.

Dabcliickj Blackchin Grebe (old).

Podiceps minor, Gmel. (sp.)
Colymbus „ „

Is a resident species distributed over the island.

It is mentioned in Smith's Histories of Cork and Waterford ;
in the former, as " common on the sea-coast," and in the latter, as
^' sometimes killed in this county." M^Skimmin, in his ' History

* Mr. T. W. Warreu. t I'l'- J- ^- Harvey. % Jardine, Yarrcll.

THE LITTLE GUEBE. 191

of Carrickfergus/ alludes to it as breeding at Lough Morne, and
as being called Fenny Bird.'^'' In different parts of the same
county (Antrim) it bears other names, being called by the country-
people about Clough, Willie Ilawkie, and by those about Toorae
by the still less elegant appellation of Tom Tuddin. AVhen on
Lough Beg, near to this place, on the 3rd of August, 1846, I
saw several of them; — by the name just mentioned, and that
only, were they known to our boatman. It is a most unobtrusive
species, and requires to be patiently looked for to be seen at all,
unless it comes within our view by chance. It breeds in several
localities around Belfast, and, though considered a bii-d of shy dis-
position, sometimes selects for nidification very small ponds in
much-frequented places. A locality of this kind in a bleach-green
on the outskirts of the town on the Falls road was chosen for
many seasons recently by a pair, which generally succeeded in
bringing out their brood of five or six young in safety.f At the
lake on whose borders Lissanoure Castle (county of Antrim) is
situated, several pair of these grebes formerly bred every year,
but they have become scarcer of late. Their nests were often
found, and after a storm have been seen floating on the lake with
the birds sitting on them. J

When riding one day, in mild weather in the month of January,
on the banks of the Lagan Canal, above the second docks, I was
interested for some time in observing one of these birds, which,
though quite near, evidently considered my presence no intrusion.
It kept diving for food, and every time, on rising to the surface,
showed that it had been successful, the motion of the mandibles
indicating the breaking of its prey, probably water-beetles, before
being swallowed. I was amused, as one often is in watching for
the re-appearance of diving birds, to see it frequently rise to the
surface in the direction opposite to that anticipated. " The ra-

* Drink- a-'penny is a uamc applied to it in Straugford Lough,

t "June 17, 1808. Went to sec a grebe's nest at Lyster's pond ; it had yolk-
coloured eggs, about the size of a thrush's, but longer shaped." — Mr. Tenipleton's
Joiu-nal.

X Mr. B. Brooke, 1850.

192 COLYMBID^.

pidity with wliicli the httle grebe can emerge, and again conceal
itself when alarmed, is remarkable. The leap of a trout is scarcely
more instantaneous. They hunt much in pairs. When undisturbed,
they seldom remain below so long as half a minute.""^ Sir
William Jardine was once witness to the motions of this species
under water, and observes that, " when moving straight forward
it is propelled by the wings, a sort of flight, but when turning,
and, we presume, when seeking its food, it has an easy, gliding
motion, feet and wings being used as occasion requires, sometimes
on one side and sometimes on the other, and we were reminded
of the graceful gliding motions of the otter, where every turn
seems given with perfect ease, at the same time with great acti-
vity and quickness.^'t This comparison will be appreciated by
those who have witnessed the elegantly graceful turns of the
otter in his pond at the Zoological Garden, Regent^s Park,
London, where they can be seen to admirable advantage. Mr.
R. Ball, at one of his zoological lectures in DubHn, exhibited a
little grebe at which fourteen shots were fired before it was
secured !

During frost, I once met with tliis species swimming near the
shore in Belfast Bay, when the tide was smooth as a mirror. On
another occasion, a little grebe was, in severe weather, shot be-
neath one of the arches of the Long Bridge here. On the 18th
of November, 1841, after three days' frost, severe for this early
period of the winter, and when a thaw had commenced, one of
these birds was shot in Dunbar's Dock, Belfast, and another was
seen in the same vicinity : on examination of its stomach I found
the remains of vegetable matter, with a few small shells. Lacuna
quadrifasciata, Rissoa ulva, and the very young of LiUorina rudis.

The stomach of one of these birds, examined by me in Sep-
tember, was fiUed with the remains of a few three-spined stickle-
backs [Gasterostei), Crustacea, and aquatic insects, among which
was a perfect boat-fly {Notonecta). Another, killed on the 1st of

* Mr, J. Poole.

f ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 210. The whole account of this bird, as observed by
the author in the south of Scotland, is very interesting.

THE LITTLE GREBE. 193

September, contained portions of a Gasterosteus ; several speci-
mens of the shell Valvata oMusa, and some aquatic insects. An
individual;, captured in the eel-nets at Toome Bridge on the 17th
of October, contained a mass of the remains of those insects, of
which Notonedct were the chief. Another bird, procured this
month, had its stomach quite full of similar food ; with which
also, and moliusca {Planorhis carinatus and Limneus palmtr'ta),
one, obtained at the Shannon near Portumna on the 2nd of
March, 1846, was filled; — no feathers appeared in any of the
stomachs of the little grebe examined by me. Five perfect speci-
mens of the shell Palndhia tentaciila%i [P. impura, Lam.) were
reported to me as found in the stomach of another bird.*

The little grebe is equally common to suitable localities
throughout the year in all parts of the island ; — in the north-west
of Donegal, as well as south-east of Wexford ; in the north-east
of Antrim, as M'ell as south-west of Kerry ; is common inland
about the Shannon, on the Connemara lakes, and those of Con-
naught generally. It has already been mentioned as breeding in
a small pond close to the town of Belfast, About two wild pair
breed every year in the pond of the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix
Park, DubHn. At Baldoyle also, in the vicinity of the metropolis,
they have had a breeding haunt. Localities in which the great-
crested grebe nidifies have generally the little grebe for a tenant
also, though the former species requires a much greater extent of
water than suffices for the other. Mr. E. Davis, jun. (of Clon-
mel) observes of the P. minor — " its nest is so well concealed
that a search for it is almost useless /' a remark which is made
feelingly, from his being an egg-collector.

On a small and very retired sheet of water at the base of lofty
mountains at Aberarder, Inverness-shire, which came under my
observation when grouse-shooting there during September 18-1'2,
several of these grebes were seen, and one of them shot : they
doubtless breed there, far remote from any others of their kindred.

* Mr. J. Watlcrs.
VOL. III. O

194 COLYMBIDiE.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.
Imber Diver.

Colymhis glaciaUs, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant to the coast, remaining from
five to six months, and is occasionally met with in
summer.

The earliest note before^rae of its seasonal visit to Belfast
Bay appears under October 21, 183-1, when I saw one which
had been captured a few days before in the net of a Carrick-
fergus fisherman. This bird had previously a narrow escape from
his " long lines/' as a hook was in its mouth when taken, proving
that it had been making free with some fish-bait. Had this diver
escaped hook and net, neither of which was intended for its
capture, it would have attained fidl plumage the following spring.^
As these birds sometimes occur throughout the summer, the latest
period of their stay in spring, or time of departure northward,
cannot be stated; but on the 26th of April, 1831, an individual
in fine adult plumage AViis killed in the bay already named : its
" weight was 12 lbs. ; length 3 feet ; eyes hazel." On the 26th of
May, ] 810, a specimen in full plumage, captured on one of the
banks in that bay, was brought on sale to Belfast ; — on the 7th
of May, 1811, an immature male was shot there. Two were
seen, about a mile apart from each other, on the sea off Donaglia-
dee, on the 5th of May, 1846. On the 21st of April, 1847,
two pair were observed, the one about the Copeland Islands, the
other off Bangor ; — they were all immature. Several other
Colijmbi, seen on that day but not very near, were beheved to be
of this species. Nine appeared in a flock near Carrickfergus, on
the 2nd of May, 1849, and admitted of a sufficiently near ap-
proach for two of them to be wounded by a large shoulder- gun :

* See notice of the depth at which this species has been taken iu nets, under
Gauuet.

THE GEEAT NORTHERN DIVER. 195

Oil the lOtli of that mouth an adult bird was seen at the entraucc
of the bay.

On the 24th of Aprils 1850, a great northern diver (in its
third year's plumage) was captured off Island Magee, on a hook
baited with " buckie " {Bucclnum undatuni) for cod, and brought
uninjured to Belfast. The bait was taken, at a depth of from
thirty to forty fathoms. The bird was purchased by a gen-
tleman to keep along with a number of other species in his pos-
session ; but when sent home for that purpose, its most melan-
choly cry — somewhat resembling the howl of a dog as he " bays
the moon," though not very long-drawn — wrought so upon the
feelings of the lady of the house that she besought its liberty, and
a few hours afterwards — in the privacy of night — it Avas consigned
to its native element. When placed on the sea, it dived for
about fifty yards, and then emerging, assumed for a moment an
upright position, flapped its wings, gave a loud cry (or " crow"),
as if of defiance, and seeing the boat approaching, dived again.
It was not farther followed. Although the wings were perfect,
this bird did not attempt to rise into the air from the ground,
nor from a very large vessel of water in which it was placed.
Quickly, however, its way was made in a swimming manner along
the floor of a shop in which it was temporarily placed, while
its mournful note, frequently repeated, attracted such a crowd,
that the bird was hurried away with all possible speed.

A great northern diver, shot by a bird -preserver in Belfast (its
weight 14) lbs.) came under my inspection some months after-
wards, when he believed it to have been kiUed in July, but had
no note on the subject. It was obtained at Garmoyle, a deep pool
in the bay, about three miles from the town, and a favourite
haunt of the species in winter, when two or three are frequently
to be seen at one view. Proceeding from this place to the
entrance of the bay, the same day on which the specimen was
procured, my informant saw a considerable number of these
birds dotting the water singly here and there all the way : there
may have been forty altogether. Dr. Fleming has remarked,
that " the young birds are occasionally seen in summer in tlu.'

o2

196 COLYMBID/E.

Zetland seas/'"^ With respect to the nnmier said to have
been observed in Belfast Bay, the following is a kind of cor-
roborative note : — the season is the singular feature in what has
just been stated, but where dates are not remembered even the
month may be incorrect. According to a memorandum by the
late Mr. John Montgomery, great northern divers were (to use
his own words) "very plenty at Dundrum, county Down, in
the beginning of January 1822 : I could not have seen less
than from fifty to sixty in one day between the outer and inner
bays. We killed six, which was thought a wonder, as a person
who shoots a good deal here said lie never saw them shot before,
but that the fishermen sometimes found them drowned in the
nets, in which they got entangled when diving for their prey.
They are difficult to kill on account of their diving at the flash
of the pan, and even when struck they carry away a great deal of
shot. Tliough many shots were fired at them and other birds
during the day, they never attempted to take wing, but always
dived. They swam under water very fast, and always gained on
the boat whether with or against the tide." In a note of
January 1823, the same gentleman remarked tliat great northern
divers are very plentiful at Dundrum every winter. Two females
which he weighed were 9 and 11 lbs. One shot near Cushen-
dall in November 1812, was reported as weighing 16 lbs. Notes
have been supphed to me of a young male killed in Dubhn
Bay, weighing 10 lbs. 2 oz., and an adult obtained at Lambay off
that coast 26 lbs. ! Both this species and the red-throated diver
vary remarkably in size.

With respect to Cork harbour, it was stated in March 1850,
" The northern divers appeared as usual this winter. In pur-
suing them from a boat, when they are once frightened or fired at,
it is impossible to get within shot again, they swim so quickly
under water. A boat has no chance of coming near.^t

In Lame Lough, where these birds are little molested, they

* ' History of British Animals,' p. 133. It is also stated there that the author
" observed oue off the coast of Waterford on the 28th of July, 1816."

t Mr. E. Warren, jun.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 197

may sometimes iu the calmest days be seen within shot of the
shore, far up the estuary, occasionally near its inner extremity.
Wild-fowl shooters in Belfast Bay, who have had ample oppor-
tunities of observing the great northern diver, dissent from Mr.
Dunnes view, as quoted in Yarrell's work {' Brit. Birds,^ vol. iii.
p. 430, 2ud ed.). It is there stated that in diving it does not
appear "to make the least exertion, but sinks gradually under
the surface without throwing itself forward, the head being the last
part that disappears.^' They maintain, on the contrary, that it and
the red-throated species go under water like any other gently
diving birds, as grebes, &c. By throwing themselves forward in
the usual manner, the head being first immersed, they disappear
cpiite noiselessly — glide, as it were, beneath the surface with the
greatest ease, and not with a splash like some of the diving
ducks, &c.

On the 28th of May, 1842, a great northern diver was observed
for some time by Mr. G. C. Hyndman and myself, as it swam
and dived about very near the village of Glenarm, within shot
of the shore. It was an adult bird, the collar round the neck
and the markings on the back being apparent. It brought up
(caught by the middle) a fish about six inches long, which was
turned and swallowed head foremost. We timed the bird's diving
twice, and in each instance it was just one minute under water.
With our watches ready a third time, we both looked out most
attentively for its re-appearance until fifteen minutes had elapsed,
but in vain ! Had it come up within a furlong of where it dived,
we considered that the bird could not possibly have escaped our
notice. I should have thought it was caught in a net had one been
near, but was told that none was then set on the coast. What be-
came of the bird is a mystery. On the following day we saw one
of these divers near the same place, and, apparently, from plumage,
the individual that had so befooled us. The driver of the mail-car
from Glenarm to Cushendall, looking upon a diver here as a daily
acquaintance, remarked, that he knew it well as a frequenter of the
place, chiefly in summer, for two years : he had seen a second
bird in the locality. Four years previous to this time (early in

198 COLYMBID.E.

June 1838), Mr. Hyndinan observed oue of these birds, perhaps
the same individual, very uear the shore here. Tlie Rev. G. M.
Bhick frequently sees the great northern diver, during winter,
in the sea off Amialong, at the base of the mountains of Mourne.
Some of the birds are in mature plumage. They appear to have
favourite haunts, as he has observed what was believed to be the
same bird, week after week in the same place, lie has sometimes
seen them take to wing.

Mr. J. V. Stewart, in his published list of the ' Birds, &c. of
Donegal,^ remarks : — " Erom Colymhus glacialis and Immer being-
very common in this county, where they arrive the first week in
October, I have had good opportunities of observing them. * ^ *
I have every season been able to procure a number of both, and
have thus been enabled to select for my museum an uninterrupted
succession, proving, by almost imperceptible changes, the transi-
tion from Im/zier to C. glacialis : the former of these, in the early
part of their residence here, is much the more common, but to-
wards the end of spring, when they leave this country, the num-
ber of the latter is greatly increased, and though, even at that
period, they have not attained the perfect plumage of that bird,
yet, the completion of the white spots on the back, and the black
bands on the neck, though not yet quite perfect, are sufficient to
characterize the bird in such a manner that it cannot be mistaken.
These birds appear to vary much in size and weight ; they gene-
rally measure, from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail, two
feet nine inches, and weigh about nine pounds ; but I lately got
a specimen, in the plumage of Immer, measuring only two feet
four inches, and weighing but six pounds ; and as ] can perceive
no difference in its bill from that of C. glacialis, I am forced, in
following the indications of Temminck, to consider it as that bird,
though its diminutive size would have led me to consider it as the
young of C. arcticv^, which I have not yet ascertained in this
country. That these birds are well able to fly, I have had fre-
quent proofs ; but not so as to their pedestrian capabihties. Oue
which 1 go( alive and uninjured, on being placed within a few
yards of the water, when I was setting it at liberty, ri:maiued on

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 199

its breast wistfully looking at that element in which it was accus-
tomed and wished to move, but appeared quite incapable of
transferring itself to it, and, though placed repeatedly upright, it
always fell down again on its breast. It was only at length eman-
cipated from this helpless state by being placed close to the edge
of the water, when, pushing itself along with its wings and feet, it
got afloat, and joyfully diving, bid us a long adieu. The mode
in which the toes are jointed with the tarsus prevents their being
bent forward out of its line ; and the great sharpness, posteriorly,
of that member, renders it almost impossible for it to walk ; and
this trial of its powers would seem to indicate that it can only rise
on its wing from the water. I therefore think it must hatch on
low islets, from which, without much exertion of its feet, it could
launch itself.""^

In October 1840, I was shown, at Florence Court, an adult
bird of this species, which had been killed by the blow of a stone
in a mountain rivulet of that neighbour-hood, two months after
the great hurricane of January 1839 ; — the taxidermist remarked
that there was no indication of its having been previously
wounded. It was presented by the Hon. John L. Cole to the
Belfast Museum. On the day after that hurricane, one was shot
in a dock at Riugsend, Dublin. After a gale in March, 1844, a
great northern diver was obtained on the river Lagan, above the
bridges which span it near Belfast. The species apparently some-
times leaves the coast, by choice, for fresh water, as I have seen a
fine adult bird, in the highest condition, which was shot on Lough
Neagh. One has been killed at Ballibrado, near Cahir, Tipperary.
In May 1830, a pair of these divers, both adult, frequented Lough
Pea, county Monaghan, where they were observed for some time
by Eobert Evatt, Esq., of Mount Louise.

From the length of time that this species is in attaining full
plumage, by far the greater nvunber of birds killed arc immature,
but a fair proportion of adult birds relatively to them, visits the
coast of Ireland.

* Loudon's 'Magazine of Nat. Hist.' vol. v. p. 585. 1832.

200 colymbida;.

Mr. 11. Ball, in meutioniiig to me that two fresh specimens of
this bird had been brought to him in Dublin on the 23rd of De-
cember, 1844, remarked, that in the throat of one were the body
(without the claws) of a large shore-crab {Carchius moenas), and
two razor-fish [Sulen sUiqita). The stomach of one of these divers,
killed near Holywood, Belfast Bay, that came under my own no-
tice, contained the bodies of two crabs, a Carcinus, and one of the
larger species of Fortanus, each of middle size.

The great northern diver has already been incidentally alluded
to as occurring on various parts of the coast. It is a regular
Av inter visitant in the south, as w^ell as in the north. Two of my
correspondents mention immature birds as not uncommon every
winter on the coast of Waterford and Cork, though one adult
bird only had come under the notice of either of them there."^
On the 24th of May, 1842, a female, in at least the next stage to
maturity, the back being quite perfect, and nearly all the dark neck-
collar likewise so, was shot off Dungarvan in the former county.
" It contained no eggs larger than snipe shot, except two, the
size of swan drop.^f At GlengarifF, Bantry Bay, they are some-
times seen until April; J about Tralee, three or four adult birds
have been obtained, one of which was captured in a lobster-pot§ :
— in the bay there, two, in the plumage of the imber, were seen
and one of them shot, late in the month of May 1850. || On the
Galway coast, about Eoundstone, they are considered rare.^ A
fine adult bird taken in the nets of E. J. Cooper, Esq., Markree
Castle, county Sligo, on the 4th of June, 1850, was sent to the
University Museum, Dublin. The species is generally dispersed
around the coast, though in much less numbers than the red-
throated diver.

I ascertained, when at Islay, in January 1849, that the great
uortherji, as well as the red-tlu'oated diver, are regular winter
visitants : — I saw some of the latter species.

* Dr. J. K. Harvey, June 1848. f Mr. R. Davis, jun.

X Mr. G. Jackson. § Mr. R. Chute.

ij Mr. Robert D. Fitzgerald, jun., Tralee. f Mr. W. M'CaUa.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 201

In a lecture on native birds, delivered some years ago by Mr.
R. Ball, in Dublin, lie stated, that a great northern diver, shot on
the Irish coast, and in the possession of Sir Philip Crampton, Bart.,
was found, when killed, to have an arrow headed with copper,
sticking through its neck. He remarked that the bird had pro-
bably been struck with this arrow by an Esquimaux on the
Coppermine river, and was indicative of, the extensive flight of the
species.

The ^ Penny Magazine ' for August 1839 (p. 319) contains an
original and iuterestiug article on the mode of huiiting this diver
in North America. Audubon gives a very full account of the
bird, in the foui'th volume of his ' Ornithological Biography,^
p. 43.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER.

Lesser Imber (young).

Columbus arcticus, Linn.

Is extremely rare.

A SPECIMEN of this bird, which I recorded in the ' Zoological
Proceedings' for 1837 (p. 54), was obtained with two other
Colymhi {C. septentr'wnalis) in Larne Lough at the end of De-
cember 1831, by Dr. J. D. Marshall, who remarked that they
were very tame compared with brent geese, cormorants, and other
sea-fowl. The following notes were made on this bird after its
being preserved : — Length (total) 25^^ inches ; of wing from
carpus to point of quills, lOj in. ; of bill from rictus to point, 83-
in. ; of tarsus, 2f in. ; of middle toe and nail, 3i in. Sides of
the neck marked with dark longitudinal striae, which likewise ap-
pear, but fewer in number, in front of the neck ; throat pure white.
The only difference between this specimen and descriptions of C.
arcticus in the fu^st year, is, that the base of its lower mandible
appears channelled, and might perhaps be called thickened in the
middle, though most obscurely so. The bill in profile is just that

202 oolymbiujE.

of C. arcticus, and, therefore, strikingly different from any speci-
mens of C. sej^tentrionalis examined by me. I was informed in
November 1837, that about four years previous to that time, a
bird agreeing with C. arcticus in full plumage was taken at Lurgan
Green, county of Louth."^ On the 5th of March, 1847, H. Bell,
wild-fowl shooter, saw one of these divers in full adult plumage
on wing in Strangford Lough ; he described it as the most beau-
tiful bird he had ever beheld. One is stated to have been shot
in the winter of 1817-48 in Dublin Bay.fJ

Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun., on the 23rd of July, 1850, passed
within a few yards of three birds swimming in Tralee Bay, that
he considered to be a black -throated diver with its two young.
One of these he shot, Avas hardly more than fledged, and had no
quill feathers, but merely down in place of them. From its
appearance he believed that it must have been bred in that
neighbourhood. " It agreed with the young C. arcticus of Selby
and the Lesser Imber, considered by liim as the same."

This species, so extremely handsome when adult, appears to be
more rare in Ireland, in wdnter, than in England or Scotland. Very
interesting descriptions of its habits about its breeding-haunts in
Scotland are given from personal observation in the works of
Mr. Selby, Sir William Jardine, and Mr. St. John.§

* Mr. n. H. Dombrain.
t Ml-. R. J. Montgomery.

X In the Report of the Dublin Nat. Hist. Society for 1 841-42 (p. 8) one of
these birds is mentioned as having been shot in Tralee Bay ; but Mr. R. Chute, to
whom the specimen referred to belongs, has iuformed me that he docs not know
where it was killed.

§ 'Wild Sports, &c. of the Highlands,' eh. xxvii. ]). 215, and ' Tour in Sutherland,'
vol. i. pp. 8, 12, 40. These pages arc particularized, as there is no index to either
work.

208

THE RED-THEOATED DIVEE.

Speckled, First Speckled, and Second Speckled Diver.

Colpnbus septentrioiiaUs, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant to the coast, where it remains
from five to six months.

Its earliest appearance for the season in Belfast Bay, that I have
noted, is the 16th of October (1843), when two with red throats
were seen. On October the 26th, 1831, an adult bird was killed
there. About the middle of October 1849, a flock of five or six of
these birds appeared on wing liigh in the air above Larne Lough,
and, by their weE-known and peculiar wild cry, attracted the atten-
tion of my informant, who was fisliing. As their flight was south-
ward when first perceived, they were imagined to be on migration,
but they turned and flew back in the opposite direction. Erom that
period until the end of the mouth when the opportunity for ob-
servation ceased, other little flocks, like the one described, were
frequently seen there on wing."^ Mr. E. Chute, when writing to
me on the 23rd of October, 1848, remarked — "there are now
several red-throated divers in Tralee Bay." They, however, doubt-
less arrive occasionally in the north at an earlier period, as in
the southern harbour of Wexford a bird in full adult suumier
plumage, shot on the 18th of September, 1846, was kindly sent
to me by Major Walker,t and in Cork harbour, two individuals
(of which one was adult) were seen on the same day of that

* Mr. Darragh.

+ It is preserved in the Belfast Museum ; — this is mentioned on account of the
season of the year at which the fine red throat was displayed. See Yarrell, ' British
Birds,' vol. iii. p. 448, 2ud edit.

ISlr. R. Ball, writing on the 29th of October, 1844, remarked that he had re-
ceived, about a week previously, a living red-throated diver in pen featlicrs. " Al-
thougli so young that the quills were just budding, it had a little red on the neck."
This bird was placed on a pond in the Zoological Garden, I'hauiix I'lU'k, nublin,
where it was at once attackeel by a corinoraut, and, as was supposed, event ualiy kilk'd
bv hiui.

304 COLYMBID/E.

month in 1849.* On the 21st of April, 1847, several (immature),
and on the 3rd of May in the preceding year^ three birds were
observed in Belfast Bay. At Glengariff, Bantry Bay, they remain
until April, at the end of which month, three or four with red
throats were shot in 1849.t

On April 16th, 1832, a living bird, which had been wounded
on that or the preceding day, at Garmoyle, was brought to me,
and a few others were at the same time procured there. Three of
these were in different states of plumage, as it were in that of the
first, second, and third year, the last almost perfect, but the red
throat-mark not quite 'made out/ — the adult plumage is much
the rarest state in which the species is obtained. I have often re-
marked that one of these birds is seldom seen without a second
being near, and although each individual requires a certain range
of sea to itself, several may sometimes be observed at one view.
On November the 11th, 1839^ about twelve thus came under my
notice in the last-named locality. They are very interesting birds.
An imaginative writer like Buffon might fancy them exhibiting a
guilty aspect, and, through a consciousness of their evil ways,
concealing under water the whole body, except the mere line of
back, their eye being at the same time bent wildly on the spec-
tator, while, as if to escape his observation, they keep repeatedly
diving.

I am unwilling to abbreviate the following observations of
Mr. Poole, though they in part repeat what has just been stated.

"The loons [Col^mliis se2jtentrionalis]X ^\y^c\\ frequent Wex-
ford harbour chiefly fish in pairs, though often more than two
may be seen near together, but I have never observed one bird
without a second being in sight. They swim at an amazing rate
when aware of being objects of pm'suit, though when first ap-
proached they show but few symptoms of timidity. When diving
to escape, they merely come to the surface every two or three
hundred yards to breathe. 1 never but once knew them to resort

* Mr. R. Warren, jun. f Mr. R. Chute.

\ The name of loon, or loom, is applied both to the great northern and the red-
throated diver in Cork harbour. — Mr. R. Warren, jun.

THE RED-THROATED DIVER. 205

to flight, in preference to diving, when closely pursued. In this
instance I fully calculated on getting a shot at one, which I fol-
lowed up a very long and narrow channel from wliich he could
not apparently escape, but he took wing before I came within five
shots of him. Considering the habits of the species, I looked
upon this as the result of a train of reasoning, as in the open sea
or a wider channel he would certainly have admitted a much
nearer approach, and have let me get all but within shot before
diving to escape. They possess considerable powers of flight, but
appear rather awkward in the air, with their necks stretched
straight out before their bodies like long sticks."

During days of bright sunshine in spring, when the sea was
perfectly calm, red-throated divers have frequently been observed,
through a telescope, in Belfast Bay, enjoying themselves after
their own peculiar fashion, by turning the body slowly round,
screw -like, in one direction, occasionally lolling for a time with
their backs on the surface of the water, again lying upon their
sides, and assuming innumerable attitudes. The first bird per-
ceived in this state was supposed to have been severely wounded
and in the agonies of death, but it was soou afterwards ascertained
to be a habit of the species during the warm and genial weather
of spring."^

This diver comes far up Belfast Bay, and occasionally, during
the period of its stay, near to the town; I have known one to
be killed some distance up the river Lagan, but within flow of
the tide.

The red -throated diver varies so much in size and in its dif-
ferent states of plumage, that, until of late years, it was con-
sidered as constituting more than one species. Notes are
before me of several specimens varying from 3 lbs. 9 oz., to
6i lbs., though in total length they ranged only from 2 feet 4,
to 2 feet 7 inches. A young bird of the year, killed in Belfast
Bay, was once brought to me (February 1, 1838), after having
been hghtened of six young herrings from four to six inches in

* Mr. Darragh.

,206 COLYMBIDiF..

leiigtli. The shooter, on reaching home, hung it up by the legs
near the ceihng of liis room, and after it liad been there for some
time, was much startled, amid the silence of the place, by one her-
ring after another gradually dropping from the throat of the bird
upon the floor. Two birds killed in Larne Lough, in February,
some years previously, were said to contain "sprats;" one of
them three small fish, and the other six large ones, of which three
lay close together in its oesophagus.

On the 13th of April (1847), a number of these birds were
seen in Dublin Bay, three of which were in adult summer plum-
age."^ So late as the 2Gth of May (1838), I had once the op-
portunity of examining a fresh specimen of this diver, purchased
by Mr. R. Ball in Dublin : the notes made upon it are- —

Length (total)

of bill above

■ to rictus

ill.

liu.

24

6

2

3

3

0

10

7i

2

8

3

9

■ wing fi'oiu carpus .....

tarsus .......

outer toe and nail .....

The throat is only a little tinged with chestnut; bill greyish,
varied with a dusky hue ; irides liver-coloured — those of the living
specimen already mentioned were set down as approximating
the " arterial blood-red " more nearly than any other shade in
Syme^s 'Nomenclature of Colours,' but as being rather of a
morone (brownish-crimson) hue.

This species is obtained all round the coast. Mr. J. V. Stewart,
in his ' Birds, &c., of Donegal,' remarks : — " The speckled diver
is very common, but the red-throated diver occurs rarely."
This is of general application. The s])ecies is noticed by my cor-
respondents as being " common " in its immature state, on the
coasts of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, and Galway.
Mr. E.. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, possesses a young bird procured
inland, near Cahir, by a countryman, who knocked it down with a
walking-stick as it flew low over a field.

* Mr. Darrairh.

THE COMMON GUILLEMOT. 207

Audubon gives a very full account of this diver, remarking
that it is " at all times an extremely shy and vigilant bird, ever
on the alert to elude its enemies. The sight of man seems inva-
riably to alarm it, even in the wildest countries in which it breeds.
I have often observed that while yet several hundred yards from
them they marked my approach with great watchfulness" (Orn.
Biog. vol. iii. p. 21). They are not by any means so difficult of
approach on the Irish coast, though their extreme quickness of
sight is very apparent.

The red-throated diver is about equally common in Ireland,
England, and Scotland.

THE COMMON GUILLEMOT.

Foolish Guillemot

Uria troile, Linn, (sp.)
Colymhus troile, Linn, (sp.)

Lesser Guillemot 1 Young and old in

Una minor, Gmel. (sp.) J winter plumage.

Breeds at the many suitable marine cliffs around the
island : some remain throughout the year.

At the Gobbins, a range of lofty basaltic cliffs outside the northern
entrance to Belfast Bay, a considerable number of guillemots
annually breed. They arrive generally in April, but do not lay
before the end of May, when their large single eggs, and those of
the razorbills, are deposited on the bare rock. In the late season
of 1849, they had not commenced laying here on the 2nd of June,
when the cKfFs were searched for eggs.* About Carrick-a-rede,
near the Giant's Causeway, I observed a number of guillemots in
June 1842. At the island of Eathliu, off' this coast, Dr. J. D.
Marshall informs us that they " were congregated in very consi-

* Mr. Poole remarks, in reference to the Wexford coast, tliat lie lias seen their eggs
on the 15th of May and 24th of June.

208 ALCID^.

derable numbers on the north-western extremity of the island,
where the high and precipitous rocks afford them facihties for in-
cubation. They were not, however, so plentiful as either the
razorbills or puffins, but they frequented the same rocks indis-
criminately. -^ * ^ The young guillemots I had frequent
opportunities of examining ; they were, when excluded from the
shell, covered with a dark grey down of a whitish colour under-
neath." The greatest haunt of these birds in the breeding season
that I have visited is the extensive range of stupendous cliffs at
Horn Head in Donegal, to which immense numbers resort. Situa-
tions for their nests are selected at various heights, some being low
down near the sea. They are said to come here in March, and
depart about " Lammas'*^ (12th August) : their eggs are stated to
be deposited in clefts of the rock as well as on the " open flags."
The rocks of Tory Island in this vicinity are also tenanted by
these birds in summer. Between this island and Horn Head,
two or three pair only were seen by Mr. G. C. Hyndman on the
8th of August, 1845 ; one pair was accompanied by their young,
almost full grown.

At Achil, in June 1834, we learned that guillemots breed
on the Bill's Eock ofP that island, and the limestone cliffs of Ar-
ranmore, off the entrance to Galway Bay, were found by ourselves
to be tenanted by vast multitudes of them and razorbills. On
the cliffs of Kerry they commonly breed, as they do on those of
Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, &c., and the adja-
cent islands. In the month of July 1837, 1 observed them about
the rocks of Ireland's Eye, off Howth ; they breed at the neigh-
bouring island of Lambay. When sailing up Dublin Bay on
the morning of September 4, 1845, several of these birds and
their young came under my notice.

A gentleman of my acquaintance, fishing in Belfast Bay, off
Crawfordsburn, on the 2Stli and 29th of August, 1845, was
much entertained by observing the habits of these birds and their
young, of which he saw great numbers. The young were about
one-third less than their parents, and uttered a shrill squeaking
note, while that of the old was hoarse and guttural ; — like a

THE COMMON GUILLEMOT. 209

croak. They admitted of a very close approach. The okl birds
dived several times^ and on each occasion brought up a fish, wliich
was always given to the young. The latter rested quietly on the
surface of the water, and never attempted to fish for themselves,
but hurried forward rapidly to their parents when they brought
up any prey. Two of these birds were accidentally taken on
hooks baited with herring fry.

The Eev. G. M. Black, writing from Annalong, on the coast
of Down in November 1849, remarked: — "A guillemot {U.
troile) was brought to me a short time since, which I at first
thought had been wounded, as, when put down on the ground,
it made no attempt either to walk or fly, but was very bold,
striking hard with its bill. When I afterwards took it to the
beach, within a few paces of the sea, the eager attempt to get into
its proper element was very amusing, as aided both by legs and
wings it shoved itself along in a most awkward way. On reaching
the sea, it at once dived, rose fifty yards off, flapped its wings,
and seemed well and happy ; it is evident these birds cannot rise
to the wing from the ground, though they make considerable
flights fi'om the sea."

Guillemots have been found washed ashore dead on the
beach of Belfast Bay, after tempestuous weather late in autumn,
and throughout the winter. They were in all such cases, in au-
tumn as well as winter, extremely poor in flesh ; worn almost to
skeletons.

Either these or razorbills or both (the species not being dis-
tinguished) are sometimes washed ashore, dead, at CarHngford
Bay, in numbers during winter. In that season, of 1847—48,
" twenty-five guillemots were found dead on the Bull sand-bank,
Dublin Bay. There had been a gale from the north- cast con-
tinuously for some days, about a week previously.-"*

These birds would seem to come in spring to our shores, from
localities where they are little molested, as they are then much
more easy of approach than after being accustomed for a short

* Mr. R. J. Montgomei7.
VOL. III. P

210 ALCID.E.

time to the inconsiderate and wanton annoyance they experience
here. At this time, or just before taking their station at their
breeding-places, they appear far up Belfast Bay, sometimes about
the quays of the town, and have been killed with oars and
stones; so late as April 26 (1838) they have been observed here.
At the end of autumn again for a short time, as well as late in
spring, they are seen far up the bay. On September 19, 1837, I
obtained one (its irides were noted to be greyish-brown) in the
plumage of Bewick's lesser guillemot, of which he gives an in-
teresting account, showing it to have been an excellent and patient
sitter for its picture. In the first week of October 1838, several
were shot here ; in 1840 they first made their appearance on
the 4th of that month. A fine bird which I had weighed proved
to be 2 lbs. 1 oz. In Strangford Lough I have remarked them
at the beginning of October.

When about the entrance of Belfast Bay in winter, I have
always observed some of these birds, and a few individuals kiUed
there during that season have come under my notice. They have
occasionally been brought from Dublin Bay to the city in winter;
and, in the ' Pauna of Cork,' are noticed as "resident.''

Mr. Selby is of opinion that " the colonies which had made the
English coast their summer quarters, retire to more southern
latitudes to pass the winter months. Their place in this country
is but sparingly supplied by a few stragglers from the great bodies
that, beiug bred in still higher latitudes, make the friths of Scot-
land and its isles, the limit of their equatorial migration"^ (vol. ii.
p. 422). This interesting view of the question is as applicable to
Ireland as to Scotland, but, not being susceptible of proof, it must
unfortunately remain a mere matter of speculation. The great
body at least of old birds that breed upon the cliffs of Ireland

* When proceeding from East Tarbert to Greenock, on February 1, 1849, and
about the entrance to Loch Fine, I saw a number of these birds, or razorbills, both
singly and in pairs, and in one instance four in company. Guillemots they most probably
were, but they did not come near enough on flight, or admit of such an approach
when swimming, to enable me to determine their species. The headland of Oe, in
Islay, and the Craig of Ailsa, may be mentioned as insular breeding-places of the
guillemots known to me oiF the south-west of Scotland.

THE BRIDLED GUILLEMOT. 211

move with their young by easy stages southward to spend the
winter. The author just quoted suppHes a full and excellent
account of the species, chiefly from observation at the Parn Is-
lands, on the coast of Northumberland, one of its breeding-haunts.
Mr. Laurence Edmonston gives an interesting notice of the young,
and of the moulting, &c., of this bird and the razor-bill, as ob-
served by liim at Zetland.'^ The Bishop of Norwich, in his
' Familiar History of Birds,' treats very pleasingly of the guillemot
at the South Stack, near Holyhead, one of its summer stations.
Mr. Waterton devotes one of his agreeable essays (1st series,
p. 153) to it, not only as observed in its breeding-haunt,
but, when he was lowered down the rocks near Plamborough
Head, to its nests, or rather to its eggs. Audubon (vol. iii.
p. 143) descants very particularly on the loves of the guillemots,
as witnessed by him during their migration, and graphically
describes the species at the Murref Eocks, near Great Macatina
Harbour : he mentions a boat returning thence, after a few hours'
absence, to the sliip in which he was, laden with 25,000 of
their eggs.

THE BRIDLED GUILLEMOT.

Ringed Guillemot.

Uria leiicophthalmos, Faber.
„ lacri/mans, Valenc.

Has been obtained on the coast.

Mr. R. Chute, of Blennerville (Kerry), shot one at Dingle. j:
Another was killed by a boating party ofl; the Giant's Causeway

* Wemerian Memoii's, vol. v. part i. p. 22.

f This word reminds me of the name muir-eun (pronounced mmT-yan) bestowed
on this species at Horn Head, and the meaning of whicli, according to an Irish scho-
lar, is simply sea-bird. Murre is the appellation by which the guillemot is knowTi
in Cork harbour (Mr. R. WaiTen, juu.), and the razorbill at Lambay. Frowl is
said to be the name applied to the former bird in this island (Mr. R. J. Montgomery).

X I noticed the circumstance in the 'Annals of Nat. Hist.' for 1848, vol. i. p. G2,

P %

£12 ALCID^.

in the summer of 1848, but was considered too much injured to
be worth preservation.

Attention has been directed only of late years to this bird,
either as a variety of the common guillemot, or as a distinct
species. .It differs, according to Gould, from the Uria troile in
the " white mark which encircles the eyes and passes down the
sides of the head." This author names the coast of Wales as
frequented by it, to wliicli that of Cornwall, Lincolnshire, York-
shire, and Durham have been added in YarrelFs work. Devon-
sliire may here be included, as one was procured at the end of
January 1848 in Plymouth Sound by John Gatcombe, Esq. This
gentleman having remarked the bird as apparently larger than the
common gaillemot (though both are described as similar in size),
and as swimming in a different manner, followed in his boat,
and shot it. Two others have since been obtained there, one of
wliich, found dead soon after the first, had assumed summer
plumage. In the ' Historia Naturalis Orcadensis,' published in
1848, and the 'Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists'
Club' for the same year (p. 275), it is mentioned as occurring
on the Scottish coast. Several are said, in the former work, to
have been shot in Orkney, and one, in the latter, at the Bass
Eock on July 25, 1840. The boatmen knew of only one or two
being kiUed there, but said the species was not uncommon at the
Isle of May.-^

The best information on this bird that I have seen, and more
especially in reference to its distinctness as a species, is that by
Mr. Proctor (subcurator of the Durham University Museum),
published in Yarrell's work (vol. iii. p. 460, 2nd edit.). It is
the result of a visit to the breeding-haunt of the bird at Grimsey,
an island about forty miles to the north of Iceland, where the
U. lacrymans, U. troile, and U. Bninnichi't were found breeding
in their respective quarters : they were distinguished by the inha-

new series. The letter containing this information was dated February 26, 1846 ;
but when the bird had been killed was not stated.

* Mr. A. Hepbiu'u ; who gives a full description of the specimen obtained.

brunnich's guillemot. 213

bitants as three species, and had different names accordingly be-
stowed upon them. The eggs of each, too, were pointed out
among a number collected. The bridled guillemot is said to be
abundant at Spitzbergen.

Little is known of this bird as a British, and still less as an
Irish species. We must look particularly to sucli naturalists as
visit the breeding-places of guillemots to supply us with informa-
tion, both respecting the U. laeri/mans and U. BninnicJdiJ^

BEUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT.

Thick-billed GuiUemot.

Uria BrUmiichii, Sabine.
Is believed to have been seen on the coast.

The only record of this bird as Irish appears in Ainsworth's
description of the caves of Ballybunian on the coast of Kerry
to which Colonel Sabine contributed a brief note on the birds he
had met with there in the month of July 18.3'3. This species is
simply stated to have been " recognized in flight." Erom almost
any other person such a note would be of little value ; but it will
be remembered tliat to Colonel (then Captain) Sabine, ornitholo-
gists are indebted for placing the species, as such, on a fixed
basis in his ' ]\Iemoir on the Birds of Greenland,^ published in
the Transactions of the Linneean Society (vol. xii. p. 538). It
was remarked by him to be in abundance in Davis's Straits, and
occasionally in Baffin's Bay.

Dr. Harvey, of Cork, about the 1st of February, 1850, re-
ceived a guillemot, from Youghal, that he is inclined to consider
U. Brunnichii. His description of it is : —

" Length of bill fi-om forehead 2 inches, from rictus 2f inches. Circumference
of bill at angle (^ which is farther forward than in the common species), 1^ inch ; thfit

* Mr. R. J. Montgomery suspects that either of these may be found at the i.sland
of Lambay, off the Dublin coast, as the pco])le there speak of a second kiud closely
resembling the common guillemot (June 184'J).

214 ALCID.E.

of a commoa one measured at the same time barely an inch. It is much mottled
with black and white on the flanks, and very black where that colour prevails."

Sir William Jardine remarks, that " Brunnich's guillemot is
easily distinguished from the common species by the thicker form
of the bill, and the greater angle of the mandible, and also by
the much deeper tint of the head and neck, and indeed of the
whole plumage/' — 'Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 218.

This guillemot has been met with at the Shetland (Sir James
C. Ross) and Orkney islands (MacgilKvray) and on the coast of
Caithness."^

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT.

Spotted Guillemot.

JJria grylle, Linn, (sp.)
Colymhus grylle, Linn, (sp.)

Is found around the coast, and is permanently resident.

Its breeding-haunts — generally in lofty marine cliffs — are much
of the same character as those of the common guillemot, though
sites of different kinds are chosen for its nests : both species are
■ often found together at the same locality ; but the black, every-
where known to me, in much more limited numbers than the
other. It breeds at the places named under the latter species.
About twelve pair are said to frequent the Gobbins annually.
About Carrick-a-rede I remarked them in June 1842. At Rath-
Kn, Dr. J. D. Marshall informs us that — " This bird frequents
the southern or Ushet extremity of the island — a place totally
devoid of any other sea-fowl — and the shores wliich immediately
front BaUycastle, where I found them, in number about tliirty,
flying backwards and forwards among the rocks, where they had

* It is in a list of rare birds — some of them the rarest in the British catalogue —
obtained in the county of Caithness by Mr. Eric Sinclair of Wick, and published by
Mr. James Wilson, in his ' Voyage Round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles,'
vol. ii. p. 179.

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 215

established themselves. I saw oiily one pair on the northern
shores, and could not ascertain whether they bred there or not.
At their breeding-haunts on the southern shore they were very
wary, and could scarcely be approached ; but the day I visited the
immediate vicinity of the spot alluded to, was so stormy and the
sea ran so high, that I dared not keep the boat closer to the
rocks, in order to examine their breeding-places more particularly.
The black guillemots were easily distinguished from all the others
by the dark plumage, and the white spot on the wings,"

Nnumbers annually resort to the cliffs at Horn Head, and
deposit their eggs " under stones out of sight and reach.'" They
are stated by persons best informed on such subjects to remain
there all the year. They breed at the Bills Rock off Achil.* The
Eev. G. Robinson, who visited the western coast in the summer of
1844 in company with Dr. C. Farran, found these birds to be com-
mon in Birterbuy Bay (Gal way), where his companion reckoned
above sixty in company. The fishermen state that they remain
during the year, and appear to be " bay birds," being seldom
seen on the open sea. Their nests are placed on some of the
rocky isles at or near the entrance of the bay. When rearing
their young, they fly up the bay, continue fishing until sufficient
food is procured, and then return to the nestlings with theii'
burthen; — in an incredibly short time they are again busily en-
gaged at the same occupation : this coming and going is continued
throughout the day.

Mr. Robinson informs me, that they were generally wild, and
would not admit the approach of a boat within sixty yai'ds without
taking flight, which was their invariable mode of escape. When pur-
sued, they always flew towards the open sea, and by his managing
to keep to the sea-side of them while in the bay, they were obliged
to fly within shot of liis boat, from which he killed fifteen on the
1st of August. All except one were old birds, in which the
white feathers of the winter plumage were beginning to appear
near the tail. When flying from the bay each had generally a

* Lieut. Reynolds, R.N., 1834.

216 ALCIDiE.

jBsli in its bill ; — a spotted bleuny [Blennius yminellus) was found
in the stomach of one.

Earlj in July 1834, we met with the black guillemot, about the
largest of the Isles of Arran, off Galway Bay, and on the coast
of Clare. Mr. T. JP. Neligan, when mentioning its breeding on
the Kerry coast in 1887, where it then was and still is numerous,
added, that, in a nest containing two eggs, which he had found,
the male bird was captured, and exhibited two patches bare of
feathers, caused by his incubation."^ The species has been shot
near Yalentia Island in winter. On the coast of Cork it breeds
at the Reannies, &c., in company with the common guillemot and
razorbiU ;t — on the cliffs of Ardmore (Waterford), and others
in the south, it builds; also at Bray Head, county Wicklow.
On my visiting (with Mr. E. Ball) the island of Ireland's Eye,
off Howth, in April 1835 and early in July 1837, and cross-
ing to Lambay Island on the 5th of June, 1838, several were
seen : — they nidify at both islands. J When il\ing, the white
patch on the wing is very conspicuous.

The late Mr. J. Montgomery noted this species as " beginning
to arrive after the breeding season at the bay of Strangford ou
the 29th of July, 1822 : they were all in black plumage [there-
fore adults], not a grey or speckled one being amongst them."
It was added, that " when rising on wing, this bird assists itself
by striking the water rapidly with its feet." Specimens killed
almost every year, at various times during the winter, on the
marine loughs of Lame, Belfast, and Strangford, have come

* Mr. Audubon remarks — " The black guillemot, to cover ber tbree eggs [this
number be fouud in all of the many nests tbat came uuder his observation ou the
American coast], and to warm them all at once, plucks a space bare quite across her
belly. * * * The males [of the black, common, and Brunnich's guillemot, as
well as of the razorbill] incubate as weU as the females, although the latter are more
assiduous" (vol. iii. j). 145). This author, commencing at p. 148, gives a very good
description of the habits, &c., of the black guillemot, marred, however, by the in-
troduction of extraneous matter.

t Mr. R. "WaiTen, jun. ; — who has never seen more than thi'ee or four pair there
in a day.

% Mr. R. J. Montgomery wrote to me after visiting Lambay in June 1849, that they
build on the south side of the island, where there are no cliffs, but that he was
unable to find their esgs.

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 317

under my own observation."^ They were all in the plumage of tlie
Greenland dove, being that of winter; but when crossing the
bay from Carrickfergus to Bangor, on the 29th of January,
1835, I remarked one in its black summer attire, f as well as
two more in that already named as proper to the season. On the
16tli of August, 1848, an old bird, shot on the bay within a
quarter of a mile of Belfast, was in full winter plumage. Dr.
Fleming, in his ' History of British Animals,' remarks, that he
has " observed the birds with black plumage about the end of
February,'' and " by the end of March, they are common in this,
their summer dress" (p. 135).

The stomach of one of these birds, shot in Belfast Bay about
the middle of September, was filled with the remains of Crustacea.
The only portions that could be determined positively, owing to
the state of decomposition in which they were, belonged to the
hermit crab [Pagurus Bernhardui) of large size.

Mr. Selby remarks, that " in the northern parts of Scotland
and its isles this is a numerous species, but becomes of rarer
occurrence as we approach the English coast, where indeed it is
but occasionally met with ; and although Montagu has mentioned
it as resorting to the Earn Islands, I can safely assert that this
has not been the case for the last twenty-five or thirty years"
(p. 427) : — the work was published in 1833. Mr. Macgillivray,
describing it as a British bird, states, that " aU the breeding-
places are to the north of the Tweed and Solway." Sir William
Jardine also notices " the coasts of the south of Scotland being
near to its southern range in Britain," J but mentions at the same
time his having met with the species at the Isle of Man (where he
believed it to be breeding), and the record of its occasional occur-
rence on the southern coast of England. It is interesting, there-

* Sometimes called sea-figeon at Lame and at Lambay, vxx^j)arrot at Roundstouc
(Mr. J. Niramo).

t Oa the 12th of February, 1849, Mr. R. Warren, jiin., shot one of these birds iu
coiuplete breediug plumage, and saw another iu the same state in Cork Harbour.

% ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 221. At Islay, I saw some of these birds wliieh were
shot there at the end of December 1848.

218 ALCID^.

fore, to find that this bird is not only equally common in the
south as in the north of Ireland ; but that it nidifies as frequently
on the rocky coasts of the former as on those of the latter por-
tion of the island.

THE LITTLE AUK.

Eotche.

Mercjulus melanoleucos, Eay.
Alca alle, Linn.
Uria „ Temm.

Can only be recorded positively as an occasional winter

visitant.

Its occurrence in Ireland was noticed in a communication wliich
I made to the Zoological Society of London (Proceedings Z. S.
1834, p. 30), after having seen a specimen, which was shot at
Wexford on the 26th of December, 1831, in the collection of
Dr. R. Graves of Dublin. I have since learned that the species
was obtained in that quarter long before the period mentioned.
According to an entry in an old Donation-book of Trinity College
Museum (supplied to me by ]\ir. R. Ball), it appears that the
Rev. J. Elgee, of Wexford, " presented a bird, called the little auk
or little diver (Penn. 233), driven on the coast of Wexford by
the storms of January 1791." — The specimen is not now extant,
but the reference to "Pennant, 233," evinces the correct appli-
cation of the name to this species. In March 1834, I was
informed by Mr. Glennon, that in the course of his " practice "
as a bird-preserver, two recent examples of the little auk had
been sent to him, the one killed at Wexford, the other at Baldoyle,
near Dublin. On the 5th of December, 1835, one of these birds
was found dead, but in a perfectly fresh state, at Portmarnock
strand, some miles fi-om that city. A letter from Mr. T. W.
Warren, dated October 16, 1841, announced that he saw on that
day at Glennon's shop three little auks, which were shot by Mr.

THE LITIXK AUK. 219

Beggs, of Borris Castle, Borris-in-Ossory, — on the eastern borders
of Queen's county; — a place in the middle of the island, almost
equally distant from the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. About
the same time a specimen was picked up dead, but quite recent,
on the strand, Dublin Bay. In October 18-11, another of these
birds, taken on a pond near Pilltown, county Kilkenny, along with
some wigeon and teal, came into the possession of Dr. Burkitt of
Waterford. Thus about the same time, the little Auk was
obtained in three counties in the southern half of Ireland, a fact
wliich immediately suggests its occurrence in unwonted numbers in
England. By turning to Yarrell's work, we find (vol. iii. p. 359)
that the species prevailed there to an extent never known before,
having been met with that month, after a prevalence of storms
from the N.N.E., over a great part of the coast from the county
of York to Sussex. About, or soon after this time, numbers were
also taken in the inland counties. On other occasions, this
bird, like the stormy petrel, (though not so often,) has been
found dead far inland in England, where it has also been observed,
occasionally, on ponds. A pair of Httle auks were once seen in
Cork harbour by Dr. J. R. Harvey.

"Guillemots, common, black, and alba \_alle'^^" are mentioned
by Colonel Sabine, in the Appendix to Ainsworth's Description of
the Caves of Ballybunian, in Kerry, as having been seen there by
him on wing in July 1833. From the bird being observed at this
period of the year, we should like to be informed if it breeds there ;
but it is not mentioned as doing so in the communications with
wliich I have been favoured by the late Mr. T. E. Neligan of Tralee,
or Mr. R. Chute of Blennerville, in that neighbourhood. The for-
mer gentleman merely remarked (Eeb. 1837), that a specimen which
he had seen was captured on a fresh-water lake, a quarter of a mile
from the sea, near Yalentia; the latter obtained three or four in-
dividuals on the coast of Kerry in the winter of 1842-43.

A little auk, in adult summer plumage, was obtained either in
Belfast or Strangford Lough, more probably in the former, on the

* Having called the attentiou of Col. Sabiue to the apparent misprint of alha
for alle, he informed me that the latter was meant.

220 ALCID^.

22nd of May, 1846.* In connection with the occurrence of the
bird at this season of the year, it may be mentioned that Mr.
Darragh (of the Belfast Museum) when paying an ornithological
visit to the Craig of Ailsa, off the coast of Ayrshire, on the 19th
of May, 1849, saw four little auks. " One of them remained
on the water at the base of the Craig until approached by the
boat, within about eighty yards, when it flew off in the direction
which its three companions had taken a minute before." Their
being seen at this fine breeding-haunt of " rock-birds," inclusive
of the gannet, in the middle of May, suggests the probability of
then* nesting here ; though the species is not positively known to
do so on any part of the Scottish coast. At St. Abb^s Head it
has been said to breed. t It is generally regarded as only a winter
visitant to the British Islands. J

It will have been remembered by ornithologists in connection
with Colonel Sabine's statement of seeing this bird on the coast
of Kerry, that he was particularly well acquainted with the
little auk. In his ' Memoir on the Birds of Greenland,' pub-
lished in the twelfth volume of the Ti-ansactions of the Lin-
naian Society, he observes that it " was abundant in Baffin's Bay
and Davis's Straits; and in latitude 76° was so numerous in the
channels of water separating fields of ice that many hundreds were
killed daily, and the ship's company supplied with them" (p. 537).
Capt. Beechey, in his account of the voyage towards the North
Pole in 1815, while describing the scenery of Magdaleua Bay, a
commodious inlet on the western side of Spitzbergen, remarks, —
" At the head of the bay there is a high pyramidal mountain of
granite, termed Rotge Hill, from the myriads of small birds of
that name which frequent its base, and appear to prefer its envi-
rons to any part of the harbour. They are so numerous that we

* ]Mr. K. J. ]Montgomeiy mentions two birds as shot near Howth some years
ago, and one individual having been seen by him in the river Boyne, near Urogheda,
in the winter of 1849-50.

t Mr. Macgillivi'ay was informed to that effect. ' Manual of Brit. Biixls,' vol. ii.
p. 215.

+ Yarrell, &e.

THE PUFFIN. 221

have frequently seen an uninterrupted line of them, extending
full liaK-way over the bay^ or to a distance of more than three
miles, and so close together that thirty have fallen at one shot.
This Hving column, on an average, might have been about six
yards broad and as many deep. There must have been nearly
four millions of birds on wing at one time." These extracts show
that the individuals occurring in the British seas are mere strag-
glers from " high quarters."

Audubon gives a very pleasing account of this species, as ob-
served during his voyages across the Atlantic. ' Orn. Biog/
vol. iv. p. 304.

The following note was received too late to be printed in its
proper place, at p. 208: — "Guillemots and razorbills breed in
considerable numbers in holes at inaccessible parts of the cliffs
between the Reannies and Sovereign Islands on the coast of Cork.
The former are much more numerous than the latter, and flock
more together. About fifty feet above the water at Eeannie Bay
there is a small cave in the perpendicular cliff, three or four feet
in diameter, out of which thirty or forty guillemots commonly
fly when a shot is fired from a boat.""^

THE PUFEIN.
Sea Parrot ; Coulterneb.f

Fratercula arctica, Linn, (sp.)
Alca „ „

Mormon fratercula, Temm.

Is a regular summer visitant to each side of the island.
The islets called the Maiden's or Huliu rocks, off the entrance to

* Mr. R. Warren, jun.

■f Tanimie Norric, provincially in Scotland. By this name it is alluded to by
Sir Walter Soott in the grand scene in the ' Antiquary,' in which the baronet and his
daughter are near being lost upon the sea-coast.

222 ALCID^.

Larue Harbour, county Antrim, are said to have been resorted to
by numbers of these birds, annually, for the purpose of breeding,
until of late years, when, owing to the erection of lighthouses,
the puffins ceased to visit them.* One of the names by which
they were known there, and at the Gobbins, where they occa-
sionally appeared, was Ailsa-cock, an appellation applied to them
in the south-west of Scotland, and derived from their haunt
on the Ayrshire coast.f Dr. J. D. Marshall, who visited the
island of Ratlilin, off the Giant^s Causeway, in June 1834, in-
forms us that — " These birds breed in great numbers at the
Bull Point and headlands adjoining, where the rocks are based
with mould, and intersected and covered here and there with
patches of grass ; thus affording them facilities for scooping out
their nests. These we found wherever the earth appeared among
the rocks. They excavate or burrow in the mould to the depth
of two or three feet; and, at the extremity of the excavation,
the egg, which is white and about the size of a hen^s, is deposited
on the bare earth. J From being surrounded by the damp mould,
it appears, when taken from the hole, of a dirty brown, but, on
being washed, acquires its natural colour. The puffins seemed
equally numerous as the razor-bills ; they took possession of the
earthy parts, while the latter sat close beside them on all the bare
ledges of rock not otherwise occupied. These birds, with a
few guillemots, were met with in considerable numbers along

* So early as the 24th of June, 1848, I was surprised to observe a young pufEu
of almost full adult size among the rejectamenta of the sea at Craigavad, Belfast
Bay. Though exhibiting no appearance of having been injured, it remained within a
yard of me, regardless of my presence, for a few minutes ; but the sight of my dog
running towards me frightened it out to sea.

When crossing from Groomsport to the IMew Island, at the entrance of this bay, on
July 16, 1850, we saw two of these birds in company on the water, one of which
flew off at rather too great a distance to be fired at ; but the other, not following its
example, was shot. It proved to be a young bird of the year, and appeared equal in
size to the other, which was probably its pai'ent, as the bright orange red legs
marked it to be an adult when it rose on wing. The young bird had pale flesh-colom'ed
legs, and its bill had not attained full size.

t The promontory of Oe, in Islay, is also annually v'isited by pufSns.

\ I leai-n fi'om Dr. Marshall, that the puffins' burrows here must have been of their
own making, the place being of such a nature that rabbits could not get either up or
down to feedins-ground from it.

THE PUFFIN. 223

the range of white cliffs facing the south, and forming the
northern boundary of Church Bay ; they were not, however, by
any means so numerous as on the northern side of the Bull Point.
The opinion prevails here, as elsewhere, that the puffins feed
their young with sorrel, when they become, as it is stated, too
fat to allow them to make their escape from their burrowed nests.
This idea I conceived might have originated in consequence of
the quantity of the plant not unfrequently found growing, as at
Rathhn, in the vicinity of their nests."^

Of the Alcidm which frequent the high rocky parts of the coast
of Ireland annually for the purpose of breeding, the puffin is the
most select as to locahty ; the guillemot, razorbill, and black
guillemot being frequently found where it is not; — those three
species also being usually met with at the same place. The greatest
haunt of the puffin and rock-nesting birds generally which I have
visited about midsummer, is the magnificent range of cliffs, miles
in extent, in the peninsula — "island" it is called — of

The Horn, in Donegal,
on and about which I spent the week ending the month of June,
1832.t I shall therefore copy some of my notes on the birds of
the locality, that an idea may be formed by persons who have
not visited such haunts, of the species found there.

By the philosophical student of Nature, however, the mighty
scene before him, comprising earth, ocean, sky, each in its subli-
mity, will be considered before he turns Ids attention to its beautiful
adjuncts ; — the feathered race. Its physical geography, as his

* In the 5th chapter of a very interesting series of papers by Hugh JNIiller, pub-
lished in the '"Witness' newspaper (April 13, 1845), entitled, "A Summer Ramble
among the fossiliferous deposits of the Hebrides," it is mentioned that the islanders of
Eigg believe the old puffins to administer sorrel-leaves to their young for the purpose
of reducing them in size, and enabling them to get out of tlie burrows when their
vrings are fit for use. It is believed that the nestlings become so fat, that but for this
remedy they would be incapable of leaving their birth-places.

t The map of the Society for the Diffusion of Ilsefid Knowledge gives " Horn
Head 307 " yards, or 921 feet ; but this probably applies to the highest hill of the
peninsixla. " Cliffs 235 " yards or 705 feet in height are, however, indicated. In
the first volume of this work I mentioned Horn Head as attaining nearly 000 feet,
ou the authority of a nautical survey made in 1832 or 1833, in which it was noted
as 580 feet.

224 ALCIDM.

eye takes in the vast extent of country, nearly all in its original
wildness, will first be viewed, and the geological age of its various
portions speculated on, vaguely though it may be, from the form
of its hills, cHfFs, and mountains, and the changes will be noted
that are at the present time in progress. At one place he will
perceive that the land is gaining on the ocean, and at another,
yielding to its assaults. The leading features of the prospect,
viewed from the heights of the peninsula, are wild and fine
in the extreme, ranging from Malin Head, the most northern,
to Bloody Poreland Point, the north-western extremity of Ire-
land. Ofl^ the land towards the latter lie four small islands,
the one nearest to it displaying cultivation, the next, pasture
green as emerald, the third — and I believe fourth also — sterile
rock. Northward of them is the much larger island of Tory,
whose ancient history holds a prominent place in the archaeolo-
gical annals of Ireland. It is of most picturesque profile, with
its northern extremity rugged as the dilapidated ruins of a time-
worn castle. Inland, the mountain of Muckish appears a few
miles distant, and, more remote, the grand conical chain of moun-
tains, finer in form, than great in altitude, of which Errigal (2,460
feet in height) is the chief. The general features of the vegeta-
tion clothing the earth will be botanically viewed, with at the
same time its pictorial effects, from lofty mountains on whose
summits the true alpine plants find a home, to the low and barren
sand hills which skirt a large portion of the coast. The vast ex-
tent of sky, exhibiting perhaps at the same moment every form of
cloud to which science has applied a name, will next arrest atten-
tion ; so much being within view, that the spot occupied by the
spectator may remain all day in brilliant sunshine, although thun-
der-clouds, " dark as Erebus,'' appear at a distance, and peal
forth their sublime volleys, while both sheeted and forked light-
ning play in as fiery intensity as in the gloom of night amid their
intense blackness ; — a hue unseen elsewhere than in such scenes.
The illimitable ocean — "a world of wonder in itself" — will
then claim his admiration. On its distant waves a few " labouring
barks " will probably be seen, for on a vast expanse of water their

Till!; PUFFIN. 225

motion, however great in reality, appears but slow ; nearer,
groups of porpoises or grampuses may exhibit their dorsal fins
above the surface as they proceed on their rolling course ; or aloft,
the gannet majestically poise himself ere he strike into the deep.
That beautiful sight, a " play of gulls," will doubtless be wit-
nessed at one or more parts of the surface to which shoals of
small fish have arisen. Landward, the rapid flight of innumerable
little parties of guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, as they fly,
chiefly in single file, to or from the cliffs, or over the sea, will be
observed. In purity of hue, similar to, and in number less only
than the flakes of a snow-shower, the gulls, roused off their eggs or
young, appear from base to summit of the cliff's, while jetty cor-
morants, with necks straight-outstretched, fly to their congregated
nests. The blue rock-dove will be seen on wing to and from the
caverns, and perhaps the dark-hued peregrine falcon, or the eagle,
making a death-swoop in the vicinity of its eyrie. Any descrip-
tion of the effect of the mingling voices of myriads of birds of
various species, in such a scene, would be vain.

On the 28tli we had the gamekeeper at the Horn lowered
down the precipitous cliffs to the eastward of Horn Head, to a
nest of the sea-eagle, from wliich he brought up two eaglets ; —
the particulars of the exploit have been described in Vol. I.
p. 15. On the following day we went to the cliffs adjacent
to the eagle's eyrie, in the hope of procuring young peregrine
falcons, but were unsuccessful, in consequence of the rock pro-
jecting so much above the nest as to render it unapproachable :
we saw the old pair of birds. A mile westward of the Head, a
colony of cormorants {Phalacrocomx carlo) came in view, their
nests being placed on the broad and flat top of a jutting rock, or
" bench," as it is here called, on the sea-side of the Temple Brig.
Tliis "temple" is a rocky headland, standing out to sea, and
pierced entirely through by a lofty arch whose base is waslicd by
the ocean ; hence it bears the name of the Temple " brig," or
bridge ; — the arch is sometimes called also " the door " of the
Temple.

As noted when looking down upon the colony at the dis-

VOL. III. Q

220 ALCTD.!':.

tance of perhaps fifty feet ; — nearly all these cormorants are seated
on their nests, about forty in number. These are very large, and
composed of the roots or " runners" of the sea lyme-grass, Elpnus
arenarius, which is abundant on the neighbouring sands. They
are lined with the leaves of the same plant, and placed close to-
getlier, but without touching each other. All the old cormorants
are wholly black, no white patch behind the thigh or elsewhere,
and no appearance of a crest.''^ The usual number of young
birds is three, which are yet very small. They are all black, and
exhibit already a ludicrously capacious gape. In some nests
there are eggs without 'spots or markings of any kind ; in colour
and form like those of the common duck.f Temple Brig and
the slope above it are entirely covered with fine soft cushions of
the thrift, or sea-pink [Statice armeria), now exhibiting in pro-
fusion, from each verdant mass, its fine rose-coloured flowers.
The ox-eye, or white chrysanthemum {Chrysanthemum leucanthe-
mmn), grows abundantly, and is in full bloom on the little
patches of earth that rest on the face of the cliffs eastward of the
Temple. Looking in this direction, kittiwakes {Larus rissa) in
thousands are seen at one view upon their nests, which are placed
in single rows on all the narrow horizontal shelves of the mural
cliffs that afford sufficient depth, from the sea upwards, half- way to
the summit; every available spot is thus occupied. The nest
is very large, round in form — circular within — and fully three
inches in thickness. It is apparently composed of the Mymus
arenarius. The birds are as close together on their nests as
tliey can sit, and the lines of snowy whiteness — of various length
— which they present against the grey sterile surface of the chffs
have a very singular appearance, as strata of flints in a limestone
quarry are not more horizontally disposed. When the birds stand
up, and only then, for not one is absent from its nest (now mid-
day), the young can be seen, which are brownish-grey in colour,

* In the plumage of Bewick's " Corvorant," as opposed to his " Crested Corvo-
rant," which is the same species in spring i)lumage.

•}- Not less than a hundred cormorants were observed here, arranged in single file
on the rocks, on the 1st of August, 1850. — (Mr. R. Taylor.)

THE PUFFIN. 227

and none of them larger than newly-hatched chickens. Some of
the old birds, as if to exhibit their happiness, assume towards
each other loving attitudes, like those of doves when cooing.
There is a complete line of demarcation between the nesting-
places of the kittiwake and the herring-gull {Lams argentatus),
those of the latter being above the others, and the nests much
farther apart ; indeed, the herring-gull, though plentiful, is less
numerous than the smaller species. From the summit of the
cliff, where it approximates 500 feet in altitude, many eggs of the
razorbill are on the bare rock two or tliree yards below me,
wliile the birds themselves keep flying in and out of crevices to-
wards the summit of the rocks, within which their young are at
such a distance that they cannot be reached by the hand. Im-
mense numbers of puffins breed here, and they afford me an excel-
lent and near opportunity of observing them, as, within a yard
of the summit, many appear on the flat ledges of rock, while
others come flying up from the sea and alighting beside them,
quite regardless of my presence. A few yards down, others are
seen at the entrance of holes, like rabbit-burrows, though really
their own perforations. An immense bank of loose sandy earth
shooting down almost perpendicularly towards the sea, was
drilled by them so as to resemble a gigantic dove-cot. Every
bird of the myriads that I see of various species, excepting nest-
lings, is in full adult plumage."^

A pufiin, shot here yesterday, was bearing to its mate or
young, six fish, five of which were young Clupea, nearly six
inches in length, and the other, a sand-eel of large size. Several
more were remarked to be similarly well laden, and one bird had
hold of a fish nearly the size of a full-grown herring ; — ornitho-

* On examining the coloiu- of the irides of the birds shot to-day, just as they were
killed, I fonnd those of the puffin, razorbill, and common gull {Larus canvs), to be
greyish •hazel ; of the chough, black ; oyster-catcher, black, sm-rouuded by a bright
red ring, as well as having the eyelid of that colour ; common tern {Sterna JuruHclu),
blackish ; rock-dove (Coluviha livia), whitish-brown. Tlie irides of a young cuckoo,
of adult arctic terns and kittiwakes, shot on the 12th of July, 1833, at the Skerries,
off Portrush, were of a very dark brown colour.

Q 2

228 ALCIU/E.

legists, gencrallj, mention one fisli only as borne by the puffin at
a time.

Other species are seen as we proceed, though some which
nidify at particular parts of the rocks and in caves, do not come
in view from the summit of the range of cliffs. The common
guillemot ( Uria tfoile) breeds in profusion ; the black guil-
lemot {Ufia grylle), in its usual comparative numbers to the
former; the lesser and greater black-backed gulls [Larus fnscxis
and L. viarums), both of which came under our notice, are said
to build here. The common gull [L. camii), too, probably nidifies,
from the circumstance of adult birds (with bright yellow legs)
being now here, of which we shot two or three, to make sure of
the species, as they flew up from the face of the cliffs. The shag,
or green cormorant [Phalacrocorax graculus), is stated by the
gamekeeper to breed, perhaps to the number of three hundred,
and, different from the common species,"^ to build out of sight,
within the clefts of rocks.f

* Two geutlcmeu, who went i-ouiid the base of the I'ocks abotit tlie 10th of June,
stated, that they saw both species of cormorant sitting on their uests within the
caves.

t The following infonnation, which is generally, if not criticaEy correct, was
supplied by the gamekeeper and another person well acquainted with the birds hei"e.
The razorbill, puffin, and couimoii guillemot arrive at the same time (in March)
and depart about " lammas " (12th August) ; — the first-named breeds about the 12th
of May. Each species lays one egg, which, as to size, colour, &c., was correctly
described ; the razorbill's is laid in crevices as well as ou the open shelves of rock ;
the puffin's is deposited on dried sea-weeds under stones or in rabbit-holes, always out
of sight, and sometimes beyond reach ; the guillemot's is laid in clefts or ou open
flags. The eggs of the black guillemot are laid under stones out of sight and reach ;
the bird itself remains during the year. The greater and lesser black-backed gulls
breed here, make large nests, and, like the herring-guU and kittiwake, lay three
eggs each ; — the common gull had not been satisfactorily distinguished from the
others by the persons questioned. The eggs of all the gulls were described of a
" brownish-green colour with black ticks," differing in size according to the re-
lative dimensions of the birds. Common cormorants breed in company on open
flags in jNlay, laying three eggs ; the shag lays in the same month in clefts of
rock out of sight. Of the following fom- species, the common guUlemot is said to
breed nearest to the water, the razorbill next, kittiwake third, and puffin fourth.
This may be generally correct, but it does not accord with my own limited observa-
tion at the locality, which was unfortunately confined to what could be seen from
the summit of the cliffs. Althongh the weather diu-ing the week I spent there
was rcniarkaldy fine, the circumstance of the little wind that there was, blowing
upon the land, rendered it imprudent, according to the boatmen, to attempt going

THE PUFFIN. 239

Among the land-birds frequenting and building in the clitfs
that rise direct from ocean, are the innocent and handsome house-
martin, which, from its diminutive size compared with that of the
other feathered inhabitants of the place, almost appears, while
silently floating on the air about the summit of the stupendous
precipices, as some graceful form of the insect world. The chat-
tering jackdaw and the chough, with the kestrel, peregrine falcon,
and sea-eagle, are to be seen here. Of the last-named noble
species, five old birds — all now on the Horn — came under my
notice to-day, and for a long time I had an excellent and near
view of three of them, both on the ground and on wing. The
common buzzard, the rarven, and the grey crow ((7. comix), seen
by us on the Horn, doubtless all build amid the marine cliffs ; —
of the last-named we saw a dense flock of about forty on the 27 th
of June. The starling nidifies on some of the lower rocks of the
Horn, and the rock-dove in great numbers within the ocean-
washed caverns.

Oyster-catchers are said to breed in some places on the rocky
flattened summits of lofty cliffs, perhaps 350 feet in height, on
which numbers of them appeared.

On referring to the descriptions of similar haunts of rock-
birds on the coasts of England and Scotland, visited by Mr.
Waterton and Mr. St. John, we learn, as follows. In the vicinity of
Flamborough Head, the former author (himself characteristically
lowered down the cliffs) met with razorbills, guillemots, puffins,
kittiwakes, cormorants, and shags; and the land-birds breeding
there were peregrine falcons, ravens, jackdaws, starlings, and rock-
doves.*

At the island of Handa, off the western coast of Sutherland,
Mr. St. John noticed all the preceding species, with the exception

round the baso of tlie rocks. The kittiwake breeds so low down, that, after a great
storm, the gamekeeper has seen as many of these birds washed ashore dead as would
fill several carts ; — from what I myself saw of their breeding-places, and the vast
number of birds, this would doubtless occur.

* ' Notes on the Haunts of the Guillemot, &c.,' in 'Essays Nat. Hist.' vol. i.

280 ALClDiE.

of the shag, jackdaw^ and raven ; starlings, though building in
great numbers amid the deserted tenements of man on the island,
are not named as frequenting the cliffs for that purpose. The
birds seen here, and not at Flamborough Head, were the greater
and lesser black-backed gulls and the sea-eagle '."^ Although it is
possible that all the birds frequenting those localities may not
have come under the notice of the respective authors, yet it is a
striking and interesting circumstance that, at Horn Head, and
the adjacent range of cliifs, every species named as breeding about
the Yorkshire and Sutherlandshire haunts is found, and in addi-
tion to them nine others, namely, the black guillemot, tlie herring
and common gull — the oyster-catcher— the house-martin, grey
crow, chough, buzzard, and kestrel.

The birds now snared, or " dulled," as it is called at Horn
Head, for the sake of their feathers, are puffins, razorbills, guil-
lemots, and kittiwakes; — all the other species of Lams are
too wary to be thus gulled. In less than two liom-s my informant
has snared seventeen dozen, or above two handred birds, and
thirty-six dozen were known by a gentleman of my acquaintance
to be taken within a similar time by two men : many years ago
these feathers produced \2>d. per lb., but now (1832) they bring
only Q\d. Birds breeding in caves here are sometimes caught in
nets drawn across their entrances. They are alarmed on their nests
or roosting-places by loud shouting or the firing of guns within the
cave, and, when endeavouring to make their exit, are captured. On
particular inquiry of bird-catchers who are natives of the Horn, I
was told that from four to six persons have lost their lives by this
dangeroTis occupation within the preceding twenty years. AVlieu,
in June 1834, at a breeding station of rock-bu-ds on the largest
of the South Islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, similar to the
Horn, we learned that birds are in hke manner snared for the sake
of their feathers, and that a man assisted by a boy had thus taken
three hundred razorbills in one night. Willughby, nearly two cen-
turies ago, with reference to the Isle of Man, remarked — the Manks-

* ' Tom- iu Suthcrlaiul/" vol. i. p. 100.

THE PUFFIN. 28]

men " take the birds [razorbills, guillemots, aud puffins] them-
selves when they are sitting upon their eggs, with snares fastened
to the top of long poles, and so put about their necks" (p. 334).
Mr. John M'Gillivray, in an excellent paper on the Birds, &c.
of St. Kilda, published in the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal '
for January 1842, mentions the puffin, by far the most abundant
species of bird there, being captured in a similar manner, and
that by such means " as many as three hundred may be taken in
the course of the day by an expert bird-catcher" (p. 67). He
visited the island in July 1840. Mr. James Wilson, vrho did so
in August 1841, gives a very full and interesting account of the
island in his ' Voyage Round the Coast of Scotland aud the
Isles,^ and mentions a more ingenious device for capturing puf-
fins. He says — " These birds are caught by stretching a piece
of cord along the stony places where they chiefly congregate. To
this cord are fastened, at intervals of a few inches, numerous hair
nooses, and from time to time, when the countless puffins are
paddling upon the siu'face, in go their little web feet, they get
noosed round the ankle, and no sooner begin to flap and flutter
than down rushes a ruthless widow woman, and twists their necks.
Her dog had acted a useful part, not only in driving more distant,
or otherwise inaccessible birds, from their roosting-places towards
the nooses, but by catching them dexterously in its mouth." The
widow here alluded to lived chiefly on the puffin in its season
here.

The statement of the gamekeeper and others at Horn Head
respecting the puffins' departure about the 12th of August, is,
doubtless, correct in general terms. Only about half-a-dozen
birds were observed on the sea between that headland and Tory
Island on the 8th of August, 1845 ;* and on the 1st of that
month in 1850, a few only came under the notice of a gen-
tleman walking along the summit of the whole range of cliifs.t
Many specimens of the razorbill have been procured in that

* Mr. G. C. ITyndmaii. t Mr. R. Taylor.

232 ALCID^.

neighbourhood at different periods during winter."*^ Willughby
(p. 326), Pennant (p. 433), and Montagu (Oru. Diet.), under
the head Puffin, describe it, the guillemot, and razorbill, as sum-
mer visitants only ; but later writers mention the occasional oc-
currence of the two latter species on the coasts of Great Britain
in winter: — on the Irish coasts they are botli then met with.
Mr. Selby considers such birds to have been bred in higher lati-
tudes, and that all produced on the British coasts retire farther
southward.

At Horn Head, I was told by the gamekeeper, who had vi-
sited Tory Island, that puffins, as well as razorbills and guille-
mots, with kittiwakes and herring-gulls, build there. Lieut.
Reynolds, E. N., informed us, when at Acliil in June 1834, that
puffins nidify in immense numbers on Bills Rock, near that island ;
■ — the greatest breeding-haunt of rock-birds known to liim off
the coast of Mayo.f It presents, from the coast, a very similar
appearance to Tory Island. The late Mr. John Nimmo, of
Roundstone, county Galway, mentioned a similar fact with regard
to a locality of the same name, about twenty miles off the coast ;
but I understood him to mean a different islet from that just
alluded to. He stated that the puffin was there called Bill — a
name to which the dimensions of that organ, and its peculiar
construction, eminently entitle it. The bird is seen there only in
summer.

The Kerry islets, frequented by the puffin for building, are
Tearaght Rock, off the Blaskets,J the large Skellig, where a few,
and the small island of the same name where immense num-
bers, nidify § : — but at the Bull Rock, off the coast of Cork, they
are said to be still more numerous. || They come annually to the
coast of Waterford at Ardmore, according to Mr. R. Ball, who,-
about the year 1821, found a great many washed ashore dead at

* Mr. J. V. Stewart.

t Razorbills, common and black guillemotSj cormorants, kittiwakes, and herring-
gulls also breed here.

X Mr. W. Andrews. § Mr. R. Cliute.

11 Mr. J. F. Towusend.

THE PUFFIN. 233

Youghal, after a severe storm ; — none of them exhibited any
wounds. On this subject it is remarked by Wilkighbyj — " If
that season happen to be stormy and tempestuous, and the sea
troubled, there are abundance of them found cast upon the
shores, lean and perished with famine. For they cannot, unless
the sea -be calm, either proceed in their journey, or fish for their
living" (p. 326). Mr. Poole observes, that '^puffins breed at
the Saltees, off the Wexford coast, but bear no proportion for
numbers to the kittiwakes and razorbills. They are very vicious
when taken alive, and can deal a most excruciating pinch with
their bills. About the middle of May they appeared to be in
greater numbers than at a later period."

Rutty, in his 'Natural History of Dublin,^ states, that the
" puffin is found at Lambay, and is a bird of passage appearing
in April and May, and going in Jidy or August." It breeds at
the present time (1850) on this island, but from increasing per-
secution the numbers have been much lessened of late years.
On Bii'd Island (opposite Kirkcubbin) in Strangford Lough, con-
taining little more than a rood of ground, and a very dry gravelly
spot covered with herbage, a puffings nest was found in the
middle of July 1843. The eggs, two in number, were deposited
in a hole about a foot from the surface. The bird itself was fre-
quently seen on the nest and flying from it, but the one indivi-
dual only was ever observed.^ This solitary nest is a remarkable
instance, the puffin being gregarious in the breeding season, and
no haunt being nearer than about thirty-five miles. The species
was never known to nidify here before, an inquiry which I was
particular in making, lest this nest might be the last of a
colony that had gradually died out there, or had changed to
more favourable quarters. Such a site being chosen for the
nest is not unprecedented. Dr. M'Culloch, in his description of
the Flannan Isles, remarks : — " Various sea-fowl, of the species
usually found in these seas, have here established their colo-
nies; but the most numerous is the puffin. These literally

* Mr'. Francis Rankiu.

234 ALCID^.

cover the ground, so tliat when on the arrival of a boat they all
come out of their holes, the green surface of the island appears
like a meadow thickly enamelled with daisies. The soil is so per-
forated by their burrows, that it is scarcely possible to take a
step on solid ground/'"^

Pennant remarks, with reference to Priestholm Island, off the
coast of Anglesea : — " The first young are hatched the beginning
of July, the old ones show vast affection towards them, and seem
totally insensible of danger in the breeding season. If a parent
is taken at that time, and suspended by the wings, it wiU, in a
sort of despair, treat itself most cruelly, by biting every part it
can reach ; and the moment it is loosed, will never offer to escape,
but instantly resort to its unfledged young : but this affection
ceases at the stated time of migration, which is most punctually
about the 11th of August, when they leave such young as cannot
fly, to the mercy of the peregrine falcon, who watches the mouths
of the holes for the appearance of the little deserted puffins, which,
forced by hunger, are compelled to leave their burrows." Tliis
passage is commented on by Mr. Blackwall, in connection with
the desertion of their young by the Ilirundines.^ The causes, as
they appear to me, which lead to such desertion, have been as-
signed in the first volume (p. 382) of the present work, and are
equally applicable to the puffin. Audubon remarks on the adults
that he " observed with concern the extraordinary affection
manifested by these birds to each other; for whenever one feU
dead or wounded on the water, its mate, or a stranger, imme-
diately alighted by its side, swam round it, pushed it with its bill
as if to urge it to fly or dive, and seldom would leave it until an
oar was raised to knock it on the head, when at last, aware of the
danger, it would plunge below in an instant." — 'Orn. Biog.'
vol. iii. p. 107. This author gives the fullest and most interest-
ing account of the puffin I have read. His opportunities of ob-
serving it, especially at Perroket island — (doubtless so called from

* 'Western Isles of Scotland,' vol. i. p. 198.
t ' Researches in Zoology,' p. 121.

THE RAZORBILL. 235

this bird, the "sea-parrot " of our own coast,) — where it breeds in
myriads, has exceeded those of ornithologists on tins side of
the Atlantic.

THE EAZOEBILL.^

Alca tor da, Linn.
Black-billed Auk. I Young, and old in

.led Auk. 1 Yc
I, Linn. J w

Alca pica, Linn, j winter plumage.

Visits annually, for nidification, lofty cliffs around
the coast.

This species and the common guillemot are found so much to-
gether in their breeding-haunts, that what has been said of those
of the latter bird will be found almost equally applicable to the
razorbill. It breeds at the Gobbins, but in greatly diminished
numbers of late years, omng to persecution. About a hundred
pair were seen by an ornithologist here one day in June 1847,
and many more were doubtless out at sea. They kept in flocks
on the cliffs (where twelve were killed at one shot) as well as on
the water. They proceed in bodies from the rocks to the sea
every morning, but not at an early hour. Though generally ar-
riving in April, they do not breed before the end of May ; — in the
late season of 1849, they had not commenced laying on the 2nd
of June, upon which day the rocks were examined for their eggs.
In that month of 1842, I observed some of these birds at
Carrick-a-rede, in the north of the county Antrim. Dr. J. D.
Marshall informs us that at the end of June 1834, " this auk
was found associated with the foolish guillemot in countless num-
bers on the northern shores of llathlin. It was, however, much
more plentiful than the guillemot, but so much resembling it in
general appearance, that, by the boatmen, they were invariably
confounded, and, while sitting on the rocks, regarded as belonging

* Called puffin at tlic Gobbius (co. Antrim), S:c., whci-c the bird properly so culled
bears the name of Ailsa-cock.

236 ALCID/E.

to the same species. The cry of the razorbill auk is a kind of
croak, harsh and disagreeable; and by an imitation of it, the
birds arc drawn out from their lurking-places behind the ledges
of rock, by the fowlers. The egg in size and markings resembles
that of the guillemot; the young were covered with dark grey
down, the bill slightly hooked at the tip, but not presenting the
peculiar marks which characterize that of the adult.^^'^

Some particulars of this species at Horn Head are noticed
under " Puffin." I have been informed that it breeds, westward,
on the Bills Rock, off Achil, and that great numbers frequent the
Galway and Kerry coasts in summer and autumn ; in the latter,
the Magharee islands, Tearaght Eock, and both the Skelligs
are among the localities. Smith, in his ' History of Cork,' re-
marked that — " The razorbill brings up its young on the ledges
of the craggy rocks near the sea," and, in his ' History of Water-
ford,' that " they frequent our shores in winter :" the species is
noticed also in Eutty's ' Natural History of Dublin :' — on the
marine rocks of those counties it still continues to nidify. A
correspondent has often shot the young on the Dublin coast in
winter, but never the old.t On the 32nd of February and 7th
March of different years, I have received- adult birds from the
coast of Down, and a month after the latter date, in Dublin. On
the coast of Donegal specimens have been obtained in winter, but
it is not stated whether old or young; J the same may be said of
Bantry Bay.

The razorbill, like the common guillemot, appears far up
Belfast Bay, near to the town, late in spring and autumn, and
more especially if the weather be calm. During the summer
it is seen about the entrance of the bay. When crossing from
Groomsport to the Copeland Islands, on the 16th of July, 1850,

* At the Mull of Oe, in Islay, the nearest laud northward of Rathlin, razorbills
have a breeding-haunt.

t Mr. R. J. ilontgoinery. One of the young — an Alca pica, or black -billed aulc —
is mentioned by Mr. Templeton as received by him in Belfast on the 28lh of January,
1811.

i Mr. J. V. Stewart.

THE RAZORBILL. 337

we saw numbers of these birds, both on the water and on
wing ; — flying just above the surface, and in single file, when a few
only were together. They were chiefly in little parties of from two
to seven ; but one flock of about thirty birds appeared, two-thirds
of which only proceeded in a single line. Such are their usual
modes of flight, according to numbers. We were interested by
observing a young bird of the year (the only one seen) in
company with its parent, with which it kept pace in swimmiug
and diving, though only half adult size. They admitted the ap-
proach of our boat within from twenty-five to forty yards before
diving or taking wing. Birds thus frequenting the open sea may
have their nests at the Gobbins, Ailsa, or other places to which
they have a direct flight above the water, but during the breeding
season some may also be observed in land-locked localities, such as
Strangford Lough, &c. We saw but one common guillemot to-
day, which was on wing in company with a razorbill. Just after
the breeding season in 1831, birds of this species were very
plentiful, and appeared as far up the estuary as within three miles
of the town ; — many were shot ; a number killed with oars ; and
some run down by boating parties, and captured with the hand.
Four specimens, shot here on the 28th of September, were found
to contain only the remains of fish.

The head of an adult razorbill, shot in the month of June
1838, at the extremity of Lough Derg, near Portumna, was sent
to me, as that of a bird quite unknown to the people there. It
was, indeed, the first instance known to myself of the occurrence
of the species on fresh-water, in Ireland. This specimen was said
to have exhibited no appearance of having previously been wounded.

Montagu, writing from Devonshire, remarks that "the razor-
bill is not seen with us in winter,^'' and Selby observes, with re-
gard to the birds bred in Great Britain, that " in winter their
place is supplied in Scotland, and sparingly also along the Eng-
lish coast, from the colonies that breed in higher latitudes^^
(p. 436). Audubon gives a good personal narrative of his visits
to the razorbill's breeding-haunts on the coast of North America
(vol. iii. p. 113).

238 ALCID/E.

THE GREAT AUK.

Alca impennis, Liun.

Is of extremely rare occurrence.

One individual was noticed by mc in the ' Proceedings of the
Zoological Society' in 1835 (p. 79), as taken on the coast. It
was preserved in tlie collection of Dr. Burkitt, of Waterford, who
has contributed the following particulars. He received the bird
on the 7th of September, 1834, from Mr. Eobert Davis, jun., of
Clonmel, who stated that it was taken in the preceding month of
May (by the fisherman of whom he purchased it), at a short dis-
tance from the shore, at the mouth of Waterford Harbour, off
Ballymacaw. According to the captor, it was apparently almost
starved. When in his yawl off the coast, he saw the auk swim-
ming about near liim, and held out some sprats, for which it came
close to the boat. It was taken with little difficulty. He kept
it for some days, feeding it chiefly with potatoes mashed in
milk, which were partaken of greedily. After having the bird
for ten days, he sold it to Mr. Davis, by whom it was sent to
Mr. Gough, of Horetown, county Wexford, where it Hved for
about four months. Eor a considerable time, perhaps three weeks,
it was not known to eat of anything at its new destination, but
potatoes and milk were then forced down its throat, from which
time it ate voraciously, until a day or two before its death. This
auk stood very erect, and frequently stroked its head with its
foot, especially when any favourite food was presented. When
in Mr. Gough's possession, it was chiefly fed on fish, of which
fresh-water species (trout, &c.) were preferred to sea-fish: they
were swallowed entire. It was ratlier fierce.

The following description was, at my request, kindly supplied by Dr. Burkitt at
the same time. " This bird — a young female — is not in good plumage ; the head,
back, wings, legs, and feet, are sooty black ; between the biU and eye on each side of
the head there is a large patch of white, mottled with blackish feathers ; the neck is
white, slightly mottled with black ; the front of the body white ; the lesser quills
tipped with white.

THE GREAT AUK. 339

Inches.

" Length (total) ; tail not perfect 29

of foliled wing [from carpus to point of longest quill] . 5^

„ bill from forehead ....... 3f

,, „ gape or rictus ...... 4^

„ tarsus ......... 2:f

„ middle toe ....... . 2f

„ ,, and nail ...... 3f

„ inner toe ........ 2^2

„ „ and nail ...... 2f

„ outer toe ....... . 2f

and nail ^ H

„ tail, which is broken, may have been about . . 2

Depth (greatest) of bill, exceeding ...... 1^ "

This specimen is now in the University Museum, Dublin, having
been liberally presented by Dr. Burkitt.

As afterwards ascertained by Mr. Davis, a second great auk
was procured on the coast of Waterford, about the same time
as the one already noticed ; but, falling into ignorant hands,
it was not preserved. The Eev. Joseph Stopford, in February
1844, communicated a note to Dr. Harvey of Cork, stating, but
without any mention of date, that one of these birds had been
" obtained on the long strand of Castle Freke (in the west of the
county of Cork) ; having been water-soaked in a storm. ^'

I have little doubt that two great aulvs were seen in Belfast
Bay on the 33rd of September, 1845, by H. Bell, a wild-fowl
shooter, whose good observation has already, more than once,
been alluded to. He saw two large birds the size of great northern
divers (which are well known to him), but with much smaller
wings. He imagined they might be young birds of that species
until he remarked that their heads and bills were "much more
clumsy" than those of the Columbus. They kept almost con-
stantly diving, and went to an extraordinary distance each time
with great rapidity.

The " Alca impennis, Penguin," stated in Sampson^s ' Survey
of Londonderry ' to frequent the rocks of that county and of
Donegal, we may fairly take for granted is the Alca ton/a, or
razorbill, as this species has not a place in that author's catalogue
of birds.

240 PEI.ECANIB.'E.

The great auk is of extreme rarity, not only in the seas around
the British Islands, but in all those of Europe ; — and it may be
added, of America also, so far as positively known at the date of
publication of xVudubon's work. This author was, liowever, as-
sured by fishermen tliat the species breeds in a low rocky island
to the south-cast of Newfoundland.

THE COMMON OE GREAT COBMOEANT.*

Phalacrocorax carbo, Steph.
Pelecanus „ Linn.
Carbo cormoranus, Temm.

Is of ordinary occurrence, and resident.

It may be steen every day about our coasts either on the water or
conspicuously perched on any prominent object rising above its
surface ; buoys, &c., in our harbours being as favourite perching
places as rocks. It may not unfrequently be observed flying over
land, on the way to or from some fresh-water lake. I have met
with it at such localities a few miles from the sea, where the latter
would have afforded an abundant supply of food ; as in the month
of June, at Port-lough (near Dunfanaghy), some two or three
miles inland — in July, at a small lake near Portaferry (Strang-
ford Lough), — in the middle of June 1833, some appeared about
Lough Neagh, in the vicinity of Eam's Island ; and when visit-
ing the lake on another occasion, I was told that a species
of cormorant had bred on Scawdy rock — a low ridge — between
Toome and Shanes Castle. This is very improbable, and may
have been imagined from the circumstance of the birds being
seen there during summer. M^ Skimmin, in his ' History of
Carrickfergus, remarks of cormorants : — " Those here set oft, al-
most every morning, for Lough Neagh, and return again the same
evening : on one being shot just as it arrived from Lough Neagh,

* " Skai-t " in Straugford Lough, &c. The ' crested coiToraut ' of Bewick is the
adult bird iu spring plumage.

THE COMMON OH GUEAT CORMORANT. 241

ill its crop were found fourteen pollans :" sufficient e\ddence, cer-
tainly, that this individual had been fishing there, for nowhere else
nearer than Lough Erne could this species of fish have been ob-
tained. A scientific friend visiting Massareene deer-park, on the
borders of Lough Neagh, on the 3rd of December, 1847, was at-
tracted by the singular appearance of about a hundred cor-
morants perched on trees (probably thirty feet in height) on a
low wooded island of the lake, where they remained for two
hours, or so long as he had an opportunity of observing them.
The country-people there believe that these birds daily visit the sen,
and that " they would die if they did not get a drink of salt
water within the twenty-four hours" ! In the beginning of July
1834 we saw cormorants about the lakes in the west, between
Westport and Cong, and soon afterwards, about the lakes of Kil-
larney. An old friend informs me, that previous to the last thirty-
five years these birds were almost daily to be seen up the river
Lagan, especially at high water, often perching on the overhang-
ing trees at Annadale, where the flow of the tide terminates.

Breeding -haunts. — This species bred in numbers, annually, at
the Gobbins, until of late years; about 1845 being the last occa-
sion on which it was known to do so. It built there very early in
the season. " Common cormorants formerly bred in considerable
numbers at Down Hill, in the county of Londonderry, but since
the recent blasting of the rocks for the formation of a railway,
they have deserted that locality, and have resorted to some of the
high rocky headlands adjacent to the Giant^s Causeway, where
they remain throughout the year. When fired at, they usually
fly out to some distance at sea, but have been occasionally
observed to plunge down almost perpendicularly from the rocks
and evade the fowler by diving beyond his reach.""^ This cormo-
rant is said to nidify in the caves on the north of the island of
Rathlin.f It has more than once come under my own notice in
its breeding-haunts, which were lofty tabular rocks sheltered by

* Mr. J. O'N. Higginsoti.

t Dr. J. D. Marsliall. It broods at tlic Mull of Oe, Islay, the uearest land uorl li
of Rathlin.— AV. T.

VOL. III. R

242 PELECANID.E.

still higher cliffs. The most favourable opportunity I have had of
observing it is alluded to in a general description of the birds of
Horn Head, under Puffin (p. 225). The gamekeeper there stated
that he had seen salmon of from two to five pounds weight in
their nests; but this must be over-estimated. They are con-
sidered so destructive to this valuable fish, that a reward of four-
pence is paid to him for the head of every cormorant of this
species he can procure. In a note to the Shag in M'Skimmin^s
' Carrickfergus/ it is added : — " Eewards were formerly paid at
assize for destroying these birds ; in the records- of the county
Antriflft, in 1729, mention is made of a person called Jemfrey, in
Island Magee, who had kiUed ninety-six cormorants in one sea-
son." We cannot tell from this whether rewards were offered for
only one, or for both species.

Lieut. Eeynolds informed us, in 1834, that the cormorant
which is "all black" breeds on the Bills Eock, off Achil.

At Arranmore, off Galway Bay, Mr. Ball and I, on the 8th
of July, 1834, saw a colony of cormorants at their breeding-sta-
tions ; — a tabular mass of limestone high above the sea, and from
the summit of which a lofty range of precipice arose. The follow-
ing day we saw twenty-two of them swimming together in a close
flock, between the two smaller islands. Not one of the birds
perched on the rock — (and they were admirably seen through a
telescope) — exhibited the least white on the head or thigh, nor any
crest ; nor did those already noticed as seen about the same time
in the vicinity of the fresh- water lakes. Further, with respect to
plumage; one, which flew within twenty yards of me, at Port
Lough, was wholly black, as were two which passed near to me
at Horn Head ; and not one, out of the many birds in their nest-
ing-place there, exliibited the least white, or peculiar plumage of
the ' crested corvorant ' of Bewick, considered by authors as their-
breeding attire. It would thus seem that these birds throw off
that plumage earlier here, or breed at a later period than they do
in other localities, and at the same time make known the sin-
gular fact, that the cormorant does not, like most other birds,
retain its full dress during the breeding season. I have not seen

THE COMMON OR GREAT CORMORANT. 243

this singular circumstance alluded to, though from observation
made on a bird in the garden of the Zoological Society, London,
respecting the period of the first appearance (January 4th), and
total disappearance (May 12th), of the plumage under considera-
tion, it might be inferred that unless the cormorant breed very
early, such must be the case.* On the Earn Islands, however,
Mr. Selby informs us he has had repeated'opportunities of verify-
ing that the garb is retained " till after reproduction has been
effected ;" — no dates are mentioued.f

So early as the 24th January, 1832, the Rev. T. Knox received
a female bird in the full plumage of Bewick^s ' crested corvorant,'
with white on thighs, &c. ; the eggs in this individual were very
large. On the 21st and 22nd of February, 1849, several birds
were seen in this attire at Larne Lough. A fowler informs
me that he has commonly seen and shot cormorants in this plu-
mage in Belfast Bay, from the middle to the end of March, soon
after which time they leave it (on the 21st of April, 1847,
he saw two birds there with white tliigh-marks, &c.), and do not
return until after the breeding season, when the white thigh-spot,
or " watch, which they carry under the wing," is dropped, with
all other gay adornments, and they appear in a full suit of sable.

This cormorant has many places of nidification on the coast of
Kerry, as Muckalaw rock (Tralee Bay), Kerry and Brandon
Heads, J Magharee Islands, entrance to Dingle Bay, on each side,
smaller Skellig rock, &c.§ On the coast of the neighbouring
county — Cork — " the shags and cormorants " are said to abound,
and are believed to breed at Fyleneshogue, near Glandore harbour,
and at Black Eock ; at Cape Clear they have been observed on
their nests. || Mr. R. Warren, jun., M'hen visiting the rocky

* Full particulars of this change of plumage (made by James Hunt, keeper) will
be found in Mr. Yarrell's paper ' On the Plumage of Bii'ds ' (Zool. Trans, vol. i.
p. 18), and in his history of British species.

f The rock-climber at the Gobbins states that the cormorant bred there in March,
which, if correct, would leave it sufficient time to bring its young to matui-ity before
changing plumage.

I Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun. § Mr. R. Chute.

jl Mr. J. F. Townscnd.

R 2

244 PELECANIDiE.

islets called ReannieSj off Cork harbour, on the 27th of April,
1848, saw eggs, two to four in number, in about twenty nests of
the cormorant, and several other nests were only completed. The
pilfering of the eggs, during the absence of the owners, by a pair
of ravens that had a nest in the same range of cliff's, will be found
noticed in Vol. I, p. 306. All the cormorants here were in full
nuptial plumage, displaying the white thigh-mark, light colour
about the head, &c. This species nidifies in various small com-
munities on the shelves of the rocky coast between the B-eannies
and the Sovereign Islands.

At the marine rocks of the adjoining county of Waterford, at
Ardmore and other places, cormorants build ;^ and with reference
most probably to the coast of Wexford, Mr. J. Poole has com-
municated the following note : — "May 15th; the cormorant has
eggs, some nearly fresh, some, and much the larger portion, nearly
hatched, and irom a few nests the young are excluded. Some
young bu'ds are nearly grown. The nests are placed in the hol-
lows and crevices of a solitary rock (a few yards from the main
land), about seventy or eighty feet high, and are composed of sea-
weed, ferns, grass, and feathers ; eggs three to five. The young
birds exhibit very curious gestures when disturbed or expecting
the old ones with food, opening their bills, and causing their
cheek-pouches to quiver or undulate with a very rapid motion,"
At the island of Lambay, off the Dublin coast, cormorants an-
nually nidify. t Marine rocks only have liitherto been mentioned
as breeding-haunts. Upon an island in a fresh-water lake at
Castlemartyr, county of Cork, the seat of the Earl of Shannon,
the gamekeeper reckoned more than eighty nests of the cormo-
rant on Scotch fir-trees not less than sixty feet in height, about
the year ISSS.J

The spread wings of this bird, after the plumage has become
saturated by long diving, have often been commented on by authors

* ]Mr. R. BaU. t Mr. R. J. IVIontgomeiy.

X Proceedings of Zoological Society of Loudon, 1847, p. 97.

THE COMMON OR GREAT CORMORANT. 245

— among others, by Sir Win. Jardine, in his 'British Birds.'^
When at Strangford Lough, on the 21st of June, 1832, I saw
fifteen cormorants (but of which species I was not near enougli
to determine), after a very heavy shower of rain, standing toge-
ther in a line, apparently on the water, though in reality on
a sunken rock, which did not rise to the surface, with their
wings outstretched to dry ; it would thus appear, as we might
expect, that a wetting by rain prompts the expansion of the wings
as well as that by sea-water. I have at other times, in the midst
of the breeding season, seen many of these birds here.

Mr. Poole has contributed the following note: — "Nov. 5,
1847. — The cormorants frequenting Wexford Harbour seem
almost universally to retire to the Saltee Islands, about fifteen
miles distant, every evening, to spend the night. Still, I have
reason to tliink, that a few remain perched on the posts set up
for channel-marks through the harbour. A single bird has ap-
propriated to his own jnivate accommodation the outside post of
the channel, leading from my limestone quarry, thus saving him-
self the trouble of a fifteen miles' excursion morning and evening.
I conclude that it is entirely for want of a suitable roosting-
place in the vicinity that they go so far for a night's lodging.
This evening I was somewhat amused at the endeavours of a
second bird to get a share of the fortunate perch on which my
acquaintance had located himself. The cormoraui is an awkward
bird upon the wing, and this one was but little more active than
others of his tribe. Time after time he ventured to the charge,
but could get no admittance there for the sole of his broad foot.
Then off would he fly to another perch at some distance ; but
finding insufficient footing upon it, after flapping his wings for a
few minutes, in the vain attempt to settle, he would drop down
into the water to rest himself. Till darkness came on the contest
was maintained ; but while my sight served me, the first and most
fortunate occupant stoutly maintained his position, perhaps in-
wardly amusing himself at the fruitless mancEUvres of his assailant^

* Vol. iv. p. 2Ji2.

246 PELECANID^.

who, after all, may have had to try his way to the Saltees through
the black night.

" As my residence lies close to a narrow part of Wexford
harbour, and between the principal part of its area and their
roosting-place, I think I may conclude that nearly all the birds
of this species wliich make out their livelihood there, pass within
sight of my door. If this supposition be correct the number is
not great, for not more than from twenty to forty bii'ds pass by
daily. So bad a flier is the cormorant, that when the wind is
high, as tliis evening, he can scarcely make any way whatever
against it, A great number of gulls of different species follow
the same track as the cormorant, the black-headed [Lams ridi-
bundus) being very common." It was mentioned three days after
the preceding note that — " The cormorants met such opposition
from a strong southern gale, that finding themselves totally unable
to make head against it they betook themselves to the water, and,
having the tide in their favour, pursued their journey successfully
among the waves."

Cormorants are frequently observed perched on stones round
Swan Island, Larue Lough, their daily fishing station at high water,
and one morning at day-break, in February 1847, a correspon-
dent of accurate observation saw about a dozen of these bii"ds
perching there, where he had no doubt they spent the night. It
was high water at the time. On the lower portion of a ruined
building, called the Block-house, situated on a little islet at the
entrance of Carliugford Lough, they are stated to remain during
the night, particularly in stormy weather.

Cormorants regularly appear in flocks far up Belfast Bay after
tlie breeding season, and their arrival is welcomed as a proof
that there are plenty of fish; early in September 1839, fifteen
were seen together near Conswater, and a flock of similar number
appeared on wing, coming from the dnection of Strangford
Lough. Some were seen on the 17th of August, 1840 ; and on
the 23rd of that mouth, in 1844, a flock of sixteen came up the
bay on wing, as usual at this season, when young fish, such as
codlins,' blockans {Gadida), &c., are abundant: the birds appear

THE COMMON OR GREAT CORMORANT. 217

sooner or later, according to the presence of the fish. On the
latter day a flock of above a hundred cormorants was observed to
to bear down upon the estuary from the direction of Strangford
Lough, and were, at first sight, owing to the great number, mis-
taken for wild geese : they soon broke up into divisions, of which
that already noticed was one, and betook themselves to different
parts of the bay. So early as the 3rd of August, 1850, 1 observed
a flock of seventeen fly over the point of the Kinnegar, and near to
the town ; but within an hour they returned again. On looking
to the food in two birds killed here, I found in one the remains
of fish and a perfect specimen of the crustacean Panclalus annuU-
cornis (slirimp-like in size) ; the other contained an eel about
fifteen inches in length, and, with the usual perversity of the
species, having its head turned towards the throat of the bird.
The weight of one of these cormorants, a male, was 7 lbs. 6 oz.
(avoirdupois) .

An accurate observer, who, from living on the shore of Belfast
Bay, and shooting a great deal, had ample opportunities of study-
ing the habits of the cormorant, states, in opposition to writers
generally on the subject, that he has never seen it throw a fish,
awkwardly caught for being swallowed, into the air, or clear of the
bill, that it might be seized in a favourable position for that pur-
pose, but, to use his own words, " the fish is instead shifted in
the bird's biU and different snatches are made at it until it comes
right, just in the manner that a dog acts under such circum-
stances." Nor has he ever seen it fly to the land with any
object J nor swim with its head under water when looking out for
food ; — " it affords the fowler no such chance of a shot.'' He
considers it to keep quite under water when fishing, and to dive
in search of prey, before unseen. His reason for this opinion, is,
that the bird comes up frequently without prey, wliich he believes
is always brought to the surface to be eaten, from the circumstance
that very small fish are sometimes in its bill when the bird re-ap-
pears after diving. Large fish he has often seen it shake, as a dog
does a rat, to render them manageable ; he has observed it to eat
more small flounders {Platessa jlesus) than any other fish (owing

248

PELECANIDyE.

to the locality, I should imagine, and not to preference) ; but the
species were various. The lateral distension at the base of the bill
enables this bird to swallow fish of such breadth as is surprising
to persons who liave never examined the structure adapted to that
purpose. If approached suddenly when in possession of a fish too
large to be swallowed on the instant, the bird dives vdth it, and
lias never been observed by him, when thus alarmed, to fly off with
prey in its bill; — it has no young to supplywith food from this
locality. As to watching fish from a post (as has been stated),
he considers it never to do so, but to alight there for rest or dry-
ing the plumage, which is efiected by fanning the wings. He
believes it to look for food only when beneath the surface of
the water. A good telescope was in frequent requisition during
these observations, in all of which the most experienced fowlers
in the bay agree.

Cormorants, and all birds that prey on fish, endeavour — but
often in vain with the eel — to swallow them head-foremost. Pro-
bably a natural instinct prompts them to do so, as the spines in
the fins, &c., then lie the " right way,^' and the gastric juice acts
first on the most bulky part (the head).

In the year 1833, Mr. Glennon, of Dublin, showed me two
of these birds in the plumage of Bewick^s ' crested corvorant,'
in which were found many eggs. He published the following
account in the first volume of the ' Dublin Penny Journal '
(1832-33). " Several years ago, I took a pair of these bii'ds
from a nest among the rocks of Howth, and kept them for nearly
two years, by which time they had attained their full growth [and
the plumage of Bewick's 'crested corvoraut']. They were
pleasant pets enough, unless when pressed by hunger, but then
they became most outrageous, and screamed most violently ; when
satisfied with food, they slept, roosting on a large stone trough
[)laced for holding water. But woe to the man or beast that
attempted to approach them when hungry. It happened once
that a gentleman's servant went to look at them while in this
state : he wore a pair of red plush breeches, that immediately
caught the attention of the birds, M'hich I had been in the

THE COMMON Oil GREAT CORMORANT. 249

habit of feeding with livers and lights ; the consequence was,
they made such a furious charge that I had to run to liis as-
sistance with a stick, and even so did not beat them off without
difficultj'. Their attack on dogs, cats, and poultry, if unprotected,
was always fatal. They fought at once with their bills, wings,
and claws, screaming frightfully all the time. In fact, the cause
of ray parting with them was their having destroyed a fine Spanisli
pointer : he had incautiously strayed into the place where I kept
them, and they immediately flew at and attacked him in front
and rear; his loud howlings brought me to his aid. I was
astonished to find they had got him down ; and, before I could
rescue him from their fury, they had greatly injured him in one
of his shoulders, so mucli so, that he afterwards died of the
wound" (p. 334).*

Mr. BaU states (Oct. 3, 1845) that— "In the Zoological
Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin, a cormorant has been for about
two years in confinement. He is a fierce bold bird in spring,
and may often be seen on the lawn with a large stick in his mouth,
evidently with a nest-making intent. His eye then is of a beau-
tiful green, very different from its dusky colour in winter. This
cormorant catches a considerable number of fish in the pond.
Sometimes, when he gets a large eel, the struggle to keep it down
when swallowed, seems to be one of great exertion. He has
sometimes killed very large tench and carp, much too large for
him to swallow. When approached, he throws back his head
almost on his tail, which is spread, and makes a very curious
croaking noise. On one occasion a heron came near him, when
he seized the bit'd by the neck, and, though assistance was near,
killed it in a few moments. He has latterly been imprisoned for
making similar attempts on geese."

These Irish cormorants were very far from exliibiting the same
amiable and unblemished character as the individuals noticed by
Montagu and Selby, as having been in their possession. A long
and interesting account of the one kept by the former author

* This has becu copied iu Stanley's ' Familiar History of Birds.'

250 PELECANID^.

will be found in the Supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary.'
The virtues of the common and green cormorants as food, are not
much enhanced by a note from the late Mr. G. Matthews ; that
" they were both eaten by the Norwegian sailors ; — when they
had nothing else" ! Audubon (vol. iii. p. 458) furnishes good
information on the breeding-haunts, young, &c., of the cormo-
rant, as observed in North America.

THE GEEEN CORMORANT.

Shag; Crested Shag or Cormorant.

Phalacrocorax gracidus, Linn, (sp.)

Pelecamis „ „

Carho cristatus, Fabr. (sp.), Temm.

Is resident, inhabiting all quarters of the coast, but
generally less numerous than the common species.

Montagu remarks, in his ' Ornithological Dictionary,' that this
bird never visits fresh water ; and in the Supplement of that
work records one instance of its doing so. Mr. Selby, too,
mentions it as "never frequenting fresh- water lakes or rivers"
(p. 452). The idea that this species is strictly marine, and differs
from the great cormorant in this respect, is very general. In
M'^Skimmin's ' History of Carrickfergus,' where the latter is said
to visit Lough Neagh daily, the other is stated never to leave
" the salt water /' and at Horn Head, a reward is offered for the
destruction of the one, owing to a belief that it feeds on young
salmon, while the other is considered innocent of all evil ; — i. e., to
man. This is borne out chiefly by the gamekeeper, in so far that
in its nest he finds only sea-fish ; chiefly herring fry and sand-eels.
1 have been favoured by the Earl of Enniskillen with two spe-
cimens of the green cormorant, taken far inland on difl^erent occa-
sions. One of them, in the month of January 1839 (?), and I
think soon after the great hurricane, was captured alive, near

THE GREEN COHMOUANT. 251

Swaulinbar, in the county of Cavan, under Ben Eaclilin, and
nearly thirty EngHsh miles from the sea. The lad who caught
the specimen stated that it was accompanied by four more birds
of the same kind. It was quite strong, and fed well on fish.
On the 16th of September that year, the other individual, an
immature female, obtained near Eiorence Court, about twenty
miles inland, was sent to me. I have very lately learned from
the Eev. G. Robinson, who resides near Lough Neagh, that the
green cormorant habitually frequents that great sheet of water,
where he has not, however, seen more than two in company, or
more than that number in one day ; — they were generally sun-
ning themselves on some of the islands when observed.

M'Skimmin, in 1823, mentions this bird, as well as the com-
mon cormorant, breeding at the Gobbins, but both are believed
to have relinquished the locality for that purpose. I have known
the species under consideration to be killed there during the
breeding season ; and at other times in the neighbouiing marine
lough of Larne.

Much the best account we have of this bird in any breeding-
haunt on the coast of Ireland, is from Dr. J. D. Marshall, who
informs us, in his published memoir, that about the 1st of July,
1834 — "We found this corvorant (P. cristatus) in pairs, fre-
quenting the numerous caves with which the northern and western
shores of Eathhn are indented. They formed their nests on the
high ledges of rock, almost toucliing the summit of the caves ;
the nest was composed of fuci of various kinds, matted and plas-
tered together; the eggs were of a bluish-green colour. We
sometimes, by good management, entered the caves ere the corvo-
rants had left, and at such times we found them sitting, with the
neck and head thrust over the ledge of the rock, looking down on
the boat as it made its way to the inner extremity of the cave.
On firing our guns, they would drop into the water as if they had
been shot, and, with great expertness, dive under the boat, and
make then- way out to sea. This species seemed much more
numerous than the common cormorant (P. carlo). "

The gamekeeper at Horn Head stated in 1832, that the green

252 PEL-ECANID^.

cormorant builds in the clefts of rocks out of sight, lays in May,
and that about three hundred, perhaps, breed there. Two gentle-
men, then resident in Dunfanaghy, the nearest \dllage, assured
me that they had, in the preceding week, from a boat, killed both
species of cormorant on their nests within caves.

At the Hards Islands, off the Galway coast, one of these birds
was shot on the 1st of August, 1844, and they were remarked
to be numerous there."^ In the island of Arranmore, numbers
build, and the eggs, with those of the common species, were
brought from the rocks, at the beginning of June 1835, to
Mr. R. Ball, who killed there, without seeing it, a fine adult
male. Having fired at a glaucous gull without observing any
other bird, he found " five herring-gulls had fallen near it, and
on landing and walking up the beach, the cormorant was found
with a shot through his brain, just dying." On the coast of
Kerry this species is said, like the common cormorant, to breed
on all the precipitous headlands, Kerry and Brandon Heads,
Muckalaw Eock, &c. ;t both species nidify at the cliff called
Esk, and at both sides the entrance into Dingle harbour; the
smaller having its nests about one-third the height of the cliff
from the water, and the larger about the same distance from the
top :{ — the small Skellig rock and Magharee islands are like-
wise the breeding-haunts of P. graculus, which is considered by
Mr. R. Chute to be more numerous in all localities on the coast
of Kerry, than P. caj'ho. " Between the Eeannies and the So-
vereign Islands, on the coast of Cork, the green cormorants are
not numerous, and appear less so than they really are, on account
of breeding in single pairs, far apart from each other, on snug
little shelves and ledges, on the same part of the coast as the
common species. One or two pan- breed on the Sovereign Is-
lands. Both cormorants appear to construct their nests of dried
sea-weed and grass."§ Great rmmbers nidify in the cliifs at Ard-
more, county Waterford;]! in those of the county Wexford they
also build, but are considered, on the coast of the latter gene-

* Rev. G. Robiusou. t Mr. R. D. Rtzgerald, juu.

+ lion. Mr. Moleyns. § Mr. R. Warren, jun. || Mr. Bali.

THE GREEN COHMOliANT. 253

rally, to be about five to a hundred of the other (P. carlo)*
At the island of Lambay (Dublin coast) they annually breed ;t
about fifty birds were observed tliere one day in June 1850. J

I have seen specimens which were killed in Dublin Bay, and
was informed, in 1837, that about the montli of November or
December, every year, six or seven of these birds appear near
the Pigeon-house battery there. § They are rarely met with far
up Belfast Bay, like the common cormorant ; in the tidal portion
of the river Lagan, at Ormeau, one was shot in April 1827.

On the sands of the river Bann, about a quarter of a mile from
where it joins the ocean, I remarked the following incongruous
flock of birds on the 9th of July, 1833 ; — seven green cormo-
rants, two herons, several curlews, five black-headed, several of
the greater black-backed, and a very large flock of herring-gulls ;
these last being in one, two, three, and four years old plumage.

In the stomach of a green cormorant, shot in January 1838, con-
taining as food the remains of fishes only, I found three pebbles,
• — one, an inch and a quarter, another an inch, and the third
three-quarters of an inch in breadth, but none more than half as
much in thickness.

Sir William Jardine gives a very interesting description of tliis
species in its breeding-stations, several of which he visited. ||

Carho pygmatis, Temm. — A cormorant of a blackish-green
colour, smaller than C. cnstatus, and I have no doubt C. pi/g-
mcBiis, flew close past H.M.S. Beacon, when in the harbour of
Syra, on May 7th, 1841 ; a fact Avortli noticing, as neither Tem-
minck nor Degland^f is aware of its inhabiting that quarter. On
the 10th of June I saw, at a rocky islet to the north-east of Port
Naussa, in the island of Paros'^'^ another small cormorant in a
different state of plumage — (back greyish-green, belly white) —
which I considered to be of this species.

* Mr. Poole. f Mr. R. J. Moutgomery. % INFr. Watters.

§ Mr. H. H. Dombrain. || ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 240.

^ ' Ornitliologie Europccnnc' 1849.

** Pelican (P. onocrolalus). Mr. Wilkinsou, jun., of Syra, described to me as a

254 PELECANID^.

THE GANNET.

Solan Goose.

Sula Bassana, Briss.
Pelecamis Bassamis, Linn.
Anser „ Eay.

8ida alba, Meyer and Wolf.

May be seen on most parts of tlie coast in summer and
autumn : — it breeds on one of the Skellig islands.

Considering that there is only this one breeding-haunt on the
coast, it is singular that gannets should even in summer be spread
as they are around the entire island ; — as personal observation
and communications from the north, east, south, and west attest
them to be. Herrings are generally considered to be their chief
attraction, and when they are " on the coast " the birds are
beheved to be most numerous. "When anywhere about the
northern coast of Down, and along that of Antrim, at the more
genial season of the year, the gannet has almost daily come under
my observation -, and several were always in sight from the boat
as we proceeded from Donaghadee to the Copeland Islands. On
June the 13th, 1832, it was noted that from five till six o'clock
in the morning we saw many gannets on wing when on our way to
the Mew Island, one of the tlu-ee bearing the former name : —
several alighted one after the other on the water until they formed
a small flock, when they continued swimming together. They aU
descended in a very oblique line (about seventy-five degrees), and
not perpendicularly, as they usually do when fishing. Although

beautiful sight, a flock consisting of from two to three hundred of these birds, which
he saw about the 10th of September, 1840, tiying southward in the vicinity of
Smp'na : the form of the flock varied much, being sometimes cresceutic, at others
a straight line, &c.

In the Surrey Zoological Garden I once (April 1834) remarked five of these birds
engaged for some time going partially under water in concert, after the manner of
tame swans.

THE GANNET. 255

flpng lower than when observed here before (June 11, 1827),
none from the comparatively less height dashed down to seize its
prey as they then did from twice the elevation : the water tliis mor-
ning was only tolerably smooth ; on that occasion it was calm as a
mirror. June 24, 1 833. — Same locality and time of morning ; gan-
nets flew past us in one direction, until seven collected together ;
they then kept flying in company, though not in a regular flock,
about the same place for some time, not one descending for prey ;
a few others were seen on wing and on the water, but not fishing.
When passing the Copeland Islands, on the 17th of May, 1849,
at seven o'clock in the evening, several gannets appeared, which I
should expect took a flight before roosting-time to the Craig of
Ailsa. Proceeding to and from the Mew Island (from Grooms-
port), and when there, on the 16th of July, 1850, we saw about
twenty gannets on wing, singly, or not more than two in com-
j)auy. Not one of those observed in the course of several hours
was fishing; the sea was rather rough. All seen on this and
former occasions here were adult, excepting one to-day, which was
in the next stage to maturity, being partially white ; it was in
company with an adult bird. When landing on the island we
saw an old gannet in the possession of two boys, who had caught
it on the water. It was still living, not having suffered from the
capture, but was very much emaciated in the body, though no
external wounds were visible. As usual with birds in poor con-
dition, it was very much infested with parasitic insects. Adult
birds, as well as others, apparently in perfect health, and taken on
the water by fishermen — who imagined them to be overgorged —
have frequently come under my notice.

Within the entrance of Belfast Bay they are commonly to be
seen throughout summer and autumn, but very rarely do the
adult birds come far up the estuary. Within three miles of the
town, two appeared on the 14th of May, 1832, one of which was
struck down with an oax and secured. On the 27th of April,
1850, a fine old male was taken off Holywood, by becoming
so entangled in a fisherman's float-lines that it was drawn into
his boat, and quite uninjured. Young birds have not unfre-

256 PlWvECANIDyE.

quently been shot near the quays of the town in severe winter
weather.*

Two sporting friends^, when crossing from Portpatrick to Don-
aghadee, at the end of November 184.4^ remarked groups of two
or three old gannets fishing together as in summer.

Both adult and young birds are sometimes seen and captui-ed
inland. A friend observed one in full plumage in the spring of
1835, about a mile from Belfast and a similar distance from the
sea, flying directly inland; about the middle of October 1837, a
young bird of the year was captured in a brick-field on the
western side of the town : this bird was purchased by a friend,
with whom it lived for a considerable time, as I have known them
do in many instances. The following notes inform us of the
occasional appearance of the species considerably inland. A
young bird of the year was taken asleep at seven o'clock in the
morning of the 18th of October, 1838, under a stook of corn,
at New Perry, near Portglenone, and within forty or fifty perches
of the river Bann. It was brought to Belfast alive for sale,
under the impression of being an extraordinary rarity, no bird of
the kind having ever before been seen in that part of the country.
Such was the information derived from its captors by Mr. R.
Patterson. The locality is above thirty English miles from the
sea. On the 30th of August, 1811, an adult female was taken
alive by the gamekeeper, after some resistance, in a wood at
Gurteen, about four miles from Clonmel, and far distant from
any water, either fresh or salt. It lived for a few days, but
was much emaciated, and weighed only 3 lbs. 13oz.t About the
month of Pebruary 1844, an immature bird was taken near
Clonmel. J

With respect to plumage, which the gannet is considered not
to attain in a perfect state until the fourth year (Selby), it is

* At the end of November 1849, a young bird of the year, which came imder my
notice in Dublin, was shot on the coast there.

t Mr. R. Davis, jun., and ' Tipperary Pree Press,' September 11, 1841. Audubon,
weighing several adult gannets, found them to average above 7 lbs.

t Ibid.

THE GANNET. ' 257

singular that the adults and young birds of the year are not only
the most frequently met with around the coast of Ireland, but
that they alone have come under the notice of some ornithologists.
The intermediate states, and more especially the one preceding-
maturity, are rarely noticed. It has been remarked as strange
that the old birds should be so much more frequently seen than
the young ; but as only one young is produced, two of the former
may dui'ing summer and autumn be expected to be seen for one
of the latter. The young have a singular and handsome appear-
ance : the pure M'hite spots, disposed over the blackish-grey
plumage, appear just as if a snow-shower had fallen on the bird ; a
remark which equally applies to the speckled divers {Coli/mhi).

A gannet, in the plumage of the second year, captured by a
fisherman near Carrickfergus, in the month of September 1831,
was brought alive to a bird-preserver in Belfast. This poor bird
had a most unfortunate malformation of bill for its mode of
fishing, the two mandibles crossing each other quite as much as
those of the common crossbill {Loxia cnrvirostm). I did not
see the bird alive, but the taxidermist informed me that the body
under the wings was so warm that his hands could hardly bear the
heat, and that the bird was continually endeavouring to free
itself from the host of parasitic insects with which it was infested.
Their extraordinary number no doubt arose from the inability of
the bird to free itself, even partially, from its tormentors with an
instrument so ill adapted to the purpose.

An ornithological friend once remarked, much to his surprise,
the singular place selected by a young gannet in captivity for
stowing away the portions of its meal left after its appetite had
been satisfied. These, consisting of entrails, the bird tucked in
beneath and suspended over each wing, until hunger should again
be felt.

FisJimg. — To witness the fishing of the gannet is not only a
beautiful, but a grand spectacle, more so to my mind than even
the swoop of the golden eagle or the peregrine falcon at its
" quarry," in which amazing power of flight and keenness of
vision are manifested. These chase their prey in their own

VOL. III. s

258 pelecanid.-f:.

element^ the ambient air, and if \he pnrsned touch but the sur-
face of the water, it proves an altar of safety against the as-
saihant ; but the gannet procures its food not only in another
element, but, from a great elevation in the air perceives it
far beneath the surface of the sea, majestically poises itself, and,
direct as a plummet, shoots into the deep with an impetus that
forces a jet of water into the air, and leaves behind a circle of
snowy foam conspicuous from a great distance. The more in-
telligent fishermen of Belfast Bay always like to see the gannet
when they arc lierring-fishing, as they set their nets according
to the height above the \\ater from which it plunges ; the greater
tlie elevation of the bird in the air, the lower in the water the nets
are sunk. The extreme depth of water in which the gannet can
see its prey from on high must be somewhat conjectural ; but that
numbers of these birds have been taken in nets at a depth of
180 feet is fully proven. On this subject I contributed the fol-
lowing notes to ' Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History,' in
January 1838 (vol. ii. p. 19) : —

Having heard from two friends, who were grouse-shooting in the
neighbourhood of Ballantrae, that they had seen great numbers of
gannets lying in a state of decay, in holes on the beach, and that these
birds had been taken at extraordinary depths in the fishermen's nets,
I made particular inquiry on the subject from a worthy resident of niy
acquaintance (postmaster, &c., of the viUage), and on the 15th of
November, 1836, received the following reply : — "Gannets are very
commonly caught about Ballantrae (chiefly in the month of March)
in the fishermen's nets, which are generally sunk from nine to tAventy,
but sometimes to the depth of thirty fathoms,* just as the fish, her-
rings, &c., are lying. They are taken at all these depths, when the
water is rough as well as smooth, and in both the cod and turbot nets
(respectively five and seven inches wide in the mesh). Of the greatest
quantity taken at one time, ' John, son of old Alex. Coulter, can make
oath, that he took ninety-four gannets from one net, at a single haul,
a few years ago. The net was about sixty fathoms long, a cod-net,
Avrooght in a five-inch scale. The birds brought up the net, witli its

* Ouc hundred and eiglify feet ; there beiug six feet in a fathom.

THE GANNET. 259

Sinkers and fish, to the top, where such as were not drowned, made a
sad struggle to escape. There were four nets in this train ; but the
aboA'e uinety-four were in one of the nets, and there were thirty-four
additional birds in the other part of the train, being one hundred and
twenty-eight gannets in all." It is added, that " there are found also in
the nets, what are here called holland hawks,* and burrians ;f — a hol-
land hawk weighs 14 lbs. — the bird called burriau weighs 7 or 8 lbs.,
and is speckled on the back like a starling, belly and breast pui'e white.
Some others of the Ailsa birds are also got in the nets at all depths ; —
one is about the size of a pigeon, t moves in the water with extended
wings, always pushing his way forward, and thus gets di'owned.
Herrings are occasionally taken in the wide cod-net, and also mackerel."
Were these facts not amply attested, I would be incredidous about the
depths which the gaiuiet sounds ; but the information furnished in
writing, the truth of which, it is stated, may be implicitly relied on,
is precisely what was related to my friends, and the singularity of which
prompted my inquiry. The vicinity of Ailsa Craig, the great breeding-
haunt of the gannet in this quarter, must be recollected, in connection
with what is here related.

They have repeatedly been captured since in the same manner.
At the end of March 1840, an eye-witness mentioned to me that
he saw a number of gannets taken from the herring-nets there.
On the subject of the gannet^s fishing, the following notes have
been contributed. Some of these birds came daily under the
observation of a scientific friend, who spent some time late in
the summer of 1833 at Cushendall, on the coast of Antrim. He
remarked that when in pursuit of prey they invariably went down
perpendicularly, remained a long time under water, and never re-
aj)peared without a fish crosswise in their biUs, which was thrown
up into the air, caught by the head in its descent, and swallowed.
This done, they flew away close above the surface of the water to

* Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glaciaUs, Liun. " Ailan-hawk " is applied
to divers {flolymli) generally, in Belfast Bay.

t Red-throated Diver. Cohjmlus septenirionalis, Liun.

:j: Puffin {Mormon fmtercula, Temin.), probably, judging from the size. The
description of the manner of moving tinder water, would, perhaps, apply generally to
diving birds.

s 2

'IQO FELECANID.E.

a distance of two or three hundred yards, alighted, and remained
there for one or two minutes preening themselves, and again
returned to the fishing-ground. My informant supposes this rest to
be necessary after the exhaustion caused by their descent. He has
observed them when apparently about to poise themselves previous
to making the plunge, fly away obliquely (though not alight), as if
they saw they had no chance of securing their intended prey ;
but, once the plunge was made, the object never escaped. They
not only remained a long time under water, but emerged at a
considerable distance from where they disappeared,^

The Eev. G. M. Black, writing from Annalong, at the sea-base of
the mountains of Mourne, in October, 1849, observes: — " Gan-
nets are frequent on the coast, and I spend often some half-hours
in watching them fishing. Their power of sight must be amazing,
as, no matter how rough the sea may be, it seems to make no
difference to them. The fishermen say they know on what kind
of fish they are ' working ' by the manner in which they ' strike /
if on herring or grey gurnard, slow -swimming fish, as I believe,
they ascend perpendicularly, or nearly so, but if on mackerel, ob-
liquely. One which happened to be caught asleep on the water
(which is often the case) during the mackerel season, was brought
on board the boat and tied by the leg to one of the ' thafts." To
test its appetite some fish were thrown to it, when, without ' draw-
ing breath/ it swallowed four full-grown mackerel, and probably
would have disposed of more, had not the fishermen thought it
had had enough, at least for one meal. They must breed very
early, as I have observed, in the end of May, young birds quite
strong on the wing, and fishing with the old ones. In winter I
occasionally see the old birds, and them only."

Having requested my correspondent to note the dates of these
birds being seen, he reported the last one in 1819, to have ap-
peared on the 15th of November, and the first one in the spring

* Audubon, having shot a gannet just as it emerged with a fish in its bill, and
having found two others half-way dovfn its throat, remarks, — " This has induced me
to believe that it sometimes follows its prey in the water, and seizes several fishes in
giicees&ioa " (vol. iv. p. 227). This author gives an excellent account of the gauiitl.

THE GANNET. 20 1

Oil the 10th of March ; during the whiter months of the season
184-9-50, not one was observed. The obHque mode of descent
when fishing, is Kttle known, but it is unquestionably sometimes
practised. A fisherman under whose notice gannets almost daily
come in the season within the entrance of Belfast Bay, is of
opinion (and doubtless correctly so) that they descend obliquely
when their prey is in shallow water ; — as in fishing for sand-eels
at the depth of a few feet, and for herring fry at or near the
surface. In very deep water likewise, they occasionally strike
obliquely.

Gannets have been taken about Horn Head in the old-fashioned
manner, by a fish fastened to a strong piece of board which is
floated, and the bird coming down from a height in the air on
the prey, has its neck dislocated. A fine adult bird was found
upon the shore there with its neck thus broken a day or two be-
fore our visit at the end of June 1832. It is remarked by
Mr. John Macgillivray that — " The force with which the gannet
plunges from on wing in pursuit of a fish is astonishingly great.
The following story, illustrating this i)oint, was related to me by
more than one person, both in St. Kilda and Harris, and I
believe to be true. Several years ago, an open boat was returning
from St. Kilda to Harris, and a few herrings happened to be lying
in the bottom, close to the edge of the ballast. A gannet passing
overhead, stopping for a moment, suddenly darted down upon the
fish, and passed through the bottom of the boat as far as the
middle of the body, which, being retained in that position by one
of the crew, effectually stopped the leak, until they had reached
their destination.""^ Whether or not we give credence to this
story, the following will not, I fear, pass current. OTlaherty, in
his ' West or H-Iar Connaught,' written in 1684, informs us that
— " Here the ganet soares high into the sky to espy his prey in
the sea under him, at which he casts himself headlong into the
sea, and swallows up whole herrings in a morsell. This bird ilys
through the ship's sailes, piercing them with his beak'' (p. 12). t

* Description of ilie Island of St. Kild.-i, ' Edin. Phil, .lourn.' January 1813, p. fiO
t Published by the Irisb ArcluBological Society, in 1846.

262 PELECANID^.

Breeding-haunU. — The adult gannets seen about the coasts of
Autrim and Down in summer — and at five o'clock in the morn-
ing, as already stated,, I have observed them about the Copeland
Islands — are probably daily wanderers from their nearest breeding-
haunts, or, indeed, their only near one, the Craig of Ailsa, from
which the birds about Horn Head, in Donegal, also, probably
come, as St. Kilda, their next nearest and only other breeding-
haunt on the western coast of Scotland, is still more distant. It
has been remarked of Ailsa — " The broken summits of the co-
lumns [of basalt, huge fragments of which encumber the beach
below] serve to give a variety that increases the general pictu-
resque effect. These are the habitations and nests of the gannets,
innumerable flocks of which annually breed here ; forming, with
the various tribes of gulls, puiilns, auks, and other sea-fowl, a
feathered population scarcely exceeded by that of St. Xilda or the
riannan Isles. As the alarm occasioned by the arrival of a boat
spreads itself, the whole of this noisy multitude takes wing, form-
ing a clou.d in the atmosphere which bears a striking resemblance
to a fall of snow, or to the scattering of autumnal leaves in a
storm. To prevent interference in their courses, each cloud of
birds occupies a distinct stratum in the air, circidating in one
direction, and in a perpetual wheeling flight."^

Although I have not visited Ailsa, its noble pyramidal form,
rising to the altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea,t has always
been familiar to me, forming, as it does, so fine a feature in the
scenery when viewed from the north-e^^st coast of Ireland. But
while shooting on moors in Ayrshire, I have had the pleasure of
making a nearer acquaintance with it, as thence casting the eye
seaward, it was always the grandest object within view. On one occa-
sion it v,'as observed from the inland mountains that intensely dark
clouds occupied the entire west and north-west, and most dismally
grim did Ailsa rise from the dark waters ; again, that it appeared
covered with snow towards the summit, so exc[uisitely white were
the clouds resting there ; — and several times during two succes-

* M'Oulloch's ' Western Isles,' vol. ii. p. 493. f Ibid.

THE GANNET. 263

sive days, a dark cloud was seen rising from its apex, like smoke
from a volcano, wliicli the configuration of the island so strongly
resembles.

When in the vicinity in September 1843, I was told that the
gentleman who had " the shooting " over the property about Bal-
lantrae that season, went to Ailsa and cruelly slaughtered, in one
forenoon with two guns, upwards of a hundi'ed gannets, nearly all
old birds. He first kiUed one at about a Imndi-ed yards from the
island, and let it lie on tlie water to attract others to the spot,
which it unfortunately did, until the number mentioned was killed.
Bad as the destruction of gannets narrated by Audubon (vol. iv.
p. 224) is, this is still worse, the American slayers having an ob-
ject in it, though making a very trivial use of the birds. They
killed them for the sake of the flesh of the breast, as bait for
cod-fish.

Off the nor,th of Scotland, the gannet is said to breed on the
island of Souhskerry, as it is well known to do ofP the east coast,
at the Bass Eock, Erith of Forth. Its only breeding-place* on
the English coast is Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, and
but a single locality on the coast of Ireland is thus honoured :
this is one of the Skellig islands on the coast of Kerry. Smith,
in his history of that county, written a century ago, when
describing the " second or middle SkeUig " island, observes —
" ^Tis remarkable tlmt the gannet nestles nowhere else on the
soutli coast of Ireland, and though multitudes of them are daily
seen on all parts of our coast upon the wing, and in the sea, yet
they were never known to alight on any other land or rock here-
abouts, except on tliis island.''^ It is added, " I have been in-
formed that there is another rock on the north coast of Ireland
where they alight and breed in the same manner, and nowhere
else in the kingdom." I am unable to conjecture what rock is

* Mr. Macgillivray adds " Ronay " to the preceding Scottisli localities, but simply
uamcs tlie island (' Manual IJrit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 225). Ganucts arc not raculioncd
in any description of North, East, or West Rona that I have read, as frequenting
any of those islands. M'Culloch, describing Sulisker or Barra and North Rona in
the same chapter, mentions these birds at the former island only (' Western Isles,'
&c., vol. i. p. 205).

264} PELECANID.'E.

meant. In 1849, it was stated that — "At the larger Skellig
island they used to abound, but since the erection of a lighthouse
upon it, they have been confined to the small rock, where they
still breed in considerable uumbers/.^"^

A letter from J. F. Townsend, Esq., dated Castle Townsend,
September 22nd, 1850, informs me that the number of gannets
breeding on the Lesser Skelhg may be about 500 pair, in which
enumeration Mr. Carter, Commander of H.M. Eevenue Cruizer
Badger, and Mr. Bates, the next officer in command, who have
been much about the rock, agree with him. Some people at
Valentia state, that they pay the proprietor of the Skellig for the
privilege of killing gannets, &c. They sell the young birds for
food. My correspondent has never known sea-birds' eggs used
as food, nor heard, save in the instance of the young gannets, of
the flesh of sea-fowl being eaten in the south-west of Ireland.
Puffins are killed at the Skellig for the sake of their feathers. t
From this station the birds probably wander northward, to Round-
stone, on the Galway coast, in summer and autumn, where they are
commonly seen, especially during the herring fishery. J But as
adult birds appear on all parts of the coast in the height of the
breeding season, when it inay be presumed they '^ sleep at
home,"§ they doubtless are spread round our coasts from Lundy
Island, Ailsa, SkelHg island, and occasionally, perhaps, from St.

* Mr. E. Chute.

t I had heard nothing of any other breeding-haunt of the ganuet, than the Skellig,
until the Stags of Broadhaveu were incidentally mentioned in a letter from Mr.
Townsend, iu September 1850. On the 29th of the mouth, that gentleman favoured
me with the following information on the subject. On his visiting that part of
the coast of IMayo in a yacht in July 1830, hundreds of young gannets appeared
near the vessel, and vast numbers of old and young were about the rocks. In a
sketch then made of the locality, this species was introduced as a characteristic bird.
Mr. Townsend remarks: — "There cannot be the least doubt that the ganuet bi'eeds
at Broadhaven. In eveiy sense they seemed quite ' at home' there. The Stags are
huge insulated rocks, apparently as high as the Lesser Skellig, towering over the
ocean at a considerable distance from the shore ; — steep, craggy, and uninhabited.
It was a sort of relief when we sailed away from their awful sides and gloomy
shadows."

% The late Mr. J. Nimmo.

§ Mr. Knos, however, remarks that — " During the uight they sleep ou the water
so profoundly as frequently to allow the boats to pass over them." — ' Birds of Sussex,'
p. 243.

THE GANNET. 365

Kilda. On the subject of the flights from such localities we
have the following information : — " These islands are the favourite
resort of gannets. No disturbances ever appear sufficient to in-
duce these, more than the other species of sea-fowl, to change
their haunts, nor do they court uninhabited places in particular.
In leaving St. Kilda in an evening, they are met flying home in
long flocks, separated widely from each otlier, and apparently each
under a separate leader. At seventy miles from the island they
were all found directing their course to it. It is imagined by
the seamen and fishermen of this coast, that they fly out in the
morning to feed, even to the southern parts of Britain, and return
in the evening; a circumstance not improbable, when the strength
and rapidity of their flight is considered.'"* That they fly so far
— though having the power to do so — is, I conceive, very impro-
bable. From a more recent visitor to the island, we learn that —
" The gannet {Sula alba) is to be seen in vast numbers about
St. Kilda, from whence a portion of tliem take their departure
every morning to fish in tlie bays and channels of the outer He-
brides, the nearest of which is about fifty miles distant. I have
even seen them in Dunvegan Lough, in the Isle of Skye, about
ninety miles from St. Kilda, to which I have no doubt they all
retire at night. In fact, long strings of gannets may be seen on
the approach of evening, winging their way to the westward^'
(p. 64). ^ •5«- -J^- "The account given by Martin of the barren
gannets, wliicli roost separately from the others, was confirmed by
the natives."t

Sir Wilham Jardine gives, from personal observation, a very
interesting account of the gannets at the Bass Rock,J where they
appear to be as tame as Audubon describes them on the American
coast, or, indeed, hardly less so than voyagers report birds to be
on the first visit to uninliabited islands.

* M'Culloch's ' Western Islands of Scotland/ vol. ii. j). 54.

t " Account of the Island of St. KOda," &c. ; by John Macgillivray. Ediu.
rhil. Jouni., No. 63, January, 1842, p. 66.

\ 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 245.

2GG LARIDiE.

RUPPELL'S TERN.^

Sterna velox, Ruppell.
Has been once obtained.

In the 'Annals of Nat. Hist.' for September 1847 (vol. xs.
p. 170), I published the following notice of tliis species : — "In
March last I had the opportunity of examining, in Mr. R. Ball's
possession in Dublin, a specimen of a tern, the species of which I
did not know. It was left by a young taxidermist at my friend's
house early in the month of January, and apparently had been
but recently skinned. Mr. Watters, jun., to whom the specimen
now belongs, assured me, that he saw it in a fresh state, and that
it was killed near Sutton — a place on the road between Dubhn
and Howth — at the end of December 1846; two others of the
same species were stated by the shooter to have been in company
with it. As the bird was unknown to me, I noted down the fol-
lowing particulars of it, which are given here that others may have
an opportunity of forming their judgment upon the species : —

Length, total (stiiffed), to the end of longest tail-feathers

„ of bill above from forehead to point
„ „ from rictus to point

„ of wing from carpus

„ of tarsus about

„ of middle toe to base of nail

,, of nail itself measured iu a straight line about

Wing and longest tail-feathers about of equal length ; outer or
longest tail-feathers exceed the middle by tlu-ee inches. Bill whoUy
yellowish horn- colour ; legs and toes wholly black. Colour of
entire plumage the same as that of the common tern [S. Idrundd),
but the back is rather of a darker shade than that of the latter
when adult. The black of the head does not reach withhi one-

* I am happy to connect, in English, the name of its describer with the bird — not
as a matter of any honom* to one so eminently distinguished as a traveller and a
natiu'alist, but as a personal reminiscence of a gcutleuiau whom I highly esteem.

in.

lin.

. 20

3

2

C

. 3

4

. 13

9

. 1

0

. 0

11

. 0

4

uuppell's tern. 267

third of an inch of the bill ; space between the termination of the
black plumage and the bill, pure white. The specimen is evi-
dently adult.

" On visiting the collection of birds in the British Museum —
where the utmost facility for reference and comparison has always
been most kindly afforded me by George R. Gray, Esq. — I saw
the same tern labelled ' Sterna velox, Ruppell, Eed Sca.^ It was
from this locality that Ruppell had the species, w^hich is figured
in his 'Atlas/ pi. 13 (1826). The Sterna cristata described
by Swainson in his ' Birds of Western Africa/ p. 247, pi. 30,
agrees in all details with my notes of S. velox, except in the
colour of the back^ which is said to be almost as white as the
under parts."

Different statements having been made in Dublin respecting
this bird being killed there, I have made further inquiries on the
subject since the preceding was published. Mr, Wattcrs assures
me that he not only saw the fresh skin, but that he pulled away
the flesh, himself^ while quite red and recent, from the tibial and
humeral bones, and extracted the tongue and part of the skull.
I have also been favoured by Mr. Lynch of Cork-street, Dublin,
with a note, stating that he shot the bird at a marshy pool near
Kilbarrack (and Sutton), on tlie borders of the bay; life was not
aware of its rarity, and by mere chance it was not thrown away.

It seems strange that this tern is not given a regular place in
either of the late published works — Scldegel's ' Eevue Critique
des Oiseaux d^Europe,' or Degland^s ' Ornithologie Europcenne,'
although it is mentioned in both, on the authority of the Prince
of Canino (at p. 113 in the former, and vol. ii. p. 335 in the
latter). I have not seen what was published by the Prince of
Canino on the subject, but when commenting on my paper read
before the British Association at Oxforcl, in which a notice of
S. velox was contained, he mentioned it as a bird of the eastern
Mediterranean, and, so far as he was informed, not found west-
ward of Sicily.

To myself, the occurrence of S. velox in Ireland seems not much

268 LAUIDiE.

more singular than that of otliers of the terns of the south-east of
Europe. As the first procured in Western Europe^ it is looked
upon with surprise ; but when a few other individuals have been
obtained^ the circumstance will be regarded as nothing remark-
able. In the same way, when I noticed the Sterna stolida for the
first time as met with in the European seas, the announcement
was looked upon with wonder ; but within a few years afterwards
the bird was observed on the coast of Erance, and more recently
in St. George^s Channel.

The Caspian Tern {Sterna Caspia, Pallas), wliicli has been obtained
several times on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, is not known to
have visited Ireland ; — or Scotland (Jard. Macg.) ; nor has the

Gull-billed Tern (Sterna Anglica, ]\Iontagu), though a few indi-
viduals have been procured in different parts of England.

THE SANDWICH TERN.

Sterna Cantiaca, Gmel.
„ BoT/sil, Eath.

Is of occasional occurrence on the coast in summer juid
autumn, both in immature and adult plumage.

It was first indicated as an Irish species in the Proceedings of
the Zoological Society of London for 1833 (p. 33), from a speci-
men shot on the i-ith of August, 1832, in Belfast Bay, that came
into my possession in a recent state. At the indenture of the
shore here, opposite Garnerville, called Harrison's Bay, a shooter
was attracted by the call, such as he had never before heard, of
two birds flying overhead, and shot one of them. It proved to be
this species in its young plumage, as described and figured by
Latham, under the name of Sterna striata. The perishable colours
of the bill and legs (though changing little by drying in this
species) were noted — tarsi, toes, and webs black ; under side toes
yellowish ; bill blackish horn-colour, with yellow tip. On the

THE SANDWICH TERN. 269

28th of July, 1838, a Sandwich tern, in full plumage, with seve-
ral redshanks, and about twenty dunlins, were killed at the same
shot (from a swivel-gun) in Belfast Bay, opposite "The Grove."

Its length from point of bill to extremity of tail is 151 inclies (wings extend
nearly an inch beyond the tail) ; bill above from forehead to point, 1 inch lli lines ;
from rictus to point, 2 inches 9 lines ; tai'sus 1 inch 1 line ; middle' toe and nail
measured in a straight line, 1 inch; carpus to end of longest quill (the first) lli inches;
tibia bare for i inch ; outer tail-feathers 9 lines longer than second pair ; breadth
•of wings extended, 2 feet 7 inches. The colour was that of the summer plumage,
as described by iSIontagu, in every particular but one, none of the primaries being
tipped with black, as in his specimen, but instead, being throughout of a uniform
tint ; inside of the biU ycUow,

The fowler who killed this bird saw fourteen Sandwich terns
(which, from their size, black bills and legs, he at once recog-
nized to be of the same species as the former one) together in the
bay, on the 3rd or 4tli of September, 1839. So tame were they,
that he and another person on board a dredging vessel remarked,
when relating the circumstance, that from its deck they could
have brought down the terns with whips, but their only offensive
weapon was the sand on board, with which they pelted them ! On
the 23rd of September, 184-4, an adult bird was seen at the quay
of Belfast, where, perched on one of the mud-lifting scoops, it
admitted of a very near approach. These facts respecting the
tameness of the birds may seem too trivial, but they indicate that
the locality from which they came has been little visited by man.
One of these terns, sent from Portafcrry, Strangford Lough, to
BeKast, for preservation, on the 16th of August 1844, was
probably shot in that neighbourhood.

The following notes relate to the occurrence of the Sandwich
tern on the Dublin coast. In October (?) 1831, one was shot at
Clontarf ; on the 29th of July, 1834, I saw two specimens — an
adult and a young one (-S'. striata, Lath.) — which were shot that
day by T. W. Warren, Esq., at the locaHty just named, on the
borders of the bay. On one day in the month of September 1837,
this gentleman saw at least a dozen Sandwich terns near Howth.
On the 11th of May, 1842, one was seen on Dollymount strand,
in the same quarter.

270 LARID/E.

More recent information has led to the belief that the species
might breed on that coast^ and more especially the fact that Mr.
Warren has seen or known the bird to be about Portmarnock or
Malahide every year (now summer 1850) in June and July since
the time he first met with it. About the 15th of June^ 1850,
one was shot and two others were seen at the island of Ire-
land's Eye. On the ]7th of July, 1850, as mentioned under
the Roseate Tern, Mr. Watters visited the Eockabill, a small
rocky islet well known as a breeding -haunt of some of the more
common terns, and saw there three of the Sandwich species,
and found one of their eggs. The only tern he saw perched on
the island was one of these. On his remarking to the boatmen
how scarce they were, they said that the large sJdrrg^ fly daily in-
land to feed on fresh-water fishes in the small streams, and return
to the rock at night ! The birds alluded to as shot along the sea-
coast (and there only, so far as I have heard) have probably been
wanderers from this rock, including some seen in Drogheda Bay
on the 2nd and 3rd of August, 1850. t Mr. Watters remarks,
that " as we often from the land observe the swallows and mar-
tins flying low, while the swift is screaming at a great height, so
the roseate, common, and arctic terns showed little timidity ; but
the large Sandwich species kept at a great distance, screaming
loudly. Its flight is exceedingly beautiful, outrivalliug even thalF
of the buoyant Eoseate, by its sudden turns and rapidity."

The preceding information respecting the breeding-haunt of
the Sandwich tern, on the coast of Ireland, is all that can now
be given, and from the limited number of birds seen at any
period in that quarter, but few, I presume, have ever bred on
the island. The bird is of more frequent occurrence both in
England and Scotland than in Ireland, where my present informa-
tion respecting it, is confined to the eastern coast. Mr. Selby
gives an interesting account of the bird at its breeding-islets oft'

* Skirr simply is applied here to the species of oi'dinary size — the roseate, com-
mou, and arctic terns.

-)- By Mr. R. .J. Montgomery.

THE IIOSEATE TERN. 271

Northumberland, and Sir Wm. Jardine supplies much informa-
tion respecting it in Scotland. In the portfolio of Dr. J. L.
Drummond I have seen a drawing of a Sandwich tern made by
him when in the navy, from a specimen shot at Gibraltar. The
species has a very extensive geographical range, embracing the
coasts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America.

THE ROSEATE TEEN.

Sierna 2Mmdisea, Bvximi (1764).
„ Bougallii, Mont (1813).

Is a regular summer visitant, known to breed in a few
localities on the eastern coast.

Templeton knew this species only ii'om "one specimen shot in
Belfast Lough.^' Further information was obtained respecting it
on a visit made to the

Mew Island,

one of the three Copeland Islands outside the southern entrance,
by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire and myself, on the 1 1th of June, 1 837. One
of these, a low, flat, rocky islet, but with short pasture affording
food to cattle, is a chosen breeding-place of the terns, nnd either
from these birds or gulls having formerly frequented it, bears the
name of the Mew Island. Immense numbers of terns were flying
around us, uttering their wild cry as we passed between the Mew
and Lighthouse Islands, and as the day was delightful, it was
extremely interesting to observe their evolutions. Poised beauti-
fully in the air, with their wings merely wafting, or beating to
maintain their position, they looked out keenly for their finny
prey, which, soon as perceived, the wings were drawn quick as
thought close to the body, and, like an arrow from a bow, they
shot from such a height into the water within a few yards of us,
as to be wholly immersed, or, more rarely, obtained their prey

272 LAllID^.

at the expense of a partial ducking."^ Landing on the Mew Is-
land, we found a number of their nests, containing generally three
eggs, deposited either on the surface of the dried Zostera marina,
which had been drifted on the island, or on the bare sand between
the ledges of the rocks. One or both of each pair seemed to
keep fishing within sight of their nest, as, although we did not
see any birds sitting on the eggs, they instantly and hurriedly
made their appearance overhead on our near approach to their
treasures, uttering their hoarse jarring cry, and continuing to fly
about with great anxiety and consternation. After firing for some
time at all the birds that came within sliot, and having killed
thirteen, we ceased : — of these, two were roseate, three common,
and eight, arctic terns. It is well remarked by Sir Wm. Jardine,
that — " All the terns are very light, and the body being
comparatively small, the expanse of the wings and the tail so
buoys them up, that, when shot in the air, they are sustained,
their wings fold above thenl^and they whirl gently down, like a
shuttlecock. The roseate tern is remarkably buoyant, and we
could almost run below and catch the specimen in our hat before
it reached the ground.^'t So soon as the young are ready to fly,
they and their parents commence to wing their way southward,
remaining for some time about Belfast Bay, where throughout the
month of September they — S. hlrundo and S. arctica in particular
— are commonly seen. As none of the terns remain during winter,
the inhabitants of the Copeland Islands are puzzled to know
whence they come in spring. They say that they have never seen
them on their progress to the Mew Island ; but that every year
in the mouth of May a heavy fog comes on, and after it has
cleared away the rocks are studded with them ! Although fancy
is here called to aid, the remark suggests that they migrate in
large bodies. J

* Terns have fi-equently come within a few yards of a person of my acquaintance
wliile fishing in a boat about Green Island, near Carrickfergus — where they are
called pirre-maws, — and when little fish were flung iuto the air towards them, were
sm'e to be seized before reaching the water.

t ' Brit. Bii-ds,' vol. iv. p. 275.

\ The Bishop of Norwich informs us, iu liis ' Familiar History of Birds' (vol. ii.

THE ROSEATE TETJ^T. 273

On the 13tli of June, 1832, the Mew Island was again visited,
and by shooting at a few of the terns indiscriminately as they
came within shot, we procured one of the roseate, one of the
common, and eight of the arctic species. I could distinguish the
roseate when on wing from the other two by its colour and by
its note, which (as well observed by Mr. Selby) resembles the
word crake, uttered in a hoarse grating key. There were many
of them. Their flight was still more graceful and buoyant than
that of the other species. When they

" Sail upon the bosom of tlie air,"
the tail is borne so as to appear pointed; but is generally beau-
tifully spread when their nest is approached, and they swoop to-
wards the intruder in anger. Under similar circumstances,
hawks of different species have the same habit. I have ob-
served terns, too, apparently when not intent on prey, frequently
pause, kestrel-like, in their flight, and remain with their bodies
stationary in the air, but flapping their wings very quickly.
Another tern cries pirre, from which call the whole genus here
takes its name ; — a third cry is che-eep, cheep, or chip), when ut-
tered quickly ; but this proceeded from birds so liigli in the air,
that their species could not be determined, and I had to remain
in ignorance whether this was the call of a third, or whether one
species may not possess the two different calls. "^ The darker hue
of the under plumage of S. arctica is not always so obvious as to
enable us to distinguish it from 8. hirundo on wing.

On the 24th of June, 1833, the Mew Island was again vi-
sited by Mr. William Sinclaire and myself. As in former
years, we fired at all the terns that came within range, until

p. 243), with reference to gulls, that " it is positively asserted by the light-keepers
as a very extraordinary fact, that they all instinctively return to the South Stack
during the same night, on or about the 10th of February. * * * Jn \}^^.
middle of the night they are warned of their arrival by a great noise, as it were a
mutual greeting and cheering." In this work, p. 235, the tern is alluded to in a
very interesting manner, in connection with the " Narrative of the Loss of the
Lady Hobart packet."

* This would seem to be the cry of the arcti<; tern, from Audubon's remark, tiiat
it resembles " the syllables creek, creek " (vol. iii. p. 309) ; but this Cidl was less
frequent than pirre, considered that of Sterna hirundo, by no means so numerous as
the former species here.

VOL, III. T

274 LARiD^:.

the number required for the purposes of science were obtained,
and the result proved very different from that on former occa-
sions, as of the six killed to-day, three were roseate, two com-
mon, and one arctic.^ Of terns generally, I perceived a great
diminution of numbers since 1827 ; but the roseate, which,
as before, I readily distinguished by the call, &c., was, com-
pared with the numbers of the other species, much more common
than in 1827 and in 1832 ; we could to-day have shot many
more of them than of the others : they seemed principally con-
fined to one part of the island. t Being aware of Mr. YarrelFs
opinion that the egg of the roseate tern is in general form longer,
narrower, and more pointed at the smaller end than that of the
arctic or common species, I looked with this view to aU the eggs
which I saw in nests on the island ; — if nests they should be
called, as all the eggs seen to-day were laid on the short pasture,
owing perhaps to tlie birds being more than usually disturbed, and
changing their place of laying. There were more cattle on the
island than I had before seen, as well as more seekers after eggs.
I examined also those collected by one member of a boat's crew,
that landed just before us for the speciaL purpose of gathering
them ; and out of about fifty, only one would be called by Mr.
Yarrell the egg of the roseate, and all the others be considered
those of the common and arctic ; yet, from the number of terns
of that species which we saw to-day, from their flying much
nearer' to us, and being a great deal more vociferous than the

* Their stomachs did not exhibit the remains of tiny food : the three roseate birds
were males.

t This reminds us of what Mr. Selby has observed at the Parn Islands on the
Northumbrian coast. In the ' Zoological Journal' for January 182(5 (vol. ii. p. 462),
he states that : — " About fourteen years ago the keejier of the outer lighthouse first
noticed this as a new and distinct species. Infonnation was given me of the circum-
stance, and I went over to ascertain the fact ; and, having killed several, found them
to be the Sterna Bouf/al/ii, Mont. Since that period they have greatly increased,
and now form a numerous colony, which occupies a large space of ground near to
that occupied by the arctic species ; and they have a second station upon one of the
Walmseys."

Dr. M'Dougall, who discovered the roseate tern on the Cumbrae Islands, Frith of
Clyde, considered that there was not more than one of them to two hundred of the
common tern, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, of the conmion and arctic, the
latter not being distinguished from the conmion at that period.

THE KOSEATE TEKN. 275

other two species, I cannot but think that a number more of the
eggs examined must have been those of the roseate.^ On seeing
the boat's crew landing to collect eggs, we remarked to our boat-
men that the season was now so far advanced that many of them
might be found incubated ; but it was replied, that, on the con-
tvarj, they were all fresh-laid that morning, the island being not
only daily visited by egg-gatherers, but that boys sometimes
remain there all night, sleeping under the shelter of a rock, that
they may be the first at the gathering on the following morning.
So incessantly are the poor birds robbed of their eggs, that our
boatmen stated they can never bring forth their young until the
time of hay- harvest, when the people are too much occupied to
molest them.t

The birds themselves, too, suffered much this year. In one fore-
noon at the end of May a party butchered not less than fifty, of
wliich about a dozen were the roseate, and all were afterwards
flung away as useless. A dozen, all arctic, were killed on the
1st of June, and subsequently four of the roseate were sent from
the island to a gentleman of my acquaintance. Our boatmen
stated, that they remembered these birds more than ten times as
numerous as at present. Their diminution is owing to their
eggs being more than ever sought after, and to the increasing
wanton persecution to which the birds themselves are sub-
jected in being killed by heartless shooters, who have no object in
view but their destruction.

I have been much pleased by remarking the following trait in

* Mr. Selby, who has had the best of opportunities for examining these eggs,
does not mention any difference in form between those of the roseate and arctic
species ; but remarks that the eggs of the former much resemble those of tlie latter,
" but arc a little larger, and with the ground-colour usually more inclining to cream-
white or pale wood-brown" (vol. ii. p. 471).

Eggs, represented in Hewitson's work as those of the common and arctic tern, I
have frequently found in the same nest. This author admits that it is quite imi)os-
sible to distinguish the eggs of these two species from each other with certainty ;
but that those of the arctic ai-e generally the smaller of the two.

f Mr. Knox, in his most pleasing ' Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,' at p. 2 14,
mentions a person having had a peculiar breed of dogs, which he successfully trained
to hunt for the eggs of terns, ring-dotterels, and lapwings on the coast of that
county ; but it is to be hoped that the breed has become extinct, never to be
renewed.

T 2

270 LARIDiE.

the cliaracter of the terns. When one is killed, or wounded, all
within view of the poor victim fly instantly towards it, and bewail
its fate in the most piteous terms. The quickness with which
they perceive its fall is surprising. They dart down until almost
touching it, and, observing that it cannot rise, keep circling over
it with the greatest vociferation ; in this act the three species
join, making common cause, no matter which kind is victim.
This amiable trait, as already mentioned of the gannet, at Ailsa,
is sometimes taken advantage of at the Mew Island, for the
destruction of the terns, and dead birds are thrown into the air
to lure within shot the survivors, otherwise keeping out of range.
A habit which Audubon remarked of the arctic tern, met with
by him at several of its breeding-haunts on the coast of North
America, is equally applicable to the common and roseate species,
and probably to others : — that, " whenever one was wounded so
slightly as to be able to make off, it was lost to us, and the rest
followed it" (vol. iii. p. 3G8).

I have somewhere read that the lower animals are altogether
devoid of that generous feeling for their neighbours in distress,
which characterizes the amiable of our own species, and Mr. Jesse,
in his popular ' Gleanings in Natural History,' states that in his
opinion, friendship for each other is peculiar to the rook. But
in addition to the terns and gannet, the redshank may be named.
The gulls, too, exhibit the same feeling, and if one falls, all the
species — the whole tribe of gidls — enact a similar part to that
narrated of the terns, call it affection or what we will : cnriosiiy
at all events it cannot be on the part of the terns at the Mew
Island, where they unfortunately have too frequent experience
in being fired at for that to be the cause. Audubon (vol. iii.
p. 107) mentions a similar trait displayed by the puffin, which
will be found noted at p. 234 of the present volume. With
respect to the deer, however, Shakespeare did not avail himself of
the poet's license, but was strictly correct in attributing to that
animal a character of the opposite nature, in his lines upon the
wounded stag ; —

" Anou, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by hiiu.

THE ROSEATE TERN. 277

And never stays to greet him ; Ay, quoth Jaques,
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens ;
"Pis just the fashion : v}herefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there /"'*

Mr. J. R. Garrett has supplied the following note, under date
of ^tJi of August, 1849: — "Terns were in great abundance at
the Mew Island to-day. I endeavoured to estimate their number,
and considered that there were not less than two thousand within
sight. So long as we remained on the island they continued to
hover over us, uttering their shrill screams, and showing much
anxiety, many of them having small fish in their bills, intended,
no doubt, for the young birds which had been hatched. On
making a careful search we found a considerable number of eggs,
the majority of which were addled. A few were, however, quite
fresh, notwithstanding the advanced period of the season, and in
four of them were young birds, whose cries were audible through
the chipped shells. A boy, who resides on the neighbouring
island, told me that he had taken from the Mew Island eleven
dozen and three terns' eggs, on one day at the commencement of
this season. Being desirous of procuring a few terns for ])reser-
vation, we shot half-a-dozen at random — two of these were of the
roseate, and the remainder were of the arctic species."

On the 16th of July, 1850, 1 visited the Mew Island in company
with the gentleman last named, and others. We were equally as-
tonished and annoyed to find that there was not a tern of any kind
on the island ; nor did we see one when going to or returning from
it to Groomsport, the distance between the two places being about
five miles. We were told by different persons that the birds
came as usual at the commencement of the breeding season, but
from being much fired at, and robbed of their eggs very soon after
arrival, they all left the island, and not one had since been seen

* A fallow-deer which I saw in October 1833, had met with an accident in the
deer-park at the Cave-hill, near Belfast, probably by having fallen down some of the
precipitous clifts, and his fore-legs were much bruised, thougli llie bones were not
broken. But he was put an end to by his eompauioiis, of which there was sufficient
evidence from tlu' wounds of their horns in his rear. The gamekee])er here stated,
that whenever any deer in the park are unable to keep pace with the herd, the latter
are siu'e to destroy them.

278 LAKID/E.

there by day. It is said that they come late iu the evening, re-
main diu'ing the night, and leave at early day-break when, about
the time of their departure, their calls are heard. Different per-
sons made this statement, independently of each other; but I
am inclined to consider it imaginary. The chief cause of their
desertion seems to be owing to a man in charge of the remains
of a vessel wrecked here last winter, living constantly on the
island, though his habitation is certainly the reverse of conspi-
cuous. It is about the smallest and most primitive human habi-
tation I ever saw ; consisting of a few old sails throwm over the
timbers of the wreck in a hollow among the rocks, with an en-
trance, in dimensions very little exceeding that to a respectable
dog-house, and altogether in picturesqueness well worthy the at-
tention of a Prout. But in addition to him, there are men daily
on the island working about the wreck. There have also of late
been several boats^ crews from Groomsport, daily at ebb tide, en-
gaged in grappling for the iron of the splendid steam-ship Sea
King, which was lost here.

A gentleman residing on the coast towards the entrance of
Belfast Bay, remarked to me as a singular fact, at the beginning
of August 1850, that the herring fry had come in this year with-
out a single tern after them. The circumstance can at once be
accounted for by the total absence of these birds from their only
breeding-haunt in this quarter, the Mew Island.

Later in the season, however, at the migratory period, some
terns did appear in the bay, as, on the 8th of September, a few
came under my notice near Craigavad.

The roseate tern has very rarely been killed far up Belfast
Bay, but at Conswater Point, within about a mile of the town, it
has more than once been obtained, and here, the only one known
to Templeton as Irish, was killed on the 22nd of June, 1821, in
company with S. hirundo, of which four were brought down at
the same shot. A roseate, a Sandwich, and a common tern, sent
on the 16th of August, 1839, from Portaferry (Strangford Lough)
to Belfast, to be preserved, came under my inspection, but I could

THE ROSEATE TERN. 279

not learn any particnlars respecting them. They may at that
period have been on migration southwards, after breeding.

On visiting the Skerries — islands off Portrnsh, and near the
Giant^s Causeway— on the 12th of July, 1883, I found that
terns are not numerous there, and was told that from being much
disturbed by fishermen and others, they are gradually becoming
scarcer. The surface of these islands as to structure and vegeta-
tion is very simdar to the Mew Island, but the rocks present a
more even surface, and are less favoui-able for their nests. Three
bi''ds, which we shot, were of the arctic species. We saw but
one nest, also of tliis bird, one egg in which would be called
tliat of the arctic, the other of the common tern. Judging from
the cry of crahe which 1 heard from one bird, the roseate species
must be here.

When in Dublin, in May 1837, I learned that two roseate
terns had been killed in summer on the barren Eockabill, four
and a half statute miles from. Skerries, on the Dublin coast ; and
subsequently I was informed that several had been shot in the
last week of June the same year, a few miles from the island.'^
Hence it was presumed that the species breeds there. We cannot,
as Mr. Selby has done, on the authority of the lighthouse- keeper
on the Parn Islands, say when this bird came to the Eockabill,
but only, that it was first noticed there (so far as my information
extends) at the period named. On the 1st of July, 1840, it was
ascertained that they were breeding there plentifully ; sixteen of
them were shot and sent to my informant ; no other species of
tern was obtained on the occasion.f The Eev. George Eobinsou
visited this island on July the 12th, 1844, and saw hundreds of
roseate terns, four of which were shot. S. hirimdo was numerous
there. The roseate, though abundant, was not so plentiful as
the arctic and common united. In June 1847, he visited Eock-
abill a second time, and on that occasion found a great diminu-
tion in the numbers of the roseate terns, which was attributed by
the boatmen to the number that had been shot by boating parties.

On the 17th of July, 1850, Mr. John J. Watters, jun., went
* Mr. T. W. Warren. t Ur. C. Farran.

280 LARlDyE.

to the island and shot four roseate, four common, and two arctic
terns. He obtained the eggs of each species, twenty-three alto-
gether, the whole of which were evidently laid on that or the
preceding morning; those of the roseate being placed in small
cavities beneath blocks of stone. No young were seen. A
broken egg of the Sandwich tern, and three birds of that species,
were observed. There were considered to be at least seventy or
eighty roseate terns there, and twice that number of common and
arctic combined, as they could not be distinguished on wing.

In June 1850, the roseate tern was shot at Lambay Island, and
it has been procured in the bays of Drogheda and Dublin ; such
birds being probably wanderers from the Eockabill.

On questioning Mr. Glennon, in May 1837, respecting this
species, he stated that in the month of June, a few years pre-
viously, he had received in a fresh state, from the coast of Wex-
ford, about fifty specimens. Capt. Walker, of Belmont, near the
town of Wexford, in a letter to me dated November 19th, 1836,
remarked — " In the spring, different sorts of terns are com-
mon on the sand-banks here, and the nest of the roseate is inge-
nious : the sand is slightly hollowed, and, to prevent the eggs
rolling away, it is surrounded by a small hoop about three inches
in diameter, made of hent (a strong grass wliich grows on the
sand hills), and put very neatly together."

At Roundstone, on the coast of Galway, the Rev. G. Robinson
saw a tern in July 1844, which, from its call, mode of flight,
general appearance, and difference from those of the common
and arctic species, he thought must be the roseate, which was
familiar to him from a recent visit to the Rockabill.

Such is all the information that can at present be given of this
elegant species ; but scanty as it is, that supplied to us respecting
the roseate tern on the coasts of England and Scotland is not
more full. The only breeding-haunts on the English coast that
I find positively recorded, are the Earn and Coquet"^ Islands, off
Northumberland, and Eoulney Island,t off Lancashire ; and on

* Hewitsou's ' Eggs of Brit. Birds.'

t Ibid. On authority of Mr. Jolia Hancock, of Newcastle on Tyne.

THE COMMON TEEN. 281

the Scottish coast, a locality on either side ; — the Isle of May on
the east, and Cumbrae on the west."^

Audubon thus writes : — " Beautiful indeed are terns of every
kind, but the roseate excels the rest, if not in form, yet in the
lovely hue of its breast. I had never [until the 28tli of April,
1833, at the islet named Indian Key] seen a bird of this species
before, and as the unscathed hundreds arose and danced as it were
in the air, I thought them the humming-birds of the sea, so
Hght and graceful were their movements" (vol. iii. p. 296).

THE COMMON TEEN.

Sea Swallow; Pirre (North of Ireland) .f
Sterna Mr undo, Linn.

Is a regular summer visitant to the coast and inland

waters.

Mr. Selby remarks, that tliis tern " is of rare occurrence upon
the whole extent of the eastern shores of the north of England
and Scotland, where its place seems to be supplied by the arctic
and roseate J species" (p. 468). Sir William Jardine observes,
that it " is a much more uncommon bird than either the roseate
or arctic tern" {' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 277). He coincides with
Mr. Selby in the statement of its rarity on the eastern side of Great
Britain, referring at the same time to the two or three pair nidifying
(as noticed by this author) at the Earn Islands, and adding that
a few build on the Isle of May, Erith of Eorth. " It breeds near
the western extremity of Rockcliff salt-marsh, at no great dis-
tance from the junction of the rivers Eden and Esk, in the Sol-
way Eirth, and a few pairs on Solway Moss."§ At Eoulney Island,
coast of Lancashire, its eggs have been found, (as well as those

* It is supposed to breed on islets in the Solway Frith. (Mr. Hcysham, Carlisle.)
t Skirr at Lambay ; Kingfisher at Lough Neagh.

X The only localities yet recorded for the roseate along the whole eastern line of
England and Scotland arc two— the Faru Islands and the Isle of May.

§ Mr. Heysham, in Yarrcll's ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. p. 397.

282

LAllID^.

of the roseate species) ;"^ and have been also, at Pevensey Shingle,
Sussex. t Mr. Yarrell notices several localities on the south-west,
south, and south-east (or rather the more southern portion of the
east) of England as frequented by this species, but without stating
whether or not it breeds at them. Unless the precise season be
mentioned, we cannot properly infer from the tern's presence at
a locality that it breeds there, for it appears at many places on its
vernal and autumnal migration near to which it never nidifies.
Positive information is much wanted respecting the breeding-
places of the several species of tern on the British coasts, &c.

In Ireland, the common tern justifies its name, and is more
generally diffused than the arctic (although this bird is more
numerous in certain localities), and greatly more so than the
roseate species. Under the last, it will be found noticed at the
Mew Island ; at other parts of the

Down Coast

it breeds, as on several of the low rocky and gravelly islets of
Strangford Lough. On visiting a number of these on the
20th and 21st June, 1832, the following note was made on the
latter day : — Exclusive of Sterna mimita, of which two pair were
seen on different islets (where no other terns appeared, nor were
any of their nests found), we did not see more than about ten
terns all day, and these were so very wild that we could not
obtain specimens, nor even ascertain the species. The only cry
was pirre, — che-eep, or crake, the notes of the arctic and roseate,
not being heard ; it was therefore considered that they were all
probably S. hirimdo. They appeared only about or within view
of the islands containing their nests, of which a number were dis-
covered. All of these, and there were several on Skart Eock,
were regularly composed of dried plants of the genus Fucus,
wliich had been thrown up by the tide. Two nests, which
I observed on Bird Island, were composed of dried grass-wrack
{Zostera marina'); one of these contained tliree, the other five

* Mr. Joliu Hancock, in Hewitsou's ' Eggs of Brit. Birds.'
t Knox.

THE COMMON TERN. 283

eggs : — the latter number had not unfrequently been found by
one of our boatmen. The spot from which one or two of the
terns rose to-day was kept in view. On going to it the eggs
were discovered, and they felt warmer than I thought it possible
they could have been from the mere heat of the sun. It is com-
monly believed at all the breeding-haunts of terns I have visited,
that the bird never sits on its eggs during the day. Our boatmen
admitted that although they had never seen terns leave the ground
so that they could say they were just off their nests, yet on ob-
serving them rise at a distance they have '' marked" the spot, and
on going to it found their eggs. The various boatmen who have
rowed us to the Mew Island made a similar remark. On the 16tli
of July, 1850, an intelligent boatman told us the belief here is
that the sun incubates the eggs, which are always placed on the
sumiy side of the rocks ; he remarked that it must be so, as the
birds do not sit on the nests by day. It is also considered that
two birds sometimes lay in the same nest, as six eggs (twice the
usual number) have been found together. That the birds do not
sit on the eggs during the .day, or do so very rarely, is certainly
the case at the several islands visited by myself. If they did so,
they would be hardly less conspicuous than " snow upon a raven's
back ;" and hence instinct may prompt them — in localities in
which they are liable to be disturbed, both for their own sake
and that of their eggs — to absent themselves from their nests
in the day-time.

Mr. Garrett has found terns' eggs perfectly fresh on islands in
Strangford Lough, about or near which he did not see a tern all day.

The S. hirundo has, however, not only been seen sitting on their
eggs, but shot in rising from them, on bare rocky islets of Bantry
Bay."^ Several birds were observed on their nests placed on the
short grass of the island off Islay, to be hereafter mentioned. In
the latter locality (and probably in the other also) these birds are
very rarely disturbed.

In the month of June 1836 a number of specimens of the com-
mon and arctic terns, killed on the islands of Strangford Lough,
* Mr. G. JacksoH.

284 LARID^.

came under my observation : on an island here near Portaferry, I ob-
served many terns on the 19th of August^ 1887. On the 22nd of
June, 1846, I saw a pair of terns on Bird Island, and on Gull
Island five birds, two of which were shot ; — one fell in the sea
and was lost to us, but the other was S. Airundo. About the
Laithe Eock five terns appeared, and two of them were obtained ;
both the common species. They were long shots ofl^, and only
struck on the wing, so that I heard their cry in the air and on the
ground when captured ; — -pirre only was uttered by those shot,
(which proved to be S. kinmdo,) and by all the others we heard
to-day. Two of their eggs were found on the last-named rock,
laid on hard drifted Fuci. The only discernible matter in the
stomachs of those killed was a perfect Gohms Rutliensparii. On
the 5tli of June, 1849, it was observed (by Mr. J. E. Garrett)
that the common tern had commenced breeding at Strangford
Lough, but was not numerous. At Gransha Point, three of their
nests were found, and four pair of birds seen : — a few others were
flying about the lough. On the 23rd of May, 1850, it was re-
marked by Mr. Prancis Eankin, who resides at Kirkcubbin on its
borders, that there never were so many terns seen in Strangford
Lough as this year, owing, he imagined, to the quietness of the
islands, as they were not frequented by /('if/^-burners, that article
being so much depressed in price as not to be worth making.
They were noticed as not having yet commenced breeding. On
visiting a number of the islands on the 6th of June, he did not
see nearly so many as at the former date, nor more than about
fifty birds ; nor could he find an egg, though he had procured
several before this time in the preceding year. They subsequently
became still more scarce, as the former gentleman, on visiting the
same locaHties on the 25th of June, saw but one bird and one nest
of eggs; and extending his trip on the following day saw neither
egg nor bird. The many terns seen therefore on the 23rd of
May were doubtless on migration, and some of those of the 6th
June must have retired to other quarters.

In the summer of 1830, a friend met with the common tern
breeding in a salt-marsh at the extremity of Killough Bay, Down,

THE COMMON TERN. 285

and with the aid of a telescope observed them feeding their young
on the rocks in the vicinity. When at Dundrura, also in that
county, on the 23rd of August, 1836, 1 was told that two species
of terns, one much smaller than the other, and probably
S. minuta, breed about there : the larger is, I have Httle doubt,
S. hvrundo. We saw a great number of terns, about the size of
the latter, flocked together that day on the sands, or in company
with kittiwake gulls.

It breeds on the sea-shores of Donegal ; — at the Rockabill off
the Dublin coast, and on the beach of this county at Malahide
(1837), and Sutton. When crossmg from the former of these
two localities to the island of Lambay, on the 5th of June,
1838, we saw both the common and arctic terns in company
flying over the sea. On the bare beach of the Wicklow coast,
near Bray,"^ tliis species nidifies, as it likewise does on the
Wexford coast, where it is remarked that the bhd " makes no nest,
merely depositing its eggs in a small hollow, probably formed
by a revolution of its body. It also lays on the decayed stems
of sea-campion." t It visits the coast of Waterford. Smith,
in his ' History of Cork,^ includes in the' list of birds " The sea-
swaUow, called with us spirres," remarking that " they flock
together, and breed on islands uninhabited near the sea-shores."
That, written more than a century ago, is applicable at the present
time. About the islets of Bantry Bay, amid the enchanting
scenery of Glengariff, 1 saw numbers either of this species or
the arctic tern (but not near enough to be distinguished) in July
1834, and eggs procured there came under my notice. In 1850,
I learn that they are still very plentiful, and have various breeding-
haunts, including bare rocky islets, about that noble bay. On the
Sovereign Islands, off the coast of Cork, my correspondent has
found their eggs laid on the short grass without any attempt
having been made at the formation of a nest. When mackerel-
fishing in Cork harbour at the end of July and early in August
1848 and previous years, he has also seen terns in such flocks or
* Mr. R. J. Montgomery. t Mr. Poole.

5i86 LARIDM.

" clouds/' that it was considered he might by following them have
killed a hundred in a day. He has shot several in a forenoon
that came directly in his way : all of which were the Sterna
hirundo.'* At Ballybunian, on the coast of Kerry, this species
was observed in 1833 by Capt. Sabine,

In July 1834, I observed a number of terns in the bay of
Galway, near the town ; and Mr. R. Ball, when visiting the
islands of Arran off that coast, on the 12th of June, in the follow-
ing year, found the nests of terns [S. hirundo?) containing eggs
on the beach of Straw Island. On Deer Island, and one or two
other islands off the Galway coast, this or one of the nearly- allied
species breeds in quantity and in company with the Sterna minuta :
— both appear on wing together in pm-suit of prey. When feeding
on sprats they have come within two or three yards of the boat in
wliich my informant (the late Mr. John Nimmo) was fishing.
On the rocky Hards Islands, off the same coast, where it is called
durogiie, the S. hinuido nidifies; the species being ascertained
by a young bird having been shot there on the 1st of August,
18i4.t

Fresh-2oater Breeding -haunts. — Montagu was not aware of this
species breeding at any but marine localities in England, but its
doing so about the fresh-water lakes of Ireland is of annual occur-
rence. When at Port Lough, a small lake or tarn,X on the north-
west of Donegal, on the 29tli of June, 1832, 1 was conveyed in a
" corragh" to its two islands, where this species, with several of
its .nests containing eggs, were observed. The nests were placed
among loose stones, and all composed of the common reed
{Arimdo phragmites) and Equiseta, both of which grow on the
islet; — a nest of the black-headed gull and sandpiper were
likewise foimd there. On visiting Eam's Island, in Lough
Neagh, on the 15th June, 1833 (in company with Mr. William
Sinclaire), for the purpose of ascertaining what species of gulls

* Mr. Rotert Warren, jim. t Kev. G. Eobinsou.

\ From "Willughby's 'Ornithology' we learn that — "In the northern parts [of
England] they call them terns ; whence Tiu'ner calls them, in Latine, Sterna, be-
nause they freqnent lakes and great pools of water, which in the north of England
■,\vt called iarns"\ — p. 353.

THE COMMON TERN. 287

and terns breed on the narrow strip of ground adjoining it, we
found the tern to be S. Idrundo, of which there were considerable
numbers, but having killed three required as specimens, we
ceased to distui'b them further. Several of their nests were seen,
none of which contained more than three eggs, this being the
usual number. I looked particularly to these, as I had done on
other occasions, with reference to the determination of the species
from the eggs alone, as we can frequently find them when the
birds will not approach sufficiently near for their species to be de-
termined. Some ornithologists consider the t^^'g of S. hirundo to
be rather larger and more round in form than that of S. arctica, and
these were certainly about the roundest of tern^s eggs that I had
seen. This character may therefore be generally correct, though
the difference between the eggs of the two species is by no means
well defined. As a breeding-place of the black-headed gull, the
locabty is more particularly noticed. The common tern breeds
on several other islets of this great lake; among others, on
Scawdy, near Maghery."^ Close by its margin, at Massareene
Park, on the 31st of July, 1846, several of these birds came under
my notice, one of which dipped frequently into a little shallow
piece of water amid the sands that could only have contained the
smallest of fish — the stickleback. Off Shanescastle Park, on the
following day, several appeared fishing, either singly or in com-
pany, and even a couple sometimes produced such a noise by their
continual cries that, until they came in view, it was imagined there
might be a "play" of them at a shoal of fish; — (August 3) it was
beautiful to observe a number, during a lovely sun-set, fishing and
descending from a considerable height in a spacious bay to the
southward of Toome. The fi'y of perch or of pollans {Core-
gonus pollaii) were probably their food, as a quantity, especially
of the former, lay strewn upon the beach; — the refuse of
nets, which were busily plied this evening. (August 5) At
Eam's Island I learned, that not a tern had a nest there this
year on account of their haunt being covered with water at the
breeding season. In 1850, about three pair were seen here by a

* Rev. G. Robinson, 1850.

288 LARIDyE.

scientific party on the 4th of June, and two of their nests contain-
ing eggs discovered.

Another inland breeding-haunt is at Lake Clay (south), near
Killileagh, county of Down, where about twenty were seen, and two
shot on the 16th of July^ 1845. Their nests are placed on rocky,
stony, and grassy islets. At one period they were in great numbers
here, and even in 1843 so many had nests on the chief islet that
it could hardly be walked over without their eggs being broken.
Half-a-dozen nests were found on the present occasion, but all
empty except two that contained young. The old terns pursued
and darted down at all birds, including even herons and herring-
gulls, that flew over any part of the lake ; and these comparatively
huge birds were evidently annoyed at the assaults of the terns, and
kept shifting their position to avoid them."^

I have seen specimens of the S. hinindo from a lake in the
county of Mouaghan, and have been told that both it and the
Larus rkl'ibundus breed numerously (or at least did some years
ago) on islands in Lough Egish. The breeding-haunts of this
gull seem equally suited to the Sterna hirundo. The tern lately
bred also at Chantanee and Shircock Lakes, in that county. t It
frequents the river Shannon in summer, whither it is believed to be
attracted by the salmon-fry. The first day on wliich its appear-
ance there was noted in one year was the 21st of May. J During
a tour made to the west and south of Leland, by Mr. R. Ball and
myself, at the end of June and beginning of July 18-34, a tern of
the common species came within a few yards of us at Lough Carra.
A few terns, most probably S. hirundo, but not near enough for
their species to be distinguished, were seen on Lough Corrib, on
some of the islands of which our boatmen stated that they breed,
and where I am assured they do until the present period (1850).

The marine and fresh-water localities, named as breecling-haunts
of the common tern, must be considered only as an indication of
those resorted to by the bird, and such as are positively known
to my correspondents or myself. They must.be greatly more nu-
merous around the coast, and throughout the fresh-water lakes of

* Mr. Darragh. f Mr. Robt. S. Evatt, 1845. + Rev. Th. Knox,

THE COMMON TEKN. 289

the island. The observation as to the localities enumerated will
equally apply to the roseate, arctic, and other terns.

Sir "William Jardine has remarked of the common tern, that,
" in its breeding habits, it differs from the roseate, and resembles
more nearly the lesser tern, seeming to prefer a shingly beach or
low-lying ground to rocky islands.'^'^ My observation agrees with
this as a general remark, but it is far from being of universal ap-
plication. The few localities known to me on the Irish coast in
which the S. mimita breeds, are near to the haunts of S. hirundo.
On the rocky Mew Island, where S. hirundo, 8. arcfica, and S.
Dougallii nidify, the habits of the three species are in all respects
similar. Its nests have already been noticed on other rocky, as
well as gravelly, sandy, and grassy, islets. The common tern is
more cosmopolite than any of the others ; breeding in locaHties
of various kinds, and, as we have seen, both about fresh- water
and the sea.

Terns of the common and two closely- allied species visit the
coast of Ireland at the beginning of May. In 1846, seven or
eight were then observed in Dublin Bay.t On the 9th I saw seve-
ral fishing close to Belfast Quay, in 1847; and in 1849, they
were first noticed about Drogheda, on the 7tli of that month. J

The common tern, or indeed any species, is very rarely seen
far up Belfast Bay previous to, or during, the breeding season ;
but at a favourite locality of this genus — Conswater Point — where
a stream flows into the bay, several were observed for some days,
about the 6th of June, 1843.§ From birds killed here, I have
taken the fifteen-spined stickleback {Gasterosfeus sp'machia, Lin.) ;
a fish which they also feed on at the Copeland Islands. They
are occasionally seen for some time throughout the bay early in
August, when the breeding season is over. On the 8th of that

* ' Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. p. 277- t Mr. Darragh.

\ Mr. R. J. MoHtgomery.

§ The ouly example of the roseate tern known to Mr. Tenipletoa and Mr. John
Montgomery was killed here.

VOL. III. U

290 LARID.E.

monthj in 1815, two flocks, consisting each of twenty birds, were
observed fishing off Balljmacarrett. They joined together, and
on tlic night of the 9th, at ten o^ clock (no moonlight), were heard
Hying over the land, perhaps on their antinnnal migration. From
the 21st to the last day of the month that year, they were nu-
merons, and covered over the buoys of the Channel at high tide
as closely as they could sit : on one day it was considered that
not less than a thousand birds were perched -u])on them. The
earliest date of their autumnal appearance, far up the bay near the
town, in another year, was the 12th of August : September is the
chief period of their visit.'^ At the end of this month in 1845,
and other years, they collected together in great numbers far up
the bay (about two miles from the town), in the evening, and
alighted along the edge of the channel. Mocks of many hundreds
were thus seen by moonlight, and, when they first arrested at-
tention, were imagined to be masses of snowy foam along the
margin of the flowing tide ; but on taking wing, their loud and
well-known cries proclaimed their species. Although one of
these birds, which was shot, and came under ray observation, was
an arctic tern, I place this note along with others of the same
kind, as S. Iiirunclo was probably also of the party. The latest
noted as killed here were four obtained on the 1st of October,
from a flock of about twenty ; they were the young of the year
and old birds of S. hirundo. From the circumstance of both old
and young being generally found associated here at this period,
they probably move southward in company. On the very stormy

* Sterna hirundo. — August 12th. On examination of two adult males killed to-
day, a great difference appeared in the colour of their primaries. In the one, as they
appear when the wings are closed and the white inner web concealed, they are
blackisli-brown throughout, and in the other of a Jioary white or pearl-grey. Juty
IGth. Of two very young birds taken from nests at Lake Clay, one was a little older
than the other, and had the tarsi and feet pale orange, while those of the younger
were of a deep Uesh-colour. The bills of both, as in the old bird, were black towards
the tip. This is the ordinary hue. The following note indicates an occasional de-
parture from it. Sterna hirundo. — Septeynber 17th, 1839. Four of these birds, shot
from a flock of five at Conswater this evening, were brought to me. Two were adult,
and two, the young of the year. Of these latter, one was much larger than the
other, had tlie legs and feet of a reddish flesh-colour, and the bill dark greenish-ash :
the smaller bird had the legs, feet, and Ijill greenish ; the last being the darkest in
shade.

THE COMMON TERN. 291

day of tlie lltli of October, 1838, a flock of from forty to fifty
terns VTas seen flying close to tlie laud over Conswater Point, in
a southerly direction, when they were believed to be on migra-
tion. The description of them applies to S. Idrmuh, S. arc-
tica, or 8. Bougallii, with their young, as there were '^ two sizes "
of them := — the young birds now appear much smaller than
their parents, from not having the long tail-feathers. Terns
sometimes ascend the river Lagan in autumn, following its mean-
derings for above ten miles inland; about Lambeg they have
frequently been seen. At the end of August 1838, a young
S. hirundo was found dead on a mountain, about a mile from
Clonmel.^

Sir William Jardine ('Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 277) remarks
respecting the common tern — " We do not trace it with authen-
ticity northward to the islands of Scotland, except that it is men-
tioned by Mr. John Macgillivray on the Outer Hebrides." When
at Islay, in January 1849, 1 learned that a tern, either S. hinmdo
or S. arciica (as none with the black bill of S, Bougallii had ever
been observed), bred in great numbers annually on Kiurevock, or
the rabbit-island, which is rocky, with a good deal of short pas-
ture. It was considered by P. Mackenzie, head keeper, that
about 500 pair bred in 1848, and several previous years, on that
and a closely adjacent islet. He pointed out to me in the mu-
seum of native birds, &c., at Islay House, a specimen of the tern
which breeds there ; — it was S. hirundo, and no other species of
Sterna was in the collection. When the island was visited by
my friends for the purpose of seal-shooting, in May 1848, the
terns had not commenced laying, and annoyed them very mucl^
by their cries alarming the seals, so that not a shot could be had
at them on the rocks. In May 1849, there were considered to be
about twenty terns here for one in 1848. The number of their
eggs taken will be found mentioned under the Common Gull. It
AA'ould be interesting to ascertain whether the tern found breeding
in the islands of a loch amid the woods of Altyre, five miles from

* Mr. R. Davis.
U 2

292 LARID.15.

the sea,^ or at other fresh-water lakes in Scotland^ be tlie S.
hiTundo, as it, alone, have I fonnd selecting for its nest such
places in Ireland.

In the year 1826, at the end of May, I saw the S. hirundo
commonly in the fens of Holland, and towards the end of July
about the lagunes of Venice. In 1841, when descending the
Rhone from Lyons to Avignon, on the 9th of April, I remarked
some terns, most probably of this species, at the wildest parts of
the river where bordered by extensive sandy tracts; and when
proceeding by water from Constantinople to the Valley of Sweet
Waters, on the 14th of May, several birds of this genus which
appeared, resembled the S. hirundo. Towards the evening of the
21st, a number of terns, similar to this species, were observed
flying in company to a little rocky islet — very like a breeding-haunt
— off the north-east side of the beautiful island of Mytilene ; and
in a locality of the same nature near the island of Paros, I saw
a couple, apparently of the 8. hirundo, about ten days afterwards.
I mention those seen in the south-east of Europe with some
doubt, as none of them were obtained for examination. Eecent
authors, so far as I have referred to them, with the exception of
Capt. Drnmmond, do not positively state that the 8. Jiirundo is
found there, though the 8terna affinis is so.f

On the 13th of July I remarked this species on the Lake of
Constance, and on the 15th and 16th, when proceeding down the
Ehine from Basle ; — at the wild desert-like sandy banks of the
river not far from that city, were numbers, both of 8. miniita and
8. hirundo : such of the latter as came near were adult, and the
manoeuvres of both species satisfied me that they breed in marshes
at the river side. Thence to Cologne they appeared occasionally,
and dashed down from a height into the muddy Ehine, in which
human vision was unable to detect any object, just as they do
into the clear pure sea. J

* St. John ; ' "Wild Sports,' &c., chap. sxv. p. 201. *

t Captain Drummond states that S. hirundo is common at Corfu in spring, and
one specimen was obtained by him in the island of Crete, on the 18th of June. —
' Ann. Nat. Hist.' vol. xii. pp. 422, 427.

\ Tui-nuig to the fiue old work of Willughby, after the above was written, I find

THE ABCTIC TERN. 293

Audubon (vol. iv. p. 77) describes this tern as ascending the
Mississippi, uud frequenting large lakes bordering the Gulf of
Mexico.

THE ARCTIC TERN.

Sterna macrura, Naum. (1819)
„ arctic a, Temm. (1820)

Is a regular summer visitant,

As recorded in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lou-
don, in 1833. This species, noticed in connection with the
roseate tern, came under my observation in June 1827, at which
period, from being undescribed in any work on British birds, it
was unknown to me, and believed to be an ornithological trea-
sure, for its specific difference from S. hirundo was at once appa-
rent. A little research, however, showed that the species was
known to Mr. Selby, and included in his very interesting paper
on the 'Birds of the Earn Islands,^ (published in Jaimary 1826,
in the second volume of the ' Zoological Journal,') and with the
additional information of Temminck, who had described the
species in 1820, all was clear."^ Following the example of Mr.
Selby, I drew up and read to the Belfast Natural History Society,
in July 1827, a paper on the Birds of the Copeland Islands, ofi"
the coast of Dowji, in which the Sterna arctica, with the allied
S. Jiirtmdo and S. Boiigallii, were fully treated of: — some addi-
tional distinctive characters to those given by that author were
then pointed out, but now that the species is so much better
known, it is unnecessary to repeat them here.

Under the Roseate Tern, particulars of S. arctica at the Mew
Island, Down, and the Skerries, off the north of Antrim, will be

the observation that—" They I'requeut rivers far remote from the sea, as for example
tlie Rhene, about Strasburgh, where they were taken, described, and painted by Ltio-
uard I3ultner, by the title of Eiti ISjK'urer, who tells us also that they build in gi'avelly
and sandy places by the bank of the river, so that if it happen there be a Uoud in their
breeding time, their eggs are marred, and their nests destroyed." — p. 353.

* Nauuumn, it appears, indicated the species in the Isis, in 1819, under tlie name
of 6'. maciunt.

294 laridjE.

found. On the 25th of June, 1830, an oniitliological friend
visited some of the islands of Straugford Lough, and shot many
arctic and common terns, about four of the former to one of the
latter; he did not see any of the roseate species. I was much
pleased to hear that the farmer who rents these islands, and on
whose invitation my friend visited them, wrote to him that this
was " the last week of the terns,^' meaning thereby, that it was
the latest period at which they should be killed, in consequence
of their just commencing incubation. Two arctic terns shot in
this lough, southward of Kirkcubbin, on the Gth of June, 1850,
came under my notice. When about Horn Head, county of
Donegal, in the last week of June 1832, I saw some terns appa-
rently of the arctic species, and the low rocky islands off that
coast, between the headland just named and Bloody Foreland
Point, appeared, from the mainland, most suitable localities for
their breeding — resembling the Skerries off Portrush, and the
Farn Islands off the Northumbrian coast.* In Clew Bay, county
of Mayo, we, on the 28th of June, 1834, shot one of these birds
near Minish Island, and saw several others, both on wing and on
little heaps of stones rising above the waters of the bay : they
doubtless breed on some of the many islets there. At the Hards
islands, Galway coast, arctic and common terns were observed on
the 1st of August, 1844.t I was informed by Mr. T. F. Nehgan
(in 1837) that the arctic tern is common on the coast of Kerry,
in summer; J and on the 7th of July, that year, six fresh speci-
mens sent thence to Dublin by my informant, came under my
inspection. This is the only species of tern known to Mr. R.
Chute on the coast of Kerry, where it breeds on a small island in
the Blasket Sound called Beginish ; on the Magharee Islands

* Sir William Jardine remarks that this species " seems to prefer the shiugly
beach to rocks" (' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 279), but on the latter it has chiefly occurred
to me, and seemed more paiiial to them than S. Idrundo.

t Rev. G. Robinson.

% In the Appendix to Ross's Second Voyage, it is stated, at p. 33, that the arctic
tern "has lately been found abundantly on tiie west coast of Ireland in the winter
season." From Capt. Sir James C. Koss, I learned that this information was de-
rived from the late Joseph Sabine, Esq. Mr. R. Chute has never known this species
to be on the coast of Kerry in winter (1850).

THE ARCTIC TERN. 295

(plentifully), and Muckalaw Eock, Tralee Bay (1850). On the
8tli of May, 1S37, I saw two fresh specimens which had just
been killed on the North Strand, Dublin Bay ; and on the 5th of
June of the following year, as I crossed from Malahide to Lam-
bay Island, this species, and S. hirundo, appeared flying in com-
pany over the water. On the 11th of May, 1842, an arctic tern
was shot on DoUymount Strand, coast of Dublin; from all of
which circumstances there can be little doubt of the species
breeding in that quarter. I have since ascertained that the
RockabiU is a breeding-haunt, as noticed under the roseate species.
Of many terns shot during the months of August and September
1850, in Drogheda Bay, nearly all were arctic : they outnum-
bered all the other species by at least ten to one.'^

This tern is more a marine bnd than the common species, dif-
fering indeed in a striking manner from it in tliis respect ; and,
so far as my own observation extends, selecting for breeding-
places only maritime localities. This is a remark which I am not
aware of having been made before ; but, on looking to the sites
named by Mr. Selby, Sir Wm. Jardine, Mr. Yarrell, and several
other authors, in Great Britain ; by Dr. Ivichardson and Mr. Au-
dubon, in North America ; 1 find they are all marine. I should
not, however, be disposed to characterize the species positively, as
breeding only in marine localities, for all the nesting-places of
Sterna niimita known to me in Ireland are also marine ; but so far
up the Ehine as the neighbourhood of Basle I have met with it
in the the middle of July (1841), and felt well assured that its
breeding-haunts were on the wild sandy banks of that great river.
At maritime stations only have I known the roseate tern breed
in Ireland. The Sterna hirundo breeds abundantly about our
fresh-water lakes as well as on the sea-coast.

Very rarely have I known the arctic tern to be even seen
inland. On the 13th of June, 1832, a remarkably fine and large
specimen (not exhibiting any external injury) was found dead at
Springfield, near Belfast. Distant above eighteen English miles

* ]\Ir. li. J. Moiilgomcry.

296 lauidjE.

as the Mew Island is from this place, I should have imagined the
bird to have been probably wounded there by us on that day — as
wounded sea-birds often fly inland — but we were told that this or
a similar tern had been observed about a large sheet of water at
the locality on the 9th of the month. One found dead about the
1st of May, 1837, on the banks of the river Barrow, near Bag-
nalstown (about twenty-eight miles in a direct line from the sea,
or extremity of Waterford harbour), was shown to me by Mr.
Glennon, to whom, on account of its being a species never seen
before in the district, it was sent to be preserved. A remarkable
flight of arctic and common terns appeared in the southern and
western parts of England during high winds in May 184<2,
and great numbers were killed ; the 7th, 8th, and 9th of that
month^ being the days of their occurrence particularized. Mr.
H. E. Strickland and Mr. Austin noticed the circumstance in
the 9th volume of the 'Annals of Natural History' (pp. 351, 434,
and 518); Mr. Yarrell treated further of it in his work on
British Birds ; to which it has since been added, that " there
were multitudes along the coast and harbours of the north
and south of Cornwall and Devon " (Couch), and " at various
places on the coasts of Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent" (Knox).
A month after that time, the unusual circumstance of a large
flight of terns took place in the south of Ireland. On the 6th
of June, and for several days afterwards — according to Mr. R.
Davis, jun., of Clonmel — there were great numbers about all the
rivers in that quarter ; he procured several of them. On being
written to particularly with respect to the species and the exact
time, he replied : — they were all arctic, as observed at Cork,
Limerick, and Clonmel ; they were abundant in Limerick during
the third week of July (their visit extending over two or three
weeks, at least) : — they occurred on the Shannon in immense
profusion, and " were so little used to man as to be frequently
knocked down with sticks.'' Early in the summer of 1850, an

* Not "June," as iuadverteiitlv mentioned l)v Sii Wm. Jardinc ('Brit, liirds/
Tol, iv. p. 280).

THE ARCTIC TERN. 297

arctic tern was shot at Lough Ncagh,"*^ when, I presume, on its
way to some marine breeding-haunt.

Very rarely, arctic terns — doubtless late birds of the preceding
year — are shot at the breeding-stations before having attained
full adult plumage. I have met with two such, killed on the
13th and 18th of June, in different years, at the Mew Island.
They had the forehead and fore part of the crown of the head
pale greyish-white; feathers of the hinder part of the crown
white, tipped with black ; back of the head and nape, black ;
bill, wholly black ; tarsi and toes appear blackish, but on close
inspection may be termed dark reddish-purple ;t upper surface of
webs reddish-purple, under surface vermilion-red, a little clouded
with dark purple ; tarsal joints and under surface of toes bright
vermilion-red. These birds differed much in size, one of them
being the largest of the species that has come under my notice.
Its length, from the point of the beak to the end of the longest tail-
feathers, 1 7 inches, being 3 inches longer than several specimens
of S. aretica killed at the same time ; but this difference was cliiefly
in the superior length of its tail-feathers ; bill 2 inches from rictus
to point, 1 inch 1^ lines from forehead to point ; wing, from carpus
to end of first quill, 1 1 inches. The differences between this bird
and the other arctic terns obtained on the same occasion led me at
first to consider it a distinct species, and a minute description
was drawn up from the recent specimen : — this was exhibited at
a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, and is briefly
noticed in the "Proceedings " of that body for 1833, p. 33.

Although the arctic and common terns may daily appear
very far up Belfast Bay after the breeding-season, they are com-
paratively seldom seen previous to that period : a specimen of the
former, shot near the Long Bridge at Belfast, on the 3rd of May,

* Rev. George Robinson.

t It appears singular to me tliat they should ever assume this dark colour, as
the tarsi of the young birds shot in the autumn of their first year are of a deep flesh,
or very pale salmon hue, and 1 should have expected tlicm, like those of the Lams
r'ulihundus, to become gradually of a deeper tint of J'cd, until tliat of maturity were
attained. Captain Sabine remarked of arctic terns, shut during Parry's voyage, that
the legs were changing from black to red. I have seen tliis colour only iu birds
when iu the next stage to maturitv.

298 LARID^.

1837, came under my inspection ; in its stomach were the remains
of a sand-eel and other fishes.

A comparison of the number of arctic terns visiting the coasts*
of Ireland and those of Great Britain cannot satisfactorily be
made, as much is yet to be learned of the distribution of the
species, especially around the latter island. Even on the southern
coast of England, on Pevensey Shingle, during May and June,
the arctic is more numerous than the common tern."^ This
species, like the common and roseate, inhabits the coasts of North
America.

THE WHISKERED TEEN.

Sterna leucopareia, Natterer, Temm.
„ hyhrida, Pallas.

Has ill one instance been procured,

And by the gentleman who shot the Sterna leucoptera, to be
hereafter noticed.f They both attracted liis attention as rare
birds when he was boating in the Bay of Dublin, an amusement
to wliich at one period he devoted much of his time : the
T ring a rufescens also was obtained by liiin there.

The specimen of the whiskered tern — which is in adult plumage
— came under my notice in the fine collection of rare native
bu"ds belonging to T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, in March
1847 ; and in the course of that year I noticed it in the 'Annals
of Nat. Hist.,' vol. xx. p. 170.

The following uotes were drawn up from it : —

in. lin.

Length (total) about . . . . . . . 10 0

„ of wing from carpus to end of quills, about . . 10 0

,, of bUl above fr'om forehead to point ... 11

„ of tarsus, about ....... 010

„ of outer toe and nail ...... 10

I'cet considerably larger than in Hierna arctica.
* Knox, ' Ornitli. Rambles in Sussex,' p. 245. f Mr. John Hill.

THE WHISKERED TEEN. 299

Colour. Head (above that portion which is in a line with the upper mantlihle)
and nape jet black, as in 8. hiruncio ; sides of head for f inch from the bill, having a
stripe of pore white. From the upper part of the breast to the vent (entire under
surface) blackish-grey. Vent-feathers and under surface of the tail, whitish. Upper
surface of wings and tail, dark grey, but lighter than the under surface ; shoulder or
ridge of wing on the upper surface, white.

BUI and legs have faded to a pale yellowish horn-colour.

In the 2ud edition of Yarreli's work, published in 1845, one
individual only was recorded as obtained in Great Britaui; — near
Lyme, Dorsetshire, at the end of August 1836 — but another has
since been procured, of which we have the following account : —

" An example of the whiskered tern ^ "^ * was shot on
the 17th inst., whilst flying high over the Hickling Broad. It
proved to be an adult female, and contained ova in an advanced
stage ; the largest being apparently almost ready to receive the
shell. In the stomach were found the remains of about twenty
of the larva of the broad-bodied dragon-fly,'"^

Temminck, in I820,t described this species as a new one,
discovered by M. Natterer of Yienna, in the south of Hungary,
and as having been found in the marshes of Capo d'Istria and on
the coasts of Dalmatia; also that M. De la Motte, of Abbeville,
had, on one occasion, seen several individuals, and killed three of
them in a marsh on the coast of Picardy. It has since been
ascertained to breed annually in the south of France. J Speci-
mens of this bird in the British Museum are labelled " Ilj/dro-
clielidon\ hijbrida, India ? Hardwicke bequest," and "■ Cape Seas,
Dr.N Andrew Smith's collection." If it be the 8. hijhrida of Pallas,
this name should probably have the advantage of priority; his
work, in which it is described, being published betweeii 1811 and
1831.11

I had the gratification, on the 30th of April, 1811, of observ-
ing for a long time on wing, over a marsh a few miles northward

* J. li. Guruey, Wm. R. Fisher; June 30, 1847. Contribution to the ' Zoolo
gist' for August 1847, p. 1820.

t Manuel, 2nd ecUt. Part II. p. 74(i.

\ Deglaud, ' Ornitli. Europ.' tojue ii. p. 354. § Boic.

II Ibid. „ „ p. 353.

300 LARID^.

of Navarino, in the Morea, a tern of this species, which admitted
of so near an approach as to leave no doubt of its being S. leu-
copareia.

THE LITTLE TERN.

Sterna m'muta, Linn.

Is a summer visitant, which breeds annually on different
parts of the coast.

Templeton tells us that he " once observed a single pair in Bel-
fast Lough, and that on a tour round the coast of Down on the
5th and 6th of June, 1810, they appeared on the shore at Lecale
as common as 8. Jdnmdo •!' he adds that " their note is sharper
and more tremulous than that of the latter species."

Tliis pretty creature, so interesting from representing in minia-
ture the more common tern, lirst occurred to myself when visiting
the many islands of Strangford Lough, on the £Oth and 21st of
June, 1832. As we approached the Black Eock of Ring Duf-
ferin, I perceived, at a considerable distance, a tern, which,
from its diminutive size, was concluded to be S. minuta. When
near to it, another came in sight, and one of them being shot,
was found to be of this species. Previous to landing on ' Dun-
nyneiU^ Island, I saw another rise from the gravel on the beach,
and, on going to the spot whence it rose, found three eggs
deposited in a depression of the bare ground. A second bird
soon appeared, which we had the cruelty to shoot; and, after
having embarked on leaving the island, I noticed the widowed
bird to alight on the spot whence the eggs were taken. None of
our crew had ever observed this species before. The call is pirre,
like that of the common tern. No other species was seen, nor
were any of their eggs found on either islet where S. mhmta was
met with. Mr. R. K. Sinclaire visited 'Dunnyneill^ on the 25th
of June, 1836, in the hope of seeing this tern, and success-
fully, as three or four pair appeared : they admitted of a near

THE LITTLE TERN. 301

approach — two nests containing eggs were found on the shingly
beach. I have not learned any other particulars respecting this
bird about Strangford Lough with sufficient precision for notice
here, excepting that a pair were seen about the islands off Ai'd-
millan, in the last week of June 1849. When at Dundruni, on
the coast of the same county, on the 23rd of August, 1836, I
was assured by a shore-shooter, that tw^o kinds of tern, one much
smaller than the other, and evidently, from his description, S.
mimita, breed on the coast there. We saw many terns that day
(though not (S". mimita), in flocks by themselves on the sand,
and also mingled with kittiwakes, black-headed and lesser black-
backed gulls.

In summer and autumn, the little tern still occasionally ap-
pears in Belfast Bay. In the middle of June 1839, seven were
seen together, off the Long Strand, for about an hour, and admitted
of a very close approach, as one also did about that place on the
14th of September the same year. In 1841, three appeared
there on the 10th of June, and one on the 5th of August. In
September 1843, again, four, in that locality, and about the same
time six, at Holywood bank were observed. In the autumn of
1844, six appeared seated on a large stone off the Long Strand ;
and perched on a small buoy of the harbour five birds admitted
the approach of a small boat within about eight yards of them,
on the 26th of August, 1845.

A specimen, shot near the Giant's Causeway, in September
1831, came under my inspection. The species is said to be com-
mon on the northern coast of Donegal."^

By the late Mr. John Nimmo, of Roundstone, I was informed
that two species of tern, of which one is the S. viinuta, breed on
the islets of the Galway coast ; and both in quantity on Deer
Island, and one or two others. They are said to appear on wing
together, and to breed in company : they have come when prc^ying
on sprats within two or three yards of the boat in which he was
fishing. Dr. Farran gives an interesting account of this species,
as seen by him and Mr. Nimmo, at the Hards Islands, off the

* Mr. J. V. Stewart.

;302 LARIC-E.

Galway coast, in the summer of 1 838. He observes, thnt, " on
turning into a small ravine, there appeared within twentj^ yards a
cloud of the lesser terns, plunging incessantly into a pool, which
the receding tide had left filled with water : a flock of swallows
preparing for migration gives but a faint idea of their numbers ;
but what surprised me more, was their permitting my near ap-
proach without exhibiting the slightest fear or distrust, still con-
tinuing, although now not a yard from me, plunging and scream-
ing as if I were but a shadow. My curiosity was greatly excited,
and, stooping down to examine the pool, I found it to be almost
a living mass of herring-fry, each about an inch and a half in
kngth : this fully explained the cause of such a congregation.
Tor a moment I could have imagined myself placed on one of
those beautiful isles described by Mr. Darwin in his ' Zoology of
the Voyage of the Beagle,^ where the birds exhibit no fear on the
approach of man, and where a perfect confidence reigns. I was
determined not to give my unsuspecting friends, the terns, any
cause of regret for the unlimited confidence placed in me, and
endeavoured to assist them in their pursuit by putting my hands
together, and commencing to bale out water and fry ; but in this
I lost both time and labour, for not a single fry would they take
when thrown out and exposed on the rock ; but if by chance it
fell into a crevice containing a little water, it was instantly seized
and swallowed. The Hards Islands are composed of granite,
much intersected by dykes of hornblende : the latter, being much
fractured, is constantly wearing away, by the action of the heavy
Atlantic surges, thus leaving alleys or ravines, faced on both sides
by perpendicular walls of granite, which, seeming to be stratified,
present a singular appearance.'^ They w^ere mere visitors to these
islands, and not one was to be seen there at the same period of
the year in 1844.'^

The little tern is mentioned by Colonel Sabine, as seen by him
in July 1833, about the caves of Ballybunian, on the coast of
Kerry. Small flocks of six or eight birds occasionally appear in

* Eev. Geo. llobiiisou.

THE LITTLE TEUN. 303

Covk liarbour."^ At the Keroe islands, on the south coast of
Wexfordj they and their eggs have been obtained, the latter
placed in a mere hollo^^ of the sand or gravel : in a few in-
stances the number in a nest was only two.f So early as the
26th of April, 1850, above thirty of these terns were seen on
the Grey Stones, coast of Wicklow.J I^i the preceding year,
on the 6th of May, eight were observed together at the South
Wall, Dublin Bay ;§ and on the 8tli of that month, the first birds
of the season were noticed in Drogheda Bay.||

In 1836, one of these birds was shot at the island of Lambay,
on the 9th of June, and three at Portmarnoek on the 19th of
July ; — when proceeding from Malahide to the former locality,
on the 5th of June, 1838, 1 saw four of the S. minnta in company
flying over the sea. About the year 1840, from sixty to a hun-
dred little terns have been seen during a forenoon on the coast
between Malahide and Portrane, where they had nests on the
sand and shingle, several of which, containing eggs, have been
discovered without much search being made. They have greatly
decreased there since that period.^

The little tern was not observed on any of the rocky marine
islets frequented by the larger species, that I have visited ; nor am
I aware of any fresh -water breeding-haunt in Ireland. Its ap-
pearance at least, inland, is thus noticed by the Eev. Mr. Lub-
bock, in his ' Fauna of Norfolk :' — '' The lesser terns are very
engaging little birds : in the summer-time they will fly backward
and forward over a boat moored for angling. I have often been
attended by them at Hickling" and Horsey. They approach
within a very few yards, and are highly delighted with a very small
fish — on one or two occasions, when I had minnows with me, they
came close to the boat to take them. All these birds [the various
species of tern] are now with us hardly to be called more than
visitants ; their nesting-places have been broken up the incursions
of man'' (p. 122).

This bird may be considered equally common in Ireland as in

* Mr. Wm. Crawford. f Mr. Poole. J Mr. J. Wallers.

§ Mr. R. Ball. || Mr. R. .1. Montgomery. 1[ Mr. T. W. Warren.

304 LARTD^.

England or Scotland. Aberdeen is the most northern breedhig-
haunt in Great Britain, named in the works of Macgillivray and
Jardine ; but in a more recent publication the species is said to
remain in the Orkneys from May until August, and hence we may
presume, to increase its numbers there."^ Its not being found in
the western hemisphere renders the west of Ireland, within its
latitude, the extreme western limit of distribution.

On the 18th of July, 1841, the little tern came under my
notice on the Lake of Constance, and soon after leaving Basle, a
few days afterwards, when I was proceeding down the Rhine,
numbers of tliis species and the common tern were seen about
the river in the very extensive, marshy, and wild sandy tracts
bordering which, doubtless, they both bred.

THE BLACK TERN.

Sterna 7iigra, Briss.
„ fssipes, Linn,

Is of occasional occurrence, chiefly in autumn, when
immature.

I SHALL notice this species according to dates, instead of localities.
It was first recorded as Irish in the Zoological Proceedings for
1834 (p. 31), from information supplied to me by Mr, R. Ball,
who, in the month of July, for several successive years long before
that time,t had observed a number of them to frequent a
lake at Roxborough, near Middleton, county Cork. J The late
Mr. John Montgomery, of Locust Lodge, Belfast, saw one of
these birds in the outer bay of Dundrum (county Down) at the
latter end of July or beginning of August 1821; and, on men-
tioning the circumstance to me, added, that he had seen a pre-

* ' Hist. Nat. Oread.' p. 90 (1848).

t About 1819, since wliich period he has not visited the locality.

:|: Mr. Yarrell, merely quoting this, remarks, that " the black tern is a summer
visitor to the different parts of Ireland" (vol, iii. p. 414) ; which implies too much.

THE BLACK TERN. 305

served specimen which had been killed in Belfast Bay some years
before that time. Another, respecting which no precise date can
be given, was subsequently observed there at the indentation of
the coast, called Adams' Bay. One shot either on the quay or
Long Bridge of Belfast, on the 28th October, 1831, came under
my examination : it was a young bird of the year, as was another
that I saw, which had been killed about the river Lagan at
Lisburn, on the 4th or 5th of the same month.

A bird of this species is stated to have been obtained at Water-
ford in the year lb2>l.* In the middle of May, 1835, a tern,
shot at Clontarf, DubHu Bay (where three more were seen
at the same time), came under the notice of a friend, who de-
scribed it to me as "of a slate-colour, darkening to the head,
which is black, as are the bill and feet : it is 1 0 inches long, and
23 inches in expanse of wings.'" f This is the description of an
adult bird. A tern, described as " black," was once observed
near Bonmahon, county of Waterford. Li the possession of Mr.
H. H. Dombrain, I have seen a specimen of the Sterna nigra that
was shot from a boat in which this gentleman was, at the mouth of
the LifFey, on September 2nd, 1837; another was obtained at the
same time. (Its length to centre of tail is 9^ inches ; wing from
carpus 7 inches 11 lines ; bill above 1 inch ; tarsus 7 lines ; middle
toe and nail measured in a straight line 10^ lines; tail forked
for 7 lines ; forehead white, occiput and nape black ; bill black ;
legs and feet dusky.) One of these birds was shot in the autumn
of 1841 at Eingsend, Dublin Bay. J Mr. E. Chute procured for
his collection a black tern in full adult plumage, which was killed
when flying over a small lake in Kerry in the summer of 1841 (?);
and about the 1st of September, 1844, he shot an immature bird
as it was on wing above the lake at Castlegregory, in the same
county. A young bird, obtained at Lusk, county of Dublin, on
the 21st of September, 1846, has come under my inspection in
Mt. Watters' collection ; in which there are two other immature
birds obtained near Dubhn, and an adult, shot in the summer of
1847, inland, in the county of Kerry.

* Dr. Burkitt. t Mr. R. Ball. % Mr. T. W. "Warren, Nov. 1841.

VOL. III. X

306 LARID^.

On the 5tli of November^ 1849, a tern of this species was shot
by Dr. C. Farran at a pool of brackish water near the sea, and
adjacent to his residence at Clonea, county A¥aterford. That
gcutlemaiij first attracted by the extreme elegance of its flight,
remarked that the bird was different from any tern he had ever
seen, and went for liis gun to shoot it. Unfortunately for itself,
it waited his return, and exhibited no alarm at his near approach.
He observed that, instead of plunging into the water after its prey
like other terns, it appeared to alight with its feet on the surface
of the water, and pick up food there in the manner of the
kittiwake-gull. Its stomach was found to contain the remains
of water-beetles and larvse. The specimen, when mounted, was
kindly forwarded to Belfast for my examination. It was a very
fine and perfect example of the young bird of the year, and exhi-
bited a grey marking of an oval form, extending for an inch in
length on each side of the breast, unnoticed in the description of
Yarrell, but included in that of Temminck. A bird in similar
plumage was obtained still later in the year — about a week before
Christmas 184'9 — at a marsh within half a mile of Cork. It came
into the possession of Dr. Harvey, of that city. The species had
previously been noticed once or twice in Cork harbour."^ The
black tern is said to have been observed in the bays of Dundalk
and Drogheda.t

This species, though very much scarcer in England than for-
merly, is more frequently met with there than in Ireland ; — in
Scotland, strange to say, it has never been seen, at least until the
year 1846 ; the date of publication of Macgillivray's ' Manual.'

On the 2nd of June, 1826, I observed numbers of black terns
about the fens of Holland, between Utrecht and Breda, and much
admired their gracefully buoyant flight, and, when in pursuit of
insect prey, their most rapid evolutions.

* Mr. Wm. Crawrord. + Commiuiifatcd to Mr. I^.. J. Montgomery.

307

THE WHITE-WINGED BLACK TEEN.

Sterna leucojptera, Meissner and Scliinz.

Has twice been obtained.

An adult specimen preserved in the museum of the Dublin
Natural History Society^ was described by Mr. M'Coy, in the
'Annals of Natural History/ vol. xv. p. 271. It was there
stated to have been shot on the Shannon^ by John Hill, Esq. ;
but this gentleman mentioned, in a letter addressed to the editor
of ' Saunders's Newsletter' (April 14, 1847), that he killed the
bird on the river Liffey, near the Pigeon-house Eort, Dublin Bay ;
— in Oct. 1841. This was the first individual recorded as
occurring in the British Islands. I have seen a second specimen
of this handsome but singularly-coloured tern, which is believed
to have been obtained in Dublin Bay, by the late Mr. Massey, of
the Pigeon-house Fort there. The birds of his collection were
almost wholly killed by himself in that bay, and, after his de-
cease, the one in question came, along with others, into Mr.
Watters's possession.

The Sterna leucoptera is a regular summer visitant to southern
Europe, inclusive of Switzerland and the south of Prance, and
occasionally appears in more northern countries, having even been
met with in Scandinavia. Mr. Yarrell, in 1845, remarked that
it had not been found in the north of Prance. In the scientific
journal termed ' L'Institut ' of the following year, however
(1846, No. 658, p. 273), it was announced as having been
procured there, but no locality or date was named. In the same
])aragraph it was said that an adult male in perfect summer
plumage was shot on the 20th May, 1843, in the marshes of
"d'Herinnes, sur les bords de TEscaut, en aval de Tournay,'*
in Belgium. It ranges westward in the Mediterranean to Gibraltar,
and inhabits northern Africa.

308 LAEIDiE.

THE NODDY.

Sterna stollda, Linn."^

Has been procured on the coast on one occasion,

As recorded by me in the following words: — "In March 1833,
when looking over the collection of Irish birds belonging to Thomas
W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, I perceived, to my surprise, amongst
them a specimen of the Sterna stolida. On being informed that
this bird had been received as Irish from William Massey, Esq.,
of the Pigeon-house, and that his collection contained a second
specimen, I waited on this gentleman to make inquiry respecting
them. In May 1834 he informed me, that in the summer about
four years previously, he was favoured with the two birds in
question, by the captain of a vessel, who stated that they had
been shot in his presence a few days before, between the Tusker
Lighthouse, off the coast of Wexford, and Dublin Bay. That
only a few days had elapsed since these birds were killed was
apparent, not only to Mr. Massey himself (who, from occasionally
preserving birds for his own collection, is conversant with such
subjects), but to Mr. Glennon, the bird-preserver, by whom they
were set up. Their having been skinned by an unskilful person,
who left some of the flesh adhering to the skin without applying
any preservative to it, proved their comparatively recent state to
more than one sense.

" The history of these birds, as just given, was related to me
when I first saw them ; but I did not feel myself warranted
in bringing it forward, without having the direct testimony
of Mr. Massey. Both specimens are in mature plumage. This
is, I believe, the first record of the occurrence of the S. stolida
in Europe."

The preceding note was communicated to the Linnean Society
of London, in June 1834, and soon afterwards published. Since
that period, this bird has been mentioned by Temminck, in the

* Genus Atious, Leach ; Megalopterus, Boie.

Sabine's gull. '.' 309

fourth part of his 'Manuel/ p. 461 — which appeared iu 1840 —
as met with on the coast of Prance ; but whether on the Mediter-
ranean or Atlantic coast is not stated.

A second record of the occurrence of this species in the
British Seas, appears, in a letter from Mr. Austin, in the ninth
volume of the ' Annals of Natural History/ p. 435, dated Bristol,
June 4, 184:2. The Sterna stolida is there mentioned as "a
summer visitor to St. George's Channel," and it is remarked that
" the flight of the noddy is extremely rapid, and it is so exceed-
ingly shy, that I could never get a shot at one, though watching
many times for a ' chance.' As I have never observed this bird
on the main shore, which it seldom, if ever, approaches, it probably
retires, after feeding, to some insulated rock to repose itself, with-
out fear of interruption. It appears a solitary bird, never
assembling in flocks hke the S. hirundo, but singly seeks its food
at some distance from land, though it occasionally pursues its
prey into the estuaries of the larger Irish rivers, or along the
outer shores of the coast."

Audubon, in the fifth volume of his ' Ornithological Biography,'
gives a most interesting account of this species as an American
bird. It is copied in Yarrell's 'History of British Birds'
(vol. iii.), where the best information from other works is also
included.

SABINE'S GULL.

Fork-tailed Gull.

Lams Sahini, Sabine."^

Young birds of the year have, in a very few instances,
been met with in autumn.

I FIRST noticed its occurrence in Ireland, before the Linnean
Society, on the 15th of April, 1834, and a brief abstract of the
communication was then published in the ' London and Edinburgh

* Sec p. 314 of . uvoluuic.

310 LAllIU^.

Philosophical Magazine/ vol. v, p. 299. The 'Magazine of
Zoology and Botany' (vol. i. p. 460) contained a full notice of
the first two birds ; and aU additional information procured down
to 1838 was brought together and published in the sixth part of the
second series of Jardine and Selby's ' Illustrations of Ornithology.'
The whole matter may be repeated here. The following was read
before the Linnean Society, on the 15th of April, 1834 : — "On
the present occasion I have not only the high satisfaction of
enriching the British Tauna, by adding to it the beautiful Larus
SaMni, so lately discovered, but of describing the species in the
plumage of the first year, in which attire it has never before come
under the inspection of the ornithologist. The bird now exhibited
was shot in Belfast Bay, on the 18th of September, 1822, by the late
John Montgomery, Esq., of Locust Lodge, wdio carefuUy preserved
it, under the impression that it was an individual of the closely-
allied species Larus minutus, by which name it was distinguished,
when presented in April 1833 to the Natural History Society of
Belfast. Mr. Montgomery informed me, that from the diminutive
size, &c., of this bird when first seen by him, he had no doubt
of its rarity. It was so unwary as to alight once or twice within
twenty yards of him ; but, to avoid disfiguring it, he fired from
so great a distance, that it was only at the third shot eventually
obtained. That the species is regardless of the report of a gun,
was witnessed by Captain Sabine, in its breeding-haunts within
the arctic circle, as he states, that ' when one bird of a pair was
killed, its mate, though frequently fired at, continued on wing
close to the spot where it lay.'

" Although the Larus Sabini closely approximates the Larus
miniihis in general appearance, the plumage of the first year, as
well as that of maturity, being very similar in both species, the
superior size of the L. Salnni, its tail being forked to the depth
of an inch, and the comparatively greater length of its tibia and
tarsus, may always (even in a preserved state) afford sufficient
specific distinction. In the form of the tail, the L, Sabhii
approaches the typical species of Sterna more nearly than its
congener, the L. minutus. The latter, however, resembles that

SABINE S GULL.

311

genus more in the form of the bill, and in the dimensions of the
tarsus and tibia.

" In this specimen of the L. Sahini, in the autumnal phimage of the first year, the
forehead^ space immediately above the eye, and between it and the bill (with the
exception of the narrow line of greyish-black closely encircling the front and lower
part of the eye), upper part of the throat, and sides of the neck, are white ; crown,
nape, and back of the neck, blacldsh-grey ; back, scapulars, gi'eater and lesser wing-
coverts, blackish-grey, tinged with yellowish-brown, the extremity of every feather
varying from greyish-white to white, as it approaches the tail ; under part of the
throat and upper part of the breast, pale ash-colour ; lower breast and all the under
plumage, white ; shafts of the fu-st six primaries brownish-black at base, becoming
gradually darker towards the extremity, where they are black in the first three, but
in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, they assimilate in colour to the feather at that part,
which is white ; the entire of the outer webs of the first five, black ; the inner webs,
with a broad edging of white to within from one to two inches of the end, which part
is black in the first three, but tipped with white in the fourth and fifth ; in the sixth
the inner web is white, the outer black, excepting for three or four lines from the tip,
where it is white, and again, at about an iuch from the end, where a white spot of
an oval shape appears.* Feathers of the tail twelve in number, white, with black
tips ; in the two shortest the latter colour extends upwards of an inch from the end,
in the outer web especially ; of the other feathers, the black prevails in a less degree
as they increase in length ; upper and under tail-covei'ts white.

'Length (total)
of tail

„ of mng from carpus to end of first quill .

„ of bill fr-om forehead to point

,, of bill from rictus to point ....

,, of tibia bare of feathers from the tarsal joint for

„ of tarsus .......

„ of midcUe toe and nail .....

„ of outer toe and nail .....

„ of inner toe and nail .....

„ of hinder toef and nail ....

Depth of fork of tail

\_March 1838. — Having just seen the notes of 'the late Mr. Montgomery on this

in.

lin.

12

0

4

9

10

0

0

10

1

5

0

9

1

4

1

H

1

1

0
0

9i

2"

1

0"

* This marldng of the sixth primary is just the opposite of that observed by
Mr. Sabine in some mature specimens, in which its prevailing colour was white,
" with sometimes a l)lack spot near the cud." Dr. Richardson has rcuiiu-ked, in the
' Fauna Bor.-Aracr.,' that this primary is subject to variation.

t This is placed so liigh that the point of the nail does not reach witliiu l^ line
of the ground.

31£ laridjE.

individual, I am enabled to add the recent colour of the bill, legs, &c., which in the
immature bird has not been described. Under the name of Lariis minutus, which
that gentleman considered it to be, he remarked ; — " irides dark ; bill dai'k ; legs
pale flesh-colour; weight S^oz."]

" In the museum of the Royal Dublin Society, I lately observed,
without having any label attached to it, a second specimen of
Larus Sahini. Upon inquiry from Mr. Wall, the very obliging
curator (who treasured the bird as a rarity, though he had not
ascertained its species,) I learned that it had been shot by liimself
in Dublin Bay, near Kingstown, a few years before, but he
could not recollect at what season. The stage of plumage, how-
ever, affords sufficient evidence of its having been killed in
autumn, as it is a bird of the first year, and siuiilar in appearance
to the specimen in the Belfast Museum.

" The occurrence of only two individuals of this species within
the eastern hemisphere, has hitherto been recorded, both of which
were obtained by Captain Sabine at Spitzbergen." — Read before
Linnean Society, April 5, 1834, and puhlisJied in full in Mag.
Zool. and Bot., vol. i. pp. 460, 462.

" A third specimen of the Larus Sahhii occurred last autumn
in Ireland. It was shot on or about September 15, 1834, on the
shore of Belfast Bay, near Claremont, the residence of Mrs.
Clewlow, in whose possession it now is."^ It is a young bird of
the year, and in plumage similar to the other two individuals of
this species, which I had the satisfaction of announcing to the
Linnean Society, last year, as having been obtained in Ireland.^'f
" The dimensions of this bird, taken in the same manner, and
compared with those of the individual above described, exhibit
but one difference at all worthy of notice ; its first quill being
longer than the second, though the second shghtly exceeds the
first, in the latter specimen."' — Mag. Zool. and Bot. vol. i.
p. 464.

" I have to record the occurrence of a fourth L. Sahini in

* Subsequently bequeathed, as part of that lady's collection of natural histoiy, to
the BeKast Museum.

t Proceedings of Zoological Society of Loudon, 18;55, p. 83.

SABINE^S GULL. 313

Ireland. It was shot in company with terns (Sterna!) in the
Bay of Dublin, on the 12th of September, 1837, and came into
the possession of H. H. Dombrain, Esq., of that city. This gen-
tleman has kindly informed me that the specimen corresponds
with my description of the L. Sabini in the plumage of the fii-st
year (Mag. Zool. and Bot, vol. i. p. 460) in every respect but one,
that of having ' the under part of the throat and upper part of
the breast' white, instead of 'pale ash-colour,' as in the first
bird described.

" The seasons of the occurrence of Z. Sabini in Ireland approxi-
mate very closely, though the birds were all obtained in different
years. In Belfast Bay, they were shot on the 15th and 18th of
September, and in Dublin Bay on the 12th of the same month.
The date when the first specimen was procured at the latter locality
is unknown." — Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. i, p. 158.

"Bee. 1838. — The four individuals above noticed are all which
have yet been positively recorded as obtained on the British
shores.

" In the Appendix to Ross's Second Voyage, p. xxxvii., it is
remarked, under the head of Larus Sabini — ' I have lately heard
that it has also been found on tlie west coast of Ireland.' By
Capt. James C. Boss, the author of the zoological portion of the
volume, I have been told that this information was derived from
the late Joseph Sabine, Esq. The article on L. Sabini was
written by Capt. Boss early in 1834, in the month of April in
which year I first announced the species as having been obtained
in Ireland. Mr. Sabine was present when the communication was
read to the Linnean Society, and, in expressing his gratification to
me on the addition of the species (of which he was the original
describer) to the British Eauna, said nothing of its occurrence on
any part of the British shores being known to him. Erom his
remarks, indeed, I am certain that he was not at that time aware
of any British specimens, and as he did not subsequently record
any fact of the kind, I am induced to believe that it was merely
the individuals announced to the Linnean Society that were al-
luded to, with the error of the " west " being substituted for the

314 LARID^.

east coast of Ireland/^ — Jarcline and Selhifs Illust. Ornithol.,
No. VI. 1839.

This brings down the various communications which I made on
Sabine's gull until December 1838, since \vhich period (now
August 1850) no further information has been acquired respect-
ing it as a visitant to the coast of Ireland.

Subsequently, tliis species has been noticed on the English and
continental coasts. In the 3rd vol. of Yarrell's ' British Birds '
one of these birds is mentioned as having been killed at Milford
Haven in the autumn of 1839, and a second is stated to have
been obtained in Cambridgeshire. These two only Avere noticed in
Great Britain down to 1845, the date of publication of the 2nd
edition of that work. Temminck, in the 4th part of his ' Manuel,'
published in 1840 (p.' 489), notes a Lams Sahini having been pro-
cured near Eouen ; one (a young bird) on the coast of HoUand ;
and one on the Ehine. M. Degland, writing in 1849, adds
another continental specimen, killed at Dunkirk in 1847.^

This bird, in full adult black-headed plumage, was first met
with and killed by Captain Sabine, R.A., in July 1818, on low
rocky islands off the west coast of Greenland. It was described
and named after liim by his brother^ Joseph Sabine, Esq., in the
12tli vol. of the Linnean Transactions. t

* • Oriiitli. Europ.' vol. ii. p. 332.

■)• Ross's Giill, Larus Rossii, Rich., is stated by Professor Macgillivray to have
" once occurred in Ireland" ('. Mau. Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 254) ; but no authority is
given for the statement. I wrote to that gentleman on the subject, but he
coidd not recollect the source of his information. The species cannot, therefore,
have a place in the present work, though it is not improbable that it may be added
to the Irish catalogue at a future period.

The fh'st individual of Ross's Gull authentically recorded as British was kUled by
Lord Howdeu's gamekeeper in February 1847, in a ploughed field in the parish of
Kirby, near Tadcaster. Its occurrence was noticed by Mr. Charlesworth in the
Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philos. Soc, and copied at length in the ' Zoologist,'
voh V. p. 1782.

315

THE LITTLE GULL.

Larus m'lnutus, Pall.
Is extremely rare.

On tlie 5tli of Angustj 1840^ I saw in the museum of tlie Dublin
Natural History Society a beautiful adult specimen of this bird
(the first in this plumage known to have occured in the British
Islands) which had been shot by Walter Boydj Esq., of the 97tli
Eegiment, in the month of May of that year, between Shannon
Harbour and Shannon Bridge, on the river of the same name. There
was a pair of them ; the other proved wild after its companion
had been killed : they were in company with the common black-
headed gull [L. rkllhundiis) .*

A beautiful adult little gull was shot in the estuary about three
miles distant from Belfast, on the 23rd of December, 1847. It
came under my examination within an hour after being killed,
when the following description was drawn up : —

iu. lin.

Length (total) from point of bill to eud of tail . . . 10 6

of bill above 0 11

„ „ to rictus ....... 1 6

„ of wing fi-om carpus ....... 9 2

„ of tarsus ........ 1 0

„ of middle toe exclusive of nail ..... 1 0

" Forehead, cheeks, and a [small] space beliind the eyes pure
white" (Jenyns, p. 271). All the under plumage of a beautiful
roseate tint ; a spot at the anterior angle of the eye black ; oc-
ciput, nape, and ear-coverts dark-grey of different shades,
darkest or blackish-grey on ear-coverts ; upper part of the
body and wings pale bluish-ash ; plumes beautifully firm in tex-

* In an article on Gidls, published in the ' Irish Penny Journal ' for Sept. 26,
1840, and signed " J. E. P." (Capt. Portlock), this little gidl was mentioned. Mr.
H. PI. Dombrain, in ' Saunders's Newsletter ' of December 4, 1840, alluded to his
having noticed the occurrence of the bird previous to Capt. Portlock, but without
statiuK where.

316 LARID^.

tiire^ so as to exhibit a uniform mass of one tint ; primaries and
secondaries " broadly tipped with white ; inside of wings deep
blackish-grey /^ tail pure white ; bill black ; inside mouth dull
orange ; irides black with brownish tinge ; tarsi_, toes, and webs
of feetj both on upper and under side, of the same uniform hue
of pale salmon-colour. Its weight rather exceeded 3| oz. It
proved to be a male on dissection. Its stomach contained the
remains of Crustacea, and two of the Rissoa itlva.

Tliis gull was preserved by Mr. Darragh, the curator of the
Belfast ]\Iuseum, who possesses a critical knowledge of our native
birds generally, and who, when visiting Strangford Lough in
January 1848, a few weeks after having set up the specimen, saw
another of them, both on the 18th and 19th of that month, at
Eough Island. It was also adult, as denoted by its pure wliite
tail. The diminutive size of the bird first attracted his attention,
and he had the advantage of seeing it very near both on wing and
on the ground. The dark colour of the under side of the wings
was conspicuous ; the tail was square at the end (not cuneate as
in L. Eossii,^ nor forked as in L. Sabini). The upper surface
of the wing, including the primaries, was particularly remarked
to be wholly of a light colour. My informant's fear of injuring
the bird as a specimen with the large shot in his gun prevented
him from firing at it when seen the first day ; on the second day,
he had crept for a long way — after the manner of the deer-stalker,
as so graphically described by Mr. Scrope — and though enabled
to observe it attentively for some time from behind stones on the
beach, distant only about fifteen or twenty paces from the wished-
for victim, he could not bring his gun to bear upon without
alarming it. In his attempt to shoot it, the bird took wing;
but the rough nature of the ground prevented his steadying him-
self so as to get even a parting shot at it.

I have no doubt of the occurrence of another bird of this
species near Kirkcubbin, Strangford Lough. About the beginning

* Tliis species is noticed under the supposition that it may iu winter lose the
black collar, which would otherwise distinguish it.

THE BONAPARTIAN GULL. 317

of February 1849, Mr. F. Rankin wounded a gull there very
much smaller than the L. ridUmndus, and had it running about
his garden for some days, when it disappeared, he knew not how.
On seeing the preserved specimen of the adult little gull in winter
plumage in the Belfast Museum, he at once pronounced it to be
of the same species.

In November 1848, another little gull in adult plumage was
shot in Belfast Bay, but unfortunately was lost as a specimen.

Two instances of this bird's occurrence in Scotland (Jardine),
and several of its having been procured on various parts of the
coast of England, are on record."^ It appears to have been
occasionally met with in most of the countries of Europe, but
properly belongs to the more eastern portion of the continent.
Dr. Hichardson mentions one instance of its having been obtained
in North America.

THE BONAPARTIAN GULL.

Lams Bonapartii, Rich, and Swains.

Has been once procured,

Under the circumstances which have been fully detailed in the
'Annals of Natural History ' for 1848 (vol. i. p. 192, new series).
They are as follows : — " A specimen of this beautiful little gull —
the first known to have visited Europe — was killed at the tidal
portion of the river Lagan, between Ormeau Bridge and the
Botanic Garden, about a mile above the lowest bridge at the
town of Belfast, on the 1st of February, 1848. It was flying
singly. The person who shot the bird, attracted by its pretty
appearance merely, left it to be preserved with a taxidermist, who,
on receipt of any birds either rare or unknown to him, kindly
brings tliem for my inspection. I had thus fortunately an op])or-
tunity of examining the bird previous to its being skinned, when

* Mr. Macgillivray incorrectly mentions the individuals procui'ed in Ireland as
having been " immatiu'C." — ' Man. Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 242.

318 LARID^.

all the following measurements, &c., were made. This was not,
however, until the morning of the 5th of February, when the
irides had faded so, that the colour could not be accurately
noted.

in. lin.

" Length (total) 13 9*

„ of bill from forelicad . . . . . .11

„ „ to rictus ....... 1 9

„ of wing fi'oni carpal joint to end of primaries . . 10 4
„ of tarsus ........ 1 42.

„ of middle toe ........ 1 2^

„ of middle toe-nail . . . . . . . 0 2i

„ of outer toe ........ 1 1|-

„ of outer toe-nail ....... 0 2

„ of inner toe . . . . . . . .0 11

„ of inner toe-nail . . . . . . .02

„ of liind toe ........ 0 2

„ of hind toe-nail . . . . . . .01

Tibia bare of feathers fi-om tai'sal joint . . . . .06

Wings pass the tail 1 9t

" £Ul in fonn as described by Richardson, excepting that at the base its depth
exceeds its breadth. At the base of the upper mandible where the plumage ends,
it is 2i lines in breadth, whereas the depth at the same place is 3^ lines. In colour
it is black ; paler at the base beneath. Tarsi, toes, and webs of feet of a uniform pale
flesh-colour, as the ' legs ' of the young male are described to be in the ' Faun. Bor.-
Amer.' These are stated to be ' carmine-red ' in the adult. (In the specimen under
examination they are just the colour that I have remarked those of the nestling
Larus ridihundus to be, and which it retains through the following autumn and
winter ; the adult of this species having these parts of an arterial blood-red.) The
claws are partly blackish and dai'k brown. Inside of the mouth pale reddish flesh-

" * As measured by applying a piece of twdne so as to touch each portion of the
bird, in a straight line, from the point of the bill to the end of the taU. The bird
being laid on a ilat siu-face, the space which it occupied from the point of the bill
to the end of the tail was 12 inches 6 lines. The length of three specimens given
in the ' Faun. Bor.-Amer.' was from 15 in. to 15 in. 6 lines. Looking to that work
after my measurement was made, and too late for coi'rection (the bii'd being skinned),
I found that the neck is stretched when the length is taken, whereas in this and
every similar case, 1 have been particular that it should never be in the least stretched,
but placed as it were in repose. Audubon describes the adult male as \^\ inches,
and the 'young in December as 13|- inches.'

" t The figure of the adult bird in the ' Faun. Bor.-Amcr.' does not sufficiently
exhibit the length of wings : — they are described in that work as passing the tail
two inches.

THE BONAPARTIAN GULL. 31&

colour : — described to be carmine in the adult. The tail may be termed even at
the end, ' very slightly romided laterally.' The beautiful long teiii-likc wings were
to me the most striking character at the first glance, and indicated what was afterwards
found had been remarked by Audubon, viz. that — 'the flight of this gull is light,
elevated, and rapid, resembling in buoyancy that of some of oiu- terns, more than
that of most of our gulls, which move their wings more sedately.'

" Plumage. Head white, excepting the usual blackish seasonal ear-spot of Xema ;
a little of this colour before the lower portion of, and beneath the eye, and a little
above it posteriorly — also blackish mixed with white on the nape. Thence to the
back very pale pearl-grey ; back or mantle (' manteau,' Temm.) pearl or pale bluish-
grey. Tail pure white, except from about a line inwards from the tip, where a band
of black nearly an inch in breadth appears. The wings exhibit generally the bluisli-
grey of maturity, but have 'clove-brown markings on the bastard wing, lesser
coverts, and scapulars ; antei'ior border of the wing white from its shoulder for the
breadth of four great primary coverts.' Primaries exhibiting in degree considerably
more black than the specimen described in ' Faun. Bor.-Amer.' — outer margin of the
first entirely black ; of the second, from tip upwai'ds for 5^ inches black, thence
white ; of the third, from the tip upwards black for 4 inches next the shaft, for Sc-
inches on outer margin.* Remainder of the primaries terminated with brownish-
black, except at the extreme tip. On the third, the first indication of white appears
in a mere line of that colour, thence it becomes gradually larger in size and deeper
in shade to the seventh, where it assumes the pearl-grey of the lower portion of the
same feather. Tlie black becomes more and more tinged with brown from the
first primaiy to the last ; the light-coloured tip on the contrary becomes gradually
of a deeper shade from tlie third to the last.

" Shafts of aU the primaries white, except the upper portion of the first, which
is dusky. Black appears on the inner web of the thi-ee longest primaries, much
lessening both in length and breadth from the first to the thii'd ; in the first it
occupies four inches in length, and its greatest breadth from the shaft is 4 lines
(i inch).

" The secondaries exhibit a large space of blackish -brown towards the tip within
their pearl-grey mai-gins ; the tertiaries have more or less of blackish-brown irregu-
larly disposed towards their tips.

" Under surface of wiugs entirely white, except that the portions of the primai'ies,
secondaries, and tertiaries, which, are dark above, appear greyish. Entire under
surface of body from the bUl to the extremity of the under tail-coverts white, of an
extremely faint roseate hue. The bird would, I consider, have attained full plumage
at the next moult. The weight was 5i ounces. It proved a male on dissection.
The stomach contained the remains of two specimens of opossum shi'imp {31i/sis), a
little vegetable matter, and some small pebbles.

" * Dr. Richardson remarks that, — ' the extent of black on the ends increases
gradually from the first to the fourth, ou which it measures above an inch, diminishing
again in the following ones.' In my specimen, the extent of black increases gra-
dually only to the third, in which it is H incli in depth, and diminishes in the
succeeding feathers.

320 LARIDiE,

" The species was first distinctly characterized in the ' Pauna
Boreali- Americana/ of Richardson and Swainson, in 1831. It
is mentioned in that work (p. 425) as ' common in all parts of
the fur countries, where it associates with the terns, and is dis-
tinguished by its peculiar shrill and plaintive cry/ Mr. Audubon
('Orn. Biog.' vol. iv. p, 212, 1838) informs us, that he first
met with this bird in August, when crossing the Ohio at Cincin-
nati, and subsequently shot a specimen in November, on the
Mississippi, a few miles below the mouth of the Arkansas. In
Chesapeake Bay after the first of April, and at the harbour of
Passamoudy (Maine) in May, he saw them in great abund-
ance : — at the latter place his son killed seventeen at one dis-
charge of his double-barreled gun. It is added that ' none of
them were observed on any part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
or on the coast of Labrador or Newfoundland, and that in winter
this species is common in the harbour of Charleston, but none
are seen at that season near the mouths of the Mississippi.'' This
author subsequently 'found in London a pair of these birds
* ^ * which had been brought from Greenland.'

"The occurrence of this North American bird in Europe
affords another opportunity for speculating whether birds can
really cross the Atlantic, which some of the best ornithologists
in Europe did not, at least a few years ago, believe to be possible.
In my opinion, as fully stated on former occasions when noticing
the occurrence of American birds in Ireland, the presumptive or
circumstantial evidence is aU in favour of their having really
crossed the ocean."^

" In the estuary, about three miles from where the Larus Bona-
partii was shot, the first individual also of

Larus Sahiui, .

known to visit the European coasts, was met with ; and at the
opposite side of the bay a second example was afterwards ob-

"* See Yellow-billed American Cuckoo {Coccyzus Americanus) in 'Annals,'
vol. ix. p. 226, and American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) in same work,
vol. xvii. p. 94. — [In Vols. I. and II. 'Nat. Hist. Ireland.']

THE BONAPAllTIAN GULL. -S^i

tained. Since I first noticed the species, a few individuals have
been procured on the shores of continental Europe. A very rare
gull, closely allied to the preceding, may also be noticed, although
it is not, strictly speaking, American, nor has it been obtained
there in any but a single instance* : — I allude to the

Lams mimittis,

a beautiful adult example of which, shot in the estuary, about
tliree miles from Belfast, on the 23rd of December, 1847, came
under my examination within an hour after being killed.

'' We cannot think of the occurrence of the three preceding-
species of Xema or black-headed gulls within so limited an area,
without reflecting that many species of birds of whicli we are
now ignorant, may visit the British coasts. If in the estuary at
Belfast, on the eastern coast of Ireland, North American species
are thus met with, how much more likely are they to visit, un-
noticed by any one, the western and northern coasts of the island,
as well as those of Scotland !

" Of the other Xema, known as British, X. ridibundus and
X. capistratus (regarded by me as one speciest) arc common in
the locality indicated for the othersj ; the remaining one,
X. atricilla, has been observed on two occasions on the south
coast of England, and by Montagu only. Of the two|| additional
European species, X. melanocephakmi and X. ichthyaetiim, the
former inhabits ^southern,' the latter 'south-eastern' Europe.
Xema FranJdmi is now the only North American species which
has not been obtained in Europe."

" * ' Faun. Bor. Amer.' p. 426. The species is uot included in the Prince of
Canino's subsequently published list of North American Birds.

" t See Zool. Proceedings, 1845 ; — copied into the ' Annals,' vol. x\ i. p. 357,
and Yarrell's 'Brit. Birds,' 2nd edit., preface, p. xi. In the three works, t lie last
word of the foot-note is printed ' hood ' instead of head.

" \ The species of Lams (as distinguished, from Xema) frequenting Belfast
Bay are L. marimis, L. fuscus, L. argentatus, L. canus, L. tridactylvs, and
L. Ishindicus ; all of which arc common but the last : it was once obtained. Speci-
mens of these, as well as of the Xemce noticed from the same locality, are preserved iu
the Belfast iMuseum, [One individual of the L. glaucus has since been prociu-cd.]

" II X. plumiceps, Bonap., is uot enumerated iu the ' Wirbclthiere Europa's,' or
' Rev. Crit. des Oiseaux d'Europc ' (Schlegcl)."

VOL. III. Y

322 LARID^.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

Red-legged Gull."^

Larus ridibunchts, Linu.

Is common and resident.

This is the common gull ' of Belfast Bay, and of the oozy or
sandy estuaries and marine loughs of at least the northern half
of Ireland. Great numbers may be seen frequenting such
localities daily throughout the year, excepting at the period of
the breeding season.

From the circumstance of this species breeding inland, and
its eggs and young being in request for the table in the good
old times, we have had more ample information respecting its
economy at an early period than of any other of its tribe. In
Plot^s 'Natural History of Staffordshire' (1686), there is a very
full account of this bird given, which has been often copied,t or
the substance of it published in a condensed form" (by Bewick,
&c.). Sheppard and Whitear particularly notice a breeding-
haunt in jSTorfoIk, in their memoir on the birds of that county,
published in the Linnean Transactions (vol. xv. p. 52). J The
Bishop of Norwich, in his 'Eamiliar History of Birds' (vol. ii.
p. 246), introduces an ample description of a great breeding-place
at the present time in the same county.

Breeding -Jiamits. — This gull breeds throughout Ireland in
similar localities to those described in the works referred to. On
the 27th of June, 1832, when at Portlough, near Dunfanaghy,
in the north-west of Donegal, covering perhaps a hundred acres,
I went in a corraffh to a little islet about fifty or sixty yards from
the shore, on which black-headed gulls were breeding, and found
their nests and eggs : the nests were formed negligently of reeds

* Pirre auci Pirre-maw are sometimes applied to it on the Antrim coast.

t See Stanley's ' Familiar History of Birds ;' Garner's ' Nat. Hist, of Stafford-
sliire ' (1844), &c.

\ This is copied verhaiim by YarreU.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 323

[Arundo phragmites), and tolerably well concealed by herbage.
A man living on the banks of the lake stated, that these birds
had been regularly in the habit of breeding there until three or
four years previous to that time, when a boat was placed per-
manently on the lough, in consequence of which they abandoned
it until the present year (1832), when the boat is much the
same as being away — lying at the edge, a wreck. It is said
that they made their first appearance at Portlough for the season
about three weeks ago, and that when the young birds are " out,"
the parents may be almost constantly seen flying to Sheephaven, and
returning thence, carrying sand-eels in their bills for the young.

On the 15th of June, 1833, a breeding-haunt of this species
in Lough Neagh was visited by William Sinclaire, Esq., and
myself. This is a narrow piece of ground, which runs out for
perhaps 300 yards from the north-east of Uam^s Island, with
which it is connected, and is merely a bed of gravel (raised a few
feet above the surface of the lake), that in the course of time has
become covered with herbage — grasses, rushes, &c. — and shrubby
willows of dift'erent kinds. About the roots of these, and over
the whole ground, the nests of the black-headed gull were jilaced
in such numbers, that we were obliged to be extremely cautious
in looking where to set our feet in avoidance of them : our
circumspection before every foot-fall, however amiable, appeared
in action rather ludicrous, reminding us of the manner in which
cautious ladies pause while crossing a snow-covered street.
These nests contained eggs of every number up to six inclusive,
though authors generally state that the bird lays only three.
They differed from those of the common tern (which here, were
mere hollows in the short grass, without a vestige of any extra-
neous matter), in being composed of di-ied grasses, rushes, and
such other vegetable substances as were within reach ; but were
not regularly formed like those of the kittiwake gull at Horn
Head. The eggs varied exceedingly in size, form, and colour,
not two exactly alike being seen in the same nest.'^

* This is more siugiilar than the statement of Mr. Sahuon in respect to this
species, that each laying of eggs in the same season (amounting to three if the

Y 2

324- LAIUP.E.

There were nearly as many yoinig birds as eggs^ some of them
apparently ten days old ; all of these, even the youngest, when
pui'sued, fled to the lake, which was very rough. In one nest I
noticed a young bird which had just made its exit from the shell,
surrounded by four eggs, but for the shelter of which — warmth it
could not be called, as most of the eggs in the nests felt cool — it
must have perished, so cold was the day. I was surprised to observe
many young gulls lying dead, the only cause for which that
could be assigned was their being killed by old birds, not their
parents. Our boatman gave the species the character of being
very pugnacious, and we ourselves had ocular demonstration to
that effect. Not less than a thousand of these gulls appeared
here at one view, and their evolutions were extremely beautiful
and varied, more especially when the willows rising to the height
of about fifteen feet, and forming a background, afforded a rich
contrast to the elegant plumage of the birds as they gracefully
poised themselves, or winnowed the air immediately above their
nests ; and again, when they hovered over the water and dipped
their feet in the rising wave after the manner of the stormy petrel.

We were highly gratified to learn fi'om the caretaker in charge
of Eam^s Island — with its two buildings of very opposite
character, one of the ancient Eound Towers, and a neat modern
cottage — that its noble proprietor, the late Lord O'Neill, had
given orders that the gulls and terns breeding there, should not
in any way be disturbed, the result of which was, that they had
become gradually more numerous, and were much' more so that

birds be much disturbed), is smaller than the precediug (Hewitson, Eggs, &c.
p. 437).

A man living on the INIagharee Islands, Tralee Bay, states of the eggs of
the " larger guUs " (not, of com-se, inclusive of L. ridibundus), that those of the
first laying are dark and much blotched ; of the second, much lighter in colour ;
and of the thu'd and last, neai'ly white, with one or two lai-ge dark spots (Mr. R.
Chute).

The following note, obtained since the preceding was printed, may be added : —
October 1850.— Mr. John D. Ferguson, of Dunvegan Cottage, Skye, informs me
that his attention was called by the lighthouse-keeper at the island of Berneray,
to the eggs of the common guillemot becoming lighter in colom- and smaller iu
size each time for several layings ; a statement which my informant saw fully
verified.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 325

year than ever. One of my companions, who had been here
a few years before, did not then see more than one third
of the birds which we observed. In consequence of their
being protected, we can judge with certainty of the natural
period of production of the young birds, and several other points
wliich cannot be determined in localities where the eggs are, time
after time in the same season, carried away. Thanks to Earl
O^Neill, the beautiful Lams ridlhiindiis and Sterna Idrundo had
at least one asylum of peace and safety in the north of Ireland,
where they could, without dread or fear of annoyance from man,
increase and multiply their species.

When at Ram's Islnnd on the .5th of August, 1846, I was in-
formed that owing to the breeding-ground being inundated, not
a black-headed gull bred there that year. In the preceding year
they were abundant; probably not less so than in lSo3. On the
4th of June, 1S50, this island was visited by a party of ornitlio-
logists, wlio did not see more than two pair of these gulls near it,
and were told that hardly any had bred there during the last few
years. The decrease w^as attributed by the boatmen partly to the
frecpjent robbery of the eggs, and partly to the present custom of
spreading the fishermen's nets over the ground where the nests
were formerly placed. One nest, containing two eggs, was found
on the island.*

In the last-named month, a fisherman at Toome stated that
great numbers of these guUs bred on Scabby Island, Lough
Beg, four or five years ago, but that none do so now.t

A former breeding-haunt of these gulls, on an island at Lougli
Achery, county Down, is mentioned in the second volume of tliis
work (p. 146), in connexion with the heron, which they drove
from the locality, that they might appropriate it to themselves.
One shot at Lough Clay (south), in the same county, in the sum-
mer of 1845, where a pair only bred that year, came under mj
notice, as have single specimens obtained in the breeding-season
at islands of Lough Egish and Lough-a-vane, county Mojia-
ghan. About a thousand birds, old and young together, were
* Mr. J. 1{. GaiTcil. t Ibid.

•326 ' LARIDyE.

observed a few years ago about the island of a lake near Sliercock,
county Cavan."^ On aflat island — a building-liaunt — in one of the
Mayo lakes^ Mr. R. Ball and I saw many of them in July 1834,
and that gentleman's brother, either in 1840 or 1841, reckoned
about fifty pair at their breeding-islets in two other lakes of that
county — Levally and Conn — but more at the former one. Both
lakes were said to have been frequented by the species from time
immemorial. In the evening they left these haunts in flocks, and
flew to the distance of five or six miles, to feed on the moths which
appeared in abundance above the meadows that had been flooded
during the winter. In Loughs Mask and Corrib (Galway) this gull
is said to nidify in great numbers. t Many oihsr fresh-water lakes
throughout the island are doubtless frequented by it for incu-
bation ; — such only have I known it resort to, in Ireland, for
that purpose. On some of the low flat islands on the sea-coast
at the mouth of the Thames, it is said to build, J and is described
in general terms by Degland, in his ' Ornithologie Europeenne,'
as breeding on the borders of the sea at the embouchure of rivers
(vol. ii. p. 327).

The black-headed gulls retire from most of their breeding-
places so soon as the young are able to leave them, but about a
great expanse of water like Lough Neagh they remain longer :
at the end of September 1834, I remarked many there, and
considered it not improbable that they jnay be permanently resi-
dent, making feeding excursions to the ploughed lands on its
banks, as the species elsewhere does from the sea- shore.

Just after the breeding season numbers frequent the oozy
banks of the river Lagan, over which the tide flows, where they
continue tlu"ough the autumn, but towards winter, move to the
bay. Very early in spring they again appear far up the Lagan,
which is their daily resort until breeding time arrives : — many
are in the upper parts of the estuary from August until May=
* Mr. T. W. Warren. f Mr. R. J. Moutgomcry. + Yarrcll,

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 327

So late as the 31st of May and 2nd of June, 1832, I observed
flocks consisting of various numbers, not exceeding tliirty, about
the Lagan.

On the 24th of July, 1838, I remarked many old birds accom-
panied by their young of that season in the bay. In 1845 they
were still earlier, a flock of about tliirty, old and young, being
seen there on the 19th of July, and on the 24th, about twice
as many. At that locality, and in the tidal portion of the
river Lagan opposite the Royal Botanic Garden, they gradually
increased until the 8th of August, when their numbers were com-
plete for the autumn.

Prom the river Lagan they used to be wholly absent from the
period of their retirement, late in the spring, until old and young
returned in company. I was therefore surprised to see a flock of
forty-nine fly high above the Lagan bridge early in the evening
of the 15 til of May, 1850, all adult birds, and followed by two
or three smaller flocks proceeding seaward, in the si\me course,
most probably to their breeding- haunt. Many adults, I was
told, were daily observed in the bay from this time forward.
On the 4th of June I remarked a number of old birds in a similar
place in Lancashire ; — the marine sands about Fleetwood : and
on the 2nd of July, about forty in that state of plumage appeared
in a flock at a locality of the same nature between Drogheda
and Dubhn. Their wandering far from breeding-haunts, in the
midst of the season, would therefore seem to be not unusual, un-
less that such birds — like adult kittiwakes, hereafter to be men-
tioned^do not increase their species.

'Plumage. — I shall give a selection from notes on this subject made in the vicinity
of Belfast.

1833. March ^Xst and \st of April. Out of a great number observed, not more
than about one in twenty had the head black ; the others had it faintly mottled, or
exhibited merely the black ear-spot of winter ;* the rest of the head being pure
white. April VMh. Of two which flew within a few yards of me, both having the

* The other dark spot of winter plumage, being close to the eye, is not conspicuous
like that above the eai's.

338 laridte.

black band of immaturity of equal breadth across tlie tail, one had the head black,
and the other white. April \1th. I examined through a telescope, though they
were not far distant, a number of these gulls. They differed much iu plumage,
some having the fi'ont of the head black, others greyish-brown, but all, in either
state, having the back or hinder part of head pure white, b'ke L. cainstratus ; more
than were iu either of those states had the head faintly mottled with grey and white :
most of the birds in this plumage had a black band across the extremity of the tail.
May %rd. I examined most particularly, this evening for half an hour, with a tele-
scope, a flock of aboirt a hundred when feeding on the ooze of the river Lagan, close
by the Botanic Garden. Some had the front of the head black, like those on the
17th of April ; others, brown ; the back or hinder part of it being white in
all displaying this " masked " appearance. — Some of those having brown in front of
the head, had a round white marking extending from the upper mandible. Some
had the head mottled, and others pure white, excepting the black ear- and eye-spots
(^. e., were in winter plumage) . The legs of those nearest me (about sixty yards off),
which happened to be the most adidt, were bright lake-red. June V^th. The only
bird of a small flock of six that came near me displayed the black baud of immatmity
on the tail.

1839. March 1\st. I was much struck with the beauty of some of these birds
which were feeding very near me at the edge of the bay, and had not yet as-
smncd the entire black head, the hinder half only being of this colour, and the an-
terior pure white, which appears to me more elegant than the entire black head. I
have shot arctic terns in June, at theii* breeding-haunts, with the anterior portion
of the head thus white.

1842. Marcli 'i^th. 1 observed several of the L. ridihundus, vrith heads black as
iu summer, but a few which I saw iu the bay, on the 12th of May, had not black
heads, but, instead, a mere extension of the black ear-spot which we see in winter :
this was simply extended a little on either side, terminating in a point, so as instead
of a round spot to appear a narrow crescent of black.

1843. March Ylth. Great numbers of these birds in the river Lagan, displaying
black heads.

1845. May &th and 1th. Of about a hundi'cd and twenty seen each day in the
Lagan, near the Botanic Garden, not more than one-fourth had the heads black.
May \^th. Of a similar number examined at same place thi'ough a telescope, some
were in adult L. ridibundus plumage, in hood-like form of black on head, the black
in such birds being of a greatly deejjer shade of colour than in other individuals
which were but masked. Some birds had no black on head but eye-spot, and had a
l)road band of black on tail.

Roseate plumage. — I have had communications from various parts of Ireland, iu-
cluding the south, respecting rosy gulls, and specimens have occasionally been seut for
my examination. They were all of this species, differing only from onUnary birds iu
being of a rich cream-coloured roseate hue where others are white ; and most con-
spicuously so on the breast. Eew birds from any part of the woi'ld present a more
elegant appearance. The descriptiou of one will suffice.

Octolter ihik, 1832. The most l)eautiful specimen of X. ricllljuiidas that I have

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 329

seen was shot in Belfast Bay, to-day. It was an adult bird, and the primaries being
tipped with white, indicated (according to Temminck) that it was a very old indivi-
dual. Not only the breast and all the under plnmagc had a deep roseate tinge, but
also the primaries, the two first of which, including the shafts of the feathers, were of
a very deep jnnk ; each succeeding primary, after these, became gradually of a paler
hue : the second primary was one-third of an inch longer than the fii'st. The bill,
tarsi, and toes of this bii-d were of as brilliant an arterial blood-red as in the month
of June.

Inland and Sea Feeding, Sj'c.

Every month I have seen these gulls frequenting ploughed
fields, which they are most partial to when the plough is at work.
The following notes bear in part on this subject : —

Hov. 27, 1840. — During a ride, when the tide was beginning
to ebb, I saw about 200 red-legged gulls busied feeding on the
sandy beach between the road and Holywood Warren, Belfast
Bay, and on my return half an hour afterwards observed that they
had for this purpose kept pace with the receding tide. When
the gulls are on the water here they are resting, and not feed-
ing, this latter being performed on wing or "on their legs."
There were . other gulls — L. camis and L. argentakis — inter-
mixed with them in pursuit of food. At their rocky breeding-
stations, we see the last-named species at this occupation either
when floating buoyantly and silently on the waves, or darting
down screaming from the air to the surface, where there is " a play
of fish."

This day was perfectly calm, with bright sunshine. As I
have often before observed in such weather, tlie L. rulihundus
was flying in numbers inland to a little distance, and feeding in
the fields where the plough was at work. The compact form of
this gull, both in body and wing, distinguishes it at a glance from
its congeners. 1 particularly analyzed one of the beautiful flights
of this — as of other gulls — when a large number of them appear
high in the air forming a somewhat circular body, within the cir-
cumference of which they seem to be passing backwards and for-
wards, and in all possible ways. On this occasion about sixty were

330 LARIDiE.

SO disporting themselves, as if in pure enjoyment of the delightful
day. They seemed to feel, with Moore,

" Blest power of sunshine, genial day.
What balm, what life is in thy ray.
To feel thee is such real bliss," &c.

This interesting flight was formed by the birds, singly or in
pairs, circling round from all points, so as to be going in opposite
directions, thereby coustituting the strange diversity I had so
often witnessed under similar circumstances. At such times they
are perfectly silent, — never breaking the stillness of the empyrean
mth one discordant sound.

January 1, 1842. — I watched for a long time about sixty of
these gulls " following the plough,^' in a field adjoining Park-
mount, on the western side of the bay, where it was beautiful to
observe them, their manner was so playful and full of life. They
kept in a close flock generally, within ten or twelve yards of the
plough in its progress, and were frequently not more than one or
two yards distant from the ploughman^s head. Hovering en
masse over the newly turned-up furrows, one or several together
dropped down as their prey appeared. They called all the time,
though on other occasions of the kind I have particularly remarked
their silence. On the 18th of the month above one hundred came
under my notice in the same manner, on the county Down side of
the bay. In the numerous fields already ploughed around the
one in which the process was going forward, not a single gull was
to be seen. They may be remarked similarly engaged about hus-
bandmen employed in harrowing.

Farmers generally are so very unwilling to admit that any
birds do them good, I quote the following with much satis-
faction : — With reference to a great breeding-haunt, Scoulton
Mere, in Norfolk, and known as such for above three centuries,
we are told that " now and then a year of jubilee is given, and no
eggs taken ; this was done lately at the instance of the neigh-
bouring farmers, who justly value the services of these birds in
the destruction of grubs, kc."*

* Lubbock's ' Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 123 (1845).

THK BLACK- HEADED GULL. 331

The black-headed are less wild than any other species of gull in
Belfast Bay, and are often to be seen feeding very near the road
bounding its western side, even when the tide is out, and a great
extent of banks uncovered. I have remarked them within
forty yards of it, and have been occasionally much interested in
observing the excellent vision they possess, as evinced by theii'
making " stoops" from a height of ten or a dozen yards at ob-
jects on the ruffled surface of the water so minute that they could
not be perceived in their bills, though they evidently never failed
to seize something. When feeding on the ooze of the Lagan, I
have been amused at their suddenly turning back, and using their
wings for a yard or two in pursuit of prey which the stream had
carried past them : their advantage over wading birds, too, is some-
times obvious, as they resort to swimming when other means will
not bring them to the desired object. I have sometimes remarked
that large flocks feeding here obtained their food entirely on the
ooze, without approaching even the margin of the river.

As a difference of opinion exists about certain species of birds
eating slugs, or shell-less snails, on the 10th of August, 1833, I
tried four young black-headed gulls with different species of
them ; the small yellowish one [Limax agrestis), the young of the
speckled {L. maximus), and the small blackish one with orange belly
[Arion hortensis) . These were offered to the gulls after their
usual daily time of being fed was past, and when they were ex-
tremely vociferous for food. On the slugs being presented, they
all four dashed open-billed upon them, and picked up a slug
each, which was no sooner done than they one and all flung
them violently a^ay with evident disgust : some of them re-
turned a second time to the charge, and again picked up a
slug, but this was as rapidly expelled as at first : thus termi-
nated the feast of slugs."^ They were usually fed on the entrails
of fowls.

With respect to the black-headed gull itself as food, a corre-
spondent remarks, that he has found it " suflicieutly palatable, and

* For (lucks feeding on tlicm, sec p. 84.

332 LARID^.

though the flesh is a httle coarse in texture^ it is agreeable
to the taste."

Under the date of November 8, 1833, I noted that the
boklucss and impertinence of a young black-headed guU at the
Falls pond much amused me. It was one of eight nestlings
brought by us from Eam's Island in June : of the others, foiu-
died within the first two or three ' weeks, and the remaining
three (noticed in connection with the slugs) when thriving remark-
ably well disappeared, having been probably killed by rats or
stoats. On a quantity of potatoes being thrown upon the bank
of the pond for the various species of wild-fowl there, this gull,
although there was abundance of food for all, drove away shell-
drakes, mallards, brent-geese, &c., pecking with its bill at them
whenever they approached sufiiciently near, and giving utterance
to its shrill jarring cry all the time. It followed the shelldrakes
for some yards until it drove them furiously into the pond. Even
lifting up its head from the food, and merely looking at the
brent geese, but in such a manner, indeed, as to say, ' be off, or
stay at your peril,^ they wheeled about, and ran away. These
geese are very meek and gentle in deportment, with which their
half-mourning plumage well accords. It seemed to be througli
sheer miscliief that this gull persecuted the other birds, as the
potatoes were so widely spread that there was abundant room for
aU of them to feed at once. I have observed a black-headed gull,
too, in a wild state, drive a lapwing boldly away when its feeding-
ground was approached.

The examination of the stomachs of a number of these gulls at
various times, and at all seasons, proved them to be almost omni-
vorous : some contained the remains of fish, mollusca {Rissoa
labiosa, R. idvce, &c.), Crustacea (such as Idotece, shrimps, &c.),
earth-worms, coleopterous insects, grains of wheat (in one stomach
there were fifteen perfect grains), conferva, and other vegetable
matter.

The preying of these gulls on moths has been alluded to in
connection with their breeding-haunts in Mayo. They are com-
monly sought after, in the summer evenings, so late as nine o'clock,

THE BLACK-HEADED OIJLL. 333

in the counties of Eoscommon and Leitrim, when flying after
moths (perhaps the ghost-moth^ Hepialus himiuli) above the
ripe but unmown meadows, in flocks generally of about a dozen
birds. My informant is not aware of any breeding-place being
near.* " The Eev. J. Dubourdieu is of opinion that the moths of
the cut-worm (from his description, Fhalana humidi) have dimi-
nished, as he sees the gulls in the meadow before his house [in
the county Down] pursuing like swallows, and catching them
even until eleven o'clock at night. Erom a considerable distance
he can hear the snap of the gull when it seizes one. At this
period we may see the moths, the nights being so light as to
appear twilight throughout." t

Everywhere over Ireland that I have been — in the north, east,
west, and south — this gull was met with, and along the western
coast as numerously as elsewhere. One of the most favourite
localities I know is the inner extremity of Dundalk Bay : I have
never crossed the bridge northward of the town without seeing
numbers. Certainly as many, if not more, than are bred in the
island remain during the winter on the sea-coast, and in the most
northern estuaries.

Sir William Jardine remarks, that " the black-headed gull is
at all times to be met with on the coast in the south of Scotland
during winter, but in no proportion whatever to the large num-
bers that annually resort inland to breed " (' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv.
p. 295). The marshy extremity of a mountain tarn covering a
few acres on a moor, about twelve miles inland from Ballantrae,
in Ayrshire, in occupation of a friend, is annually tenanted by a
large colony of these birds, which look extremely beautiful in
the midst of the wild heath ; but so easy of access are their nests,
that they are sadly pillaged of their eggs, and, as the practice of
robbing them is on the increase, the poor gulls will, doubtless,
be eventually banished from the district they so much adorn. On
the 29th of September, 1842, I observed great numbers of these

* Mr. \V. R. Willie. f Journal of John Tumplcloii, June 29, 1808.

334 LABTD.T5.

birds in ploughed fields bordering the Moray Frith, east of
Inverness; and in January 1849, remarked large flocks of them
about Loch-in-daal, Islay. They may be considered as common
in Ireland as in England or Scotland.

Among some birds kindly given to me by Dr. Cantor, in 1840,
as killed about the Bay of Bengal, is an adult gull of this
species, identical in all respects with an Irish specimen with which
it was compared.

THE BllOWN-HEADED, OR IVIASKED GULL.

Larus capistratus, Temm.

At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, in March 1833,*
I exhibited an adult specimen of this bird, shot at the river Lagan,
near Belfast, on the 38th of August, 1832. The specimen, previous
to its being thus exhibited, was carefully compared by Mx. Yarrell and
myself, with one from Shetland, in the collection of the society, and
which had been described by that gentleman in the Proceedings for
1831, p. 151. Though not in the same state of plumage, they were
found to be perfectly identical in species. A description of the Irish
specimen, drawn up previous to its being skinned, was as follows : —

Length from the point of the beak to the end of the tail-feathers, 15 inches;
from the point of the beak to the fii'st feathers, Jg- less than one inch ; from the
point of the beak to the end of the gape, 1 inch 10 lines ; the second piimary is
1^ of an inch longer than the fii-st ; length of the tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ; of the
middle toe and naU, 1 inch 6 lines. The beak towards the base all red ; towai-ds
the tip black ; primaries white, edged and tipped with black, broadest iu the inner
web, shafts white ; legs and toes pale red, webs of the feet deep reddish-brown.
Irides, deep reddish-brown. Upper mandible straight for half its length fi-om the
base, the other half mnch arched and extending more than \ of an inch over the
lower mandible.

On the 28th of June, 1834, I shot a bird of this kind (of the pre-
ceding year), which was accompanied by several others in similar
plumage, near Minish Island, Clew Bay, county Mayo, and more
were observed in the same bay a few days afterwards. But I then
doubted if L. capistratus be a distinct species, and if they be not rather

* Noticed in Proceedings Z. S., p. .33.

THE BRO"\VN-UEADED, OR MASKED GULL.

335

small and partially immature individuals (females chiefly) of L. ridi-
bundiis, that have borne this name ;* — and whether, as this species,
Like other gulls,f differs a good deal in size, L. capisiratus should
not be reduced to a synonym of X. ridibundus, as L. argentatoides
has been to L. argentatus. I have critically examined a number of
specimens at various seasons, and found them to diifer much in the
relative proportions of parts ; thus, in an adult bird, only fourteen
inches in length, shot on the 31st of January, 1835, the tarsi, &c.,
examined when fresh, were :, —

Length (total)

„ of bill above

„ „ to rictii3

„ of wing from carpus

„ of wings beyond tail

„ of tarsus

„ of middle toe and nail

„ of outer „ „

„ of inner „ „

„ of hind „ „

Tibia bai'e of feathers for

This bird is mature : the black head is beginning to appear. Prom the upper
portion of each black ear-sfot across the nape, there is a rather faint show of black.
Legs and biU of a colom* intermediate between "tile-red" and "scarlet-red" of
Syme.

Two adult birds previously noted — killed in Belfast Bay, on De-
cember 6th, 1833 — and measured before being skinned, were
respectively, in length, 14 and 14^ inches; irides hazel; tarsi and
toes of a duU coral-red ; webs of feet chocolate-brown ; bill for rather
more than the half from base dull coral-red, remainder (to the point)
blackish : these birds being purchased by me and preserved, other
characters not liable to change were left for future observation. To be
more precise. —

First, as to size. — The following are the dimensions of an adult

* A specimen killed in Belfast Bay on the 22nd of August, 1844, exhibited the
characters of the two species. It was an adult bird with ])ure white tail, and in the
plumage of L. ridibundus ; but its tarsi aud toes were brownish-red in colour, as
those of L. capistratus are described to be, instead of the arterial blood-red of the
other: the first two quills were not fully grown. Its length was 15 inches ; bill
from forehead to point, 14^ lines ; tarsus, 20 lines ; middle toe aud nail, 18 lines.

t Sec, under L. arr/entatus, my remarks on L. argentatoides.

in.

lin.

14

0

1

3

2

0

12

9

2

6

1

1

lOi

8

1

6

1
0

3i

4

0

9

336 LARiD.Ti:.

veritable L. ridlbtindus, with black head, bill and legs arterial blood-red,
whicb I sliot in its breeding-station at Ram's Island, Lough Neagh,
on the 15 th June, 1833.

iu.

lin

. 15

6

. 11

8

. 1

3

. 1

11

1

7

. 0

10

. 1

7

. 1

0

. 0

2

. 0

5

Length (total)

„ of carpus to end of first quill

„ of bin above

„ „ to rictus ....

„ of tarsus .....

„ of tibia (bare portion)

,, of middle toe and nail

„ of inner toe mthout nail

,, of inner toe-nail ....

„ of hind toe and naU

September 26(/i, 1833. — I examined a living bird, taken from a nest
at Ram's Island (on the day the preceding one was shot), and which is
now within about ten days of being four months old, and found that
in this bird, which was presumed to be a male, the bill was more robust,
and the tarsi longer and stronger than those of the adult female : bill
and tarsi exceeded those of the adidt female one line in length. It
will be seen how this agrees with the Shetland specimen described by
Mr. YarreU. He says : — " The whole length of this specimen, from
the point of the beak to the end of the tail-feathers, is 15 inches ;
from the point of the beak to the end of the iirst feathers, 1 inch and
i a line ; from the point of the beak to the rictus, 1 inch 10 lines ;
from the carpus to the end of the tii'st primary (which is the longest),
11 inches 8 lines ; length of the tarsus, 1 inch 7 lines; of the middle
toe and nail, 1 inch 6 lines."* My specimen was not selected as
being small in some of its proportions, but was merely one of three
birds which were killed on the occasion.

Secondly, as to colour of tarsi and toes. — That stated to distinguish
L. capistratus from L. ridUjundus is a mere transition shade, through
which all individuals of the latter pass before the arterial blood-red
hue is attained.

Thirdly, tlie disposition of black or broicn on the head, whence the
name L. capistratus, and more definitely masked gull of British authors,
is, likewise, either a transitional or an accidental appearance, and the
shade of that colour varies from the broccoli-brown attributed to it,

* Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1831, p. 151.

THE BEOWN-HEADED, OR MASKED GULL. 337

to that of L. ridihundm. Through a telescope, I have frequently
remarked some of these birds wheu feeding, at distances between 60 and
100 yards, to have the black disposed as in L. capistratus ; i. e., the bird
when looking towards me, displayed a black head ; but when walking
from me, its head appeared pure white. This was particularly noted on
the 17th of xipril, the 3rd, 18th, 37th, and 28th of May, 1832. In favour
of the view that the black taking a masked form is occasional or accidental,
rather than transitional, is the fact, that I have seen immature birds when
first assuming the black head, displaying black feathers, as low down on
the back of the head,* as L. ridibundus ever has them at any age.f

Fourthly. — My specimens of L. ridibimdus and L. capistratus do
not present any marked difference in the shade of coloiu* of the under
surface of the wings. — See Temminck, part ii. p. 786.

Fifthly. — This author (p. 787) states that the eggs given to him
as those of L. capistratus, are rather smaller than the eggs of L. ridi-
bundus. Smaller individuals may be expected to lay smaller eggs, and,
as mentioned of those at Eam's Island, no two eggs in the same nest
were exactly of the same size or form. If the species be different, we
may certainly expect to find a difference in the eggs, but it is essential
that a number or series of these be seen before their differential cha-
racters can be properly known.

I have many more notes in addition to those already given, which show
that the size of bill and feet, and length of tarsus, three of the chief cha-
racters by which L. capistratus is distinguished from L. ridibundus, are
Liable to much variation. 1 shall only add a comparison of an adult with
a young bird of the preceding year, which were killed from a large flock
at the same shot near Belfast, on the 15 th of February, 1838.

ADULT.

YOUNG.

in. lin.

in. lin.

Length (total)

15 9

14 3

„ of bill above, in a straight line .

1 2i

1 2

* I once remarked a young bird of the year, in the mouth of August, with browTi
feathers on the head forming the regular hood ; the lower part of the back of the
head, as well as the upper, being of this colom-.

t This bird is believed by Temmiuek to attain full plumage within a year ; but I
have often had proof of individuals, at least, not doing so until the second summer
after birth.

November 1850. — An adult L. ridihundus (as I consider) of the ordinary size
added by Dr. J. U. Marshall to his collection of living birds in October 1849, and
still in his possession, exhibited a mask like that of i. capi strut us, as figured by Yar-
rell, during the whole of last summer. It was of a pale broccoli-brown colour.

VOL. III. Z

338

LARID^.

ADULT.

YOUNG.

2 Of

2 0

1 10

1 9

1 6

1 5

12 6

11 3

2 0

1 8

Length of bill to rictus

„ of tarsus ....
„ of middle toe and nail
„ of carpus to end of longest quill
Wings pass the tail

Weight of adult (a male) 11 oz.
Weight of young (a female) 9 oz.

ADULT.

Bill bright red, except towards the tip, which is brownish-red. Legs and toes of
a pale hue, partaking of orange and vermilion-red. Webs of a darker tint.

YOUNG.

BiU brownish-red for about the posterior half, from nostrils forward, blackish.

Legs and toes of a very pale brownish-red, webs broccoli-brown. Mantle of a some-
what paler hue than in the adult, as are the under sides of the wings also. Its sto-
mach was nearly empty, but contained the remains of a large coleopterous insect.

It should be stated that this difference in size between old and young is not neces-
sarily consequent on age, but may rather be a sexual difference, the smaller bird being
a female. — See note on young and old from Ram's Island at p. 336.

Thus in February, tte bill and legs of the young bii'd were those of
L. capistratus. The same individual in the preceding month of August
(like two which I examined on the 4th of that month) would have had
the bni pale flesh-colour at the base, blackish-brown at the tip, the
tibia, tarsus, toes, and webs of feet pale flesh-colour, the last with a
slight dusky tinge in the centre.

The preceding notes, together with a number of others of a simi-
lar tendency, made on specimens obtained about Belfast, justify me
I think in cousidering L. capistratus as sjiecifically identical with L.
ridibiindiis, and this view is strengthened by the fact that the former
is as yet unknown in any country except as an occasional visitant.*

* May 20i/i, 1845. Since the preceding was written, I have — tlu-ough the kind
attention of Mr. G. R. Gray — examined in the British Museum, the specimen of Z. ca-
pistratus that was so named by Temminck (Bullock's specimen, purchased by Dr.
Leach), and found it to be in

in.
Length total (stuffed specimen) . . . . .15

from carpus to end of first quill
,, of bill from forehead to point .
,, of tarsus ....
„ of middle toe and nail
„ of outer „

„ of inner „

,, of hind ,,

No difference in plumage except in mask instead

0

lin.

0

6

2

7i
4
4
1
3

1 of hood. The feet are very small.

A critical comparison of this bird with my specimens of L. 7-idibundus proved it

THE BROWN-HEADED, OR MASKED GULL. 339

Having now given — perhaps much too fuUj — my own reasons
for beheving this bird and L. ridibnndus to be the same, I shall
not enter into the question of the various opinions on the subject,
further than in reference to my friend Mr. Yarrell. On the 27th
of May, 1845, I brought my views on the subject before the
Zoological Society in London, and exhibited many specimens in
support of them. An abstract of my remarks was published in
the Proceedings of that Society, in the ' Annals of Natural His-
tory,' and in the preface to the first volume of the second edition
of Mr. YarrelFs work. In its proper place, under L. capistratus,
in the second edition, my original specimen — though given in the
fijst edition — is omitted, while the Orkney one with which it was
compared by that author and myself, and was proved to be iden-
tical with in species, is retained : descriptions of both, and of
a specimen so named by Temminck, have been given in the pre-
sent volume.

Mr. Yarrell appears still to think — he does not speak decisively
— that L. capistratus is a distinct species, and instances two adult
individuals only twelve inches and a half in length, having come
under liis examination ; but such are not near the dimensions of
this bird, as given by Temminck,"^ If there be a smaU black-
headed gull distinct from L. ridibundits, this is quite a different
* question from L. cajnstratus being identical with it. An adult bird
shot at Lough Clay (county Down) on the 16th of July, 1845 —
one of a pair known to have a nest there — was smaller not only
than the ordinary L. ridibimdus, but than the L. capistratus also.
It was, in total length, thirteen inches and three-quarters (Eng-
lish measure) . Colour : Bill dull arterial blood-red ; tarsi be-
tween that colour and the hue attributed to £. capistratus;

to be uo smaller (except iu tlie toes and webs of feet) tban some of them, and to vary
in the most trivial degree from the adiilt female bird in fuU summer plumage. The
difiference was, in tny opinion, simply individual :, as distinguished from specific.

* His only measurements named for L. ridibundus and L. capistratus, are —

in. lin. in. lin.

Length (total) .... 14 0 13 4

„ of tarsus . . . 1 8 (or 9) 1 0

This is of course French measure, in which fifteen inches are equivalent to sixteen
English.

z 2

34-0 laeidjE.

head broccoli-brown above ; from base of bill, downwards, in
front, becoming gradually darker, or from broccoli-brown to
blackish. The black is between a mask and a hood in form.
In this individual, therefore, we have in the height of the breed-
ing season the colours of the two supposed species.

So many closely-allied birds were confounded together when
Temminck described the L. cajnstratiis, that it would have been
a very fair museum species for any distinguished ornithologist to
notice. In addition to numbers of specimens in various states of
plumage, it often requires a great amount of observation out of
doors, to decide a point of this kind.

THE KITTIWAKE.

Lams tridactylus, Linn.
„ rissa, Brunn.

Is a regular summer visitant to the coast in great num-
bers ; — some are met with during winter.

The same is said of the species in Great Britain.* This gull is
gregarious in the breeding season, frequenting every side of the
island, and building in " mural precipices," wliich are its favourite
haunts. Dr. J. D. Marshall informed us in 1834, that — "This
is by far the most common species of gull in Rathlin. On nearly
all the precipitous headlands north of the Bull, these birds take
up their summer residence, and during my visit (in June) were
in such countless multitudes as to darken the air above our heads.
Along the headlands of Eaghery every pinnacle and ledge of rock
was tenanted by the razorbill, puffin, or kittiwake gull ; and nu-
merous as the others were, the last far outstripped them in num-
ber. The nests were formed of dried grass, sea-weed, &c. ; and the
eggs, usually two in number, are of a grey colour, blotched and
dotted with brown and purple. When I looked down from a
height on these nests, it appeared wonderful how the birds found

* Jardine, 'Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. p. 312.

THE KITTIWAKE. 341

room to sit and hatch theu* eggs, or tend their young, for five or
six nests were placed on a shelf of rock so close to each other,
that the birds sat in contact, and, if not peaceably inclined, would
have thrown the whole into confusion, and prevented each other
from fulfilling the process of incubation. Yet they all seemed to
live in harmony; and except when one unintentionally occupied
a nest not its own (which very rarely happened), they never at-
tempted to disturb one another. The young, when first excluded
from the shell, are covered with a greyish down, intermixed with
white. Their food consisted chiefly of fry. Eor two or three
miles along the base of these cliffs, the rocks were covered with
eggs, from which the young had been liberated — young birds
which had been precipitated from the rocks, and with the excre-
ment and feathers of the adult birds.'''

On my visiting the Skerries off Portrush on the 12th of July,
1833, a large number of kittiwakes were assembled on a rock;
my companion fired at them and killed several, all of which were
in adult plumage : their legs varied much in colour, from a yel-
lowish-ohve to pale black ; irides very dark brown : — they were
not breeding on those islands.

In June 1832, I saw kittiwakes in immense numbers about
their nesting-places in the range of magnificent cliffs westward of
Horn Head. Under date of the 29th it was there noted, that
from the Temple Brig, looking eastward, I saw at one view thou-
sands sitting on their nests, which are all placed on narrow hori-
zontal shelves, for about half-way up the rocks from the water, and
in depth only sufficient to contain a single row of them. They are
placed close together, and the birds on them as near to each
other as they can sit. The nests are very thick (fully three
inches), round in form, and composed apparently of the grass
Mynms arenariiis. They are perfectly circular inside, and ex-
hibit no feathers as lining to the sides : being every one occupied,
the bottom is not visible. When some of the old birds stand
up in the nests, their young, about the size of newly hatched
chickens, and of a brownish-grey colour, are seen. Some of the
old birds exhibited the pretty and graceful gestures of the dove when

342 LARIDiE.

cooing, and looked consummately liappy. There is quite a line of
demarcation between the nesting-places of the kittiwake and her-
ring-gull, the former occupying the lower (as has been stated),
the latter the upper half of the same cliffs, but the nests of the
herring-gull are not so numerous, nor are they, either here or
anywhere else that I have seen them, in a continuous row like
those of the kittiwake. They appear singly and irregularly dotting
over the face of the clifP.

Audubon mentions kittiwakes breeding in great numbers on
the Gannet Rock of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the situa-
tions chosen for the nests, &c., were such as have been described.
He adds, however, that — "No other species of gull was seen
about the rock," and that he has " regularly observed that each
species of this genus breeds far apart, although at all other sea-
sous it may associate with others." On the eastern side of the
Atlantic it is not so. About the locality under consideration —
Horn Head — five species breed, the kittiwake keeping nearest to
the water, and the others occupying the higher portion of the
same cliffs.

At Acliil, in June 1834, we were told that numbers of this
gull breed on Bills rock, off that island, and we saw many
on the lofty clifl's of the Great Isle of Arran, Galway Bay.
It builds in the precipitous cliffs of Kerry, and off that coast,
in great numbers, on the smaller Skellig island (about 500 of
them to 1 of any other species of gull) and a few on the larger
island of that name ;'^ also at Tearaght rock, riear the Blaskets,
very numerouslyt (1850). They likewise nidify on Bull Island,
a little southward, off the coast of Cork, and on the precipitous
cliffs of that county, as weU as of Waterford : — about Hel-
vick Head, they were observed in profusion in the summer of
1838. J They breed at the Saltees, off Wexford, in great num-
bers, where it was observed — "Mai/ 15. Some birds have arrived
and made nests, but only the smaller number contain eggs ; on the
24th of June they had eggs and young; and on the 15th of July

* !Mr. V\. Chute. t Mr. "Win. AuJrews. % Mr. R. Davis, jun.

THE KITTIWAKE. 343

youug just hatched as well as others ready to fly/^"^ About the
rocks of Howth, Ireland^s Eye^ and Lambay, they have beeu met
with in the breeding season by Mr. R. Ball and myself.

When at the Mew Island — one of the Copeland Islands — in
June 1827 and 1833, I was surprised to see very large flocks of
kittiwakes, both there and on the neighbouring rocks, aU in full
plumage, though • no breeding-place was near. At the Skerries,
too, off Portrush, as already mentioned, numbers were met with
early in July : on'] the island of Rathlin, not far distant, the
species has a breeding-haunt ; but these individuals, like those at
the Mew Island, probably did not seek to multiply their kind.
The presence of numbers of full-plumaged kittiwakes in the
height of the breeding season about localities where they do not
build has been commented on by Mr, Lawrence Edmonston, in
the 'Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' for 1822 (No. XIIl. or
vol. vii.), who informs us : — " Of the multitudes of the Lams
rissa, or kittiwake, that annually arrive in Zetland to breed, large
flocks are observed to keep apart from those which repair to the
usual haunts for incubation, resting on the water, or on low
rocks, and, from their not breeding, are termed in the dialect of
the country i/eeld kittiwakes. t This singular fact in their history
has been stated by Dr. Edmonston in his ' Yiew of the Zetland
Islands / but I am not conscious that any explanation has yet
been offered of it." The writer " suspects these yeeld kittiwakes
to be merely the young of the flrst year, which, although attained
to perfect plumage, have not yet acquired the faculty of propaga-
tion." J To the interesting paper itself I must refer for further
information and speculations on the subject.

On visiting" the Mew Island, in June 1833, under similar cir-

* Mr. J. Poole.

t This would also seem to be the case with tlie ganiiet at St. Kilda. ^Mr. John
Macgillivray, who visited that island in 1841, and gave a very interesting description
of the birds there, states that — " The account given by ISIartiu of the barreu gan-
nets, which roost separately from the others, was eoufirnied by the natives." — Edin.
Phil. Jour. January 1842, p. 66.

% Mr. Selby (p. 495) and Audubon (vol. iii. p. 187) say, thai the kittiwake i.s two
years in attaining adult plumage.

344 LARID^.

cumstances as to weather, &c., as in the former years, only two
or three kittiwakes were seen during the day. An ornithological
friendj who spent part of that summer at Ardglass, on the Down
coast, remarked kittiwakes to be common there. They were abun-
dant around the Mew Island on the 9th of August, 1849.*

This gull is occasionally obtained in winter in the north of
Ireland.f One, killed on the coast at Donagliadee, on the 27th
of November, 1834, and another found dead in a bog, ten miles
distant from the sea, on the 20th of January, 1837, came under
my inspection : both were young birds in the singular and hand-
some plumage so well represented by Bewick. I have seen an
adult bird shot in the river Lagan, above the bridge at Bel-
fast, on the 29th of January, 1845, J and another killed in the
bay in the middle of February 1846 : — the winter plumage of
the adult, like that of the immature bird, is peculiar, and has no
counterpart in our other British gulls.

Isolated instances only of its occurrence in winter, as just
indicated, were known to me until 1849, when within the last
ten days of January, one old and two young birds w^ere shot in
Belfast Bay, and another old bird was found dead; — they were mere
skeletons, as kittiwakes procured at this season here have gene-
rally been. Only one contained in its stomach any food, which
consisted of the remains of several of the crustaceous genus
Idotea. Between the 20th of Tebruary and 5th of March that
year, ten birds, all adult, came under my notice ; three shot in
Belfast Bay ; three found dead on the beach near Holywood, and
with them a herring-gull ; all seeming to have died a natural death ;
two were procured at different inland places (one shot and the
other found dead), five miles in a direct line from the sea, or, if
they followed the windings of the river Lagan, nearly double
that distance ; — the two others were obtained near Ivirkcubbin,

* Mr. J. R. Garrett.

t Dr. Harvey remarksj in the ' Fauna of Cork,' that he has sometimes met with
it there in winter.

X The ring rovmd the eye in this bird was blackish, instead of oiange-rcd, as iu
suniiner.

THE KrmWAKE. 345

on the borders of Strangford Lough. All these birds were
miserably poor in flesh ; four of them weighed respectively 10,
9, 8f , and 7f ounces avoirdupois ; — Bewick notes the weight of
the bird as 14 oz. So light were several of these birds that
they were imagined by persons lifting them to be mere skins, put
up in a natural form by the taxidermist. In the stomach of one was
found a specimen of the fresh-water shell Paludina impura — of an-
other, the remains of a crab ; one was well filled with earthwornas
and earth (this bird was killed when " following the plough ") ;
and the bill of another contained some dry loamy earth ; the
stomachs of all the others were empty. At this season the colour
of the tongue, whole inside of mouth, and naked skin round the
eye, was brilliant orange. On the 12th of February, 1850, an
adult bird was picked up dead in Belfast Bay, and, like those of
last year, was very poor ; — a week afterwards one in good condition
was obtained.

The kittiwake, being taken inland in the north, has just been
mentioned ; and, with respect to the county of Wexford, we are
told that it " sometimes wanders inland in search of worms,
rarely alighting, however, but dipping down for a moment to pick
somethiug up, and quickly resuming its flight.""^ This is op-
posed to the usual habit of the species : — both Mr. Selby and
Sir Wm. Jardine remark, that it never advances inland; but
feeds exclusively on the productions of the sea.

Mr. Selby observes, that the kittiwake " seems to be more
abundant upon the eastern than the opposite side of the kingdom
[England],^^ adding " which may perhaps be attributed to the
line of its migrative flight from the eastern parts of Europe, to
which shores the great body of those that "breed here seem to
retire in winter" (p. 494). But may not its comparative scarcity
on the western coast of England rather be attributed to a want of
suitable breeding-places, as in Ireland a westerly position has no
influence in this respect, several of the islets lying ofl^ the western
coast from north to south being its greatest breeding-haunts ?

♦ Mr. J. Foole.

346 LARID.E.

Mr. G. C. Hyndinan has mentioned to me, that when he was
sailing, on the 24th of June, 1844, some miles from Ailsa, kitti-
wakes — which breed in quantities on that majestic pyramidal
rock — were attracted by the bait that was out for gurnard, and
which, in consequence of tl\e speed of the yacht in sailing, was
dragged along the surface. Perceiving tliis, he threw out pieces
of fat meat to them, when about twenty gathered round the
vessel, and followed it for two or three miles.

At Ballantrae, on the coast of Ayrshire, these birds are com-
monly taken, in the following manner, by idle boys. They bait
hooks with the liver of the cod-fish, and fling them as far out from
the shore as possible, having a stone as a counterpoise to the
gully's weight attached to the opposite end of the string, ^and left
at the edge of the water. They then retire to such a distance as to
allow the victims to come freely to the bait, and so soon as this is
swallowed, they hasten to the stone and draw in the line with the
hooked gull at its other extremity. Various species of gulls have
been thus taken. The kittiwakes are purchased on the spot at a
penny each for the sake of their feathers, 'and a person of my
acquaintance there has obtained as many of them from birds cap-
tured in this manner, as have sufficed to stufP some pillows.

When proceeding, on the 1st of February, 1849, in a steam-
boat from East Tarbert to Greenock, and about the entrance to
Loch Fine, I was attracted by the great beauty of an immature
gull of this species during flight. Its beauty consisted in the
black margined wing, the black band round the hinder part of
the base of the neck, and the black terminal band of the tail.
The black along the entire anterior portion of the wings, and
continued as it were* across the base of the neck from one wing to
the other, had a very handsome appearance.

Mr. Hewitson, in his elegant work on the eggs of British birds,
gives an interesting account of the kittiwake^ at the^ Shetland
Islands. The late Mr. G. Matthews remarked it as very common
in summer along the coast of Norway.

347

THE IVORY GULL.

Larus elurneus, Gmel.

Has very rarely been observed.

The following was published in my Eeport on the vertebrata of
Ireland in 1840 : — ''^In the Appendix to Ross's second voyage,
it is remarked, under the head of Larus ehurneus, ' this beautiful
gull has lately visited the western shores of Ireland/ p. 35. By
Captain James C. Ross, the author of this Appendix, I have been
informed that, early in the year 1834, he derived that information
from Joseph Sabine, Esq., who told him simply what is published.
Eor some years, however, I have had a note, communicated by the
late Thomas E. Neligan, Esq., of Tralee, who was very well versed
in British birds, that, in January 1835, he saw a gull in a field
near that town, and four miles distant from the sea, which he was
satisfied was the L. ehurneus. The ivory tint of its plumage, and
its black legs, attracted his attention, and he watched the bird for
about twenty minutes."

Mr. R. Chute, writing to me in February 1846, from Blenner-
ville, near Tralee, remarked, that he had heard of an ivory gull
being seen in that neighbourhood (probably the one just alluded
to), and another near Dingle. In the next year he supplied the
following more satisfactory information : — " After the storm that
occurred in the beginning of February 1847 there were several
ivory gulls about here; I heard of three being seen near
Dingle ; — one of them I saw myself. During my absence from
home, two of them for a few days in succession alighted in my
yard ; my servant thought they were tame birds, and did not
frighten them. However, one was shot on the third day, and
when I came home I found it to be an ivory gull in rather
immature plumage : the other bird they said was pure white : —
though frequently seen since, I Mas not able to procure it. I have
the bird that was shot now in my colh'(;tion."

348 LAEID^.

Mr. G. Jackson informs me that a gull of a pure white colour
appeared^ in January 18-19, in the harbour of GlengarifF (Bantry
Bay)j and remained for three days. He and others made every
attempt to obtain it, but without success ; he was certain of its
being the ivory gull, from descriptions of tliat bird which he had
read, but he had never seen one before. An adult bird was picked
up dead, but quite fresh, on the beach of the island of Achil,
a few years ago, by a man of the Preventive Service.

The ivory gull is an inhabitant of the arctic regions of both
hemispheres, and but rarely moves so far south as the British
Isles. The individuals known to have been obtained in Great
Britain down to 1845 — the date of publication of the 2nd edition
of Yarrell's ' British Birds ' — were but four in number ; obtained
in Shetland, the Clyde, Durham, and Yorkshire; — but as many
have since been recorded as procured at different periods in one
of the southern counties of England, — Sussex.'^

THE COMMON GULL.

Lams camis, Linn.

Is found around the coast at all seasons, but in smaller
numbers than some other species. Inland, it and the
black-headed gull are the most frequent.

In the north-east of Ireland, at least, we do not find this species
breeding commonly on the marine cliffs like the herring-gull.
About the noble basaltic precipices of Antrim and Londonderry
I have never met with it ; but we are told that, in the island of
Rathlin, in June 1834, it " occupied one of the large natural
amphitheatres formed on the north-western side of the island, and
which seemed to be occupied by no other species. Their nests
were placed towards the summits of the cliffs, in situations equal]

* Two at Brighton, one at St. Leonard's, and one at Eye. Kuox's ' Oruitli.
Rambles in Susses,' p, 246.

THE COMMON GULL. 349

accessible from above or below ; and when disturbed the birds
would soar away at such a distance as to be free and undisturbed
by any intruder."^ On the peninsula of the Horn, to the
westward of Horn Head, we on the 25th of June, 1832, shot three
of these gulls, which came flying up from the precipitous cliffs,
where they probably had their nests. They were in adult plu-
mage, and had brilliant yellow legs. The species is known to
Mr. J. Y. Stewart, as breeding there apart from other gulls, on the
lofty cliffs, where he has shot them on their nests ; — they select
places for nidification like the herring-gull. On the 1st of
August, 1850, about eighty old birds, and as many young of the
year, were seen together at one part of the rocks of the Horn.f
Mr. T. Nebgan informed me, in 1837, that the common gull
breeds in numbers on a low grassy islet off the Kerry coast, where
he had liimself seen their nests : this was their only breeding-place
known to him in that quarter, though he considered the species to
be common there. The locaKty was not named, but one of the
Magharee islands, in Tralee Bay, was perhaps meant, as it is the
only breeding-haunt known on the coast to Mr. E. Chute.
This gull is noticed by my correspondents as common on the whole
southern and eastern coast; but with respect to its breeding-
places, they are silent.

Mr. W. M'Calla, on communicating to me a Hst of the gulls
frequenting Eoundstone Bay, county of Galway, and enumerating
five species, did not include this ; - but, on being questioned, re-
marked that " gulls with green legs were plentiful,'^ by which de-
scription this species — in winter garb — must be meant.

A very small number only of the Lams canus on our shores in
autumn and winter, can be bred in Ireland : they must come
from more northern breeding-haunts. Eeferring to Temmiuck,
I was much pleased to find him remark that tliis gull, though very
common in winter on all the coasts of Holland and France, is in
summer found towards and within the arctic circle (vol. ii. p. 774').
The herring-guU, on the other hand, is mentioned by this author
(p. 766) as remaining during the year on the coasts of Holland
* Dr. J. D. Marshall. t Mr. Robert Taylor.

350 LAEID^.

and France. What he says of both species in those countries
applies to them generally in Ireland.

This gull is much seen about estuary rivers^ and we are more
certain of having an opportunity of observing it when the tide is
flowing or full about the bridge spanning the river Lagan, at Bel-
fast, than anywhere in the neighbourhood. To witness them feeding
here is a very pleasing sight, and many a passer-by pauses to admire
them. Their flight is so much lower and nearer to persons pass-
ing over the bridge on Sundays than at other times, in consequence
I have no doubt of the greater quiet of the day and absence of
aU bustle, that it is often remarked, " they know well when Sunday
comes,^^ it being imagined that they are aware they will not be
fired at on that day. They are here at all seasons, but in the
height of summer very few are seen. Once, on the 32nd of May,
I noted twenty flying about the bridge, but all of them w^ere
immature. Owing to the absence of gulls generally from the ad-
joining bay in the breeding season, it is deficient in one of the
finest elements of life and beauty, and at low water, with the vast
extent of banks exposed, appears comparatively a dreary blank.
Along an extent of miles we now see but a few individuals,
not more than a unit for a hundred in the winter season. Some
fowlers have observed, that the only birds always to be seen here
are a few gulls, curlews, ring-plover, and dunlins : most of the
other species being entirely absent until the time of their return
from breeding. Indeed, though the bird is out of view and far
distant from us at the edge of the channel during extreme low
water, we may daily hear the sharp clear cackle of the young
herring-gull, which sometimes rings acutely on the ear, the same
note being often repeated about a dozen times. It is almost in-
variably answered by another bird, and often from a distance of
between one and two miles ; both birds are rarely visible at the
same time.

Tliat common gulls often retire to a distance inland from the
sea is weU known. Sir Humphrey Davy remarks upon the sub-
ject : — " I believe that the reason of tliis migration of sea-gulls,
and other sea-birds to the land, is their security of finding food.

THE COMMON C4ULL. 351

They may be observed at this time feeding greedily on the earth-
worms and larvsCj driven out of the ground by severe floods ; and
the fish^ on which they prey in fine weather in the sea, leave the
surface when storms prevail and go deeper/^ "^

There is a poetic version of the same idea common to old
people in the north of Ireland : —

" Sea-gull, sea-gull.
Sit on the sand,
It's never fair weather
When jou come to land."

No doubt tliey are partial to inland trips when the country is
flooded^ and during storms ; but I have particularly remarked that
a tract of low -lying meadows near Belfast is, when under water,
always visited by them, in calm as well as storm, in fine and bright,
as well as in dull and cloudy weather; — the flood, occur when it
may, is an all-sufficient attraction : — young birds of the year, too,
make their way to this locality at the first flood of the season.
The storm seems to prompt these gulls to flight whether they be
at sea or inland, and I have frequently— perhaps as often — re-
marked them during storms to fly from the land to the sea, as in
the opposite direction. Tliey fly inland, too, during storms,
though there have not been any floods, and often keep at a con-
siderable elevation at such times. Sir Walter Scott, in the follow-
ing lines, alludes to the approach of the storm being known to
these birds : —

" Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew !
And, gentle ladye, deign to stay !
Rest thee in Castle Ravenscheuch,
Nor tempt the stormy fi-ith to-day.

" The blackening wave is edged with white ;

To inch and rock the sea-mews fly ;

The fishers have heard the water-sprite.

Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh."

Lay of the Last N'mstrel, canto vi.

On the 20th March, 1834, the ground being remarkably dry,
as no rain had fallen for the preceding three weeks — (and, as

* ' Salmonia,' p. 193, 2nd edit.

352 LARIDiE.

subsequently noted, fine for some clays afterwards) — I observed
near Droglieda and Dublin, many of these gulls in grass and
ploughed fields several miles from the sea, and in some places
mingled with rooks : there was no ploughing going forward to
furnish them with food. Harely, I have seen large numbers
retire a short way inland from Belfast Bay, at high water, and in
the same field with herons await the falling of the tide, but in
this locality they are not in the habit of retiring to land at such
times, like the latter species, the curlew and other Grallatores.
The flowing tide gently lifts the gulls on its bosom, on wliich they
silently repose, while the waders are obliged to change their
quarters.

When driving with Mr. R. Ball, about a mile inland from
Dundrum Bay (county Down), during low water, on the 22nd of
September, 1849, we had our attention arrested by about thirty of
these gulls in a field, forming several little parties, and seated
on the short pasture, as if they were swimming, all with their
heads turned seaward. There A^ere others in the adjoining fields :
and all were adult. They allowed us to pass in a vehicle within
twenty yards of them.

At high water, flocks of these gulls sometimes, after their
manner of disporting themselves — as alluded to under the black-
headed species, — rise to a great elevation in the air, and continue
for a long time on wing, within a very limited space, often,
indeed, appearing as if their flight were confined within a " given''
circle ; but occasionally one or two will bolt from this circus-like
manege, and shooting like rockets, apparently direct through the
midst of the circling body (though they may perhaps be really
outside the circle), present a most singular appearance. Wlien
thus amusing themselves, these gulls may boast, that

" In regions mild of calm and serene air
Above the smolce and stir of this dim spot
Which men call Earth,"

they hold their court.

The time given to this flight is not at the expense of their
feeding hours, as at high water in Belfast Bay they merely

THE COMMON GULL. 353

float on the waves : — their busy feeding-time is when the tide
ebbs. Minute Crustacea (often Idotece) form the bulk of their
food. The contents of the stomach of one bird killed in Belfast
Bay, were about fifty univalve mollusca, including Rissoa labiosa
(fine specimens)^ M. ulvce, Lacuna quadrifasciata, and small
Littorina ; they also partake of marine plants. In addition to
earth-worms and insect larvae found on dissection of birds killed
inland, vegetable food, including husks of grain, frequently
occurs : — a frog was found in one killed in November, near
Wexford. A gentleman of my acquaintance induced a gull —
that he believed to be of tliis species — to follow a steamer from
Liverpool to the Isle of Man, merely by throwing towards it
pieces of bread, which were invariably seized before they reached
the water.

Many notes descriptive of size, plumage, &:c., at different
seasons, and at the various ages of the bird, are before me, but
it will suffice to select two or three of the most striking : —

October 2Srd, 1833. — An adult Lams canus, killed to-day in Belfast estuary, had
the plumage of the breast, Ij^ly, and under tail-coverts, faiutly blushed with red,
like the same portions of the L. ridibundus ; the tarsi were yellow, with the bluish-
green colour of the approaching season, indicated only as yet at the folds of the
tai'sal joints. Of two other adult bii'ds, obtained on the 10th of September and
the 18th of October of the preceding year, the former had the tarsi, toes, and webs
of feet of a uniform bluish ash-colour, and the latter of a delicate bluish flesh-
colour, faintly clouded with pale yellow about the tarsal joints ; its bill was wholly
bluish-green.* December 2it/i, 1885. — Being struck with the appearance of the short
biU of an adult L. canus, procm'ed near Bellast, I measured it, and found tliis organ
to be of similar dimensions with that of the L. brachycentrus. Rich, and Swains.
February Vi/h, 1838. — On examination of two specimens of L. camts, shot to-day,
the one adult, and the other immature (a bii-d of last summer), their entire length
was the same, but the wings of the young bird, from the carpus to the end of the
longest quiU, were an inch longer than those of the old. The bill of the old bird
was blackish- green, tipped with wax -yellow; in the young, leaden-blue at base;
blackish towards the point. Tlie tarsi of the old were greyish-green ; of the young,
bluish flesh-coloui".

Of the breeding-haunts of the common gull around the coast

* Adult birds shot at Horn Head, in the last week of Juno this sanu> year, had
the tarsi and loos brilliant ycUow : — Ihcy arc described as being at (his season
"greenish-grey " (Jardiue), and " dark greenish-ash" (YaxTell).

VOL. III. 2 A

354 LAHID^.

of Ireland, the marine cliffs of Eatlilin and Horn Head, and a
low grassy islet off Kerry, are all that I can positively name ;
other places will doubtless be added. Even at St. Kilda,
however, we learn that in the breeding season it is not only less
common than the kittiwake or herring-gull, but than either the
lesser or greater black-backed species."^ We are also told by
Mr. Dunn, in reference to the island of Bressa, that " there are
several cliffs in the neighbourhood where the herring-gull breeds,
and also a few of the common gull, which are the scarcest of the
tribe in Shetland, with the exception of the skua gull." It is
likewise said of the L. canns — "During the summer season,
this bird is the scarcest of the gull tribe in these islands. I
have found a few pairs incubating in company with the herring-
gull, and occasionally a solitary pair breeding in the cliffs without
any associates ; they may be found occasionally on the small
islands in the lakes."t

When at the island of Islay (Scotland) in January 1849, I
visited what in the season is apparently one of their finest breed-
ing-haunts on the British coast. On making inquiry respecting
all the sea-birds that nidify in that quarter, I was told of a
small gull annually resorting to Kinrevock, a low grassy islet a few
miles distant, also frequented by terns for the same purpose ; that
their nest is placed on the short pasture of the island, like that
of the tern ; the difference being that the gull makes a regular
nest of grass, while the other deposits its eggs on the bare ground.
Though the site of the nest and the description of the bird were
applicable to L. camis, I was anxious to have some corroborative
proof, and this was afforded by the gamekeeper pointing out to
me some gulls on wing (flocks of which were feeding in the
ploughed fields), as the species which bred there; — these were
all common gulls, as were also the specimens pointed out by him
in the museum at Islay House as the kind which breeds on
the island. He considers that about a hundred and fifty pair
breed on Kinrevock and the closely adjoining islet; from the

* Mr. Jolin Macgillivray, 1843.

t 'Oraith. Guide to Orkney and Shetland,' pp. 53 and 108.

THE COMMON GULL. §55

middle to the end of May 1848, great numbers of their eggs were
found.

I requested that a few eggs would be procured during the en-
suing season in proof of the species, and they were obtained for
me; — genuine eggs of L. canus. But with them I received the
grievous information that in two days eight hundred and fifty of
their eggs and those of terns were collected by my friend and his
assistants. By far the greater number were those of the gull,
as it was early in the season ; this bird laying tliree weeks
sooner than the tern (^S*. hinindo).

The north of Europe — coast of Norway, &c. — is the great
breeding-haunt of the common gull.

In the summer of 1826, I remarked immature gulls of this
species in Holland ; very far up the Rhine ; about the lakes of
Switzerland, and what seemed to be they also, near the shores of
Italy. "When proceeding by steam-packet, on the 13th and 14th
of April, 1841, along the coast from Leghorn to near the Bay
of Naples, a number of gulls, wliich appeared to be L. canus,
were seen about the vessel : aU that I particularly observed were
immature — no other Larus was within view during these two
days. On the 16th, gulls, apparently L. canus, were seen in
the Straits of Messina. When sailing in H.M.S. Beacon, from
Malta to the Morea — 21st to the 28th of April — similar guUs
were in view as we approached within twenty-five miles of land,
towards Navarino, and became numerous at the entrance of the
bay; where they seemed to have breeding-places in the chfl's.
A note dated Syra, May 7 th, is to the effect that the only
bird now common in the harbour here is a guU like L. canus in
size and colour, but a dead specimen which I saw on the beach
differed from this species in having on the lower mandible
a red spot, like that of the herring-gnU ; all the rest of the
bill was yellow ; the upper plumage was of a darker blue than in
L. canus ; the tarsi yellow as in the adult L. canus at this season.
All I have seen here, during t\yo or tlu-ee days, were adult birds,
of which small flocks were always in view; — subsequently immature
birds were met with. I do not find in Temminck's or Degland's

2 A 2

356 LARIDiE.

works any indication of a gull differing^ as here described, from
L. canus. On tlie 10th of June, at a small rocky islet with liigh
cliffs, to the north-east of Port Naussa, island of Paros, I re-
marked the same* species, and another like the L. argentatus : it
was just such a locality as the two kinds would select for breed-
ing quarters in the north of Ireland.

The Bishop of Norwich, in his ' Pamiliar History of Birds '
(vol. ii. p. 240), gives an interesting account of gulls, as observed
by himself at the South Stack, off Holyhead. Mr. James Wilson,
in his ' Yoyage round the coast of Scotland and the Isles ' (vol. i.
p. 336), mentions a ludicrous encounter between guUs (species
not mentioned) and young goats in a small island in Loch Lax-
ford, from wliich the goats were routed, in consequence it was
supposed of their encroachments on the nests of the birds. In
the 'Eecreations of Christopher North ^ (vol. ii. p. 181), we find
gulls commented on in the author^s own eloquent manner.

THE HERRING-GULL.

Silvery Gull.

Lams argentatus, Brunn.

Is common around the coast throughout the year.

Breeding-haunts.

Under L. canus a few observations were made respecting' the
frequency of the breeding-haunts of the herring-gull around our
coast, compared with those of the so-called common gull. Pro-
ceeding from BeKast Bay, northward, we have seen (June 12th,
1834) several hundreds of herring-gulls about tlieir nests at the
range of precipitous rocks just outside its entrance, called the
Gobbins, and all but one were in full plumage. Of late years
herring-gulls have bred here in great numbers; — in 1849, it was
estimated that at least 1,000 pair bred. In the very early spring
of that year, about a fourth of the number which breed here had

THE HERMNG-GULL. 357

collected about the rocks so early as the 22nd of March, when the
place was visited byan ornithologist, but very severe weather ensued,
and they were later in laying than had been previously known.
I visited the rocks on the 2nd of May, and on sending a man
down to their chief baildiug-places, in tlu"ee different parts of the
clitfs, not an egg was found, but the nests, which are formed of
grass, &c., were completed for their reception. The rocks were
said never before to have been ^vithout eggs on May-day. Heddles,
who has gone down the cliffs here in the season, to collect eggs,
for above thirty years, states — that the usual number is three,
rarely foui' ; that there is one brood, and the period of incubation
is a month. He thinks that they would continue laying in the
same nest for a month if the eggs were all regularly taken away
when quite fresh, but that if one be left they will incubate it. He is
in the habit of taking the eggs for his own use, and that of liis
friends ; — as objects for sale, they are not collected here, unless
specially ordered, nor is any one accustomed to go down the
rocks but himself.* These gulls, with the exception of a few,
leave the rocks every morning, and do not return before evening,
until the complement of eggs has been laid and incubation com-
menced. They are said to breed occasionally before being per-
fectly mature, but the plumage, &c., of such birds described to me
denotes their being three years old. They leave the rocks so soon
as the young are able to fly, which is generally early in August.
During the winter not one is seen here. At all times of spring
and summer that I have known this locality visited, some of these
gulls were about the newly ploughed ground ; occasionally in little
flocks of from six to ten in number, "following the plough,"
and in such cases generally exhibiting more caution than the
black-headed gulls when so engaged, by alighting helnnd the
ploughman. From these birds frequenting the newly-sown oat-
fields, it is imagined that their visits are in search of the grain, in
proof of which it is urged that "shellings" of corn are seen

* Aa ornithologiccal frieiul wlio partook of tlie eggs of the hening-gull nnd razor-
bill obtained here, eonsidercd those of the fonucr, though quite fresh, to have a very
strong llavour, while those of the latter were good and delicate.

358 LAllIDiE.

about the face of the cKffs ; but as jackdaws likewise build there,
the evidence is insuificient for the conviction of the gulls : — it is
not, however, improbable that they may occasionally pick up grain.
On examining the stomach of one bird shot in a field here, I
found it, with the exception of a little vegetable matter, filled with
terrestrial coleopterous insects.

1833-1843. — At the noble range of headlands from about Ben-
gore eastward of the Giant's Causeway to Downhill, herring-gulls
generally build, where the upper portion of the face of the cliffs
presents here and there a little ledge on which a nest can be placed
— in the seasons when I visited Fairhead, the grandest of all the
headlands, they did not nidify there. About Carrick-a-rede, and
the adjacent Sheep Island, the basaltic and chalk clifi's were
selected indiscriminately for their nests, and the White Cliffs (as
they are called) of the latter rock, west of Dunluce, displayed
many of them in 1833. Their nests here are very large, and I
have been surprised to see some near the Causeway constructed of
small sticks, or thick stems of heather, either of which it would be
difficult to obtain in quantity suited to the purpose. Viewed as
we sail past the Causeway headlands, these birds have an elegant
appearance, dotted over the black and sterile faces of the cliffs,
where an occasional little ledge affords' room for a nest ; but it
must be said that they look only coldly beautiful, in comparison
with what they do at some other localities, as about the cliffs near
the Temple at Downhill, where the rocks, though little more than
lichen-covered — yellow and grey of various tints — are with occa-
sional tufts of herbage, many-hued, and present a warm and fur-
nished aspect. Here the gulls with their full snowy breasts look
beautiful and in keeping with all around, as they are perched about
or reposing on their nests.

The kittiwake does not breed at any of the localities wliich
have just been mentioned in connection with the herring-gull ;
but in the island of Eathlin, we are told that the latter " occupied
the summits of the chffs tenanted below by the kittiwake. Theii"
nests, like those of the common gull, were placed far beyond reach,
except by lowering a man by a rope. Besides being found on the

THE HERRING-GULL. 359

northern side of the island, these birds occupied the range of
white cliffs on the northern side of Church Bay ; here they re-
mained quite secure, for they scarcely ever ventured lower than
the middle of the precipices, and could in this manner effectually
escape the gun of the fowler, either from the summit or base.
This species was also found in pairs on the eastern coast, although
on this part of the island it was rare. The cry of the herring-
gull is very similar to that of the common gull, and the two were
not unfrequently confounded with each other, when soaring
towards the summits of their respective cliffs.""^

About Horn Head both herring-gull and kittiwake breed
in the same cliff, with a complete line of demarcation, however,
between their separate haunts. Indeed, the rock itself is of a
different chaj-acter at the abode of each species. Below, where
tenanted by the kittiwake, it is mural, with narrow, horizontal
ledges, "long drawn out," on which their nests are placed
close together in a continuous row. Above, in the haunt of the
herring-gull, it is more broken, affording room here and there
for a nest, and so appropriated ; for although this species may be
said to breed in colonies, the nests are placed at a respectful
distance from each other, and merely dot the face of a cliff. The
herring-gull is considered so destructive to young rabbits at " the
Horn," where there is a most extensive warren, that a reward of
fourpence is given by the proprietor for every head brought
to him.

A gentleman, walking round the cliff's of the Horn, on the
1st of August, 1850, remarked, when at Bullock's Leap : —
" Cliff and crag were covered with herring-gulls, and the sea
dotted over with flocks, each of about seventy in number. I
counted ten of these from this point. One ledge of rock was
so closely covered, the birds jostled one another when coming
to it. I should say the herring-gull is in the proportion of six to
one of all the other gulls we saw here, comprising the common,
kittiwake, and great black-backed species."t I do not know the

♦ Dr. J. 1). WaishaU, 1834. t Mr. Robert Taylor.

360 LARIDiE.

particular headland alluded to^ but at the rocks of the Horn
generally, in June 1832, the kittiwake was greatly more numerous
than the herring-gull. The later period of the season, however,
may have a great effect on their comparative numbers.

On a visit made to the islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, in the
summer of 1834, by Mr. E. Ball and myself, the herring-gull
was found in great numbers breeding on the lofty cliffs of the
largest island ; and we were told of BilFs Rock, off Achil, being
another nesting-place. Under Larus fuscus, a low rocky islet'^
on the Kerry coast is mentioned, on the authority of the late
Mr. T. r. Neligan, as resorted to by that species and the present
for the purpose of nidification. It has abundance of ordinary
building haunts around this coast, as the Magharee Islands, the
cliffs at both entrances to Dingle harbour, the small SkeUig rock,
and similar places.t On the adjoining coast of Cork they espe-
cially abound in the breeding-season ; at the Bull and Cow Rocks,
off Dursey Island ; the cliffs of Bear Island, and those at Cape
Clear; J — they also build in numbers along the coast between the
Sovereign islands and the Reannies, both inclusive, where the nests
are made of dried grass, and a few of them easily reached ; but
the greater number are inaccessible. || On the coast of Waterford,
and at suitable cliffs round to that of Dublin, they nidify ; — among
others here, Howth, the islands of Ireland^s Eye and Lambay,
may be named.

In numerous localities distant from breeding-haunts, I have in
the midst of the season of incubation remarked, in full adult
plumage, one or two pair of these gulls, which doubtless took no
concern with the cares of the world in connection with offspring.

* Audubon (' Orn. Biog.' vol. iii. p. 589) gives a most interestiug account of
colonies of this species, that on Whitehead Island, at the entrance of the Bay of
Fundy, build on trees in consequence of their nests on the ground having been
robbed. He also mentions (p. 5U2) these bii-ds as rising higher and higher into the
air with mussels until they are broken by the fall. Mr. Johu D. Ferguson (Dnnve-
gan Cottage) informs me that this is a common habit of the gulls in the islaud of
Skye (where L. argentatus and L. canns arc the prevailing species), and may be
witnessed any day on the shores towards the entrance of Dunvegan Loch.

t Mr. R. Chute. X Mr. J. F. Townscnd. || Mr. R. WaiTen, Juu.

THE HERRING-GULL. 361

But nearly all the birds we then see are immature. A few hours
after visiting the Gobbins, on the first occasion named, a small
flock of these came under my notice far up Belfast Bay. When
at Strangford Lough, on the 21st of June, a rather Mrge flock
of immature gulls of this species was seen on one of the islands :
— a bird which was shot proved to be one of the preceding year.
On the sands near the Middle Island of Arran, off Galway Bay,
a large flock exclusively of immature birds was observed on the
9tli of July, 1834. But on the same day of the month of the
preceding year I saw, by the aid of a telescope, at the mouth of
the river Bann, a very large flock, which appeared to be in one,
two, three, and four years old plumage.

With respect to young birds, it struck me as singular that so
late in the season as September 23rd (1849), when Mr. R. Ball
and I were walking on the road skirting the sea for two miles
southward of Newcastle (county Down), a large number of these
birds, all in the same stage of immaturity, and in flocks of from
five to fifteen, kept flying in succession in the same track above
the rocks in a northerly direction ; — they flew in perfect silence.
So early in the season as the 30th of July, 1845, during a walk
of two miles from Belfast on the western side of the bay, I
remarked that gulls were numerous as in winter : I reckoned
130 together, and there were several smaller flocks — in the largest
body were numbers of birds not less than herring-gulls, and
which seemed even larger; there were certainly three species.
On the 19th of September this year immense flocks, consisting,
it was believed, of thousands of these birds (described as
not less than herring-gulls, and apparently larger), were seen by
the three chief wild-fowl shooters in Belfast Bay : anything like
such numbers had never been observed here before. " They flew
southward like wild geese the same day.''' For a week afterwards,
numbers of flocks, consisting of hundreds, remained, but became
gradually scarcer until all were gone southward. This is the
only instance known to me of gulls appearing here in flocks on
migration; and it is an interesting fact that not a single bird
in these flocks of hundreds and thousands was adult ; — they ap-

362 LARID^.

peared to be all young birds of the year. Wild ducks, wigeon,
and teal"^ were in great flocks in the bay upon the day on
which the large bodies of gulls appeared. Tliey moved southward
also. Tli^re was no storm to bring these birds here ; the wind was
from various points, with very frequent changes, during the whole
month of September ; there was no breeze until the 27 th ; —
on the 29th and 30th it blew hard.

The Lams ridihundus and L. atricllla have had the name of
laughing gull bestowed upon them, but the only species acknow-
ledged as a laugher by the shooters in Belfast Bay is the herring-
gull. It takes circuits in the air, uttering all the while a laugh-
ing note, which has really been interpreted as such by an old
shooter of my acquaintance, who has frequently shot the poor
bird merely for — as he believed — laughing at him.

Gulls of all species which have been through the day feeding
high up the estuary, and about the oozy banks of the Lagaii, are
said by good observers to collect together in a flock at the " dusk
of the evening," from autumn to spring, and go to deep water to
remain for the night. Daring this evening flight their various
calls, described as musically mournful, are uttered ; but on re-
turning to the shallows at the early dawn of the morning they
are silent, and then fly in a scattered manner. A similar diil'erence
between the morning and evening flight of some of the Anatidce
has been already noticed.

Manner of Feeding, ^-c. — A " play of gulls," as it is called
upon the coast, and which in summer we daily witness in the
vicinity of the great breeding stations — often from the summit of
ranges of majestic cHfl's, whence we gaze upon a great expanse of
ocean — is a most lively and beautiful spectacle, and a suitable
subject for the graphic pen of the author of ' Wild Sports of the
AVest.^ To use his words — " We were bearing down to a glorious
play of sea-birds, and I got a gun uncased to practise at the
guUs. It was a curious and bustling scene. Above, thousands
of these birds were congregated in a small circle, screaming and

* Tliirty-fivc teal were killed iu the moruiug by two skootcrs, cleveu of which
were bi'ought dowu by an ordiuai-y musket charge.

THE HERRING-GULL. 363

rising and dipping over a dense mass of fry, which appeared at
times breaking the surface of the water. * -^ "^ The great
body of sea- fowl appeared so much engrossed with their predatory
pursuits^ as to neither attend to the reports of the gun, or notice
the approach of the hooker, until the boat's bolt-sprit seemed
almost parting this countless host of floating and flying plun-
derers. -J^- -^^ •){• I fired, a solitary gull dropped in the water,
and half-a-dozen wounded birds separated from the crowd and
went screaming off to sea'' (pp. 147, 148); — the observation
displayed here is as good as the description. The preliminary ac-
tion to a play of gulls, as witnessed at the Gobbius in June 1817,
was thus described to me : — A few birds on detecting prey one-
fourth of a mile from the cliffs gave a shrill cry, when instantly
those seated on their nests, and others on wing about the" cliffs,
poured down like a snowy torrent to the spot, each uttering the
same sluill cry as that which had called its attention to the place
of prey.

But this bird's mode of feeding is often commonplace enough.
As already mentioned, it rejoices, even where fish are to be had for
the catching, as at the Horn, in the tender flesh of young rabbits.
In Belfast Bay it is accused — of what we know the great black-
backed gull to be guilty — of attacking wild-fowl, more particularly
wigeon, which have been severely wounded by the shooters. One
was seen to attack a young cod-fish, of a few pounds weight,
in Larne Lough, and on another occasion to strike at and cut,
as if with a knife, a large sea-trout taken in a net. Mullet {Mngil
chelo) captured there are much injured and sometimes rendered
unsaleable by pieces being eaten out of them by the herring-gull.^
It eats fragments of horse-flesh, separated from the carcase, on
which, however, it does not alight, like the crow. Most com-
monly it feeds on minute univalve moUusca [Rissoa, Lacuna,
LiUorinai) and Crustacea, with occasionally vegetable matter. On
this subject, I shall only add that a stomach examined by me
contained the remains of two crabs [Hi/as araneus), one of which

* This bird is accused in the Ayr Advertiser (Aug. 1849) on the authority of tlic
proprietor of Eankinstonc, parish of Coylton, of attacking and killing young lambs
in the lambing season.

364 LAlllDyE.

was four inches and a half broad to the points of the toes on
either side. A bird shot at the Giant's Causeway, was, excepting
a small Idotea, filled with univalve mollusca, portion of a Patella
ccerulea, a few small whole shells of Littorina rucUs, three small
perfect specimens of Purpura lapillus half an inch in length,
and about seventy examples of the inner central column of full-
grown individuals of the same species.'^

The circumstance of gulls retiring from the sea inland at a
particular time of the tide, and resting among the heath, is agree-
ably noticed and accounted for by Mr. Lawrence Edmonston, of
Zetland, in one of his very interesting and well-written papers in
the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' (vol. vii. 1st series, 1822),
entitled " Remarks on the Larus ■parasitictis, kc." I have ob-
served limited numbers of the gull under consideration, to do so
about wild breeding-haunts, as Horn Head, &c. From Belfast
Bay, however, whence herons, curlews, and other grallatorial
birds retire during the time that the tide covers the mud banks,
neither the herring nor other gulls leave it. They are content
to float upon the rising waters, and to fall with them until
left upon the banks again. The herring-gull frequents inland
lakes ; in the autumn as well as winter I have observed it about
Lough Neagh, &c.

A gull of this species, captured on the Mew Island, lived, ac-
cording to my informant (its captor there), nearly twenty years
at the inn of Donaghadee, where, after having been eighteen
years, it laid two eggs.f Dr. Harvey, of Cork, stated in a com-
munication to the 'Zoologist,' dated June 17th, 1846 (p. 1395) —
" My friend, Robert Parker, Esq., of Carrigrohan, in this neigh-
bourhood, has had a pair of herring-gulls (L. arrjentatiis, Lin.) in
confinement since they were taken from the nest, now three or

* Dr. J. L. Drammond has remarked to me that of all the native bii'ds dissected
by him, the guUs had the most orange-colom-ed fat.

t Montagu, in the Supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary,' gives a most
interesting account of a herring-gull which, at the date of his writing, had been thir-
teen years in his menagerie. Mr. Hewitson, on the authority of the llev. W. D. Fox,
gives an instance of one of these birds daily visiting a gaixleu at Colbourne, Isle of
Wight, for thirty years, and continuing to do so at the date of publication.

THE HERRING-GULL. 365

four years. They have built near a pond in his garden, and are
now hatching : there were two eggs when I saw them. If
any one a2)proaches the nest, the bird which is not sitting imme-
diately comes to the assistance and defence of its mate. They
are in beautiful plumage, adult, with the exception of a little
mottling, which remains about the flanks." Mr. Hodder, who
lives on the coast~of Cork, opposite the islands called Reannies,
had a pair of herring-gulls which bred and produced three or four
young; no eggs were laid until the fourth year. These gulls
were kept in a yard with fowls, and their nest was made in the
fowl-house. Soon after bringing her young to maturity, the
female was accidentally killed.

Mr. R. Warren, jun., of Castle Warren (county Cork), supplied
me, in March 1850, with the following note on a herring -gull.
"In July 1848, I brought it and two others from the Reannies
when quite young and unable to fly. As this was the finest bird
of the three, I never chpped its wings, but kept it in the farm-
yard with the others and the poultry, where it remained quite
contented, and showed no symptoms of a wish to fly away until
the 19th of August, 1849, when a flight was taken into one of
the neighbouring fields. It remained until the evening there,
and then flew towards the sea, but returned next morning to be
fed. This bird continued to go and come regularly for about a
week, when it disappeared altogether, and I was afraid had met
with some accident ; but on the 14th of December, I was agree-
ably surprised by seeing it flying over the yard, and on my calling
Jack, to which name the bird answers, it alighted on the roof of
one of the out-houses and began crying for food. I threw it a
bit of meat, which was instantly swallowed, and then it flew away.
Next morning it came back, and on seeing my other gulls in the
yard, alighted with them, and remained until dusk, when it went
off to roost somewhere. It continued to act thus until the 23rd
of the same month, when it took flight, and did not return until
the 4'th of January, but has continued its visits pretty regularly
since. During the night it never remains, but flies off in the
evening towards the sea. This bird is very tame, and will take a

366 LAIIIDJ5,

bit of meat or bread from my hand. It shows great adroitness
in seizing food on the wing, and I sometimes amuse myself
by obliging it to do so, for on throwing a bit of bread into the
air, the gull flies up, and always catches it before reaching the
ground."

Mr. Selby notices " the comparative rarity of the present
species upon the Northumbrian coast, where, however, its place is
amply supplied by the lesser black -backed gull" (p. 505). Sir
Wm. Jardine, too, describes it as "perhaps more local, scarcely
so abundant," as L. fuscus. Montagu remarks, though with-
out naming localities, that "there are fifty herring-gulls to
one of the lesser black-backed, and five hundred at least, perhaps
a thousand, to one of the larger black-backed gulls (Supp. Orn.
Diet, under Herring-Gull). His observations, however, were-
chiefly made on the south-western and western coast of England.
On all parts of the Irish coast which I have visited or had com-
munications from, the black-backed species were in very limited
numbers, compared with the herring-gull. In the north and east
of Ireland, where the gulls have most frequently come under my
own observation, there certainly is not one L. fuscus for a hun-
dred, perhaps not for two hundred, of the L. argentatus.

Around the whole maritime cKfFs of Ireland, the herring-gull
is, in the breeding season, the most common species, being much
more widely distributed than the kittiwake ; generally a few of the
lesser black-backed, and more rarely of the greater black -backed,
nidify in its grandest haunts, still more seldom the common
gull. I have never heard of the herring- gull breeding around
the Irish coast elsewhere than on cliffs, except in the instance
abeady mentioned, and never about fresh water; — the black-
headed and lesser black-backed species only frequenting its vicinity.

Dm-ing winter also, the herring-gull is, at least next to the
L. ridibundus, the most common species on such shores as are
known to me ; and in some localities is more frequent than that
bird. Indeed, when visiting different islands of Strangford Lough,
on the 22nd of June, 1846, this was the only guU we saw all
day, though it has no breeding-place near; — a flock of about

THE HERRING-GULL. 367

thirty adult and young appeared on a low rock, and at another
place a few were seen.

In the month of August 1826, I met with both young and old
herring-gulls on the eastern and western shores of Italy, and in
June 1841, at a high rocky islet near Pares.

The following communication which T made to the Zoological
Society of London in 1835, is here copied from the 'Proceed-
ings' of that year, p. 83 : —

" Having lately submitted six mature specimens of the lierring-guU
of tlie north of Ireland to a critical examination, similar to that pur-
sued in the second volume of the ' Northern Zoology,' by Mr. Swain-
son and Dr. Richardson, I ascertained their identity with L. argenta-
toides of that work (vol. ii. p. 417). The largest and the smallest
of these specimens differed in total length from 22^ to 24^ inches, and
in their tarsi from 27 to 32 lines. The second quUl in two individuals
exhibited, in addition to the white tip, " a round white spot in its
inner web," in this respect agreeing with the L. argentatoides, as
described in the ' Northern Zoology,' and previously by C. L. Bona-
parte, in his ' Synopsis of the Birds of the United States ' (Ann.
Lye. New York, vol. ii. p. 360) ; the second cpiill in three of the others
wants this white spot, in which particular it agrees with that of the
L. argodatus, as coutradistinguished by Bonaparte from the L. argen-
tatoides {vide as above) : the same quill on the sixth specimen is in an
intermediate state, a round white spot not more than one-eighth of an
inch across, appearing on it in the one wing, the second quill of the
other wing in the same individual exhibiting a white spot fully half an
inch in diameter ; thus proving that this marking is so inconstant that
it should not be relied on as a character."

I have been pleased to see that L. argentatoides does not ap-
pear as distinct from L. argentatus in the Prince of Musignano's
Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and North America,
published in 1838. M. Temminck considers the two names to
apply but to the one species {' Manuel,' part iv. 1840).

Notes on the Gohbins and Lamhay, with a Description of the
Manner of Descending Rocks for Birds and Eggs.
When visiting, in May 1849, the range of cliffs, called the

368 LAEIDiE.

Gobbins, attaining to perhaps two hundred and fifty feet in ele-
vation direct above the sea, and situated just outside the northern
entrance to Belfast Bay, I obtained the following information on
the subject of birds breeding there. The sea-hirds which now do
so annually are the razorbill and guillemot, both numerously, but
becoming gradually scarcer ; the black guillemot (about twelve
pair) ; the lesser black -backed gull (four pair) ; and the herring-
gull (probably a thousand pair). The common cormorant bred
there regularly until 1844, but not since. Puffins and kittiwakes
(the former seldom) appear on the sea about the rocks, but do not
breed. Of land-birds, peregrine falcons have an eyrie there, and
several pair of kestrels nidify. One pair of ravens, numbers of ,
grey crows, and still more of jackdaws, annually build, as do a
colony consisting of some hundred house-martins. A pair of
choughs had a nest annually until 1847.

The species reported to me as breeding at the cliffs of the island
of Lambay, off the Dublin coast, in 1850, were puffins, razorbills,
common and black guillemots, common and green cormorants (P.
cai'ho and P. graculus), greater and lesser black-backed gulls,
herring-guUs, kittiwakes, and Manx shearwaters.* In 1849, the
lesser black-backed gull was not observed there, and of the
greater [L, marvnus) there were three pair ; herring -gulls and
kittiwakes were very numerous. The raven's nest was thrice
robbed of six eggs ; and four of the shearwaters were taken from
the holes in which their nests were placed and wantonly destroyed
by boys.

I shall here notice the different methods I have witnessed on
the coast of Ireland of descending steep rocks for birds or eggs.
At the Gobbins, a " climber" (alluded to at p. 357) has been going
down the rocks occasionally in the season for above thirty years, and
has a monopoly of the aerial exercise in consequence of being the
only person in the vicinity supplied with a rope for the purpose.
His preparation was the work of a moment : — throwing his shoes
off, and a noose of the rope over his head, so as to embrace his
body beneath the arms, down he dropped from the summit, with

* Mr. R. J. Moulgomeiy.

THE HERRING-GULL. 369

mucli less concern than a lady steps from her carriage. Two or
three men (generally his two brothers) " give out " the rope, of
which a coil is left back, some little distance from the summit
of the cliff. They keep it tight, until the egg-gatherer reaches
the ledges containing the nests, when he gives a signal to slack
it. The liberty thus afforded him to move to either side pre-
vents the necessity of shifting the rope laterally at the summit
of the cliff, where it is kept to the same place all the time. On
descending, he takes hold of the rope with his right hand, grasp-:
ing it as high up as he can reach. He goes down sideways,
keeping his feet against the precipitous cliffs the whole way, and
stopping at each narrow ledge to pick up the eggs or young.
These are placed in his highland bonnet, which is kept on his
head until the plunder commences. After bringing up his
bonnet three times filled with eggs and young, at the same num-
ber of descents, each occupying a few minutes, he ceased. Hold-
ing the rope must be very tiresome on the arm. When the latter
became fatigued, he shifted the noose to the opposite side of his
body at the next ledge, and took the rope in his other hand.

Mr.Waterton describes the method adopted on the coast of York-
shire ;* but that pursued at the Gobbins (one rope only being
used) is much more simple and effective. The man here sig-
nified his wishes to those above by calling to them or by jerking
the rope. By throwing his head and body as far back as possible
from the rocks, while his feet, clad in stockings only, were planted
against them in his descent, the rope was prevented from coming
in contact with the rocks, and breaking pieces off that might in-
jure him in their fall. When any loose fragment is perceived
during his descent, he pushes it down with his foot, lest it should
afterwards by any chance fall on him ; but the rope very rarely
touches the face of the rock,, so as to endanger liim by bringing
down such pieces.

The manner in which the gamekeeper at the Horn went over
the rocks to the eagle's eyi'ie was similar to that adopted at the
Gobbins.

* Essays Nat. Hist. vol. i.

VOL. III. 2 B

370 LAIlIDiE.

In Yol. I. p. 73, a climber is noticed as ascending the cliffs
from below to a buzzard's nest, while he was secured from falling
by a rope about his body, held by persons above.

The method adopted at Arranmore — the largest of the islands
of Arran off Galway Bay — was different.'^ When Mr. R. Ball
and I visited that island in July 1834, a rock-climber — a tall
athletic fellow — so far intruded himself upon us when we were
walking towards the cliffs as to come up behind unheard in his
" pompootees,"t and spring high into the air for a few paces past
us in proof of his agility. We soon put this further to the test
by having him lowered over the loftiest limestone cliffs of the
island, perhaps five hundred feet in height. His manner of
descent was free and easy. He sat upon a stick, about a yard
in length and two inches in thickness, to the middle of which one
end of the rope was fastened, the other being held by men above.
AVhen coming near liis prey, he held the rope in one hand, and
with the other threw a noose fastened to a rod round the birds.
Several gulls so taken were brought up. When over the cliff, he
took pleasure in exhibiting himself, springing as far into tlie air
from the surface of the precipice as he could do without injury to
himself from the rebound. J He likewise performed various antics.

* The description of Arranmore in O'Flaherty's 'West or H'lar Connaught,'
written in 1684, p. 67, contains the following passage : —

" Here are birds which never fly but over the sea ; and therefore are used to be
eaten on fasting-days ; to catch which, people goe down, with ropes tyed about them,
into the caves of cliflts by night, and with a candle-light kill abundance of them."

To the preceding, the editor of the work adds: — " The height of the cliff at
Dun jEiigus, in Arran, which Dun is one of the most remarkable remains of pagan
antiquity in the west of Eui'ope, is upwards of three hundred feet" (p. 66).

t Sandals of cow's hide, exhibiting the hair outside, are worn by the islanders,
and the mere single skin (at least in those seen by me) used as sole. They are
worn over woollen stockings, and fastened by one or two strings across the foot. They
look singular on large stont men, and last only from thi'ee to six weeks. The wearer
can tread quite noiselessly, without any of the intolerable creaking so often heard
from what are considered more civilized foot- gear. I have been present when an
actor of some note, with his feet clad in creaking dress-shoes, played the Ghost to
the elder Kean's Hamlet, and apprised the audience long before he actually appeared,
of his " entrances," and by the same means gave token for some time after his
" exits," that he had not yet vanished into thin air.

I Further detail in a similar case wLU be found most graphically narrated by Mr.
James Wilson, in his account of St. Kilda, published in his interesting ' Voyage

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 371

and with the stick as a seat, looked^ comparatively with others in
similar situations, quite comfortable and at his ease.

We were too late (July 8) for many eggs being taken ;
but on the 13th of June in the following year my companion
again visited the island, and had those of the herring-gull, razor-
bill, guillemot, cormorant, and oystercatcher brought up, all of
which are there considered good for eating."^ The egg-gatherers
told me that they take six kinds of eggs ; — perhaps those of the
kittiwake, in addition to the five already named.

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.

Larusfuscus, Linn.
„ Jlavipes, Meyer and Wolf.

Is found around the coast, at inland lakes, &c., and is
resident.

This species is met with in very limited numbers about our more
northern coast, where it has chiefly come under my observation,
and at no marine locality am I aware of its being more than spar-
ingly scattered. Compared with the herring-gull it is very scarce.
I have only known it to frequent the grandest of the breeding-
haunts of that bird, aud these in very limited numbers. At the
Gobbins, where several hundreds of the herring-gulls nidify,
two pair of this species bred in 1830, and a man well acquainted
with the birds frequenting this range of rocks, stated that never
more than one or two pair bred there. During a walk along the
top of the cUffs in June 1834, I saw but one of these birds (an
adidt), though hundreds of the herring-gulls appeared. Ornitho-
logists visiting those rocks, in June 1847, saw about six pair of

round Scotland and the Isles,' Several men lowered over the cliffs there at the
same time were observed from the sea.

* Eggs of the horriug-gull, razoibill, and guillemot were exposed for sale in
Dublin in 1848, and sold for twopence each.

2b2

373 LARID^.

the L.fuscus, and one bird, which was shot, though not quite adult,
was beheved to be breeding: — in the same month of 1849, three
or four pair were observed. The man who descends the rocks
stated that just four pair had nests on each of the preceding
twenty years. Although this testimony varies (I know not on
whose opinion most to rely), it is of little consequence, as all is to
the effect — that but few birds are there.

The gamekeeper at the Horn (Donegal) assured me in June
1832, that both the greater and lesser black-backed gulls breed
there on the lofty precipitous rocks, and that the latter ^' makes
a nest like a hen, laying three eggs of a brownish-green colour,
with black ticks :" the eggs of the two species were said by
him to differ only in size; — a remark somewhat corroborative
of his accuracy. I myself observed this bird to be very scarce
there comparatively with the herring-gull. In June 1834 we met
with the L. fuscus on the coast of Connaught ; and I was told
by the late Mr. T. F. Neligan in 1837 that he had found its nests
and those of the herring-gull so abundant on a low rocky islet
off that county that he could scarcely walk without treading on
their eggs : the L. fiisciis was more numerous there than the L.
argentatus — their eggs were carried away in quantities for food.
My informant saw on the islet numbers of pellets composed of
the remains of shells which he imagined the gulls had disgorged.
On that coast, a black-backed gull [L.fuscus?) breeds atMucka-
low rock, where it was the only bird of its genus seen one day
in 1850, when about thirty of its nests were observed. At the
Magharee Islands, perhaps one lesser black-backed to two her-
ring-gulls appeared — about Dingle, there are but a few for large
numbers of L. argentatus — a remark applicable to them at the
lesser Skellig rock, and on the coast of Kerry generally.^

In June 1849, a small colony of eight or ten pair was observed
on the largest of the Sovereign Islands, near the harbour of Kin-
sale ; several of their nests were found on the grass and on ledges
of rock : — they were formed of a little dried grass.f These gulls

* Mr. R. Chute. t Mr. R. Warreu.

THE LESSER BLACK- BACKED GULL. 373

are believed not to build in company with the herring-gulls on
the cliffs between Cork and Kinsale. This, if correct, woidd
agree wdth my own observation in the north of Ireland, that the
lesser black-backed gull only frequents the greatest breeding-
haunts of that species. Tor instance, it is found at the Gobbins,
where from 1,000 to 2,000 pair of those birds nidify, but not one
have I ever seen about a nest at the ranges of cliffs in the vicinity
of the Giant^s Causeway or Downhill, where the L. argentatus is
more scattered and in much smaller numbers ; nor is it named as
building in Eathlin. About Youghal, adult birds have been
observed in the breeding-season."^ They nidify in the cliffs near
Howth (county Dublin), and, as has been supposed, also at Lam-
bay; but in the sunjmer of 1849 none bred there.t

I have never observed this bird so abundant anywhere in
Ireland as at Lough Neagh, where from the people believing
that it subsists on the Coregonus Pollan, it is called the pollan
gull, or Lough Neagh herring-gull, from the names applied
to this fish. Wlien visiting the breeding-haunt of the black-
headed gull and common tern at Eam^s Island in this lake, on
the 15th of June, 1833, we shot an immature bird of this kind
and saw about thirty which kept aloof from the other species ;
they were stationed on the very small detached rocks or heaps of
upraised gravel, which stretch into the lake from the promontory
occupied by their congeners. Our boatmen, and the serjeant
in charge of Ram's Island, stated of their own knowledge, that
this bird rarely bred here, but they had found its nests occasionally
near the outer extremity of the present haunt of the black-
headed gull : the eggs were known from those of the latter
species by their superior size. I observed at Massareene deer-
park bordering this lake, on the 33rd of September, 1834, not
less than forty mature lesser black-backed gulls congregated to-
gether on the beach; and remarked old birds about different
parts of the lake again on the 29th of May, 183G, and 12tli of
the same month, in 1838.

* ]\Ir. K. Ball. t Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

374

LARID^.

While spending nearly a week at this lake in 1846 (in
company with the distinguished entomologist A, H. Haliday^ Esq.)
I saw these gulls to great advantage. Prom the sandy beach at
Shanescastle Park, on the 1st of August, a "play" of them
was witnessed, just as we observe that of herring or other gulls
at sea, and the birds in similar numbers ; — after they alighted on
the water, I reckoned about 120 together. When in a body, and
also singly, they uttered a loud cackling laughing cry. Some were
adult, but by far the greater number immature : fine old birds
singly as well as in pairs came majestically sailing above the lofty
tree-tops towards the lake. Near Toome, on the following day,
they covered over the sands in numbers, such as we see other
gulls do on the sea-shore; there were about tliree hundred in
company; many curlews and eight or ten herons were beside
them, imparting quite a marine aspect to the scene.

Leaving Ballinderry (county Derry) on the 5th of August, in a
boat, for Kam's Island, we saw a great number of these gulls
assembled along the margin of a small islet near the place of
our embarkation, as we did again about the rocks off Eam^s
Island ; not less than one hundred and fifty in each place. W e
were told that not a pair bred at the latter locality, this year,
on account of their place of nidification being inundated : the
keeper said that probably not less than two hundred pair bred
here last year. This will account for the numbers of these birds
which appeared about the lake, where they and the black -headed
were the only species I was sure of seeing on this occasion. In
crossing the lake to-day, we took eleven pollaus, all but one of
full size, floating on the surface alive, but with wounds in their
bodies, wliich the boatmen said were made by these gulls. Seeing
one of them and a poUan floating before it, we rowed up in the
hope of having proof of the evil-doer ; but in this instance the
fish had been injured in a net. The holes appear as if made by
the gulls'* beaks, and any part of the fish is evidently struck at
random. There is a common accusation at this lake against
lampreys — I know not how true — for " making holes " in the
bodies of various species of fish and destroying them.

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 375

May 4tli, 1850. A fisherman at Derrywarragh island, Lough
Neagh, told us that the common tern, black -headed and " pollan
gull," used to breed on Coney Island, oft' Maghery Bay, where he
had seen their eggs. For the last two years, however, they had
not done so owing to a family living constantly on the island,
and the children disturbing the birds. We remarked the two
species of gulls about the lake to-day, assuming immature birds
to be more probably L. fuscus than L. argentatus. A party
visiting Ram's Island on the 4th of June 1850, saw about
twenty of these gulls in various stages of plumage seated on the
stones adjacent to the island, but they could not find any of their
nests, nor obtain information respecting their breeding there. On
the 12th of the same month, a few were seen about Toome, and a
boatman stated that they formerly bred on Scawdy Island, but
do not now."^

In the island at Lough Conn (Mayo), already alluded to as a
breeding-haunt of the black-headed gull, not less than a dozen
nests of the lesser black-backed species were observed in 1840 or
'1841.t When on the borders of Lough Carra, in the same county,
on the 4th of July, 1834, an adult bird flew within a few yards
of us.

I have often remarked the partiality of the lesser black -backed
gull to ascending rivers as well as to visiting inland lakes. One,
two, or three of these birds may be seen occasionally in winter,
and daily in spring (in some seasons so early as February),
flying tolerably high above the river Lagan, near Belfast, J and
proceeding so far as the first fall above the sea, where the flow
of the tide terminates, and the canal commences. Once only have
I seen them farther up the river, when a couple of young birds
appeared nearly two miles above tide-reach. They seem indif-
ferent whether the tide be in or out, and I have very rarely
observed them to stoop to the water for food. Immature birds
are more scarce here than adults, which from the contrasted

* Mr. J. R. Gan-ctt. t Mr. B. Ball.

\ A fine adult specimen, shot in the bay here in August, and preserved for the
Museum, was, in length 22 inehes, breadth 4 feet 7^ inches, weight 2 lbs.

376 LARID^,

snowy whiteness and fine black of tlieir plumage, have a beauti-
ful appearance with the dark foliage of the river-banks as a back-
ground ; but sometimes both are seen in company. On one occa-
sion, I observed an adult bird fishing as high up the Lagan as
the fk'st fall from the sea, while soon afterwards two immature
birds flew up the course of the river until they joined him. They
were no doubt the bearers of some particular intelligence, as im-
mediately on their reaching the old bird, he wheeled about, and
the three proceeded with their utmost speed down the river."*^
The first week in May is the latest time I have noted adult birds
here, but the immature appear occasionally throughout that month
and June.

On the 7th of July, 1835, I observed an adult pair of these
gulls on the lake of Windermere, and on the 16th, saw one at
the bridge in the town of Lancaster.

Li the middle of May 1841, I noted L.fuscus as seen at the
Dardanelles, and some days after, numbers as congregated toge-
ther on the shore of the Bosphorus. These were set down as
L.fuscus, without a mark of doubt, but I now feel uncertain
respecting their species, as it is stated in my journal that a gull,
the size of L. canns, and the colour of L.fuscus, is common at
Constantinople, and so tame, that it will hardly go out of the
way of the boatmen's oars. They so habitually alighted on the
house-tops, that I thought probably they had nests there. This
is doubtless the gull alluded to, but not named, in the following
extract from the fourth part (1840) of Temminck's 'Manuel,' &c.,
p. 472 : — " On trouve sur les cotes de Barbaric et en Syrie, peut-
etre aussi en Egypte, une mouette d'un quart moins grande que
Jiavipes \Ii.f'ii,scus'\, et a bee de beaucoup moins fort relative-
ment a la taille ; mais colore exactement comme Larus jiavipes."
Deglaud's ' Ornithologie Europeenne,' published in 1849, does
not contain any information on this species.

* lu like manner, I once observed several of the black-lieaded gulls feeding in a
ploughed field half a mile from the shore of the bay, whence a single bird flew direct
to them ; the moment it arrived they all wheeled about, and with theirbest speed
made for the bay, where it was low water at the time ; they were not in any way
alarmed in the field ; the courier seemed to convey some sjiecial news.

377

THE GEEAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.^

Lams mar'inus, Linn.
Is found around the coast throughout the year.

A FEW only of this species appears to breed upon the coast of Ire-
land. Mr. J. V. Stewart, when living not very far distant from
Horn Head, has known it to build on inaccessible places there,
and once saw its nest on an insulated rock. More of the greater
than of the lesser black -backed gull were said, by the gamekeeper,
in 1832, to build there.f On the 9th of July, 1834, we saw
several of the adult L. marinus about the lofty cliffs of Arran-
more, off Galway Bay, and had no doubt of their breeding there.
On the Kerry coast, a few nidify on the Magharee Islands, the
cliffs about Dingle, and the small Skelhg rock. J At Lambay Is-
land, off the Dublin coast, three pair had nests in ]849.§ At
various other localities a few pair must build ; but a very small
proportion of those seen in autumn and winter upon our coasts
can be bred in the island. 11 Without any reference to nidifica-

* The only provincial name mentioned by Montagu is Cobb, which he says' is ap-
plied to the bird by the fishermen on the coast of Wales. This name is also used at
Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, &c. Carrion gull and great saddle-back gull are names
also in use. It is called in Sussex " Parson Gull, from a supposed resemblance in the
arrangemeut of its black and white plumage to the hood and surplice of a clergjonan."
— Knox.

t " During a walk round all the cliffs of the Hora, ou the 1st of August, 1850,
the lesser black-backed gull was not seen, but several of the greater rose up from the
abyss below, and soared above our heads." — Mr. Robert Taylor, of Belfast.

+ Mr. R. Chute. § Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

II The breeding-places in Great Britain and the adjacent islands which I have seen
named may be here brought together. They are " Souliskerry, a small flat islet
about thirty miles west of tlie Orkneys " (Bullock) — in a few of the islands of Orkney
and Shetland it breeds in abundance (Hewitson) — at the Bass Rock, Frith of Forth,
a few pairs breed (Selby and Jardine) — on the South Stack, off Holyhead, two pairs
breed (Stanley, ' Fani. Hist. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 244) — " Steep Holmes and Lundy
Islands in the British Channel " (Montagu, as informed by fishermen) — about the
estuary of the Thames, in Kent and Essex, it is a " marsh breeder " (Yarrell) — in
islands on Loch Laighal, Sutherland (St. John, vol. i. p. 41).

The gamekeeper at Islay, in 1849, considered that both the greater and lesser
black-backed gulls breed annually at a rocky islet about half a mile to the north-east
of Kinrevock — the great breeding-haunt of the common gull.

378 • LAEID^.

tioD, we are told that this bird is by no means rare about Cork
Harbour^'^ and that it may be considered the most common of
the larger gulls frequenting the harbour of Wexford^ where it is
not " very wary, generally flying over or near boats that lie in its
course/'t I have never myself visited a range of coast on any
side of the island, without this bird coming under view.

l\Ir. R. ]3all has remarked to rae that — " immature specimens of
L. manmis, or at least supposed to be so, are very often considerably
taller, and have larger bills than the adults. Is there a second species,
or is there a real decrease in bulk ?" Two specimens in the Uni-
versity Museum, Dublin, examined by that gentleman and myself, ex-
hibit this difference in a very marked manner in the tarsi ; those of the
young being two inches ten lines ; of the old two inches five and
a half lines in length. The wing of the young from the carpus to end
of longest quill is twenty inches, of the adult eighteen and three-quar-
ters ; the middle toe and nail of the former are two inches ten lines ; of
the latter two inches nine and a half lines. In different species of gulls
I have remarked young birds of the year as having larger tarsi and
bills than the old, but did not ascertain whether such large young were
invariably of one sex, and such small old invariably of another ; — this
should be looked to. Three immature individuals of the greater black-
backed gull shot at the end of December (1833 and 1837) and the
dimensions of which I noted were

Length (total) of a female bird .

„ of biU from rictus to point

„ of wing from cai'pus to end of first quill

„ of tarsus .....

„ of middle toe and nail .
Breadth across wings ....

Irides white ; legs pale flesh, and bill blackish horn-colour.

in.

lin.

27

6

3

7i

19

0

3

0

3

3

53

0

Of the two others (sex not noted), the one was in length twenty-eight
inches ; wings passed the tail ; the other was twenty-nine inches in
length ; wings passed the tail one inch ; extent of wings five feet.

Mr. Poole mentions a bird which he killed in Wexford Harbour on
the 26th of November, being in perfectly adult plumage, except the

* Dr. Harvey. f Mr. Poole,

THE GUEAT BLACK-BACKED GTJLL. • 379

tail, which was beautifully mottled with black and white. I have in
different instances remarked this very handsome appearance.

Belfast Bay. — The greater black-backed is much more frequent
here than the lesser black-backed gull, which would appear from
works upon the subject to be by far the more common species of
the two everywhere in England and Scotland. It should perhaps
rather be said that L.fuscus is rare in this estuary, than that
L. marinus is more common than elsewhere, but the following de-
tails will afford data on this point. Here old or young of this species
may be seen almost every day of the year, the former at all times
except in the breeding season, and the latter even then. The
period of their leaving for nidification is late. On the 5th of
May, 1882, I saw several, and on the 2nd of that month, in
1838, observed two adult and five immature birds in com-
pany."^ On the 30tli of June, 1842, three or four adult birds
appeared in the south-western side of the bay, and for an extent
of a few miles, only two or three gulls of any other species :
the L. marinus is often to be seen in the breeding season,
when other gulls are very scarce. Such birds as those last
mentioned may be considered as not breeding. At the Cope-
land Islands too, about the middle of June, I have remarked two
or three adult bii'ds, which should be brought under the same
category.

But from September (and some time early in the month) until
May, the greater black-backed gull is daily seen in Belfast Bay
from the road on either side, uear to which it is driven by the
flowing tide, for it prefers standing on the beach to floating on the
waves. Along with groups of other gulls, but generally a httle
apart from them, and at a respectful distance from each other, a
pair, usually — (from which circumstance it is probable that the
species is monogamous) — or four adult birds will be seen. The
group at the outskirts of which they appear consists daily of the
more sociable L. argentatus, L. caniis, and L. ricUhundus — of

* A fine adult bird which was shot in Dublin Bay on the 21st of May, came
under my examination (1838). On the 6th of May, 1841, I saw one in the harbour
at Syra (Archipelago).

380 . LARIDiE.

L. rissa in its season, and rarely of L.fiiscus. Montagu remarks,
in his ' Ornithological Dictionary/ that " they never herd with
other gulls ;" and here certainly the others rather herd with them,
or alight where they see them stationed. Rarely, I have seen
them surrounded by gulls of other species, but these had doubt-
less been the latest comers. Wherever the L. marinus alights to
await the receding of the tide — and he generally selects a place
from which the flowing waters will not drive him — he remains,
regardless of prey, though the others may be busy feeding around
him. They are sure, too, to fly off to the exposed beach before
he leaves the station where he had so long remained, statue-
hke, in dignified composure. When grouped around or near him,
I have never known this bird molest any of his weaker brethren
of the Lancia. More than four adult individuals are seldom
seen on a stretch of coast of from two to three miles ; immature
birds generally appear near them on the gr'ound, and are more nu-
merous, but in flight do not accompany them. The most that have
come under my notice were observed on the 18th April, 1832,
when, within a mile and a half along the south-west of the bay,
several appeared scattered along the shore, and in one place about
fifteen were together in a small close flock ; outside of which a few
dotted the beach. The number and compact body — for even two
rarely stand very near each other — indicated their being on mi-
gration. They are generally quite silent when seen in the manner
described. Once, however, when on horseback and a mile distant
from them, I was attracted by the loud and hoarse cackle of a pair,
caused by a third individual making its appearance. It subse-
quently alighted beside them; when, as if in anger at their
demesne being encroached on, they took their departure, leaving
the stranger alone. Their call, continued on wing, was so loud
that it could certainly have been heard for fully three miles along
the level strand.

These gulls not only commit great havoc on wounded birds of
all kinds, especially wigeon and other ducks, but sometimes bear
down upon and carry them off before the shooter can reach the

THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 381

spot to which his shot was directed : * occasionally, too, they,
falcon-like, strike down birds out of a Hock. Bell, an observant
shooter, once saw a gull of this species strike a wigeon from a
flock to the water, bear down upon and make the bird its prey.
AVigeou show great alarm when this species or the herring-gull
comes flying towards them, and a whole flock will take wing
in consequence. Thus are fowlers often foiled of getting
shots when " making up" to those birds. The diving-ducks, not
so timid as the wigeon, and naturally taking refuge beneath the
surface, are less alarmed at their presence. All shooters detest
these gulls for depriving them of shots. t The two species
regularly frequent a portion of the beach near Belfast, called the
Long Strand, for the purpose of feeding on the carcases of horses,
of which it is always more or less redolent, and when so engaged
have both been killed at the same shot. J Dead pigs and offal of all
kinds afford them a pleasing variety of viands. Such attractions
may account for the more than usual numbers of L. marimis in
this bay. The manner of feeding adopted by these and other gulls
should be mentioned. Instead of remaining perched on a carcase
like an eagle or falcon, and tearing the flesh upwards, the gulls
lay hold of a piece, which, if it does not at once yield to their

* Daniel was aware of this ; in his ' Rural Sports ' it is remarked that " the large
black and white gulls arc most expert in immediately descrying the wounded birds,
and are so determinedly ravenous that iu a very few minutes they will devour all the
fleshy parts, such as the breast, &c., of a wild-fowl, although the pmiter may be using
all his expedition to prevent them" (vol. iii. p. 283).

t In like manner we are told that " to the seal this bird [Z. marinus] is of essen-
tial service. It is the custom of these animals to lie upon the rocks for hours in
succession, and so well acquainted are the natives with their haimts that they raise
small bulwarks to conceal their approach. This gull, howevei', frequently frustrates
all these precautions by sounding the note of alarm, thereby infonning the seal that
danger is close at hand, and if the latter is not disposed to avail himself of this
friendly intimation, they will frequently strike them on the head with their feet :
when the seal retires into the water all further care on their part ceases, as they con-
sider him then in a situation to protect himself; but should he appear again within
gunshot of the place he has left, the gull wiU dart down at him, and frequently splash
the water in his face, as if to threaten him for his temerity." — Dunn's ' Omit. Guide
to Orkney and Shetland,' p. 111.

\ The adult L. marinus is difficult of access to shooters, but I have, when riding
on the sands, approached them so nearly as to see plainly the yellow spot on the bill :
they often disgorge before taking wing, and sometimes even when not alanned.
Immature birds not unfrcqucutly come flying within range of gnn,shot.

382 LAE.ID.E.

bills, they secure by running backwards, thus bringing the whole
weight of their bodies to bear against it. A very correct ob-
server, who has often witnessed the banquets on dead horses
here, reports how the various guests sat or rather stood at meat,
and deported themselves the one towards the other. The raven,
carrion crow, and grey crow, fed at the same time in company
with dogs, though quarrelHng occasionally with the little ones.
The gulls — great black-backed and herring — never ate in the
society of the dogs, but walked ofp on their approach to a little
distance, with their necks stiffly borne, marking their displeasure; —
perhaps at such low company ; mere walkers of the earth. The
two species of gull and three of Corvida partook of the feast con-
tentedly together. All this was a matter of almost daily occurrence.
The great black-backed and herring gulls sometimes pursue
individuals of their own species, to make them deliver up choice
food too large to be immediately swallowed. They occasionally
give each other severe chases, each trying to keep uppermost.
If the first drop the food, this is picked up by the second, which
in its turn becomes the pursued. But a most impudent pro-
ceeding witnessed here was a black-backed gull taking a fluke
[Platessa flesus) from a cormorant, when in the act of swallowing
it. The cormorant, which was on the water, endeavoured but in
vain (owing to its breadth), to swallow the fish, before the gull
relieved it of the booty. He rose upright in the water, and
made a fierce snap with his bill at the guU as the latter went
off with his prey. This species had often before been seen
making such attempts, but always unsuccessfully, owing to the
cormorant^s diving. Strangford Lough. — Here the black- backed
gull has been seen more than once to strike down a wigeon from
a flock. Brent geese, as well as wigeon, even when swimming
in very large bodies, a thousand or more in number, rise to wing
when either a single black-backed or herring guU appears over-
head ! When brent geese were killed by a shoulder-gun from the
islands, these gulls, despite the loud shouting of the fowlers,
succeeded in carrying some oft' before the dogs by swimming, or
the men by taking to their boat could reach the spot. Tame

THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 383

ducks, that feed in the tide at Rough Island, and domestic fowl,
when at a distance from the house, take wing homeward when the
Lams warinus appears in sight, though with gulls from the L.
canus, down in size, they feed in company.*

Lame Lough, December \'$>^Q . — In the mornings here, a i&w of
the great black-backed gulls usually go over the lough, taking
a survey for dead or wounded wdgeon, &c. Of seven of these
birds killed or wounded at a shot from a swivel- gun, one was
carried off by a L. marinus, and two nearly eaten by grey crows,
by the time (rather longer than usual) that the fowler reached
the spot. In another instance this month, a wigeon was seen to
escape from one of these gulls by diving very frequently ; — wdien-
ever a stoop was made at it on the surface of the water. The
best guide that the fowlers have here to their wounded birds is
this gull, and it is a common remark — " There^s the black-backs,
we'll see if there's any wounded birds." The chase of a wigeon
by one of these guUs was so long and close throughout, that it
was considered by the spectator equal to any he had ever seen by
a hawk, though there were certainly fewer turnings. One of these
adult gulls was observed here to fly over a flock of about a
dozen brent geese on the water. They arose, and the gull pursued
them fiercely for some time, but without effect, as they were
able to outstrip it in flight. The gull w' as very near them more
than once, but the geese escaped, by suddenly wheeling to either
side more rapidly than it could do. My informant had never
seen brent geese, unless wounded, pursued by this gull before.
Wigeon being laid out in an island of this lough to tempt
these gulls \\ithin shot, while the fowler lay in wait, brought them
to the place, though not wdthin gun-shot, for they espied , their
enemy. The soaring of several of them — occasionally three at a
time — directly above him, circling about, and turning their heads
gracefully to look around, was described as a most interesting
sight, while, all being adult, their plumage, viewed from the
ground, appeared wholly of a snowy tint.

Mr. Darragh, 1848.

384 LARIDiE.

I have occasionally (particularly in April and May) seen old as
well as young birds ascend the river Lagan as far as the tide
flows, but chiefly at low water : — a beautiful adult bird shot
there on the 8th of April, 1837, at the docks of the canal,
came under my inspection. An immature one, killed on Lough
Neagh, has been brought to me. Mr. E, Ball mentions his having,
in the spring of 1831 or 1833, fired at an adult bird, seated on
a rock off Ireland's Eye. It fell into the water, where, after a
considerable battle, in which his hands were repeatedly wounded,
he captured it. On examination, it did not appear that his shot
had taken effect, but there seemed to be an injury some days old,
on one of its wings, which had probably been grazed by a bullet.
The bird being tied up in a handkerchief, often contrived to get its
head out, and seldom without mauaging to draw blood from some-
body near. It was, however, safely brought to Dublin. On being
enlarged in a room, and offered some cold meat, this was eagerly
partaken of, and on the moment the bird became perfectly tame.
It was placed in the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, where it
was for a long time an especial favourite, on account of its tame-
ness and beauty. It recovered the power of flight, and used
sometimes to go away for a few days, and return again. On one
occasion it was observed to mount very high in the air, and fly
sea-ward, after which it was never again seen. This gull was in
the garden about two years.

The two species of black-backed gulls were remarked by the
late Mr. G. Matthews and his party, to be about equally common
along the coast of Norway in summer and autumn.

Audubon (vol. iii. p. 305) gives a very full description of this
species, as observed by him generally, at breeding-stations, on
ship-deck, &c. ; and at p. 312 there appears in his work a most
interesting liistory from the pen of Dr. Neill, of Edinburgh, of
one of these birds kept in this gentleman's garden, and which,
having the use of its wings, went off annually in the spring, as
was supposed, to some breeding-haunt, but regularly returned for
a long period of years to spend his winter in the vicinity of the
learned metropolis, with the kind friend under whose care he was

THE ICELAND GULL. 385

brought up. In the third volume of Loudon's 'Magazine of
Natural History/ p. 155, a pleasing account of a tame bird of
this species will also be found.

THE ICELAND GULL.

Larus Islandictis, Edmonston (1822).
„ leiicopterus, Eaber (do.)"^

Is only known as a bird of extremely rare occurrence on

the coast,

But may, like the glaucous gull, be less rare than the very few
preserved specimens indicate. What is said of the latter species
relatively to L. marinus, equally applies to the L. Islandicus,
compared with the lesser black-backed gull.

The Ordnance Museum contains an immature specimen, said
to have been procured at Lismore, county Donegal, in October
1839, and a young bird was obtained in Tralee Bay in the winter
of the same year (?).t An immature bird, which I purchased
in a fresh state, was shot on the 20th of January, 1843, on the
river Lagan, between the two bridges, close to the town of Belfast.
This bird, though " in full possession of all its faculties," was so
tame as to be within the reach of stones thrown by idle boys,
and kept its ground, unless when struck by them ; even then it
flew but a few yards and again alighted. A casual passer-by,
perceiving that the bird would be an easy prey, weut for a gun
and shot it.

On the 25th of January, IS^O, one of these birds was seen by
Mr. E. Warren, jun., flying in company with some herring-gulls,
at Seamount, Cork harbour, and again on the 29th of the same
month, close to the quay at Cove. On the 2nd of February, two

* Both tlicse names were published iii the same year, but I aiii not aware which
preceded the other.

t Mr. R. Chute.

VOL. III. 2 C

386 LARIDiE.

were remarked on wing amongst the shipping at that port ; where
another was observed on the 8th, and, on the following day, one
appeared at Seamount. A bird in immature plumage was shot here
by that gentleman's brother at the end of January, and presented
to Dr. Harvey for his collection, by whom I have been informed
that it weighed two pounds; agreed exactly in measurements
and colour with those described by Edmonston and Selby, but
the irides were " dark-brown," instead of " pale yellowish-grey."
So much only can I at present say of the Iceland gull as an
Irish bird.

In Charlesworth's ' Magazine of Natural History ' for January
1838 (vol. ii. p. 5), I noticed this species as follows : — "Having
been lately informed that a few rare gulls had appeared about Bal-
lantrae, in Ayrshire, and that, after displaying for a season some in-
teresting peculiarities in habits, one had been shot and preserved,
I embraced my informant's kind offer of bringing it from Scot-
land for my inspection, on his recent return to tliis country. It
proved to be the Iceland gull {L. Islandiciis, Linn.), apparently in
the stage of plumage which immediately precedes maturity. A
professional gentleman at Ballantrae, into whose possession this
bird came, and by whom it was preserved, favoured me with the
following particulars respecting it, in a letter dated October 26,
1837. — 'At the end of last year, three gulls, of the same kind,
made their appearance on the shore where the fishermen reside. —
Two of them were shot in the spring, and the one sent you, in
June. As they frequented the fishing boats, the men used to
supply them with fish ; and in a short time they became quite
familiar, took whatever was thrown to them, but would not allow
themselves to be caught. They were never observed to go far
from the place where they were first seen. The person who gave
me this information shot the tv^'o in the spring, and says that
every winter one or more are seen on the coast. He cannot say
where they breed, but is sure there are none on the Craig [of
Ailsa].' This indifference to the near presence of man, on the
part of these northern strangers, reminded me of that of the
first Lams Sabinif — also a native of the arctic regions, — obtained

THE ICELAND GULL. 387

on the British shores. The month of June seems a late period
for the Iceland gull to remain in such a comparatively southern
latitude; and there can hardly be a doubt that it is the same
species which is seen about Ballantrae every winter, as the
authority for the statement must evidently know it well from its
congeners, when he correctly states that it does not breed on
Ailsa Craig."

On the 2nd of April, 1840, the same kind friend (John Sin-
claire, Esq.) brought me from Ballantrae a second specimen,
which was shot there a few days before that time. It is in the
same plumage as the former one, or in that which Mr. Selby
describes after two general autumnal moultings have been under-
gone (vol. ii. p. 504). Mr. Sinclaire informs me that when at
Brodick Castle, in the island of Arran (Frith of Clyde), many
years ago, he saw about six or eight gulls, which he is certain
were of this species, and in proof of his correctness gives the
"circumstantial evidence" that they were almost as tame as
domestic fowl, and were stationed on a manure heap before a still.
Although on a very near approach they took wing, they returned
immediately on the party going out of the way : he was told that
they had frequented the place for a long time.

Taber's very full and interesting account of the Iceland gull,
in his ' Prodromus of the Ornithology of Iceland ' — a work
difficult to be procured — is judiciously copied by Mr. Yarrell, in
the third volume of his ' British Birds."

The Iceland gull is said to be numerous in the high arctic
regions of both hemispheres. To Iceland, even, it is only a winter
visitant (Faber). It is in Scotland and England, as well as
Ireland, a bird of only rare and occasional occurrence.

388 LAUIDiE.

THE GLAUCOUS GULL.

Larus glaucus, Brunn.

Is occasionally obtained on tlie coast,

And is perhaps less rare than ornithologists generally imagine
— as it requires to be seen near to be determined, in con-
sequence of its resemblance to the immature great black -backed
gull. This latter bird in its adult state, with black back,
can be told unerringly at the distance of a mile or more on the
beach, but among the birds which are considered its young, and
which may be seen every day of the year upon our shores, the
L. glaucus may be passed over. I speak of them as they appear
at a distance. It may be said that but few specimens have been
procm'ed, but this would apply likewise to L. marinus, which,
though daily seen, is generally (unless when young) too wary to
be shot.

In Mr. J. V. Stewart's list of the birds of Donegal, published
in the 5tli volume of ' Loudon's Magazine of Natural History '
(July 1833), the glaucous gull was, I believe, first noticed as an
Irish species, and was marked " rare ;" that gentleman has since
informed me that he does not feel certain of its being resident, as
mentioned in the published list. In the preceding month of
March I had seen one of these birds in the shop of Mr. Glennon,
Dublin, to whom it was sent early in the winter of 1831, from
the west of Ireland : it agreed with the figure and description
of Bewick's " young glaucous gull."

I have remarked in Mr. H. Ball's collection a specimen, killed
at Youghal, in the autumn of 1833 : it is more spotted and barred
than the young herring-gull, and is believed to be a bird of the
first year. The dimensions taken from the stuffed specimen are —

Length (total) ....
„ of bill above
„ „ to rictus .

„ from carpus to end of quills
„ of tarsus . . . .

of middle toe and nail

in.

lin.

25

0

2

2

3

2

17

0

2

6

3

H

THE GLAUCOUS GULL. 389

Late in the month of July 1834 a second gull of this
species was shot, near Youghal, by Mr. Ball, when I was in his
company. On the 9th of that month he killed a third at the Islands
of Arran (off Galway Bay), when we were together; — he has
two of them preserved, and considers them in the plumage of
the second year. In the Ordnance Museum are three specimens
— one (young) from Strangford Lough, in December 1839;
and two, one of which is adult, the other immature, from Moville,
county of Londonderry. A young bird was caught on a spil-
liard in Tralee Bay about the winter of 1839, and early in the year
1817 a second was seen to the west of Dingle (by Mr. R. Chute),
and a third in Cork Harbour (by Dr. Harvey). One, stated to
have been shot on the coast of Galway^ in September 1846, has
come under my notice."^ About a small rocky islet off Acliil,
immature birds are said to liave been observed during the summer.
On the 3rd of January, 1849, a young individual in good condition
was shot in Belfast Bay, and on the 26th of the mouth another
of similar age was shot at the North Bull, Dublin Bay.f On
the 31st of July, 1850, either an Iceland or glaucous gull was
seen by Mr. Darragh within the railway embankment at Ballyma-
carrett, a suburb of Belfast, on the south-east side of the bay;
he was quite near the bird, and considered from the size of bill
that it was L. glaucus. At Waterford this species is stated to
have been obtained.

The glaucous gull appears, from the preceding instances of its
occurrence, to visit the coast of Ireland as extensively as that
of Great Britain. Though but few specimens have been pro-
cured— and but one adult — they were from all sides of the coast.
This bird does not breed even in the Shetland Islands, but retires
northward of them for that purpose.

The late Mr. G . Matthews, during liis Norway tour, found a nest
of the glaucous gull on an island a short way northward of the
Ofiord river. It contained one young bird, in a bare hollow of
the ground, and just the colour of the stones and moss around it.

* lu Mr. Walters' collection. t Mr. 11. J. Moutgomery.

390 LAUID/E.

THE SKUA.

Lestris catarrhactes, Liun. (t>p.)
Stercorarms ,, „ ,,
Larus „ „

Is rarely obtained on the Irish coast.

The first specimen which came under my observation was in the
collection of Mr. Massey, Pigeon-house Tort, Dublin, aucl was
shot by that gentleman in the adjacent bay early in the month of
July 1833j where he had previously killed one or two others. I
have seen one from Portmarnock, Dublin coast, in the collectioii
of Dr. Farran, by whom it was found in November 1836, lying-
dead on the shore in a state of emaciation, but in good plumage.
Since that time, the species has been observed there, and in the
Bay of Drogheda (August, &c., IS^'i).'^ A skua shot by James
Martin, Esq., in the county Galway, early in the year 1835, and
sent to the metropolis to be preserved, passed eventually into the
Museum of Trinity College. A Lestris, particularly described to
me in a letter from Mr. Poole, as seen very near to. him in Wex-
ford Harbour, at the end of July 1848, must have been of this
species.

Fowlers who have frequently observed skuas of different kinds,
describe one the size of a herring-gull, and in other respects
agreeing with the bird now under consideration, as having been
frequently seen by them in the autumn chasing gulls about
Holywood bank, Belfast Bay. : from the observant powers of my
informants, I have no doubt that the bird they saw was the Lestris
catarrhactes.

Subsequently to the preceding note being made — early in
August 1848 — two of these skuas were killed at a shot on Ballyma-
carrett bank. A fine specimen, obtained near Holywood on the 18th
of September that year, came under my examination ; and on the
22nd, three were seen in company near Thomson's Embankment,

* Mr. R. -T. Monlgomcn.

THE SKUA.

Belfast Bay, in the viciuity of which place they were observed
until the SrJ of October.

Mr. Robert Davis, jun., of Clonmel, in passing by sea troni
Dangarvan to Stradbally, on the 15th of August 18,3b observe,
a great dark-coloured skua, which he believed o be of this
species, "give chase to a large g,dl and '^^-vf.'"'-^'^"
what had been a copious meal of sprats. The brrds (lew « bn
a tew yards of the boat, and just as they passed the sm-rendci
took place. The skua immediately turned round, sett ed hunselt
on the water, and picked up the sprats at his leism-e, l«;""g *'"=
vanquished to fish for himself again." I>i the winter of 18*»-6.
one of these skuas (the species of which has been ^1" »"'^^ J;? ;
description sent to mc) was shot near the island of Whiddj, Banti)
Bay ;— Lord Bantry has it preserved.*

ilr. G. Matthews, when on his sporting tour in Norway dumg
the summer and autumn of 18-13, met with the skua on an island
at the entrance otTrondjiem (Drontheim) Fiord, » t^^^J^'^?""'^;
It attacked both his companions and himself by striking them on
the head, but they made the bird pay with its Ufc for such temerity :
it was s;pposed that they had approached its nest too neari^
Thev did not see the J. caUrrkacfa north of Trondjiein In the
summer and autumn of 1849, tlris was found by Capt. May o be
the scarcest of the four species of skua along the coast of Norway
but he shot a few of them. They were easy of access ;-when
the party landed on the islands they occasionally flew very near

*^7r Fleming, in the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' vol. i.
p 99 (1819), gives a very interesting account of tins bird at its
Leding-haunts in the " Zetland Islands,"-the on y place within
L British seas where it nidifies-as Mr. Drosier >kewise does n
-Loudon's Magariue of Natural History' for 1828 vo in
p 321) ■■ the chase of the eagle by skuas, a. witnessed by the
latter gentleman, is most graphically narrated. „,„„„,,„

The M™ cataniaetes is the only one of * - ^™P »
species of its genus not included among the birds of the United

* Mr. G. Jackson.

392 LARID^.

States, or in the ' Fauna Boreali- Americana/ but its distribution
southward is much greater than that of the others. It is very
remarkable that it should be found at the extreme south of the
continent of America — within 50° and 54° S. latitude, as is
known to ornithologists. An adult male bird procured during
the Antarctic Voyage at " Bird Island, East Palklands/^ was in-
cluded in a valuable collection of birds presented by Capt. Crozier,
R.N., of H.M.S. Terror, to the Belfast Museum.

THE POMARINE SKUA.

Lestris pomarinus, Temm.
Stercorarius „ „ (sp.)

Is of occasional occurrence in autumn and winter on
various parts of the coast.

I coNTTiiBUTED the following notice to the Zoological Society in
1835, when announcing this bird as an addition to our Fauna.
" Of this skua, tlu'ee individuals were procured in different parts
of Ireland within a short period, about the commencement of
the winter of 1834-5. The first, purchased alive at Youghal,
county of Cork, on the 1 2th of October, was caught upon a hook
at sea, and lived for a few weeks, part of which time it was in the
gardens of the Zoological Society of Ireland. The second speci-
men was shot in .Belfast Bay, on the 18th of October, and is in
the collection of the museum of that town. " Its weight was six-
teen ounces ; — in its stomach were a rat, fish-bones, and feathers."^
These birds were immature : the latter, which came under
my own examination Avhen recent, agreed precisely in plumage,
&t., with Mr. Selby's description of the young (vol. ii. p. 519).
The third, an adult bird, w^as shot from among a flock of gulls in
the PhcEuix Park, Dublin, on the 5th of November, and with the
first- mentioned came into the possession of E. Ball, Esq., of that
city (p. 79) : — these two w'ere subsequently added to the museum
of Trinity College. Two young individuals, both of which I saw,

* Dr. J. D. Marshall.

THE POMARINE SKUA. 393

were shot in 1837 ; one on the coast of Dublin, on the 6th of Oc-
tober, and the other on the 21st of December, in Dublin Bay.* In
1837, also (but no month named), one is stated to have been ob-
tained at Portrush, near the Giant's Causeway, by tlie collectors
for the Ordnance Survey. An immature bird, purchased in
Dublin market, on the 10th of December, 1846 (after having
been long kept), has come under my notice.f On the 16th of
October, 1848, a stormy day, one was shot when flying inland
from the sea, on the borders of Belfast Bay, whence it was driven,
after being well beaten, by a black-backed gull. It was brought
to me immediately after being shot, when the following description
was drawn up : —

Length (total) .........

„ of wing from carpus ......

,, of bill from forehead to point, measured with com-
passes (not following cm-ve) ....

„ of bQl from rictns to point .....

„ of tarsus ........

„ of middle toe, exclusive of nail ....

„ of its nail, measured in a straight line with compasses
from base to point ......

Two longest tail-feathers exceed the others bai-ely

This is a young bird of the year according to Jenyns's description, p. 282, to which
I have only to add that the three toes, their connecting membrane, and the nails, are
wholly dusky black on the tipper surface, except a very minute portion at the base of
the middle and inner toes, which is blue like the tarsi. The under side of the toes
and membrane is likewise dusky black, except a very small portion towards the
base, which is bluish flesh-colour ; nail of hind toe flesh-coloured. Irides bluish
black. It proved to be a male on dissection. Its stomach contained the vesicle of a
Fucus, and other little fragments of vegetable matter. J This bird is much darker in
colom' than that described by Jenyns, and, in comparison with a stuffed specimen iu
the Belfast Museum, the difference is such as to require being remarked upon.

" The head, neck, and upper parts," in the stuffed specimen, arc of a cinereous

* They were iu the possession of Dr. Parkinson and ]Mr. Warren.

A pomaiine skua — young bird of the year — found dead this wiutcr on the beach
at Ballantrae, Ayrshire (as noted in ' Chai'ksworth's Magazine of A'atural History,'
vol. iii. p. 585), came under my inspection.

t In Mr. VVattei's' collection.

% The stomach of one of Mr. Bull's specimens contained a large quautily of the
biid's own feathers.

in.

18

lin.
0

13

6

1

4

2

2

2
1

4i
3

394 LAKID.E.

brown, while in the fresh one they are of a lich deep brown ; and " the feathers on the
back, scapulars, and wing-coverts " have an exti'emely narrow edge of reddish-yellow.
The bird on the whole is considerably darker and richer in plumage than that described
in the work referred to.

The measurements of three others of the immature (and of the
adult bird^ which was nineteen ounces in weight) are before me,
but it is unnecessary to repeat any of them, they differ so little
from the one noticed ; two were eighteen, one eighteen and a half,
and the other nineteen inches in total length, with corresponding
difl'erences in other measurements.

A young pomarine skua (agreeing with Mr. Selby's description),
was shot in Tralee Bay on the 20th of November, ISSCJ, and
others of this or allied species seen there during the storm of
that day and the next.^

One adult bird only has been obtained in Ireland, and it Avas
the first in this plumage noticed within the British Islands. Mr.
YarreU. remarked, in 1843, that "many more examples, most if
not all of them young birds, have been obtained " (vol. iii. p. 486,
1st edit.). He did not particularize any adult as procured in
Great Britain, but mentioned having seen two, wdthout stating
where they were killed.

The pomarine skua does not breed within the British Islands.
A number of them were seen by Capt. May along the coast of
Norway, in the summer and autumn of 1849,

EICHAEDSON'S SKUA.

Lestris liichardsonii, Swainson, YarrelL

Is occasionally procured on the coast.

The following notice of it, which I contributed to the ' Annals of
Natural History ' in 1840 (vol. v.), may perhaps be worth repeat-
ing here : —

Lestris Richardsonii, Swains. Richardson's Skua. — An adult Lestris shot at
Malahide, county of Dublin, on the 27th September, 1837, and in the collection of

'' Mr. R. D. Fitzacrald. iiin.

Richardson's skua. 395

Dr. Farran of Feltrim, exhibits characters much ia unison with what are considered
to be two species, the Lestris Richardso7iu, and the Stercorar'ncS cepphiis, Leach,
{' Fauna Bor.-Amer., vol. ii. \>. 432), agreeing with the ktter in dimensions, and with
the former in colouring. At the same time it in size apjiroaches the L. Ricliardsonii
as described by Jenyns (' j\Ian. Brit. Vert. Anim.,' p. 282) as nearly as his does the
original description in the 'Fauna Bor.-Amer.' (p. 433). The following table con-
tains the comparative measmements : —

L. Richardso)iu, L. Richardsonii, Sterc. ceppJms, Lestris, Irish

Swainson

in.

lin.

mgth, total

22

8

„ excluding central

tail feathers .

19

6

„ of wing

13

6

„ of bill above . .

1

1

„ of bill to rictus .

1

10

„ oftai-sus ....

1

10

„ of middle toe and

nail

1

9i

Jen

^ns.

Leach.

specimen.

in.

lin.

in.

lin.

in. lin.

21

0 .

. 19

0 . . .

19 9

18

0 .

. 16

0 . . .

16 9

13

0 . .

. 13

0 . . .

12 6

1

2i .

. 1

2

1 3*

1

•^2 ■

. 2

0 . . .

1 10

1

9 .

. i

8 . . .

1 9

. 1 8i . . . . . . . 1 7i

Two longest tail-feathers veiy much acuminated, the others increasing gradually in
length from sides to centre ; those next in length to the two central ones exceeding
the outer feathers by one inch ; breadth of bill at base six lines.

Top of head, back, upper surface of wings and tail blackish-brown, vaiying in some
places to bl."ickish ; entire under surface likewise dark-coloured, except the tail-fea-
thers, which show a little white beneath ; patch from tlie eye downwards pale straw-
colour. This colouring is in accordance with that of the L. Richardsonii. of the
' Fauna Bor.-Amer.' Mr. Jenyns remarks that the species is subject to considerable
variation of colour in the adult state : — his description of its plumage accords tolerably
well with that of S. cepphus.

I should have set down the Irish Lestris simply as a small individual of L. Ri-
chardsonii, had not its general accordance with S. cepphus at the same time suggested
whether it might not as well be considered this bird, and consequently whether these
terms apply to two really distinct species. An examination of specimens would at
once decide the question. f

On the 14th of August, 1838, Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonniel,
obtaiued a fine adult bn-d of this kind, which was found in a

* Following the cm've ; the others may have been measured in a straight line.

t Since the above was written, the 4th part of Temminck's ' Manuel ' has been
published, and here S. cepphus (J. Ross, and not Leach or Richardson, quoted for it)
.appears as a synonym of L. parasiticus (p. 502). The description of S. cepphus would
iudced seem about equally applicable to a small L. Richardsonii, or a large L. para-
sitiras (1840).

Ill Dcgland's work, publislied in 1849, Z. cepphus and L. Richardsonii arc made
identical.

396 LABID^,

perfectly fresh state floating in Diingarvaii Bay, on the Water-
ford coast : — it was kindly sent to Dublin for my inspection. At
the time it was met with, that gentleman observed some skuas in
pursuit of gulls outside the Bay of Dungarvan, but the exact
species could not be told. Mr. E. Chute informed me in Fe-
bruary 1846, that he had " got a fine old Richardson's skua
(light straw-coloured one described by Yarrell) shot in Tralee Bay
in the winter of 1845 ; also a young bird (a black-toed gull) shot
by a gentleman when grouse-shooting on the 20th of August last.'"
On the 19th of September, 1846, a young bird of the year,
slightly wounded near Bangor, Belfast Bay, came into the posses-
sion of Dr. J. D. Marshall, with whom it became at once famihar.
It was a very attractive pet-bird, perching on his arm, and
looking up to his face, in the most engagiug manner, with its fine
beaming hazel eye. It took great pleasure in the application of
the hand to its plumage. It was fed wholly on fish, which were
freely partaken of, and on their being let drop from a little
height, would be seized before they reached the ground. The
cause of its death was unknown : it appeared in the highest
health the day before. A bird of this species, shot in Belfast
Bay on the 20th of September, 1850, is in what I should con-
sider the plumage of the second year. Its legs and toes with
webs are wholly black. The two longest tail-feathers exceed
the next in length by an inch, and suddenly taper to a point,
being nearly an inch broad where they pass the others, though
quite pointed at the extremity. Mr. R. J. Montgomery informs
me that a very observant man in the Coast Guard Service has
seen Richardson's skua in the bays of Dundalk and Drogheda, as
well as on the west coast, and that he described the birds in a
manner not to be mistaken. He once obtained their nest on a
small rocky islet off Acliil, where he was stationed for several
years. This statement connected with L. Richardson ii is good,
as it is the only one of the four species at all likely to breed
there ; — it and L. catarrhactes are the only two knov.n to nidify
in the British Islands, and the latter, as ah'eady mentioned, is
coniined to the Shetlands. Richardson's skua breeds in a

Richardson's skua. 397

number of the more northern Scottish islands. Mr. Montgomery
mentions that this bird has been shot at Dunany Point, county
Louthj by Lieut. Wray, E.N. ; and that he saw an immature
specimen in a fresh state about the year 1846 (in Mr. Glennon's,
Suflblk Street, Dublin). It was said to have been shot inland at
Powerscourt, county Wicklow. In a subsequent communication
my correspondent states that he had seen — but never within shot
— several of these birds, both adult and young, in the Bay of
Drogheda, within the first three weeks of September 1850.

Sir Wm. Jardine considers that this " is certainly the most
common of the British skuas," ^ and that late in autumn it is not
unfrequent in the Prith of Porth, where he has procured many
specimens in various states of plumage, from having shot both the
adult and young : Mr. Yarrell, too, considers it the most common.
It would be difficult to say what Lestr'is is the most frequent
on the Irish shores, as the skuas, though daily seen in the autumn
on some parts of the coast, are not often shot -, but it is singular
that of the species considered the rarest in England and Scotland
— L. longicaiidatus — most specimens have come under my in-
spection ; and of the next rarest — L. pomarimiS' — as indeed of
the L. catarrhactes also, I have seen more individuals than of
the L. Richardsonii noticed as the most common species in Great
Britain.

The editor of the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal ' adds
(vol. i. p. 104, 1819) the following note to an interesting paper
of Dr. Pleming's, " On the Arctic and Skua Gulls :" — " During
our six days' confinement by a storm, on the dreary and remote
rock of Poulah, we had frequent opportunities of observing the
arctic skua. This bird we found fully as troublesome as the com-
mon skua, for the moment we approached near to its nest it beat
us upon the head and in the face with its wings, and continued to
pursue us until we quitted its domain."

Mr. James "Wilson, in his ' Voyage round the Coast of Scot-
land and the Isles/ thus describes what was to liim a new
feature in this bird's habits : — " Saw around us for the first
* ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 26?.

398 LARID^.

time during the present voyage, specimens of the arctic gull
[Lestris Richardsonii) pursuing, as is their wont, the other kinds
of gull — forcing them to disgorge their food. Observed a feature
of this mancEuvre which we had never before noticed. When
they descend upon what may be called the victim gull, either
actually striking it on the back, or with an angry menace seeming
to do so, they frequently tumble themselves head over heels
beyond and beneath it, so as to hang, as it were, for a few seconds
in the air, back downwards, but with ready beak, intent to seize
the savoury haK-digested morsel, disgorged in terror by their
timorous cousins.''^ Mr. Hewitson, in his work on the ' Eggs of
British Birds,' gives an interesting account of this species in its
breeding-haunts in the Orkney and Shetland Islands and on the
coast of Norway.

At a meeting of the Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc. in January 1842,
the Eev. H. H. Dombrain made the following communication : —
" I may mention a circumstance that occurred to my father [Sir
James Dombrain] while grouse- shooting in the Isle of Rum,
Scotland, in 1837. The dogs had come to a set at a pack of
grouse, and while the sportsmen were walking up to them, they
observed two birds hovering over their heads, which my father,
from having observed eagles, &c., do the same in Donegal, took
to be hawks. The grouse rose and a brace were shot ; the birds
made a stoop at the wounded grouse when falling, but failed.
The dogs having left the game, my father was anxious to try
whether he could shoot the *■ hawks ' also, and, having loaded,
directed the man to tln^ow up one of the dead grouse into the
air. The birds made a stoop at it, and he shot them both, when,
to his surprise, they seemed to be sea-gulls ; — he brought them
home to me, and they proved to be a male and female skua {Les-
tris Eichardsonii) •" — I have seen both these birds in Mr. Dom-
brain's possession. The measurements of the male (adult) are —

in. lin.

Length (total) 21 0

„ exclusive of long tail-feathers . . . . , 17 fi
„ of bill above in a straight line .... 12

,, of biU from rictus „ . . . . . 1 11

THE LONG-TAILED SKUA. 399

Length of tarsus ...

„ of middle toe and nail in a straight line
„ of ■wing from carpus ...

Bill, broad at base .....

in.

lin.

1

7i

1

7

12

4

0

fi

This species was killed by Captain May in the summer and
autumn of 1849 along the coast of Norway.

THE LONG-TAILED SKUA.

BufFon's Skna (YarreU).

Lestris longicaudatus, Brisson (sp.) 1760.
Stercorarhts „ „

Lestris Bu^onii, Boie_, Yarrell.
Lestris parasiiicus, Temm. (2nd edit.), Gould, Jenyns.

Is of occasional occurrence in autumn on some parts of

the coast.

In a communication made to the Zoological Society of London
in 1834, it was remarked by me that " specimens of the true
Lestris parasiticus, Temm., have repeatedly occurred in the bays
of Belfast and Dublin.""^ I was induced to mention this cir-
cumstance from so very little being known of the bird as a
British species. Mr. Gould in 1833 exhibited a specimen from
Orkney at a meeting of that society, as the first one that had
been met with.f My note has been transferred by Mr. Yarrell to
L. RichardsoniiX — ''the tvne Lest, parasiticus, Temm.," which I
termed it, was intended to particularize the species now under
consideration, as that was the name used by Mr. Gould when
calling the attention of the society to it as distinct from L.
Eic/iardsonii, and also, the name applied to it in the 'Fauna
Boreali- Americana,' where the two species were first distinguished.

* Proceedings Zool. Soc. 1834, p. 31. f Ibid. 1S32, p. 189.

+ Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. p. 492.

400 LARID^.

All Mr. Yarrell says of the L. parasiticus as British, is, that —
" An adult specimen, killed in this country, is preserved in the
British Museum ; and the Zoological Society, in 1832, received
the species from Orkney. -J^- ■^ -J^- Young birds have been killed
in the vicinity of the Tyne and on the coast of Durham, in the
month of September; and Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, obtained a mature individual that was shot near
Whitburn, in Durham, at the end of October 1837'^ (p. 495).

To myself, this is the best-known species of Lestris, and it
was the first to come under my observation both in Belfast and
Dublin. A beautiful adult male — now preserved in the Belfast
Museum — was shot near Holy wood, Belfast Bay, on the 12th of
September, 1822, in the presence of my friend, William Sin-
claire, Esq. ; and on the 21st of October that year an immature
bird fell to my own gun on the shore there — at Holywood rabbit-
warren. I was but a juvenile shooter, and it was my first victim
killed on the wing, but certainly not after the most approved
fashion. Having observed it coming towards me, my gun was
pointed upwards, and I waited until the poor skua, flying very
leisurely, came innocently almost right above my head, when, as
it was about to cross my barrel, the trigger was pulled, and it
came down " stone-dead.^^ The late Mr. John Montgomery, a
keen observer of birds, and who formed a collection of native
species, noted the adult specimen alluded to as the " arctic gull,
Lestris parasiticus." Under that name, it appears by a note in
bis MS., that in August 1824 two of these birds were sent to
him from Dundrum (Down) ; to which it is added, that they were
both in the plumage of the black-toed gull of Bewick.^ One
of them lived for a month, by being fed on bread and milk :
one certainly (now in the Belfast Museum), and probably the other
also, was the true L. parasiticus. Dr. J. D. Marshall procured, on
the 13th of September, 1831, an adult male bird of this species
wliich was wounded off Holywood, Belfast Bay, in which locality

* Bewick's " Black-toed Gull" is L. Richardsonii, but its plumage (and that
ouly is mentioned in the MS. ; no dimensions being given) will serve for immature
L. jjarasiticus almost as well.

THE LONG-TATLED SKUA.

401

also, but some miles nearer to tlie entrance of the harbour, Mr.
Hyndman, when dredging in the autumn of 1841, saw an adult
male on wing; its extremely long tail-feathers satisfyiug him
of its species. In the 'Dublin Penny Journal' of March 9th,
1833 (p. 292), a bird of an unknown kind was described and
figured. Being in Dublin that month I went to see the speci-
men, which was in the collection of Mr. Massey of the Pigeon-
house Port, and found it to be an immature long-tailed skua.
It was shot on the 9th of October, 1832, from the Pigeon-house
wall, which runs far into the Bay of Dublin.

Mr. J. V. Stewart informed me in June 1845, that while
sea-shooting at Ards in the north-west of Donegal in November
1816 or 1817, four of these skuas, in company, flew over his head,
and he killed one of them; — he had not seen the species since.
He considered skuas generally as very rare there, and though
yachting much at one period, had observed only two or three
more of the genus :■ — they were all larger than the bird now
under consideration.

On the 20th of October, 1845, two of these long-tailed skuas
were seen flying in a south-west direction above Belfast Bay. One
was shot on the 1st of March, 1846, in a ploughed field near Tra-
more (county Waterford), in which it was picking up objects from
the ground. It came in rapid flight direct from the sea to the
field. This bird is in the collection of Mr. Warren, Dublin. Its

Length (total), to end of two longest tail-feathers

exclusive of two longest tail-feathers

of wing ......

of bill above, without measuring curve .

of bill to rictus, measured in a straight line

of tarsus ......

of middle toe and nail in a straight line .
Transverse diameter of bill at front
Of the two longest tail-feathers ; the one passes others

„ „ the second passes others

Breadth of the two longest tail-feathers where they pass the
others .......

This bird would have been adult at the following
VOL. III. 2 D

3.

liu.

7

0

5

6

2

3

1

0

1
1

7

1

4

0

1

0

1

6

H

moult.

in.

lin.

15

9

12

0

1

1

1

9

1

9-

1

3

0

4

402 LARID/E.

On tlie 17t]i of October, 1848 (weather stormy), a fine adult
male bird was shot when flying over the point of the Kinnegar,
Belfast Bay, by Capt. Bradshaw, E.N. I made the following
notes on it previous to its being skinned : —

Length (entire)*

„ of wing from carpus to end quills ....

„ of bin from forehead to point measured in a straight
line .......

,, of bill from rictus to point ....

„ of tarsus .......

„ of middle toe ..... .

„ of middle toe-nail .....

'I'ransvcrse diameter of bill on a line with commencement of

featliers at upper mandible . . . . . - . 0 5

The entire plumage is precisely that of the adult L. paraMtictis described by
Gould, viz., " Top of the head and space between the bill and eyes of a deep blackish-
brown, terminating at the occiput ; the whole of the upper sm-face of a clear brown-
ish-grey ; quills and tail-feathers much darker ; the throat, neck, and under surface
of a pure white, with the exception of the cheeks and sides of the neck, which arc
tinged with a delicate straw-yeUow ; legs and feet black" (quoted from Jeayns's
Manual). To this it may be added, that the straw -yellow occupies nearly two inches
from the base of the bill on each side of the head ; it likewise occupies about an
inch of the back of the neck between the black of the occiput and the commence-
ment of the grey of the back, thence to the breast for three inches, white appears
— at the commencement of the belly or lower plumage it is very pale grey, but
becomes gradually darker thence to end of tail. The tarsi differ in colour from
Gould's description in being dull leaden grey instead of black ; the entire toes and
webs on both sides are uniform black ; legs above tarsal joint blackish. f Eye very
dark bluish-black ; biU blackish ; cere, bluish-black.

Comparing this bird with the L. parasiticus afready noticed in the Belfast Museum
— which has the two longest tail-feathers exceeding the others by six inches —
I find, in all the characters of form, colour of bill, tarsi, and toes, precise similarity.
But a difference consists in the recent bird having the beautifid straw-coloured
feathers on sides of neck and the white breast of maturity. The stuffed one has merely
the throat white, the entire breast being greyish-ash. Straw-yellow appears faintly
indicated on the sides and back of the neck over duU grey feathers ; next moult
would have brought mature plumage with it. In all other respects the plumage of

* This bird has lost the two long tail-feathers ; the two longest that remain ex-
ceed the others by half an inch ; so that the length, exclusive of the two longest
tail-feathers, is 15^ inches.

t The light-coloured portion of the legs and feet in the adult male specimen,
nearly thirty years preserved in the Belfast Museum, is pale greyish-yellow.

THE LONG-TAILED SKUA. 403

the two is similar, except in mere shade ; the grey of the adult being lighter and
handsomer and the blackish plumage of a darker tint. It proved on dissection a
male, as its plumage denoted ; the stomach was empty.

The late Mr. G. Matthews, distinguishing this bird as the
" smaller long-tailed skua " (and satisfying me of his correctness
as to the species), remarked that he saw many in 1843 at ditferent
parts of the coast of Norway, but not farther nortli than the
Vaagsfiord. There were numbers at the eiitrance of the Salten-
fiord in August, but not so many during wdnter.

In 1849 this species was met with by Captain May along the
coast of that country from the commencement of the Arctic
Circle to the north of Alten — towards and about the 70th degree
of latitude it was quite common, and seemed more so than any
other of the genus Lestris ; it was the most accessible of them all.
Several were killed : one on the top of a mountain about 2,000
feet above the sea, when the party were in pursuit of rein-deer ; it
was believed to be a haw'k at first sight, and w^as a fine adult male.
About the Salten Maelstrom, where there were a great many fish
and consequently great numbers of gulls, skuas were particuLirly
frequent ; it depended on the presence of gulls whether or not
any skuas would be seen.

During his sporting tour of 1850, Capt. May remarked that " the
long-tailed skua seems to travel very far inland, as we shot one
on the mountain in Lapland fully a hundred miles from the sea."

Although skuas frec[uent the coast pretty commonly, a few gene-
ral notes on their occurrence may be added. They are, with tlie
exception of the L. caiarrhactes, whose dimensions mark its
species, the most difficult of all our birds to be determined on
wing, unless when adult, in which state unfortunately they are
very rarely met with. This is owing to the three other species
passing through much the same stages of plumage from youth to
maturity, which, being attained, the comparative length of the two
central tail-feathers is an admirable mark of distinction. On a
close examination, the superior size of L. pomarinus to that of
the other two always marks it at any age, but we must sometiines

2 D 2

404 LARID^.

pause before we can distinguish the immature L. Richardsonii
from L. longicandatus, so much do individuals of each species
differ in size.

Skuas have become very scarce in parts of Belfast Bay, where
in my boyhood they almost daily came under my notice in autumn,
and not unfrequently two or three in a day — in winter, I had not
the opportunity of observing them. I allude to the Kinnegar
or Holywood rabbit-warren, where in the fine breezy days of
September and October they thus appeared, and at the same
time terns, which are now about equally rare. Without the pre-
sence of terns or gulls, which the skuas make their caterers, they
are not to be seen, unless accidentally. Although we cannot ad-
mire their predatory character, they are very interesting birds,
from the great power and rapidity of flight which they display.
As they come sweeping down upon the large gulls, it is extra-
ordinary to observe these drop their prey, wliich apparently within
the next second of time is appropriated by the robber skuas. These
birds present a singular subject for contemplation in being born
robbers, endowed by nature with every faculty that will enable
them to bear off and live upon booty seized from or dropped
through fear by their most nearly allied species— the gulls and
terns. "^

I was told at Horn Head in 1832 of some species appearing on
the coast regularly in autumn and remaining during that season
and winter. On the 1st of August, 1850, a gentleman visiting
that locality saw several of these birds in pursuit of herring-gulls
as they flew out to sea. An observant shooter has seen a skua
(probably from his description L. pomarinus or L. Richardsonii)
in Belfast Bay in the autumn of 1843. Two were noticed there
on the 31st of August, 1843, and one on the 12th of September,
1844 ; — a herring-gull was chasing it at the time. At the entrance
of Dundrum Bay, county Down, on the 23rd of August, 1836,

* I give the following as an unusual occurrence, from the journal of the late
John Templeton, Esq.: — "Aug. 3, 1812. Mr. M'Skimmin, of Carrickfergus,
mentioned to me that a black-toed gull {Larus crejndatus) had been caught on
a baited hook near that place. The fishermen remarked to him that they seldom
appear iu the baj', aud that when seen, they ai'e very shy, and keep at a distance from
their boats and lines."

THE LONG-TAILED SKUA. 405

I saw tliree skuas in company^ all of which were of a uniform
blackish-brown colour. Mr. Hyndman, who went farther out
to sea than I did myself, saw one apparently larger than those
just mentioned, and with white on the under plumage ; oui"
boatman said that " two sizes " of them were known to him,
the larger being white beneath. A gentleman residing at Dun-
drum, who shoots much about the bay, stated that " three sizes
of dirt-birds," as he called them, frequent it, and that the largest
is the whitest on the under parts : none of them is near the size
of the L. catarrhactes. If my informant be correct respecting
the " three sizes," and the largest being less than that species,
they must be L.pomarinus, L. Richarclsonii, and L. lotigicaudatus ;
the white-bellied one of the greatest size will be the adult male
of L. pomarinus, but this description of colour is no guide to
species, as all the three pass through much the same changes of
plumage, and the under parts are more or less white in the adult
males of all. Mr. Montgomery noted liis having seen three
arctic gulls in the outer bay of Dundrum in August 1828.

In crossing from the mainland to the island of Lambay, off the
Dublin coast, on the 5th of June, 1838, we saw two skuas, which
were so dark in colour as to appear entirely black ; they produced
great consternation among a group of terns [Sterna htnindo and
S. arctica) by giving chase to them : their flight was amazingly
rapid ; they literally " bore down " upon their weaker brethren.
Skuas have been observed by Mr. S. Poole about tlie Saltee
Islands, Wexford coast, in summer, and another gentleman states
that they may be seen " all the year " off the eastern bar of
Wexford Harbour. Specimens have been obtained on the coast
of Waterford -^ Mr. R. Ball has observed young birds so early as
the beginning of July about Youghal, and one species is con-
sidered common on the Galway coast. t Skuas, or " black gulls,"
as they were called, about the size of the common gull, but " ra-
ther heavier in the wings, and having pointed tails," have been
observed in Tralec Bay in 1846, and again in January 1850.

* Dr. Burkitt. t Mr. W. M'Calla.

406 LAlUDyE.

THE PULMAll.

ProceUaria glacialis, Linn.

Is extremely rare.

It was first recorded by mc as Irish in the following communica-
tion, published in 1846, in the 18th volume of the 'Annals of
Natural History' (p. 312).

" Among ornithological notes made by the Eev. Joseph Stop-
ford — a gentleman well acquainted with our native birds — and
communicated to Dr. Harvey of Cork (by whom I have been
favoured with them) — is one of a fulmar having been shot at
Iiichidoney Island, on the southern coast, in 1832, by Captain
tlungerford. It was sent to the writer, by whom it was presented
to Sir Charles Paget, then forming a collection of birds at Cove.
In January 1846, Mr. T. W. Warren of DubHn kindly commu-
nicated to me a detailed description of a bird shot on the North
Strand, Dublin Bay, on the 1st of that month, mentioning at the
same time that it was a species which had never before come under
his notice, nor that of Mr. Glennon, taxidermist, through whose
hands so many rare birds have passed within the last thirty years.
The description marked it as a fulmar in adult plumage :"■ — I
have since seen the specimen in Mr. Warren's collection.

A third instance of the fulmar's occurrence has been made
known to me : — one having been shot by the Eev. J. Stopford at
Castle Freke, county Cork, in the month of October 1845,

The fulmar is very little known as a British bird, excepting at
St. Kilda and the neighbouring islets of Borrera and Soa, where
it breeds annually in multitudes, and is their most valuable pro-
duct ; the eggs and birds themselves being used as food, and the
oil for various purposes. Sir William Jardine is not aware of
this bird's occurrence on the shores of the mainland of Scot-
land {' Brit. Birds,' 1 843) ; but a few individuals have been
obtained at different parts of the coast of England and AVales
(Yarrell). It inhabits the arctic regions of both hemispheres.

407

THE GREATER SHEARWATER.

Puffinus major, Eaber.

Is occasionally seeu upon the coast.

Our information on this species as Irish is chiefly due to Mr.
Robert Davis, of Clonmel, who kindly furnished me witli the par-
ticulars of two examples which he procured in different years,
notices of which were published in the Proceedings of the Zoological
Society of London in 1837, p. 54, and 'Annals of Natural His-
tory' in 1842 (vol. ix. p. 433). When the first Irish bird was
announced, one individual only had been positively recorded as
British, but since that period Mr. Yarrell has brought together a
good deal of information on the species, the best of which was
supphed by Mr. D. W. Mitchell. This gentleman, mentions the
occurrence of P. major as not uufrequent on the Cornish coast,
and that it is well known to the inhabitants of the Scilly Islands.
The observations of my correspondent at Clonmel may still be
given in full, more especially as he only, so far as known to me,
has attended to the habits of the bird in captivity. Mr. Davis
remarked of the first specimen : — " This was taken in August 1835
near Dungarvan, county of Waterford, and sent to me alive. It
was apparently in good health, but would not eat anything, and
died after having, been in my possession for about ten days or a
fortnight. It had an extremely rank, fishy, or oily smell at all
times, but I never saw any appearance of oil being discharged
from its mouth or nostrils. It seemed unable to walk, but
scrambled along with its breast about an inch from the ground.
Although its wings were perfect and uninjured, it made no at-
tempt to fly, but if let fall from a height dropped heavily to the
ground. It showed an inclination to climb, having several times
mounted up the handle of a long spade that rested against the
wall of theyard in which it was kept. It did not ramble about,
nor care much for water, but when put in a large tub, very dcx-

408 LAlMDJi.

terously pulled itself up by the hooked bill, until the claws got on
the edge. When handled it bit severely."

The second specimen was received alive on the 19tli of Septem-
ber, 1839, by Mr. Davis, who informed me that — " it was captured
one or two miles outside Dungarvan by a person fishing for hake
\_Merlucins vulgaris] with a hook and line, it having taken his
bait. I kept it alive for about a week, but not having a suitable
place for it, had the bird killed and set up. It was more lively
than the former one — which, so far as can be recollected, it re-
sembled in every respect as to plumage — and ran along with the
breast about an inch and a half from the ground. Having on one
occasion placed tliis bird on a roof, it seemed to be more at ease
on the iucHned plane afforded by that situation than on a flat
surface ; and mounted rapidly to the top^ though on reaching the
edge, no attempt at flight was made, and it fell heavily to the
ground. It rarely stirred at all during the day, but kept itself as
much out of view as possible, and if the body could not be con-
cealed would endeavour to hide its head." On visiting Dun-
garvan in the summer of 1840 Mr. Davis learned that — " this
species is never met with near the shore, but only far out, and is
occasionally taken on the hook and line employed in hake-fishing.
The fishermen sometimes keep them for weeks about their houses^
and in some instances the birds have become tame : they never
attempt to fly. A man had one a few days before I went there,
but killed it with dogs on a piece of water. I could not hear of
this species having ever been shot, or otherwise taken than on ^
hook. It is commonly known by the name of hagdown.""^ The
Manx shearwater seems to be unknown there. Both Mr. Davis's
birds have, through liis kind attention, come under my examina-
tion. This gentleman remarks on the figures of P. major in Mr.
Yarreirs ' British Birds,' that judging from his two living ones
the attitude is incorrect, and if the bird could assume it at aU
(which he doubts) it would be impossible for it to remain in the
position for a second of time.

Mr. E. Ball, when dredging off Bundoran, on the west coast
* It is called hackholt at tke Scilly Islands (Mr. Mitchell) .

THE MANX SHEARWATER. 409

of Ireland, on the 16tli of July, 1840, observed three shear-
waters ou wing near to him, which he believed to be of this
species. He considered them to be of larger size than the
Manx shearwater, whose appearance on wing was familiar to him,
from his having often seen it when crossing the sea from Dubhn
to English ports. In plumage, too, they were remarked to be
somewhat different from that bird.

On the 24th of August, 1849, Mr. E. Warren, jun., when hake-
fishing, on the Maid, about three miles oil' Cork harbour", saw two
of the great shearwaters, which he remarked were easily distin-
guished from the P. anglorum (of which numbers were seen the
same day) by their larger size and darker colour.

This species is known only as visiting the coast, and not as
breeding in any of the British Islands. In Scotland it has
not been observed (Jard. Macg.) and very few individuals have
been ascertained to visit the coast of England, with the exception
of Cornwall, where Mr. Mitchell believes that it " appears pretty
regularly every autumn." He was informed of its being a
constant visitant in the latter part of autumn to the SciUy Islands.
The geographical distribution of this shearwater seems yet to be
very imperfectly known. Even in Iceland, according to Eaber
(as quoted by Yarrell), it is not known to breed, and is very scarce.

THE MANX SHEARWATEE.

Puffinus angloruMy E^ay.

Is a regular summer migrant to some parts of the coast.

Judging from its being enumerated in the scanty catalogues pub-
lished within about the latter liaK of the last century, the species
was then more common on oui' coasts than it has been of late
years, though no Irish breeding-station seems to have been known.
Harris, in his 'History of Down' (1744), observes, that "it fre-
quents the Ardes, and perhaps other coasts of the county.'''
Smith, in liis ' History of the county of Waterford' (1745), says,
■'These we have on the coast, but whether they breed here or

410 LARIDM.

not is uncertain ;" — the same author, in his ' History of the
county of Cork' (1749), remarks, "it is not certain wliether they
breed with us, although they are frequent on our coasts." Eutty,
in his 'Natural History of the county of Dublin' (1773), merely
states that " it has been frequently seen on these coasts."

What I know of this petrel of late years, beginning with the
north, is, that specimens shot in April and May 1839, at Port-
rush, near the Giant's Causeway, are in the Ordnance Museum,
and that in the month of October, that year, an individual was
found dead, inland, near Belfast. In October 1849, a communi-
cation from the Eev. G. M. Black, of Annalong, at the sea-base
of the mountains of Mourne, informed me, that " Manx petrels
appear on this coast from the middle of July till October, and are
very much on the wing. Their flight is easy and graceful, rising-
ten or twenty yards above the water, and then again skimming its
surface. It is very different from the straight and laboured
flight of the guillemot, razorbiU, or puffin. I have never remarked
more than eight or ten of them together, and seldom so many,
but altogether they are in considerable numbers. They are vul-
garly called " mackerel cocks " (a name applied to others of the
puffin tribe),"^ as arriving on the coast shortly before the annual
shoal of that fish, and are looked on by fishermen as its precursors.
Theh appearance is consequently welcomed by them." Further
questioning my correspondent on this subject, he replied that
there is no doubt whatever as to the species, as he had frequent
opportunities of observing the birds on wing within fifteen or
twenty yards, when mackerel-fishing in a small pleasure-boat during
summer ; he very seldom saw them swimming. As they never
come ashore, they could be observed only at sea. Their plumage
and mode of flight, he adds, are quite distinct from those of any
of the AlcidcB, their wings are much longer, and their " beat "
slower. The first bird seen by Mr. Black in the season of 1850
was on the 8th of July, but men who had been mackerel-fishing
in the channel — far out at sea — stated that they had observed

* Mr. Austiu stales that the Sterna hirimdo is called mackerel gull oq the coast
of Waterford and Wexford (' Ann. Nat. Hist.' vol. ix. p. 435).

THE MANX SHEAUWATElt. 411

them some time previously. They were particularly scarce this
year during the whole period of their visit, although mackerel
have been unusually abundant; on the 21st of September, it was
remarked by my correspondent that none had been seen lately.

Pour Manx petrels, killed on the Dublin coast, have come
under my notice ; — one obtained by Mr. Massey of the Pigeon-
house Port, in the bay, in Jul^^ 1833; a second in April 1835 ;
a third in the summer of 1836 (preserved in the University Mu-
seum) ; and a fourth obtained at the island of Lambay, in June
1848. This was one of a couple taken out of a hole in the clitls
there by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. No eggs were found on the
day of his visit, but the species was believed to be breeding there.
The inhabitants of the island questioned by him said they had
never seen the birds before. In 1849, they were again there.
My correspondent, writing on the 5th of June, stated, after having
visited the island, that four had been taken out of the holes and
killed by boys. Mr. Watters, when at Lambay in the last week
of June 1850, was told that these petrels visit this island some
years only, and breed there ; — their eggs were correctly described
by his informant, according to whom there were about a dozen
birds last year ; and fifty, twelve years before.

One of these shearwaters was seen by Mr. 11. Ball near the
Tusker lighthouse, on the Wexford coast, as we were proceeding
by steam-vessel from Dublin to Cork, on the 15th of August,
1843. Early in May 1845, a considerable number of them were
observed in Wexford Harbour, during one day ; but on the
following they were gone;'^ — doubtless on their northern mi-
gration. On the same day that the two great petrels were ob-
served off Cork Harbour (see p. 409), a number of the common
species Avas seen " so early as twelve at noon."" Two flocks, each
containing from twenty to twenty -five birds, appeared. One indi-
vidual, which was wounded, dived several times on being pursued,
and disgorged two sprats and the entrails of a fish.f In the ' Pauna
of the county of Cork,' Dr. Harvey remarks, that " On an evening
in the autumn of 1838, I watched for a long time a number of

* Mr. I'oolc. t Wr. Robert Warren, jini.

412 LAUIDiK.

birds on the wing in Bautry Bay, which I have no doubt were of
this species. We had no gun on board, or we should have had
no difficulty in procuring severaF' (p. 16). This gentleman sub-
sequently mentioned to me that one was obtained in Cork harbour
in April 1846, and another in the same month of 1848.

Mr. R. Chute informed me in 1846 that this shearwater breeds
on the larger Skellig Island off the coast of Kerry, whence a spe-
cimen was sent to him in July 1850. They are called night-
birds, from the circumstance of their being only seen at night
about the rock. He remarks that when spending two months
at Dingle, in the summer of 1843, he was often out boating on
very fine days, and always met with these birds either on wing or
basking in the sun upon the water. He thinks they may breed
on one or two other islands off the coast of this county, but only
on that named are they positively known to do so. They have
been stated to nidify on the coast of Mayo (but the precise locahty
was not mentioned). The young birds were sought for as food
by the country-people.*

In Willughby's 'Birds' (1678), it is recorded of this species,
whicli is called " the puffin of the Isle of Man ; VuJJi'mis anglo-
riwi" — " At the south end of the Isle of Man lies a little islet,
divided from Man by a narrow channel, called the Calf of Man,
on which are no liabitations, but only a cottage or two lately built.
This islet is full of conies, which the puffins, coming yearly, dis-
lodge and build in their burroughs. ^ * -s^- When they
[young] are come to their full growth, they who are entrusted
by the lord of the island — the Earl of Darby — draw them out of
the coney -holes. -^ -^ * They usually sell them for about
uinepence the dozen, a very cheap rate. ^ ^ -J^- We are told
that they breed not only on the Calf of Man, but also on the Silly
Islands. Notwithstanding they are sold so cheap, yet some years
there is thirty pounds made of the young puffins taken in the
Calf of Man : whence may be gathered what number of birds
breed there'' (p. 333). This, written more than 160 years ago,
suggests the cause of the poor birds deserting the islet.

* Mr. il. J. Montgomery ; — the late Mr. R. Glenuon, jun., was his informant.

THE MANX SHEARWATER. 4<13

Sir William Jardine observes — the Calf of Man " becoming
more frequented, and a light-house being erected, the birds dis-
appeared entirely, and on a visit which we made to this interest-
ing island, we were much disappointed in scarcely being able to
trace even the recollection of their former abundance/'"^ Although
the species which derives its name from the island has deserted it,
there is still great abundance of other sea-fowl there in the breed-
ing season, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on the 21st of
May, 1826, when proceeding from Belfast to Liverpool in the
Chieftain steam-ship. It was so beautifully calm and serene, that
we sailed between the Isle of Man and the Calf, keeping but a few
yards from the latter, which contains two handsome Hghthouses,
both built on the same plan, with an excellent dwelling-house in
modern taste attached to each. Between the Calf and a rock at
some distance from the shore, the run of the tides was very strong,
but the sea, nevertheless, did not lose its smoothness, and it was
most interesting to observe fishes leaping in every direction, and
sea-fowl of various species (chiefly common guillemots and razor-
bills), diving and sporting around. The Calf of Man is girt by
cliffs, in some places lofty and perpendicular, but the most pictu-
resque rocks are those that stand apart, one of which has an
arch opening entirely through it.

At the Scilly Islands the Manx shearwater continues to breed ;
a full and^excelleut^account of it, as observed at the barren island
of Annet, one of the group, was contributed by Mr. D. W. Mit-
chell to Yarrell's ' British Birds.' The species is said also to
breed on some of the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland Isles.
This shearwater is but an accidental visitant to the North Ame-
rican coast (Bonaparte).

Authors have often described flocks of birds which keep
flying all day over the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, and are never
seen to alight either for rest or food; but only of late was
their sjiecies positively' determined. As remarked in Walsh's

* ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 255.

414 I.ARIDM.

' Constantinople/ — " one reason why tliey have escaped the close
attention of naturalists is^ that no person is permitted to kill any
bird upon the Bosphorus without incurring the displeasure of the
Turks ;" and, as further stated by the Bishop of Norwich, " an
additional reason for the respect in which they are held by tjie
Turks is, that, in consequence probably of their restless life, they
are supposed to be bodies animated by condemned souls, thus
doomed for ever to frequent the scenes of their former existence ;"
— they are in fact called " damned souls/^ These shearwaters are
fully treated of in the ' Familiar History of Birds ' by this author,
who, possessing a specimen, believed it to be the Procellaria cine-
rea, but on a later examination, since the genus became better
known, it was said to be P. ohseuriis.'^ My friend Mr. H. E.
Strickland, having noticed the bird of the Bosphorus as the P. an-
gloruvi (Zoological Proceedings, 1836, p. 101), I wrote to know if
he still considered it that species. He replied, Sept. 13th, 1850,
" I have just re-examined the bird I shot on the Bosphorus in
March 1836, and it is decidedly P. anglonim -, the beak measures
If inches to the frontal feathers ; the wing 9 inches." It is added,
" As both this and P. ohseurus are known to inhabit the Mediter-
ranean, I have no doubt that both frequently migrate up and
down the Bosphorus, and as their mode of flight and general ap-
pearance are similar, they have indiscriminately obtained the name
of oisemix damnes.^'

On several days in the middle of May 1841, I had the gratifi-
cation of seeing in both the localities named, " strings " of these
birds — for they all flew in single file— rapidly winging their
way just above the surface of the water. Once or twice only did
I see one touch that element, and then but for a moment, though
flocks were in sight all day from an early hour of the morning.
The singular feature, as it seems to me, connected with these
birds, is, their flying in the manner described during the entire
day, in bright as well as cloudy weather ; and not their being
never seen to feed, for like the rest of their tribe, they are doubt-

* Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1843, p. 70.

THE PORK-TAILED PETREL. 415

less night-feeding birds. Temminck does not give any indication
of his being aware of these birds appearing here in the manner
described.

THE FORK-TAILED PETEEL.

Tkalassidroma Leachii, Teinm.^ (sp.)
Procellaria „ „

Is of occasional occurrence in all quarters of the island.

Tpiose obtained in the north shall first be noticed. In the winter
of 1831 a specimen was found dead — but in excellent condition
and plumage — near Lisburn. During a storm in the winter of
1833-4, one was sprung from a bog near Downpatrick, and
shot ; the fowler imagining from the forked tail that it was some
kind of swallow. In August 1843, the gamekeeper at Tollymore
Park informed me that about ten years before that time, he found
one of these birds lying dead in " a hollow " among the moun-
tains of Mourne. One shot on the 16th of December, 1834, at
Conswater Point, Belfast Bay, about a mile from the town, came
into my possession, and on the J 0th of April, 1838, I obtained a
recent bird, which was found dead near Waringstown, county of
Down. There is considerable difference in the size of these two
specimens, as well as slight differences in plumage : the former is
8;i- inches in length ; the latter 7^, the size of the individual de-
scribed in YarrelFs work. Mr. H. H. Dombrain, one day in
September 1836, when in a revenue cruiser off Arraninore, coast
of Donegal,' saw altogether about a dozen of these birds, two of
which occasionally appeared at a time.

On the 16th of December, 1831, two fork-tailed petrels were

* Dr. Fleming, when giving the name of Bullockii to this species, in his ' His-
tory of British Animals,' p. 136, states, that Dr. Leach having intimated to him
that Temminck proposed to name the species Lcachii, he " remonstrated, bnt in
vain, against his acceptance of a complimeut to which he had no claim;" JMr.
Selby, in the same sjiirit, adopted the name bestowed on the species by Fleming.
If tlic bird were to be "called after" any individual, Jinllock being its discoverer
certaiidy had the best right to be so honoured, but, according to the stern law of pii-
ority. Die term Luach'u must be adopted.

416 LARID.Ii.

received in a fresh state, from the county of Tipperary, by Dr. R.
Graves, in whose collection I subsequently saw them : one had been
found dead on a mountain. About a fortnight afterwards a speci-
men was picked up, dead, at Malahide, on the Dublin coast ; — and
preserved for the Royal DiibKn Society.* On the 11th of De-
cember, 1834, Mr. R. Ball wrote to me from Dublin, that he had
lately seen in Mr. Glennon^s possession son^.e specimens which had
been procured inland. In 1818, the year in which the species
was discovered by Mr. Bullock at St. Kilda, Mr. R. Ball ob-
tained one of these birds in the county of Cork : it was found
in the month of September on a mountain, about eight or ten
miles from the sea. One was shot at Clontarf, DubHn Bay, on
the 2nd of December, 1835, and in December 1839 another was
found dead near Bray. One of these petrels was picked up dead,
on the lawn at New Chapel Glebe, about four miles from Clon-
mel, on the 4th of December, 1835, after a succession of severe
storms. t About Waterford fork-tailed petrels have been pro-
cured. J In December 1845, Mr. R. Chute obtained one on the
south-west of the island, and on the 20th of November, 1849,
he kindly sent me one of two specimens he had just then re-
ceived, remarking that for the preceding ten days many had been
seen about Tralee. This gentleman is not aware of any breeding-
haunt of the fork-tailed petrel on the coast of Kerry, though, as
he remarks, "the storm petrel breeds on many of the islands of
our coast." In reference to the last date, I was afterwards
informed that one day in November 1849 fork -tailed petrels were
flying " as numerous as swallows," above Tralee Bay. Some ol
them were shot, but they fell too far out in the water to be re-
covered, except in one instance. The reply to my inquiry respect-
ing the probable number seen, was, that " they kept apart from
each other, passed and repassed continually ; but not more than
eight or ten would be seen at once. Near every part of the shore

* These three are perhaps the individuals noticed by the Rev. T. Knox in Lou-
don's ' Magazine of Natural History,' vol. v. p. 576 ; although the localities men-
tioned do not accord.

t Mr. R. Davis, jun. + Dr. R. Burkitt.

THE FORK-TAILED PETREL. 417

that was visible^ they appeared as numerous as from the canal
piers, whence they were particularly observed/' In June 1850,
my correspondent saw one off Kerry Head. On the 22nd of
August, the same year, two were noticed on wing above the canal
at Tralee, and one of them was obtained.^

In a communication to the ' Dublin Penny Journal ' for 1833-
34 (vol. ii. p. 283), a petrel, with a tail forked like a swallow's,
is described as breeding on rocky islets near Sline Head, Galway.
The account is full and circumstantial, and notliing in it op-
posed to what we might believe of this bird, except the descrip-
tion of the egg, viz., — "about the size of a starling's, and
speckled like the sparrow's :" a statement which is fatal to our
behef in the story, the Q^g of this petrel being pure white.

It will be remarked, that of the few specimens noticed, four
were obtained about the same time, in the winter of 1831, in the
counties of Antrim, IDublin, and Tipperary : there had been a
severe storm before their capture ; and at the time of their occur-
rence here, many were procured in various parts of England. In
December 1834, again, we see that they were met with in different
quarters; as they were in December 1835, about Dublin and
Clonmel, after storms. Although some authors are not satisfied
on this point, there seems to me not the least doubt that these
petrels are driven inland by severe gales.

One of these birds, which I have seen in the collection of the
Rev. G. Robinson of Tartaraghan, county Armagh, was killed
by striking against a lamp-post in the town of Plymouth.

Little is kno"WTi of the fork-tailed petrel further than its being
met with in the European and American seas, and occasionally
obtained inland. Sir William Jardine, writing in 1843, remarked,
in reference to St. Kilda, — " We believe no other breeding-
station is now upon record."t

Wilson's Petrel, Thalassidroma WiUoni, Bonap. — A specimen of
this bird was kindly presented to me, in August 1 840, by Mi-. Glen-
non, of Dublin, who behaved it to have been obtained in Ireland, but

* Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jim., Tralee. t ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 262.

VOL. III. 2 E

418 LARID^.

did not preserve any record of the locality. The species cannot, there-
fore, from this individual, be included in the Irish catalogue, but there
can be little doubt, from the distribution of the bird, of its occasionally
visiting Ireland. A few individuals have been procured in different
parts of England ; but none as yet iu Scotland (Jard. Macg.). Mr.
Gould, in a most interesting communication made to the Zoological
Society of London, on the birds met with at sea during his voyage from
England to Van Diemen's Land, informs us that " immediately off the
Land's End, Wilson's storm-petrel was seen in abundance, and con-
tinued to accompany the ship throughout the Bay [of Biscay]."*

Two of these petrels, taken by young friends on the voyage from
Liverpool to New York, in May 1846, were sent to me. They were
procured after the bank of Newfoundland had been passed, by cotton
threads being suspended over the stern of the ship, among which the
birds' wings became entangled as they flew.

Bulwek's Petrel, TJialassidroma Bulioeri, Jard. and Selby. — One
individual only, obtained in Yorkshire in 1837, was known to have
occun-ed within the British Islands, at the date of publication of the
2nd edition of Mr. YarreU's work in 1845. A second, procured at
Scarborough in the spring of 1849, has since been recorded.!

THE STOEM PETEEL.

Mother Gary's Chicken.

Thalassidroma pelagica, Linn, (sp.)
Procellaria „ „

Is to be met with at all seasons about some parts of the
coast, and breeds in several of the islets.

To begin with its most northerly breeding-haunts : — in 1832,
we were informed that " these birds breed in great numbers in
Tory Island [off the north-west of Donegal], in the rabbit-holes,

* Zool. Proc. 1839, auid ' Ann. Nat. Hist.,' vol. v. p. 139.
t E. T. Higgins, iu ' Zoologist ' for September 1849, p. 3569.

THE STORM PETREL. 419

like the puffins ; from which circumstance/* the writer adds, " I
have been able to get numbers of them alive : they scarcely ever
approach the mainland."* A gentleman going out in a boat,
three miles from Dunfanaghy, on the 2nd of August, 1850, saw
some of these birds on wing above the sea. Mr. G. C. Hyndman,
who spent from the 6th to the 8th of August, 1845, on Tory Is-
land, supplied me with the following information. Thalassidroma
pelagica breeds in numbers witliin the rabbit- burrows of the cliffs
on the northern side of the island, out of which boys drew them
with their hands. When so far in that this could not con-
veniently be done, the entrance was broken away until the bird
became witliin reach : a single nest was in each burrow. A
number of eggs (about a dozen) were procured, and about half-a-
dozen young birds, all in the down, but of different ages. Fully
twenty old birds were taken, and many more could have been.
About the half of those caught were given their liberty, and on
being let off from the top of the clifF, perhaps 300 feet high, they
shot in a straight line down towards the water. My friend did
not see the nests, as the little boys wished to keep him in ignor-
ance of them, lest he should get for himself what he gave them
money for. He observed them putting their ears to the holes,
to ascertain whether birds were within ; only one egg or one
young bird was taken in any nest, but it could not be ascertained
whether more than one old bird was ever within the aperture.
One of the old captives, when in his hand, warbled some sweet
notes, which resembled those of '' the swallow twittering," but of a
stronger tone. Several ejected food from the stomach, apparently
the remains of fish : no oil was expelled by any of them from
their nostrils. From the circumstance of these birds being gene-
rally seen at night, which is their natural preying-time, the people
here imagine that they would be killed by the gulls if they ven-
tured out by day, and hence, that they remain concealed.

A reward was offered for a fork-tailed petrel (P. Leachii), and
one was soon produced, " made to order " on the instant, by the
middle tail-feathers being extracted, and the outer one at each

* Mr. J. V. Stewart, in Loudon's 'Mag. Nat. Hist.' vol. v. p. 584.

3 E 2

420 LARID^.

side left ; the manufacturer, ten or twelve years of age, came
forward, seriously claiming the reward of a shilling for this fork-tail.
I was told by the late Mr. John Niramo, of Eoundstone, re-
specting the Galway coast, that a few pair breed in Deer Island,
and the adjacent llards, or Cruagh, rocky islets. The nest is
situated under stones, and a single egg deposited on the ground.
When at sea, off that coast, he very rarely, and only in stormy
weather, met with this species, which is there called Martin-oil, a
name Thai. Leachii also bears. With respect to the Hards, I
have since learned from Dr. Tarran, that he and the Eev.
George llobinson, who accompanied liim to Connemara, in the
summer of 1844-, had two storm petrels brought to them alive on
the 1st of August, which were captui'ed in their nests under
stones, wdiere more might have been procured. " It was no difficult
task to take the poor birds from the crevices of the rocks : they
seemed to labour under complete paralysis, as if unable to stir
from tlieir nests, or make the slightest effort to escape." In
August 1838, I was favoured by the Rev. T. Knox with the skin
of one of these birds, of which a couple had been sent to him
from SybiFs Head, county Kerry : at the Blasquet Islands, off
this coast, a petrel has long been known to breed, and this speci-
men suggested that it is Thai, pelagica. In Smithes ' History of
the county of Kerry,' printed in 1756, we have the following
notice : — " There is a small bird which is said to be peculiar to
these islands, called by the Irish, Goiirder, the English name of
which I am at a loss for, nor do I find it mentioned by natu-
ralists. It is somewhat larger than a sparrow, the feathers of the
back are dark, and those of the belly wliite ; the bill is straight,
short, and thick ; and it is web-footed. When they are first
taken, the country-people affirm that they cast up about a tea-
spoonful of a very fetid oil, out of their bills : they are almost
one lump of fat ; when roasted, of a most delicious taste, and are
reckoned to exceed an ortolan, for which reason the gentry here-
abouts caU them the Irish ortolan : these birds are worthy of
being transmitted a great way to market, for ortolans, it is
well known, are brought from France to supply the markets

THE STORM PETREL. 421

of London" ! Whether or not this liint was taken advantage of,
later historians do not inform us.

In a communication descriptive of a portion of the West of
Kerry, made by Mr. WilHam Andrews to the Natural History
Society of Dnblin, and published in ' Saunders^ s Newsletter^ of
November 9th, 1841, it is remarked — "In the month of August,
the islands [Blasquets] are deserted by the feathered tribe, with
the exception of the storm petrel {T. pclagica). This little bii-d
breeds there twice in the season — in the month of June and again
in August — laying but one egg each time of incubation. Num-
bers of them may easily be taken daring the day in holes under
rocks and in banks — the whistling of the yo"ung bird, or tlie
purring challenge of the old, betraying their retreat. I did not meet
with more than one young bird in each nest, several were scarcely
freed from the shell [no date is given]. The young birds are
singularly large and fnll in appearance, and contain an immensity
of oily matter, which renders it difficult to preserve a specimen.
The old birds, at the time they have their young, do not eject the
oil so generally as at other times on being captured ; although
strong and untiring on the wing, yet on the ground they appear
feeble, staggering, and resting on the tarsi. Placing several on
the ground, sheltered from the breeze, I found that they were
wholly unable to rise. They are named by the islanders, Gour-
clal." Mr. E. Chute, who has visited the large Skellig rock
twice or thrice in the breeding season, states that the stormy
petrel nidifies there. Since tJie lighthouse was erected, this bird
and the Manx shearwater have been the chief birds resorting to it
for that purpose.

My notes bear witness as follows to the occurrence of the storm
petrel on the coast or inland, omitting for the present the indi-
viduals obtained after tlie great hurricane of January 1839. Pirst,
with respect to the north-east of the island : — Mr. Samuel Lyle
one day, either in the winter of 1829-30, or the following, when
out in a yawl for the pui'pose of wigeon-shootiug in Belfast Bay,
shot two of tliese birds — which he describes as flying like bats ; —
one was killed about a mile from the town, and the other as

422 LAEID^.

it was on wing over tlie ' Long Bridge •/ the day was rather
stormy. It was probably before this time that a storm petrel,
taken about the river Lagan, near Lisburn, was sent to the
Natural History Society of Belfast. At May's embankment, close
to this town, one was found dead. In October 1832, after stormy
weather, one endeavoured to alight in a small boat in Belfast Bay,
but was frightened off; in making a second attempt, however,
when the boat had proceeded about a mile farther, it was struck
down with an oar, and secured alive. On the 5th of December,
1833, a bird was shot at Lough Neagh : there had been a gale from
the west and north-west for several days previously. In the be-
ginning of December 1836, one was taken near, Comber, county
Down. In the 'Northern Whig' newspaper of September 15th,
1838, it was stated, that — "a stormy petrel was found on the
23rd of August last, at Hockley, near Armagh ; it was recently
dead, and its plumage unruffled, but its condition poor. It may
be presumed that it was carried by the violent gales of the 20th
and 21st of August, to this unusual distance from the sea, and
died of exhaustion." On October 30th, 1838, a bird, in a fresh
state, was sent to BeKast from Toome, near to which place it was
captured when flying above the river Bann. This species is said
to be not unfrequently seen on Lough Neagh in stormy weather.
Two storm petrels {T. pelagica ?) have been obtained at Brown
Hall in the county of Carlow ; one after a storm in December
1831; the other in November 1835.^ A letter from Mr. E.
Davis, jun., of Clonmel, dated August 14th, 1844, mentioned
that he had lately received a living bird of the species, found on a
mountain south of that town : — a previous letter (August 10th,
1838) had announced his having just received two recent speci-
mens which had flown on board a fishing-boat at Dungarvan,
county Waterford, and were taken alive. Mr. R. Ball once ob-
served storm petrels flying up and down a bog- drain, at about
one hundred yards from the sea in the county of Cork, apparently^^
searching for food. About the month of August this gentleman
has often seen these birds in the bay at Youghal, and on one oc-
* Mr. T. W. Wurreu.

THE STORM PETREL. 423

casion, so many as twenty in a flock. They were once so tame,
^ when the weather was gloomy, though not very stormy, as to
come close to the gunnel of the small boat that he was in, to which
they were afterwards attracted by bits of sprats laid there for
them. One bird ventured twice or thrice to carry off portions of
the fish. On another occasion one appeared desirous of perching
on the mast of the boat, and made several vain attempts to do so.
During a prevalence of rather stormy weather, in November 1835,
a storm petrel was found dead near Bandon, county Cork. In a
garden near Waterford, and five miles from the sea, a dead one was
picked up in October 1848."^ This species is remarked to be some-
times seen after very stormy weather in Bantry Bay, and frequently
in fine weather off Cape Clear and the Mizen. On the eastern coast
it does not thus appear : — Mr. R. J. Montgomery, who has had
much experience in shooting about the bays of Dublin and
Drogheda, never met with the bird but once — early in Sep-
tember 1850, at the latter place — when a single individual
skimmed close past the boat in which he w^as, while reloading
his gun after having fired at a tern.

In a communication which I made to the 3rd volume of the
'Annals of Natural History' (p. 182), entitled— " Note on the
effects of the hurricane of January 7th, 1839, in Ireland, on some
Birds, Kshes, &c.," it w^as said of the species at present under con-
sideration— "As may be conjectured, storm petrels {Thalassidroiiice)
were taken in many parts of the country ; and chiefly during the
latter part of the day of the 7th after the hurricane had ceased.
At two o'clock P.M., or just about its termination, one of these
birds was picked up alive, but in a very exhausted state, in one of
the streets of Belfast, and twow'ere found dead near the Castle,
Lisburu. On the 10th inst., two others, one of which I saw, and
found to be T. pelagica, were taken — the one alive, the other
dead — beside a spring-well at Seymour Hill, about four miles
from Belfast. Near Saintfield in the county of Down, distant
about ten miles, a petrel was said to have been obtained after the
bui'ricaue.

* Dr. K.J. Burkilt.

424 LARID^.

" Mr. Glenuon^ bird- preserver, Dublin, states that a specimen
sent to him for preservation, was procured on the 7th in one of
the streets of the town of Cavan, and that on the same day another
was found at Brown Hall, county Carlow. Mr. C. Carleton UEs-
trange informed me, that when woodcock-shooting in the planta-
tions at Colonel Eniry's demesne some miles from the town of
Cavan, about a week after the 7th of Januar}', he found two
petrels which had evidently been dead for a few days, or from
about the time of the hurricane : they were too much injured by
exposure to the weather to be preserved. Mr. E, Ball was sent
a Thai, pelagica from Kells, county of Meath, where it was pro-
cured on the 7 th — on which day a petrel, picked up near Mullin-
ger, county of Westmeath, was sent to a gentleman of my ac-
quaintance in Dublin ; and on tliis day also I have been informed
that one was found dead near the town of Wicklow. Of all these
specimens I have seen but the two noticed as T. pelaglca ; of two
or three others I could not obtain information sufficiently satis-
factory to enable me to judge whether they were of this or the
fork-tailed species {T/ml. LeacJdi) ; but the remainder were de-
scribed in such a manner as to leave no doubt on my mind as to
their being the T. pelagica. Of the petrels that I had before
seen, and which were obtained at various times and places through-
out Ireland, about as many were of the T. LeacJdi as of the other,
considered the more common species.

" There have been different conjectures as to the cause of the
petrels' appearance on land, but in this instance, when more
of them were found scattered over the country than on any
previous occasion, immediately after the greatest hurricane that
has, within the memory of the oldest persons, swept over Ireland,
we are compelled to attribute their presence to its agency alone.
Prom several of tliese birds having been found in the extreme
east, as well as the more central portion of Ireland, it would
seem, from the fact of the hurricane ranging from the north-
west to the south-west, that some of them had been blown
from the Atlantic, almost entirely across the island, a circum-
stance which, strange as it may appear, is less singular than

THE STORM PETREL. 425

their occurrence on a more ordinary occasion in the very centre of
England."^

On questioning our bird-preservers respecting the condition of
the storm petrels skinned by them, they stated, as was anticipated,
that they had obtained them in excellent, as well as poor condi-
tion. When a storm, coming suddenly on, drives them to land,
the birds may be expected to be in good order, as they may
the reverse when only driven inland after its continuance for
some time.

Mr. Harry D. S. Goodsir, of Edinburgh, informed me that in
the month of October 1843, hundreds of these birds appeared
about Anstruther, on the coast of Eifeshire, after a storm from
the east. Some of them appeared about the to\A'n, but as the
storm died away, they gradually went farther out to sea. He one
day followed them, and in a heavy sea captured thirt}', by flinging
pieces of the liver of cod-fish over the gunnel of the boat,
when several fighting for the food were caught at a single sweep
of a landing-net : single birds, too, were captured by the hands
of the boatmen. The following day my friend took about fifty
in the same manner, and many more might have been procured,
had he not cried, " hold, enough." He particularly remarked
several of them to be completely immersed in the Mater by the
impetus with which they descended from the air upon the food.
He preserved a number of specimens in spirits, with one of which
I was favoui'ed.

In the month of April, 1841, several small storm petrels came
under my observation in the ]\Iediterranean, though not so iiear
that the species could be determined. On tJie 16 th, one of small
size appeared, flying lilce a swift {Q/pselus) over the surface of the
water, to the southward of the Straits of Messina ; on the 23rd,
when about eighty miles east of Malta, two or three were seen at
some distance flying like swallows, and a couple of others were

* In tlie ' Magazine of Natural History ' for ] 832 (p. 283), two petrels are re-
corded to have been found dead at Birmingham in December 1831 ; one was dis-
covered in a street of the town, the other at a few miles' distance. TJic Kcv. ]\Ir.
Ercc of Allesly, who saw the former specimen in V\'^caver's Museum, has informed
us that it is the fork-tailed species, T. Jiullockii. — Ibid. p. 733.

426 LARID^.

observed sporting in company, after the manner of these birds ;
on the 25th, when about one hundred and twenty miles east of
Etna, and sixty from Calabria, a few of them were remarked for
some time a little astern of the ship : their dipping in the water is
like that of the swallow, but continues rather longer, perhaps that
they may skim the surface for food. — 27th. Sixty miles west of the
Morea, I saw one with a very large patch of white above the tail
skimming the surface of the sea. The wind was very moderate,
and from various points ; the weather fine when all these birds
were seen.

A gentleman of my acquaintance states that during a voyage
from Liverpool to Canada, when storm petrels (species ?) could
not be seen from the vessel, the sailors would bring them to view
by throwing overboard greasy matter which they call slush. Mr.
Hewitson, too, in giving a very interesting account of this bird
as observed at the Shetland Islands, remarks, that the fishermen
there, " though they have not previously seen one, are sure to be
surrounded by them upon tlu:owing pieces of fish overboard."
He states also, as has been said of those in their Irish breeding-
stations, that they are easily captured on their nests.

Audubon, in the following note, mentions different species of
storm petrel congregating together : — " In August 1830, being
becalmed on the banks of Newfoundland, I obtained several in-
dividuals of tliis species \1\ pelagic(i\ from a flock composed
chiefly of T. LeacJiii and T. Wilsonii," vol. iv. p. 310. Wilson
is very eloquent on what he believed to be the T. pelagica, and
gives from personal observation on the coast of the United
States an admirable account of it : liis bird, however, is a different
species, and in honour to him has been named T. Wilsoni by the
Prince of Canino. Wilson remarks, that when passing along the
shores of Florida and the Carolinas, these birds made their ap-
pearance in all weathers.*

* Jardine's edit. Wils. Amer. Orn. vol. ii. p. 385.

BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH.

427

III the order Natatores, the following birds are enumerated at
the present time in the British^ and not in the Irish, catalogue.
A few of the leading points respecting them have been already
given in connexion with the species to which they are most nearly
allied, so that little more is now to be done than to bring them
together here.

BRITISH AND NON-IRISH SPECIES.

Polish Swan

Pink-footed Goose . . .
Spur-winged Goose .
Bimaculated Duck .
Steller's Western Duck
Red-crested Whistling Duck
Perruginous or Nyroca Duck
American Scaup Duck
Harlequin Duck .
Buffel- headed Duck
Caspian Tern
GuU-billed Tern
Ross's GuU . .
Laughing Gull .
Bulwer's Petrel .

Wilson's Petrel

Of these sixteen specie
Great Britain ; viz., — spur

Cygnus immutahilis, Yarr.
Ariser bracki/rhpicus, Baill.

„ gamhensis, Linn, (sp.)
Anas himaculata, Penn.
Polysticia^ Stelleri, Pall, (sp.)
Fuligida rufina, Pall, (sp.)
Fid. leucoplitlialmos, Bechst. (sp.)
Fid. mariloides, Vigors.
Clangula Idstrionica, Linn, (sp.)

„ alheola, Porst. (sp.)

Sterna caspia, Pall.

„ angllca, Mont.
Lams Rossii, Rich.

„ atricilla, Linn.
Thalassldroma Btdweri, Jard. and
Selby (sp.).

Thalassldroma Wdsoni, Bonap.

, three have been but once obtained in
-winged goose, a bird of northern and
western Afi;ica ; — North American scaup, whose name marks its
country (it is not known where the individual included in
the British list was killed ; being purchased fresh in London
market affords no evidence of its having been procured in the
British seas or inland waters) ;t — Ross's gull, a species of Arctic
America. J

* Eyton.

t If the Fuiif/ula fer'uioides, Bartl, since obtained, be considered (became, we
have positive evidence of its being killed iu England.
+ Noticed at p. 314.

428 BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH.

Three others have been twice procured in Great Britain ; —
Bulwer's tern, discovered in Madeira, and believed to be found
about the Canary Islands ; — ^teller's western duck, a native of
the more northern parts of Europe, x\sia, and jimerica;* — and
buffel-headed duck, a North American species.

Five others have been very seldom met with ; — bimaculated
duck, a bird of Northern Asia ; very little is known respecting it
in any country ; — red-crested whistling duck, belonging to the
eastern and more southern haK of Europe, part of Asia, and North
Africa ;— harlequin duck, a northern species of Europe and Ame-
rica ; — laughing gull, a North American bird, found also along
the southern coasts of Europe ; — and Wilson's petrel, an inhabi-
tant chiefly of the North American seas.

Two species found only in the eastern hemisphere (in Europe,
Asia, and Africa), are occasional visitants to England, which is the
western limit of their migration. These are the ferruginous or
Nyroca duck, and Caspian tern, both of which have been chiefly
met witli in the east of England.

Wh«t has been said of the last two is equally applicable to the
gull-billed tern, witli the addition that it is now considered iden-
tical with a North American species, the <S'. aranea of Wilson.

The remaining two have only of late years been recognized as
distinct species, lience their geographical distribution has yet to be
learned. Tliese are the Polish swan, which has been procured on
the Baltic Sea and the eastern coast of England ; and the pink-
footed goose in Erance, Holland, and Belgium, as well as Eng-
land and Scotland.

Of the preceding sixteen species, three only have been obtained
in Scotland (Jard. ; Macg, ; Yarr.) ; — pink-footed goose, harle-
quin duck, and buffel-headed duck. Tlie Nyroca duck was once
procured by Sir William Jardine, in Edinburgh market, but it
was not known where it had been killed.

It is considered unnecessary to go over the same ground
here in drawing inferences from the geographical distribution

* At p. 118, the second individual (obtained since the publication of the 2nd edi-
tion of Yarrell's work) has been noticed.

IRISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS BRITISH. 429

of the species that was done in summing up the preceding Orders,
what has been ah'eady said in those instances being equally
applicable to the Natatores. It may however be observed, that
one half of these species, being found in North America, might
as readily have occurred in Ireland as Great Britain.

IRISH AND NON-BRITISH SPECIES.

EuppelFs Tern Sterna velox, Rupp.

White- winged Black Tern . „ lencoptera, Meissner and

Schinz.

Noddy Tern „ stolida, Linn.

Bonapartian Gull .... Lams Bonapartii, Rich, and

Swains.

The first is a bird from the extreme south-east of Europe ; —
the second is chiefly a summer visitant to the more southern
countries of Europe; — the third, having been seen, though not
obtained, in St. George^s Channel, since the two were killed
on the Irish coast, should not, perhaps, be included here : it is
a well-known bird of the Atlantic and West Indian seas ; — ^the
Bonapartian Gull is a North American species.

APPENDIX,

APPENDIX.

Order RAPTOKES.

Spotted Eagle, vol. i. p. 13.

July 1850. I received the following additional information from
Mr. G. Jackson (gamekeeper to the Earl of Bantry), of whose correct-
ness as to the species I have no doubt. His statement is : — " Last
year (1849),, a very young- bird was brought to me, by a country-boy, for
sale, which I, not having then heard of the spotted eagle, thought was a
young golden one. I declined buying it, but the bird was purchased
by tlie innkeeper at Glengarriif. As it became older, and the plumage
more mature, I saw that it was not the golden eagle ; it was a beautiful
bird, but not much more than half the size of that species. The
description of the spotted eagle in your work is perfectly ap]:)licalile
to it. Before 1 knew this, it was sold to a tourist for j63 ; the bird
was bred in one of the mountains here [Cork], called Hungry Hill."

In a letter which I had from Dr. Harvey, of Cork, dated February
16, 1850, he mentions that the Messrs. Parker have lately seen about
their residence in the neighbourhood of that city, " a small eagle, with
yellow bands on his wings," which they believe to be A. ncevla. The
series of spots on tlie wings of this species would probably have a
banded appearance.

Dmivegan Castle, Skye, October 1850. It is not improbable that the
spotted eagle has occurred in this island. On my questioning Mr.
Pack (who has been resident here for fourteen years, and eleven of them
as gamekeeper) respecting the birds of Skye, he described a spotted
eagle — though he had never heard of a species being so called — having
been killed by one of the shepherds of the late Mr. Macleod, of
Orbost, about the year 18-10. Soon afterwards, he himself saw
another, and subsequently, within a short time, cither a second bird
or the same individual again. The size he does not accurately remem-
ber, though he recollects that it was liker to the golden than the sea

VOL. III. 2 F

434 APPENDIX.

eagle ; the spotting which he describes would apply correctly to the
bird in question. He, and others who saw the individual which Avas
shot, considered it quite distinct from the golden and sea eagles, and
the osprey, all of which arc found there.

OsPKEY, vol. i. p. 29.

October 18, 1848. Dr. J. R. Harvey, of Cork, wrote at this date,
informing me that a very fine specimen of this eagle had been shot on
the 14th of the mouth, by William Crawford, Esq., in his lawn at
Lakelands, in that neighbourhood. The bird attracted attention by
the circles it made around a tree before alighting on it. A mullet, about
1 lb. in weight, was in its grasp when shot, and was retained until
both bird and fish were exhibited in the house. This osprey was
3 feet 1 inch in length, 5 feet 4 inches across the wings, and 4i lbs.
in weight. My informant, judging from size and plumage, supposed
it to be " a young female of perhaps last year, as the tawny patch on
the upper part of the breast was well marked, and each feather had a
distinct central brown spot ; the feathers, too, of all the upper parts,
even to the tail and quill feathers, were tipped and edged with whitish."

Greenland Falcon? vol. i. p. 31.

I have examined a specimen which was sent fi'om Balliua, at the end
of December 1 847, to Mr. Glennon, and is now in the collection of
Mr. Watters, Dublin. It is a young bird of the year. As noted
when recent, its bill and legs were blue, the cere yellow. From
possessing "one large process in upper mandible," and having the
bars towards the tip of the tail continuous, I look upon it as the
Falco Gi'oe)ilandlcus, described and figured by Hancock in the ' Annals
of Natiu-al History' (vol. ii. pi. x.) ; the feathers, too, are broad, like
the one figured of that species. Opposed to this view, the bars on
the tail above the few next the tip are somewhat alternate, but not
nearly to the degree represented in Mr. Hancock's figure of F. Islandiais ;
in fact, the bars on the tail, except at the tip, are intermediate between
those of L. Grcenlandiciis and Islandiciis, represented in this gentle-
man's memoir.

Hobby, vol. i. p. 49.

I there expressed doubt of its having been the real Falco snbbnteo

APPENDIX. 435

that Mr. Temple ton met with in Ireland. I have since seen a, note
in that gentleman's journal, which proves my doubt to have been too
well founded. Under " December 10, 1819 " it appears he on that day
" saw a F. sulhuteo in the collection of Mr. John Montgomery." This
collection, however, which was known to me at all times, never contained
the hobby, properly so called.

Honey Buzzard, vol. i. p. 77.

May 1849. I saw one of these birds in the possession of Mr. Glen-
non, Dublin, of which he gave me the following account. The bird
was sent to him by Captain Charles Dunne, of Ballynacargy, Baron-
stou, on the 6th of April that year, and was said to have been
observed there for two years during summer and winter (?). Captain
Dunne, having often seen it knock down a coot for food, had one of
these bii'ds kiUed, and its flesh poisoned with strycluiiue, as bait for it.
A few days afterwards the buzzard was found poisoned on the lake
which the coots frequented. We should rather have expected what
is related here to apply to a marsh harrier than to a honey buzzard.

Marsh Harrier, vol. i. p. 78.

November 17, 1849. Five of these birds came under ray notice
to-day, in the shop of Mr. Glennon, by whom I was informed that he
had received nine altogether within the last ten days. They were all
either shot or trapped at a small lake at Ballynacargy, where the honey
buzzard, just mentioned, was obtained. As many wild ducks are on
the lake, it was considered that they had tempted the marsh harriers to
it, and the ducks being strictly preserved, war was waged against their
supposed enemies. All of the five birds which I saw had more or less
buff on the head, and the other four were said to have been similar in
this respect.

Snowy Owl, vol. i. p. 95.

A fine specimen, 2 feet in length, 4 feet 10 inches in expanse of
wings, and 5 lbs. in weight, was shot on the 22nd of February, 1850,
when flying above a turf bog, near Lurgan, county of x\rmagh : — it
admitted the close approach of the fowler. Black and white are
nearly in ccjual proportions in its plumage, excepting tluit on the face,
and throat, and beneath the wings, it is white. In its stomach were

436 APPENDIX.

the remains of- a. little grebe, partly digested, the leg of a bunting,
and what appeared to be the tarsus of a partridge. This owl was
sent to the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, and for the information
respecting it I am indebted to Mr. E. Ball.

Order INSESSORES.

Great Grey Shrike, vol. i. p. 111.

In May 1 849, I was informed of one having been killed by John
lliall, Esq., about eighteen or twenty years previously, at Ballycorris
bog, county Dublin.* August 10, 1850. Mr. Watters states, that he
followed a shrike to-day for a considerable time on Montpelier, one of
the Dublin mountains, and discharged two shots at it unsuccessfully.
The bird was most difficult of approach, its flight very strong and
undulating, like that of a wagtail.

Missel Thrush, vol. i. p. 121.

By reference to the late jMr. Templeton's papers and drawings, I
have ascertained the date when the first of these birds (so far as known)
was observed in the north of Ireland. On Febrnary 3, 1808, he made
a coloured drawing of one " received from John Sinclaire, Esq., who
shot it at Eedhall a i&w days before."

Golden Oriole, vol. i. p. 154.

An adult male bird, which has come under my notice, was shot on
the 21st of April, 1850, near Duncannon Port (county Wexford). Dr.
C. Earran, in May 1850, mentioned the occun-ence of a pair of these
orioles about five years previously, at Dungarvan (county Waterford).
These birds were observed by Mr. Dyer to fly back and forward over
the bridge at that town so long, that he thought they might remain
there until he procured his gun, which he did, and shot the male.
This bird was preserved. Three or four days afterwards the female
was shot at the same place, but was rejected as not worth preserving,
on account of her comparatively dull plumage.

Black-cap Warbler, vol. i. p. 183,

May be considered a regular summer visitant to the vicinity of
Dublin, as I am aware of its occurrence there for the last eight years
successively.

* Mr. T.-W.WMiiea.

APPKNDIX. 437

Yellow Wagtail, vol. i. p. 221.

In addition to what lias been stated of this bird about Toome, at the
north-west of Lough Neagh, it may here be mentioned that Mr. Temple-
ton, on the 3rd of June, 1812, saw two of them on the shores of Ram's
Island, that from his deseription must have been adult males. They
are common iu summer on part of the southern shores of that lake, as
first observed by the Rev. G. Robinson, of Tartaraghan rectory. Many
were seen by that gentleman, in the summer and autumn of 1849, about
Miltown and Maghery ; but none were observed more than about a
mile and a half inland from the lake. He has frequently remarked the
male bird when approaching the kmale,fanmnff its tail along the ground,
like a pigeon. One day in August, eighteen old and young birds were
reckoned by him during a drive of two miles along the borders of the
lake. Early in Septembej they had all departed.

Jpril 13, 1850. The Rev. G. Robinson first saw these birds for
the season about Lough Neagh, when seven came under his notice as
he drove along the road.

Mai/ 4, 1850. I went, with Mr. J. R. Garrett and Mi-. Darragh, to
Mr. Robinson's, that he might accompany us to the wagtails' beat,
and on DeiTywarragh island we saw not less than forty of them.
In one little piece of pasture three pair appeared within twenty-five
yards of each other, and three or four birds were frequently seen only
a few feet apart on the ground, or on wing, at the same moment. The
places they frequented were various in character. Sometimes they ap-
peared about the cattle, close to their heads or feet, but more were seen
away from them on the drier pasture. Some were in moist, natural
ground, from which many shrubby willows grew spontaneously to the
height of about ten feet. On these they often alighted, and frequently
rose a short way into the air above them in pursuit of flies. Their
attitudes, when they so far expanded the tail as to exhibit the black
central and pure white marginal feathers, rendered their appearance
very beautiful. They were also seen on tall trees. Some were on
the grassy or stony margin of the island, near the edge of the lake.
They were everywhere very tame. Their call-note — quite difterent from
that of the pied and the grey wagtails — was as described by Yarrell,
but occasionally they uttered the one note only. Their nests were
said to be often found upon the ground in arable fields. Mr. Robiuson
had seen these birds commonly in the fields within a mile of the lake,

438 APPENDIX,

but not more distant from it in this quarter. Derrywarragli should be
a good locality for the pled wagtail, but we did not observe one on it,
in the course of three hours, nor did a grey wagtail appear anywhere
to-day ; the island, however, is not a place where we should expect to
see the latter, — no little rivulet, &c., there. The stomachs of five of
the yellow wagtails, procured as specimens, were filled with perfect
insects, Diptera, CoUoptera, and a Notojieda, but nearly all were
" flies."

About the 1st of August, 1849, a few yellow wagtails, perhaps one
family, were in company with a number of pied wagtails at the Kinne-
gar, Belfast Bay. A mile southward of this place one was observed
on the 25th of July, 1850, and two following days. On the 28th, an
old female and a young bird were found at the same place, and ad-
mitted of an approach within a few yards ; on the 29th, three or four
appeared here. On the 3rd of August one was seen among a flock of
pied wagtails on the sands at the Kinnegar. All of these were ob-
served by Mr. J. R, Garrett, and some of them by myself.

May 15, 1849. A yellow wagtail was seen on the banks of the
Dodder, near Dublin.*

Bohemian Waxwing, vol. i. p. 229.

We have no record of these birds having distributed themselves so
extensively over the British Islands as they did in the winter of 1849-
50. Over England they were scattered, and across the breadth of
Scotland, from the German Ocean to the Atlantic. In the ' Zoolo-
gist' for 1850, the particulars of their occurrence in those countries
will be found.

About the same period, they were widely dispersed over Ireland,
even to the most south-western county, — Kerry. At Miltovvn there,
two were seen towards the end of December, and one of them shot.
Three or four appeared a few miles to the south-east of Cork, early in
January, one of which came into the possession of Dr. J. E. Harvey.
On the 17th of this month, an adult male having five waxen plume-
lets in each wing, was shot at the White Rock quarry, Belfast moun-
tains ; its stomach was wholly filled with very small fruit of a species
of wild-rose. About the same time, several were seen, and one of
them killed, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. One, received by Mr.

♦ Mr. Watters.

APPENDIX. 439

Glennon, on the 31st, was said to have been sent from Wexford. On
the 19th, 22nd, 23rd, and 25th, single individuals were shot in the
county of Dublin. Two of these birds had been feeding on haws
of the white-thorn ; it was stated of one whose stomach was entirely
filled with them, that missel-thrushes attacked, and drove it from a
hedge into the middle of a ploughed field ; perhaps on account of its
partaking of their food. At the end of January, a flock of redwings
were fired at near Euskey (county Koscommon), and among the birds
killed were two w^axwiugs ; about the same time two others were killed
at Lanesborough, county Longford.

PIAlWFINCH, vol. 1. p. 259.

This species has been at least twice procured at Glengarrift" (county
Cork); — January 20, 1844, being one of the dates. One of these
birds, shot, it was presumed, at Mountstewart, county Down, was sent
by the Marquis of Londonderry, on January 31st, 1849, to Belfast, to
be preserved ; its stomach was filled with large leguminous seeds, the
size of ordinary peas. In February and March 1849, they were unu-
sually frequent in the Phoenix Park, Dublin ; several were killed there
in the latter month. In the first two weeks of April 1850, a pair A^as
seen at Ballibrado, county Tipperary, and the female shot.

Siskin, vol. i. p. 264.

This bird seems to be at least an annual visitant to some parts of
the island. Prom what Mr. John R. Kinahan heard of it at Annagh
(county Tipperary), it would appear to be resident there, where it is
called the yellow goldfinch. He saw it in that locality early in June
(1849), and was told that its nest is usually built in the wiEow^s which
fringe the banks of the Little Brosna. This gentleman mentioned, in
March 1849, from his own observation, that Sandymount marsh, near
Dublin, had been frequented by a pair of siskins, in spring, autumn,
and Avinter, for the preceding three years ; he had not the opportunity
of observing them there in summer, but is of opinion that they most
probably remain at that season also, from his having remarked a pair
in a neighbouring field in June 1848.

Early in Januaiy 1849, siskins were observed feeding on the alder,
in a glen two miles from Castle Warren (county Cork), and were
occasionally seen there until the 7th of February, when a flock of

440 APPENDIX.

about thirty appeared. During the following winter they were in
tolerable plenty near Cork, where Dr. Harvey considers that some
have been every year of late. Early in November, numbers of these
birds were seen at Castle Kea, Killala (eounty Mayo), and during tlie
month, many — in one instance, a flock of not less than eighty — in
the neighbourhood of Dublin. December 1850. They have been for
some time about Tartaraghan (county Armagh).

Mountain Linnet, vol. i. p. 272.

This bird is more generally distributed and less confined to heathy
mountain tracts than might be inferred from the remarks on it in Vol. I.
It has, for the last two summers, been remarked as common, and
breeding on the mountain sides, and occasionally on the wild sea-shore
among furze or whins, in many parts of Antrim and Down. It breeds
commonly, and remains all the year on the low heathy tracts adjacent
to, and little elevated above the surface of. Lough Neagh.

Crossbill, vol. i. p. 276.

Seems now to be more than an " occasional visitant." Since Vol. I.
appeared, the information communicated to me is as follows. July 20,
1849 ; two shot near Londonderry ; great numbers at Castle Eea (county
Mayo), at the same time; on the 26th of that month, a flock of about
thirty was seen at Crowhill (county Armagh). Two, killed in Queen's-
county, in the middle of November, and others early in December.
They are still (November 1849) in large flocks at Castle Eea. From
November 1849, until March 1850, some were procured in the counties
of Dublin and Wicklow. 1850. April 11. Two were killed at Crow-
hill. On the 8th of June, some were seen, and one was shot near
Belfast. Sepiemher. " Crossbills have been at Ballibrado (county Tip-
perary) for the last twelve months or more, and, we may infer, bred
there."* They were considered to have remained for more than a year
at Castle Eea, and were perhaps resident about Crowhill within the
periods mentioned.

Starling, at vol. i. p. 289,

Is remarked as having, after an absence of very many years, returned
to nidify within the town of Belfast. It has continued to do so, and

* Mr. R. Davis.

APPENDIX. 441

lias built in the neigtbourhood at places where it had never appeared
before. It came in the same year for the purpose of building, to Car-
rick, in the county of Armagh, and to different country seats about
Dublin, where it was before unknown, and has been gradually extend-
ing its boundaries since.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker, vol. i. p. 342,

Is noticed there, lastly, as visiting Ireland in 1848. It has appeared
in the two succeeding years. On the 18th of February, 1849, one was
seen at Wolfhill, near Belfast. It first attracted attention by a tapping
sound heard at about twenty yards' distance from a house, when the
shutters of the windows were closed. The bird was seen very near on
that occasion, and twice or thrice afterwards within ten days, being
always engaged at the time pecking into the decayed portions of poplars.
Mr. Glennou informed me, in May 1849, that one (displaying the crimson
plumage on the under tail-coverts) was sent to him at the end of April
that year, from near Carrick on Suir, and that it was the fifth fresh bird
he had known to be killed in the winter of 1848-49. Early in No-
vember 1849, one was reported to him as seen at Castle Eea, Killala.
On the 6th of January, 1850, a fine male bird was captured at night
in the aperture of a tree, at Malahide (county Dublin), and brought
alive to Mr. R. Ball on the following morning. It was placed in a
wire rat-trap, from which its efforts to escape during the day were in-
cessant, and by constantly striking at the wires it broke several of them.
On the 19th of this month, one of these woodpeckers was stated to
have been obtained at Tramore (county Waterford).

Green Woodpecker, vol. i. p. 343.

A bird of this species, disabled by the blow of a stone when ascending
the trunk cf a tree at Kilshrewley, near Granard, county Longford, was
captured by the gamekeeper in presence of Dr. H. Edgeworth and Dr.
Gordon (Hume-street, Dublin). It was kept alive for two days, in-
tending to be brought by the latter gentleman im Dublin, but, having
then died, was thought no more of and lost as a specimen. (Mr. R. J.
Montgomery.)

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, vol. i. pp. 343, 344.
January 1851. Mr. Glennon, of Dublin, states that in the course
of many years he has preserved at least six or seven of these birds,

VOL. III. 2 G

442 APPENDIX.

sent to him from various parts of Ireland. The last two came mider
Mr. Watters's notice iu a fresh state ; one of them on the 21st of Sep-
tember, 1848.

Hoopoe, vol. i. p. 355.

One was captured in a field near Bandon (county Cork), in a very ex-
hausted condition, in the autumn of 1847. A fine specimen, shot in the
county of Kilkenny at the end of October 1849, came under my notice
at Mr. Glennon's. I have seen one which was shot on Hilltown
mountain (county Down), about the 20th of April, 1850 ; its stomach
was filled with insect larvte and perfect Coleoptera. Two were also
obtained this month in the county of Cork, as reported by Mr. W. A.
Hackett, of that city.

Cuckoo, vol. i. p. 356.

The following interesting communication from John R. Kinahan,
Esq., Seaview terrace, Donnybrook, is given in that gentleman's own
words : — " On the 17th of June, 1848, whilst watching some of our
summer warblers in the Yellow meadows, situated on the banks of the
Slade, about 5^ miles from Dublin, near the village of Clondalkin, we
observed a cuckoo come skimming across the fields, over our heads, and
alight on some trees about 200 yards down the canal, which here
almost joins the Slade. Being anxious to procure a specimen, we
crossed over the Slade, to the track line, and proceeded towards the
trees, which occupied us about five minutes, during which time the
bird was perfectly undisturbed. On our getting within range, the bird
rose, and again pitched about ten yards farther on, but in such a manner
as to be completely concealed by the branches. My companion, ]\Ir.
Haughton, followed, and succeeded in winging her. As she was rising
a second time she fell into a ditch, owing to the depth of which, several
minutes elapsed before we could get her out. Having obtained the
bird, I proceeded to kill her, by pressing on her breast, having my
thumb on the cavity TOrmed by the os furcatum, when I felt something
slip from under my thumb with a gurgling noise. Mr. Haughton,
attracted by the gurgling, turned at the same moment, and we both
saw an egg in the act of falling to the ground, from whence I picked
it up, perfectly uninjured. This egg agrees with all descriptions I
could obtain, and on being shown to Mr. R. Ball, he at once recognized

APPENDIX. 443

it as a cuckoo's ; it has since, together with the cuckoo's skin, been
presented to the Dublin Natural History Society. From the position
of the bird as held by me, it is impossible that the egg could have
come from any place but the bird's throat, as, if it had been passed in
the ordinary way, it must have fallen on ray arm, and thence to the
ground on a different spot from that whence I picked it up. On
dissection by Professor AUman, the bird proved to be a young female,
and had in her ovary two full-grown eggs, one of them ready to pass
into the oviduct. In her stomach were the remains of insects and a
small portion of vegetable matter, but not even with a powerful
microscope could any remains of eggs be detected, clearly showing
that the bird was not feeding on eggs ; — it was three o'clock, p.m.,
when she was shot. Do not these facts prove that M. Le Vaillant's
observations respecting the African cuckoos (C. a/urdus und C. Iwpatlciis)
are also applicable to C. canorus (common cuckoo), viz., that she carries
her egg in her throat, for the puqiose of deposition in nests to Avhich
she could not gain access in the ordinaiy way ? and may it not be this
habit which has gained the cuckoo a name she does not appear to
deserve, that of egg-sucker ? May not persons have shot her with tha
egg in her throat, and naturally imagined that the egg was that of
another bird, especially as to a superficial observer the eggs of C. ca-
norus and Fyrgitta domestica (house sparrow) appear identical, though
easily enough distinguished when examined closely ? In fact, a friend
of Mr. Haughton's says he has frequently shot cuckoos with eggs
entire in their throats, and that he does not doubt but that they were
the bird's own,"

A note to the same effect as the preceding was contributed to Mac-
gillivray's ' British Birds ' (vol. iii. p. 130), by Mr. D. Weir, but was
not given on his own authority.

Order KASOKES.

Passenger Pigeon, vol. ii. p. 18.

Individuals which were obtained in Scotland are there noticed. To
use the words of Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun., writing from Tralee, in
July 1850; — "I had in my possession, about two years ago, a pas-
senger pigeon, which was caught near this town, Avhen imable to fly

444 APPENDIX.

from fatigue. From this circumstance, there can, I think, be no doubt
that it came direct from America, as a bird of its powers of flight
would not have been exhausted unless it came from some very great
distance. It never became tame, though I had it in confinement for
about two years, at first alone, and afterwards in company with
other pigeons. It would walk backwards and forwards in a very
shy manner when any one looked at it, and always avoided the other
birds."

The account of this individual leads one to believe that it may have
crossed the Atlantic.

Quail, vol. ii. (preface, p. ix.) p. 66.

The following note is interesting, on account of the inland locality
it refers to. Jmmary 15, 1850. The Eev. George Eobinson, of Tarta-
raghan (county Armagh), informs me that during the late prevalence
of frost and snow, great numbers of these birds have been killed
about his place. Two or three dozen have sometimes been brought
him of a morning on sale ; he buys them for twopence each. One
winter, some years ago, when staying within a mile of his present resi-
dence, and looking for quails, he could not see more than one or two
in a day. He never knew them so abundant as this winter.

Mr. Thomas W. MulhoUand killed, during part of the shooting
season of 1849-50 — from November till March, — in the Ards, county
Down, about 120 brace. They were all shot within three miles of
Springvale House, and many more might easily have been obtained.
The greatest number procured in a day was nine brace ; they were
generally, during the season, in pairs, and a single bird was very rarely
sprung. He remarks that a good shot, looking particularly for quails,
which he was not, could easily have killed 300 or 400 brace. The
former number (300 brace) is stated by the head gamekeeper of Mr.
Ker, of Portavo, in the same county, to have been killed by him each
shooting season of the last few years.

APPENDIX. ' 445

Order GEALLATORES.

Kentish Plover, vol. ii. p. 104.

Mr. R. Ball informs me that one of these birds, preserved in Trinity
College Museum, was shot at Baldoyle (county Dublin), on the 8th of
August, 1848, by Dr. Apjohn.

Green Sandpiper, vol. ii. p. 208.

BuhUn, Becemher 1849. Mr. Watters purchased here a fresh specimen
on November 10, 1846, and another on August 18, 1847 ; the latter
was killed at the North Bull, Dublin Bay : between those dates he saw-
three other fresh bii'ds on sale. January \Wi and IWi, 1850. He
mentions that at the former date one was killed in the county of Kildare,
and on the latter, one was brought to him by a hawker of Avild-fowl,
who did not know where it had been killed.

Long-legged Plover, vol. ii? p. 321.

The following additional note on this species was kindly sent to me
in August 1850, by Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun., of Tralee, but the date
of the occurrence could not be ascertained. — " The account which a
friend of mine gave me of the black-winged stilt, one of which he
shot in Castlemaine Bay, may interest you. When he first observed
a small flock settled on the oozy bank of the river, their appearance
was very strange, for they seemed to be supported altogether without
the aid of legs ; on a nearer approach he remarked that they swayed
from one side to the othei*, not with the jerking motion of the red-
shank, but as though to steady themselves, and as if their limbs
could scarcely support them. Upon shooting one, lie was so anxious
to secure it, that he neglected to watch what became of the rest. If
he had done so, he would, he is sure, have killed more, as they were
very tame, and flew up the river ; he searched for, but was unable to
find them again." The bird was so much injured as not to be worth
setting up as a specimen.

Woodcock, vol. ii. p. 248,

Is mentioned as breeding in Gurtccn Wood, county Tipperary, in
1841. In June 1850, I learned that some pairs had bred there

446 APPENDIX.

annually for the last six or seven years, since the present proprietor
came into possession of the place. The following paragraph appeared in
the 'Northern Whig ' newspaper of May 21, 1850 : —

" On the morning of the 18th inst., Francis Shaw, a man employed
by Colonel Stewart to trap rabbits in his demesne of Killymoon, saw
an old woodcock, with a brood of young ones, in one of the woods.
He caught two and brought them to the mansion, where they remained
for some time, until Colonel Stewart ordered them to be taken back to
the place where they were caught. They could not fly, but were,
nevertheless, of a good size, the head and biU of each being nearly as
large as those of old birds. Shaw stated that he had seen seven or
eight of these young birds. — Another man employed about the demesne
saw five young ones the same day. Several old woodcocks were seen in
the woods about Killymoon during the week. Young woodcocks were
found there once before within the last twenty years."

The same newspaper of Tuesday the 9th of July, 1850, contained
this paragraph : —

" On Saturday last, as a man was mowing gi'ass, in a very quiet spot
not far from Cookstown, he flushed a woodcock. On examining the
spot whence the bird rose, he discovered its nest, with four eggs in it.
The bird did not return to the nest, which was formed of di-y leaves,
green moss, and a little withered grass." ^

Both these localities are in the county of Tyrone.

In some parts of Ireland, woodcocks were unusually plentiful at the
end of December 1849, and in January 1850. At the former period a
number were killed at Knappan (county Antrim), during severe frost
and snow ; the stomachs of five of these birds came under my examina-
tion ; four of them were filled with fibrous vegetable matter, and a
number of minute coleopterous insects ; the fifth was filled with the re-
mains of Coleoptera, with the exception of two or three white larvae : —
they were the fattest birds I ever saw. The chief dealer in game, at
Belfast, received thirteen couple from a person living near Glenarra, in
the same neighbourhood in the first week of January, and on the 9th of
the month, fifteen couple, all of which had been shot. On the 1 7th, 18th,
and 19th of January (frost and snow), he received sixty couple, many
of them killed in the vicinity of Belfast ; he had never before known
them to be so plentiful. In the covers at Stuart Hall (county Tyrone),
eleven brace were shot one day early in the month during frost and

APPENDIX. 447

snow, and as many more were seen. Until the 31st of December, wood-
cocks were considered remarkably scarce in Lord Bautry's covers,
in the counties of Cork and Keny, but they became " somewhat more
plentiful " in the severe weather of the following month, so that fifteen
brace and a half were killed in a day by two guns.

Great Snipe, vol. ii. p. 257.

" Mr. T. Spencer Lindsay, of Hollymount House (county Mayo),
assured me that his gamekeeper had killed a brace and a half of ' soli-
tary snipe ' in the last two seasons ; he knew the bird well. The
gamekeeper also described it accurately, and particularly remarked its
having two more tail-feathers than the common snipe." — R. J. Mont-
gomery, March 1850.

ScoLOPAX Beehmi,

As mentioned in a letter from Sir William Jardine, on Feb. 25,
1850 ; — " I have just receivedJ'rom the neighbourhood of EnniskiUen
a snipe, with its outer tail-feathers longest, and sixteen feathers in the
tail. This to all intents is S. Brehmi." The bird was sent to Jardine
Hall by C. A. Gordon, Esq., of the 57th regiment, then stationed at
EnniskiUen, whose attention had been specially called to the subject
by Sir William Jardine. In this author's work, entitled ' Contribu-
tions to Ornithology,' for 1849 and 1850, full particulars of the S.
Brelimi will be found.

Broad-billed Sandpiper, vol. ii. p. 282,

Was several times seen by Capt. May (late of the Inniskilling dra-
goons), during his sporting tour on the coast of Norway, in the sum-
mer and autumn of 1849. He was attracted by the peculiar snipe-
like markings on the head of the bird, and, on seeing the specimen in
the Belfast Museum, immediately recognized it as being of the same
species. Among the places where they were seen was the extremity of
a fresh-water lake, near the Salten Fiord, where they may have been
breeding (July 11).

Purple Sandpiper, vol. i. p. 803.

It is there remarked that it " regularly inhabits certain parts of the
coast in autumn and winter ;" to which it might have been added —

448 APPENDIX.

" and occasionally at other seasons," as the account of the bird which
follows would show. In 1850, one of two birds which were together
was shot near Bally waiter (Down) on the 23nd of February ; — two ap-
peared on the stony embankment of the railway at Conswater, Belfast
Bay, on the 8 th of March ; — and two were shot, from a flock of seven
or eight, on the 9th of May, at Eoberts's Cove (county Cork).

Oeder NATATOEES.

Great Wild Swan, vol. iii. p. 3.

May 1850. One of these swans, preserved at Lissanoure Castle
(county Antrim), was shot on the lake there " ten or twelve years ago."

Bewick's Swan, vol. iii. p. 13.

The Eev. T. Knox has favoured me with a description of a swan of
this species killed at Scariff, on the Shannon, on February 2, 1842. A
young swan — C. BewicJcii it is presumed (see p. 21) — was shot on a
pond near Dingle (county Kerry), in the winter of 1849-50. In the
following season, about the end of November 1850, two of this species
were brought to Dublin market.

So early as the end of October 1850, three wild swans (it is not
known of what species) were observed for some time within eighty
yards of the shore of Belfast Bay, at Eaven Hill.

Wild Geese, of different species.

Notes by E. J. Montgomery, Esq., on wild-goose shooting in Mayo,
in the present year — from the beginning of February until the end of
March 1850 — seem to me well worthy of a place here. He remarks —
" I sbot a great number, though with much difficulty, having either to
stalk them regularly, if in the day-time, or to lie in a blind for one or
two hours before they came to feed at night. Wild-goose shooting is
the finest sport I ever enjoyed, and I would go any distance for it.
Think of seeing a flock of three or four hundred coming down on one
of the lakes where you are advantageously posted both for observing
them and shooting." The grey lag goose formerly was very common in
Mayo, but is now very scarce. I only saw three while there ; one of
them I wounded, but failed in getting. I watched them through a

APPENDIX. 449

glass, and could distinguish the red colour of the beak and feet. They
never associated with the other geese, but invariably were four or five
hundred yards from them when on the same bog, and often were to be
found on another bog miles from them.* The bean goose is in great
numbers, but the most numerous is the white-fronted, in the propor-
tion, I should think, of about fifty white-fronted to ten bean geese :
they arrive at Michaelmas, in small parties, which join together after
their arrival ; the bean and white-fronted remain together, but not
mixed, and when alarmed each species flies in a^separate flock. During
the severity of winter they remain on the bogs in the day-time, but
often pass from one to the other, and at night come to feed in the
tiirloghs, or winter lakes, arriving at a much later hour than the
ducks. When spring has replaced winter, they spend more of their
time in low bottoms than in the bogs, but always fly to the latter on
being disturbed, and about three or four in the afternoon resort to some
small lake, where they remain in the middle till towards midnight,
sometimes till just before daybreak, when they come to the shores to
feed on the coarse grass, or rather on the roots of the grass. They take
their departure at the end of April, a few remaining till the beginning
of May, or, as the country -people say, ' they never go till they have
had three fills of the green corn.' They congregate from all parts to
the small lakes (in particular, one called Kill) for some short time be-
fore they go off, and all take their departure in one or two enormous
flocks, steering north-east. At Michaelmas, when the geese first come,
they are very easily shot. Large numbers of bernacle and brent geese
also pay a short visit at that time, in fact, on their way to the east side
of Ireland, and again in the end of April, for a fortnight, after their
departure from this side of the country. The country-people call the
brent geese American geese, — why, I cannot tell. They shoot great
numbers of bean and white-fronted geese, and salt them. On Easter
Monday, the whole male population turn out to shoot geese and hunt
for wild ducks' eggs. Some of the wliite-fronted geese which I shot
in the end of March had just got the full black bars on the breast ;
the boys say they have sometimes found their eggs in the bogs be-
fore they go away, but that none over remain to breed. Two, which
I had wounded and could not get, remained on the lake of Kill for a

* In January, this year, a grey lag goose was sent to me from tlic ueigliboiuliooJ
of Dundalk, and I saw another, from Meath, in the Dublin market.

VOL. III. 3 H

450 APPENDIX.

week or two, and always joined the flock when they came to the lake
in the afternoon, swam about and fed with them, and when the main
body went off at daybreak, they returned to their hiding-place among
the reeds in the middle of the water. At last I went out on a door,
as no boat could be had, and captured them ; one was a bean and the
other a white-fronted goose, yet they always kept company after being
wounded, until taken.

" The ducks which are most numerous in Mayo are the common wild
duck (called ' heavy duck '), golden-eye, wigeon, tufted duck, and
teal, all in immense numbers, particidarly the last, which, on Lough
Corrib, is literally in thousands.

" Wild ducks, before I came away on the 1st of April, were breeding
in the ivy on old castles, fully fifty feet from the ground. In the castle
of Turin, upwards of eighty feet in height, and covered with most luxu-
riant ivy, these ducks bring out their young every summer at a great
height. This castle is three miles from any piece of water, but not
more than a gun-shot from a very extensive and wet bog. The abbey
of Ross, another haunt, is close to a river and wet bog, and in the ivy
on two castles near to it they also build. The shelldi'ake breeds at
Lough Corrib, and 1 believe a few pair of the red-breasted mergansers
do so. The fowlers positively state that at a part of this lake, most
strictly preserved diiring the life-time of the proprietor (one or two
years deceased), the wigeon bred."

Wild Duck, vol. iii. p. 75.

It was omitted to be stated in the account of this bird, that it fre-
quently breeds on the ground in marine localities, such as the Mew
Island and the islets in Strangford Lough, or anywhere on the borders
of the sea-coast where it will be free fi'om disturbance.

Wigeon, vol. iii. p. 98.

Mr. R. J. Montgomery, writing in September 1850, mentions that
an observant man (O'Neill), in the coast guard service, states that he
knew wigeon to breed in the island of Achil, where he was stationed
for several years.

Velvet Scoter, vol. iii. p. 132.

About the first week of September 1850, three of these ducks were
seen in the Bay of Drogheda, by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. This is the

APPENDIX. 451

great haunt of the common scoter on the Irish coast. Of this latter
species, the Rev. G. M. Black, when sailing off the Skerries and Bal-
briggan, saw several small flocks so late as the month of April (1850).

Tufted Duck, vol. iii. p. 141.

The Eev. G. Eobinson, vrriting to me on the 25th of April, 1850,
remarked, that tufted ducks are still on Lough Neagh, and are wild,
not admitting the approach of his boat within eighty or a hundred
yards before taking wing. On the 4th of May I saw one of these
ducks on the lake, and learned from a fisherman at Maghery, that they,
pochards and golden -eyes, are commonly taken in the fishing-nets near
this place. A few birds, rarely more than four or five in number, be-
come meshed in the nets duiiug the night, and are brought ashore in
the morning. The water in which they are captured does not exceed
twelve feet in depth.

Black-throated Diver, vol. iii. p. 201.

Mr, Watters writes to me that on the 8th of October, 1850, he ob-
tained an immature bird shot between Howth and Kingstown. He
describes it as " larger in size than the red-throated diver, and in nearly
similar plumage, except that the throat and neck are closely mottled
with black, and the feathers, when raised, are deep black underneath."

Gannet, vol. iii. p. 264.

I am much gratified to be enabled to add the following statement
to that of Mr. Townsend at the page referred to. The Stags of Broad-
haven being mentioned by Arthur Edwin Knox, Esq., in his very
pleasing work ' Game Birds and WUdfowl, &c.,' just published, I wrote
to that gentleman on the subject of the gannet's breeding there, and he
replied (January 3, 1851), "It used, when I was a boy, to breed, but
not in numbers, on the Stags of Broadhaven. I cannot say that I
have seen their nests, but I have shot the young birds as well as the
old ones on the wing, when passing through those islands in an open
boat. The young ones were well able to fly, but apparently had only
lately left the nest. I speak of many years ago." The writer has
not had the opportunity of knowing anything of the gauncts there for
a long period.

Little Auk, vol. iii. p. 218.

December 10, 1848. At this date Mr. R. J. Montgomery wrote to

452 APPENDIX.

me that he " received a fresh speeimen of the little auk the other day
from the county of Limerick, where it was killed on an inland lake."
An adult male, which I saw in a recent state, and which was in admi-
rable condition, was found dead in the bay within tbree miles of Bel-
fast, on the 25th of November, 1850 ; its stomach was empty. On
the 20th of December, 1850, one was seen on Strangford Lough.

DECOYS FOK WILD-FOWL IN IRELAND.

When writing on the Anatldca in the year 1850, I endeavoured to
procure information on this subject, but with a very unsatisfactory
result. There is sufficient, however, to show that decoys have been
in a great degree out of use of late years, chiefly owing to the effects
of drainage and general improvement of the country in lessening the
number of wild-fowl visitants to the island.

1850. Meadows on the margin of Lough Beg, connected with
Lough Neagh (on its eastern side), still bear the name of 'coy meadows,
from the circumstance that there was a decoy there at a very distant
period. Lough Beg is still one of the finest haunts for wild -fowl in
the north of Ireland ; wild ducks and wigeon, in particular, are so
numerous, and in such dense flocks, as, sometimes in calm weather
when most conspicuous on the smooth surface of the water, to appear
like floating islands.

At the Glyde "Farm and Lisrenney (county Louth) it is said that
many wild-fowl were, at one period, taken ; tbe former has been long
disused. At Beaulieu, in this county, there is an old decoy which has
not been worked for a very long period. I am informed by Viscount
Massareene, respecting two decoys in Louth — that the one erected by
the late Baron Foster at Eathescar, is not in working order, and that
about two miles distant from it, in the demesne of Oriel, are the remains
of a very good one, in which, in his grandfather Lord Oriel's day, sixty
brace of teal would sometimes be taken in a morning. It has not been
used for upwards of forty years. The present Viscount has no in-
tention of restoring this decoy, as it is in one of his best game covers.

At Mountainstown (county Meath), there was a decoy for teal, where
a sporting friend has seen numbers taken, but in 1845, the proprietor,
being written to, stated that it had not been worked for many years.

APPENDIX.

453

adding, that " the countiy had been so drained and improved, that all
kiuds°of wild-fowl are now very scarce." I have merely heard of
several others in this county, among others, of that at LismuUan,
which has ceased to be worked for the last few years. In Westmeath
and Kildare there are said to be decoys. In Wicklow there is one on
a small river between Anamoe and the Seven Churches of Glendalough,
but little attention is now paid to it. In the county Galway there was
an extensive decoy at Clonfert, but it was given up about thirty years
ago. At Eyrecourt, in the same county, one for teal is still worked
. annually, from November until the beginning of March. The birds
leave the decoy every evening— it is supposed for the Shannon— and
return at the approach of day. From forty to fifty teal, on an
average, are taken in a day here when the wind is favourable.

There is a decoy at Kilcooley Abbey, county Tipperary, and one at
Desart, county Kilkenny, the property of the Earl of Desart. From
Thomas Fortescue, Esq., of Ravensdale Park, county Louth (who,
when staying in the county Kilkenny, in December 1850, most kindly
visited the latter to obtain the information for me), I learn that about
thirty years ago 700 couple of wild-fowl was not an unusual number
to take in a season. Since that period the quantity obtained has been
diminishing, it is supposed, owing to the drainage of land; m 1849,
the take amounted to 350 couple. Ducks are the most numerous ;
next teal; then wigeon. Pintail and other of the rarer ducks are oc-
casionally procured ; a pintail was on the water during Mr. Fortes-
cue's visit (December 11), but did not enter the pipe.

Good iirformation has been supplied to me by R. Longfield, Esq.
(throuo-h the kind attention of John E. Herrick, Esq.), respecting his
decoy at LongueviUe, county Cork. In the season from November till
March 1840-41, 216 teal, 100 wild ducks, and 1 wigeon were captured ;
the -reatest number taken on any one occasion being 35 teal and 6
ducky's In the same mouths of the following season, only 150 teal and
32 ducks were obtained. The greatest quantity taken for some years past
was in the season of 1845-46, when about 730 head of ducks, teal,
and wigeon were procured. More than the half of this number were
teal- about 300, ducks ; "some wigeon; about 25 golden crested
wi-e'on [adult male wigeon] , and 4 spoon-billed wigeon [shovellers ?] .''
Seventy ducks and teal have been caught at one time. Before bad
weather large numbers of these birds come to the water. My informant

454 APPENDIX.

adds, that iu the season of 1849-50 he was not at Longueville, and no
wild-fowl were taken, but he understood that the numbers on the
decoy were greater than had been seen for some years ; — the winter
was unusually severe.

March 23, 1850. I visited (accompanied by Mi-. J. E. Garrett) a
decoy constructed foui* years previously in the demesne at Caledon
(the seat of the Earl of Caledon in the county of Tyrone). This is a
decoy of the first class, and was made under the superintendence of
Mr. Skelton, sen., who came from Lincolnshire for the purpose. It
is one of the best and most extensive extant, as to the number of
pipes, there being eight of them ; the largest in England has ten.
There is much more water to some of them there, but 2 English acres,
2 roods, and 23 perches were considered quite sufficient in extent ; the
water is from two to three feet in depth. This decoy having only been
worked for three seasons, no idea can yet be formed of its value, but I
was much pleased to hear from Mr. Skelton, jun., who has the manage-
ment of it, that there are as many wild-fowl in the demesne at Cale-
don as he ever saw in connexion with any one decoy in Lincolnshire,
or other part of England. Not more than about a thousand birds
have yet been taken in it any season, though many more might have
been, but it was considered unwise for the first few years, or until the
wild-fowl had made a regular haunt of the place, to capture many.
The gi'eatest immber of birds taken on one day was 140, viz., 76
ducks, 54 wigeon, and 10 teal; — all obtained in three of the pipes.
In addition to these three species, which are the staple of the decoy,
there are taken, occasionally, shovellers (commonly called " spoon-
bills "), of which about ten or twelve couple were here during the
present season, and the half of which still remain (23rd of March) j
they were first caught in November, in the winters of 1848 and 1849 —
pochards (called "pokers") — tufted ducks (called "white-sided divers")
— three or four couple of pintails are taken during a season — one
scaup (a female) was obtained in the last three winters. The golden-
eye duck is not known to Mr. Skelton; nor has he seen the shell-
duck here, but it has been captured in the Lincolushii'e decoys near
the sea.

In Caledon demesne he considers that about a hundred pair of wild
ducks breed, and at least twenty pair of teal. Frequently during the
summer of 1849 he saw an old pair of wigeon, and very early in the

APPENDIX. 455

autumn remarked them to be accompanied by tliree others, which it
was believed might be then* young, though when first seen there was
little apparent diiFerence in size between them and the old birds.* In
reference to the shyness of wild ducks, even where they never had an
opportunity of learning it from their parents, the decoy-keeper at
Caledon informed us that young birds, which were hatched by artificial
heat, in an " incubator," within the demesne, were, at the moment
they left the shell, as shy as they could have been under the tuition of
their natural instructors, although the young of domestic fowls brought
out in the same manner showed no fear of man. The young wild
ducks became more familiar by degrees, but they still retained so much
of their instinctive caution, that on hearing any sudden noise, such as
that produced by the stamping of the foot, they instantly endeavoured
to conceal themselves.

Mr. Skelton's method of taking wild-fowl in the decoy at Caledon
is precisely that described in Yarrell's work. He mentioned some
singular instances of the extreme sensitiveness of the olfactory nerves
in wild-fowl. It is essential for him when about the decoy to prevent
his presence being known, by breathing upon a turf, which is kept
slowly burning. This we should imagine the birds must smell, though
they may not apprehend any danger from it. A gentleman accompanying
him on one occasion let a spark fall from the turf on his shooting-jacket,
and the smell of the little portion of the coat that was burnt alarmed
the birds so much that none were taken. A small piece of burnt
leather thrown into a decoy pond will prevent the capture of a bird
that day. The smell of milk boiling over on the fire in a farm-house,
perhaps six hundi-ed yards from the decoy at Caledon, and the wind
blowing from the direction of the house to the water, prevents a bird
being taken the same day. It is of so much consequence to avoid
anything of this kind, that Mr. Skelton, sen., who rents a farm of a
thousand acres in connexion with his decoy at Lincolnshire, and has
about twenty-five people to provide for under his roof, forbids any
cooking to be done in the house — sometimes for a few days — when
the wind blows from it on the decoy, perhaps, as in the other instance,
six hundred yards distant. If the smell of the burnt leather, milk,
&c., be very strong, it will cause the birds to be unsettled for a long
time, and particularly at the side of the pond where it is strongest.

* About the 1st of June, 1850, there was a pair of wigeon in the decoy.

456 APPENDIX.

For days not a bird will be seen in that quarter, either on tlie water
or the landings.

A very simple mode of decoying was successfully practised by a
medical gentleman of my acquaintance in the island of South Uist,
one of the Hebrides. When in pursuit of wild ducks, he would take
a tame duck out to the lakes, with a long string tied to one of its legs.
By pulling this string, when desirable, he would make it quacJc, and
thus attract others around it. In this way he frequently obtained
several at a shot ; on one occasion the tame duck fell a victim at the
same time with five or six wild ones. The tame ducks here are very
much crossed with the wild birds, and consequently resemble them in
plumage.

The preceding is even more simple than the following manner of
decoying Canada geese in the United States, as narrated by Sir Charles
Lyell. " On our way back from Plymouth to Boston, we passed near
the village of East Weymouth, by a decoy pond, where eight wild
geese, called Canada geese, had been shot since the morning. Swim-
ming in the middle of a sheet of water, was a tame goose, having one
leg tied by a string to a small leaden weight, and near it were a row
of wooden imitations of geese, the sight of which, and the cries of
the tame goose, attract the wild birds. As soon as they fly down they
are shot," &c.*

Part of the water in St. James's Park, London, was used as a
decoy-pond in the reign of Charles II. In Cunningham's ' Handbook
of London, 'f various items of the expenses connected with the con-
struction of a decoy here are copied from an account signed by the
" meiTy monarch " himself. Judging from these, it should have been
a very respectable one as to extent.

NOTES ON HYBKID BIRDS BRED IN A DOMESTIC OU SEMI-
DOMESTIC STATE. :J:

Hybrids, similar to those which have come under my own notice
in Ireland, and that of friends who communicated the instances to

* Sii- C. Lyell's ' Second Visit to the United States of North America,' vol. i.
p. 120, 1st edit.

t Vol. ii. p. 434, 1st edit., as quoted in ' Quart. Rev,' for March 1850, p. 470.

\ Hybrids bred in a wild state will be found noticed in vol. i. p. 309, and vol. ii.
p. 40 ; in the former between the carrion and grey crow, and in the latter between ,

APPENDIX. 457

me, are so generally known to have occurred in other countries, that
I hesitate to introduce any matter on the subject ; — some readers,
however, may wish for it.

Insessores. — At Fort Williaoa, near Belfast, hybrids have often been
produced between the canary-fincli {Fringilla canaria), and goldfinch
(F. carduelis) ; such produce is very common. These hybrids never
bred there, either among themselves or with birds of any species,
though opportunities for their doing so were afforded. A female
bird of this kind has been mentioned to mc as having had young to
a male canary-finch at Armagh.

A brood between the canary-finch and green linnet {Fr'mr/illa cJdoris)
was produced at Fort William, and one also between the canary-finch
and grey linnet {F. cannahlna).

Mr. E,. K. Sinclaire possessed a hybrid, bred between the last two
species ; it was an excellent song-bird, having chiefly the notes of the
grey linnet.

A most singidarly and beautifully marked hybrid, bred between the
canary-finch and goldfinch, was shown to me in October 1845, by
Thomas Sinclaire, Esq. This bird, which was of the ordinary colour
of hybrids so produced, previous to the last moult, may be
described as — Having the head quite black, with a broad collar of
pure white round the entire neck ; the throat is pure white, and joins
the collar; the plumage of the bftek exhibits a mixture of brown
and black, resembling more, perhaps, that of the hedge accentor, than
any other of our native birds, but the deep shades are darker and
blacker than in that species. The upper portion of the wings, viewed
at rest upon the body, present a mixture of dark brown and black ;
the quills are all pure black, except a quill in one wing, of a golden
yellow colour. The tail, excepting one whitish feather, is all black.

the black grouse and pheasant. Another instance was made known to me in A2)ril
'1850, by Mr. Robert M. Austiu, an eye-wituess of the fact. At Waterloo cottage,
within a mile of Ayr, where this young gentleman resided, a female commou thrush
(T. Musicus) and male blackbml {T. merula) paired in the summer of 1849, built a
nest in a small shrub, and produced three young in .June, which were parti-eoloured,
having some black spots, the size of a sixpence, on their breasts. The notes of one
of these youug birds were frequently heard, and differed from those both of blackbird
and thrush, in being more detached. Both parents are stated to have fed and tended
the youug. My attention was first called to this interesting circumstance by the
Rev. Wm. M'llwaiue, of Belfast, who happened to pay a visit to the place at
the time.

VOL. III. 2 I

458 APPENDIX.

This bird, though said to be a female, sings a little : being kept in the
kitchen, its song is always prompted by the music of the frying-pan,
and so long as this is heard so is the song of the bird as an accom-
paniment. It lives on hemp-seed, refusing canary-seed altogether,
and is a further illustration (see Sky-lark) of the former seed tending
to melanism. Bull-finches kept by the owner of this bird lost their
beautiful pink breasts by feeding on hemp-seed. The hybrid died in
the plumage just described, and was presented to the Belfast Museum.

Rasores. — Hybrids between the male silver pheasant {Phasianus
vydliemerns) and female common pheasant (P. colchicus) have been
produced at Seaforde, county Down ; and between the male common
pheasant and domestic bantam fowl {Gallus domesticus), kept by E. K.
Sinclaire, Esq., at Belfast. Although this hen laid many eggs, one only
was productive ; the hybrid resembled more its female than its male
parent.

Natatores. Anatidce. — Black Sivan [Cygnus atrata, Lath.), male ;
Mute Swan {Cygnus olor), female. — In the proceedings of the Zoolo-
gical Society of London for 1847 (p. 97), the following appeared. —
" Account of a black and white mottled swan on the water in the
demesne of the Earl of Shannon, Castle Martyr, county Cork ; by
Maurice Glencon, gamekeeper.

"In the year 1843, a male black swan paired with a white female
swan ; she laid six eggs, and hatched four cygnets. Before they got
to the age of six months, three of them met with untimely deaths.
This bird [the remaining cj^gnet ?], in 184.5, paired with its father,
and laid four eggs, which came to nothing. It is very like the father
about the head, but about the body it resembles the white swan. It
lives on the water with others, black swans and white swans, and agrees
with both.

" The above statement may be relied on as authentic and correct,
because I have witnessed it from beginning to ending." Castle
Martyr,- June 1847.

The pairing of a male black swan with a Bewick's swan, but from
which no young resulted, has been noticed at p. 21.

Mute Swan {Cygnus olor), and Follsli Swan {C. immutahills). — Mr,
Yarrell mentions that a Polish swan has paired with a mute swan on
the waters in the gardens of the Zoological Society, Phoenix Park,
Dublin (vol. iii. p. 227, 2nd edit.). Mr. E. Ball informs me that the

APPENDIX. 459

case referred to was as follows. — " A female hybrid Polish swan (bred
between this species and the mute swan) paired with a mute swan at
the garden, Phoenix Park, and during two seasons had eggs, on which
she sat, but no young were produced. She may have been robbed of
the eggs before the proper time for incubation, as the nest was found
empty ;" — it is not stated whether in one or both seasons.

Two adult hybrids between the mute and Polish swan, of which the
bird just noticed was one, came under my observation in March 1847,
in the garden already mentioned. The bill and fleshy excrescence at
its upper base were perfectly similar in colour to the same parts in the
mute swan, from which the birds, on the whole, differed only in being-
smaller, and having the legs and feet of a dirty greenish flesh-colour,
instead of black.

Canada Goose {A. Canadensis), male, and Common Tame Goose {A.
ferns). May House (island of Islay), Scotland, January 20, 1849, —
A male of the former, bred with a tame goose here, and I saw the
well-marked progeny nearly as large as the male parent, with similar
markings, but in much fainter and less decided colours ; the mark on
the cheek, instead of white, being " whitey-brown," &c.

Canada Goose and Bernacle {A. bernicla). Islay House, January 20,
1849. — I saw a couple of very handsome and peculiar-looking birds
here to day, which were sent from the collection at Knowsley, the
Earl of Derby's ; and were said to have been produced between these
species. Their parentage being partially from the Canada goose, was
at once evident, as they had its cheek mark, but of a " whitey-brown "
hue : — they were pure white round the base of the bill. Plumage of
the body generally resembled that of the Canada goose. Their legs
were reddish-yellow, and one bird had them much lighter in colour
than the other. The bills were very small and bernacle-like.

Sandwich Island Goose {Bernicla Sandvicensis, Vigors), male, and
Tame Goose. Islay House, January 20, 1849. — Sandwich Island
geese, of which I saw a pair, were brought here some years ago. The
gander deserted his proper partner and " took up " with a common
tame goose, in the neighbouring village of Bridgend. Two young-
were produced the first year and seven the second. The goose was
unfortunately killed before the third year. The place chosen for the
nest was on the ground, in the churchyard, beneath the shelter of a
grave-stone which inclined much from the perpendicular. Here the

460 APPExVDIX.

gander most assiduously attended to and defended his partner, flying
at any one that approached her, and biiffetiug him with all his strength.

Tame Goose, male, and Canada Goose, female, produced a brood of
three young at the Falls (Mr. Sinclaire's country-place), near Belfast.
These hybrids were coarse, ugly-looking birds, and their carriage that
of the tame goose, without any indication of the fine bold bearing
of the A. Canadensis, which, in colour, they resembled more than their
other parent. Their neck and head were of a pale " clove-brown,"
wdicre those of A. Canadensis are black, and a mere lighter shade of
this colour on the sides of the head, took the place of the pure white
mark in this species.

Swan Goose {Anser cy(jnoides), male, and Tame Goose, female, suc-
cessively for some years produced broods at Wolfhill, near Belfast.
The general appearance of these hybrids at once denoted their origin,
partaking, as it obviously did, of the characters of both parents.

Bean Goose {Anser segetum), male, Canada Goose, female. — According
to Mr. E,. Ball, two hybrids, presumed from their appearance to have
•been so produced, were bred in the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park,
Dublin, in 1843. They are very handsome birds, and apparently
heavier than either parent ; in plumage liker the female than the male :
— of late (December 1850), they have become lighter-coloured in the
neck than formerly. The hybrids go about as if under sexual influence,
but do not take up with other species. The female parent paired two or
three times with the swan goose {A. cpgnokles), but there has been no
produce.

Spur-io'mged Goose {A. Gambensis), male, and Egyptian Goose {A.
JEgyptiacus), female, have bred in the gardens of the Zoological So-
ciety, Phoenix Park, Dublin, as akeady mentioned by Yarrell.

Slielldrake {A. vulpanser), male, and Common Tame Duck (A. boschas),
female. — A shelldrake, at the Palls, bred two or three seasons succes-
sively with a tame duck, in colour like a wild one, and it is believed
(though not now positively remembered) with the same individual each
season. Several young — very handsome birds — were produced in
each instance. Neither males nor females had a Avhite feather in their
plumage, but were of a uniform brownish colour, with a bronzed me-
tallic lustre ; the males deeper in tint than the females. They had a
fine erect carriage like the shelldrake. A pair of these hybrids, male
and female, were given to John Templeton, Esq., of Cranmore, near

APPENDIX. 461

Belfast, the distinguished naturalist, who assured Mr. Wm. Sinclaire that
the male bird bred with one of his tame ducks, adding, that the progeny
at once marked their descent.

Muscovy Buck {Anas moschata), male, and Tame Duck, female,
have often at the Falls produced hybrids, which were considered excel-
lent for the table. A gentleman, long resident in Virginia, informs us
that such hybrids are bred to a considerable extent there, and in
other of the United States, for food.

Pintail {A. ticuta), male, and Wild Duck, female. — Mr. R. Ball
remarks that " a hybrid, produced between the male pintail and wild
duck, in the gardens of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, is a
bird of much beauty. It is in its third or fourth year (18i6), and is
rather wild, seldom coming near to any person. This bird occasionally
disappears for months at a time, but where, or how it goes, is not
known, as it has never been seen to fly."

TFild Duck {A. boschas), male, and Pintail, female. — Birds have been
so bred in the Zoological Gardens, Phccnix Park, Dublin. A male of
these hybrids has annually paired with a wild duck, but no produce
has been known. This hybrid flies much about, and while hundreds of
other ducks have been shot by persons in the neighbourhood, he has
hitherto, for a number of years, escaped (December 1850).

Mr. Yarrell, in his 'British Birds,' has noticed a number of hybrid
Anatidce under the respective species, and Mr. Bartlett has given, in
the ' Annals of Nat. Hist.' (vol. xix. p. 424), a list of those known to
have been produced ; but the fullest information I have seen, is con-
tained in a memoir by Baron De Selys-Longehanips, specially on the
subject, towards which some of the preceding matter was contributed
by Mr. Ball and myself. There is no date of publication to the copy
of this memou' sent to me by the author, but it appeared subsequent to
the autumn of 1845, when the Baron visited Ireland. It is marked as
published in vol. xii. (No. 10) of the "Bulletins" of the Royal Aca-
demy of Brussels.

With respect to the most important point connected with hybrids,
— viz., how far they are prolific among themselves, or in connexion
with genuine species, — I am in possession of very little original infor-
mation. This is an important subject in reference to the permanence
of species, and one to which sufficient attention has not hitherto been
properly directed. Contributions towards it, that I remember to

462 APPENDIX.

have come under my notice of late years, are by Mr. Blyth,. in Charles-
worth's Mag. Nat. Hist, for 1837, p. 81, and Mr. Eyton, in the same
volume, p. 358 ; the former introduces the subject in a paper on
" Psychological Distinctions between Man and other Animals," and
the latter in one bearing the title of " Remarks on the Theory of
Hybridity." Mr. Westwood, in 'Trans. Entom. Soc' vol. iii. p. 196,
has a paper entitled " Description of a Hybrid Smeriuthus, with re-
marks on Hybridism in general." Dr. S. Moreton, in the American
Journal of Science for 1847, published a memoir on the general sub-
ject, entitled " Hybridity of Animals considered in reference to the
question of the Unity of the Human Species."

A FEW NOTES ON THE MOULTING OF FEATHEKS IN SPRING.

So little attention has been bestowed on this subject, that I copy a
few casual notes. Adult birds of the Lams mariims, L. argentatus, and
L. canus, having the head and neck speckled all over with blackish
feathers in winter, though of the purest white in summer, suggested
the question how this change was effected, and on examination of those
parts of the bird, at the vernal season in various years, new, or pen-feathers
were found springing, as in autumn, preparatory to the general moult.
There was, however, a general thinness or deficiency of j)lumage on the
heads and necks of these species, until the pen-feathers were matured,
so much so, that the chief taxidermist in Belfast considered birds killed
from the end of Etbruary until the full summer plumage was attained,
unfit to be set up. In like manner, these pen-feathers were found in
that portion of the head of the Larus ridibimdus which is white in
winter and black in summer.

La?'us argentatus. March 14, 1848. — Of two adult birds shot to-
day in company, and which probably had paired, the smaller one
(proved by dissection a male) has the head and neck wholly white ; —
on examination, a great many white feathers, in a young state, appear.
The larger bird {female) exhibits more than one-third of the brownish-
grey winter feathers on the head and neck. New white feathers appear
plentifully in pens on those parts, and a very few are apparent at the
anterior part of the back and belly. The ova, in this individual, did
not exceed one-third the size of an ordinary pea.

February, 1849. Adult bird examined early in the month, had the

APPENDIX. 463

grey winter feathers of head and neck falling oif, and new white ones
appearing. In a bird shot so early as the 12tli of this month, in
1846, the neck was pure white.

March 10, 1849. Adult shot to-day, exhibited pure white plumage
on head and neck, and other new white feathers were in pens.

Larus ridibundus. March 16, 1848. — Two of these birds, shot to-
day, were brought to me to prove that the white feathers of the
head fall off in spring, and are replaced by wholly new black feathers.
One bird was perfectly adult, and did show this ; the black feathers
being so far advanced beneath the white ones, that when these latter
drop off, the head is perfectly clothed in black, which accounts for the
sudden transition that takes place. There are many pen feathers through-
out the entire neck of this bird, as in that of the herring-gulls exa-
mined a few days ago — a circumstance which I note in consequence of
the change of colour being confined to the head in the one species,
and prevailing throughout the neck in the other.

April 16, 1850. An adult bird of this species obtained by Dr.
J. D. Marshall, last October, retained (as he informs me) its winter
plumage on the head (pure white, with the black ear-spot) until the
6th of April, when it commenced getting black, and on this day had a
perfect black head, having been just ten days in acquiring the change.

July 14, 1850. I examined Dr. J, D. jVIarshall's living bird, already
noticed, and a finer masked gull (L. capistratus), as to form of mask
and its pale broccoli-brown colour, could not possibly be.

Lams canns. March 7, 1849. — An immature bird, having a few
feathers only of adult plumage on the back, has the entire feathers of
the throat new.

Larus rissa. February 1849 (end of). — Grey winter feathers of
head and neck dropping off in an adidt bird, and new white feathers
appearing.

Alca torda. February 25, 1848. — An adult razorbill, killed at
Strangford Lough on the 22nd, was brought to me in the flesh, that I
might see the state of plumage of its neck and head. Forehead and
top of head (which are black in summer and winter) exhibit both
old and new black feathers. Feathers on sides and back of neck either
white or black, the white falling out, and young ])lack rising to supply
their place : the black are sufficiently grown to completely clothe the
bird before the white ones fall out. There is no moult s-oine: on in

464 APPENDIX.

any part of this bird, but iu the head and neck, where the change takes
place in colour between the summer and winter plumage. This change
is continued far down, the hinder part of the neck to near the back.
A specimen shot with this, is said to have been in summer plumage.

Motacilla Yurrelll. February 1849 (middle of). — Wliite feathers of
throat falling off, and young black ones appearing. All the dark body
plumage of the bird had become darker than in winter, without a
change of feathers.

Vanelliis cristatus. February, 1849 (end of). — White feathers of
throat falling out and new black ones appearing.

PJialacrocorax carlo. March 3, 1849. — One of these birds, in the
plmnage of Bewick's crested corvorant, shot in Belfast Bay to-day,
came under my notice ; it had white patches on thighs, white bristly
feathers on neck, plumage white, from near the eye downwards
round the base of the bill ; but it was not in the very fullest state of
this plumage : there was an elongated crest of greenish-black feathers
on the back of the head, even more fully shown than in Yarrell's figure
(vol. iii. p. 480, 2nd edit.). This bird was a female, and contained
many minute eggs, about sixty altogether ; the largest the size of a
small pea, and others varying almost to that of clover-seed. The
whole bird was in a state of moult, except the quill and tail-feathers ;
two of the latter, however, being so. All the dark-coloured plumage
was of a deeper tint than in winter. The belly had lost its winter
white, and was now black.

Motacilla hoarula. March 10, 1842. — One shot to-day had the
parts of the plumage, and those only that are of a different colom* in the
breeding season, in moult. A few of the old feathers remained on
the tlu'oat changed to black, but these it was believed would drop off,
and give place to new ones.

Charadr'ms pluvialis. March 10, 1849. — A bird shot to-day was in
spring plumage, as described by Yarrell ('Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 386,
1st edit.). Old feathers appear with black, white, and golden mark-
ings, as do new also ; some with white and others with black shafts
bear these three markings. The shaft and lower portion of the fea-
ther is sometimes white where the plumage is black at tip,* and black

* This is also tlie case iii one shot ou April 27th, aud in a grey plover, in adult
summer plumage, preserved in the Belfast Museum. Mr. J. R. Garrett has re-
marked it also iu the spiing moult of the lapwing aud pied wagtail.

APPENDIX. 465

at either side towards tlie base, but the shaft is more frequently black
than white in feathers displaying any of the former coloiu*.

The notes here given, and more particularly those on Lcunis ridi-
bimdus, are opposed to Mr. Yarrell's view. The difference, however, is
not positive, but in degree only, excepting in the case of the species
last named, which that gentleman, in the one instance detailed by him,
describes as attaining the black head of summer without the addition of a
new feather. Certaiidy in the preceding instances the change of plumage
in those parts varying in summer and winter was chiefly owing to new
feathers, in some of them wholly so.

AGE OF BIRDS.

This chapter is introduced to record the age attained by a redbreast
and cockatoo. The other instances are noticed simply as positive facts,
coming under the observation of persons whose correctness can be
relied on, without any reference to their being of unusual occurrence.

To the Rev. J. Scott Porter I am indebted for the following com-
munication.

" Belfast, March 3rd, 1845.
" My dear Sir,

" I sit down, at your request, to put in a written form a circum-
stance which I lately mentioned to you in conversation, tending to
show that some of the small birds may attain a much greater age than
has commonly been suspected.

" At Hill-head, near Ballymena, I repeatedly saw a very decent-looking
man, who lives in Ballymena, but who has some land near the entrance
to Mr. Gihon's grounds, feeding a robin-redbreast, which was so tame
and familiar that he came whenever he was whistled for, and ate his
food from the extended hand of his friend ; even though a stranger, as
1 was, might be present within a few yards.

" This is remarkable, but not wonderful : for the robin is wxll known
to be a courageous bird, easily tamed, and capable of attachment ; but
on entering into conversation, Mr. Logan surprised me not a little by
stating that this identical bird has lived in these habits of intimacy
with himself, for upwards of thirty years.

"He said it was in the year 1812 or 1813, that their familiarity
commenced. He was employed in leveUing an old ditch, when the

VOL. III. 2 K

466 APPENDIX.

bird attracted his notice by its eagerness in searching for food among
the fresh-stirred earth : it often came very close to the spade, in search
of a small white worm, of which it appeared to be particularly fond.
Mr, Logan, acting upon this hint, gathered all of these that he could
find, and hid them from the bird under a piece of slate ; when he had
collected a considerable number, he prevailed on the robin, by the
tempting display of them, to come and pick them, first from the blade
of the spade, and afterwards from his hand. This was the beginning
of their friendship, which had continued, without interruption, till the
time of my visit, and probably continues still. Mr. Logan had never
been absent from hqgae for more than a few days at a time during the
interval, and had seldom failed to feed him from his hand at least once
a day while at home.

" It occuiTed to me that there might have been a number of birds,
one of which had succeeded the other in this intercourse ; but on put-
ting a series of cpiestions to find whether there were any grounds for
this supposition, I could discover none, for Mr. Logan had never had
two pet robins at the same time ; he had never noticed two birds con-
tending for his favours ; he had never observed one bird watching
eagerly in the hedges while another was feeding upon his hand ; nor
had he ever found his daily visitant more shy at any one time than he
had been formerly. Throughout the whole period of thirty-two years,
or upwards, during which the intimacy had subsisted, the bird had
always promptly obeyed his signal. He had, therefore, not the slightest
doubt upon his mind that the same identical redbreast had been his
familiar during the whole time ; and he thinks it quite impossible that
he could be mistaken upon the point.

" I have only to add that Mr. and Mrs. Gihon, and also Dr. Patrick
of Ballymena, assured me, from their knowledge of the man's character,
that he is incapable of knowingly attempting to deceive. He is a very
respectable person in his rank of life. They have long known him,
and they aU concur in this statement. They have also been aware of
his familiarity with the bird for several years past, and have seen occa-
sional instances of it, though none of them could, of course, pretend to
verify the bird's personal identUi/, or to state how long the intimacy
had subsisted.

" Believe me, dear Sir, very truly yours,

" J. Scott Porter.

APPENDIX. 467

" P.S. — I sent this letter clown to Ballymena. Mr. and Mrs. Gihon
and Dr. Patrick assure me that the character given of Mr. Logan is
perfectly correct ; the letter was read to him, and he adheres, in every
particular, to liis former statement. He does not agree with me, how-
ever, in considering the robin to be easily tamed. The person who
keeps Mr. Gihon's gate (also a respectable person in lier line of life)
lias observed the bird for nine years (ever since she came into her pre-
sent post), and has no doubt of its identity for that lengtli of time."

I regard this information on the age of the robin as very interesting,
from the circumstance that it is almost impossible to ascertain the age
attained by birds in a state of nature.

A blackbird, noticed in Vol. I., was kept alive in a cage for twenty
or twenty-one years, and a caged goldfinch lived with a friend of mine
for seventeen years ; its age when first obtained being unknown. It
is common for the canary-tinch to live at least twelve years in confine-
ment, and a piping bullfinch, as mentioned at Vol. I. p. 365, was in
the possession of a friend for about twenty years, when I made a note
of the circumstance ; how much longer it lived I do not know, nor am
I aware of its age when he obtained it. In Vol. II., a silver pheasant
is mentioned as living in captivity for twenty-one or twenty-two years ;
and in Vol. III., a pintail duck thirteen years on a pond, where it was
at last wantonly killed.

At an agricultural exhibition in Dungannon, a goose was exhibited
a few years ago, on account of the honourable age it had attained. It
has since died, aged forty-five years.

A " common green parrot," brought to the north of Ireland about
the time of the battle of Waterloo — 1815 — died in the winter of 1848,
having been at least thirty-three years old ; — its age when procui'ed
was not known.

An old lady left by will to Charles Telfair, Esq., a gentleman
honourably known in connexion with the Mauritius, a large sulphur-
crested cockatoo (Cacatna galerita), after having it, as believed, about
twenty-five years. It was a great pet with this gentleman for thirty-
eight years, until his decease, after which it was brought by his niece
to Belfast, and has now been here for nearly eighteen years. I went to
see the bird in March 18I<6, when it was in the highest health, and
I was told that for the fifty-one years at least, during wlucli it had been
in the possession of Mr. Telfair and its present owner, the cockatoo

468 APPENDIX.

had been daily brought to dine with the family, and had partaken of
their fare. It ate potatoes and flesh-meat, or potatoes and butter,
taking twice the quantity of the latter that it did of the vegetable. The
report I had of this bird in December 1850 was, that the sight of
one eye is gone, and a cataract spreading over the other, and that it
has a cough, accompanied by the ejection of phlegm. With such un-
pleasant symptoms of old age, it is to be feared that we cannot reckon
on its life being; much longer extended.*

Notice of migratory Birds which alighted on, or tcere seen from, H.M.S.

Beacon, Captain Graves, on the passage from Malta to the Morea, at

the end of April 1841. [I published this paper in the eighth volume

of the ' Annals of Natural History ' (1842).]

" Having been favoured by my friend Captain Graves, R.N., with
an invitation to accompany him during the projected government
survey of the island of Candia, I, with Mr. E. Forbes (who had
received from the Admiralty the honorary appointment of Naturalist
oil the occasion), left Malta in PI. M.S. Beacon, on the 21st of April.
The first port we sailed for was Navarino, for the purpose of watering
the ship. The passage occupied seven days. It being just the period
of the year when many species of birds which make Europe their
abode only in the more genial seasons, after having passed the winter
in Africa, were crossing the Mediterranean to their summer quarters,
we were often gratified by a sight of them, either passing, resting
briefly on the rigging, or remaining sometimes so long as a day or more
about the ship.

"The following notes were made upon the subject. The prevailing
wind of the day is set down : the progress noted is what we had made
at sunset.

" ^^;r?"Z 32. — Wind W., forty miles E. of Malta. An owl alighted
on the vessel and remained a short time. I saw it very well and near,
luit could not be certain of its species. Looking over the collection

* In ilie Belfasi Neivs-letler, OcloLur 28tli, 1812, iheve is mention of a green
parrot shot at Byrt, which proved, from a gold ring on its neck, to have helonged
to Captain Paekenham, of the Saldaulia ship of wai', lost with all her crew olf
Lough SwiUy. The loss of the ship was on the 4th of December of the preceding
year; so the bird had probably existed at large, on its own resonrccs, for ten months,
including a winter.

APPENDIX. 469

at the British Museum and referring to Gould's ' Birds of Europe '
since my return, have not satisfied me on the point. Other examples
of the same species were seen on the passage, and afterwards in the
island of Paros. It seems to be the most common of the small
migratory owls to the south of Europe, and I have little doubt is the
species noticed by Sibthorp in his papers on Greece (published in
Walpole's Memoirs) as the Strix passerina. — Blue-headed wagtail
{MotaciUa neglecia, Goidd) : two of these bii'ds, both females, were
about the vessel all day, and very tame ; one of them flew into our
cabin. It was amusing to see them fly-catching on the deck, where
they appeared to great advantage, and met with considerable success.
Their manner is, poking out the neck most ludicrously, opening wide
the bill, and then — making the unerring dart at their victim.*

"Common swallow (ff«V«?i(?o rustica). Two remained sometime
about the ship, perching on the rigging, and hawking over the deck in
pursuit of flies.

"April 23.— Wind S.E., 80 miles from Malta and 50 from Cape
Passaro, the nearest land. A lesser grey shrike {Lanius mmor), of
which I had a near view several times; a whitethroat {Salvia cinerea),
a willow-wren {Sylvia Trochilus), and a black-headed buntingf {Eni-
beriza rnelanocephala), flew on board. Two individuals of the Motacilla
neglecta remained for some time in the vessel, as did a wheatear {Saxi-
cola QLuaHtlie) all day. A house marten {Hinindo urbica) flew into the
cabin and was found dead shortly afterwards : it had not met with any
molestation on board. The oflicers of the Beacon have frequently
kuown birds of diff"erent species, when crossing the Mediterranean, thus
lly into the cabin, secrete themselves, and die. A quail {Perdix Coturnix)
was captured on board, and appeared to be dying at the time.

''April 24. — Wind i).E., 90 miles E. of Sicily: Syracuse the
nearest land. Several of the Molacilla neglecta flew on board ; one of
them entered the cabin very boldly, and entertaiired us much by its
familiarity. Persons passing in and out of the room did not frighten it
from fly-catching, in which it succeeded by running, leaping, or taking

" * When, oil the 16th of April, on our passage from Marseilles to Malta, aud
about twenty miles southward of the most southern point of Italy, two of the
Molacilla neglccUt, both mules, flew on board llie steam- packet ; they were very
tame, and remained in the vessel for half an hour.

"t A continental sj)eeies, aud not the bird — Euiheriza Sc/ueniclus — kuown in
some parts of the British islands by this name.

470 APPENDIX.

short flights at its prey : this bird even alighted on our shoulders, and
picked flies oft' our clothes.

" Two or three hoopoes ( Upupa Epops) came on board, rested for
a short time, and proceeded on their flight ; a turtle dove {Cohimha
Turtur) did the same.

"A flock consisting of twelve ibises {Ihls falc'mellus, Temm.) seen
first at a distance coming from the south-west, flew close past the
vessel, and continued directly in the same course, or towards the north-
east, until lost to view.

"April 25. — Wind N.E., 58 miles from Calabria, the nearest land :
135 miles from Mount Etna at sunset, when it was visible. A scops-
eared owl {Strix Scops) was knocked down and captured just as he
had clutched a lesser whitethroat {Sylvia Curruca), of which species

two or three individuals came on board. A shrike (La/mis ),

which from the height it generally kept at I could not see well enough
to distinguish its species, seized a Sylvia Trochilus, all of which it
ate except the bill : of the latter species, one taken by ourselves met
with better treatment, and, perching quietly on the finger, was so
carried about to feed on flies, which it seized when witliin reach,
never leaving the hand if the fly could possibly be captured from it.
A female golden oriole {Oriolus Galbida), a redstart {Thcenicura

ruticilla), and a lark {Alauda ), of what species I could not be

certain, came on board — the redstart was caught. Several of the
Hinmdo rusiica about the ship. A wryneck {Yunx torcjuilla) was
captured, and on being taken within reach of flies, at once picked them
up.* When turning about its neck in the manner pecidiar to the
species, this bird was compared by some of the oflScers to a particular
species of snake found in Greece, which, like it, has a dark band on
the head and neck. ,

" Two or three of the Upupa Epops and a Columha Turtur flew
on board, but did not remain long. ' Large and small hawks ' were
reported to me as seen about the ship ; but the goatsucker and
cuckoo might, from their general appearance and mode of flight, be not
improbably looked upon as ' small hawks.'

" Jj)ril 26.' — Wind N.E., 86 miles from Zante, the nearest land :

" * The birds wliicli, in addition to the wryneck, fed freely on Hies, when held in
the hand within )-each of them immediately after capture, were Syhia Trochilus,
Motacilla neglecta, Ilirimdo rustica, and Hlrundo urbica.

APPENDIX. 471

130 miles from Navarino. A fine male woodchat {Lanius rnfus), a
white-collared flycatcher {Miiscicapa albicoUis), and one of Natterrer's
warblers {Si/lvia Natterreri) were caught on board.

" A Sylvia Trochilus and a chifi^-chaff {Sylvia rufa) were found dead
in my cabin ; they had not been caught or injured in any way on
board, 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. A Sylvia Ciirnica, a sub-alpine warbler (Curruca leucopogon,
Gould), a Saxicola CEnanthe, a whinchat (Saxicola Riihetra), a pied
wheatear {Saxicola leucomeld), and an Alauda, of the same species as
noticed yesterday, flew on board, as did two or three individuals of
Motacilla neglecta. Several of the Hirundo rustica were about the vessel
during the day, and some remained, perching on one of the boats,
throughout the night. Three bee-eaters {Merops apiaster) came from
the south, and flew close past the ship without alighting. I saw four
of the Colmnha Turtur come from the south to-day ; two of them
singly, the other two in company : one only alighted on the ship, and
in the evening was caught when asleep.

"April 37. — Wind N., 45 miles from Zante, the nearest land, and
in sight : GO miles W. of the Morea. A kestrel {Falco Tinnunculus)
flew close past the ship, and a ' much larger hawk,' which did not come
under my own observation, was stated to have been seen.

" Two females of the Oriolus Galbula which flew on board were
captured. Two or three males of the Muscicapa alhicollis visited us
to-day, and as many females either of this species or of the pied fly-
catcher {Muscicapa Inctuosa), but most probably of the former.

" A Saxicola Uuhetra and a Motacilla neglecta came to the vessel.
About a dozen of the Hirundo rustica, which rested last night on the
rigging, went off" this morning. Throughout the afternoon and
towards evening many more arrived, and continued flying about the
ship in considerable numbers.

" A few of the Hirundo urhica appeared this morning, and remained
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 Hir. rustica ; as flies were numerous, they probably ob-
tained plenty of food : at four o'clock p.m. all of this species were gone.

" In the morning a Merops apiaster, coming from the south-west,
alighted for a moment on the vessel, and then flew towards Zante, or

473 APrENDTX.

in a north-east direction : soon afterwards a flock, consisting of fifteen,
came from the same qnartcr, liawked about the leeward side of the
vessel for a short time, and then proceeded north-cast : 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 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 its position for a
di'ier 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 on account of their gaudy plumage
not very inaptly. After these left us, others were seen throughout
the day, but generally single birds ; they rarely alighted : all flew in the
same course.*

"A few goatsuckers {Caprhmdgns Ein-opmts) appeared about the
ship to-day, and alighted ; they were all single except in one instance,
when two were in company. A few individuals of this species were
likewise seen within the .last two or three days. A couple were shot
this afternoon. Throughout to-day the Columha Tnrtnr was observed
coming from the south, and generally single; very few alighted.

" All the birds seen on migration bore right on in the course they
had come, whether they rested temporarily on the vessel or otherwise.
They all came from a southerly direction, either due south, S.W., or S.E.
The wind was moderate, the weather fine and dry during the whole
passage, so that all the species we saw were in the ordinary course of
migration, and none driven to the ship by any stress of weather.

" Although not coming within the title of this communication,
inasmuch as it had already taken up its summer quarters, I shall here
mention the alpine swift {Cypselns Melba), which, upon om* entering
the fine bay of Navarino, on the morning of the 28th, appeared in
great numbers careering high overhead. Of the Hirundines generally,
it may be remarked, that from our arrival in France on the evening of
the 1st of April, we did not see any of the species until the 9th,

" * When not very far to the westward of Cape INIatapan, on the 1st of May, a
flock of twenty -nine of the Merops apiaster flew close past the ship towards the
Morea.

APPENDIX. 473

when going down the Rhone from Lyons to Avignon. About half-way
between these places several of the Cyp. melba were seen flying over
the river, and likewise at all suitable places, from where they first
appeared, until we reached Avignon. Hirundo rmtica and H. urbica
were likewise seen several times between Lyons and Avignon, but were
nowhere numerous. The first T saw of these species (but which of
them could not be determined, from the distance) was a small flock
Hying northwards, evidently on migration. All, indeed, which were
seen to-day were, I think, only temporarily here, and would, after
having got sufiicient rest and food, move northwards. A very few
sand martins {Hirundo riparia) were also seen about the Ehone to-day.
At Malta, on the 17th of April, we first met with the common swift
{Cypselns nmraiius), where, together with the three species oi Hirundo
just mentioned, numbers were flying low and in company, wherever
we walked about the island ; the day was very fine and warm : all
four species were about as numerous as in their most favoured haunts
in the British Islands.

" On- the 18th of April, when walking in the neighbourhood of
Valetta (Malta), six little plovers (Charadrius minor) in a flock alighted
very near us, apparently to rest, and after a short time proceeded in
their course, which was in a north-west direction."

The birds seen on tliis occasion seem to me very interesting for more
than one reason. Persons even of education still exist who are
incredulous respecting the fact that many species which in summer
frequent the British Islands, winter south of the Mediterranean, and
cross that sea annually on their northern migration in the spring ; but
surely the fact of twenty-three of them having been seen crossing
the Mediterranean during several successive days in spring, and all
flying northward, should be a conclusive proof ; in addition to which
it may be stated that migratory species only were observed.* The
twenty-tliree species alluded to are the

Kestrelf Falco tinnunculus.

Passerine Owl StrLt passerina.

Scops -eared Owl „ scops.

* Among them, too, were four of our smallest birds — Sylvia trochilus, S. rtifa,
.S. cinerea, and S. curruca.

t The kestrel, though permanently resident to some extent in the British Islands,
is a weU-knowu bird of passage in the south of Europe.

VOL. III. 2 L

4-7-± APPENDIX.

Woodchat Lanius rufus.

Pied Flycatcher ? Muscicapa luctnosa ?

Golden Oriole Oriolus galbula.

Redstart Phcenicura ruticilla.

Whinchat Saxicola ruhetra.

Wlieatear „ cenanthe.

Whitethroat Sylvia cinerea.

Lesser Wliitethroat .... „ curruca.

Willow Wren ,, troehilus.

ChifF-chaff „ ri^fa.

Blue-lieaded Wagtail .... Motacilla negleda.

Wryneck Yimx torquilla.

Bee-eater Merops apiaster.

Hoopoe TJpupa epops.

Swallow Hirundo riistica.

House Martin „ urhica.

Goatsucker Caprimulgus Europfeus.

Turtle Dove Columba titrtur.

Quail Perdix coturnix.

Ibis Ibis falcinellns.

Besides the British species seen, were several others, all migratory
in the south of Europe, viz. : —

Lamm minor.

Lanius ?

Muscicapa albicolUs.
Saxicola leucomsla.
Curruca leucopogon.
Sylvia Naterreri.

Alauda .''

Emberiza melanocepJiala.

It is interesting, also, to observe that some individuals of species,
the great body of which must have passed some time before, still
continued moving northward ; — the wheatear and chiiF-chafF, for
instance, two of the earliest migrants northward in Europe. The
great flight of quails had, likewise, passed some time before, as I had
learned at Naples and Malta, when travelling southward to join the
Beacon.

APPENDIX. 475

Illiterate people, both in England and Ireland, unable to under-
stand the subject of migration, account for the disappearance of the
cuckoo by imagining that it is " turned'iiito a hawk" in winter ; and
some of all classes, knowing the slow and slovenly flight of the land-
rail (Jtallus crex), cannot believe that it has sufficient power of wing to
migrate far. But in the spring it proceeds from Afnca as far north
as Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, and in the autumn returns again, to
winter on that continent. In Provence, on the Mediterranean coast of
France, and in Tuscany, it is as regular a bird of passage as in the
British Islands. In Provence we learn that " they appear with the
quails (but are far less numerous), and frequent the same places. As
they are nuich larger, and always appear to conduct them, they have
received the name of the Kinff of the quails.''* In Italy it bears that
name also ; — Re di quaglie.^ My friend, Mr. W. R. Wilde, met with
the species at Algiers, in December, and was told that it wintered
there. J

* Duval-Joave, iu 'Zoologist,' vol. iii. p. 1113.
t Savi, ' Ornitologia Toscaua,' vol. ii. p. 375.

:j: A note, contributed by Charles Ensor, Esq., relates to the water-rail, a resident
species in the British Islands, being takeu at sea. He remarks in an accompanying
letter : — " I have mentioned the course of the wind, north-east, and although that wind
was off the land, it was so exceedingly light, that I do not think it could have blown
the bird away from the land. It did not show any symptoms of exhaustion, but was
quite lively when captured."

The note made on the occasion is as follows : — " Lat. 47° N. ; long. 15° W. — At
sunset tliis eveuiug (August 3rd, 1836), a water-rail, Rnllus aquatlciis, flew on deck.
As I was anxious to ascertain how long it coidd be kept alive on board, I got the
carpenter to make a cage for it, and brought it into tlie cabin. We cauglit a tunny.
Scomber thynnus, the day previously, and it soon began to eat small pieces of the
fish ; it also greedily devoured any flies which came into the cage. We had had light
winds from the north-east for some days prior to the 3rd of August, and also after-
wards, which delayed our arrival at Liverpool until the 11th of that month. On ar-
riving abreast the lighthouse, at the entrance of the Mersey, I brought it on deck to
let it fly away ; it flew towards the lighthouse for about two hundred yards, and then
returned to the ship. I lauded that evening, and, on returning on board the foUow-
ing morning, was sorry to find that it had been eaten by a cat during the night."

ENGLISH
ALPHABETICAL INDEX

TO VOLS. I., II., & III.

Page.

Aberdevine vol. i. 264

Accentor, alpine i. 158, 241

hedge i. 156

Auk, black-billed iii. 235

great iii. 238

little iii. 218, 451

Avocet ii. 220

Bee-eater i. 367

Bernacle iii. 46, 449

white-faced iii. 46

Bittern ii. 160

American ii. 168

little ii. 159

Blackbird i. 142

mountain i. 149

rock i. 149

water i. 11 6

Blackcap i. 183

Black Game ii. 34

Bluebonnet i. 203

Brambliug i. 249

Bullfinch i. 274

pine i. 275

Bunting, black-headed i. 245

briar i. 241

cirl i. 244

common i. 241

corn i. 241

Page.
Bunting, Lapland .... vol. i. 241

mountain i. 237

ortolan i. 244

reed i. 245

snow i. 237

tawny i. 2^7

yellow i. 243

Bustard, great ii, 77

. little ii. 77

Butcher-bird, ash-coloured . . i. Ill

Buzzard i. 72

honey i. 77, iii. 435

moor i. 7 8

rough-legged i. 76

CapercaiUie ii. 31

Chaffinch i. 246

Chatterer, waxen i. 229

Chicken, Mother Gary's . . . iii. 418

ChiflF-chafF i. 195

Chough i. 298

Cornish i. 298

alpine i. 302

Cock of the Wood ii. 31

Coot, bald ii. 332

common ii. 332

Cormorant, common, or great iii. 240

green iii. 250

or crested iShag .... iii. 250

478

INDEX.

Corncrake vol. ii. 311

Coulterneb iii. 321

Crake, Baillon's ii. 331

little ii. 333

spotted ii. 318

Crane ii. 131

Creeper, tree i. 344

Crossbill i. 276, iii. 440

European white-winged i. 283

parrot i. 282

two-banded i. 283

Crow, carrion i. 307

grey i. 310

hooded i. 310

red-legged i. 298

Cuckoo i. 356, iii. 443

great spotted i. 364

yellow-billed American i. 365

Curlew ii. 184

jack ii. 196

May ii. 196

pigmy ii- 284

stone ii. 196

Cushat ii. 3

Dabchick iii. 190

Dipper i. 1 16

Diver, black-throated . iii. 201, 451

dun iii. 168

■ great northern iii. 194

imber iii. 194

lough iii. 159

red-throated iii. 203

speckled iii. 203

white-sided iii. 141

Dotterel ii. 93

ringed ii. 96

Dove, collared turtle ii. 18

Duck, American scaup .... iii. 140

Page.
Duck, bimaculated .... vol. iii. 91

black iii. 124

bridle iii. 134

bufFel-headed iii. 158

burrow iii. 66

eider iii. 114

feiTuginous iii. 65

golden-eye iii. 153

harlequin iii. 152

king iii. 116

long-tailed iii. 147

nyroca, or white-eyed iii. 134

scale iii. 162

scaup iii. 134

Steller's western .... iii. 117

surf iii. 118

summer, or wood . . . iii. 114

tufted iii. 141,451

velvet iii. 122

white-faced iii. 134

wild iii. 75, 450

Dunbird iii. 127

Dunlin .' ii. 288

Dunnock i. 156

Eagle, bald i. 29

golden i. 3

rough-footed i. 13

sea i. 14

spotted ..:... i. 13, iii. 433

— • — white-tailed i. 14

Egret ii. 156

Eider, king iii. 116

Falcon, Greenland . . i. 31, iii. 434

Gyr i. 31

Iceland i. 31

Jer i. 31

jieregrine i. 33

red-footed i. 50

479

Page.
Felt, big, or blue Pigeon vol. i. 130

small i. 140

Fern-owl i. 421

Fieldfare i. 130

Flycatclier, pied i. 115

spotted i. 113

white- collared i. 115

Fowl, common ii. 28

Dorking ii. 29

Fulmar . iii. 406

Gadwall ii. 86

Gallinule, common ii. 326

Martiuico ii. 331

olivaceous ii. 322

Gannet iii, 254, 451

Garden warbler i. 185

Garganey iii. 91

Goatsucker i. 421

God wit, black-tailed ii. 222

common, or bar-tailed ii. 225

Goldfinch i. 261

Goldspink i. 261

Goosander iii. 168

Goose, bean iii. 33, 449

brent iii. 51, 449

Canada iii. 24

Cape iii. 34

cravat iii. 24

Egyptian iii. 64

grey lag ... . iii. 28, 44, 448

Guinea iii. 24

laughing iii. 42

red-breasted iii. 64

short-billed, or pink-
footed iii. 41

solan iii. 254

swan iii. 24

spur-winged, or Gambo iii. 65

Page.
Goose, white-fronted vol. iii. 42, 449

Goshawk i. 63

Gowk i. 356

Grasshopper warbler i. 179

Grebe, blackchin iii. 190

crested iii. 172

dusky iii. 186

eared iii. 189

great-crested iii. 172

• horned, or Sclavonian iii. 186

little iii. 190

red-necked iii. 184

tippet iii. 172

Greenfinch i. 257

Greenshank ii. 217

Grosbeak i. 259

Grouse, black ii. viii., 34

red ii. ix., 47

white ii. 45

willow ii. 56

wood .^^. ii. 31

Guillemot, black iii. 214

bridled iii. 211

Brunnich's iii. 213

common iii. 207

foolish iii. 207

lesser iii. 207

ringed iii. 211

spotted iii. 214

thick-billed iii. 213

Guinea-fowl ii. 27

Gull, black -backed, great . . iii. 385

black-backed, lesser . iii. 371

black-headed iii. 322

Bonapartian iii. 317

brown-headed, or

masked iii. 334

common iii. 348

480

INDEX.

Page.

Gull, fork-tailed vol. iii. 309

glaucous iii. 388

herring iii. 356

Iceland iii. 885

ivoiy iii. 347

little iii. 315

red-legged iii. 322

Eoss's (note) iii. 314

Sabine's iii. 309

silvery iii. 356

Harrier, ash-coloured i. 83,427,ii.viii

hen i. 81

marsh i. 78, iii. 435

Montagu's i. 83, 427

Hawfinch i. 259, iii. 439

Heather-bleater ii. 262

Hedge warbler i. 156

Heron ii. 133

great white ii. 157

little ii. 159

night ii. xii., 173

purple ii. 155

squacco ii. 158

Hobby i. 49, iii. 434

Hooper iii. 3

Hoopoe i. 353, iii. 442

Ibis, glossy ii. 182

Imber, lesser iii. 201

Jackdaw i. 323

red-legged i. 298

Jay i. 339

Kestrel i. 55

Uttle i. 60

Kingfisher i. 369

belted i. 373

Kite i. 70

Kittiwake iii. 340

Knot iii. 306

Land-rail vol. ii. 311

Lanuer i. 48

Lapwing ii. 110

Lark, common i. 231

crested i. 235

field i. 227

shore i. 236

short-toed i. 236

sky i. 231

wood i. 236

Linnet, common i. 267

green i. 257

grey i. 267

mountain ... i. 272, iii. 440

Magpie i. 328

Maflard i. 75

Martin, house i. 389

purple i. 407

sand i. 400

May-bird ii. 196

May-fowl ii. 196

Merganser, hooded iii. 161

red-breasted iii. 162

Merlin i. 51

Moorhen ii. 326

Morillon iii. 153

Moss-cheeper i. 227

Mountain-fiuch i. 249

Nightjar i. 421

Noddy iii. 308

Nun, white iii. 159

Nuthatch i. 344

Oriole, golden .... i. 154, iii. 436

Osprey i. 29, iii. 434

Ouzel, ring ii. 149

rose-coloured i. 295

water i. 116

Owl, barn i. 92

INDEX.

481

Page.

Owl, eagle vol. i. 85

fern i. 421

little i. 86

loag-eared i. 86

scops-eared i. 85

short-eared i. 88

snowy i. 95, iii. 435

tawny i. 94

white i. 92

Oyster-catcher ii. 125

Parrot, sea iii. 221

Partridge, common ii. 58

red-legged ii. 65

Pastor, rose-coloured i. 295

Pea-fowl ii. 27

Peewit ii. 110

Pelican {note) iii. 253

Petrel, Bidwer's iii. 418

fork-tailed iii. 415

storm iii. 418

Wilson's iii. 417

Petty chaps, greater i. 135

lesser i. 195

Phalarope, grey ii. 336

red-necked ii. 343

Pheasant ii. 19

golden ii. 24

silver ii. 27

Pigeon, passenger . . ii. 18, iii. 443

Pintado ii. 27

Pintail iii. 87

'Pipit, meadow i. 225

Eichard's i. 229

rock i. 227

tree i. 224

Pirre iii. 281

Plover, golden ii. 83

great ii. 82

2

Plover, green vol. ii. 110

grey ii. xii., 106

Kentish .... ii. 104, iii. 445

little ringed ii. 102

long-legged . . ii. 221, iii. 445

Norfolk ii. 82

oyster ii. 125

ringed ii. 96

Pochard iii. 127

red-crested iii. 127

red-headed iii. 127

Pratincole, collared ii. 81

Ptarmigan ii. 45

Puffin iii. 221

Purre ii. 288

Quail ii. ix., 66, iii. 444

Rail, Baillou's ii. 321

spotted ii. 318

Raven i. 303

Razorbill iii. 235

Red Game ii. 47

Redbreast i. 158

Redpole, greater i. 267

lesser i. 270

Redshank ii. 202

spotted ii. 200

Redstart i. 169

black i. 171

blue-throated i. 172

Redwing i. 140

Reed sparrow i. 245

Regulus, fire-crested i. 201

gold-crested i. 197

Ring-dove ii. 3

Ringtail i. 81

Robin i. 158

Roc' r AC ii. 9

Rot-'a:-:: i. 227

483

INDEX.

Page.

Eock-pigeon vol. ii. 9

Eoller i. 366, ii. viii.

Eook i. 31i

Kotche iii. 218

EufF ii. 230

Sanderling ii. 121

Sand-lark, fresh-water. ... ii. 212

of the shore ii. 288

Sandpiper ii. 212

ash-coloured ii. 306

Bonaparte's ii. 297

broad-billed. . ii. 282, iii. 447

. buff-breasted ii. 302

curlew ii. 284

dusky ii. 200

green ii. 208, iii. 445

little ii. 298

pectoral ii. 296

purple ii. 303, iii. 447

rock ii. 303

Schinz's ii. 297

spotted ii. 216

wood ii. 211

Scaup, American iii. 140

Scoter, black, or common . . iii. 124

• double iii. 122

surf iii. 118

velvet iii. 122, 450

Sea-pie ii. 125

Sedge warbler i. 180

Shag iii. 250

crested iii. 250

Shearwater, greater iii. 407

— — Manx iii. 409

SheUdrake iii. 66

ruddy iii. 65

Shieldrake iii. 66

Shoveller iii. 71

blue-winged iii. 7 1

Page.
Shrike, great grey vol . i . 11 1 , iii . 4 3 6

red-backed i. 112

Siskin i. 264, iii. 439

Skua iii. 390

Buffon's iii. 399

long-tailed iii. 399

pomarine iii. 392

Richardson's iii. 394

Skylark i. 231

Smew iii. 159

Snipe, brown, or grey ii. 234

common ii. 262

great ii. 257, iii- 447

jack ii. 278

Sabine's ii. 273

solitary ii. 257

Snow-finch i. 241

Sparrow, hedge i. 156

house i. 251

reed i. 245

■ tree, or mountain .... i. 256

Sparrow-hawk i. 63

SpoonbiU ii. 178

white ii. 178

Stare i. 284

Starling i. 284, iii. 440

rock i. 149

rose-coloured i. 295

Stint, little ii. 298

Temminck's ii. 302

Stock-dove ii. 9

Stone-chat i. 172

Stork, black ii. 178, 181

common ii. 175

■ white ii. 175

SwaUow, common i. 374

sea iii. 281

Swan, Bewick's 13, iii. 448

great wild 3, iii. 448

INDEX,

483

Page.

Swan, Polish vol. iii. 23

tame, or mute iii. 21

whistling iii. 3

Swift, alpine i. 418

common i. 408

white-bellied i. 41 8

Teal iii. 93

bimaoulated iii. 91

summer iii. 91

Tern, arctic iii. 293

black iii. 304

Caspian iii. 2()8

common iii. 281

gull-billed iii. 268

little iii. 300

roseate iii. 271

Ruppell's iii. 266

Sandwich iii. 268

whiskered iii. 298

white- winged black . . iii. 307

Thrush,' gold- vented i. 153

missel i. 121, iii. 436

— rose-coloured i. 295

song i. 134

White's i. 128

Tit, bearded i. 213

blue i. 203, 423

coal i. 207

great i. 201

long-tailed i. 209

marsh i. 206

Titlark i. 225

Titmouse, crested i. 209

Tomtit i. 203

Tree-creeper i. 344

Tm-key ii. 28

Turnstone ii. 117

Turtle-dove ii. 1 5

collared, or African ... ii. 18

Page.

Twite vol. i. 272

Vulture, Egyptian i. 84

griffon i. 84

Wagtail, common i, 214

gi'ey i- 318

pied i. 214

Eay's i. 221

white i. 218

yellow . . i. 218, 221, iii. 437

Waterhen, common ii. 326

Water-rail ii. 322

Waxwing, Bohemian i. 229, iii. 438

Whaap ii. 184

May ii. 196

Wheatear i. 176

Whimbrel ii. 196

Whinchat i. 174

Whinyard iii. 74

White-throat i. 186

Wigeon iii. 98,450

American iii. 112

W^ind-hover i. 55

Woodchat i. 112

Woodcock i, 235, iii. 445

Woodlark ii. 236

Woodpecker, great black . . i. 343

gi'cater spotted ii. 341, iii. 441

green i. 343, iii. 441

lesser spotted . i. 344, iii. 441

Wood-pigeon ii. 3

Woodquest ii. 3

Wren, common i, 346

gold-crested i. 197

reed i. 183

willow i. 191

wood i. 189

Wryneck i. 344

Yellow Amraer i. 243

Yellow Yorlin i. 243

LATIN
ALPHABETICAL INDEX

TO VOLS. I., II., & III.

Page.
Accentor moclularis .. vol. i. 156

alpimis i. 158, 241

Accipiter nisus i. 63

Alauda alpestris i. 236

■ arborea i. 236

arvensis i. 231

brachydactyla i. 236

cristata i. 335

minor i. 224

obscura i. 227

pratensis i. 225

trivialis i. 224

Alca alle iii. 218

arctica iii. 221

■ impennis iii. 238

pica iii. 235

torda iii. 235

Alccdo alcyon i. 373

Ispida i. 369

Ampelis garnilus i. 229

Anas acuta iii. 87

albeola iii. 158

albifrons iii. 42

• Americana iii. 112

■ anser iii. 28

bimaculata iii. 91

— ' — boscbas iii. 75

Canadensis iii. 34

Page.

Anas casarka vol. iii. 65

circia iii. 91

• clangula iii. 153

clypeata iii. 71

crecca iii. 93

cygnus iii. 3

dispar iii. 117

erytbropus iii. 42

ferina iii. 127

fuligula iii. 141

fusca iii. 132

glacialis iii. 147

glaucion iii. 153

glocitans iii. 91

histrionica iii. 152

marila iii. 1 34

mollissima iii. 114

— ^;— - nigra iii. 124

' peuelope iii. 98

■ perspicillata iii. 118

querquedula iii. 91

rufina iii. 127

segetum iii. 33

spectabilis iii. 116

strepera iii. 86

tadorna iii. 66

Anser iEgyptiacus iii. 64

albifrons iii. 43

INDEX.

485

Page.

Anser Bassanus vol. iii. 2,54

berniola iii. 46, 51

bracbyrhynchus iii. 41

brenta iii. 51

Canadensis iii. 24

cinereus iii. 28

cygnoides ii. 24

ferus iii. 28

Gambensis . , iii. 65

Guineensis iii. 24

leucopsis iii. 46

phojnicopus iii. 41

ruficollis iii. 64

segetum iii. 33

torquatus iii. 51

Anthus aquaticus i.227

arboreus i. 224

petrosus i. 227

pratensis i. 225

Eichardi i. 229

Aquila chrysaetos i. 3

fulva i. 3

naevia i. 1 3

Ardea alba ii. 157

bubulcus ii. 157

ciconia ii. 175

einerea ii. 133

comata ii. 158

■ garzctta ii. 156

gms ii. 131

lentigiuosa ii. 168

minuta ii. 1 59

mokoho ii. 168

nycticorax ii. 173

purpurea ii. 155

■ ralloidcs ii. 158

russata ii. 1 57

stcllaris ii. 160

Page.

Astur palumbarius vol. i. 62

Bombycilla garrula i. 229

Botaurus leutiginosus ii. 1 68

■ minutus ii. 159

stellaris ii. 160

Bubo maximus i. 85

Buteo lagopus i. 76

vidgaris i. 72

Calamophilus biarraicus .... i. 213

Calidris arenaria ii. 1.21

Caprimiilgus Europseus .... i, 421

Carbo ccrmoranus iii. 240

cristatus iii. 250

pygmasus iii. 253

Carduelis elegans i. 261

• spinus i. 264

Certliia fainiliaris i. 844

Charadrius Cantianus ii. 104

hiaticula ii. 96

himantopus ii. 221

minor ii. 102

morinellus ii. 93

cedicnemus ii. 82

pluvialis ii. 83

Ciconia alba ii. 175

nigra ii. 178, 181

Cinckis aquaticus i. 116

Cii'cus seruginosus i. 78

cyaneus i. 81

^ Moutagui i. 428

rufus i. 78

Clangula albeola iii. 158

bistrionica iii. 152

vulgaris iii. 153

Coccothraustc's chloris i. 257

vulgaris i. 259

Coccyzus Americanus i. 365

Columba (Enas ii. 9

486

INDEX.

Page.

Columba livia vol. ii. 9

migratoria ii. 18

Palumbus ii. 3

risoria ii. 18

turtiu* ii. 15

Colymbus arcticus iii. 201

auritus iii. 189

coniutus iii. 186

cristatus iii. 172

glacialis iii. 194

giyUe iii. 214

minor iii. 190

obscunis iii. 186

rabricollis iii. 184

septentrionaKs iii. 203

troile iii. 207

Coracias gan'iila .... i. 366, ii. \dii.

Corvus Corax i. 303

comix i. 310

corone i. 307

• frugilegus i. 314

graculus i. 298

monedula i. 323

pica i. 328

Coturnix vulgaris ii. ix., 66

CrexBailloni ii. 321

porzana ii. 318

pratensis ii. 311

pusilla ii. 322

Cuculus Americanus i. 365

canorus i. 356

cincrosus i. 365

glandarius i. 364

Curruca atricapilla i. 183

ciuerea i. 186

hortensis i. 185

Cygnus Bewickii iii. 13

— — ferus iii. 3

Page.
Cygnus iramutabilis .... vol. iii. 23

Islandicus iii. 13

musicus iii. 3

olor iii. 21

Cypselus alpinus i. 418

apus i. 408

naelba i. 418

Dendronessa sponsa iii. 113

Emberiza cirlus i. 244

citrinella i. 243

hortulana i. 244

miliaria i. 241

nivalis i. 237

SchcEniclus i. 245

Erythaca rubecula i. 158

Ealco feniginosus i. 78

Eesalon i. 5 1

apivonis i. 77

buteo i. 72

candicans i. 31

cineraceus . i. 83, 428, ii. viii.

cyaneus i. 81

Grojnlandicus i. 31

gyrfalco i. 31

■ haliaetos i. 29

Islandicus i. 31

lagopus i. 76

lanarius {note) i. 48-

maculatus i. 13

milvus i. 70

nsevia i. 13

nisus i. 63

■ ossifragais i. 14

palumbarius i. 62

peregrinus i. 33

rufipes i. 50

rufus i! 78

■ subbuteo i. 49

INDEX.

487

Page.
Falco tinnunculoides .... vol. i. 60

tinnunculns i. 55

vespertinus i. 50

Fratercula arctica iii. 221

Fregilus graculus i. 298

Eringilla cannabina i. 267

carduelis i. 261

chloris i. 257

coccothraustes i. 259

coelebs i. 246

domestica i. 251

flavirostris i. 272

linaria i. 270

liiaota i. 267

inontaua i. 256

montifringilla i. 249

montium i. 272

nivalis i. 241

spinus . . . . = i. 264

Fulica atra i. 332

chloropus ... i. 326

Fuligula cristata iii. 141

ferina iii. 127

leiicophtlialmos iii. 134

marila iii. 134

mariloides iii. 140

nyroca iii. 134

rufina iii. 127

GaUinula BaUloni ii. 321

■ • cUoropus ii. 326

Martinica ii. 331

minuta ii. 322

Gallus domesticus ii. 28

Garrulus glandariiis i. 339

Glareola pratincola ii. 81

Grus cinerea ii. 131

lltematopus ostralegus .... ii. 125
Hsematoruis chrysorliseus . . i. 153

Haliaetos albicilla vol. i. 14

leucoceplialus i. 29

Harelda glacialis iii. 147

Himantopus melanopterus . . ii. 221

Hinmdo apus i. 408

melba i. 418

pratincola ii. 81

purpurea i. 407

riparia i. 400

rustica i. 374

m-bica i. 389

Ibis falcinellus ii. 182

Lanius collurio i. 112

excubitor i. Ill

rufus i. 112

Larus argentatus iii. 356

Bonapartii iii. 317

canus iii. 348

capistratus iii. 334

catarrliactes iii. 390

eburneus iii. 347

ilavipes iii. 371

fuscus iii. 371

giaucus iii. 388

Islandicus -. iii. 385

leucoptei-us iii. 385

marinus iii. 377

miuutus iii. 315

ridibuudus iii. 322

rissa iii. 340

Eossii iii. 314

Sabini iii. 309

tridactylus iii. 340

Lestris Buflbnii iii. 399

catarrliactes iii. 390

longicaudatus iii. 399

parasiticus iii. 399

poniarinus iii. 392

488

INDEX.

Page.

Lestris Richartlsonii . . vol. iii. 394

Limosa melanura ii. 322

rafa ii. 225

Lin aria cannabina i.267

flawostris i. 273

minor i. 270

Loxia bifasciata i. 383

chloris i. 357

coccotliraustes i. 259

cui'virostra i. 376

enucleator i. 275

pyrrhula i. 374

pyttiopsittacus i. 283

Machetes pugnax ........ ii. 380

Macroramplius gTiseus .... ii. 234

Meleagris gallopavo ii. 28

Mergulus melanoleucos . . . iii. 218

Mergns albellus iii. 159

castor iii. 168

cucuUatus iii. 161

merganser iii. 168

seiTator iii. 163

Merops Apiaster i. 367

Milvus regalis i. 70

Mormon fratercula iii. 331

Motacilla alba i. 314, 318

atricapUla . , i. 183

boarula i. 318

flava i. 331

modiilaris i. 156

cenantbe i. 176

pboenicurus i. 169

regulus i. 197

rubecula i. 158

rubetra i. 174

rubicola i. 173

sylvia i. 186

titliys i. 171

Page.
Motacilla trochilus .... vol. i. 191

troglodytes i. 346

Yarrellii i. 214

Muscicapa albicollis i. 115

atricapilla i. 115

gi-isola i, 115

luctuosa i. 115

Neophron percnopterus i. 84

Numenius arquata ii. 1 84

phaeopus ii. 196

pygmseus ii. 282

Numida meleagris ii. 27

Nycticorax Europjeus ii. 173

Gardenii ii. xii., 173

QEdicnemus crepitans ii. 82

Oideinia fusca iii, 122

nigra iii. 124

perspicillata iii. 118

Oriolus galbula i. 154

Otis tarda ii. 7 7

tetrax ii. 77

Otus bracbyotus i. 88

vulgaris i. 86

Pandion haliaetos i. 29

Parus ater i. 207

biarmicus i. 213

cajruleus i. 303, 433

caudatus i. 309

cristatus i. 309

major i. 301

palustris i. 306

Passer domesticus i. 351

Pastor roseus i. 395

Pavo cristatus ii, 37

Pelecanus Bassanus iii. 354

carbo iii. 340

graculus iii. 250

Perdix cinerea ii. 58

INDEX.

489

Page.
Perdix cotimiix .... vol. ii. xi., 66

riifa ii. 65

Peniis apivorus i. 77

Phalacrocorax carbo ui. 240

gracxilus iii. 250

Phalaropiis hyperboreus . ... ii. 843

lobatus . ii. 336

Phasianus Colchicus ii. 19

nycthemenis ii. 27

pictus ii. 24

Phcenicura ruticilla i. 169

Swecica i. 172

tithys i. 171

Pica caudata i. 328

Picus major i. 341

martins i. 343

minor i. 344

■ viridis i. 343

Platalea leucorodia ii. 178

Plectroplianes Lapponica ... i. 241

nivalis i. 237

Podiceps auritus iii. 189

cornutus iii. 186

cristatus iii. 172

minor iii. 190

obscurns iii. 186

rnbricoUis iii. 184

Procellaria glacialis iii. 406

Leachii iii. 415

pelagica iii. 418

Puffinus anglorum iii. 409

major iii. 407

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax . . . i. 302

Pyrrhula enucleator i. 275

vulgaris i. 274

Kallus aquaticus ii. 322

BaiUoni ii. 321

crex ii. 311

2

Rallus porzana vol. ii. 318

Kecurvirostra avocetta .... ii. 220

Regnlus cristatus i. 197

ignicapillus i. 201

Salicaria arundinacea i. 183

locustella i. 179

phragmitis i. 180

Saxicola cenanthe i. 176

rubetra i. 174

rubicola . i. 172

Scolopax arquata ii. 184

Brehmi iii. 447

calidris ii. 202

fusca ii. 200

gallinago ii. 262

gallinula ii. 278

glottis ii. 217

grisea ii. 234

Lapponica ii. 225

limosa ii. 232

major ii. 257

phaeopus ii. 196

rusticola ii. 235

Sabini ii. 273

subarquata ii. 284

Scops Aldrovandi i. 85

Sitta Europfea i. 344

Somateria mollissima iii. 114

spectabilis iii. 116

Stelleri iii. 117

Spathulea clypeata iii. 71

Squatarola cinerea .... ii. xii., 106
Stercorarius catarrhactes . . iii. 390

loiigicaudatus iii. 399

pomariims iii. 392

Sterna Anglica iii. 268

arctica iii. 293

Boysii iii. 268

490

INDEX.

Page.

Sterna Cautiaca vol. iii. 268

Caspia iii. 268

Dougallii iii. 271

fissipes iii. 304

hirundo iii. 281

hybrida iii. 298

leucopareia iii. 298

leucoptera iii. 307

macnii'a iii. 293

minuta iii. 300

nigra iii. 304

paradisea iii. 271

stolida iii. 308

velox iii. 266

Strepsilas interpres ii. 117

Strix brachyotus i. 88

bubo i. 85

flammea i. 92

nyctea i. 95

otus i. 86

passerina i. 86

scops i. 85

stridula i. 94

Sturnus cinclus i. 116

vulgaris i. 284

Sula alba iii. 254

Bassana iii. 254

Surnia nyctea ■> i. 95

Sylvia arundinacea i. 183

atricapilla i. 183

cinerea i. 186

hippolais i. 195

hortensis i. 185

locustella i. 179

cenanthe i. 176

phoenicurus i. 169

pbragmitis i. 180

regulus i. 197

Page.

Sylvia nibecula vol. i. 158

rubetra i. 174

riibicola i. 173

rufa i. 195

salicaria i. 180

sibilatrix i. 189

sylvicola i. 189

tithys i. 171

trochilus i. 191

troglodytes i. 346

Syruium aluco i. 94

stridula i. "94

Tadorna ratila iii. 65

vulpanser iii. 66

Tantalus falcinellus ii. 182

Tetrao coturnix ii. 66

lagopus ii. 45

perdix ii. 58

saliceti ii. 56

Scoticus ii. ix., 47

tetrix ii. viii., 34

urogallus ii. 31

Thalassidroma Bulweri .... iii. 418

Leachii iii. 415

pelagica iii. 418

Wilsoni iii. 417

Totanus calidris ii. 202

fuscus ii. 200

glareola ii. 211

glottis ii. 217

hypoleucos ii. 212

macularius ii. 216

ochropus ii. 208

Tringa alpina ii. 288

arenaria ii. 121

Bonapartei ii. 297

canutus ii. 306

cinclus ii. 288

INDEX.

491

Page.

Tringa cinerea vol. ii. 306

glareola ii. 311

hypoleucos ii. 212

interpres ii. 117

lobata ii. 336

maritima ii. 303

rainuta ii. 398

ochropus ii. 208

pectoralis ii. 396

platyrhyncha ii. 283

pugnax ii. 230

rufescens ii. 302

Schinzii ii. 297

squatai'ola ii. 106

subarquata ... ii. 284

Temminckii ii. 302

vanellus ii. 110

variabilis ii. 388

Troglodytes Europseus .... i. 346

Turdus aurigaster i.l53

Turdus ckrysorhseus . . . vol. i. 153

iliacus i. 140

merula i. 142

musicus i. 134

pilaris i. 130

roseus i. 395

torquatus i. 149

viscivorus i. 131

Whitei i. 128

Upupa Epops i. 353

Uria alle iii. 318

Briinnichii iii. 313

grylle iii. 314

lacryraans iii. 311

leucophthalmos iii. 311

minor iii. 207

troile iii. 207

Vanellus cristatus ii. 110

Vultur fulvus i. 84

Yunx torquilla i. 344

ERRATA.

VOL. I.

Page 31, 17th line from top, and again 4tli line from bottom of page, omit " v. p."

,, 53, Next line bnt one from bottom of page, instead oi slier e, read shore.

„ 112, Heading of page, instead of Strigida, read Lauiada.

„ 180, Instead of matter in lines 12 and IB fi-om top, read The iuteUigeut game-
keeper at ToUymore Park, coimiy of Down, assm'ed me that in the
summer of 1888 he had heard its note.

„ 256, 12th line from bottom of page, instead of domeiile, read domicile.

„ 258, 6th line from top of page, instead of too, read two.

„ 271, 6th line from bottom of page, instead of contradiction, read contradis-
tinction.

„ 272, 5th line from top of page, instead of During the, read During thai.

„ 282, 2ud line from top of page, instead oiprincial, vead principal.

„ 344, 8th line fi-om bottom of ]iage, omit sentence beginning To the.

,, 385, 16th line from top of page, instead of observation, read obscuration .

„ 425, 2nd line fi'om top of page, add, after visitants, "in the preceding list."

VOL. II.

Page 11, Last line but one, instead of vol. Hi., read vol. i.

„ 61, 3rd line from top of page, instead of north-west, read north-east.

„ 62, 3rd line from bottom of page, instead of course, read coarse.

„ 66, 3rd line from top of page, instead of Gildear, read Gildea.

„ 95, Mr. Baikie, one of the authors of the ' Historia Naturalis Orcadensis,' cor-
rects an error here copied from that work with reference to the Dotterel
being a winter visitant to Orkney; — he states, that it is instead a
summer visitant.

„ 144, Last line, instead of heron, read heronry.

„ 187, 2nd line from top of page, insert after herons, " became."

„ 307, 5th line from bottom of page, instead of laier, read latter.

In addition to the foregoing, other errors have been observed ; but as tiiey do not
affect the meaning of the author, it is considered unnecessary to correct them.

Reeve and Nichols, Printers, Heathcock-court, Strand.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA

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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF IRELAND$LONO