Smithsonian Institution

ihraries

Alexander Wetmore

1^46 Sixth Secretary 1953

NATURAL HISTORY OF IRELAND.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF

IRELAND.

VOL. II.

BIRDS,

COMPRISING THE ORDERS

RASORES & GRALLATORES.

Wm. THOMPSON, Esq.,

President of the Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast, Corresponding Member
of the Nat. Hist. Society of Boston, U.S. ; of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, &e., &c.

LONDON:

REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND.

1850

FEINTED BY REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE,
HEATHCOCK COUKT, STRAND.

t51

'14(,

V . !X

PREFACE.

The first volume of this work comprises the various species of
birds which are included in the Orders Raptores and Insessores.
Under the former, are included the several species of the families
of the eagles, vultures, and owls ; — under the latter, those of the
families of the shrikes, flycatchers, thrushes, warblers, tits, wag-
tails, pipits, waxwings, larks, buntings, finches, starlings, crows,
woodpeckers, creepers, cuckoos, bee-eaters, kingfishers, swallows
and night-jars.

The present volume likewise contains the birds of two orders,
— Rasores and Grallatoresf^ Under the former, the families of
the pigeons, grouse, and bustards are included, — under the latter,
those of the plovers, herons, the various genera comprised in
the family Scolopacida, as the curlews, sandpipers, godwits,
snipes, &c. ; the families of the rails and phalaropes.

* The species comprised in the three Orders^ Raptores, Insessores, and Rasores,
were treated of by the author some years ago — hut much less fully than in the present
work — in a series of papers commencing in the second volume of the ‘ Magazine
of Zoology and Botany’ in 1838, and continued occasionally in the ‘Annals of
Natural History ’ until 1843. None of the matter on the Orders Grallatores drcidi
Natatores (which latter will be embraced in the third volume) has hitherto been
published, excepting notices of a very few species recorded as additions to the Fauna
of Ireland in the excellent journal already named.

VOL. II.

A

VI

PREFACE.

Attractive and varied as are tlie birds included in tlie first
volume^ it does not treat of any one that is sought after by the
British sportsman. The present volume^ on the contrary, con-
tains all those which are the objects of his pursuit, excepting
the web-footed species {Anatidce).

Belfast Bay being so frequently mentioned in this volume, it
may be proper briefly to state that its length is about twelve
miles and a half;"^ its breadth, to seven miles below the town,
little exceeds three miles in any part ; but thence it gradually
expands on either side to the width of six miles and a half at
the entrance. The river Lagan, having a considerable volume of
water, falls into the bay at Belfast, and the flowing tide ascends
it for two miles above the lowest bridge. Within little more than
four miles of the town nearly all our grallatorial birds are
obtained, three-fifths of the banks of the estuary within that dis-
tance being laid bare by every ebbing tide ; — as four-fifths were,
previous to the embankment made on each side for railways within
the last few years. These banks, excepting on some very limited
portions of the Down shore, on which hard sand prevails, are wholly
of a soft oozy nature, on which the grass-wrack [Zostera marina)
grows profusely. Brom the shores of the bay below tliis distance
(four miles) to its entrance, the tide does not recede very far, and
where it does so, banks of sand chiefly prevail, varied in some
places by beds of gravel, stones, or rocks. Both sides of the
bay are sheltered by ranges of hills, which rise on the western
side, at MWrBs Fort, to 1,181 feet, and on the eastern, above
Holy wood House, to 530 feet in height. The ridge of hill behind
Garnerviile, over which the wigeon generally, and different
species of the grallatorial birds, occasionally fly to the quietude

Geographical or “ Sea-miles ” of Capt. Beechey’s Chart of Belfast Bay.

PREFACE.

vn

of Straiigford Lough from the unintentional disturbance or the
persecution which they experience in Belfast Bay, is 333 feet in
height ; but the latter species usually take a course a little more
to the southward, wdiere the hills are of less elevation. The
land intervening between the two haunts of the birds is about
eight miles and a half in extent.

Strangford Lough, which is occasionally alluded to, covers,
exclusive of its islands, a somewhat similar area to Belfast Bay,
and, like it, possesses a great extent of soft oozy soil at low water.
There is also much sand, gravel, stones, and, towards the entrance,
a low rocky coast.

Although the same species of birds frequent the two localities,
these are of a very different configuration, Belfast Bay opening
widely at its entrance towards the north-east, and Strangford
Lough having a narrow river-like entrance nearly five miles in
length opening towards the south. It is also studded with very
numerous islands, while the other is islandless (one or twm petty
little islets near the shore being unworthy of forming an ex-
ception). The Copeland Islands lie outside its entrance. A
considerable river, too, comparatively with the size of the locality,
flows into Belfast Bay, while Strangford Lough is not supplied
with any stream of much volume. Hence, its waters are much
more saline than those in at least the upper half of the more
northern bay.

Vlll

PllEFACE.

The following additional information, thought worthy of a
place here, has been obtained while this volume was passing
tlirough the press : —

Ash-coloured Harrier. — Circus cineraceus^ Mont, (sp.) A
second individual of this species (the first is noticed in vol. i. p. 427)
was shot about the 1st of October, 1849, at the Scalp, county of
Wicklow, and procured for the Dublin University Museum. The sto-
mach of the bird contained the remains of frogs. Its sex was not
looked to by the preserver, but judging from Jenyns’ description (p. 90),
it is a female nearly in full adult plumage. To that description it is only
necessary to add the following notes of the individual. Nape rufous-
white; “above and below the eye, a streak of dull white;” wing-
coverts with broad ferruginous markings. The tail-feathers generally
have five bands of dark brown, alternating with which the central pair
havejbm* bands of very dark greyish-brown, which colour prevails on
the outer web of the feather next to them, but on its inner web these
bands are rufous. This colour, but of a brighter tint, is exhibited
throughout the same bands of the four outer tail-feathers on each side.

Roller. — Coracias garrula, Linn. In addition to what appears at
vol. i. p. 366, respecting this bird’s occurrence in Ireland, I have to
state on the authority of the Earl of Courtown, that his gamekeeper
shot one at Courtown, co. Wexford, on the 6th of October, 1849. The
bird having been sent to Mr. Glennon, of Dublin, to be preserved, I
was informed to that effect by Mr. Warren, and through the kindness
of the nobleman just named, learned when and where it was obtained.
The specimen is in nearly adult plumage.

Black Grouse. — At p, 37, it is remarked that I had not heard of
the success attendant on the introduction of six brace of these birds
procured in Scotland by Lord Courtown’ s gamekeeper and turned
out on his lordship’s estate in the south of Ireland. I have, however,
through the polite attention of that nobleman, since learned that These
birds remained (piiet in the wood in which they were set at liberty in

PREFACE.

IX

the autumn, until the following spring, when they totally disappeared.
A strict search was made for them, but in vain. It was imagined that
they might have taken flight to the Wicklow hills, about five miles
from the place in which they were, and have been shot there.

Eed Grouse. — (Varieties in colour) see p. 47. November 1849. —
1 saw in the shop of Mi’. Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin, two speci-
mens exhibiting a great deal of fawn-colour in their plumage, a few
feathers only, on the belly, being of the ordinary fine rich brown.
They are extremely similar to each other, probably of the one
brood, and were killed at the same place. The colours have such a
patch-work appearance that they cannot be well described. The usual
dark brown is replaced by very pale dull brown, and the black markings
by others of a dusky hue. A uniform very pale yellowish fawn-colour
appears in irregular patches from head to tail, both on the upper and
under surface of the body ; about as much being of this colour as of
the mixed brown, with dusky markings. These birds presented n#
beauty of appearance.

Another variety which I saw in the same place was remarkably
handsome, owing to pale grey or white taking the place of brown
throughout its entire plumage, and all the black markings remaining
as usual. It was thus like a ptarmigan {T. lagopus) in summer
plumage. Another bird quite similar to this had been received in a
previous year by Mr. Glennon, but from a different county. All these
varieties were killed in Ireland.

The Quail (see p. 66) is so little known in Great Britain, com-
paratively to what it is in Ireland, that the following detailed observa-
tions are given here as supplementary to those contained in another
part of this volume : — they were made subsequently to its being printed.
Holywood House, County Down, 1849. — As this place, where I resided
in the summer and autumn of the present year, is a favourite locality
for quails — perhaps as much so as any in Ireland, I embraced the
opportunity of making various notes upon the species, of which the
following is the result. During the mouth of August, from morning

X

PEEFACE.

until evening, I frequently, about the same moment, heard from various
directions within about twelve acres* of wheat and oats, the calls of
six or seven quails, and presumed that so many pair were within that
space. A low hoarsely-guttural double note immediately preceded the
well-known call of wet-my-foot, from those which were very near to me.

During the reaping of oats here on the 1st of September, two nests
of quails were found. In one were ten eggs, and in the other the same
number, with the addition of a young bird just hatched. On visiting
them a few days afterwards, the young were found to have escaped
from the former, the chipped shells being in the nest ; but the latter
was deserted, the young bird lying dead, and the eggs quite cold.
Another nest, with the young, one or two days “ out,” was found on
the 5th of September, within forty yards of the latter. The oats were
left standing around it for protection, though all the rest in the field
were cut. On my going to it in the evening the old bird rose from the
ftest, in which the whole of the young (about ten or twelve in number)
were ; — when disturbed they ran nimbly away. The nest was com-
posed of grasses and wild mustard {Sinapis arvensis). In course of
wheat being reaped to-day in the lower portion of the same field,
another very young brood, similar in number to the last, was seen with
the old bird. The young from these four nests (three in oats and one
in wheat) would have been brought forth about the same day. All may,
I consider, be regarded as second broods, there having apparently been
nothing to prevent the fii’st being brought to maturity. What are
believed to be the second nests are annually discovered here when the
grain is being cut, which generally takes place in the month of August ;
-—the present has been a very late season. The pair of old quails rose
from the site of each of the four nests before the reapers ; and a fifth
pair, having neither nest nor young, was sprung from the oats. These
birds were inhabiting an extent of grain covering about twenty-five acres.

A man who has mown the early meadows (rye-grass and clover) hei'e

* The Cimninghain or Scotch acre is meant throughout.

PREFACE.

XI

for the last five years, lias always laid bare nests of the quail in his
progress, or seen broods of young. This occurs generally in the middle
of June, though so late this year as about the 1st of July, He then
saw three or four nests or broods ; one of the latter being apparently
three weeks old. There was but little ground under meadow this
season, but when there has been from twenty-five to thirty acres, ten or
twelve nests would be observed. He considers the quail an early-
breeding bird.*

The colours of the quail sometimes appear very striking when the
bird is about alighting near one with its back towards him. I have
seen the rich yeUow and brown dorsal markings exhibited in straight
lines alternately down the baek, giving it altogether a striped appear-
ance, which, though formal, looked singular and beautiful.

At Mertoun, in the same distriet as Holywood House, a pointer dog
had to be kept chained this season on aeeount of the service which he
was considered to render to an English terrier in killing quails. The
two sallied out together early in the morning, and when the former
“ pointed ” the quails, the terrier rushed before him to seize one. They
were casually observed to act thus in a clover field, though a capture
was not effected on that oecasion ; the terrier was several times seen
with these birds after returning from such excursions. Quails often
lie so close that, doubtless, they could occasionally be thus taken. f
Several times when I have been walking on the borders of meadows,
my dog has picked up a land-rail as it ran close to my feet.

* Mr. K. Ball has known quails’ nests to be commonly exposed to view in the
south of Ireland drn’ing the mowing of grass and clover early in the summer.

t Since the preceding matter was put in type, I have had the following confirma-
tion that the quail can he so captured, from Robert Taylor, Esq., of Belfast, who
resided some time at Corfu ; — “ One mode of taking quails, which I frequently
witnessed during the course of my walks through the fields of Corfu, 1 had never
read of, and struck me as very singular. A man, armed with a gun, and accompanied
by a peculiar-looking dog — a kind of lurcher — proceeded slowly through the field,
the dog keeping a few feet in advance, and carefully examining every bush and tuft
in which a bird could possibly find shelter. Generally the dog seized the quail while

XI

PREFACE.

Grey Plover.- — When describing the difference between the golden
and grey plover, at p. 87, as seen on wing, or in the act of alighting, 1
omitted mentioning the obvious character afforded by the blaek colour
of the axillary plume beneath the wing in the latter species. When
seen, this is a positive mark of distinction, the same plume in the
golden plover being white.

In the ‘ Young Sportsman’s Manual,’ by Craven, published this year
(1849), it is stated; — “ Ireland seems the chosen land of the grey plover,
whieh is there met with in strong flocks ; but almost invariably asso-
ciated with the lapwing,” p. 212. Both these observations apply to the
golden {C. pluvialis) and not to the grey plover {0. 8quatarold) pro-
perly so called. See descriptions of these species in the present volume.

I have seen in the interesting collection of native birds belonging to
Mr. Watters, jun,, of Dublin, a grey plover in full adult summer plu-
mage, which was shot in the bay there, July 29, 1849. It is the third
specimen in this plumage known to me as obtained on the Irish coast.

Night Heron. See p. 173. Dec. 4, 1849. — I saw a specimen,
received to-day in a fresh state, by Mr. Glennon, Dublin. It agreed
with Jenyns’ description of the young of the year, except in the eyes
being orange-yellow, the feet and toes bright yellowish green, and the
throat yellowish. Although the immature birds ‘‘ set up ” with the
wings close to the body are unattractive, this bird looked exceedingly
beautiful when the wings were expanded, in consequence of the central
tip of each feather in all of the several rows, as they thus appeared, (ex-
cepting only the primaries and secondaries) displaying a pure white
sagittate marking on a ground of pale cinnamon colour, this being
the hue of the outer web in all the feathers of the wing.

sitting, and carried it to his master, who rewarded his dexterity with a slice of
pudding or a sausage, which he carried in his pocket. I have seen several quails thus
caught by the. dog in the same field, and after each performance he was very
exacting of his reward. If the bird rose, the man fired at it, so there was little
chance of escape for the poor quail. The dog caught several for every one that was
brought down by the gun or even fired at. It may he desirable to add that this did
not occur in the breeding season.”

BIRDS OF IRELAND.

Order, R A S 0 R E S.

GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.

BIRDS OF IRELAND

Order, RASORES.
( Gallinaceous Birds, )

THE RING-DOYE.

Wood-quest. Wood-pigeon. Cushat.

Columha Falumhus, Linn.

Is common throughout the wooded districts of the
island.

Mr. Waterton is rather disposed to believe that there is an
annual increase, by migration, to the number of native birds in his
part of Yorkshire; Mr. Selby, who resides in Northumberland,
and probably makes the remark in reference to that county, con-
siders that there is no such increase. The great numbers that
congregate in autumn, and remain together during Winter in
Ireland, have always been looked upon by me as our indigenous
birds only, collected together in their choicest haunts, however
widely they may have been separated during the breeding-season.

Belvoir Park, near Belfast, with its fine and extensive woods, is
quite a preserve for these birds, where throughout the autumn

B 2

4

COLUMBID^.

and winter they may be daily seen in the afternoon, in great num-
bers, not less than five hundred occasionally appearing in one
flock. Mr. Selby remarks, that the ring-dove prefers to roost in
fir and ash trees ; but in this park the beech apparently is pre-
ferred to all others. Not only is a wood consisting of these trees
their chief resort, but in mixed plantations, the beech tops may
be seen dotted with ring- doves, when none appear on other equally
lofty deciduous trees, pines, or firs- — in this respect, they resemble
the stock-dove [C. (Enas). It is interesting to see (as I have
done, though rarely,) a number of these birds, before retiring
to roost, descend from the highest trees to drink at the river
Lagan, which bounds the demesne. On November 30, 1838,
which was a very dark day, several hundreds were settled on the
trees apparently for the night, so early as half-past two o^ clock
in the afternoon. The large flocks, rising en masse from their
roosting-places wdth great noise, remind us — though their
numbers are but as units to thousands — of the flights of the
passenger pigeon in North America, of which we are so fully in-
formed in the graphic narrations of Wilson and Audubon.
Another circumstance has brought those descriptions to mind.
On one occasion, the frequent discharge of fire-arms in the park
alarmed these wary birds, and fl}dng thence they alighted, to the
number of about two hundred, on a single oak-tree in the midst
of a pasture field, where they could not be approached without
their perceiving the enemy from a distance. Different however
from the American trees when laden with passenger pigeons, not
a twig of the sturdy Irish oak broke beneath the weight of the
ring-doves.

The earliest autumnal date in my journal, with reference to
very large flocks roosting in Belvoir Park, is September 16, 1840.
In 1839, they were noted as seen in immense flocks so late as the
25th of March, although the spring of that year was not
later than ordinary.

They breed here fully as early as in the north of England, oc-
casionally even earlier than the latter end of Eebruary — the time
mentioned by Mr. Selby. Lofty trees are generally selected for

THE EING-DOVE.

5

the nest^ but in a locality where the species was protected I
have in different instances known it to be situated within
seven feet of the ground^ in young fir trees. Tor five or six
successive years lately, a pair has built in ivy growing upon
a wall about twenty feet high at Castle Warren (co. Cork), the
nest being placed not more than six feet distant from a window.
In the summer of 1842, a large holly tree, growing close to the
parlour window of Malahide Castle, was the receptacle of a nest,
also situated but a few feet from a window and just over the
avenue leading to the hall- door. The birds were not disturbed either
by the opening or shutting of the window, or by people passing
beneath the tree.^ A similar instance is noticed by Sir William
Jardine.f So late as the end of October, eggs have been found
in the nest of this species. { In the early spring their cooing,

with which the woods resound, and their singular flight, rising and
falling suddenly through the air, render the ring-doves highly
attractive. Although these birds exhibit little fear of man in the
breeding season, yet they are generally very wary, and when
assembled in flocks, extremely so. Their sense of hearing must
be remarkably acute, as the slightest noise, even at a distance,
will alarm a flock, and cause the temporary desertion of their
intended roosting-place.

The large flocks alluded to, divide into foraging parties in the
morning, though a few may be seen about their roosting-places
at all times of the day. In severe frosts they are driven to the
turnip-fields, to feed upon the green tops of the plant. Numbers
may be seen together regaling on beech-mast; and they are par-
tial to ploughed fields, on account of the seeds and other vegetable
matter turned up. About Castle Warren they feed chiefly in
winter on the roots of the silver weed [Fotentilla anserina), which
they find so plentifully in ploughed ground, that their crops are
often filled to distention with it.]] In the north of Ireland, young-
people when gathering potatoes, often collect the roots of this

* Br. C. Farran.
t Mr. E. J. Montgomery.

t Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 61.

II Mr. Robert Warren, junr.

6

COLUMBIDtE.

weed and eat them either uncooked or roasted in peat ashes. These
roots have in like manner been used, both by bird and man, in
Scotland ; — by the latter they were formerly collected in the
Western Highlands and Hebrides, in seasons of scarcity, and con-
sidered highly nutritious food.* The ring-dove must to a certain
extent be useful in consuming the seeds and roots of weeds injurious
to the crops, yet Mr. Waterton, who looks upon all the feathered
race in the most favourable light that he considers truth to war-
rant, does not consider this bird of any service to man. He
will doubtless, however, be pleased to read in the delightful work
of Mr. St. John, entitled Wild Sports of the Highlands, that
this gentleman has proved great good to be done by them, par-
ticularly in consuming seeds of the wild mustard and the ragweed,
two of our most noxious weeds.t

A friend, whose country-seat is in the valley of the Lagan, and
near to Belvoir Park, where ring-doves are so numerous, reports,
that they are very destructive to young plants of the cabbage
tribe, by eating their leaves, which are preferred to the tender tops
of turnips. Quantities of all kinds of grain, when ripe, are said
to be destroyed by them. In addition to regaling on the stocks,
they are accused of flying against and laying down the standing
stalks, to feed upon the pickles, as well as of alighting for the
same purpose on the masses prostrated by storm or rain. Wheat
is their favourite — and for it they will fly a mile farther than for
other grain. J My friend has never known them to attack his

* Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 263.

t See an interesting account of the species in chap. xv. p. 118.

To the above it may be added, that another lover of birds, Mr. A. Hepbm’n, (well
known by his excellent contributions to Macgillivray ’s work on the subject) has,
in a very interesting communication on the ring-dove,* given the species a very bad
character ; considering it a bane to agriculture. His own opinion, like that of Mr.
Waterton, every naturalist will value ; but not so that of farmers, whose evidence he
brings against the bird. They, and gardeners generally, regard all birds that commit
any injury to their crops simply as evil-doers, without reflecting on the real services
which they perform by the destruction of hosts of the most injurious insects — the
real “ pests of the farm ” and garden.

I Since the preceding was written, 1 have seen the following severe charge made
against the ring-dove : — “ When the flock settle upon the lying portion of the wheat-
field, instead of breaking off the heads and carrying them away, they lay themselves

* Report of the Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club for 1848, p. 272.

THE RING-DOVE.

7

cherries^ but he has often seen them pluck gooseberries and currants
from the bushes. In other gardens around Belfast the same
bad report is given of ring-doves being destructive to these fruits.
In some places they confine their attention to the currants so long
as these last^ and then pay their respects to the gooseberries^ not
waiting in either case for the ripeness of the fruit : thirty-seven
large gooseberries have been taken from the crop of one bird.
They are said to alight on the bushes^ from which the fruit is
shaken by their weighty and afterwards to pick up from the
ground, what has fallen. At a very early hour in the morning
they visit the gardens, and take their departure on the approach of
the gardener — the protector of the fruit. Though keensighted
and suspicious of danger, they do not always escape punishment.
A relative living in the well- wooded district just alluded to, is so
wroth against these birds that he has sacrificed many — occa-
sionally four or five at a shot — by firing at them from his parlour
and drawing-room windows, as they afforded him an opportunity
when innocently feeding on beech-mast. One of these birds, which
was weighed, proved to be Yi\ ounces. About Carnlough, on
the coast of Antrim, where gardens are but few, ring-doves are
accused of doing much injury to the bean-fields : — in spring, by
picking up the beans exposed after being sown, and in autumn, by
attacking them in the pods. Nearly a hundred small beans have
been found in one bird. They feed much on the sea-shore in that
district. I have often, too, particularly when out shooting at a very
early hour of the morning, raised little parties of these birds from
the gravelly or sandy beach of Holy wood Warren, Belfast bay;
saline matter being probably the attraction. The fondness of the
tame pigeon for salt is well known, and even the turtle-dove is

down upon their breasts on the grain, and using their wings as flails, they beat out
the pickles from the heads and then proceed to eat them. The consequence is, that
the pickles having been thrashed out upon a matting of straw, a great proportion of
them fall down through it to the ground, and are lost even to the wood-pigeon ; in
short, they do not eat one particle for twenty which they thrash from the stalk. I
have repeatedly watched this process from behind the trunk of a large willow-tree
growing in a thick-set hedge on the edge of a wheat-field, and seen the operation go
on within a couple of yards of me.” — Observations on “ Game and the Game
Laws,” by J. Burn Murdoch, p. 11. (1847.)

8

COLUMBIDiE.

said to frequent the sea-shore in Sussex, &c., in great numbers, on
account of its partiality to salt *

A friend, who resides at Stramore House (co. Down), possesses
a ring-dove, which was brought up from the nest by the person
from whom he purchased it. He has many varieties of the tame
pigeon, but this is more familiar, and a greater pet than any of
them. When he enters the place in which they are all kept, this
bird immediately flies to him, alighting on his shoulder or arm (if
this be held out), and remains delighted in his company. t

Though the ring-dove is prized in the north of Ireland, the young
are not regularly sought after for the table, as they are in York-
shire, according to Mr. Waterton. This gentleman in his Essays on
Natural History, and Mr. Macgillivray in his British Birds, give full
and interesting accounts of the species. I have observed it in the
woods about Loch Euthven, and elsewhere in the north of Inver-
ness-shire. About Islay House, in the island of that name, I
saw, in January 1849, not less than a hundred together in a
field of turnips, and .was told that they are always abundant there.
Those that were shot in a wilder part of the island which I
visited during that month, had their crops filled with the per-
fect and full-sized nuts of the hazel, the predominant fruit-
bearing plant of the covers. With reference to North Wales,
we learn from Mr. Blackwall, that In seasons when acorns
are unusually abundant, the oak woods in the valley of the Conway
are resorted to by large flocks of ring-doves * evidently

attracted to the locality by the plentiful supply of food to be

* Knox, Birds of Sussex, p. 217.

t The ring-dove has a had character in the south of Ireland, as well as in some other
places. Mr. Joseph Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, remarks : — “ This
bird, though generally arboreal, sometimes extends its flight far into the open country,
where it does more injmy to the farmer than almost any other, and counterbalances it
by hut a small j)ortion of good, at least so far as I have observed. Handfuls of oats
may be taken out of its crop at times, and turnip tops, rape, or cabbage are aU put
under contribution. During hard weather I have found the flowers of cruciform
plants of the genus Bmssica in the crop of this bird, as weU as seeds and leaves of
corn, roots of Fotentilla anserma, trefoil, &c. The favourite food at the end of
December appears, from the examination of their crops, to consist chiefly of the
roots of goosegrass, which from their richness and farinaceous qualities form an
exceedingly nutritious article of food, and keep the birds in excellent condition. I have
also observed it busy in gooseberry bushes during the fruit season, with the cuckoo
probably at a little distance, but very differently engaged, being altogether attracted

THE ROCK-DOVE.

9

obtained in it.^'’ The craw of a specimen on being opened was
found to contain forty -five acorns of various sizes.

The Stock-Dove, C. (Enas, is unknown both to Ireland and
Scotland. It is said to frequent only the midland and eastern counties
of England.

THE EOCK-DOYE.

Eock-pigeon.

Columba livia, Briss.

Inhabits the caverns of the rock-bound coasts on all
sides of Ireland and the adjacent islets.

It is likewise to be found at inland caves and grottos,, such as
are not unfrequent in limestone districts. Some authors describe
the sea-coast only, as frequented by the rock-dove, but I can state
from personal observation, that caverns situated amid the inland
solitude, or close by the perpetual din of the cataract, are resorted
to, as well as those which humbly or loftily span the ocean^s
waves.

A few inland localities may be mentioned ; as the cliffs at the
Knockagh hill near Carrickfergus, and a cave at the base of Carn-
lough waterfall, in the county of Antrim ; both, however, within
about two miles of the sea. A cliff in the Mourne mountains,
county of Down, bears the name of pigeon-rock, from the cir-
cumstance of these birds having once tenanted it. In the
remarkable caves at Cong, county of Mayo, I have observed them,
and I have read of their frequenting the celebrated cave at
Mitchelstown, at the period of its discovery.

by the caterpillars, wMch swarm on the bushes at that time. They generally arrive
at their roosting places about twenty minutes before sunset on wet, or as long after
on fine afternoons. In fine weather indeed they sometimes remain abroad the whole
day. Few birds are more difficult of approach than the ring-dove, either when on
their roosts or while feeding, but by waiting for them at their favourite night-
haunts one may easily shoot them. I have observed ring-doves in flock as early as
June 12 and August 25. They sometimes frequent mown fields: in one or two
instances I have seen them alight on houses. I have known their nests to be com-
pleted on March 14 and 27, and their incubating as late as October 1. I once found
a ring-dove’s nest built on a blackbird’s of the former year. The digestive canal in
this species measures exactly six feet in length.”

* Ann. Nat. Flist. July 1849, p. 25.

10

COLUMBID^.

Or examining the crops of some of these birds shot in the
month of June 1832, at the wild peninsula of the Horn (co.
Donegal), where the species is very common, we found them
filled with the seeds of rushes. When visiting the island of
Achil, on the 29th of June 1834 (in company with Mr. E. Ball),
we approached several rock-doves feeding on the low sandy tract
near Keil, within about twenty-five paces. Having remarked
to Lieut. Eeynolds, E.N. (then stationed there, on the Coast Guard
service), how near they permitted the approach of our party,
he stated, that on the preceding day he killed twenty-one of them
about the same place, and that he had procured so many as fifty
in a forenoon there, and fifty-two on another day, although more
than two were never obtained at a shot. They are seldom
molested in this wild district, and consequently exhibit little fear
of man. In the level tract alluded to, there is no ambush to
conceal the sportsman, who must necessarily walk up in sight of
the birds until within shooting distance. It is only at a par-
ticular season that they are seen here, when attracted by a
“ small pea^^ which is abundant, and always found in the crops of
those killed. On requesting to be shown the plant, we found it
to be the common bird^s-foot trefoil {Lotus corniculatus) . When
M^alking on the summit of the fine marine cliffs about Portpatrick,
in Wigtonshire, in August 1838, with Captain Payrer, E.N., he
remarked to me on some rock-doves being sprung, that he had
shot many there as they came to feed on the wild liquorice,'’^ a
favourite kind of food ; — this also I ascertained to be the Lotus
corniculatus. At the marine cliffs near BaUantrae, in the adjoin-
ing county of Ayr, I have remarked these birds to be common,
and have seen flocks of them alight in the fields of green or
unripe corn, adjacent to the coast. It was stated that on two
days in the autumn of 1843, a gentleman shot, about the marine
caves here, sixteen or seventeen brace each day.

The rock-dove breeds in great numbers in numerous marine
caves of the headland of Oe in Islay ; many miles from which they
may be seen daily feeding throughout the winter in large flocks —
seventy or eighty together — particularly in the stubbie fields.

THE ROCK-DOVE.

11

Great bodies of starlings often regale near them in the same
field. They are almost as tame as fiocks of domesticated pigeons
when these betake themselves to the stubbles,, and are often
within shot from the public roads. It was in winter that I
remarked them thus^ at which season they would prove beneficial
to the farmer, though in the spring they may do some little harm
unless means be taken to keep them from newly^sown fields.
The crops and stomachs of three birds shot in the middle of
April and sent me from that island were filled with grain. In
Orkney, where these birds abound, and the ring-dove has

very rarely been seen, they are considered destructive to corn-
fields.^ The birds brought to table in Islay in winter were

delicate and very highly flavoured, much more so than the
ring-dove, killed at the same time, and superior also to tame
pigeons.

Of the great numbers of rock-doves which came under my notice during the month
of January 1849 in Islay, all appeared when on the ground and on wing, of the
true wild colour, hut fuUy the half of those killed had the light bluish grey of the
wing anterior to the transverse black bars mottled over with black. These might be
looked upon as young birds were the species not stated to acquire the full colouring at
the first moult, excepting a little brown that remains on the edge of the wings.f It
often happens from the rock-dove being the parent of the common tame pigeon, that
when the dove-cot is not far distant from the nesting-places of the wild birds in the
rocks, the tame ones resort thither and pair with them. The white mottled progeny
conspicuously attract attention, and when seen frequenting wild localities often cause
surprise to persons unacquainted with the fact. At the Fall of Foyers, Inverness-
shire, as well as at various other places, I have remarked that only some of these birds
were purely bred ; others being mottled with white from the admixture alluded to.

Mr. William Andrews, in a paper descriptive of a portion of the west of Kerry
read before the Dublin Nat. Hist. Society in November 1841, remarked; — “ Rock-
pigeons breed in great numbers in the cliffs of Sybil Head, and with them I observed
flocks of the mottled species. * h= * 'phese birds have not the distinctive bars on
the wings ; their wing-coverts and a portion of the back are strongly marked and
spotted with black j the protuberances of their nostrils appear more prominent than
in Columha livia and the tail broader and more abruptly rounded, * * * It would

appear that this species \_Col. macularia'] is confined to the cliffs of Sybil Head, for
upon the most diligent inquiry of those who are in the habit of observing and shooting

* Historia Naturalis Orcadensis, by Baikie and Heddle, Edin. 1848.

t Macgillivray, vol. iii. p. 277. A full and excellent account of the species from
personal observation will be found in this w'ork.

12

COLUMBIDiE.

the rock-pigeons about the cliffs of Miuard, to the east of Dingle, they had never
noticed, or met with a single bird mottled, or the wing without bars.” But few
ornithologists will regard such birds as distinct in species from the Rock-dove. Mr.
Blyth, in an English edition of Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom published in London, "with
notes, in 1840, remarked on the preceding subject: — “There is a race which we
suspect to be a distinct species closely allied, the wdngs of which are spotted some-
what as in the stock-pigeon, but more extensively, in place of the black bars. Num-
bers of them, all shot, are sold in the London markets. We will term it C. macu-
laria” p. 231.

At the end of April 1841_, I observed these birds to be nume-
rous about the precipitous and caverned cliffs of the island of
Sphacteria, forming part of the western boundary of the noble
bay of Navarino. On the 29th and 30th of that month, some
officers of H.M.S. Beacon set out in a boat for the purpose of
entering the caves to shoot them, and returned each day with
several brace. They remarked, that of the great numbers seen,
all were on the western or sea side of the island, although as fine
caverns are on the eastern or hay side. When we were becalmed
in the ^gean Sea on the 10th of June, in H.M.S. Magpie, a
likely place for these birds presented itself in a rocky islet, H.E.
of Port Nausa, in the island of Paros, and a boat was lowered for
the commander and myself to go in pursuit of them. A few were
seen about its caves and cliffs, and a young bird of the year which
was shot on wing was in full plumage, but still retained some
fragments of down about the head.* On this occasion I could
not but think how very different were the scene and climate from
those at the GianPs Causeway, where I first became initiated in
rock-dove shooting. The bird was equally common in both
localities. Sir William Jardine^s remark, that we find the
rock-dove frequent and most numerous towards the north^M
of Great Britain, correct though it be, would seem therefore to
have no reference to latitude, but simply to localities better suited
to the species.

* On the 17th of May, one year, the young were remarked (by Mr. Poole) to be
able to fly, on the Wexford coast.

t Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 67.

THE ROCK-DOVE.

13

The mention of various places in connexion with this bird
induces me to remark, though at the expense of the repetition of
a few names, that nearly as the ring-dove and the rock-dove,
distributed in suitable localities over the British Islands, are
allied, their haunts are very different ; the former being associated
with the tender and the beautiful, the latter with the stern and
the sublime in nature. The ring-dove is most at home in the
lordly domain, rich in noble and majestic trees, the accumulated
growth of centuries. The stately beech, beautiful even in winter,
when with greyish-silver stem it towers upwards from its favourite
sloping banks, — richly carpeted in the russet hue of its fallen
leaves, — -and expands into a graceful head of reddish branches,
affords the species nightly shelter. The same tree, too, may
have cradled the infant ring-dove ; and when the bird became
mature, fed it with its “ mast.'’"’ The rock-dove, on the other
hand, has its abode in the gloomy caverns both of land and sea.
How various are the scenes — nay, countries and climates — brought
vividly, with all their accompaniments, before the mind, by the
sight of this handsome species ! A brief indication of the nature
of a very few may here be given ; and in the first place, of two
similar in kind, but yet how different/'’ The most northern
great water-fall at which tliis bird has come under my notice is
that of Boyers, in Inverness-shire, where its habitation,

“ Dim-seen through rising mists and ceaseless showers.

The hoary cavern^ wide-surrounding, lowers.”

Over this fall ^Hhe evergreen pine’^ presides in majesty, and the
surrounding scenery partakes of the fine bold character of the
land of the mountain and the flood. Brom the banks above,
we may, however, in a serene day, gaze across the lengthened
expanse of Loch Ness as it sleeps in azure, and over the steep
mountain-sides that rise from its margin richly wooded with the
graceful weeping birch (the predominant species), the hazel, and
other indigenous trees, until the eye rests on the somewhat dis-
tant and lofty pyramidal summit of Maelfourvonie. The most
southern locality of a similar kind, in which rock- doves attracted

14

COLUMBIDiE.

my attention^ was amid the enchanting scenery of the Sabine
hills^ about the celebrated cascade of the Anio at Tivoli, where,
numerous as domestic pigeons in a well-stocked dove-cot, they
appeared flying in and out of the gloomy recesses of the rocks
close to where the mass of waters was precipitated * The cliffs
above these falls are crowned by the ruins of the Corinthian tem-
ple of Yesta; from the neighbouring hill-sides the great aloe and
the myrtle spring spontaneously, while the most antique of olive
trees, many of them even grotesque from the decrepitude of age,
form the chief features of the foliage.f Afar, over the dreary
Campagna, Eome, once mistress of the world, appears.

In the snow-white caves adjacent to Dunluce Castle, near the
Giant^s Causeway, and those darkly pierced in the long range of
stupendous cliffs at the Horn in Donegal, which boldly confront
the Atlantic, southward to those of Sphacteria whose precipices
are laved by the waters of the eastern Mediterranean, I have
remarked that the rock-dove equally finds a home ; as it likewise
does in islets from the -high and rugged promontory of Oe, in
Islay, off the south-western coast of Scotland, to the Isles of
Greece.'’^

Notes on Tame Pigeons.

The following paragraph on carrier pigeons appeared in the Leinster Express
newspaper in Dec. 1842: — “ One of these pigeons was let loose from Palmerston-
house, near Chapelizod, the seat of the Earl of Donoughmore, when it accomplished
the journey to Castle Bernard, which is upwards of sixty-two miles, in two hours ;
yet the flight was much impeded, as the day was both dark and hazy, accompanied
with a strong head wind at the time. At the late fair of Ballinasloe, Thomas Ber-
nard, Esq., took with Mm one of these birds, which he let go in the town at eleven
o’clock A.M. with a note appended, directing dinner to be ready at Castle Bernard at
the given time, as he purposed being home that day, when the bird took its flight,
and the message was delivered in eleven minutes after, having travelled twenty-three
miles Irish in that wonderful short space of time, or, in other words, at the rate of
125i miles an hour. These pigeons, of which Mr. Bernard has a large flock, are so
domesticated, that he can handle them as he pleases, and so very tractable are they,
that whenever he calls, they attend the call promptly.”

* This was in August 1826, when the falls were in their integrity. A few
months afterwards an inundation occurred, which completely changed the character
of the scene, and the river has since been tmmed into a new channel.

t Some authors have considered these the identical trees described by Pliny.

THE TURTLE DOVE.

15

When at Epsom races on the Derby day, in 1846, I saw a number of carrier
pigeons put up immediately after the race was over, and saw it announced the next
day in the newspapers that one of them had flown to Windsor, thirty miles distant,
in thirty minutes after being given its liberty. Others were noticed in the papers,
but none of them accomplished the journey in so short a time.

It may be mentioned, on account of the period of time that elapsed on the occa-
sion, that a tame pigeon taken from Belfast to the Falls, two miles distant, and
shut up in a room for twelve months, flew back to its old quarters immediately after
being liberated.

The more than ordinary attachment of one of these birds which I happened to
witness, induced the following note : — Belfast, Beh. 12, 1846. — I was much inter-
ested to-day by seeing a fine tame pigeon accompanying two boys walking home
from school — and at a good round pace — for upwards of half a mile, along the road
at Parlanount. It kept close at their sides, and endeavoured to walk with them,
alighting to make the attempt every twenty or thirty yards during the whole way,
but as they did not slacken their speed, it could not long cope with them on foot.
On being called by its name, it seemed as much delighted as a favourite dog.

An interesting note on the attachment shown by a tame pigeon to her mate,
which had been shot and gibbeted in a pea-field, is related by Mr. Jesse, in his
‘ Gleanings of Natural History,’ p. 112, 1st series.

THE TURTLE DOVE.

Columba turtur, Linn.

Is an occasional — almost an annual — visitant to cultivated
districts in some parts of the island.

It has been obtained in the counties ranging farthest to the
south-west and north-west ; and has visited the island for four
or five years successively, appearing occasionally at aU seasons,
but chiefly at the more genial -it has bred, though very
rarely.

I shall notice its occurrence, according to the years, so far as
known. Mr. Templeton recorded the turtle dove as observed at
Cranmore and Shanescastle, without mentioning the period. At
Eisherwick Lodge, in the same county (Antrim), this bird was
seen about the year 1820.

16

COLUMBIDtE.

Year.

Month or
Season.

No.

Locality.

Observations.

1

Dunfanaghy, Donegal.

2 or 3

Youghal, Cork.

At various times obtained.

1

Shot at Gastlefreke.

Has been frequently observed

in two localities near Carri-

galine. Pauna of Cork,”

(1843.)

1830

Spring.

Ballibrado, near Cahir,

Several remained for a few

Tipperary.

weeks, and one was shot.

1831

A few appeared in the same

fields as last year.

1834

”

1

Carton, Kildare.

Said, for two or three successive
summers of late years, to have
visited Simpson’s nursery

grounds, near Dublin.

Aug.

1

Dunmore, Waterford.

Sep. 20.

1

Tralee, Kerry.

Its crop was filled with wheat.

1

Co. Wexford.

1835-36

Summer.

Malahide, Dublin.

Some were shot in a district in

which one was observed two

or three years previously feed-
ing in a field of vetches, but
was too wary to admit of the
approach of my informant
within gunshot.

1836

1

Lord Roden’s demesne,
Dundalk, Louth.

?>

June.

1

Woodstown, Waterford.

1837

1

1

Donnybrook, Dublin.

Autumn.

1

Montalto, Down.

Oct., (1st

1

Seen at road-side between Auch-

week.)

nacloy and Armagh.

1841?

Autumn.

1

Tollymore Park, Down.

KiUed by a stone when perched

on a stook of wheat.

1842

Summer.

I have been credibly informed

that a pair bred in a planta-
tion near Downpatrick, where
they remained until a late
period, one of them having
been killed on the 12th of
November.

1845

July(endof)

1

Bantry, Cork.

55

Oct. (late in)

1

Downpatrick, Down.

1847-48

July.

Observed in turnip-fields at

Castle Warren, near Carriga-
iine, Cork.

1848

Summer.

1

Bray, Wicklow.

Seen for several days.

THE TURTLE DOVE.

17

Mr. H. Chute, writing to me in Feb. 1846, remarked that he
knew of five turtle doves having been killed in the county of Kerry.
He had not seen any for the preceding two or three years, but
had shot one late in the month of November, as it was feeding in
company with a flock of sparrows in the village of Blennerville.
A second was obtained about Christmas in a garden at Dingle.
The others occurred in summer ; a pair bred at Derraquin in that
county. Turtle doves (as remarked by Mr. Poole in 1847) seem
nearly entitled to be termed regular summer migrants to the
south of the county of Wexford. This observation is interesting,
as from the circumstance of the species being most common in
the south-eastern counties of England, where it appears every
summer, we should expect that in Ireland, Wexford would be
more frequently visited than the more western parts.

At the period of publication of Mr. Macgillivray^s first volume
of British Birds, in 1839, he was not aware of the occurrence
of the turtle dove in Scotland; but in Sir William Tardiness
third volume on the same subject, which appeared in 1842,
instances are mentioned of single individuals having been obtained
in Aberdeen, Perth, and Dumfries-shires. We are subsequently
informed of its being sometimes, but only rarely met with as
far north as Moray-shire,^^* and that it has once been shot in
San day, one of the Orkney Islands.!

During a tour through Holland and Switzerland, in the sum-
mer of 1826, the turtle dove often came under my notice, and in
the former country was very tame. When I was proceeding in
H.M.S. Beacon from Malta to the Morea in April 1841, one
of these birds flew on board on the 24th, and another on the 25th ;
— they each rested for a short time on the rigging, and then con-
tinued their flight northwards. On the 26th, four came from
the south, two of them singly, the others in company; one
only alighted on the ship : it was caught in the evening when
asleep. Throughout the 27th many were observed coming from

* St. John’s Tour in Sutherland vol. ii. 159.

t Hist. Nat. Orcadeusis, p. 35. (1848).

0

VOL. II.

18

COLUMBID^.

the souths and generally singly, never more than two toge-
ther ; very few alighted. On the 24th the vessel was, at sunset,
90 miles E. of Sicily, Syracuse being the nearest land : on the
27th, 45 miles from Zante, and 60 west of the Morea. On the
29th of April one was seen near Navarino ; and another on the
6th of May in the island of Syra :--at the end of this month, I
observed numbers among the light and tender foliage in the
spacious gardens of the old seraglio at Constantinople. I had
remarked the Egyptian turtle dove {Col.cegyptiaca,'h'd.^^ a few days
before, amid the sombre but magnificent cypresses, which (attain-
ing apparently to 80 feet) rival the Lombardy poplar in' altitude,
and tower — a forest of evergreen spires — above the very exten-
sive Turkish and Armenian cemeteries of Smyrna.

The Passengeh Pigeon {Columba migratoy'ia) is recorded by Dr.
Pleming as having been taken in Scotland, and is said to have been
subsequently noticed in the same country. But as the species is occa-
sionally brought to the British Islands in vessels and kept by pigeon-
fanciers, it seems to me that the individuals alluded to may probably
have escaped from confinement. There is no doubt, however, that this
species could better cross the Atlantic than some others which are
considered to have done so. The passenger pigeon is also said to have
been met with in Norway and Eussia.^

The Collaeed or African Turtle Dove, Columba risoria, Linn,
(a bird of a buffish-brown, or deep “ stone colour,” with a narrow
black collar encircling the hinder part of the neck), is much kept
by bird-fanciers in this country, and often called simply turtle dove.
I remarked this species in 1826 to be domesticated like our common
pigeon at the Hague in Holland, where it was seen flying about the
city. I have likewise observed it in some of the towns of Italy.

Temminck, Man d’Ornit. de I’Eur. part iv. p. 311.

19

THE PHEASANT.*

Phasmuis Colchicus, Linn.

Is common in various wooded parts of the island,, where it has
been preserved and protected.

This species being neither an indigenous one, nor a visitant to Ireland
in a wild state, but having certainly been introduced, is therefore dis-
entitled to receive the honours of ordinary type. The period of its
introduction is unknown to me; but in the year 1589 it was remarked
to be common.f Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 till
1603, observes that there are ‘'such plenty of pheasants, as I have
known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much more with rails,
but partridges are somewhat scarce.” vol. ii. p. 368. Smith seems to
have imagined that pheasants were indigenous to the island, as in his
History of Cork, it is remarked — “They are now [1719] indeed very
rare, most of our woods being cut down.”

In the counties of Antrim and Down, the ring-necked variety —
considered to have originally proceeded from a cross-breed between the
common and true ring-necked pheasant {PJiasimms torquatus, Temm.)
— is not uncommon. Individuals much pied with white are also not
unfrequently met with. In the middle of February 1845, an extremely
beautiful pied pheasant, with much white in its plumage, bred in the
woods at Glenarm Park, was found at the edge of a plantation
there in a weak state, by Edmund Me Donnell, Esq. Soon after
being taken to the house it died, in consequence (as proved by dissec-
tion) of having partaken of poisoned food, of which some had been
laid for rats. This bird was in the highest condition as to flesh
and plumage ; it was kindly presented to the Belfast Museum by the
gentleman just named. By the same considerate donor, a more
remarkable pheasant was presented in Jan. 1849 ; it being not only
pied with white, but a female which had partially assumed the plumage
of the male. The tail was the most interesting portion ; it having
attained the full length of that of the male, while the markings on the
two longest feathers, and the three next to them on one side (all that

* So named from a belief that it was brought from the banks of the Phasis, a
river of ancient Colchis.

t See note given under Q-uail.

c 2

^0

PHASIANIDJi.

remained dark in hue) were those of the female ; the whole of the
others, from base to point, including the shafts, were of the purest
white.

Pemale pheasants seem more prone to assume the plumage of the
male in a wild state (if such it may be termed), than the females of
any other bird. Several, — in various states of change, from its com-

mencement to its completion, — which were shot in covers in the
north of Ireland, have come under my notice. Had the garb of the
weaker sex been retained, tliey might have escaped, as the sportsman
will not direct his deadly aim at a hen pheasant. Although these
birds approximated in every part of their plumage to that of the male,
exhibited the bare scarlet skin around the eye, and the tail one half
longer than it originally was, yet the colours were comparatively dull
in hue, wanting in the depth of tone, and in the gloss and splendour
of the veritable adult male ; they can, therefore, be detected at a
glance by the ornithologist. All such birds that have been dissected,
exhibited the generative organs diseased, and were incapable of pro-
ducing eggs. The few that I have myself had the opportunity of
examining bore out this view. In Yarrell’s British Birds (vol. ii.
p. 319, 2nd edit.) the subject is alluded to and illustrated.

In January 1849, I was informed by Peter Mackenzie, a most
intelligent gamekeeper at Ardimersy, Islay, that at a place in East
Lothian, where he had charge of the game some years ago, one or two
female pheasants were remarked every year to assume the plumage of the
male. He was in the habit of feeding the pheasants close to the house,
and observed that the females in male plumage annoyed the ordinary
hen-pheasants very much by driving them from the food. This was so
constantly practised, that he and the other keeper eventually shot all these
mock males. From what they witnessed of their disturbing the ordinary
hens, it was imagined that they would persecute them when they had
nests. A domestic hen belonging to the gamekeeper just named, after
being in his possession for two or three years (her age was unknown)
commenced changing to the plumage of the cock, which was soon fully
assumed, even as to tail, very large comb spurs, two inches long, &c.
Her body, too — he and the person who fed her agree in stating —
became apparently one half larger in size.

The aversion of pheasants to take wing~when near their home must
have been observed. I have been amused to see them carry this so far

THE PHEASANT.

21

that when cantered up to, or charged on horseback, they would run
across a considerable stretch of field to the preserve rather than take
to flight. The effect of thunder in prompting these birds to crow has
been noticed by some writers, I particularly remarked it on the 7th
April, 1833, when walking along the banks of the river Lagan. Be-
tween four and five o’clock in the afternoon there were several peals of
thunder, at the immediate commencement of each of which many
pheasants in Belvoir Park loudly crowed, though quite silent that day
at other times. The capture of pheasants by means of the fumes of
sulphur is not believed in by Mr. Waterton. Although never present
myself at any such poaching delinquency, 1 have no doubt, from what
has been stated to me, that they are so taken, and that the vile practice
is resorted to on the western, as well as on the eastern side of the Irish
sea. Pull particulars of the manner in which the birds are obtained
have indeed been communicated to me, but I shall not give currency
to them.

I have been kindly supplied by Mr. James R. Garrett, a most ac-
curate observer, with the following comments : — “ Mr. Yarrell has
stated (Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 315, 2nd ed.) that ‘ pheasants do not
pair, and except during the spring, the males and females do not even
associate.’ And Mr. Macgillivray says (Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 124,)

‘ The female after depositing her eggs among the long grass, or under
the shade of a bush, having merely scraped a slight hollow which she
has scantily lined with leaves, is deserted by the male, and performs
the task of bringing forth, and leading about, the young without his
assistance.’

“ These observations are correct with reference to the usual habits of
the pheasant whilst in a semi-domesticated state, but I have on several
occasions known the cock to accompany the hen and her young brood,

‘ leading them about’ until the latter were able to take care of them-
selves.

“ In these instances the parent birds had (as the species is prone to
do) strayed beyond their ‘preserves’ at the breeding season ; and the
circumstance of their having paired while thus enjoying fuR liberty,
tends to confirm the view expressed by Mr. Macgillivray (Brit. Birds,
vol. i. p. 273), where, speaking of the rock-dove, he observes, — ‘ It is
monogamous, as I apprehend all wild birds, even the GalHnaceous,

22

PHASIANID^.

“ The disposition of pheasants to wander in spring, and nidify at some
distance from their winter cover, is well known ; but I have not seen
any allusion made to their habit of frequenting potato fields in summer
and autumn. I have, however, often observed them there, and believe
that they are fond of raw potatoes. I have occasionally remarked that
during the absence of the pheasant from its nest, the eggs (sometimes
thirteen in number) were partially covered with hay, which I believed
to have been placed there by the bird itself.”

Upon looking to notes on the food observed in opening ten phea-
sants, shot at various times and places during five months — from
November until April inclusive — I find that the stones of haws or fruit
of the white- thorn appeared in seven of them; in addition to these
were grain, small seeds, and peas : one exhibited a few roots of plants
and twigs of trees : in another were thirty-seven full-grown acorns,
some of which were large, others small ; the gizzard showed, in addi-
tion, a mass of them ; a third was nearly filled with grass ; one only
contained any insects — all presented numerous fragments of stone. A
pheasant which frequented our own garden daily for some time in sum-
mer was accused of feeding on black currants ; the tops (and as a
friend assures me the bulbs also) of turnips are sometimes eaten ; and
a fine male bird was in the habit of visiting a stable-yard in the vicinity
of Belfast very early in the morning for the purpose of feeding there.
An intelligent taxidermist once brought a pheasant’s stomach to me on
the 6th of April, for the purpose of showing that it was chiefly filled
with the yellow flowers of the Pilewort Crowfoot {Ranunculus ficaria),
which he had always found in birds killed in spring, or during the
period of the floAvering of that plant, — one of the very earliest of our
indigenous species in putting forth its petals. The same stomach con-
tained numerous blades of grass, which in no other instance had been
met with in the pheasant by my informant. He knows the tuberous
roots of the silver weed {Rotentilla anserina) to be much eaten by this
bird, Avhen they are turned up to the surface in fields under cultivation.

While spending the month of January 1849, at the sporting quarters
of Ardimersy Cottage, island of Islay, Avhere pheasants are abundant,
and attain a very large size, the ring-necked variety, too, being common,
I observed that these birds in the outer or wilder covers feed, during
mild as well as severe weather, almost wholly on hazel-nuts. In the
first bird that was remarked to contain them, they were reckoned and

THE PHEASANT.

23

found to be twenty-four in number, all of full size and perfect, — in
addition, were many large insect larvse. Either oats or Indian corn
being thrown out every morning before the windows of the cottage for
pheasants, I had an opportunity of observing their great preference of
the former to the latter. After several grains of the Indian corn were
picked up hastily, they seemed to stick in the bird’s throat and were with
much difficulty swallowed. The neck was moved in various directions
to accomplish this object, and the eyes were often closed in the effort ;
but immediately afterwards, the birds recommenced eating at the grain
which had given them such trouble. Yet this grain is small compared
with full-sized hazel-nuts. I remarked a pheasant one day in Islay
taking the sparrow’s place, by picking at horse-dung on the road for
undigested oats. The woods here, during the month of January,
resounded about sunset with the loud crowing of the cock pheasants
then betaking themselves to their nightly roosts.

It is gratifying to find writers of such enlarged experience and
accurate observation as Mr. St. John and Mr. Knox, agreeing upon the
subject of the good done by the pheasant to the farm, as more than
counterbalancing any injury it may commit. The latter author, in his
very agreeably written volume entitled Ornithological Kambles in
Sussex,” enters fully and in an interesting manner into the subject,
summing up with the verdict that this bird, owing to the great number
of injurious insects it destroys, “ is rather the friend than the foe of
the agriculturist,” p. 165. The former author, in his ‘‘Tour in
Sutherland,” vol. ii. p. 217, speaks still more decisively with respect
to the pheasant, which he considers in a great degree insectivorous.
This whole matter is most fully and justly argued in a pamphlet
entitled, “ Observations on Game and the Game Laws”^ (p. 14-21),
in which the author remarks that — “ Pheasants [in reasonable num-
bers] have in truth been a profitable stock on the ground. They have
been subsisting upon weeds and insects injurious to cultivation, and
upon other substances not useful to man ; and in return they now
furnish man with an article of wholesome and delicate food.” p. 20.

By J. Burn Murdoch, Esq. (1847).

24

PHASIANIDiE.

Golden Pheasant, Phasiauus pictus, Linn.

My friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., having been particularly successful
in rearing these birds at the Palis near Belfast, 1 have thought that an
account of his mode of doing so would be desirable. He has kindly
contributed the following ; — ■

“ Golden pheasants are very easily reared in confinement, and are
quite as hardy as any of the other pheasants, or as any of our domestic
fowls ; indeed I question if any of them are sooner able to provide a
subsistence for themselves, or to live independent of the parent bird.
In the several years experience I have had in the rearing of these birds,
I have considered them past all danger when they arrived at the age of
three or four weeks ; in fact, at that age, those which 1 brought up in
the garden began to leave the bantam hen which hatched them, and
take into the gooseberry bushes to perch at night ; and very soon
after, into the apple trees. I always observed that they roosted at the
extremity of the branches, where they were quite safe from the attacks
of cats or other vermin. This habit, together with their very early
disposition to roost at night, leads me to infer that their introduction
into this country as a game bird would not be difficult ; and that in
our large demesnes, where protected from shooters, they would become
very numerous. But I should imagine that they would not answer where
the common pheasants were already introduced, as they are shy
timid birds, and would be easily driven oft' by the other species. The
individuals before referred to, which were reared in the garden, con-
sisted of a family of six : they always remained in the garden where
they were regularly fed, except at the commencement of winter, when
they ceased roosting in the apple trees, took to a belt of Scotch firs
which bounded the garden on one side, and roosted in them all the
winter and following spring. I have seen them sitting in the trees
when their branches were laden with snow, but they did not seem to
sutfer in the slightest degree from the severity of winter. About the
month of February they first began to wander from the garden for
short distances ; and as the spring advanced, finally disappeared,
and I never could hear of their being met with afterwards.

“ In rearing the young, I found that the very best food for them, and
of which they were most fond, was the larvae of the blue-bottle fly,*

* Flesh-fly, Musca carnaria, Linn. ? W. T,

THE GOLDEN PHEASANT.

25

with a quantity of which I always was prepared prior to ‘the young
being hatehed. I took care to have a constant supply during the
season, by hanging a cow’s liver over a barrel, in the bottom of whieh was
some bran or saw dust, into which the maggots dropped. A fresh liver
was hung up about once a week. In addition to these larvse, the young
were supplied with potatoes, alum curd, groats, and Indian corn meal,
when to be had ; this last I found they were very fond of, and it seemed
to agree with them particularly well. It was mixed into the form of
soft dough with a little water, which was all that was required. They
were also constantly supplied with green food, such as lettuce, when,
they were in the aviary. But the best way is to have a coop, railed in
front, into which they are put with the hen twenty -four hom’s after they
are hatehed. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as near
to the windows of the house as possible, so that they may always be
within observation ; a small verdure garden is the best possible locality,
as the young have plenty of range, with shelter under the bushes from
both sun and rain. In the instance which I have already alluded to,
the hen was allowed to range about six feet from the coop, by means of
a small cord attached to a leather strap round one of her legs and the
other end tied to the coop ; the young pheasants never wandered far
from the hen, and always came into the coop to remain with her at
night. In front of each coop a small frame was put down, boxed round
on three sides, without a bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was
put close to the coop, and the young birds could run through the rails
of the coop into the enclosed space, and were safe from the night
attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was alvrays kept before the (;oops
for the first few days after the young were hatched, and until they
became acquainted with the call of the hen. When I first began to rear
young pheasants I could not at all account for their seemingly foolish
manner for the first two or three days after being hatehed ; they would
run gaping about without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to
them to come for food. The reason of this I afterwards believed to
have been owing to their ignorance of the language of their fos-
ter-mother, which it took some time for them to understand :
during this proeess it is necessary to keep them confined within
the frame before their coops, as were they to wander a few vards
from the hen they would not heed her call, and would inevitably perish.
When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, if they are to be kept

26

PHASIANID^.

in the aviary, to pinion them, which is done by cutting oft* rather
more than the first joint of the wing, having previously by means
of a needle and thread inserted close to the small wing-bone, and
brought round the large one, just within the skin, taken up the
main blood-vessels ; the piece of the wing is then chopped off on a
block : there is no loss of blood, and I never could observe that the
birds seemed to suffer in the slightest degree afterwards, although the
operation I dare say was painful enough. My reason for taking off'
rather more than the first joint of the wing was, because I found that
if only the first joint was taken off, the birds were always able, when
grown up, to get out of the aviary, which was about twelve feet high ;
and I found it thus requisite to take off so much as to render them
incapable of any attempt at flying, but left enough remaining to enable
them to reach their roosting place at night. I furnished them with a
kind of ladder, by nailing cross pieces of wood on a long piece about
three inches wide, and which they very soon learned to walk up and
down with facility. One aviary in which I kept some, had a back wall
to it covered with old ivy, and they preferred roosting in this ; indeed
I always found, that although during a wet day those which were at
liberty took shelter under a roof, yet at night they would not do so, but
would instead roost in the open air. The females will lay about
twenty-five eggs each in the aviary. I always provided them with
baskets to lay in, which they only sometimes made use of : they take
twenty-four days to hatch. The young cocks do not attain their full
plumage until after the moult of the second summer ; they drop their
chicken feathers when about three months old ; their plumage is then
something like the hen’s, but sufficiently bright in some parts as easily
to distinguish them from the young females ; in general there are more
cocks than hens. If the cock birds are placed in a portion of the
aviary apart from hens, any number may be kept together. I have had
so many as twelve males in full plumage together, and when during the
summer (and indeed at all times) these beautiful birds were going
through the very curious and fanciful attitudes and manoeuvres peculiar
to them, it was one of the most brilliant sights to be observed in nature.
The flashing of their various golden, crimson, blue,* and purple plumes
in different lights was absolutely dazzling to the eye, and at these
times they contrive to display all the most beautiful parts of their
plumage to the utmost advantage ; the golden crest is raised ; the

PEA AND GUINEA FOWL.

21

splendid orange and purple-tipped eollar is spread out to its full extent,
while the scarlet tail coverts are shown in all their beauty. During the
whole time, the birds are leaping and dancing round each other, and
uttering occasionally their peculiar shrill cry.”

Any fact respecting the age which the golden pheasant or silver
pheasant {Phasianus nycthemerus) will attain in captivity seems worthy
of notice. I have known a fine male silver pheasant to live twenty-one
or twenty-two years. Golden pheasants that I happened to learn the
age of, did not exceed half that period, though which species can really
be termed the longer lived, I am unable to state. Such of the latter as
came under my knowledge died almost instantaneously, and when in
the highest condition as to flesh and plumage.

I saw at Glenarm Park some years ago, a brood, the one half of which
was composed of the full-bred common, and the other half of the full-
bred silver pheasant. The eggs of the two species were placed under
and incubated by a “ barn-door ” hen, under whose maternity they had
thriven very well. The young of both species escaped from the eggs
on the same day.

The native country both of the golden and silver pheasant is China.

The Pea-fowl {Pavo cristatus) is a native of India, where it still
exists in a wild state. A pair of these birds kept by us for some time
paid due respect to the hall door by eating there only of bread or
biscuit (moistened), though at the back door they partook freely of
potatoes. Mr. Poole observes : — ‘‘ A peacock which belonged to the
neighbour of an acquaintance of mine (on whose house the bird roosted)
had both his eyes picked out in one of his quarrels. Although total
blindness was the result, it did not cause the bird to forsake his perch
on the top of the house : he still succeeded in getting up to the ridge.
The reasoning power displayed in his manceuvres is worthy of notice.
In order to be sure of reaching the eave in his flight from the ground,
he regularly measured his distance from the foot of the wall by care-
fully stepping it, when he knew that by flying up at his accustomed
angle he could reach the eave without any danger of striking against
the wall.”

The Guinea-fowl or Pintado * {Numida meleagrls)^ was ori-
ginally brought from Africa (it inhabited Guinea). The late George

* The Cape Petrel is also called Pintado bird.

28

GALLINIDtE.

Mathews, Esq., of Spring Vale (Down), informed me, that about fifty
of these birds kept there, flew about in company every evening before
roosting, and then settled for the night on old ash trees, which were the
highest about the place. On a field of barley being reaped, a nest of
these birds was discovered, containing between two and three
hundred eggs.

Holywood House, Sept. 1847. It is amusing to see a guinea hen and
common hen here, jointly taking care of a few young guinea fowl
brought out by the former. The hen had not lost any chickens lately,
but a few months ago performed the maternal duty to a brood of youDg
ducks, which she incubated. The mother proper and foster mother
are the best of friends in taking care of the brood, but the latter is
much the more attentive to them, by pointing out food, &c. She also
protects the young birds under her wings during the night, while their
own mother perches on high.

The Tukkey {Meleagris gallopavo) was introduced from North
America, where it is still found in a wild state.

Common Fowl. Gallus domesticus. Mr. Poole remarks : — “ It is
well known that magpies are very destructive neighbours to the fowl
yard. Of this a game cock belonging to a neighbour seemed to be
aware, as during one season he killed four of these birds, which in-
cautiously ventured within the fowl house where he roosted.”

Though perhaps not a rare instance in the case of this species, it
may be worth noticing, that a fine cock kept in our own yard, on more
than one occasion assaulted an old cook who nowise meddled with him,
though she did sometimes lay hold of some of the members of his
seraglio. She was once indisposed for a few days after his attack, on
which occasion, according to her own version, he had struck her
‘‘ severely with his spurs between the ribs.”

In April 1842, the following paragraph appeared in a Dublin news-
paper : — On Sunday se’nnight, a child named Martha Collins, living
at Harold’s-cross, was sent by her mother to a livery-stable yard in the
neighbourhood, kept by a Mr. Smith. On entering the. yard, a cock
flew at the child, and struck her three or four times in the face and
other parts of the head, cutting her with each blow. A woman, also
named Collins, resident in the yard, hearing the screams of the little
sufferer, ran to her assistance and rescued her. On the Tuesday
following, it was considered necessary to have medical aid, and the

DOMESTIC FOWL.

29

child was shown to Dr. Monks, who at once pronounced the case fatal.
The child expired the next day. An inquest was held on the
body, and a verdict according to the above-mentioned circumstance
returned.^ ”

Aug. 24, 1846. Mr. Joseph Me Kelvey states, that a hen of his
at Milltown, Tails, having sat ” beyond the ordinary time on a
number of eggs, he yesterday examined them, and finding them addled,
commenced breaking the eggs in the presence of the hen, who shrieked
at beholding the operation, and hurried from the place. When passing
the nest, about an hour afterwards, Mr. Me Kelvey observed the hen
on it, and, going to the spot, found her quite dead, without any
appearance of external injury: he concluded she had died of grief.
Trom my knowledge of my informant, I can vouch for the truthfulness
of what is here related ; although the accm’acy of the conclusion as to
the cause of death may be questionable.

Towls and eggs form such great items of exportation from this
country, that the following note is given to show the important difference
between a good and a bad breed.

In August 1845, William Ogilby, Esq., of London, informed me
that he last year sent a pair of the DorJdiig fowls to a friend in the

county of Londonderry. Within five months the hen laid seven dozen
of eggs — laying two days in succession, ceasing the third day, and so
on during the period. Erom these, five dozen of young, with the aid
of other hens as mothers, (the Dorking hens are themselves excellent
parents) were reared. All the eggs were not set,” some having been
eaten. They are very large, sometimes weighing 3^ ounces. Cocks
weigh from 10 to 12 lbs. ; hens, when fat, 8 lbs. ; chickens four or five
months old, 4 or 5 lbs. ; one cock of this age was 6 lbs. Mr. Ogilby
has spread these fowls as much as possible over the neighbourhood, and
they are greatly valued by the peasantry, as for their eggs they receive
fifty per cent, more than for ordinary eggs — the one kind sells for ^d.
per dozen, the other for ^d. My friend is not aware whether the

* The Bishop of Nor\vich, in his ‘ Familiar History of Birds,’ mentions an un-
gallant and furious assault of a cock-pheasant upon a young lady when quietly walking
on the highway, but who, nevertheless, seized her assailant and carried him home.
A mousing hen being alluded to in this work (3rd ed. vol. ii. p. 97,) reminds me that
in my young days there was a hen of our own stock which took an especial
delight in mouse-hunting : I have often seen her carrying the victims about as if in
triumph.

30

GALLINID^.

Dorking fowls eat more than others, but as they are considerably larger,
it is reasonable to believe that they do. They are very quiet and not
given to roaming, which will much curtail the quantity of food neces-
sary to generate animal heat and induce regular laying.

July 18, 1849. — I saw at Mertoun, a hen with 28 young guinea-
fowl following her, consisting of three broods brought out at different
times, the oldest by herself, and being about four times the size of the
youngest. The other broods were incubated under Malay hens, each
of which killed two or three chicks by unconsciously trampling them
to death with her large feet. These broods were consequently given
in charge to the other hen — a large bird of the ordinary kind by
whom they were at once gladly received, and treated with the same
parental care as those brought out by herself. With good manage-
ment she is able to gather the whole 28 under her wings.

The love of the hen for maternity is, as well known, sometimes
carried to an extraordinary — it might almost be said unnatural —
extent. At the residence of a clergyman of my acquaintance, near
Kirkcubbin, county of Down, in May 1849, a hen had her nest and
eggs in the corner of an outhouse, close to where a cat had brought
forth three kittens. The eggs being taken away, the hen, though not hav-
ing commenced incubation, left her own nest on the evening of their
removal, and took charge of the kittens. During the few following
days she laid some eggs among her adopted young. These eggs were
bkewise removed ; but she continued, nevertheless, to cover the kittens
during the night, and to lead them about by day, giving utterance to
the usual clucking note, ruffling her plumage, and in every way acting
towards them as if they were her own progeny. The kittens, too,
treated her as a parent, crouching under her for warmth, and one or
more of them occasionally climbing on her back as chickens would do.
The parent cat, good humouredly from the first, resigned her charge to
the feathered nurse-tender, and lived on the most friendly terms with
her during the period — about a month — in which she assisted her in
the discharge of her maternal duties.

The domestic fowl, and indeed all the species of Gallus, are natives
of the more southern and eastern parts of Asia, or the neighbouring
islands, where they are still found in a wild state.

THE CAPERCAILLIE.

31

THE CAPEKCAILLIE, OR WOOD GROUSE.

Cock of the Wood.

Tetrao urogallus, Linn.

Has unfortunately long since been extinct.

That so noble a bird — the chief of the European grouse — and abori-
ginal inhabitant of our native forests should have become so, is much
to be regretted ; but by the felling of the woods its doom was sealed.
Giraldus, in his ‘ Topographia Hibernim ’ states, that this species (called
by him Pavo sylvestris) was more common in Ireland than the red
grouse, about the twelfth century. When the island was covered with
native woods one can imagine this to have been the case, but even if
less abundant, the nature of its haunts would cause it to be more
frequently met with than the red grouse, and consequently lead to the
belief that it was more common. Willoughby (1678) observes, “This
bird is found on high mountains beyond seas, and as we are told in
Ireland (where they call it Cock of the Wood), but nowhere in England.”
He thus concludes his description : “ The flesh of this bird is of a
delicate taste and wholesom nourishment, so that being so stately a bird,
and withal so rare, it seems to be born only for princes’ and great men’s
tables” ! O’Elaherty, in his “West or H-Iar Connaught,” written in
1684, remarked: — “I omit other ordinary fowl and birds, as bernacles,
wild geese, swans, cocks of the wood, woodcocks, choughs [jackdaws?],
rooks, Cornish choughs with red legs and bills, &c.” p. 13. The Irish
statutes 11 Anne, ch. 7, recite, “ that the species of cocks of the wood
(a fowl peculiar to this kingdom) is in danger of being lost,” and pro-
hibit the shooting of them “ for seven years,” Smith, in his ‘ History
of Cork’ (1749), observes, that “it is now found rarely in Ireland,
since our woods have been destroyed.” Rutty, in his 'Natural History
of Dublin’ (1772), mentions that “one was seen in the county of
Leitrim about the year 1710, but they have entirely disappeared of late,
by reason of the destruction of our woods.” Vol. i. p. 302. — Pennant,
in his 'British Zoology’ (1776), states that “about the year 1760
a few were to be found about Thomastown, county of Tipperary.”
The 27th Geo. III. “ prohibits killing moor game, heath game,
grouse, pheasant, partridge, quail, land rail, and wild turkey, between

32

TETRAONIDiE.

the 10th of January and 1st of September.*” Whether or not the
wood grouse is meant by wild turkey may perhaps be considered un-
certain ; but in the following instance there is no uncertainty. Ac-
cording to the Eev. Mr. Dubourdieu’s ‘ Survey of the County of
Antrim/ published in 1812, “ wild turkeys are now nearly extinct,
though once in such numbers at the former place [Portmore] ; the
breed, the true copper colour^ with red legs ” !

In an article which appeared in the Sporting Eeview for October
1847, p. 254, on ‘ Woodcock and Snipe Shooting,” by L. Lloyd, Esq.,
dated “ Sweden, December 1846 /’ the writer remarked in reference
to the woods of Glengariff, the property of Lord Bantry : — “ It is to be
hoped that the capercaillie with which I some years ago supplied his
lordship have succeeded.”

Erom Mr. G. Jackson, gamekeeper at Glengariff, I learned, in April
1849, respecting the birds thus alluded to, that “ Lord Bantry received
three brace of capercaillie from Mr. Lloyd, about seven years ago.
They arrived safely, and were to all appearance doing well for the first
six months, when one of them was observed to mope about and appear
quite solitary. In a few days, it died. Erom that time to about nine
months they all died in the same way, except one hen. She was
removed into a pheasantry and laid two eggs, but became ill in the
same manner as the others and died. They were kept in a large aviary
and had ample space. Mr. Lloyd’s instructions respecting them were
most scrupulously attended to. They were quite domesticated, and in
perfect health, as far as I could judge from their condition, plumage, &c.
until the time they were first taken sick. I do not know of any others
having been introduced to Ireland.” A copy of the “ Directions for the
Management of the Capercaillie,” addressed by L. Lloyd, Esq., to
Lord Bantry, accompanied this note. They are as follows ; —

“ Suffer no one, for a time, but the keeper and yom’self, to go near the birds.

“ Always approach them steadily, and with caution, so as never to cause sudden
alarm.

“ Be as quiet as possible when near them, and retire slowly.

“ The site where they are kept should be dry and airy ; and a considerable portion
of the space allotted to them should be protected from falling weather.

“ They must be constantly supplied with water, particularly in summer.

“ They should be well provided with coarse sand and grit (small gravel) — this is

* For the extracts from the Irish Statutes I am indebted to Francis Whitla, Esq.

THE CAPERCAILLIE.

33

of great importance — they should have also a heap of fine sand to dust them-
selves in.

“ They will eat nearly all kinds of grain, particularly wheat, barley, and white
peas ; of the last they are particularly fond.

“ They ought to be well provided with boughs of the Scotch fir. They eat heather.
Give them occasionally turf ; with green food — as berries, cabbage leaves, &c., — but
should their mutings appear washy, desist altogether for a time.

“ Do not over-feed them : fifty birds die from repletion, for one from starvation.

“ If any bird appears to mope or become sicldy, remove him directly, more par-
ticularly if in a confined place ; the healthy birds will otherwise molest him, and
prevent his feeding, &c. &c.”

In Scotland, ttie last native specimen of the wood grouse was stated,
in 1842, “ to have been killed in the neigbourhood of Inverness more
than sixty years since.”* From that period not a single individual
was met with, even in the most remote and least frequented of the
Highland forests. Of late years, however, many of the Scottish hills
having been wisely clad, by their proprietors, with extensive plantations,
the species has been introduced from the north of Europe with success,
and about Taymouth, more particularly, has been increasing as in the
olden time. A very fine male bird (shot there by Prince Albert in the
autumn of 1843) which came under my notice in Edinburgh, was as
large and fine as any of the numerous specimens from Sweden and
Norway, whieh for many years past I have seen in the shops of the
London game dealers. At Lord Orkney’s aviary, in connexion with
the gamekeeper’s house, Glenapp, Ayrshire, I saw a number of these
birds in September 1843. A brood of nine was reared there that
season, and were all fine healthy birds, almost of adult size. The
average number of eggs laid by several hens of this species at Taplow
Court, his lordship’s seat in Buckinghamshire, was sixteen ; and
many young birds were brought out there, but they generally fell
victims to a particular disease, the nature of which I do not
remember.

It is interesting to have the opportunity, as visitors to the Zoo-
logical Gardens, Eegent’s Park, London, now have, of witnessing the
attitudes which are assumed by the male capercaillie, when he wishes
to display himself to the best advantage, and attract the favour of the
female. “ His neck (to use Mr. Lloyd’s words) is stretched out, his
tail raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers are

* Jardine, Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 79.

VOL. II.

D

34

TETRAONIDiE.

ruffled up, and, in short, he much resembles an angry turkey cock.”
Some young capercaillies have been reared in these gardens.

M. Alex. P. Prevost of Geneva informed me, in Aug. 1846, that this
species is still occasionally, though very rarely, obtained in that quarter.
One had been killed in the Jura mountains during the preceding
season.

THE BLACK GROUSE.

Black Game.

Tetrao Tetrix, Linn.

Is not now found in Ireland,

And that it ever was so, is at least doubtful. I have not met with
any satisfactory evidence of this very fine bird having been indigenous.
Smith, in his ‘ History of Waterford ’ (1745), remarks — “ It is uncer-
tain if we have not the Urogallus minor^ Raii, viz. the heath-cock or
grouse of Willoughby, which I take to be the black game of England,
and also an inhabitant of the mountains,” (p. 336). The same author,
in his ‘‘ History of Cork,” says of “ The black grouse (Tetrao seu Uro-
gallus minor') : — This species is frequent, and needs no particular de-
scription. It inhabits mountains, and is rarely seen in lower heath
grounds. The cock is almost black, but the female is coloured like a
woodcock or partridge.” Were this description taken from native
birds it would be decisive as to the species ; but it is, instead, borrowed
from the work of Willoughby. Mr. Templeton states his having-
heard, from good authority, that “ black game is mentioned in some of
the old leases of the county of Down but even so, proof that the
Tetrao Tetrix was the bird so aUuded to, and did exist there, would
still be required. Pennant states, in his ‘British Zoology’ (1776),
that “ some have been shot in Ireland, in the county of Sligo, where
the breed was formerly introduced out of Scotland, but I believe that
at present the species is extirpated.”

That many portions of Ireland, when it abounded in natm*al wood,
were well suited for the abode of the black grouse, does not, I
conceive, admit of any doubt ; * but then we know not whether Great

* This remark about wood, in connexion with black game, was founded on personal
observation in parts of Ayrshire, Perthshire, and Inverness-shire, where the species

THE BLACK GROUSE.

35

Britain may not have been geographically within its latitude, the ex-
treme western range of the species. I have not seen any record of its
being met with west of Great Britain in any latitude. Since the
period mentioned by Pennant this species has been introduced into
different parts of Ireland, and being turned out lived occasionally for
some years ; but I am not aware of its having bred in any instance.
There are in the county of Antrim, just opposite to the favoured haunts
of this bird in Scotland, localities which seem in every natural feature
well-suited to the black grouse. In two of these places, “ Claggan,”
the property of Yiscount O’Neil, and Glenarm deer-park, belonging
to Edmund Me Donnell, Esq., this bird has been introduced : with
what success, the following letters from the respective game-keepers,
both intelligent men, and the best “ authorities ” on the subject, will
explain. C. Eedmond, gamekeeper at Claggan, informed me, on
January I, 1841, as follows: —

“ Twelve years ago (two years previous to my coming here) there were four brace
of black game tm’ned out, a cock and hen of which I frequently met -with outside
the plantations in the heath, my dogs setting them like grouse. They were never
to be seen together, but kept a mile separate, and each of them always about
the same place ; the hen I found dead three years ago, and supposed her to have
been shot at by a party which Lord O’Neil had here at that time. The cock
has left us, or been killed also. I saw a cock that was shot last year at Glenariff near
Cushendall (some miles distant), which may have been the same.

“ I was at the letting out of nine black game in 1832 in this place, and a single
bird of them I never saw afterwards. The reason I cannot assign ; it might be that
they wandered away, which I believe they are prone to do, or were hurt in coming
from Scotland, and died.”

John Inglis, gamekeeper at Glenarm Park, thus answered my queries
on the subject in January 1841 : —

“ In reply to your note regarding black game, I am sorry I cannot give a very
flattering account of them. There has been one black cock here about four years.
I have not seen him for the last fom’ or five weeks, but I suppose him to be still
ahve. I think it is likely he came from Claggan, as I believe Lord O’Neil turned out
some there shortly before the bird was seen here. (The places are about fifteen

was always found to avail itself of the woods, living within them, or on their
borders, for a considerable portion of the year. Sir Wm. Jardine, — whose estate in
Dumfries-shire is situate m a very fine .black game district — has, however, informed
me, that wood is not essential at any season, and that these birds are common in loca-
lities there in which there is neither underwood nor trees.

T) 2

36

TETRAONID^.

miles apart.) At the begimiitfg of August 1839 I weut to Scotland, and got uiue
young birds at Douglas Castle. Two of them died on the passage. I turned out the
remaining seven on the hill near the place where the old cock used to haunt ; but none
of them that I know of were ever seen afterwards. The reason I assign for their
not succeeding at this time is, that they were too young, and not fit to manage for
themselves -without the help of the old bird. In Nov. 1839 I again went to Douglas
Castle, got six brace of full-grown birds, viz. seven hens and five cocks ; I got them
aU safe over to Glenarm, where I kept them for two days, feeding them on corn till
they recovered from the effects of the passage. I then turned them out in the park
quite strong and healthy to all appearance. Some time after, one of the cocks was
found dead in the park ; he was quite light and thin of flesh. Another of the cocks
was shot about the same time in Glenariff, about eight miles from Glenarm. A few
of them kept about the park all winter. Sometimes one would be seen, some-
times two, and in the month of March there were thi’ee hens and one cock seen
together, but about the beginning of May all the hens disappeared, and none of them
have been seen since. One cock kept the park all summer, and was seen lately,
which is aU that I know of here out of the twelve brought over. A cock was shot
about two months ago by a gentleman near Bally castle (about twenty miles distant),
which is likely to be another of them. Where all the hens have gone to I cannot
say. I am in hopes that some of them may be alive yet, as they are so much like
grouse that people who are not acquainted with them would take no notice of them.

“ I now come to your last query, which is. If they ever bred I and if they did
not succeed, the reasons assigned for their not doing so ? I really confess that I
cannot assign any satisfactory reason whatever, as I have no doubt that full-grown
birds woidd live as weU in Ireland as they do in Scotland, if they were only let
alone. What I am most doubtful about is, whether they wiU breed as well; and
the reason I am doubtful about this is, that when I was in Scotland, keeper with
Lord Douglas, at Douglas Castle, where black game are very plentiful, I used, in
hunting the dogs over the ground, to find all the young broods of black game, 7iot
among heath or moss ground where young grouse generally are, hut on white or
green ground, where sprit and rushes are plenty, and where you will seldom find
young grouse. But when they get strong and able to do for themselves they get
into packs, often to the number of forty or fifty, and fly over the whole country, and
take both to the woods and corn-fields. When at Douglas last, I was talking to
Lord Douglas’s keeper about what he thought the young birds fed on. He said that
early in the season he had caught some young birds, intending to tame them and
learn them to feed, so that I might be better able to get them safe over, but they all
died in a day or two. He cut open some of their crops to see what they fed on,
and could observe nothing but the seed of the sprit or rush.* Now, from the num-

* A friend who has examined many of these birds, shot in Ayrshire, has frequently
found only what he considered to be the seeds of rushes in them. Mr. Colquhoun,
in his work entitled ‘ The Moor and the Loch,’ observes that — “ They (hen and
young) may always be found near a short thick rush, which can be easily seen on
the moor, the brown seeds of which form the principal food of the young packs,”

THE BLACK GROUSE.

37

ber of black cattle that are kept on the mountains in the north of Ireland, there is
scarcely any sprit or rushes allowed to grow that would be of any use either for
cover or food. I have seldom seen black game sit when cattle go near them, and a
crow flying over will make a score of them rise and fly away in the latter end of the
season, when they are strong on the wing. With respect to the haunts and breed-
ing-ground of young black game, I speak only from my own observations. I am
not aware that they haunt the same kind of ground in other parts of the country ; I
merely wish to direct your attention to it. I know they are plenty in the island of
xArrau, but do not know what sort of ground they frequent there. As I mentioned
before, none of the hens have been seen since the beginning of the breeding time ;
whether they began to hatch and were killed by some vermin, or wandered away in
search of a more suitable place for their pui’pose, is a question I cannot answer.
Lord Courtown’s keeper was at Douglas Castle shortly after I was, in November
1839, and got away six brace to his lordship’s estates south of Dublin, but I have
not heard how they succeeded.” A similar want of success has been attendant on
birds brought from Scotland, and turned out at Tollymore Park, county of Down.
In April 1846 there was still a flue gray hen there, but no male bird.*

How different from this is the case at Ballaiitrae in Ayrshire, just
opposite to Glenarm ! When sporting there in 1839 I made the

(p. 6). The low growing Carices and rushes (as Scirpus Savii, &c.) are commonly
called sprit, in the north of Ireland, by the country people.

* Carriage and Vitality of Eggs. — The following instance of the carriage of the
eggs of the black grouse with perfect safety to a considerable distance, after their
having been partly incubated, is interesting. In June 1833 Mr. Arbuthnot Emer-
son had brought to him in Belfast, from Stranraer, Wigton-shire, nine eggs taken
from the nest of a black grouse. These eggs were placed under a bantam hen, and
in one week seven young birds made their appearance. Two of them soon died, but
the remaining flve lived for about a month, until cold and wet weather set in, when
they all died. The eggs were packed in feathers, and brought by the mail-coach
from Stranraer to Portpatrick, where they were shipped on board the steam-packet,
put into the mail again at Donaghadee, and in about twelve hours after being taken
from the nest (at three o’clock A.M.), were placed under the bantam hen.

On the same subject I have learned from Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., respecting a nest of
partridge’s eggs once brought to him from a distance of eight miles, that they were
quite cold when received ; but being placed under a common hen, the young birds
came out in half the usual time ; thus showing that eggs, when half incubated, can be
carried to a distance without their vitality being impaired. The same gentleman
informs me that having once “ set” nine eggs of the domestic hen, he by mistake,
at the expiration of two instead of three weeks, went to examine them, and lifting
each egg shook it violently to ascertain if it were addled. He concluded that all
were in this state, and thought no more of them until a week afterwards, when— the
twenty-one days having expired — the hen appeared strutting about with seven or
eight chickens ; the violent shaking in this instance of eggs two-thirds incubated did
not injure the contained chick. Mr. W. Sinclaire has known his tame pigeons
remain off the nest all night when their eggs were half incubated, and though, as in
the case of those of the partridge, they felt quite cold, no injury arose from this cir-
cumstance,— the young appeared at the expected time.

38

TETRAONIDiE.

following note on tlie 20th of August, after returning from the first
day’s black game shooting : — the information was chiefiy derived from
my host.

‘‘ Within twenty years a black grouse was an extraordinary sight in
the neighbourhood of Ballantrae ; and, still later, not more than one or
two individuals would be met with during a season’s shooting. When
first there myself, in the autumn of 1828, T saw numbers of these birds
chiefly about the corn-fields adjacent to the mountains, since which
time they have been gradually increasing, and of late years have be-
come abundant. This is doubtless attributable to the great increase
of cultivation, or the growth of corn in the vicinity of the moors ; for
with its augmentation that of the black game has proportionally kept
pace. Within the period alluded to a vast quantity of mountain-land
has been brought under cultivation in this district.

“ In grouse ground we met with two or three small packs of black
game to-day ; but one pack was quite below the moor, and on looking
to the crop of a young cock killed there I found it filled with the
flowers of all the plants which grew around : — among them were those
of the eye-bright {Eiiphrasia officinalis) , mountain chi^weeds {Cerastia),
Ranunculi, Carices ; but in quantity much exceeding the others were
those of the autumnal hawk-bit, {Apargia autmnnalis) . To my veteran
companion, who has shot here for about twenty seasons successively,
this plant has long been known as a favourite food of the young black
game. In addition to the flowers, were many leaves of a small willow,
every one of which taken from the bird was infested with an insect
nidus, but its presence was probably accidental. It is in the evening
chiefly that the black grouse resorts to the corn-fields, and it does this
when the grain is green, as well as when ripe. Both black and red
grouse, killed in the course of the day late in the autumn, are not un-
frequently found, when opened, to contain oats exclusively, which have
been purloined in the early morning.* The farmers in this part of

* Mr, Colquhoun, in his work already quoted, states, from the eircumstance of
heather never having been found in any black grouse opened by him, that the species
never eats it ; hut this will not apply generdly, as proved in the case of birds ex-
amined by myself. Examples shot in Scotland, and set up by bird preservers in Belfast,
are alone alluded to. They were ten in number, and shot from October to Eehruary in
different years. Oct. — A female was tilled with the twigs of heath and other plants ; a
male contained a large portion of the tops of heath {Calluna vulgaris) ; many of the
withered flowers of the devil’s-bit {Scabiosa snccisa) ; a few of those of Composita ;

THE BLACK GROUSE.

39

Ayrshire often complain of the damage done to their crops by these
species, and more especially by the black grouse. In reference
to the common error that this bird increases at the expense of the red
game, it may be stated that in this county the numbers of the latter
have in consequence suffered no diminution. Although the two
species are occasionally found in the same haunts — grey hens and
red grouse sometimes being before the dog at the same “ point” —
their places of abode are generally different. In the autumn of 1837
my friend first saw the hens of the black game packed there, when
fourteen or fifteen appeared together. He has seen so many as seventy
black cocks in company.

Iday^ Jan. 1849. — When beating the covers about Ardimersy for
woodcocks, on the first two or three days of this month before frost com-
menced, great numbers of grey-hens were sprung, and after a few days
of frost many black-cocks also, the latter having previously been among
the heath of the mountains. The black game season being over accord-
ing to law on the 1 0th of Dec., we could not legally shoot any of
these birds ; although it would have been a very satisfactory way of
obtaining them, when beating for woodcocks at the same time. We
could not but consider how much better it were, as a general law, that
the black game shooting should commence from four to six weeks later
than the 20th of August, and continue so much longer after the 10th of
December : — the period allowed for shooting them is perhaps long
enough. That it commences too early both for them and red
grouse, genuine sportsmen — (those who will not raise their guns to
shoot miserable “ pouts,” although these do count as well as full-
grown birds in the report of number killed) — who have been accus-

the flower of a Ranunculus ; tops of the leaves of the greater plantain {Plantago
lanceolatd) ; and a few seeds of grasses, Nov. — One filled with oats ; another with
portions of a woody plant, perhaps heath ; a third (black-cock) whoUy filled with the
tops of heath {Calhina), except a few bits of the stem of the cranberry {Vaccinium
oxycoccos) and leaves of Scabiosa succisa. Jan. — Black-cock filled with tops of
heath {Calluna) except a few flower-buds of the hazel; a second with oats and the
tops of heath, which apparently had given a pink tinge to the grain longest in the
stomach ; a third filled with flower buds of hazel and birch, together with a few green
tops of herbaceous plants ; a fom'th entirely filled with yellowish-green woody matter,
probably of the bilberry myrtillus) ■, as the only perfect pieces of the

stem were of that plant : — heath seems to be the cause of a reddish-tinge being im-
parted to the whole matter in the stomachs of red-grouse. Feb. — Black-cock wholly
fiUed with the male flowers of the hazel in an unexpanded state. Fragments of stone
were in all the gizzards.

40

TETRAONIDJS.

tomed to be on the moors on the 12th and 20th of August, in pursuit
of the respective speeies, will doubtless admit. The black-cocks are
said by the keeper to come much at this season (early in January), be
the weather what it may, to the covers in whieh we met with them,
where they feed on the buds of the trees, — those of the birch and hazel
being preferred. They eontinue in the woods from this period until
the breeding season commences, but are considered, now as well as at
all other times, to remain on the ground during the night.

In the comparative lowlands of the south the black grouse is mueh
more common than in the wilder and more mountainous highlands of
Scotland. To mention my personal experience only, I have, whilst
visiting sporting friends in various parts of that country, remarked the
noble black-cock to be much more frequent in different parts of Ayr-
shire (in Dumfries and Wigton-shires, and in the island of Islay)
than in more northern shooting quarters. In the district around Meg-
garnie castle, on the banks of the Lyon, in the north-west of Perth-
shire, rieh in all the grandest features of highland scenery, these birds
were rather scarce in 1829, and our party one day resorted to the
battue system to obtain a few brace. Their haunt was ehiefly in the fine
heathy and ferny glades, which with gleams of light broke in upon
and picturesquely varied the otherwise monotonous natural woods
that clothed the banks on the side of the river opposite to the ancient
castle, — these banks being also favourite haunts of the graeefid roe-deer.
The jetty black-eock springing, as he sometimes did there, from the
underwood of rich-green juniper, appeared with fine effeet. About the
extensive and admirable grouse moors of Aberarder and Dunmaglass, in
the north of Inverness-shire (possessing, too, abundance of suitable
ground for black-game, with the remains of natural woods on the lower
skirts of the mountains), they were still more rare ; and during the
month of September 1842, which I spent there, not one was killed.
A few frequented one portion of the ground ; but they were not suffi-
ciently numerous to tempt us to go in pursuit of them. They were
reported as becoming gradually scarcer in both these localities. Sports-
men generally are indifferent about them, where red-grouse are
numerous ; the pursuit of the latter affording, in every respect, so
much better sport.

On Hybrids produced in a tvild state between the Black- Grouse
{Tetrao tetrix)^ and Common Pheasant {Phaskmus Colchicus). — I made

THE BLACK GllOUSE.

41

the following communication to the Natural History Society of Belfast
in December 1836, and at the same time exhibited the specimen
of which it treats. The article was afterwards published in the
Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. (1837).

“ Having lately heard that a hybrid bird, bred between the common
pheasant and black grouse, had been shot in Wigtonshire, and was
preserved for Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart., M.P., I proposed a few queries
respecting it through the medium of our mutual friend. Captain
Payrer, R.N. Sir Andrew, on receiving these, considered that an
examination of the specimen would prove more satisfactory than a
mere reply, and with the kindest consideration sent it from Lochnaw
Castle for my inspection. He stated that the bird was shot in the
autumn of 1835 in a wild state at Lochnaw, where it had previously
been seen several times on the wing. Pheasants and black grouse are
numerous in the surrounding plantations ; but this is the only hybrid
that has been observed.

‘‘ In four instances only am I aware of similar hybrids being recorded.*
The first is mentioned in White’s History of Selborne as a curious bird,
shot in a coppice at the Holt, and sent by Lord Stawell for his inspec-
tion. Its parentage was not correctly assigned by Mr. White, nor
even by several later authors who have endeavoured from his description
to determine it. In a note, however, to p. 344 of a late edition of that
work (8vo ed. 1833), the Hon. and Eev. William Herbert mentions
having seen the specimen in the collection of the Earl of Egremont at
Petworth, and speaks decisively to its true parentage. The second
specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society of Lon-
don, on the 24th of June 1834, by Joseph Sabine, Esq., who stated
that it was bred in Cornwall, f The third, shot near Merrington in
Shropshire, was announced to the same Society, on the 1 2th of May
1835, by T. C. Eyton, Esq., by whom it was described in some
detail.! In the preface to a subsequent publication History of
the Barer Species of British Birds,’) Mr. Eyton informs us that the
brood to which this bird belonged consisted of five individuals,
all of which were killed, though two only are preserved. In
the same work (p. 1 01), the fourth and last I know to be on

* Otter birds of a similar kind, subsequently recorded, will be found noticed in
Yarrell’s British Birds. Note of 1849.

t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834, p. 52.

+ Ibid. 1835. p. 62.

42

TETRAONIDill..

record, is mentioned as having been obtained near Corvi'-en in Wales.
It is in the possession of Sir Eowland Hill, Bart.

“ There is not any notice of similar hybrids in the continental works
which I have had an opportunity of consulting, and as Temminck
is silent on the subject (in his comprehensive publications, ‘ Histoire
Naturelle Generate des Pigeons et des Gallinaces,’ and ‘Manuel
d’Ornithologie de 1’ Europe,’) such birds have most probably never been
met with on the continent of Europe.

“Mr. White’s description, with the exception of the ‘legs’ being
‘ bare of feathers,’ applies admirably to the present specimen. Pie
observes, ‘ The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring
round the eyes, agreed wed with the appearance of a cock pheasant,
but then the head and neck, and breast, and belly, were of a glossy
black ; and though it weighed 31b. 3^oz., the weight of a large full-
grown cock pheasant,* yet there were no signs of any spurs on the
legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones.
^ ^ In the tail were no long bending feathers, such as cock phea-

sants usually have, and are characteristic of the sex. The tail was
much shorter than that of a hen pheasant, and blunt and square at the
end. The back, wing-feathers, and tail, were all of a pale russet,
curiously streaked.’ With the little that is related of Mr. Sabine’s
bird, the present individual agrees ; but it dilfers much both in colour
and dimensions from Mr. Eyton’s specimen. This latter is a female ;
the one under consideration is presumed to be a male. In the follow-
ing table its dimensions are contrasted with those of the cock pheasant
and black-cock.

Length (total) ....

of tail ....

wing from carpus to end of longest

quill ....

— bill above to first feathers on ridge .

bill to rictus

tarsus ....

Black
Cock.
In. Lines.

20 to

9 9

0 8
1 2
2 2

Hybrid.
In. Lines.
25 3

9 0

10 3

1 1
1 5

3 1

Cock

Pheasant.
In. Lines.
34 0

19 0

9 9

1 0
1 4

3 1

* Though the weight of the present specimen cannot now be determined, the size
of the body is equal to that of the cock pheasant.

t To centre of tail.

THE BLACK GROUSE.

43

Length of middle toe

to nail

hind toe

to nail

Black
Cock.
In. Lines.

1 10
0 8
0 5

0

Hybrid.
In. Lines.
2 0
0 7

0 7

0 4

Cock

Pheasant.
In. Lines.

1 11
0 7

0 8
0 4

Fourth quill longest in hybrid and black -grouse ; 3d, 4th, and 5th
equal in pheasant.* Tail of hybrid extending 5^ inches beyond closed
wing, rounded on expansion, containing 17 feathers, all but the longest
being regularly matched : it has probably lost one ; 1 8 being the
number both in the pheasant and black-grouse. Bill in form differing
only from the pheasant in having the upper mandible less arched.
Tarsi and toes in form like the pheasant’s, but having many more
plates ; tarsi, bare on the sides and behind, but feathered in front for
half their length. Naked skin about the eye equalling in extent the
pheasant’s, but differing in form both from it and the black-cock’s
by merely appearing in advance of the eye, and broadening out to the
extent of half an inch just behind it. There is none above the eye as
in the latter bird. Horm, of the feathers on the head, neck, breast,
back, belly, and under tail-coverts, intermediate between that of
the two parents ; of the scapulars, quiUs, and wings approximating
that of the black grouse. Form of the tail-feathers unlike that of
either species.

“ In colour the hybrid has head, neck, breast, and belly black ; each
feather when viewed in the light, terminating in a band of rich claret
colour tinged with gold, which decreases in breadth downwards, until
at the lower part of the belly it disappears. On laying back the breast
feathers, the inner ones exhibit about an inch or less from the tip, a
somewhat semicircular band of a cream colour ; the inner feathers at
upper part of the back similarly examined, show the cream-coloured
marking of the pheasant, the remainder of the feather being black,
except the termination, which is of a claret colour. Upper part of
back, wings, and tail, not resembling either sex of black-grouse or
pheasant, but having a soft blending of grey, brownish-yellow, and
black, beautifully undulated ; quills differing only from the black-
cock’s in the shafts being blackish-brown. Tail-feathers obscurely

* By pheasant the male bird is meant throughout, when not otherwise ex-
pressed.

44

TETRAONID^.

undulated with black and brownish-yellow, and transversely barred
with black, the bars on the outer feathers occupying as much space as
the mottled plumage, their tips black for about inches ; this colour
gradually lessens towards the central feathers, the five longest being
mottled at their extremities. These present a singular reverse to the
longest tail-feathers of the pheasant, in which the bars become broader
as they approach the end ; in this bird they altogether disappear there.
Some of the feathers on the wing- coverts have the shaft cream-coloured,
with the centre black, ending in a point towards the tip, as in the
pheasant ; but the cream-coloured band surrounding it in that bird is
wanting, and the extremity of the feather is mottled. The lower part
of the back and rump has a blending in about equal quantity of black
and mottled plumage, each feather terminating in claret colour. The
only white in the plumage is a spot on the shoulders similar to that
exhibited by both sexes of the black grouse, and some markings of that
colour on the vent feathers. Under tail-coverts black, mottled with
rich reddish-brown at their tips. Bill intermediate between the
greenish-horny colour of the pheasant and the black of the Tetrao
tetrix. Tarsi and toes also intermediate.

‘‘ Mr. Sabine and Mr. Eyton describe their hybrid specimens as bred
between the cock-pheasant and grey-hen. But that the produce is as
likely to occur from the opposite sexes of those species, is indicated
by the following circumstance. A black-cock, a few years ago in
the possession of my friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., of Belfast, having
been kept along with a cock and two hen pheasants, beat and drove
away the cock whenever he approached the hens in spring ; and as a
brood of pheasants was wanted, had to be removed to another enclo-
sure. The black-cock at the same time displayed towards these hen
pheasants all the attitudes by which, in a wild state, the attention of
the females of his own species is attracted. The naked scarlet skin
above each eye was so protruded and prominent as to give the head
somewhat of a crested appearance, and the finely arched tail was thrown
up like that of the turkey-cock when strutting about in his pride. The
love-call, so loud as to be heard at a great distance, was almost inces-
santly uttered. He was a bird of the previous year, taken in autumn
by John Sinclaire, Esq., on his shooting-grounds in Ayrshire, after
having been ' put in’ by one of his trained peregrine falcons. He
lived in confinement for nearly two years.

45

THE PTARMIGAN.

White Grouse.

Tetrao lag opus, Linn.

Is not known as indigenous^ nor even as a visitant to Ireland.

On the loftiest mountains of England — those of Cumberland and
Westmoreland, and, it is said, of Wales — this bird once found a home,
but has long ceased to do so. Within the British seas, Scotland and
her islands only can now claim it as a native species. That there is
not in any part of Ireland a continuity of mountains sufficiently ele-
vated to be the ptarmigan’s abode, I was disposed to believe until
lately, and thus to account for its absence from the island. But hav-
ing ascertained in Islay that it always inhabits, though in very limited
numbers, the loftiest stony ridges of that island, and is common at all
times on the Paps of Jura, its absence from Ireland must be attributed
to some other cause, as in various parts of the latter kingdom are
extensive ranges of mountains of superior altitude to those of Islay
and Jura, and possessing granitic and schistose summits, such as
this bird chiefly frequents.* It is remarkable that the species should
thus at the present day be found in the two most southern islands,
which lie oceanward from the western mainland of Scotland, and so
near to Ireland as to be almost daily visible from her shores ; yet that
there is no record (at least none known to me) of the ptarmigan having
at any period been a denizen of our soil.

The want of such a bird is to be regretted, associated as it is in the
mind with the sublimity of nature. Its favourite haunt is on the lofty
mountain summit where rarely any human being, except the lonely shep-
herd, intrudes upon the solitude ; or where perhaps once or twice in the
year the adventurous naturalist or sportsman may be tempted to wander.
In ignorance of man’s evil intents against them, a family of ptar-
migan will admit of his near approach, walk off before his dogs, or tak-

* The present keeper at Ardimersy, Islay, when once accompanying the “ young
laird ” there, shot a ptarmigan, which, to his astonishment, appeared on the fence of
a stubble field, in open weather, close to a farm-house, and two or three miles
from the nearest mountain-top. Islay is more southern than any Scottish island
which I have seen named as the abode of the species. A gentleman has assured
me of his shooting several of these birds in autumn so far south on the mainland as
a mountain-top near Dunoon, on the Clyde, in the wild district of Cowal.

46

TETEAONIDiE.

ing’ wing aliglit on tlie rocks before him in the manner of tame pigeons.*
Of all British birds, too, this is the most interesting, in consequence of
the changes of plumage — every one of them beautiful — through which
it passes. We hardly draw on the imagination by viewing its plumage
as an exquisite miniature of the seasonal changes whieh the mountain
summit undergoes ; — a miniature drawn, too, by a Hand that never
errs ! In summer, we look upon the beautiful mixture of grey, brown,
and black, as resembling the three component parts of ordinary
granite — feldspar, miea, and hornblende — among the masses of which
the ptarmigan commonly resides. Late in autumn, when snows begin
to fall about the lofty summits, and partially cover the surface of the
rocks, we find the bird pied with white ; and in winter, when they
present a perfeet chrysolite” of snow, it is almost wholly of the same
pure hue.

Some of the granitie masses, as those of Mont Charmoz, &c., which
rise above the Mer de Griace at Mont Blanc, were said, in July
1826, to be inhabited by ptarmigan, and I spent part of a day in
search of them, but in vain. An English sportsman then staying at
Chamouni, was daily in pursuit of ptarmigan and chamois among
those mountains, and occasionally returned with spoil consisting of
both kinds.

Mr. MacgiUivray gives a full and admirable description of the ptar-
migan, as observed by him in some of its Scottish haunts, including
ample observations on the changes of plumage to which it is subjected.

* This may be considered a well Imown fact. A relative who had shooting quar-
ters in Ross-shire — on the banks of the Beulay, and close to Loch Monar — in the
season of 1835, informed me, on his return, that on several days he had shot four or
five brace of ptarmigan. When his dogs pointed, and the birds were hut a few yards
distant, so great was their assimilation in colour to the surrounding rocks, that he
could not distinguish them so long as they remained motionless. They soon, how-
ever, stretched their necks, and walked off before the dogs. On being further dis-
turbed they took wing, but only to alight like a fiock of pigeons on the tops of the
adjacent stones. My friend verifies the accounts of their being in general easy of
access • but states that, like other game, they are wild when the ground is wet.

47

THE EED GEOUSE.

Eed Game.

Tetmo ScoticuSj Lath.

Is common throughout extensive heathy tracts in Ireland
and the adjacent islets

Being found equally in those barely elevated above the sea and
those which empurple the summits of the highest mountains. In
the most favoured localities the species was, until of late years, as
plentiful in proportion to the extent of heath as in the Highlands
of Scotland, and in some districts still is so, but its numbers,
generally speaking, have been gradually decreasing from various
causes, connected with the operations of man. The birds are
not protected with the same jealous care as in Scotland, where
the moors are a source of great revenue ; — those of Ireland are,
on the contrary, with rare exceptions, reserved by the proprietors
for their own or their friends^ shooting. It has been remarked
to me by sportsmen, that the grouse of Ireland and Scotland
differ in size and colour. This is apparently correct when birds
of a certain district are compared with those of another ; but it
is, in my opinion, a partial view of the subject, as in different
localities throughout either the one country or the other, birds
will be found equally to vary in these respects. The following
observations strikingly illustrate this opinion : — A friend who
shot over the moor of Glenroy, Inverness-shire, in 1844, observed
that the grouse differed much in their plumage, and were of three
varieties, each kind keeping particularly to its owm quarters.
On the darkest and most heathy ground were the darkest birds,
and the largest, weighing generally 2 lb. and sometimes 2 lb.

* Lieut. Reynolds, R.N., of the Coast Guard Service, an ardent sportman, who
was stationed at Achil in 1834, when Mr. R. Ball and I visited the island, stated
that neither partridges nor quails were at that time found there. As the islaud is
chiefly covered with heath, grouse might be supposed to be common ; but they were
said to be scarce, owing to the number of foxes and other vermin, and the destruction
caused by herdsmen’s dogs.

48

TETRAONID.E.

2 oz. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter
brown; while on the stony and heathy ground combined they
were of an intermediate brown^ mottled more or less with white.

On the range of the Belfast mountains,, rising to nearly 1^600
feet in altitude,, the grouse still maintains its ground. In the
evenings of summer and autumn,, when taking a favourite walk to
the mountain ridge to behold the grand and varied prospect on
every side,, — above all to watch the down-going of the sun behind
the distant mountains on the farther side of Lough Neagh^ and
see the great expanse of waters steeped in the most lovely hues^ —
the crowing of the grouse has almost invariably enlivened my
walk home. To my ear the call is dehghtful^ from its association
with the wildness of nature. When undisturbed at such times,
the alarm note, well known to sportsmen as a repetition of the
syllable was rarely heard ; but the crowing which is admi-

rably represented by the words go, go, go, go, go hack, go hack^’"^
was continued for a long time, commencing, at the end of August
and during September, about half an hour after sunset, and con-
tinuing sometimes for nearly an hour. During one of these
walks, in the month of June, a pointer dog was inconsiderately
allowed to follow me, and by his trespassing on the breeding
haunts of the grouse, lapwing, and snipe, he caused a continued
uproar from the three species, akin to what we hear from the
various birds on the sea-shore.

As observed by Mr. Poole, when on a pedestrian excursion
among the Comeragh mountains (Waterford), ^ Go back, go
back, go back,"’ was repeated as well and as distinctly by this
bird as man could utter it, and in such wild and dangerous
solitudes it sounds like a warning from some supernatural being,
which, if timid, one feels more than half inclined to take.^^
There were lately, for a considerable period, in the aviary of the
Eoyal Botanic Garden, Belfast, two male grouse from which these

* MacgiUivray’s ‘Brit. Birds/ vol. i. p. 181, where it is added that “the Celts
naturally imagining the moor-eock to speak Gaelic, interpret it as signifying co, co,
CO, CO, mo-cMaidh, mo-chlaidh ; that is, who, who (goes there ?), my sword, my
sword !”

THE RED GROUSE.

49

and other notes might frequently be heard at all hours of the day
throughout the year : they were uttered without regard to the
number of persons near the aviary at the time. Indeed the birds
became so familiar or bold as to utter their go back/^ and go
away/^ when persons approached the aviary, and they replied in
these words to those who imitated their caUs. They were accused
of saying to intruders be off/"’ as distinctly as “ go back and

go away/^ and certainly their notes fairly bore this interpre-
tation. The birds were generally believed to use the words in the
same sense that their hearers would do !

The red grouse appears to breed rarely in confinement. Among
the few instances on record, Daniel, in his “ Eural Sports,^^ men-
tions three, one of which was in Ireland, at Eathfarnham House,
county of Dublin, in 1802. Mr. Howard, of Eoundtown, near
Dublin, informed me, when visiting his interesting collection of
living birds in May 1849, that a pair of red grouse, which he
had a few years ago, bred ; five young being produced and
reared.

I have twice within about twenty years known single grouse to
be killed on a low and narrow bare strip of land, called the Kin-
negar, which stretches in a direction parallel to the nearest line of
coast — a miniature promontory — into the bay of Belfast, about-
four miles from the town. On both occasions there was a little
frost and a powdering of snow on the mountains at the opposite
side of the bay, the nearest haunt of the species ; about as much
as drives the golden plover thence to the vicinity of the sea. The
first of these grouse, indeed, was credibly stated to have been
seen coming from the direction of the mountains in company
with a fiock of golden plover. The second was killed on the 9th
March, 1849.

The grouse breeds very early. On the 1 7th of March a sport-
ing friend once found a nest, containing eleven eggs, on the Bel-
fast mountains. When hare-hunting here so late as the middle of
April, I have more than once, to my great regret, seen the pack
of hounds come upon the nest, and set to work so quickly, that
every egg was devoured before the dogs could possibly be whipped

VOL. II. E

50

TETRAONID^.

off. PortunatelV;, this bird breeds a second time^ if the first nest
be destroyed.

The grouse is occasionally subject to variety in colour. One
shot in November 1826 by the Hev. Lord Edward Cbichesterj
near Doagh, in the county of Antrim^ was pure white^ with the
exception of the two outer primaries^ and an equal number of the
feathers of the greater wing-coverts^ which remained unchanged.
It was a large and healthy-looking bird.

Eor the fact that the grouse is a good bird for the table^ we have
no less an authority than that of the illustrious John Locke ! In
the life of this philosopher by his descendant. Lord King, are
directions, &c. from Locke, apparently addressed to some foreigner
about to visit England, one sentence of which is — Kailes and
heath-poUs, ruffs and reeves, are excellent meat wherever they can
be met with."’^ — Page 134.

My friend John Sinclaire, Esq. of Belfast, who has been a
regular grouse-shooter for upw^ards of sixty years, has not only
found grouse, occasionally in stubble and grass fields a mile distant
from the mountain heath about Ballantrae, Ayrsliire, but has
sprung them from the heath growing in plantations of young
trees about fifteen feet in height. He attributes the scarcity of
grouse in many places to the increase of sheep pasturing. The
nests of this bird are trodden on by the sheep : the burning of
the heath on account of the latter, even if practised at a proper
season, deprives the grouse of shelter for some years ; and by its
frequently being carried into execution in the early spring,
destroys their eggs. Where horned cattle are pastured, grouse
are considered to be as numerous as ever. The black game, breed-
ing as it does in marshy places, is not subjected to the casualties
just noticed ; hence one reason of the decrease of the former, and
increase of the latter, in some districts. Erom the manner in
which a pack of grouse springs, it is rarely that more than
two fall to the one barrel, and when three do so, it is considered
extraordinary. Before the gun of my friend — an excellent shot
— this number has fallen ; he has twice obtained, by a double

THE llED GllOUSE.

51

discharge hve birds, from one pack. In one of the instances the
pack consisted of only seven birds.

On looking to the food contained in numbers of grouse when
their favourite berries were not to be had, I have found it to be
chiefly the tops of heath, with occasionally the stem of the bilberry
[Vaccinium Myrtillus). Portions of the fir club-moss [Lycopodium
selago), about an inch in length, being occasionally found strewn
about the mountain-tops, appear to me as indicating its being
used as food. On opening the intestines of a deceased bird,
shot on the 14th of August at Ballantrae (but which had been
wounded perhaps three weeks before), I found them nearly full of
tape-worms [Tcenim). Its gizzard was entirely filled with the
fruit of the LLmpetrum nigrum, there called heather-berry. My
friend just alluded to has very frequently found oats in the crops
of grouse killed in the last-named locality. They are considered
to resort to their feeding grounds there in the evening, about an
hour before black game.

Although Ireland is deficient in the wood grouse, the black game,
and the ptarmigan, all of which are doubtless more admired when
displayed in museums than the red grouse, yet this bird, which
the island does produce, is, in the estimation of the sportsman,
and consequently in a pecuniary point of view, by far the most
valuable of the four ; — more so indeed than any other species of
grouse.* It is unknown beyond the limit of the British Isles,
and is the only bird peculiar to them. With the tiighlands of
Scotland, however, rather than with Ireland, the Tetrao Scoticus
is mentally associated; vast tracts of mountain heath there often
deriving their value from it alone.

Nothing can be more invigorating, mentally or bodily, than
the withdrawal for a time from the bustle of town civilization to
the pure air of the mountain solitudes where this bird is found,
and in the midst of which the sportsman formerly —before grouse

* See article on ‘Highland Sport’ Quarterly Review, Dec. 1845 (vol. Ixxvii.) —
(nominally a review of Scrope’s “ Days and Night’s of Salmon Fishing ”) for statistics
on the subject of the Red Grouse ; also a Letter from the Earl of Malmesbury to Sir
George Grey on the “ Revision of the Game Laws,” p. 8, &c. (1848.)

E 2

52

TETEAONIDtE.

sliooting became so general — literally pitched his tent for a season.
The pursuit brings him into scenes that he would never otherwise
behold^ and which^ with salutary effect become indelibly impressed
upon his memory. The ever-varying landscape of a fine sporting
moor, which generally possesses the grandest and most picturesque
elements combined, is one of the greatest charms of grouse-
shooting. To give some little idea (though a very faint one) of
this, a few brief extracts from a journal kept by the author at
Aberarder, Inverness-shire, during September 1843, may be in-
troduced. The main features only are selected, but these will
suggest the charming accompaniments, both of animate and
inanimate nature, that are usually found in connexion with
them.

Sejpt, 6. — We rode six miles out to Crooked Glen to shoot.
The ride, through wooded, wild, and rocky mountain glens, with
their rushing torrents, was extremely fine. The mountain sides
beautifully displayed the light-foliaged and graceful birch, dis-
posed in extensive masses, in little groups, or in single trees ;
with the occasional variety — in the drier and more stony places —
of the rowan and the rock-willow {Salix caprea), and in the
lower and moister parts, with the alder. Extensive plantations
of pine (artificial however), reaching to the mountain tops, added
much to the wmoded prospect in some directions ; the dark green
hue of this tree harmonizing admirably with the deep purple of
the heather, and the dull grey of the granitic rocks. I was much
struck, (as I have often before been in such localities,) with the
circumstance, that all indigenous trees were old, and that there
was not a young one springing up to supply their place. Before
two generations of men shall have passed away, there will be
hardly a tree of spontaneous growth left in parts of Scotland now
admirably and picturesquely wooded. Such is the effect of every
available spot being appropriated to sheep or oxen. To my
remark, What a fine locality for roe-deer,^'’ the reply was,

Yes, they were abundant there ; but cattle have taken their
place — this, too, on a steep mountain-side. Black-game had
also been numerous in the same district, but they have been

THE llED GROUSE.

53

almost exterminated by the herds^ who — now daily on the ground
— discover their nests and carry off the eggs.

Sept. 13. — AVe had a ride of seven miles from the shooting
lodge^ before reaching our ground at Glen Marson. On attain-
ing the summit of the first hill^ the view of apparently fine grouse
mountains on every side was superior to anything I had seen.
Instead of presenting the hoary whitish aspect of the high Aber-
arder ground, they were deeply browned with heath, and their
steep sides were in some places adorned with woods of the graceful
birch. Luxuriant junipers clothed the bases of the hills, and the
lower parts of the steep banks of the streams. Tlieir absence
from the higher and more exposed grounds was striking; appear-
ing as if they had resigned those to the heath, and then crept out
of the range of wind into the most sheltered places. Yet we
often find the juniper in the clefts of the most lofty mountain
summits in these islands. A profusion of the finest berries
appeared upon these plants, on which no doubt some ring- ouzels
which rose from amid them had been feeding, perhaps taking
their farewell repast before moving far southward to winter in a
genial climate. Beneath the shade of the junipers, that deli-
cately beautiful fern, so like a native of the tropics, the Folppodnm
dryoptens (Linn.) appeared quite brown and withered, though its
tender green fronds are still exhibited, as freshly as at midsummer,
about the exposed and precipitous banks of the waterfall of the
Nairn before the shooting lodge. Around this idSi,^%Foly podium
phegopteris (Linn.) is also of great size and beauty. The different
appearances of the individual junipers was very striking, some of
them strongly resembling their prototype in North America, com-
monly known as the red cedar [Juniperus virginiana, Linn.)

The day v^as lovely, and the views, though not very extensive,
were to a sportsman most captivating. Bed deer had been on
the ground not many hours before, and the true wild cat {Felis
cattus) frequents the rocky and in many places inaccessible banks
of a mountain torrent which crossed our path. The grouse were
very wild. Our party separated, and soon afterwards a friend
who was on the higher ground sprang some packs at which he

54

TETRAONIDJi.

did not get a shot ; but as they flew wildly past my companion
and myself, several were brought down at very long shots, rather
after the manner of wild fowl {Anatidce) than of grouse shooting.

On first observing the hoary greyish appearance of the moun-
tains about Aberarder, and being told that they were good grouse
ground, I was much surprised, and became anxious to ascertain
its cause. An examination of the localities showed that it arose
wholly from the preponderance of the rein-deer lichen [Cladonia
7'angiferina, Linn., sp.) over that of the heath, this lowly crypto-
gamic plant prevailing to such an extent as to make the mountain
sides and tops appear hoary even from the distance of many
miles. They have the aspect of being bare of vegetation, or as if
the heath had been burnt off them. A hill over which we one
day shot, was covered with soft round cushions of this plant ; not
more than a little sprig of heath, occasionally rising through it.
The summit of Cairngregor, the highest mountain in the shooting
ground, is wholly of a pale greyish hue from the predominance
- of that lichen ; but here and there through it the Lecidea fusco-
luteoJ^ (Dickson, sp.), in snowy-white patches about the size of
the hand, met the eye in an interesting manner, from their having
precisely the appearance of hoar-frost. The Cetraria Islandica
(Linn, sp.), though not attracting attention like the other two
species, humbly bore them company. The Lecidea just men-
tioned was also found on mountains of moderate elevation.

The picturesqueness, literally speaking, of a grouse-shooting
party in the Highlands is often extreme. The following note on
this subject was made on Sept. hth. Six men with the guns,
game-baskets, and bags, dogs, &c., were sent off about an hour
before we (five of a party) started to ride to the ground on high-
land ponies. The men (of whom one was in highland costume)
and dogs awaited us on a beautiful green bank on the margin of

* A name applied to the plant on account of the apothecia being of that colour ;
the crust is snow-white.

THE RED GROUSE.

55

an alpine torrent environed by mountains of wholly different aspect,
though rising more or less precipitously, on the three sides ; the
fourth side being the defile from which we had just emerged.
Being a little in the rear I could not but pause to view the whole
group, when my friends and their shaggy steeds had joined the
others. ]Vot only did the ponies and dogs all differ from each
other, but no two men of the party were similarly attired : — no
graceless^*" round hat,^^ as objectionable to the eye of the painter as
to that of the native of the east, disfigured the scene. The entire
group, in their various attitudes, amid the sporting paraphernalia,
and surrounded by such scenery, was greatly more picturesque
than any I ever beheld even on the canvas of a Landseer or a
Cooper,

The effects of sunlight and shadow, storm and calm, are ever
imparting variety to such scenes. We are often, with a vast
extent of country in view, quite alone amid the heathy moun-
tain solitude, from which the only movement suggestive of life
upon the earth is derived from the dark shadows of the clouds,
moving sometimes with slow and majestic, at others with hurried
pace over the distant range of mountains, and again pausing
for a time on the sunlit slopes, so as to deceive the eye by their
similitude to tracts of heather. Or we may, from a hill-top look
down upon a rainbow apparently lying in all its beauteous hues
upon the plain beneath, like a ray of the setting sun upon the
ocean, and suggesting a still more brilliant and airy path of
rays’^ than even that immortalized by the poet.

The following brief notes on different species of grouse, will perhaps interest some
readers, although they do not refer to the subject matter of the work. They were
communicated by my late friend George Matthews, Esq., J.P., D.L., of Springvale,
in the county of Down, whose observations on om’ native birds are often mentioned
in these pages. That gentleman, with three companions of congenial taste, made a
sporting tour to the coast of Norway in 1 843, and remained from the month of June
till Eeb. 1844, between Trondjeim (Drontheim), and Bosicop on the Alten Fiord. An
account of this tour written on the spot by Mr. Matthew's, and entitled “ Rough
Notes of a Larh among the Mountains and Fiords of the North,” appeared in the
NortJiem Whig, a Belfast newspaper, in a series of letters addressed to his fi’iend.

56

TETRAONIDiE.

the editor, most graphically describing the sporting and scenery, as well as the man-
ner generally in which the party spent their time.

Mr. Matthews, being an inveterate sportsman, subsequently visited the United
States of America for the purpose of indulging his taste for two years in the wilder
portions of the Western States, and in the Oregon territory. Having, however, met
with a party at Baltimore proceeding to Vera Cruz, he joined them with the inten-
tion of paying a brief visit to that place, and some of the inland parts of Mexico,
But, alas ! embarking at Havannah, in Feb. 1847, for Vera Cruz, in the Royal
Mail steam packet Tweed, which was wrecked upon a reef, he was one of the many
who perished. He was only about 27 or 28 years of age.

These notes were given to me in manuscript by my much lamented friend, but
have been partly anticipated in his “’Rough Notes, &c,,” already alluded to.

Aug. 1843. — In the neighbourhood of the Salten river, “ one night I had gone
up the hills by myself to shoot ; killed some black game ; afterwards fell in with
several caiiercailzies : could not get a shot, as they were very wild. While I was
after them, an old cock rose at about a hundred yards from me, out of some dwarf
willows * * * I saw the splendid bird clear the trees, and make for the other

side of the valley.

“We found hlaclc game common from Trondjeim (Drontheim) to Dyroe, the most
northern place at which they were met with.

Willow Geouse {Tetrao saliceti). — “ W*e found, from Trondjeim north-
wards, but not in great numbers, untd we were once within the arctic circle ; then
almost every island where there was any birch cover contained them. They are not
the same colour as our grouse {Tetrao Scoticus), and turn white in winter. They
are redder, and have at aU seasons white feathers in their wings ; they do not go out
into the open heather as ours do, but keep among the birch and juniper-scrub. In
winter they bury themselves in the snow ; collect into immense packs and are very
wild, keeping to the high ground and bare places. The winter (1843) I was in the
north, the snow did not come on till late, and we could see the packs on the moun-
tains at immense distances, as they had turned white. We used, then, to take our
rifles and shoot them. I have shot three or four brace with ounce balls, and not
injured the bird so much that we could not use it : we got very expert at this work,
as also picking olf ducks with rifle balls.” The following notes relate to particular
localities : — July : near the river Nid. “ I shot some grouse on the mountains here
at 1 2 o’clock at night ; it was then as bright as day, without the glare of the sun.
Aug. 17. — After walking two or three miles from Tromso, I came to some capital
ground ; found the grouse plenty, and blazed away. I soon expended aU my powder
and shot, having taken with me much less than usual. Nevertheless, I returned in
time for dinner with a capital bag — ten brace of grouse, two brace of golden plover,
and an alpine hare. Grouse-shooting is very difficult in this country, as the birds
are found among birch scrub, and not among heather or in open ground as in Scot-
land. It is very difficult to keep near your dog, or to keep him in sight. In some
localities the inhabitants cut the young shoots for winter fodder for their cattle. By

THE RED GROUSE.

57

this process the birch scrub is rendered very thick ; and unless a bird is shot dead
you often lose it. When the cover is higher than your head, as it sometimes is,
shooting grouse among it is sharp work. I lost several birds at Tromsoe in this sort
of stuff. Occasionally, I had three or four down at the same time in different direc-
tions, and as I went to get them, at every few yards, others were springing up on
all sides. I was obliged to part with nearly all my scanty dress (the weather was
intensely hot), hanging it on bushes to mark the different spots where the birds fell.
My dog being very staunch and steady, I managed charmingly. I shot very well that
day, and regretted not having more time and ammunition, as I could have gone on
bagging at the same rate for hours.”

Sept. Island of Loppen. — “ We had a couple of hours’ daylight ; went ashore,
found grouse plenty, and returned before dark with good bags. The mainland is
nearly all covered with snow, while the islands, especially those to seaward, are almost
entirely free from it. When covered with bii’ch and other dwarf bushes, together
with the different lichens growing on the rocks, the variety of the tints renders their
appearance beautiful and brilliant. The grouse come down in large numbers to these
islands from the mainland. They are nearly all white now ; those which are not
entirely so, are very pretty. We landed after breakfast next morning, prepared for
work, and as the island rose on the land side in a steep incline fi’om the water to a
very great height, while it descended sheer and abrupt seaward, we could mark

almost every bird. K ii and B e went in one direction, L e and I in

another, in order to try which party could kill most game. L e and I were vic-

torious, having bagged some two-and-twenty brace of grouse before mid-day, when
we were driven off the mountain by a most terrific squall, the precursor of a long-
continued storm,

“ Ptakmigan we saw in numbers in the Arctic Circle, in September and October.
They are just the same as ours, but differ from the grouse of Norway in their claws
and beaks, which are black (those of the grouse white) ; they turn white in winter
as well as the grouse. They get into immense flocks and are difficult to approach,
especially before a change of weather; a remark which applies to the grouse also.
Sometimes during a very severe winter they suffer much from want of food, and
become so weak that numbers are killed with sticks. They, as well as the grouse, are
very migratory. We have found their traces all along the coast and islands ; in
many places feathers and immense deposits of their droppings among the mountains,
but in the neighbourhood not a single grouse or ptarmigan : we imagined that they
moved about as food became scarce or plenty.

“ Brunoe Sound, Nov. 1843. — When we left our last anchorage, Bergsfiord, we
determined to go to an island called Karlsoe, as we had heard that grouse were very
plentiful on it. Two or three years before. Sir Hyde Parker killed eighty brace in
two days there. We encountered broken weather, day after day, and were obliged
to bring up in all sorts of creeks and places ; among others, we came to an island,
called Arnoe, and had to beat through a long, narrow channel between it and another
island. These islands are very steep and mountainous. While beating through the
channel, we landed and shot along the mountain side, keeping pace with the sloop.

58

TETEAONIDiE.

On this island we killed a great many ptarmigan as well as grouse. The ptarmigan
frequent the most broken parts of the mountains ; and scrambling after them, for
walking I cannot call it, was hard work. As there were great quantities of ice
among the rocks, which, in many places, were quite coated with it, and also a great
deal of snow, which hid the dangerous places, and brought us into many a trap, we
got numberless severe falls, I am astonished we did not break our necks. We have
all deserted grouse -shooting, and stick to the ptarmigan. It is much more difficult,
and therefore we like it better. Being obliged to come to an anchor in this passage,
and remain there several days, before we could get clear of it, we blazed away at the
ptarmigan. I should like to see some of our dandy sportsmen at such rough work.
Disappointment ensued at Karlso, which is a small island, only six brace of birds
having been obtained. This was accounted for by the low cover, (which the grouse of
Norway like,) having been destroyed ; also by the migratory disposition of the birds,
rendering the falling in with them in any great numbers at a particular place a matter
of uncertainty.”

THE COMMON PARTEIDGE.

Perdix cinerea, Briss.

Tetrao perdix, Linn.

Until of late years inhabited cultivated grounds and their
vicinity throughout the island in moderate quantity ;
but never prevailed to the extent that it does in
many parts of England, and in the south of Scot-
land.

Fifteen to thirty years ago-— previous to its becoming scarce —
six to eight covies would be about the largest number met with
during a day’s shooting in the best partridge districts, within a
dozen miles of Belfast. The cause of this scarcity, extending
even to the extinction of the species in many places, is sought to
be accounted for in various ways, but, generally, by too limited a
view of the subject being taken. The following paragraph ap-
peared in the Northern Whig of October the 28th, 1813 : —

Causes of the Scahcity of Paetridges in Ireland. — All
sportsmen are aware that wet summers and cur dogs are very
destructive of game ; but few know that the present system of

THE COMMON PARTRIDGE.

59

pickling seed wheat is what has nearly exterminated partridges in
many parts of Ireland. The old birds, through the winter
months, eat freely this poisoned grain, and die from the effects of
it, which has been often proved to be the case. Gentlemen who
wish to preserve their game should be cautious how they use
vitriol, and other such poisonous ingredients, which in pickling
are not at all necessary

Before deciding that this is the chief cause of decrease, it
would be requisite to know whether the practice of using poi-
sonous ingredients commenced about the period that the dimi-
nution of these birds was first observed, and whether different
ingredients are used for that purpose in the parts of England and
Scotland where partridges abound. I know that in one extensive
district in the county of Antrim, where these birds were some
years ago plentiful, and are now very scarce, they have not
been injured by any deleterious substance being used in the steep-
ing of grain. With respect to the counties of Antrim and Down
generally, a gentleman, well known as an agricultural chemist,
informs me, that he has never known arsenic, nor anything more
poisonous than a solution of sulphate of copper used in the steep-
ing of wheat ; and this, he considers, would hardly have any
effect in diminishing the number of partridges.*

* Attention was lately called to this matter in England. — Doctor Hemw WOliain
Fuller, of St. George’s Hospital, sent the following communication to The Lancet : —
“ For some months past, in certain parts of Hampshire, partridges hare been found
dead in the fields, presenting a very remarkable appearance. Instead of lying pro-
strate on their sides, as is usually the case with dead birds, they have been found
sitting with their heads erect, and their eyes open, presenting all the semblance of
life. This peculiarity, which for some time had attracted considerable attention,
among sportsmen in the neighbourhood, led to no practical result until about ten
days ago, when a covey of ten birds having been found nestled together in this con-
dition, two of the birds, together with the seeds taken from the crops of the remain-
ing eight, were sent up to London for examination.” By analysis, Doctor Fuller
discovered considerable quantities of arsenic in the viscera of the birds ; this was
traced to the seed-corn in their crops. Inquiry established, that ‘‘ in Hampshire,
Lincolnshire, and many other parts of the country, the farmers are now in the habit
of steeping their wheat in a strong solution of arsenic, previous to sowing it, with
the view of preventing the ravages of the wire-worm on the seed, and of the smut on
the plant when grown ; that this process is found to be eminently successful, and is,
therefore, daily becoming more and more generally adopted ; that even now many
hundreds weight of arsenic are yearly sold to agriculturists for this express purpose ;
that although the seed is poisonous when sown, its fruit is in no degree affected by

60

TETRAONIDiE.

“Wet summers and cur dogs^^ are, as has been remarked,
very injurious to game ; but I have no reason to believe that the
latter are more numerous now when partridges are scarce, than when
they were plentiful. From wet and cold summers the decrease
may have originated, as about the same period common swallows
[Hirundo rustica) became scarce apparently from that cause, and
continued so until the year 1847, when an increase was apparent,
and in 1848, when they appeared again (at least around Belfast)
in their former numbers — the first time they had done so for
about fifteen years. To the fine, dry, and warm weather in the
early part of the summers of the last few years, this increase is, I
conclude, attributable ; within which period, likewise, a slow but
gradual increase of the partridge has taken place. An equal
increase of the two species within the same time cannot be
expected, as the partridge has many more enemies to encounter,
in addition to natural causes, than the swallow has. Opposed to

the poison ; that wherever this plan has been extensively earried out, pheasants and
partridges have been poisoned by eating the seed, and the partridges have been almost
universally found sitting in the position I have already described ; and, lastly, that
the men employed in sowing the poisonous seed not unfrequently present the earlier
symptoms which occur in the milder cases of poisoning by arsenic.” The question
was then suggested, “ Might not the flesh of birds so poisoned prove injurious when
eaten ? ” Doctor Fuller cut off the breast of a bird, and gave it to a fine healthy cat.
“ She ate it with avidity ; hut in about half an hour she began to vomit, and vomited
almost incessantly for nearly twelve hours, during the whole of which time she evi-
dently suffered excessive pain. After this, nothing would induce her to eat any more
partridge. I kept her without food for twenty-four hours, but in vain ; she reso-
lutely refused to touch an atom more of the bird. This being the case, I gave her
some beef and milk, which she eagerly swallowed ; proving, beyond doubt, that her
instinct, and not her want of appetite, induced her to forego the dainty meal wdiich
had just been offered to her.” Dr. Fuller also found, in every part of the flesh of the
other bird, strong traces of arsenic ; the bird could not have been eaten by a man
without very serious consequences. “ It is notorious,” says Dr. Fuller, “that many
of the dealers in game are supplied through the agency of poachers and others, who
have a direct pecuniary interest in supplying them with the largest possible number
of birds. It is certain, moreover, that if men of this sort w^ere to find a covey of
partridges in a field, dead, but fresh and in good condition, they would not hesitate to
send them, with the remainder of their booty, to the poulterer ; wbo would as cer-
tainly, without suspicion, sell them to his customers.” The conclusions are, that
the practice of steeping seed in arsenical solution may become matter for restrictive
legislative interference, both on sanitary and medico-legal grounds.” — Copied from the
Isortliern Whig, Dec. 19, 1848.

A distinguished chemist, questioned by me on the subject, is of opinion that one
pickle of wheat subjected to arsenic would be as injurious as four or five steeped in a
solution of sulphate of copper.

THE COMMON PARTRIDGE.

61

this view, however, is the fact, that there was no such decrease
of partridges in the south-west of Scotland, where the weather
is very similar to that in the north-west of Ireland. Causes
tending to the decrease of the species in the north-east of
Ireland, within the period under consideration, were the increasing
population of the country, and consequent diminution of farms ;
the law legalising the sale of game ; and the constant oppor-
tunities afforded of sending it by steam-vessels to England and
Scotland. Although over the north of Ireland generally the
partridge suddenly decreased in numbers, even to its total dis-
appearance from some places, and did not rally again until the
last three or four seasons — during which period it has been
gradually increasing, so as to be as numerous as ever in some few
favourite districts — I was not prepared to anticipate the same
result from the south of the island generally."^ Yet from all the
counties of Munster, and from Wexford, the most southern county
of Leinster, I have evidence to the same effect. In some parts of
Clare, Limerick, and Kerry, this species was believed to be
even extinct. Mr. E. Chute remarked in 1848 : — About twenty
years ago, there were a good many covies about Tralee, but they
gradually diminished for the following six or eight years; and
for the last ten I do not think there has been one bird. About
Kenmare and Dingle, a few were always to be met with, but
this yeart they have sprung up in numbers about Dingle. I
heard of several large covies, and shot a few birds there myself.
In Wexford they decreased fully two-thirds during the time of
scarcity, but within the years 1847 and 1848 became more abun-
dant In Tipperary they greatly decreased of late years, but are
on the increase again, being pretty numerous this autumn. || Mr.

Eennell of Ballybrado considers that the occurrence of two wet
Junes in 'succession, a few years since, destroyed a great quantity,
and remarked a similar result many years before. This gentleman

* In tlie few parts of the counties of Antrim and Armagh, where they are now as
numerous as formerly, an increase became apparent in 1844 and 1845, and has since
been gradual.

t 1848. X I’oole. 1| 1848.

62

TETRAONID^..

shot ninety- two brace during one season intermediate between the
two periods of scarcity. Some persons imagine that the increased
cultivation of clover — a crop which is cut early — has kept the
numbers down considerably by the destruction of the nests.
The neglect, even on preserved grounds in the south, with respect
to the destruction of vermin, is much dwelt upon by sportsmen as
causing a decrease of numbers. Until 1847 they were extremely
scarce in the neighbourhood of Cork, but have since been found in
greater quantities.* Generally speaking, two or three and in well
preserved grounds five covies may be considered the most to be
seen here in a day^s shooting.’’^ t

A communication received in April 1849 from Mr. George
Jackson, gamekeeper to the Earl of Ban try at Glengariff, presents
in some degree an exception to the foregoing, with respect to the
places alluded to. He remarks,

“On Lord Bantry’s estate here, there was an abundance of partridge, but in the
year 1846 they nearly all disappeared in a most extraordinary manner, and the same
thing occurred, I believe, through the whole of this county (Cork). I was credi-
bly informed it did so at Lord De Freyne’s, French park, co. Roscommon, and also
at Mr. Cooper’s, Markree castle, co. Sligo. They bred as usual ; the covies were
numerous, and the birds strong on the wing.

“ When training the young pointers in August, I found the number of birds dimi-
nishing in the different coveys almost daily. At last many coveys had disappeared
entirely ; and when the shooting season came but few birds could be found, nor
could I find any of them dead. Not many birds were shot that season, hut on a number
that were I remarked large wens on their necks and breasts. Most people here who
were thought competent judges considered these to be caused by the birds feeding on
the diseased potato. I thought so myself at the time ; but as the disease has been
every year since in the potato, while the partridges are recovering and becoming
rather numerous again, I conclude we. were mistaken as to the cause.

“ In this very mountainous district (the country between Bantry hay and the bay of
Kinmare, nearly the whole of which is the property of Lord Bantry, or members of
his family) 1 frequently find coveys far distant from any cultivated land. Curiosity
caused me to examine what they fed on, and I found in their stomach some seeds of
a course kind of grass indigenous to the place, some kind of green herbage, and a
quantity of spiders that are numerous among the heath.”

The crop and gizzard of six out of seven partridges shot at

* 1848.

t Dr. Harvey of Cork.

THE COMMON PARTRIDGE.

63

different times from November to April inclusive, of which I
noticed the contents, exhibited blades of grass of a rich soft kind
as the chief food ; the seventh (killed in mild weather) contained
mosses only, of which there was a considerable quantity. In ad-
dition to grass in the others, were the fresh green-tops of different
plants ; in one, the tender leaves of a thistle ; in two of them
were a few minute seeds, and grains of oats. Fragments of
stone were in all the gizzards. A sportsman informs me that he
has often found clocks'’^ (coleopterous insects) in those killed in
the mountains : — the partridge not uncommonly frequents mountain
and lowland heaths contiguous to cultivated ground. It has been
well observed by Mr. Poole, that When snow lies on the
ground their scratchings may be frequently seen ; and it is then
curious to trace their footsteps, and observe the marks of their
quills where they have taken flight.^^

Mr. St. John, writing of the partridge, remarks, that he is con-
fident Most if not all granivorous birds amply repay the farmer
for their food by the quantity of weeds they destroy during a
great part of the year."’^'^ Another author observes : — In allud-
ing to the game which may be reared profitably upon a farm,
partridges cannot be omitted. I do not believe they ever pull
a single ear of corn from the stalk ; it is only after the stubbles
are cleared of the crop that they ever feed upon grain at all. In
summer, insects and seeds of grasses, and in winter the leaves
of weeds and coarse grasses from below the hedges, constitute
their food ; in the latter season they become, upon such nutri-
ment, exceedingly fat. During the continuance of a severe frost,
and when the ground has been covered to a considerable depth
by snow, I have repeatedly examined the crops, both of partridges
and pheasants, and found them filled with the leaves of grasses
which grow by the edges of springs and water-rills that have not
been frozen ; and the birds, on such occasions, were in fact fatter
than at any other season of the year."’M

* Tour in Sutherland, vol. ii, p. 218.

t “Observations on Game and Game Laws,” by J. Burn Murdoch, p. 21.

64

TETRAONIDiE.

Some years ago, a partridge in good condition, and having the
perfect use of its wings, was captured at an early hour of the
morning in the street portion of Donegal-square, Belfast, and
taken to a friend of mine, well known to be fond of birds. Its
wildness denoted that the bird had not escaped from captivity.
After being kept for some days in a town-yard the captive was set at
liberty, when it immediately rose high into the air and flew off to
the country. Its captor had no indication of what brought the
bird to town ; but it had probably been pursued from the country
by a hawk. The friend alluded to had a partridge in confinement
for some time in Belfast, which exhibited so strong a pugnacious
propensity that its exploits in this way were often witnessed with
much amusement. Birds of aU kinds, including well-grown pullets,
of the domestic fowl — both cocks and hens — were, on being
placed in the inclosure with it, immediately attacked. It flew
instantaneously with great force and energy against any bird in-
troduced to its domicile, bringing the weight of its body to bear
against the intruder. The strangers seemed so astonished by the
attack as to become quite bewildered, and withstood it without
attempting to act on the defensive. They were, however, always
soon removed from the inhospitable partridge.

A sporting friend has generally observed that by far the greater
number of partridges which he shot were males. On one occa-
sion, late in the autumn, seven birds of a covey which fell to his
gun (being all then seen, though others may previously have been
killed,) were of that sex.

This species, as is well known, occasionally becomes white. The
last one, wholly of a pure white colour, which came under my
notice, was shot a few years ago, at Montalto House, county of
Down.

When travelling from Liverpool to London by the mail-train
(8|- hours) on May 7, 1846, 1 remarked that partridges, pheasants,
hares, and rabbits, though near the train, w^ere not in the least
alarmed by it, as rooks and ring-doves were, — all of the many
birds of these two species having changed their quarters to some
distance. I was particularly struck by the indifference of the

THE COMMON PAlirRIDGE.

65

rabbits^ whicli^ although within tliirty yards^ did not even erect
their ears to listen to the sound. I have no doubt that the case
was very different when the trains first started, and, that
these four species which are now regardless of them, quickly
ffed at their approach ; but, experience having taught them that
they have nothing to fear, they are now as indilferent to the loudly
rushing train as to the gently passing wind. When subsequently
travelling by this railway, I observed that a partridge which had
been close to where the engine passed (perhaps dusting itself on the
road), was obliged to move out of the way. It then flew merely a
few yards up the grassy bank, and alighted within the railway
inclosure.

There is a singular difference in habit between the partridge of
the north of Ireland and that of the opposite portion of Scotland,
as is well known to sportsmen who have shot in both countries :
I have myself remarked it with some interest. An Irish covey
generally springs without uttering a call, but the Scotch covey
shrieks with all its might when sprung. The Scotch birds too,
even where very little molested, more knowingly take care of them-
selves than the Irish : their watchfulness is extraordinary. Their
sense of hearing, as well as of sight, must be remarkably acute.
One day in the month of October, an experienced sportsman
and myself sprang either twenty-four or twenty-six covies (nearly
all double, or containing about two dozen of birds), in the
neighbourhood of Ballantrae, when they all not only forbade a
near approach, but, though we advanced as silently as possible,
never admitted us into the same field with them. I have
known partridges, that when sprung there called loudly like
old cock birds, prove, on being shot, young birds- of the year.

A sporting friend, who has had much experience in both
countries, remarks, that he has more than once seen every bird
of a moderate-sized covey shot in Ireland, but never saw this
done in Scotland. He has bagged as many birds from a certain
number of individuals in the former island as he has from the same
number of covies in Scotland.

The E/ED-legged Partridge {Perdix rufd) may be noticed, on

VOL. II. E

66

TETRAONID^.

information communicated by T. W. Warren, Esq. (Eeb. 3, 1844)
as having been introduced a few years ago into the county of
Galway by Mr. Gildear, but with what success I have not learned.
Two of these birds, shot at different times in that county (one in
the outskirts of the town of Galway) previous to the date just
mentioned, were sent to Dublin to be preserved. A red-legged
partridge in fine condition was shot near Clonmel on the 4th of
February, 1849 ; the food observed in this bird consisted of thin
greenish leaves of plants.'^

THE COMMON QUAIL.

Coturnix vulgaris, Klein.

Perclix coturnix, Lath.

Tetrao „ Linn.

Is distributed pretty generally over the cultivated districts
in summer ; numbers also remain during the winter.

Before treating of tliis bird as an Irish species, I shall, for the
sake of comparison, give some particulars respecting it in Great
Britain.

From Mr. Macgillivray’s work f (1840), we learn that the quail was
seen by Mr. Hepburn in East Lothian, on the 29th of May, 1839, and its
call-note then heard by him for the first time. He has been informed
that the species is not rare in the parishes of Hirleton and Athelstane-
ford. In the middle of Sept. 1833 he saw several of these birds, which
had been shot in the meadows of the Clyde, in the upper ward of
Lanarkshire.! Sir William Jardine (1842) states, that: — In Britain
they may now be termed only an occasional visitant ; the numbers of
those which arrive to breed having considerably decreased, and they
are to be met, with certainty, only in some of the warmer southern, or
midland counties of England. Thirty years since they were tolerably
common and regular in their return ; and even in the south of Scotland
a few broods were occasionally to be found. Mr. Macgillivray mentions
its occurrence in Morayshire, and his having received a nest and eggs

Dr. R. J. Burkitt of Waterford.

t Br. Birds, vol. iii. 699.

THE COMMON QUAIL.

67

from Aberdeenshire. Its occurrence farther north has not been re-
corded. In these same districts they are now very uncertain ; we have
known of broods only twice, and occasionally have shot a straggler
apparently on its way to the south. To use Mr. St. John’s words : —
“ The quail is sometimes killed here [Morayshire], but very rarely. I
once shot a couple on the Eoss-shire side of the Moray firth, but never
happened to meet with one on this side, though I have heard of their
being killed, and also of their having been seen in the spring time, as
if they came occasionally to breed. ”f The same author states that the
quail appears occasionally near Dunrobin, Sutherlandshire.]: A nest of
the quail with twelve eggs was found in the summer of 1848, in a field
of hay, in the parish of New Deer, Aberdeenshire. There is said to
be a similar nest in the same farm every year. H One quail is recorded
to have been shot in the Orkney Islands.^

This bird seems rather to have increased latterly in Scotland. In
1839, I was informed by a friend, who had shot regularly for upwards
of twenty years over different parts of the south of Ayrshire, and par-
ticularly in the maritime districts, that he never met with one. Within
that period he had heard of only two having occurred. One was seen
on the shooting grounds of Duisk Lodge ; the other was shot on the
property of Mr. Eotch of Drumlamford, and is preserved as a bird of
extraordinary rarity. In the summer of 1846, two or three brace of
quails were seen about Ballantrae, and a few killed at other places
within fifteen miles of that village. In 1848, I was told by Mr. Wil-
liam Smellie Watson, of Edinburgh, that two nests of quails were
found in a meadow at Craiglockhart, near that city, in the spring of
1847. They were discovered during the mowing of the grass; in

one nest were eight and in the other twelve eggs. He was told of a
third nest being found at Duddingston . When in the island of Islay,
in January 1849, I learned that quails are very scarce there ; the keeper
at Ardimersy had seen but three during nine years ; all in the autumn.
Another person, who ha!d been keeper at Islay House, and has since had
a farm, met with only three of these birds during a much longer

* Br. Birds, vol. iii. p. 106.

f Wild Sports of the HigMands, p. 147, ch. 18 (1846).

I Tour in Sutherland, vol. i. 135 (1849).

II Rev. Janies Smith in “Zoologist,” November 1848,

^ Hist. Nat. Orcadensis, p. 57 (1848).

68

TETRAONID.E.

period, and of these, two were seen together in the month of January
or February.

When treating of the ptarmigan, 1 alluded to the singular fact
of its presence on the mountain tops of Islay and Jura, and of
its absence from those even of superior altitude in the north of
Ireland, though of similar mineralogical structure, as in Done-
gal, &c. The quail, how^ever, presents an instance of the opposite
character, by its extreme rarity in Islay and the other islands, and
all the parts of the mainland of Scotland nearest to Ireland,
although common here. Around Port Ballantrae, on the northern
coast of Antrim (that part of the latter country nearest to Islay),
I was particularly struck with this difference, on hearing quails
daily, during the month of June 1842, though grain is but very
partially cultivated there. The whole aspect, too, of the mari-
time portions of the county of Antrim, as to cultivation, &c. is
very similar to that of the opposite parts of Scotland.

Montagu, writing in 1802, says, with respect to England, probably in
reference to the south, where he resided, that these birds are “ in much
less quantity than formerly.” Mr. Selby, in 1825, remarks, that they
now visit us in much fewer numbers than they formerly did, and their
appearance in the midland and northern counties of England has of
late years been a rare occurrence.” With reference to Swansea, in Wales,
we are told, that, the “ Quail is rarely seen hereabouts ; but throughout
one summer, about thirty years ago, there was a large bevy on the
Townhill, and another smaller one in Gower.”*

That quails were common in this island nearly three centuries
ago, is indicated in the following extract from ^ A Brife Descrip-
tion of Ireland made in the yeere 1589, by Robert Payne d —
^ There be great store of wild swannes, cranes, phesantes, par-
triges, heathcocks, plouers, greene and gray, curlewes, woodcockes,
rayles, quailes, and all other fowdes much more pleutifull than in
England. You may buy a dosen of quailes for iii.d., a dosen of
woodcockes for iiii.d., and all other fowles ratablic.^’W

* Dillwyn. Fauna and Flora of Swansea, p. 7 (1848).

t Pieprinted in Tracts relating to Ireland, published for the Irish Archselogical
Society: Dublin, 1841.

THE COMMON QUAIL.

69

It is a remarkable facb that^ Vv6iile during the last half century the
cultivation of England has been so much extended and improved,
the quail should have decreased, while, during that period it
has from the same cause increased in Ireland ; in which island,
too, there has been a decided augmentation of late years, to
the numbers, remaining during winter. In the wheat districts
around Belfast, quails were always common. In a part of the
country, stretching towards the mountain base, where oats had
been grown in quantity, they did not appear until the introduc-
tion of wheat ; but after this grain had ceased to be cultivated
there, the birds continued in the district. In a letter from J. Y.
Stewart, Esq., dated Bockhill, Letterkenny, Eeb. 3, 1837, it was
remarked, that quails are only found in the most improved
lowland parts of the county Donegal; where some years since
they were very rare, they are now becoming annually much more
common, wdiich is to be accounted for by the increased growth of
wheat."’"’ In the year 1837, I learned, from the late T. E.
Neligan, Esq. of Tralee, that within the preceding eight or ten
years the quail had become much more common in the county of
Kerry, within wdiich period cultivation had much extended."’' It
is very singular that they should thus keep pace wdth the cultiva-
tion of grain, even to the north-wnst and south-west extremities
of the island, wdiile the opposite result prevails in Great Britain.
The slovenly system of farming, unfortunately too common in
Ireland, is, hownver, greatly in their favour, as the seed of
weeds among the stubble, supplies these birds during winter and
at other seasons, wdth abundance of food.

Although fields of grain are the quail's chief resort, clover
fields in grain districts are sometimes its favourite haunt in spring
and summer ; meadows also, indeed, occasionally are so. In an
extensive meadow district near Belfast, I one season heard them
daily calling from the end of March to that of May ; and my
attention was attracted by the notes of numbers of them early in
August, in that great district of meadowy-land near Toome, over
which Lough Neagh spreads its winter floods. During the
latter season the quail is often met with in turnip fields.

70

TETRAONID^.

In the winter of 1831-32, my attention was first particularly
directed to the continuance, throughout the year, of the quail in
Ireland, and from that period until the present there was hardly a
day from November till March in which it was not exposed for
sale in the shops of the game- dealers in Belfast. Prom that winter
(1831-32) until the season of 1834-35 the numbers remaining
annually increased ; and during the latter, they were more
numerous than had ever been previously remembered by old
sportsmen. Notes on the numbers killed by a sporting
relative, when walking across stubble fields direct from one bog
to another in pursuit of snipes, have been furnished to me,
and from them it appears that the greatest quantity seen on any
day in November or December was fifteen brace, on the 10th of
the latter month, 4| brace of which were shot on one day. They
appeared generally in bevies of three or four that season all
alluded to were seen in their summer haunts, in the county of
Down, within six miles of Belfast. The same gentleman shot four
brace one forenoon about the 1st of January, 1835, near Larne,
in the county of Antrim ; and saw many more on the same day.
He never met with more quails when partridge-shooting at the
commencement of the season than he did in the month of Decem-
ber 1834. In the winter of 1836-37, about Christmas, a person
of my acquaintance shot ten brace of quails in stubble fields bor-
dering Belfast bay, to the north of Carrickfergus. They are, how-
ever, as plentiful inland, as in maritime districts. In the letter
from Mr. J. Y. Stewart before referred to, that gentleman men-
tioned his having met with the quail at the end of January about
Letterkenny; and Mr. George Bowen, of Burt, in the north of
the same county (Donegal), informed me that five or six brace
can easily be obtained there in the course of a day^s shooting
about Christmas. Mr. Knox, in his work just published on the
Birds of Sussex, remarks : — In Ireland I have found them
[quails] abundant in the King^’s County during the winter. They

* A frieud, wlien partridge-shooting in September, once sprang fifteen or sixteen
quails from the same place.

THE COMMON QUAIL.

71

appeared partial to backward oat -stubbles on poor swampy soils,
just verging on the borders of the great red bogs. After the first
flight, they generally lay well : the grand point was to drive them
towards the bog, and, if possible, to scatter them over its surface.
What capital sport they then afforded in combination with snipe,
plover, teal, and wild ducks, the natural denizens of the swamp,
which usually contributed to my bag on such occasions ! ”
p. 169.

The following incidental notices may be added : — Feh. 1, 1842.
The chief dealer in quails in Belfast assured me that the number
of these birds purchased by him in the last three months, or
throughout the winter, would average about three dozen a week ;
on one day five dozen were brought to him. Being fat and in
high condition, they were readily sold at from 8A to Is. a brace.
Mr. E. Ball, writing from Dublin on Beb. 24, 1 845, remarked,
that great numbers of jack-snipes and quails have been for the
last few days on sale here. One petty dealer who brings a basket
of game occasionally for sale to the Castle, had to-day thirty-six
jack-snipes and fifteen quails, and there have been many large
bunches of them in dealers^ shops about town.^^ There had not
been any severe weather in Ireland before or at this period.'^
On the 20th of Oct. 1846, a gentleman of my acquaintance
shot five brace of quails within an acre of ground at Ballylesson,
and bagged two or three more brace in the neighbouring fields,
where they were numerous. On Christmas day that year, when
there was a slight covering of snow on the ground, and severe
frost had prevailed for some days previously, ten of these
birds were reckoned at one view beneath a corn-stack at Mertoun :
— these localities are within a few miles of Behast. Quails were
very numerous during the winter of 1846-47, in the counties of
Down and Antrim ; fifty or sixty of them being occasionally
brought from the country in one morning to the chief game

* Montagu, writing from the south of England, remarks of quails, that — “ In
October they leave us, and return south, leaving some few (probably of a later brood)
behind to brave the severity of our winter.” To this Mr. Selby is disposed to assent.
In Ireland, however, a fair proportion of adult birds of both sexes is shot throughout
the winter.

72

TETRAONID^.

dealer in BeKast. During the following winter they were very
scarce^ but after severe frost and snow, late in the season, some were
brought to market; on the 1st of Feb. 1848, 1 reckoned thirty-six
in that dealers shop.* Although more quails appear to have
wintered in Ireland in the comparatively mild seasons of late
years than formerly, I have the testimony of a veteran sportsman
to the effect, that from his having met with them in the counties
of Down and Antrim every winter during the last sixty-five years,
he had always looked upon them as indigenous, and not as migra-
tory birds. Others bear witness to the same effect for half that
period, and have considered them (in the Island Magee, &c.)
to be as common in winter as in summer.

Over the continent of Europe, including the most southern
portions, the quail is looked upon only as a summer visitant,
excepting in Portugal, where it is said to be found througliout
tlie year, and is considered more numerous in winter than in
summer. If this be correct, it is a highly interesting fact, in
connexion with the wintering of the species in Ireland. From
its remaining permanently in the most western part of the southern
portion of Continental Europe, and the most western island in a
considerably higher latitude, it would seem as if the influence of
the Atlantic Ocean were the predisposing cause, counteracting as
it does the severity of the winter in a twofold manner : — lessening
the cold of that season so much, that it can be borne by the bird,
and enabling it, in consequence of the comparative absence of
frost and snow, to procure abundance of food.f Colonel Sykes,

* I liad three of these of average size weighed, and found them to be 3-| ;
(rather more) ; and 3f oz. The crop of one was entirely filled with the seeds of
weeds which grow among grain. The seeds within this crop alone weighed one
ounce ; nearly of the weight of the whole bird.

t The preceding remarks were made on data supplied by the Supplement to Mon-
tagu’s Ornithological Dictionary, where it is stated, that — “ The quail remains all
the year in Portugal, aud we are assured by an excellent sportsman. Captain Latham,
that he thinks they are more plentiful in that country in winter than in summer.”
I have been informed, however, by Dr. Scouler, who spent the four winter months of
1844-45 in Lisbon and its vicinity, and occasionally accompanied sportsmen when
out shooting, that quails were never met with, nor did he see any at table or in the
markets. The birds killed by his companions were red-legged partridges and snipes,
but not many of either species were seen. lie was told that late in the spring, and

THE COMMON QUAIL.

78

ill a valuable memoir on the Quails and Hemipodii of India^* in
which an ample acquaintance with these birds is manifested, coin-
cides with Temminck in the opinion, that quails emigrate for
food, rather than to enjoy an equable climate ” in proof of which
it is mentioned, that the great changes of temperature in India
do not influence the movements of this species, food being abun-
dant at all seasons — the common quail of Europe is resident

there.

In Ireland there is so little frost, that the food of the quail may
generally be procured with ease, a fact so far corroborative of the
view just mentioned. But I have had evidence of the effect
of cold upon this species, by finding it among rushes close
to the sea-side (Belfast bay) in severe frost, from which our
indigenous birds were likewise suffering, and have known one on
such occasions to be shot at low water, on the oozy banks of the
bay, a furlong from the shore. t In the county of Wexford, quails
are frequently met with in marshes of large extent. J

The quail is generally characterized as a polygamous bird, which
I cannot consider correct, at least in reference to Ireland. The
universal impression, so far as I have questioned persons well
acquainted with the bird, is, that it regularly pairs. Indeed, in
the north, it is generally met with in pairs, not only in
summer, but in winter. Mr. Poole, considering the pairing as
a matter of course, from these birds having so occurred to him

in summer, quail-shooting is a favourite amusement, these birds being then very
abundant on the lizeries, or flat alluvial grounds, bordering the shore, and constituting
the islands of the Tagus.

* Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. ii. ; and largely quoted in
Yarrell’s ‘Brit. Birds.’

t Pennant mentions his having been assured “that these birds migrate out of the
neighbouring inland counties, into the hundreds of Essex, in October, and continue
there all the winter : if frost or snow drive them out of tJie stubble fields and
marshes, they retreat to the sea-side, shelter themselves among the weeds, and live
upon what they can pick up from the algce, &c. between high and low-water mark.
Our friend remarks, that the time of their a2)pearance in Essex coincides with that
of their leaving the inland counties ; the same observation has been made in Hamp-
shire.”— British Zoology. T have not met with any allusion to this in subsequent
works on British Ornithology. It would be desirable to know if such be the case
at the present time.

I Poole.

74

TETEAONIDiE.

in the comity of Wexford, remarks, under date of April 11
“ A quail which has through the winter frequented a meadow in
my daily walk, has, I observe to-day, procured for itself a mate,
but whether from the spring migration or from some neighbouring
locality, as is more probable, must remain a mystery, except to
the respective parties/^ But the nearest approximation to proof
is in the following cases. The observant gamekeeper at Glengariff
(Cork) states, that in almost every instance in which he has found
the young brood, the two old birds were with them. My friend,
William Ogilby, Esq., furnishes this interesting note : — In
walking through a grass field on my farm at Liscleen (Tyrone),
about the 15th or 16th of May (1849), I suddenly flushed a quail,
which rose so close to my feet that I was very nearly trampling on
it. On looking down, I readily distinguished the lair in which it
had been sitting, with a small heap of droppings on one side,
evidently indicative that the place had been occupied for some
days. But my curiosity was excited at perceiving close by (within
about a foot) a dead quail, wdiich I presume must have been its
mate, and which, from its condition, I should judge to have lain
there for four or five days ; during all which time it was apparent
that the widowed survivor had never deserted the body. This
instance of fidelity in a class of birds, of the mental characters of
which we know so little, strongly attracted my attention, and
I think may possibly be interesting to you in more respects than
one. You will draw your own conclusion as to the value of the
anecdote in its bearing on the question of the monogamous
or polygamous habits of the quail. The crop of the dead bird
was distended with seeds of grass mixed with a large number of
scarahcei and other insects.’’^

When in Dublin, in May 1849, I saw a pair of quails at Mr.
CanipbelFs, Duke-lane, that, in the preceding year, had produced
and reared to maturity five young. The cage in which they were
confined was about three feet in length, and half as much
in height and depth. I saw both the old and the young*
birds, which were placed in separate cages, on account of
their pugnacious propensities. Their call-notes, loudly uttered

THE COMMON QUAIL.

75

from both cages, indicated from a distance their “ whereabouts/^
and thus saved me the trouble of making any inquiry respect-
ing it.

The call of the quail, interpreted wet -my -foot is frequently
uttered from earliest dawn to latest eve in spring and the more
genial periods of the year, and during winter also may occasionally
be heard in the north of Ireland.f I have very frequently heard
it in September half an hour after sunset, and listened to what
seemed to be their calling and answering each other until dusk.
Indeed, their notes may sometimes be heard in their ordinary
haunts during the night. On more than one occasion in the
summer of 1846, quails, when flying across Belfast bay by night,
were heard to utter their ordinary call.

A correspondent remarks, that there is great variety in the
colour of quails^ eggs, some being nearly covered with dark spots,
and others almost plain.^'’ So late as the 24th of September 1834,
a friend sprung one of these birds from its nest, and on the 9th
or 10th of October in the same year, he met with two broods of
young birds, some of which could not fly. On the 7th of Octo-
ber, 1845, an old quail was shot near Belfast, by John Garner,
Esq., of Garnerville, and by his dog continuing to point near the
place whence it sprang, three young birds, about that number
of days old, were procured. One of these, together with the
parent, being sent by that gentleman to the Belfast Museum,
I availed myself of the opportunity of ascertaining the food they
contained. The stomach of the parent was chiefly filled with the
seeds of the reed {Armzdo johragmitis) , together with fragments
of stone : — in the young there were none of these seeds, but

* In some contiiientfil countries, particularly in Holland, I have been surprised to
see poor quails imprisoned in miserably small cages, and hung outside the windows
like singing birds, apparently for their innsic, consisting only of the above three
notes. True, in Loudon they are still more cruelly treated, though for a different
purpose; — that of being fattened for the table. They are granted only sufficient
room to enable them to stand up and feed.

t Yarrell remarks, that “ they are said to lose their voice when the breeding
season is over, as they are not heard to exercise their notes afterwards, f

B. B. vol. ii. 402, 2nd edit.

76

TETRAONID^.

instead the comparatively smaller ones of rushes and Atrlplex
patula ; no insects were found.

On examination of the food contained in about thirty quails
shot at various times and places during winter and early spring,
seven-eighths of it was found to consist of the seeds of weeds,
such as the different species of plantain (Plantago) , persicaria
[Polygonum^ P. minus, &c.), dock [Rumex), wild vetch {Vida,
&c.), chickweed {Stellaria, &c.). The crop of one bird being
tilled with the seeds of Stellaria media, I reckoned a certain
number of them ; and judging of the rest accordingly found that
there could not be less in it than 3,500.

The last meal that one epicure quail had indulged in consisted
wholly of the nutritious slug, Limax agrestis, eleven of which had
been sacrificed to his appetite. This was the only instance in
which I ever found the remains of animal life in the stomach
of the quail ; but here again, as in the destruction of the
seeds of weeds, we find this bird benefitting the farmer. The
only other matter consisted, in two instances, of large or garden
peas ; in one or two others, of green vegetable matter, and a few
grains of wheat; all of the gizzards contained sand or fragments
of stone.

In the month of August I have met with quails in Italy.
Some that were served up at table at Yaletta (Malta) on the
19th of April, 1841, and likewise a quantity of them, hawked
about the streets, had been brought from Naples. I was told
that a few of these birds remain permanently in the island of
Malta. On the passage of H.M.S, Beacon thence to the Morea,
occupying from the 21st to the 27th of April, a single quail only
alighted on the vessel. The great body of them had previously
crossed the Mediterranean. On the 29th of that month I sprang
a brace near Navarino. Mr. Wilkinson, juii. of Syra, son of the
well known and highly esteemed British consul in that island,
informed me that quails are not seen on their autumnal migration
at Syra when the wind is southerly, but when it is north-east they
alight in great numbers from the 10th to the 30th of September.
Their coming is always announced by the call of the heron, which

THE LITTLE BUSTARD.

77

accompanies them throughout the period of their migration.
This bird is described to be reddish-brown on the back^ cream-
coloured elsewhere/^ and is probably the Squacco heron {Ardea
comata). They never remain longer than one day. Mr. Wilkin-
son has been told by friends resident at Alexandria^ that the
earliest arrival of the quail there is about the 20th of September.

THE LITTLE BUSTAED.

Otis tetraxj Linn.

Has at least once visited this island.

In the ^Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for
1835'’ (p. 79)^ I noticed, on the authority of Mr. W. S. Wall,
(an intelligent bird-preserver, well acquainted with Bewick's faith-
ful portraits of British birds), that a little bustard, sent to him by
Mr. Beside to be stuffed, had been shot by that gentleman in the
county of Wicklow on the 23rd of August, 1833 : — another was
seen at the same time. I subsequently learned from Air. Haffield
of Dublin, who was present on the occasion, that they were asso-
ciated with golden plover, in the bog of Killough, adjoining
Powerscourt demesne, and about five miles from the sea. They
proved to be less wary than the plover. The survivor remained
for some time about the locality after its companion had been
killed. The singularity of its cry was particularly remarked by
my informant.

This species is but an occasional visitant to England, and has
occurred only once in Scotland.*

The Great Bustard, Otis tarda, Linn., was enumerated by
Smith (1749) as one of the birds of the county of Cork. It is
long since extinct. One is said to have been shot in Scotland in
1803 ; in England the species probably still exists. Mr. YarrelFs
work contains full particulars respecting it.

* Jardine.

78

BEITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH.

The Birds of the order Rasores, indigenous to Great Britain
and not to Ireland, are the

Stock Dove, Columba oenas.

Black Grouse, Tetrao tetrix.
Ptarmigan, Tetrao lagopus.

In addition to these are the

Passenger Pigeon, Columba migratoria,
Red-legged Partridge, Terdix rufa.

Barbary Partridge, Ferdix petrosa,

Virginian Colin, Partridge or Q,uail, Ortgx
Virginiana,

^ a species confined to the midland and
j^eastern counties of England.

■[ already commented on.

{ obtained once or twice in Scotland.

which may have visited the south of
England in a wild state ; but which
has been introduced to that country
and also to Ireland.

r included iu the British Fauna, from
■< a single specimen obtained in Leices-
tershire.

introduced to England from North
America. Montagu, iu the Supple-
ment to his Ornithological Diction-
ary, published in 1813, mentions
that “ the late General Gabbit
- liberated many on his estates in Ire-
land, but in two years the breed was
lost.”* I have known these birds
to live for a considerable time in
aviaries exposed to the weather, in
and about Belfast.

One of these birds was shot at the
end of October 1844, and another a
few days afterwards in the neigh-
bourhood of Chipping Norton, Oxon.
This species inhabits the south of
Europe and North Africa.

{One was obtained in Lincolnshire,
Oct. 7j 1847. The species is a native
of Persia and Western Asia.f

No species of this Order unknown to Great Britain can be
named with certainty as having been obtained in Ireland.

* Noticed in article on “ Grosbeak, white-winged.”
t Zoologist, 1848, p. 2065 and 2146.

Andalusian Heraipode, Hemipodius tachydro-'
mus, Tennn.

BIRDS OF IRELAND.

Order, GRALLATORES.

WADING BIRDS.

Order, GRALLATORES.
{Wading Birds.)

THE COLLARED PRATINCOLE.

Glareola pratincola, Linn, (sp.)

Himndo „ ,,

Has been once obtained in Ireland ;

A SPECIMEN having been shot at Castlefreke, the seat of Lord
Carbery, in the county of Cork, (by the Rev. Joseph Stopford,) in
the month of October, a few years previous to 1843, in which
latter year the circumstance was first announced.* Unfortu-
nately it was not preserved.

Eive instances of the occurrence of this bird in England, and
one instance of its being met with in Scotland — in the Isle of
Unst — are on record. It appeared singly, except on one occa-
sion, when two were seen together.!

The pratincole is little known in Europe, excepting in the
warmer and more southern portions of that continent. It is
resident in Northern Africa, and throughout a great part of Cen-
tral Asia.

* Dr. J. R. Harvey in Fauna of Cork, p. 11.

t Yarrell, Brit. Birds, vol. ii, p. 441, 2nd. edit.

VOL. II.

G

82

CHARADRlIDiE.

THE GEEAT PLOYEE.

Norfolk Plover.

(Eclicnemiis crepitans, Temm.*

Charadrius CBdicnenms, Linn.

Is known only as an extremely rare visitant.

The Great Plover is one of those species whose geographical dis-
tribution is very interesting. It is a regular summer visitant to
England^ but common only in the eastern and south-eastern
counties, inclusive of Hampshire. Thence westward and north-
ward it becomes rare, and has not been noticed farther than
Yorkshire in the latter direction, t Consequently, w^e should
expect that very few would visit Ireland, and that these would
appear in the more southern rather than in the opposite portion
of the island. Such is the fact ; the few that have yet been
met with, having occurred from Dublin southward.

Dr. J. D. Marshall, in the Magazine of Natural History (vol. ii.
p. 395), recorded a specimen, which was very much emaciated,
as having been shot at Clontarf, near Dublin, on the 27th Jan.
1829. The bird came under that gentlemaids inspection just
after being killed. A very fine one (now preserved in the museum
of the Natural History Society of Dublin) was shot at Browns-
town, iiearTramore, county of Waterford, about the 1st of March,
1840. It is stated, in the '"Eauna of Cork,^'’ p. II, that

Eichard D. Parker, Esq. (of Simday^s Yfell, Cork) met with
two of these ^ large solitary ploveP on the wild mountains of
Iveragh, county of Kerry, in August 1842. He had full oppor-
tunity of observing them, and remarked that they seemed fond

* In Smith’s History of Cork the following note appears : — “ The stone curlew
{(Edicnemus) . — Its feathers and feet resemble those of a bustard, and its cry is some-
thing like that of a green plover : we have it on our shores.” In Tighe’s
History of the County of Kilkenny, it is remarked, that “ the Charadrius osdicnerrms
frequents the lower part of Waterford harboiu’ ; this bird, sometimes called the Nor-
folk plover, and sometimes stone curlew, is rather scarce,” (p. 156.) The bird referred
to in these extracts, can hardly be considered the (E. crepitans.

t Yarrell, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 437.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

8e‘3

of perching on the rough knolls of the mountain. They allowed
him to approach within ten or twelve yards, when they rose and
uttered a shrill whistle.'’^ This gentleman was familiar with the
appearance of the great plover, from having seen it shot in
Kent. In a communication to the Zoologist^^ for March
1845, p. 876, Mr. J. Poole, of GrowtoAvn, near M^exford, stated,
under date of December 8, 1844, that he ^Miad lately [Dec. 4]
an opportunity of examining a recent specimen of the Norfolk
plover which had been shot in [a bog in] that vicinity In the
same page, one of these birds is mentioned by Mr. E. IT. Eodd,
of Penzance, Cornwall, as having been brought to that town on
the 24th Dec. 1844. It is remarked that the several instances
known to the writer, of the occurrence of the species in the
Lauda’s End district, were all in the middle of winter.

A great plover in the garden of the Zoological Society, KegenPs
Park, London, interested me much during different visits, in
May 1849, by remaining, fixed as a statue, so long as I had
patience to return its gaze, in whatever attitude it happened to
be, when my eye first rested on its organ of vision. I tried it
from the different sides of the aviary, and found its performance
the same from all. The earnestly fixed gaze of its large and
prominent dark eye had a very singular effect.

THE GOLDEN PLOYED.^

Characlrius pluvialis, Linn.

This beautifully marked and gracefully formed species is
common in suitable localities throughout Ireland,
and is permanently resident.

A VAST increase to the number of our indigenous birds, however,
takes place towards the end of autumn. The flocks which then
arrive remain during winter, and depart northward late in spring.]*

* Often called grey plover.

t The golden plover was remarked by my late friend George Matthews, Esq., to
be plentifid during summer along the coast of Norway : he did not meet with it there
in winter. At the latter season, it is said to be most abundant in the Orkney
Islands. Hist. Nat. Oread., p 58 (1848).

G 2

84

CHARADlllIDiE.

For several years I particularly noted down the period of the
arrival of the migratory flocks to the county Antrim mountains,
near Belfast, where they make their appearance in September ;
— sometimes early in the month. At this period their mourn-
ful cry is particularly pleasing, when heard, as it occasionally is,
at the same time with the loud gallant crowing of the grouse, and
the tender bleating of the snipe. Here, until of late years, they
remained, amply provided with food, in the marshy and boggy
portions of the mountains until spring, unless the severity of
frost or snow drove them to the low-lying humid tracts, or to
the sea-shore, — a circumstance of unfrequent occurrence in our
equable climate.

Within the last very few years, when much attention has been
given to the draining of our mountain bogs, a change has taken
place with regard to this bird, which frequents the sea-shore
more than formerly. It sometimes now appears in Belfast bay,
in mild as well as severe weather, and very early in the autumn.
On the 29th August, 1841, a few were obtained there; and on
the 30th of the same month, in 1843, a flock of from 150 to 200
birds was seen, and continued to appear, either separated into
small parties or all together, until the 1st November, after which
no notice was taken of them. Throughout September, 1844,
they frequented the bay. On the 27th of that month eighteen
were killed at one shot, from a flock of about seventy or eighty.
In winter, of course, many more are obtained. The greatest
quantity 1 have known to be killed there at one discharge, and
bagged, was 108, which, on the 22nd of January 1848, fell
to the swivel-gun of a wild-fowl shooter. A number more were
killed and wounded, several of which were picked up by other
persons. On the oozy banks of the bay, these birds have abun-
dance of food at all seasons, consisting (as I have repeatedly had
proof by dissection) chiefly of small testaceous mollusca of the
genera Rissoa, Littorina, and Lacuna, together with the fry of the
common mussel edulis). On looking to the stomachs of

birds killed inland at difterent times, they were found to contain in-
sect and vegetable food of various kinds, together with earth-worms.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

85

According to information derived, in the winter of 1848-49,
from two intelligent wild-fowl shooters, golden plover were very
numerous in Belfast bay, from twenty-four to fifteen years ago,
during the frost and snow of winter ; but at such times only.
Brom the latter period until 1841-43, or during seven years,
they were scarce under all circumstances of weather, — sometimes
hardly one to be seen in a winter. From the last-named date to
the present they have been numerous, appearing early in the
autumn, and remaining until spring.

Similar details cannot be given respecting Strangford lough ;
but during a week in Feb. 1846, when the weather was remark-
ably mild, golden plover were in abundance there. In the first
week of March 1847, several flocks, consisting altogether of
about 600 birds, were daily observed. The weather then, and for
some time previously, had been fine ; no frost for a long time
preceding.

Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, remarks, that

the golden plover is an irregular winter visitant to the lowlandvS,
coming only when hard frost compels it to leave its highland
haunts. When undisturbed, these birds always arrange them-
selves in flight in the form of a triangle ; but if frightened they
desert that order, and fly a long way [in single file] without join-
ing again. In feeding on fallow-ground they prefer the furrows
to the tops of the ridges, and thus unconsciously form themselves
into rank resembling an army drawn up in order of battle. They
are tame birds, and, when unaccompanied by lapwings, easily
approached. Some birds, shot in the evening, had their stomachs
fully distended with earth-worms, on which and beetles they feed.'’^

In Great Britain it would seem that the golden plover does not
await severity of weather to betake Itself to the low grounds.
Mr. Selby, writing from Northumberland, observes that ^Howards
the end of August these birds begin to leave the moors (having
then congregated in large flocks), and descend to the fallows and
newly sown wheat-fields, where an abundance of their favourite
food can be readily obtained. * * * In these haunts they

continue till severe weather approaches, when they either move

86

CHAllADRIIDiE.

nearer to the coast or migrate to the southern parts of the king-
dom/^'^' Sir Wm. Jardiiie^ too^ remarks, that this species is on
the coasts generally in vast flocks during winter/^t

To give some idea of the numbers (though not great), &c., of
golden plover frequenting the Belfast mountains, one note may
be introduced : — Oct. 19, 1833. — During a botanical walk to-day
over the mountains and bogs, the golden plover was met with five
times : a few were on the top of Lyle hill, a dry pasture inter-
mixed with heath ; about twenty-five were associated with as many
lap-wings in a bog from which both species rose at the same
moment, and kept together for some time on wing, but eventually
separated on the heath near the top of a mountain, where a large
flock of golden plover had already taken their stand /J at the
base of Aughnabrack about thirty were seen ; and on the hill
called the Sheepheads, not less than a hundred appeared : all
these were distinct flocks. Three of these flocks admitted my
approach within about thirty paces, though, after being persecuted,
they become very wild. Their tameness thus early in the season
is attributable to their being as yet undisturbed or shot at by
sportsmen, who rarely visit this quarter except for snipe-shooting,
which has not yet well commenced.'’^

There is often apparently an increase to the number of our
birds in these localities as winter advances, caused probably by
the severity of weather nortlnvards. In the months of December
and January, in difterent years, I have observed large flocks ; as
on the 5th of December, 1831, wLen three, consisting each of
about two hundred birds, appeared.

The author of Wild Sports of the WesV^ remarks, witli
reference to the county of Mayo — winter coming on with giant
strides — tliat Gray [golden] plover must migrate in thousands

hither. Nothing else could account for the immense flocks tliat
have been seen, and will continue, as I am informed, to arrive.

* Illus. Blit. Orn., vol. ii, p. 234. f Brit. Birds, vol. iii, p. 291.

t This plover and the lapwing have been killed at the same shot in severe weather
at Cdougliwater (Antrim), where they have frequently been observed feeding in eom-
pany ; fieldfares and starlings being also occasionally associated with them.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

87

The shores and moors are everywhere crowded with them and
within a hundred yards of the lodge^ Henessey, with two barrels,
'killed seven couple and a half last evening. The bent- banks are
their favourite fixture ; and 1 have never crossed them of late
without finding at least one stand. I have seen three hundred
of these birds thus congregated."’^

The same author continues : — There is, in shooting plover, a
common remark made by sportsmen, that the second is always the
most productive barrel. The rapidity with which they vary their
position when on the ground seldom admits of a grand combina-
tion for a sitting, or rather a running, shot. But when on tlie
wing their mode of fiight is most favourable for permitting the
shot to tell ; and it is by no means unusual to bring down a
number. When disturbed they frequently wheel back directly
above the fowler, and offer a tempting mark, if he should have a
barrel in reserve ; and even when too high for the shot to take
effect I have often thrown away a random fire ; for the plover, on
hearing the report, directly make a sweep downwards on the wing,
and I have by this means brought them within range of the second
barrel."’^ — (p. 292, edit. 1843.)

This singular habit the golden plover shares with others of its

* The mention of large flocks upon the moors renders it evident that the Golden
and not the “ Gray” plover is meant : the latter species is a shore bird, and, besides,
does not appear in flocks such as those described. It is surprising that intelligent
men will not make themselves acquainted with the correct names of the birds on
which they so pleasantly descant. Tor a long period we have had three species of
plover distinguished as Green (Lapvring), Golden, and Grey, each deriving the name
from its actual colour, yet are they commonly confounded together. In the ‘ British
Naturalist’ (vol. ii. p. 266) the Golden is treated of at length under the name of Green
plover ; and at p. 271, the following remarks appear : — “ There are few birds of
which the iguonegenes are more perplexing than the plover ; it is in fact almost the
British chameleon. One sees it in one light, and it is ‘ green ; ’ a second takes a
greater fancy to the yellow spots, and it is ‘ golden a third comes upon it in the
winter ; the green and the gold have both faded, and, lo ! it is ' grey.’ ” Here we
have three distinct species, ranked by some systematic authors under as many genera,
confounded together by the British Naturalist !

When the golden plover, either from youth or seasonable change of plummge, does
not exhibit its golden drops, the unaltered characters of structure have only to be
looked to ; the absence of the hind toe, and the comparatively small and delicate bill
at once distinguish it from the grey plover. The white appearance of the upper tail
coverts of the latter species, as seen when the bird flies, distinguishes it from the
golden plover. Shooters recognize it by this character alone, when its distinctive
call-note is not uttered. Close examination, however, shows that these coverts are
' not wholly white.

88

CHAUADRIID/E.

congeners. No matter how rapidly the floek may be speeding
onwards when fired at^ it is certain instantly to sweep down-
wards_, and in such a manner that I can readily imagine a tyro,
after having shot at the speeies for the first time, impressed for a
moment with the idea that the whole flock is falling to his barrel.

On this subject a note has been supplied by a sporting friend,
to whom the preceding remarks were shown In the winter of
1847 I went to boggy meadows, in the neighbourhood of Belfast,
for the purpose of shooting golden plover, and took with me a
young lad, who had never before been on such an expedition.
When returning home, a flock, consisting of about fifty of those
birds, flew overhead beyond reach of the shot ; but as I despaired
of getting nearer to them, I fired at the floek, on whieh they
instantly swept down, almost perpendicularly, within three or
four yards of the ground. My companion ran forward in the
greatest delight, to pick up, as he expected, the entire flock, when,
to his utter amazement, they all resumed their former mode of
flight, and quickly disappeared in the distance.^^ Blocks of lap-
wings, when fired at, often droop more vertically than the golden
plover, and approach the ground more nearly — within a very few feet.

The ])eriod at which the under portions of the golden plover
become black is differently stated by the best praetical ornitholo-
gists. Montagu remarks, that this bird begins to change its
plumage early in the year; a specimen, shot on the 10th of
March, in Devonshire, had the whole under parts mixed black and
white from the chin to the vent."’^'^ Mr. Selby observes, that

towards the end of March, or the beginning of April, when
the impulse of nature excites them, the flocks, which during the
autumn and winter had remained united, begin to separate into
smaller parties, and retire to the uncultivated grounds of the
northern counties of England, and to the Highlands of Scotland,
where they break into pairs, and prepare to breed. At this period
the vernal moult commences, and a remarkable change of plumage
is soon perceptible, the birds being fully clad in their nuptial
garb by the end of May,""' (p. 232.) It is stated, by Sir William

* Supplement to Orn. Diet.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

89

Jardine, that ‘^^the breeding plumage is altered almost immediately
after the station [for breeding] has been fixed upon.^^ In the
range of county Antrim mountains eastward of Belfast,, where the
golden plover has chiefly come under my own observation, the
black plumage appears when the bird is congregated in the
greatest numbers, several weeks before taking its departure for
more northern breeding haunts, which it generally does towards
the end of April, though known to remain until the 12th of May,
Here they have come in flocks during spring to a large meadow
before a cabin, within range of which they have been enticed by an
imitation of their call, and shot from the door. On the 17th of
April, 1826, I saw, on the Black Mountain and Devis, many hun-
dreds of these birds, all as they swept overhead exhibiting the black
under plumage. A brace which I shot were in perfect summer
garb. On the 14th of April, 1832, a similar instance occurred.
Several, shot in the bay on the 27th of February 1836, dis-
played the black under plumage, and one, killed , on the 20th of
February 1844, was mottled with black and white; another, on
the 1st of February 1845, had a number of black feathers on the
belly ; but there only, — the summer, not having yet wholly taken
the place of the winter, plumage. The preceding are the only
instances in which I examined the birds with reference to the
point in question. Of six, however, killed in the first week of
March 1847, one was in full winter plumage ; a second nearly in
complete summer garb ; the remainder exhibiting black feathers
mixed with white, or in the middle stage between that of the
two seasons. If the birds really display their nuptial dress at an
earlier period in Devonshire and the north of Ireland, than in the
counties of Northumberland and Dumfries, we may attribute the
circumstance to the superior mildness of the climate in those
quarters.

The golden plover is spoken of by one author as migrating
from the southern to the northern parts of the kingdom at
the approach of the breeding season and another observes,

it does not appear that it breeds much to the south of a

* Jeuyns.

90

CHAEADEllD.E.

boundary formed by the river Tyne/’* The most recent work
on British ornithology particularizes the Cheviot Hills and
other high ground of the Border Counties in the north of
England/^’t as the most southern breeding haunts of the species
in Great Britain. The whole of Ireland^ except a small por-
tion of the extreme norths is southward of that latitude ; yet in
suitable localities throughout the island, to the county of Kerry
inclusive, the golden plover nidifies. It is well remarked by
Mr. Hewitson to be a very watchful bird, and usually discovers
itself long before you approach it, by its clear and plaintive
whistle, which may be heard at a great distance, and is very
deceptive. Upon hearing it when in search of their eggs, I have
frequently expected to see the bird close beside me : and, after
anxiously searching for it with my eyes all around, have discovered
it perched at a distance of three or four hundred yards, upon some
hillock or rising ground, on which it mostly takes it stand.'’^J
I have met with this bird in its breeding haunts on the summits
of some of our most lofty mountains, as well as in moist, heathy
tracts little elevated above the sea, and in all intermediate situa-
tions as to elevation. On the oOth of June, 1832, a pair came
under my notice on the summit of Muckish mountain (Donegal),
about 2,200 feet in height, where the nest was placed in a moist
spot with little cover. During the same excursion the species
was met with commonly in the wild bogs of that county. On
some mountains in the county of Londonderry a sporting friend
observed these birds about their breeding haunts, as well as in
small flocks (perhaps a score of birds together), when grouse-
shooting there from the 20th to the 30th of August, 1833.
While passing over the wild mountain tract covered with heath,
between Cushendall and Ballycastle (Antrim), on the 7th June,
1834, we were several times attracted by the mournful note of the
golden plover. The first that appeared was perched (according
to the habit of the species at this season), on a little height,
giving forth his cry. He was within twenty paces of us and

* Selby. t Yarrell. t Egg’s Brit. Birds, p. 249.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

91

our vehicle on the road; and, though we stopped for some
minutes to admire him, he, nothing daunted, retained his
ground, and continued uttering the call from the same spot, so
long as we were within sight and hearing. Great numbers nidify
in the wilder parts of the county Antrim. During a tour towards
the end of this month, in the wilds of Connaught, we saw many of
these birds on the wild low-lying bog near Polraney, and in the
low tracts of the island of Achil, as well as near the summit of
the lofty mountain of Nephin (2,640 feet in height). On the
top of Lughnaquilla, the highest of the Wicklow mountains
(above 3,000 feet), one was observed by a scientific friend on the
7th of July, 1836. Mr. Davis observes, that golden plover
build on the bare, exposed sides or tops of the mountains of
Tipperary. Although he obtained the eggs fresh from two
nests on the 1st of May, 1841), he remarks, that they are
extremely difficult to be discovered. The bird itself is noticed
as easily approached at this season. Mr. Poole has met with
them in some numbers during summer amid the large tracts of
peat moss on the summits of the lofty Comeragh mountains
(Waterford), but was unable to find one of their nests. They
breed commonly in the county of Kerry Yery soon after the
breeding season our native birds gather into flocks (on the 12th
of August I have seen forty together), and delight us when ad-
mitting of our near approach, as they then do, on the green
pastoral hills, or on the verdurous spots among the heath, to
which they are so partial.

The mournful note of the golden plover, during the anxious
period of the breeding season, has been alluded to ; but at other
times there is a wild life in its cry which is quite inspiriting :

“ And in the plover’s shrilly strain
The signal whistle’s heard again.f ”

* Mr. T. F. Neligan.

t Lady of the Lake, Canto V. Stanza XI. This couplet, applicable to the
present bird, is misappropriated to the great plover, in an extract copied into Yar-
I’ell’s work (vol. ii. p. 488, 2nd edit.) The species being unknown in Scotland
canuot, of course, be alluded to in a poem so correctly and admirably descriptive of
Highland scenery and its adjuncts as Scott’s Lady of the Lake.

92

CHA11ADEIIDJ2.

Burns, indeed, tells us that he could never hear the loud soli-
tary whistle of the curlew in a summer noon, or the wild mixing
cadence of a troop of grey [golden] plover, in an autumnal morn-
ing, without feeling an elevation of soul, like the enthusiasm of
devotion or poetry/^

Brom Burns, the transition to Scotland, and especially to Ayr-
shire, is natural ! When grouse-shooting near Ballantrae, in this
county, on the 12th of August, 1839, we met with a small flock
of golden plover in their breeding ground. On the 16th of the
month I saw several small flocks, and remarked, as I had often
done before, how much more easy of approach this species is
during rain (of which there had been a good deal that day) than
at other times ; but for the dogs, 1 should twice or thrice have
been within shot of them on the ground. On the 13th or 14th,
which were fine, I could not, though the birds were much fewer
in number, get within two or three shots of them. So much
for the effect of the rain, to which, in consequence of the golden
plover bearing the trivial or specific name of pluvialis, some
authors have imagined it to be partial. Its spirit, instead, droops
under rain like that of the barn-door fowl, so faithfully depicted
by Washington Irving in his wet Sunday at an inn.* When

* Mr. Yarrell remarks, but on what authority is not stated, that “ the French
term pluvier, is said to have been applied to the plover — ‘ Pour ce qu'on le prend
mieux en temps pluvieux qiPun nulle autre saison ” — for the same reason the
name pluvialis may have been bestowed — and most correctly — on the golden
plover.

A note on the effect of rain on some other bii-ds may here be given : — July 28,
1838. When taking shelter from heavy rain, under trees bordering Belfast bay, I
observed that the lapwings were at first stationary, not attempting to feed ; but
towards the end of it they commenced feeding, perhaps in consequence of victims
being driven to the surface. Several herons which were in view ceased looking for
prey (which they had been doing just before it commenced), and evinced their dis-
content by their shapeless bodily appearance and their neck being shortened to the
vitmost. Dunlins continued to feed busily during the mere “ heavy rain though
when it pom’ed down tremendously they could not remain on the ground or beach, but
kept flying about in small flocks. W'hen a shore-shooter myself, during tw'o or three
autumns (now many years ago), I remarked, what was indeed well known to others,
that the Grallatores were much more easy of approach during rain than at other
times. When the morning had been very wet, and the rain over by noon, the dunlins,
for the remainder of the day, though a perfect calm, kept in flocks of singular
density ; — as close together as they could possibly fly. On questioning an intel-
ligent shooter on the subject, it was stated that he would even prefer a wet day in
autumn for shooting to a snowy one in winter, especially for the knot {Tringa

THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

93

sporting in the latter half of October 1849, on the high moun-
tains about Meggarnie Castle, Perthshire, we occasionally met with
flocks of golden plover, and killed some ; but their numbers were
so small, compared with those in the Belfast mountains at the same
period of the year, that I looked upon them merely as birds bred
in the district. When grouse-shooting over the very extensive
moor of Aberardser in Inverness-shire, possessing every variety of
ground, I was surprised never to meet with the golden plover
during the month of September 1842. A flock, however, was seen
by one of our party about the 20th of the month. I saw the
species commonly in Islay during January 1849, and was told
that numbers breed there.

The third volume of the ^ Ornithological Biography ^ contains
a very interesting account of the American and, at the same time,
of the Scottish golden plover, from the respective observations of
Audubon and Macgillivray. These birds, described there as iden-
tical, are now generally considered by ornithologists to be distinct
species.

THE HOTTEBEL.

Charadrius morinellus, Linn.

Is very rarely met with in this island ;

Though a regular summer visitant to Great Britain; breeding
annually on the lofty mountain summits about the English lakes
and in different parts of Scotland. In England, however, it
does not seem to go in any numbers far to the westward * * *
has not been seen more than once or twice in Cornwall, and only
occasionally in Devonshire and Dorsetshire.*

The earliest notice of the occurrence of the dotterel in Ireland
appeared in the Zoological Proceedings for 1834, where I men-
tioned one which had been shot on a high hill at Einnebrogue,
near Downpatrick, a few years previously (it was believed in the

Canutus) and dunlin. In a wet autumnal day (but never in winter), lie has fre-
quently driven small flocks of tlie latter species before bim, until they, united,
formed a flock which he thought worthy to receive his charge.

* YarreU, B.B. vol. ii. p. 455, 2nd edit.

94

CHARADRIID^.

month of November). I saw the specimen in the house of Mr.
E-eid, at Ballygowan Bridge, in the spring of that year, and was
told that two others were in company with it when killed. Mr.
E. Davis, jun. of Clonmel, has informed me that he obtained a
dotterel, which was shot on the summit of the high mountain,
Sliev-na-mon, about the 24th of June, 1835, in company with
golden plover. That gentleman himself ascended the mountain
on the 18th of August, and saw at some little distance two birds
which he believed to be dotterels : he imagined that the species
might be breeding there. He subsequently favoured me with the
examination of the skin of one shot in another locality — on the
mountains in the Liberties of Clonmel on the 24th of Au-
gust, 1840 : it was in a state of moult, and had lost many
feathers; but sufficient remained to prove its being a male, and at
least one year old. On the 18th of August, 1841, two of these
birds, believed to be an old and a young one, were seen by my
correspondent hanging in a cook^s shop in Clonmel. Although
positive information could not be obtained respecting them, he had
little doubt of their having been shot near the town. The pre-
ceding information leads to the belief that the dotterel may, in very
limited numbers, annually migrate to the elevated mountains of
the county of Tipperary to breed. If so, they are by far its
most southern breeding haunts in the British islands.

A gentleman, to whom the species is well known, has assured
me that he saw four dotterels (of which he shot one) about the
middle of August, 1841, in a field bordering Belfast bay, at Gar-
nerville. About the end of September 1 844, one was obtained
ill a fallow field a few miles to the west of Cork.^ Early in
April 1848 a flock of about twenty dotterels appeared in a
ploughed field in the Ards near Ballywalter (Down). Stones
were several times thrown at them, which they regarded no more
than by taking wing to fly to a very short distance. As they
proved so tame, and were remarked by Mr. James Eankiii, who
was present, to be of a species unknown in the district, he went

Dr. Harvey in Fauna of Cork, Preface, p. iv.

THE DOTT’EREL.

95

for his gun^ and on his return killed three of them at a shot. One^
being eaten^ sufficed by its very delicate flavour to shov*^ that in
this respect the dotterel is not estimated too highly. The others
were preserved^ and have been kindly submitted to my inspection.
The flock was seen only on the occasion mentioned. This is the
only instance at present known to me of the dottereFs visiting
Ireland on its spring passage northward ; and it is interesting to
observe that in so doing it touched at the Ards, the most eastern
part of the entire coast.

Part of the eastern coast of Scotland is annually visited by
dotterels on their vernal migration. An intelligent gamekeeper
has informed me that when he was living, some years ago, in
East Lothian, these birds made their appearance regularly every
April at the time that lapwings'’ eggs are laid ; the date was not
remembered. The ploughed or fallow ground between Dirleton
and Giilan Links, and about half a mile to the north of the
former place, v/as frequented by them in small flocks, like those
of golden plover. About a hundred birds altogether would be
seen in a day. He has killed six brace in a forenoon. They
were never tame, but as ■^dld on all occasions as golden plover
commonly are. They remained only three or four days, but (as
he remarks) his persecution may have driven them off earlier than
they would otherwise have gone. A pair of dotterel, taken in the
Lammermuir hills in Alay 1818, were kindly sent to me by Wil-
liam Smellie Watson, Esq. of Edinburgh.

The statement lately published in the Historia Haturalis Or-
cadensis (1848), that this bird makes its appearance in September
and October, remains during winter, and leaves in spring for more
northern regions, p. 58, is very remarkable; the dotterel having
always (so far as I am aware) been considered only a summer
visitant to any portion of the British Islands.

96

THE EINGED PLOVER.

Ringed Dotterel.

Charadrius hiaticula, Linn.

Is common at all seasons, except summer, in small flocks
around the sandy or gravelly shores ; — where also
a limited number annually breed.

Nowhere has this handsomely marked bird appeared to me so in-
teresting as about the extensive tracts of sand hills, which,
assuming the form of a tempest-tost ocean, bound long stretches
of sea-coast of the same nature. Though their only vegetation
consists of occasional tufts of the sea reed [Ammophila arundina-
cea, Host.) or the upright lyme-grass [Tdlymus arenarius, Linn.),
whose glaucous or bluish-green leaves have such a peculiar
aspect and fine effect in connexion with the richly toned sand,
this bird has often its nest amid them, and attracts us by ma-
noeuvres similar to those of the lapwing to withdraw attention
from its young.

About the gravelly shore of the Great Copeland Island, off the
coast of Down, I remarked (11th and 12th June 1827) that
numbers of these birds were breeding, as I subsequently did,
about the islets of Strangford lough."^ Of their breeding gene-
rally around the Irish coast, I have no doubt, from the circum-
stance of my meeting with them paired in summer at all suitable
localities. On the borders of Dublin Bay, the coast of Wexford,!
the sea-shore adjacent to Youghal, that of Bantry Bay, &c., this

* June 20, 1832. We shot a young bird of the year here, which was almost full adult
size; and likewise found a nest with eggs. On the 25th June, 1836, a nest with
eggs was observed. In the same month of 1846 I remarked several pair at islets
not previously visited. During the first week of March, 1847, these birds were
observed to be partially paired here. Mr. J. R. Garrett, when visiting the shores and
islands of this lough, on the 3rd of June, 1849, found that these birds had bred and
were breeding in all quarters. He saw at least twenty of their nests, and procm’ed a
dozen of their eggs. On the 6th of the same month he saw, on other islands of the
lough, a number of their nests, three of which only, then contained eggs.

t Mr. Poole has found the eggs here on the 6th of May, where “ they are either
laid on the sand or in small nests formed of dried plants.”

THE RINGED PLOVER.

97

bird is stated to breed. The best observations known to ine^ on
the habits of the ringed plover, having been made by James E.
Garrett, Esq., I have, through his kindness, the advantage of
using them here. His remarks are as follow : —

“ During the summer of 1845 I paid particular attention to the
habits of ringed dotterels at the Kinnegar, one of their breeding haunts
in Belfast Bay. After many ineffectual searches, I discovered, on the
20th May, two of their eggs placed in a slight hollow amongst the
sand and broken shells which covered the beach at a short distance
above high-water mark, and from which the eggs were scarcely dis-
tinguishable. I took one of these, and after carrying it for nearly an
hour in my hand, was not a little surprised to hear a cry proceeding
from it, precisely resembling the summer call of the parent birds,
but so faint as to be barely audible. Being unable to restore the egg
to the nest, I broke the shell, already chipped. The young bird was
not sufficiently advanced to be able to stand erect, but it lived upwards
of an hour, frequently repeating its cry. On the 21st, I.revisited the
nest, and found the beak of the remaining young bird protruding
through the shell. Next day, the nest was empty, and I observed the
larger end of the egg-shell at a short distance from it. The two parent
birds showed great anxiety, flying about, and using various artifices to
decoy me from the spot. They continued to repeat their plaintive cry
so long as I remained in the vicinity.

“ On the 21st of the same month I found four eggs deposited by
another of these birds on the bare road leading through a gravel-pit at
a short distance from the nest above mentioned, and on the 18th of
June I discovered a second set of four eggs in the same neighbourhood,
but placed on the stony beach near high-water mark. I took one
egg from the latter nest on the 18th, and another on the 19th. On
the 30th, one of the young birds was excluded, and lay with its breast
and beak close to the stones, beside the unhatched egg. On the 1st
of July, the young bird and egg had both disappeared, and the two
parent birds were keeping guard in precisely the same manner as the
pair first alluded to.

“ Since noting the foregoing particulars, I have had several oppor-
tunities of observing the habits of this species under similar circum-

H

VOL. II.

98

CHARADEIID^.

stances, both in the same locality and elsewhere, and I have in every
instance remarked, that until the young were hatched the female only
appeared near the eggs, and that she never uttered any cry, even when
she saw me in the act of removing some of her eggs. So soon, how-
ever, as the young were excluded, both of the parents were in constant
attendance, crying incessantly when there seemed to be the slightest
cause for apprehension. If alarmed, when sitting on the eggs, the
female invariably runs in silence for some distance from the nest, and
she seldom returns to it without making various circuits on foot, run-
ning a few yards quickly, and then standing motionless for a con-
siderable length of time.

“ The easiest method of finding the nest is to watch the suspected
locality before coming too close to it, and whenever the bird is observed
running, to search in the direction from which she proceeds.

“ The young birds, until they are able to fly, crouch as closely as
possible to the ground when approached, and lie, apparently lifeless,
permitting themselves to be lifted in the hand, but they run very nimbly
when not apprehensive of danger.

‘‘ I have always found the eggs to be four in number (except in the
instance first mentioned), and the smaller ends placed in the centre.

“ Mr. Hewitson has given admirable representations of the eggs ;
but, so far as my observations have gone, he has fallen into an error as
to the habits of these birds wliiUt they have nests. He observes —
‘ During the breeding season the ring dotterel is ever on the alert, and
on wing long before you reach its eggs, making its circuits round you,
and uttering its sweet plaintive whistle of alarm — a sure indication that
you are in the near neighbourhood of its eggs or young.’* I would
suggest, that the birds so observed were the parents of young broods
previously hatched, and which were in the same neighbourhood as the
eggs of other birds of the same species, who were silent spectators of
the scene.

‘‘ It may be observed, that the instinct which induces silence on the
part of the female during incubation, is not peculiar to this species,
Mr. Selby having recorded its existence in the common sand-piper
{Totanus hypoleucos.)

Mr. Francis Kankin informs me, that one of these birds placed
its eggs on the bare ground, in one of his father’s fields near Kirk-
* Egg’s Brit. Birds, p. 255.

THE RINGED PLOVER.

99

cubbin, at a short distance from the shore of Strangford lough. When
ploughing the fields, the ploughman observed the eggs, and removed
them, together with the elod of earth on whieh they lay, to a short
distance in the ground already ploughed. In the course of the same
day the bird was observed sitting on the eggs, which she sueceeded in
hatehing.

“ I have heard of instances of ringed dotterels depositing their eggs
on the dried wrack cast up by the sea in winter above the ordinary
high-water mark in Carnlough Bay (co. Antrim), but have never known
‘ stems of dry grass,’ (as mentioned by Mr. Selby), or any other sub-
stanee employed, ‘ to receive the eggs,’ save that in one nest, to which
I called your attention last season, fragments of white shells had been
collected together on a bed of dark-coloured gravel, so as to form a
strong contrast in colour, not well calculated to avoid observation.”*

P. S. — Since writing the foregoing note, I have examined upwards of twenty-
nests of the ringed dotterel on the shores and islands of Strangford Lough, and, with
a few exceptions, they contained fragments of shells of various hinds, evidently-
carried to the spot by the bird. In one instance the eggs were deposited on dried
sleech-grass {Zoster a marina), which had been cast on shore by a high tide in
winter.

11th June, 1849,”

All the ringed plover produced in Ireland, form, I conceive, but
a small proportion of those which frequent the coast for three-
fourths of the year, and as numerously in winter as at any other
period. t During many consecutive years I remarked this species
to congregate in Belfast bay towards the time of its departure

* This nest which was pointed out to me on the 1st of July, 1848, was placed
several yards lower down on the pure gravelly beach than the line of broken shells,
among which it could hardly have been discovered. It was in form deeper than a
saucer, and wholly constructed of the shells of the common cockle {Cardium edule),
which, in consequence of their whiteness, rendered it quite conspicuous among the
dark grey gravel. It contained four eggs. The bird, perceiving om’ approach from
a distance, left the nest, and ran seaward in perfect silence. There was another
nest very near, among the shingle, the young birds of which were able to fly, and
were then feeding along the margin of the water.

On the 8th of May, 1849, a nest, containing four eggs, half incubated, was found
OTi the Kinnegar.

t In January 1849 I observed them on the sandy shores of Islay, off the western
coast of Scotland ; they breed commonly in the island. The ringed plover was re-
marked by the late Mr. Geo. Matthews to be plentiful in summer along the coast of
Norway, from Trondjeim to the Alten Fiord. In winter they also appeared at some
parts of the coast, but in much smaller numbers.

100

CHARADRIID.E.

northward in spring, when for some weeks it w'as seen in num-
bers associated with hosts of dunlins. The season, no matter how
fine, was always far advanced before they took their departure,
respecting the period of which, a few dates may be supplied.

1832. May 21st, more appeared on the western side of Belfast
bay than I had ever seen together : 31st of that month, some still
remained. On the 3rd of June a flock consisting of about a
dozen birds was observed : single birds and pairs were at the
same time seen, but these would remain all summer. On the
22nd and 26th May, 1833, flocks consisting of about twenty or
thirty birds appeared. On May 2nd, 1838, ringed plovers and
dunlins together — (they were associated on all the former occa-
sions)— were in remarkable profusion, literally in thousands; the
species under consideration forming about one-tenth of the whole.
The calls of such a multitude were highly melodious,'^ and being
heard at a distance first attracted my attention to them : they
were indeed the observed of all observers,^^ passing on the adja-
cent highway. On the 9th of the same month a large flock was
seen here.

The earliest note before me of their return from breeding, refers
to 1827, when they were numerous in the bay on the 31st July.
Blocks consisting of about twenty (perhaps bred here) I have seen
in the middle of this month. August is the usual period of their
arrival.

Several ringed plover were observed by Mr. E. Ball and myself
in June 1834, on the sands at one extremity of the fresh- water
lake at Beltra, between Westport and JSTephin mountain, county of
Mayo : one which was shot proved to be adult. On the 20th
July, 1839, one of these birds was observed on the sandy banks
of Lough Neagh, in Shanes castle park ; and Mr. Selby, who was
present, agreed with me that its manoeuvres indicated the proxi-
mity of the young. On the 2nd of August, 1846, I saw some
single birds, and also twenty-five in a flock, on the shores of that

* The ringed plover has a full rich note at this season, in sound like the word tu-
leep, sometimes uttered slowly, at others rapidly. Its ordinary note is a simple (and
not loud) little whistle.

THE RINGED PLOVER.

101

lake between Toome and the river Mayola. I have been assured by
an old sportsman that a few pair of these birds many years ago
bred annually at the Brown Moss^ an inland locality of a marshy
nature,, adjacent to the Green Boghill, county of Antrim, as
dunlins also did at the same time : the latter were scattered over
a wider district than the ringed plover. Both species have long
since ceased to frequent the place, in consequence of its being less
in a state of nature than at the period alluded to. They have
likewise been observed to be in small numbers during summer at
a similar locality in the county of Mayo,^ — a bog near lough Conn,
in which redshanks and dunlins nidify. They were consequently
believed to be breeding there. The Rev. T. Knox has remarked,
in a letter to me, that ringed dotterels are plentiful along the
river Shannon about Killaloe, where they fly Tibout with sand-
pipers : he had not observed them during winter, and hence

considered that they probably came to breed. One which he
killed in June, 1832, had its stomach filled with small shells.
Tliree shot at Strangford lough in J une contained minute
Crustacea, and insects. A few specimens from Belfast bay
examined in winter, exhibited the remains of Crustacea. The
ringed dotterel has occasionally been observed in September about
the oozy banks of a river (presenting fresh-water rejectamenta
only) above a paper mill within the circuit of the town of Belfast.

This bird is commonly called Knot by the shore- shooters of
Belfast bay, the species properly so called, the Tringa CanutuSy
being termed Bimne. Having inquired of an old shooter if
he had remarked any peculiarity about this species, his reply
was that when feeding they fight very much, the stronger
frequently driving away the weaker. Their sociability with
dunlins, however, is fatal to them ; for when by themselves
the flocks are so small as to be considered unworthy of the
fowler^s notice ; but when in company with the other, which
usually go in large bodies, and consequently are considered
worth a charge of powder and shot,^'’ both are slain together.
The two species are generally associated on our coast. During
spring tides in Belfast bay, when these birds are driven to

102

CHARADEIIDiE.

the verge of the shore^ and would become an easy prey to the
gun^ the two species retire in company to large tilled fields^ and
in a closely packed flock await in patient quietude the reced-
ing of the waters. Though at such times one or two ringed
plover may be seen dotted along the edge of the flock of dunlins,
the species usually occupies one extremity of the general body ;
appearing, from their superior size and limited numbers, like
grenadiers to a regiment of dunlins.

The ringed plover at all times frequents the soft oozy portion
of Belfast bay, as much as the sandy or gravelly, in which respect
it is less particular than the dunlin. At the eastern side of
Holywood, where the beach is of the latter nature, I have often
observed it to the exclusion of the dunlin, 'which instead keeps to the
vast oozy banks extending for miles to the westward of the village,
where also the ringed plover prevails. This merely illustrates the
choice of feeding ground in one locality where its nature is vari-
ous. Elsewhere the dunlin is met with on gravelly and sandy
shores.

A singular variety of the ringed plover was shot on the 1st
August, 1 842, in Belfast bay. It is wholly white, except where
the plumage is ordinarily blackish, i. e. on the gorget, the prima-
ries, and a band towards the extremity of the tail ; all of which
are, instead, of a very pale yellowish brown. The portions of the
plumage, usually of a very pale yellowish white cast, are in this bird
of a pure white. Bill pale brown instead of black ; legs yellowish.
The specimen is preserved in the Belfast museum.

I have examined adult males and females of the ringed plover,
shot on the same day in spring, that in no respect differed in
outward appearance from each other.

In July 1826 I remarked a solitary ringed plover on the
sandy beach of the Adriatic sea near Ancona.

It may here be mentioned of the Little (Einged) Plovek {Cha-
radrlu^ minor) — a speeies which at least once occurred in England —
that on the 8th April, 1841, when walking in the neighbourhood of
Valetta (Malta) in company with Professor Edwd. Forbes, six in a
flock alighted very near ns, apparently to rest, and after a short time

THE RINGED PLOVER.

103

proceeded on their migratory course, which was in a north-west
direction.

Mr. Garrett has supplied me with the following critical note, as well
as given me ‘ ocular demonstration’ of its correctness. “ In treating of
the little ringed plover Mr. Yarrell says, — ‘This species bears con-
siderable resemblance to the ringed plover {Cli. Hiaticuld), and is likely
to be occasionally overlooked ; it is, however, to be distinguished
readily on examination by its smaller size ; its much more slender form
being one-fourth lighter in weight ; its black beak, its more slender
and lighter-coloured legs, by the broad white shaft of the first quill-
feather only of each wing, and by the dusky spot which is present at
all ages on the inner web of the outer tail feather on each side, toJiich
feather in the ringed plover is wholly white without any spot, and there
are two white feathers on each outside of the tail in the Kentish
plover.”^

“ I have, however, observed, in several specimens of the ringed plover,
a ‘ dusky spot on the inner web of the outer tail-feather on each side.’
In one of these killed in my presence, on 30th April 1849, out of a
flock in Belfast bay, the spot was very distinctly marked ; as it likewise
was in a female bird which I shot there on the 1 8th of May. It is
sometimes on the male as well as the female, and may perhaps depend
on the age of the bird. I have seen many individuals in which the
spot was wholly wanting.”

The following note may here be introduced : — Sept. 25, 1838.
Charadriidm. I was interested to-day by observing, close to
Thomson’s Embankment, Belfast bay, three species of this family
at one view; the ringed dotterel {C. hiaticula), lapwing {Vanel-
lus Grist atus), and grey plover {Squatarola cinerea). The two
former were feeding in company very near the road, and I could
not but remark the strong family resemblance imparted by the
dark gorget — the most striking mark of the plumage when the
birds are viewed from some distance. In addition to the
three species in the fore-ground, groups of grey or golden, plover
(so far apart from the others, and from where I stood, mat the

* Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 474, 2nd edition.

104

CHAEADRIIDtE.

species could not be known with certainty), appeared on a floating
patch of sleech-grass^^ [Zostera marina) waiting very patiently
for the fall of the tide, each with its head under its wing, and all
turned .with their bodies in one direction, as is usual with the
Grallatores on such occasions. They thus present a formal rather
than a picturesque aspect, which latter the heron does under
similar circumstances. Large flocks of lapwings were on flight
above the bay ; the day was fine and beautifully bright, as the
weather has been, excepting on one day, for some time past ;
thus showing that severe weather is not the cause of this last
species coming to the sea-shore.

THE KENTISH PLOYER.

Charadriiis Cantianus, Latham.

Is known only as an extremely rare visitant to our shores.

So lately as August 1848 I first became acquainted with the
circumstance of its occurrence. On the 23rd of that month, two
of these birds were killed by an intelligent lad at the same shot
(from a shoulder-gun) with nine ringed plover and a dunlin, far
up Belfast bay. The shooter remarked the two birds to be dif-
ferent from any he had ever seen ; that their bills and legs were
as black as those of the dunlin, while the same parts of the ringed
plover were yellow or orange- coloured ; they were also noticed as
being smaller than the latter. On being shown the specimens of
this tribe of birds in the Belfast Museum, he at once pointed out
the Kentish plover as being of the same species as his victims.
A young relative of my own shot one of these birds about the
same time in Belfast bay, opposite Richmond lodge. It was
feeding in company with ringed plover, some of which also fell
at the discharge ; its black legs and other distinguishing marks
were particularly observed; but owing to thoughtlessness, both
this and the other two specimens were suffered to be lost. It
may be remarked that the nearly allied ringed plover were con-

THE KENTISH PLOVEE.

105

sidered more numerous during the autumn of 1848 in Belfast
bay than had ever before been known.

I have since learned, from Robert J. Montgomery, Esq., that
two Kentish plover were shot in Dublin bay in the autumn of
1846, both of which he saw in the hands of the shooter. He
fortunately procured one of them. They were killed from a flock
of eight, said to have been very tame, and apart from other birds.
The specimen obtained was kindly sent from Dublin for my in-
spection.

From the occurrence, in autumn, of the Kentish plover in two
years, it might be imagined that, like many other birds, they
visited the island in passing southward from their more northern
breeding places ; but we have no record of their having any such
haunts, from which they would be likely to migrate along the eastern
shores of Ireland. We would appear to have something yet to
learn of the geographical distribution of the species. Indeed,
from the circumstance of the Kentish plover being known to visit
the shores of Kent and Sussex only, in Great Britain, for the pur-
pose of breeding (arriving in April, and departing in August),
and to have been seen but in one other county — Norfolk,* it
would have been a fair inference, previous to the occurrence of
the bird in Ireland, that the south-east coast of England was the
extreme north-west limit of its migratory range. The north of
Germany is the highest latitude in Europe which it was known
by Temminck to visit ; but in a subsequent work its range is
extended a little farther, — to the south of Sweden.f It is not
known in North America, but is said to be found in Siberia. J
The more southern shores — as those of the Mediterranean, &c. —
are its chief haunt in Europe.

Yarrell, Brit. Birds (1845).

t Keyserling and Blasius.

t Schlegel.

106

CHARADRIIDyE.

THE GEEY PLOYEE *

Squatarola cinereay Cuv.

Tringa squatarola, Linn.

Is met with in very limited numbers around the coast in
autumn and winter ; it retires northward in spring.

It is the latest of the Grallatores in making its autumnal appear-
ance in Belfast bay after the breeding season, and occasionally is
not seen until the latter end of September. The 1st of this
month (1841) is the earliest certain date of its arrival known to
me; but it is said to have appeared at the end of August. Until
December inclusive, a few individuals were always seen, after
which month they probably moved southward. They did not
again appear until the following autumn, so that their line of
flight northward to their breeding haunts in spring was different
from their southward autumnal course. In other words they
were but of single passage.^^ Their disappearance before Janu-
ary may be considered to have been a general rule from the begin-
ning of the present century until the winter of 1843-44. The
late Mr. Templeton^s journals exhibit several notices of his hav-
ing seen specimens in Belfast market in December, though not
later ; and the oldest shore-shooter of the bay named that month
to me, some years ago, as the latest time at which he had seen
them. Every winter, however, from the last-named to that of
1848-49, has witnessed the presence of the grey plover in the
months of January and February in the bay.t

One bird only in the beautiful adult nuptial plumage have I known
to be shot here (June 13, 1834). It was in fine condition, and

* This bird has various names, in addition to the above, viz. stone plover both in
the north and south ; whistling plover (Belfast bay) ; rock plover (Wexford) ;
strand plover (Cork) ; sea cock (Waterford).

t From the 16th to the 21st of Feb. 1846, when the weather was remarkably
mild, this species was seen in plenty at Strangford lough, where golden plover and
lapwings were abundant at the same time.

THE GREY PLOVER.

107

was purchased by Dr. J. D. Marshall, but eventually added to
the collection in the Belfast Museum.*

The only other specimen in full summer plumage of which I
have heard was obtained in Dublin bay in June 1848. In
winter^^ the grey plover is met with there in small numbers,!
and also on the coast of Wexford, where at the end of January it
has been remarked as plentiful. J At Waterford it was first
noticed (by Dr. B. J. Burkitt) in Dec. 1840; and in the “Bauna
of Cork^^ is characterized as a winter visitant.^ At Youghal,
in this county, it was well known, though found sparingly. ||
With respect to Kerry, the late Mr. T. B. Neligan of Tralee
informed me, in the summer of 1837, that the first of these birds
which he saw there were two, brought in the preceding winter to
that town. At the sea-coast in its neighbourhood, he himself shot
one early in May that year, and saw three or four at the end of
the same month. Mr. E. Chute, writing from that quarter in
1846, considered the species rather plentiful in winter on the
coast; and on Nov. 15, 1848, remarked that for the last three

* This bird is much more handsome thau that described and figured in Mr. Yar-
rell’s work ; having the white continued from the forehead downwards, so as to
hound the black of the neck and breast on both sides. The white appears to the
breadth of an ineh below the anterior base of the folded wing as this rests upon the
body. This colour terminates about an inch from the fold of the wing, whence black
spreads, not only from side to side, hut over the body plumage beneath the wings.
The plumage of the tibise, and of the middle under side of the body from them to
the tail, is of pure white. Its irides were noted, when recent, as being hazel coloured.
It is singular, that of the many specimens killed here in autumn, which have come
under my notice, not one ever exhibited a trace of the summer or black under plum-
age. They have so occurred to Mr. Selby in Northumberland.

The following are the dimensions of a grey plover shot at Strangford lough in
Dec. 1834, and taken previous to its being skinned: —

Length total

wing

7

11

bill above

1

2

to rictus

1

naked tibia

0

9

tarsus

J

1

11

middle toe and nail .

1

H

hind toe and nail

0

If

Tail-feathers twelve in number ; bill and legs black.

In. Lines.
12 0

t Montgomery.

i Poole.

Ball.

108

CHARADRIIDiE.

weeks there had been a good many in Tralee market. It is said
to visit the shores of Connemara.

Daring two seasons^ in my younger days, much devoted to shore-
shooting in'Delfast bay, I looked forward with extreme pleasure
to the coming of the grey plover, which, being the latest of our
regular autumnal visitants in making its appearance, completed,
as it were, the catalogue of migrants for the season ; and the whole
riches of the beautiful order of birds to which it belongs were
strewn upon our coasts. Early in the bright and lovely October
mornings, after a slight frost, I was accustomed to meet with this
bird in little flocks, feeding at low water about the plashy spots
in the banks of Zostera, when, wary as it always was, I occasion-
ally managed to get a successful shot. The species was particu-
larly interesting to me, from offering conspicuously, in its general
contour — large head, full bright eye, and short bill — such a con-
trast to the other shore-birds, the Numenii, Lhnosce, Totani, and
Tfingce, aided perhaps by association with our beautiful golden
plover, the denizen of our wild mountain moors.

Two or three grey plover generally appear together, and any
number to about a dozen is not rare. Of late years the species
has been rather more numerous. On Sept. 26, 1846, one flock
of above twenty, and tliree smaller flocks, were observed ; nine
birds were procured at two shots. Montagu, probably with
reference to Devonshire, remarked that seldom more than six
or seven are seen in a flock and our oldest shore-shooter before
alluded to, remarked to me many years ago that he had rarely
observed more than eight together. According to Wilson and
Audubon, it is much more numerous in the United States of
America. Earely is this bird associated with other species in
Belfast bay. An intelligent shooter remarks that, although very
wary at all times, it seems to be even more so by night than day,
as he can never at that time obtain a shot, though he can occa-
sionally by day. This, he considers, may be owing to the bird^s
seeing him better than he can distinguish it. The form of the
eye indeed teUs us that its sight must be superior to that of
man by night. The grey plover, consequently, feeds much at this

THE GREY PLOVER.

109

period. Of four stomachs (or gizzards, which are strongly plaited
internally) examined at different times in reference to food, one was
half filled with specimens of the shell Paludina muriatica, Lam.,
chiefly perfect ; another exhibited two or three whelks [Littorina
littorea) and sand ; a third, excepting a Littorina retusa, was
filled with very small whelks ; and the fourth contained a portion
of a marine plant [Ulva), with fragments of stone. Two of these
birds were killed in September, and two in December. Tt is not
considered so good for the table, and brings a less price in Belfast
market than the golden plover, which is in much estimation.
The latter is generally sold from Is. to Is. 4d. a couple by re-
tail.

The note of the grey, is louder and more of a whistle than that
of the golden, plover. The old shooter already alluded to, who
may be considered good authority,^"' from his having brought
both these species, as well as curlews, whimbrels, godwits, and
knots within shot by imitating their cries, terms the note
of the grey plover a double whistle ; that of the golden, a
single one. Whistling plover is one of the names by which
the species especially under consideration is distinguished upon
our coast.

I have known the grey plover to frequent the sea-shore only.
When driven off its feeding ground by the flowing tide, it does
not leave the shore, but remains on floating sea- weed, or on some
dry spot, until the ebb has taken place. The golden plover and
the lapwing fly inland under such circumstances. Sir William
Jardine, however, mentions his having in one instance shot a
pair in the month of August on the banks of one of the Lochs
Maben, Dumfries-shire.* At Godaiming, too, in Surrey, a few
have been killed.t The breeding haunts of this bird in the United
States, as reported by Wilson and Audubon, are inland, and
similar to those resorted to by the golden plover with us. Black-
bellied plover is the name applied to the species in their works ; the
4th volume of the Ornithological Biography contains an interest-

* Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 288, f Letters of Busticus, p. 159.

110

CHAEADRIIDtE.

ing account of it. The term Squatarola lielvetica, used by Cuvier
— it was the Tringa helvetica of Linnaeus — is adopted in Bona-
parte^s Comparative Catalogue of the Birds of Europe and the
United States.

THE LAPWING.

Green Plover (in Ireland)^ Peewit.

Vanellus cristatusj Meyer and Wolf.

Tringa vanellus, Linn.

Owing to the prevalence of bogs and humid tracts is
abundant in Ireland.

In the spring and summer^ these beautiful and interesting birds
enliven all our moist moors with their presence^ and increase
wonderfully, considering the extent to which they are robbed of
their eggs. Idle country lads and mountain herds often lie on
the mountain side from morning till evening, for the purpose of
watching the poor lapwing to her nest ; and in some places have
confessed to me that they had almost lived upon the eggs so
procured. In the north of Ireland these are very seldom brought to
market, though they are to Dublin, in large quantities. The places
resorted to by the lapwing for breeding are of various kinds ; as
the elevated mountain moor, the low morass, pastures, rushy
meadows, and fallow-lands; more rarely, bean-fields and rocky
marine islets. About the middle of Eebruary, they generally
revisit and take up their abode on their breeding station ; but the
time varies according to the season. On the 1st March, 1833
and 1834, a friend noted them as beginning to fly around his dog
on the Belfast mountains ; but so late as the 26th March, 1843,
I saw a number about the margin of a bog, which, though
the weather had been fine and open for some time before, evi-
dently had not yet chosen sites for their nests. Had they done
so, we should have been saluted by them in crossing the bog ;
but not one came near us, nor even hovered over the bog itself.

THE LAPWING.

Ill

On the 15th April, 1847, I was reminded, in an interesting man-
ner, of the earlier breeding time of the lapwing than of the golden
plover, when visiting the same locality. The former were all
paired, and going through the evolutions on wing peculiar to the
season, while the golden plover which make their congener's
summer abode their winter one, had not yet left it, a flock of
about thirty being on the ground. The lapwings looked upon
the others as intruders, and one bird boldly swept down to buffet
the flock, among which it alighted and chased several individuals,
until the whole body took flight to a little distance.

As remarked to me, Mr. Hewitson, in his beautiful work on
the Eggs of British Birds (p. 261), does not distinguish between
the manoeuvres of the male and female lapwing in the breeding
season, but speaks generally of the species whirling about to lead
one from its nest. It is the male bird (as correctly stated by Mr.
Selby) that first endeavours to divert attention from the nest,
until the female can steal away from it unperceived."* The hollow
bumping noise, probably produced in the throat, which the male
makes when arriving within a few yards of our head, is considered
by Mr. Poole to be evidently intended for menace." As well
observed by that gentleman, The lapwing seems to experience
great difficulty in rising to a height in the air suddenly when
disturbed, and therefore finds it necessary to take several rings
before getting out of shot."

The evolutions of the lapwing in its breeding haunts are various
and extremely interesting to witness. It may be said to keep a

drumming" noise as well as the snipe, though not to the same
extent ; and I have remarked that this may sometimes be heard both
when the bird is ascending and descending in its flight. The sound
seems to arise from a peculiar, though to the eye not very marked,
motion of the wings, which beat the air with more than ordinary
force when it is produced. t The motionless attitude in the air,

* Mr. J. R. Garrett.

t Mr. Selby observes that “ these movements are attended by a loud hissing
noise of the wings, arising from the rapid motion, aided by their peculiar form, which
offers a broken resistance to the air,” (vol. ii. p. 222).

112

CHAEADRIIDJ3.

like that of the wind-hover or kestrel, is highly attractive ; and
the occasional habit of the species, when on the ground, of throwing
up vertically its singularly formed and beautiful wing, is not with-
out its interest. The crest of this bird (according to an observant
shooter) is always borne proudly erect during the breeding season ;
but in autumn and winter is carried horizontally, as the species is
generally figured.

Sir Walter Scott, in the Tales of my Gr^ndfather,^^ refers
to the persecution of the lapwing in the following words : — The
country people retained a sense of the injustice with which their
ancestors [the Covenanters] had been treated, which showed itself
in a singular prejudice. They expressed great dislike of that
beautiful bird the green plover, in Scottish called the peaseweep.
The reason alleged was, that these birds being, by some instinct,
led to attend to and w^atch any human beings whom they see on
their native wilds, the soldiers were often guided in pursuit of the
wanderers, when they might otherwise have escaped observation,
by the plover being observed to hover over a particular spot.
For this reason the shepherds often destroyed the nests of the
bird when they met with them.'’^ 2nd voL, chap, vi., 2nd series.
In YarrelFs History of British Birds there is a very interesting
account of an opposite kind, in which the founder of the
family of Tyrwhitts having fallen wounded in a skirmish, was
saved by his followers, who were directed to the spot where
he lay by the cries of these birds, and their hoveriDg over him,
vol. ii., 483, 2nd edit.

An encounter between a rook and a pair of lapwings was once
witnessed by Mr. Poole, when the former must either have been
intent on booty or on enjoying the sport of terrifying the anxious
parents. So often as they were seen to drive him away did he
return to renew the combat. In the ^British Naturalist^
(vol. i. p. 305) there is a graphic account of the lapwing^s
performance, when the egg-plundering grey crow visits its breed-
ing haunt. On the shore they do not, however, display such
gallantry, as I have seen the black-headed gull drive them quite
away when they approached its feeding ground.

THE LAPWING,

113

The improvement of the country, by drainage and other means,
has been more injurious to the lapwing than to any other bird,
and has wholly banished the species from many of its former
haunts. It is often interesting to observe the tenacity with
which, year after year, the poor bird clings to the place of its
birth ; or, if a parent, to that in which it brought up former broods.
The once spacious morass, when dwindled down to a spot of per-
haps fifty yards in diameter — lying too low for drains to act upon
it — will still exhibit its solitary pair of birds ; and even the moor,
after being turned into arable ground, is frequently revisited as a
nesting place. When undisturbed, these birds may be heard
uttering their cry at a late hour in their breeding haunts. On
the 1st July, I have heard them, and snipes at the same time,
calling, until near ten o'* clock p.m., about the heath-covered sum-
mit of Wolf hill. Lapwings generally call at all seasons during
moonlight.

So soon as the young are able to leave the nursery, they, with
their parents, gather into flocks, and betake themselves to other
quarters. On the 21st July, 1833, about eighty birds were
observed, in company, about the head of Crumlin river. On the
4th of August, I remarked a flock of forty leave the Belfast moun-
tains, and fly towards the shore, the weather being dry and warm,
as it had been for some time previously. Until the 13th there was
not any rain. Their breeding places in the locality just named
were occasionally visited by me, until the 16th of that month;
and a few birds were seen at all of them but one ; those which
remained being, doubtless, individuals whose nests had been
robbed of their eggs early in the season. That these birds had
young was evident from their manoeuvres. The number bred
about here is very trivial, compared with that at other places.
On the 2nd of August (1846) 1 saw above 200 flocked on the
shores of Lough Neagh, near Toome; and on the 31st of
July (1840) not less than 500 rose on wing together on the banks
of the Shannon, near Portumna. Late in the autumn, and during
winter, some thousands may be seen at these places during a fore-

VOL. II. I

114

CHARADRIID^.

noon. Lurgan Green, on the coast of Louth, was formerly (until
drained) a favourite haunt of these birds.

In the autumn and winter, lapwings, collected into flocks, fre-
quent extensive low-lying marshes, flooded meadows,^ rivers such
as the Lagant near Belfast, and estuaries of a similar character to
the bay here, where extensive soft and oozy banks are exposed at
the fall of every tide. In such localities they remain until the
breeding season commences. Their numbers vary considerably
in different seasons. In the autumns and winters of 1836-37, and
1837-38, they were considered particularly abundant in Belfast bay,
flocks of 150 being seen. Subsequently they became much more
numerous. Twice the number, just mentioned, were observed
together in January and Bebruary, 1845. On the 17th of the
latter month I was much interested by observing the variety of
form assumed by a flock, consisting of about 300 birds, on wing
above the bay. They would sometimes appear in a line, then
in a circle, again in a diamond or lozenge form, and every inter-
mediate shape ; while occasionally they rose and fell in the air,
as if about to alight, but wanting in resolution to do so.
Eventually they alighted. The snowy-white plumage of the
under surface of their bodies is seen with brilliant effect in the
course of their wheeling flight : that of each individual of the
flock being exhibited at the same instant. Every motion of the lap-
wing is rather slow the reverse of the rapid shooting flight of
the dunlin, redshank, knot, &c. which may be perceived at the
same moment, and which it is so beautiful to witness. All the lap-
wings are said to leave the bay in the evening for inland quarters.
By moonlight, however, a few may be seen occasionally feeding
there. They likewise retire inland during the day, when driven

* These seem to be the most delectable of all feeding grounds, as I have invariably
remarked lapwings to leave haunts of every description for them.

t A friend who resided many years on the banks of the Lagan, remarked, that lap-
wings came regularly in September in flocks of from forty to fifty birds, and remained
until about the commencement of the breeding season. Toward the end of January,
and not untd then, they frequented pasture-fields in the vicinity of the river.

THE LAPWING.

115

off their feeding ground by the flowing tide.* To this ground
they again regularly return, so soon as it is exposed by the ebbing
waters, although invisible from their resting place. That true
sea birds have such a faculty is well known to naturalists ; but
it is equally strong in the lapwing, — an occasional frequenter only
of the sea- shore.

So early after the breeding season as the 24th of July (1838), a
flock has been seen in the bay ; but before September they rarely
visit it in large numbers. t They sometimes remain late in spring,
as in 1839 and 1840, about fifty having been observed together
on the 23rd March in the former, and about as many at that
period in the latter year. They sometimes appear in great bodies
during autumn, on low rocky islets near the entrance of the bay.
Strangford lough is frequented, in the autumn and winter, by
large flocks of lapwings, as are also Wexford harbour and other
suitable bays.

A variety of the lapwing, nearly of a dark mouse- colour, shot
among a flock in the county of Kildare,^^ is in the possession of
the Rev. Thomas Knox.f

On looking to the food in the stomachs of ten lap-wings, killed
in the winter and spring, it was found to consist of coleopterous
and other insects ; larvse and earthworms together with seeds, and
other vegetable food. In one were specimens of the subaquatic
shell Limneus fossarius. 1 have known lapwings to be kept
some years in gardens (even four or five birds in one garden),
during which time they lived wholly on what they could pick up ;
no food being ever supplied to them. They must have proved
very serviceable by the destruction of injurious insects, &c. Mr.
Poole has well remarked that Among birds useful to the farmer

* The remark of an excellent observer, Mr. St. John, that the lapwing “is alto-
gether a nocturnal bird, so far as regards feeding” (Wild Sports, &c. p. 135), will not
apply here.

t When on the way from Cowes to Southampton, on the 27th August 1841, I
observed a large flock of these birds to alight on the fine hanks of Zostera marina,
just similar to those frequented by them in Belfast bay.

I 2

+ Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. 519.

116

CHARADRIID^..

the pewit ought certainly to be included. The gizzard of one
which I examined last spring was completely crammed with the
destructive wire-worm."’^*

There is not, that I am aware, any migration of the lapwing to
or from the north of Ireland. During the most severe frost, as
well as at other times, the ebbing tide leaves behind for them,
abundant food in our bays and estuaries. t It would appear to be
otherwise in England ; as Mr. Selby, writing from Northumber-
land, remarks : — Here they chiefly frequent the fallow grounds
and turnip fields, remaining till November, or even later, should
the weather continue mild or open; but in case of severe
frost most of them retire, and pass the winter farther to tlie
southward, (vol. ii. p. 222). Sir William Jardine, too, whose
observations have been chiefly made in Dumfries-shire, states, that

Some pewits reside constantly with us ; but at the same time
numbers leave our islands, and others annually perform a periodi-
cal migration to the breeding grounds, arriving there with as much
regularity as our summer visitants from a distance; also it is
probable that we receive a few birds in their removal from other
countries,^^ (Brit. Birds, vol. hi. p. 282). With respect toMora}^-
shire, Mr. St. John remarks : — ^‘'Though the pewits generally
leave us early in October, a flock is sometimes seen at the end
of the month.’^J Capt. Eayrer, E.N., who for several years com-
manded one of the mail steam packets plying between Portpatrick
and Donaghadee, has informed me, that when crossing the
channel in autumn he had seen flocks of lapwings flying from, as
well as to, Ireland.

In Holland only (a country admirably suited to it), and in the
low marshy districts bordering the Ehone and the Ehine, have
I — on the continent of Europe — remarked this bird to be as
plentiful as in Ireland.

* Zoologist, March 1848, p. 2023.

t I have remarked them standing, during intense frost, with their legs wholly
immersed in the tide.

I Tour in Sutherland, vol. ii. p. 9.

117

THE TURNSTONE.

Strej)silas interjores, Linii. (sp.)

Tringa „ „

Is met with annually around the coast, always in au-
tumn, and occasionally at other seasons of the year ;

But retires —with possibly a few exceptions — to more northern
latitudes, to breed. In Belfast bay, this bird, so interesting from
its peculiar manner of seeking food, is chiefly known as an
autumnal visitant, appearing regularly, early at that season, in
very small flocks, or singly. On the 25th of July I once knew a
couple to be killed (in company with dunlins) ; but about the
middle of August is the usual time of their return from breeding
quarters. Erom this period they commonly remain until the begin-
ning of October, — not more, perhaps, than a dozen altogether
during the season having fallen a sacrifice to shooters. They then
generally remove to more retired localities."^

About the estuary, within a few miles of the town, they are
only of occasional appearance ; and rarely above half a dozen have
been seen in company. At a sweep of the coast called Ballyholme
bay, towards the entrance of the harbour, consisting chiefly of
sand, but with some little banks of gravel and stones ex-
posed at low water — hence a favourite haunt, — I once reckoned
twelve, and again twenty, together. I have observed them there,
in several years, from the middle of September till the beginning
of October ; and during one season, when they were frequently
seen, remarked that the same number of birds never appeared
together twice, although they had not been thinned by the fowling-
piece. It was pleasing to observe them, when sprung from the
rocks at the side of the bay, always fly over the large tracts of

* Mr, St. Jolin has remarked, respecting Moray-shire, that “ The turnstone * *
arrives in this country at the first commencement of September ; but appears only to
make it a temporary resting-place on its way to the south.” (Tour in Sutherland,
&c, vol. i. p. 287).

118

CHARADEIID.®.

sand without alighting ; reserving for that purpose the little
banks of gravel or stones. When a number are seen together
in bold rapid flight,, they present quite a brilliant spectacle^
from the silvery wliiteness of the whole under plumage ; and,
when making a sudden turn, even flash upon the sight. The
white marking upon the otherwise dark-coloured wing, too, has a
very handsome appearance. Their call is peculiar, and very pleas-
ing ; being loud, with the same note repeated hurriedly several
times. When thus in flocks, they are generally too wary to admit
of a sufflciently near approach to enable us to observe their
peculiar mode of feeding, whence their name is derived. But the
first of the species which came under my observation, having been
a single bird, admitted of my close approach, and was so busily
occupied in tmming over the pebbles on the beach of the Kinne-
gar, that by walking directly towards it on the exposed shore
(perhaps unobserved by the bird), I approached so near, three
times, as distinctly to perceive its mode of proceeding. Being a
juvenile sportsman, and not having essayed the art of shooting
flying,^^ I in each instance had the cruelty to fire at the poor bird,
wliich, however, seemed notliing the worse from the first or
second shot ; — at the third, it fell.

From the labour of tmming over the pebbles for its prey — the
Crustacea, &c. beneath — the turnstone, as may be supposed, moves
much more slowly over the beach than the other Grallatores ;
which have only to pick up what is exposed to view.*

Tliis species is rarely met with in Belfast bay in winter,t spring,
or summer. It has been obtained in the first named season. On
the 27th March, 1838, a small flock was seen. On the 25th
May, 1825, a female bird which came into my possession was
shot, (on dissection fifteen ova, in size from a mere point to that
of a pea, were reckoned) ; and on the 7th June, 1833, 1 observed
a single bird on the shore of the Kinnegar.

* Audubon, in the fourth volume of his Ornithological Biography, gives, from his
own observations, an extremely interesting account of its manner of turning over
various objects.

t So early as Aug. 23, 1848, a bird in full winter plumage was shot here. About
a week previously, a knot {Tringa canutus) in full summer plumage was obtained.

THE TURNSTONE.

119

On the exposed coast of Down, about Newcastle, I have seen
the turnstone in autumn. One shot from a flock of fifteen at
Springvale, on the 12th August, 1837, was kindly sent to me by
George Matthews, Esq. in its stomach were some opercula of
small univalve shells. A nmnber of these birds were observed at
Dundrum on the 31st December 1831 ; and about the 4th of the
following month of Eebruary, two were obtained there. The
turnstone winters in Strangford lough. A flock of about two
dozen was remarked, in the middle of Dec. 1835, ^‘^at a little
fresh water stream that runs into the sea and at the end of
January 1844 several appeared at the same place. The stomach
of one killed in this lough, early in Dec. 1846, was filled with
the young of the common whelk (Littorma littorea). In the
first week of March 1847, a few single birds were seen there.

On parts of the Dublin coast, as at Baldoyle, the turnstone is
said to be common from August till March.'’^f One day in
September 1837, three flocks, consisting of from twenty to thirty
birds each, were observed at the North BuH, Dublin bay, and
four individuals killed, of which one was in adult plumage. On
May 22, 1838, four were seen together by a party of natoalists visit-
ing Lambay island, off the Dublin coast : one of them was procured.
The turnstone is stated to be rarely seen about the harbour of
Waterford; but common at the Saltees and coast of Wexford.'’^ J
Several small flocks of five or six individuals — it was believed old
and young mixed — were observed about the 12th of August, 1838,
near Dungarvan, county of Waterford, by Mr. E. Davis, jmi. ;
whence one was sent to him on the first of that month. The
species is considered as not micommon there. It occurs, but not
commonly, at Youghal.|| In reference to Cork harbom*, I have
been informed by Eobert Warren, jun., Esq. that he shot a young
bird of the year there, late in Aug. 1848 ; and that turnstones
were common in that month two or three years before ; several

* This gentleman remarked the turnstone to be common in summer along the
coast of Norway, from Trondjeim to the Alton Fiord. He also saw some birds in
winter.

t Mr. Robert J. Montgomery. t Dr. R. J. Burkitt.

II Mr. R. Ball.

120

CHAEADEIIDiE.

small flocks being seen on one day_, from which a few birds were
kiUed by himself and his companion. Many might have been
obtained had the flocks been followed^ as they were very tame
when sprung, and alighted again within thirty or forty yards. On
the 12th Feb. 1849, a flock of seven or eight birds was observed
there. The turnstone is a visitant to the Kerry coast and at
Miltown Malbay, county Clare, numbers were observed in Sep-
tember 1837, in little parties of two or three together, which
admitted of a close approach, occasionally within ten or twelve
paces. t

I am disposed to believe that the turnstone may breed in Ire-
land, though no proof can be offered. On June 25, 1836, my
friend Mr. Eichard K. Sinclaire saw four of these birds (of which
one was adult, and the others young) shot from a flock of six, on
one of the islets of Strangford longh. It can hardly be supposed
that birds bred in a higher latitude would have migrated hither so
early as midsummer. Mr. J. V. Stewart, in a letter written in
Feb. 1837, stated, that although he had neither found the nest nor
eggs in the north-west of Donegal, he had most frequently killed
the turnstone there in the breeding season. Four have been
already mentioned as seen on the retired island of Lambay on the
22nd of May. On the the 11th of that month, in another year,
one was seen on the strand near Dublin. Other single individuals
have already been noticed as obtained in May and June ; but their
occurrence hardly affects the question. Mr. T. F. Neligan was
of opinion that this bird breeds in Kerry, from the circumstance
of one which he shot at the end of May or beginning of June,
1837, containing on dissection an egg just ready for exclusion.

In the present year, 1849, a correspondent remarked, on the
20th of May, in reference to the coast at Drogheda : — Turn-
stones are still here. I shot two, in the most beautiful plumage
I ever saw, on the 16th.^'’{ At Strangford lough on the 3rd of
June, Mr. J. E. Garrett noted that On the small island called
Gabbogh, Ipng between Kirkcubbin and Greyabbey, I had the

* Mr. T. F. Neligan. f Rev. T. Knox. t J- Montgomery.

THE SANDEELING.

121

pleasure of seeing a pair of turnstones in company with a few ring
plover. 1 could not find their nest ; but they probably either
have or wiU have one there^ as they were so tame as to come
within shot. At Gransha point I saw a flock of above twenty
turnstones ; which were very wary^ and did not seem to have
paired. They are called stone-raios by the shooters here.” On
the 6th of June one of these birds, feeding among the rocks at
the largest of the Sovereign islands, coast of Cork, was disturbed
by a party landing there ; within a few yards of which, it flew.'^
Against the turnstone breeding in Ireland, however, is the impor-
tant fact of its being unknown to do so in any part of Great Britain
or the adjacent islands. Mr. Hewitson remarks, in his work on
the eggs of British Birds : — I have never heard of an instance
of the turnstone breeding upon the British islands ; although led
to expect it from having at various times seen several of the birds
upon the Northumberland coast, and also upon the Shetland
islands, during the months of summer. These are, however,
usually in small flocks, and most probably yet immature,” (p. 263).
In Orkney, too, it is remarked : — A few occasionally remain
during summer ; but we have never heard of their being known
to breed.”!'

THE SANDEELING.

Calidris arenaria, Linn, (sp.)

Tringa „

Is met with occasionally on most of the low coasts of the
island ;

But can hardly be called an inhabitant of any parts, excepting
where, extensive sandy beaches prevail : it breeds in more northern
latitudes.! This bird cannot be termed common. The remark

* Mr. Robert Warren, jun. f Hist. Nat. Oread, p. 60 (1848).

I Wilson, in his American Ornithology, well observes that “ these birds are most
numerous on extensive sandy beaches in front of the ocean.” His brief description

122

CHARADEIID^.

made by Mr. Yarrell, in reference to Great Britain and Ireland/^
that it is “ not so plentiful as the dunlin, gives no idea of the
relative numbers of the two species. In BeKast and Strangford
loughs there are fully two thousand dunlins to a single sander-
ling, and on the coast of Ireland generally there may probably be
one thousand of the former to each individual of the latter
species.

As the shores of Belfast bay present comparatively little sand,
this bird is rarely to be seen there, except when passing to and
from its breeding haunts.*

On the 5th of May, 1832, a warm, sun-bright day, with blue
sky overhead, I saw this species to much advantage, at the
Kinnegar, near Holywood ; and particularly so, from my being on
horseback, — our shore birds well knowing that an equestrian is less
to be dreaded than a person on foot. It was high-water, so that
the birds had been driven from tlieir feeding banks to the little
gravelly promontories uncovered by the sea. Two birds of that
most wary species the curlew, admitted my approach within thirty
paces, and from within less than half the distance I reconnoitred
a small hock of dunlins, ring dotterels, and sanderlings. To the
unassisted eye, these last, in their grey attire, appeared like dun-
lins in the winter, or piirre plumage ; but the season of the year
indicated that this could not be. A pocket telescope being brought
into requisition, that a dunhn and one of these birds might be
viewed together, the back, wing-coverts, and hinder part of the
neck of the latter, contrasted with those parts of the other, proved
the species, by displaying the peculiar grey hue of the sanderhng.
Several of these birds were then observed among the flock, which,
composed of the three species, each so handsome, though differing
much in the general tone of colour and disposition of markings,
now appeared most attractive in full freshness of their new nup-
tial attire. As they were all perfectly motionless, some sitting,

of the habits of the sanderling is admirable. Audubon, in his Ornithological Bio-
graphy (vol. iii. p. 231), treats inore fully, and in a very interesting manner, of the
species.

* January 8, 1831, a sanderling was shot in Belfast bay.

THE SANDERLING.

123

others standing, several with their heads beneath their wings,
awaiting, with exemplary patience, until the ebbing waters would
uncover their feeding grounds, they altogether^ — variety of attitude
and colour combined — formed the prettiest and most innocent-
looking group of birds I ever beheld. Truly, a lovely picture of
repose was there.'’"’

During almost every autumn for many years past, I have known
a few sanderlings to be shot in Belfast Bay, where they generally
appear about the beginning of September ; but soon after the
middle of July 1837, one was killed. In other years the earliest
appeared on the 23rd July (1848), and on the 10th of August
(1849),* the last still retaining the summer plumage.t They
— in very limited numbers, often indeed singly, and five being
the most I have heard of being seen together — keep by them-
selves on the shore, or mix with dunlins, &c. • After September,
the migration from breeding haunts being over, they are to be
met with in their favourite abodes, extensive sandy beaches
From those at Dundrum (co. Down), Portmarnock, and Dublin
Bay, I have seen specimens which were procured from that period
until the end of January. In a note, kindly supplied by Dr. J. D.
Marshall, two sanderlings are mentioned as liaviug been obtained
about fresh v-ater, though not far distant from the sea; — one
near Downpatrick, in December 1830, and the other atNewtown-
limavady, on the 8th of January, 1831. The sanderling fre-
quents the coast of Donegal, but is said to be very rare.J Mr.
E. J. Montgomery, having had good opportunities of observing
this species, kindly supplied me with the following information
in the spring of 1849 : —

The sanderling appears in Dublin Bay in small flocks, on the

* Two specimens, belonging to my friend, R. K. Sinclaire, Esq. were killed by him
in Red Bay, county Antrim, on the 22nd of August, 1833. So early as the 22nd
or 23rd of July, he saw there, in company, a dunlin, three sanderlings, three red-
shanks, and nine ring dotterels ; most, if not all of which last, were adult birds.

t On the 11th September, 1839, sanderlings were noted as having been about the
Long Strand, near Belfast, for some time ; one killed on that day exhibited on the
back a good deal of the blackish summer markings. On examination of the stomach
of another, obtained a few days afterwards, it was found wholly filled with minute
insects.

5 Mr. J. V. Stewart.

CHARADRIIDiE.

124

seaside of the North BuU, where I never saw more than, I should
think, from fifteen to twenty at a time — and not more than one
or two such fiocks in a day. In Drogheda bay, they frequent the
same sort of locality, never coming up the river at low water, as
the purres, ring dotterels, red shanks, &c. do, to feed on the mud
banks ; but are always to be found on the surface of the strand, at
the edge of the water, in flocks of from twenty to a hundred or
more. In a walk from the entrance of the Boyne to Clogher-
head (about five miles of strand), I have seen two or three flocks,
containing from sixty to a hundred individuals. If gone up to
cautiously, they allow of a very near approach; — much more so
than any other of the shore birds, except the ring dotterel. One
day last winter I wanted some specimens, and, on firing into a
large flock as they passed me, knocked down twenty-two, all san-
derlings. They occasionally mix with the purres, but keep gene-
rally by themselves. I cannot state exactly the time of their
arrival; but I have shot them in Dublin bay in September.’’^

At Youghal, they were considered rare by Mr. E. Ball ; but
on the beach at Clay Castle near that town, he has seen them in
winter in little flocks — tliree or four together, and has been much
interested in observing their habit of running with great rapidity
to the base of a huge retiring wave, and back again at a similar
pace, so as to avoid being wetted by the next advancing one.
They occasionally, he remarks, appeared almost white at that
season. Sanderlings (as reported to me in 1837) are of common
occurrence on the coast of Kerry On the sand hills at Castle-
gregory, in that county, Mr. E. Chute shot four or five in adult
plumage (though all differing a little from each other), on the
31st of May, 1844. Brom their appearance at this season he
imagined they might be breeding ; but could not find any nests.
The species is said to be common at Connemara.t

On the 3 1st August, 1839, I saw one on the beach at Ballan-
trae, Ayrshire.

M. T. r. Neligaa.

t Me Calla.

125

THE OYSTEE-CATCHEE.

Sea-Pie. Oyster Plover.

H^matopus ostmlegus, Linn.

Is common around the coast, and permanently resident.

Its favourite resort is the long range of bright sandy shore, with
which its lively and handsome appearance harmonises ; but in
scenes of a very different character it is not less attractive ; its
pied plumage of pure white and black, with orange-red bill and
legs,* appear particularly fresh and beautiful, as the sea-pie
perches on the darkly-grim basaltic rocks which, monster-like,
raise their heads above the ocean in the vicinity of the Giant^s
Causeway. Its loud, clear, and shrill whistling note — tee-wheep
sounds pleasingly on the ear. Such, however, is not always
the case. Along the coast of Norway, where tliis bird was
met with, though not in large numbers, by Mr. George Matthews
and his sporting companions, they were often much annoyed by
its loud call alarming ducks of various species, in the pursuit of
which they were engaged. Low rocky coasts, on which limpets,
Littorinm, and other univalve shell-fish abound, are also much
resorted to.

Oyster-catchers are rarely met with singly in Belfast bay, but
appear in small flocks, often consisting of about fifteen individuals.
They generally frequent the sandy reaches. Occasionally I have
observed them busily engaged feeding on the soft oozy banks,
and sometimes with their legs quite immersed in the water. They
are extremely wary, and during the day keep farther from the
shore than any other of the Grallatores ; but in the very early
morning have been shot from behind ditch-banks, bordering the
Long Strand, very near the town. When passing an inlet of the
bay on one occasion, at the early hour of five oYlock in the
morning, I observed a flock close to the shore, and near the

* The eye, too, though not visible at such times, is handsome ; the black pupill
being surrounded by a bright red iris, and the eyelid orange-red.

126

CHAEADRIID^.

highway, though in passing the same place daily, during two
summers, not one ever appeared within a furlong of the spot. In
feeding by night also, they commonly (as proved by the cry) fre-
quent localities of this kind, where they are never known by day.

Wlien a flock of Oyster-catchers have been on wing for a
short time, they utter a peculiar brief note, so frequently
repeated, that it gives the idea of a general conversation, inter-
rupted occasionally by a whistle of longer duration.

Montagu remarks, that in winter they assemble in small
flocks an observation commonly repeated by subsequent authors ;
but in Belfast bay, they are associated for three-fourths of the
year ; indeed at all times : even to some extent, in the breeding
season — after that period they muster again at the beginning of
August.t A favourite haunt in the bay is a very extensive
mussel-bank, near Garmoyle, from being commonly seen feeding
on which, these birds have received the name of mussel-peckers,
which, here at least, is much more appropriate than oyster-caicheY ;
as the Ostrea inhabits too deep water to be ever accessible to them.
The contents of the stomach or gizzards (which latter are as fully
developed as in graminivorous birds) of eight sea-pies, shot in
various parts of the bay in spring, autumn, and winter, proved,
on examination, to be as follows : — Bive contained only the
opercula and portions of the animal of the whelk (Littorina com-
munis), with which some of them were whoUy filled ; — one ex-
hibited merely the opercula — about forty in number — of Furpura
lapillus, and of all sizes, from the smallest to the full grown :
another (shot on Nov. 13) presented a good deal of vegetable
matter, consisting of tender roots and green leaves ; also small
white worm -like larvse; a few opercula of the whelk, and an
operculum of the buckie [Buccinum undatum) — in the crop and
stomach of the last, which was remarkably fat, were found fifty

* Mr. J. R. Garrett.

t I did not see any of these birds about the island of Islay during the month of
January 1849, and was told that they always leave it and the neighbouring islets in
autumn. They return early in the year, and breed in numbers on the shores. Many
of their eggs were found on the Rabbit Island off Ardimersy, from the middle to the
end of May 1848.

THE OYSTER-CATCHER.

127

opercula of large whelks ; about twenty-five animals of well-sized
Limpets [Patella vulgaris) ; in addition to which was a holothuria
[Cucumaria). In others^ not particularly noted down^ I have
found the fiesh of the mussel ; but univalve shell-fish, and more
particularly the whelk, are certainly their chief food in Belfast
bay. In no instance have I found any particles of shell, which
aftbrds the negative evidence that the animals were all extracted
from, their habitations by the bird, whose peculiarly formed bill is
admirably suited to such a purpose ; i. e. for picking wilh I ”
On the same bank with the mussels [Mytilus edzdis), univalves are
also found. Wilson, in his very interesting account of the nearly
allied Hcematopus palliatus (the representative of our species on
the shores of the United States), mentions his having remarked
numerous borings made by the bill of the bird in the sand.
Eemembering this, 1 on one occasion, after observing several
oyster-catchers feeding for some time on the sands at Ballyholme
bay, went to the spot to examine if any excavations of the kind
were visible ; but none appeared. A few of the fresh double valves
of Venus virginea were lying about, and it was believed that the
birds had been preying on the once contained animals, as these
had disappeared.

Although the oyster -catcher is known to be able to dive well,
it may be mentioned that an intelligent shooter of my acquaint-
ance has witnessed its remaining as long under water as one of
the diving ducks [Fuligulce). He has seen one for about half an
hour dive repeatedly — whenever approached — until disabled by
the blow of an oar. A singular instance of the tenacity of
life (if it may so be termed) of one of these birds occurred in the
shop of Mr. Mchol, bird preserver, &c. at Belfast, in Beb. 1849.
A man brought a wounded one to be stuffed ; but was told that
it must first be put out of pain. To accomplish this object, he
pressed the breast-bone towards the back with his hand until the
bird apparently ceased to breathe, and then leaving it on the
counter, a corpse, as he thought, took his departure. It soon,
however, exhibited symptoms of life, and made its way from the
counter to the ground. Within a very few hours it partook of

128

CHARADIUID^.

mussels, and a day or two afterwards eat of porridge, tlie first time
this was offered. On such, vegetable and animal diet this oyster-
catcher was fed for three weeks after capture, when these notes
were made ; the shells of the mussels were opened for it. The
bird was quite tame from the day of its being received.

Aug, 1, 1849. Trom the period last named until now, this
bird has been in the possession of Dr. J. D. Marshall, who con-
siders it a most interesting pet. It runs eagerly to him to pick
the animals from the shells of mussels held (very slightly open)
in his hand, and cleans them out with great rapidity. Lest any
fragments sliould remain in the shells thrown aside, after its being
thus fed, it goes rapidly over them again. The servant having
partially boiled some full-grown buckles (Buccinum undatum) for
it one day, endeavoured for a long time, with the aid of a fork, to
extract tlie animals ; but had to give up the attempt. The shells
containing them were then flung to the bird, which on the instant
withdrew the animals from their habitations, and ate them. It is
comical to see this bird, when hungry, quickly tnrning over, either
partially or wholly, any objects in the yard, as plates, &c. in search
of food beneath them. Its bill, too, is thrust, full-length, into
any crevice of the ground, chink, &c., causing the head at the
base of the bill to be generally covered with earth. It ate freely
and without hesitation of various kinds of food, the first time they
were offered, including flesh-meat and bread.

This bird had the freedom of its master^s house, and was very
partial to ascending the stairs to the uppermost rooms, some-
times remaining quietly stationed for hours looking out of the
windows, generally of the highest or fourth story. It remained
much perched on one foot. When thus in the house, its master
had only to call the bird as he ascended the stairs, and it came
running to him from wherever it was stationed. Once, early in
its captivity, this bird escaped from a window on the third story,
and flew to near the end of a long street, when the injured wing
compelled a descent to the ground, and it was again caught.

Colonel Sabine remarked, at Ballybunian, on the coast of Kerry,
in the month of July 1833, that oyster- catchers, which were

THE OYSTER-CATCHER.

129

abundant there, were more frequently in groups tlian in pairs,
tliongh it was the breeding season.’’^ On the north-east coast,
also, this may frequently be observed. On some parts of the
broad summits of the lofty precipitous cliffs at the peninsula of
the Horn, in Donegal, these birds were in parties at the end of
June 1832. In the same month of 1834 they were similarly
associated on the sands of Clew Bay, county of Mayo. At this
season they may likewise be observed scattered in pairs over the
shore of the largest of the Copeland Islands (Down), where
they breed, as well as about tlie islands of Strangford lough,
where, however, a pair only will be seen occuppng some of the
very small islets. When I visited this lough on the 20th and
21st of June, 1832, three eggs were found on the bare gravel,
about two yards above high-water mark on Skart Bnck. They
were known to our boatmen as those of the oyster-catcher, as
they had often found similar ones before. A pair of these birds,
calling loudly, kept flying incessantly about us just out of sliot,
when we were on and adjacent to the islet, thus affording circum-
stantial evidence of the nest being theirs. The eggs, not agree-
ing with what I had seen figured as the oyster-catcliers, were
carefully kept : — on after-comparison with Mr. Yarrelks descrip-
tion they were found to agree with it, being yellowish stone-
colour, spotted with ash-grey, and dark brown.^^ In the same
number of words they could not be better described ; but, con-
sidering how they differ from other eggs found in similar situations,
they may be described as displaying spots and variously-formed
markings (some of which are linear) of ash-brown and dark
grey disposed over the entire shell, though not numerously.
I am thus particular, from the circumstance of the egg being
very differently figured in works upon the subject. Montagu,
too, describes it to be “ olivaceous brown, blotched with
black : somewhat larger than that of the lapwing ; "" — neither
colour nor size agreeing with mine, which are nearly twice
the size of lapwings'* eggs. A person at Dunfanaghy, county
of Donegal, who attended us in 1832 as guide to the bird-
haunts about Horn Head, stated that he had robbed not less

VOL. II. K

130

CHAEADRIID^.

than a hundred nests of the oyster-catcher, and described the eggs
to be of a very pale brown, with darker spots.* The evolutions
of a pair of these birds, when I was on Gull Island, Strangford
lough, in June 1816, evinced that they had a nest there. Mr.
J. H. Garrett visited several of the islands, and a part of the
eastern shore of this lough, on the 3rd June, 1819, and ascer-
tained that oyster- catcliers were breeding there ; but not numer-
ously. He saw only three or four of their nests (in some of
which were eggs) and one pair of the birds themselves. They
appeared to have young ; but these he could not find. On that
gentlemans going to other islands of the lough on the 6th of
June, a nest with eggs was found on the Bird Island, off Island
Mahee, and the only oyster- catchers seen were its owners. The
nest (he remarks) was merely a depression in the gravel, and did
not contain any fragments of shells, as described by Hewitson.
The same observation applies to about half-a-dozen seen on the
Strangford islands, although the nests of the ring plover, placed
within a few yards of them did, in almost every instance, contain
numerous pieces of white shell, which had evidently been carried
to the spot."'’ To mention one or two localities remote from the
preceding: — On the 12th June, 1835, a nest with eggs was
observed on Straw Island (one of the islands of Arran), off Galway
bay;t on the 17th of the same month, one was found on the
Keroe islands, off the Wexford coast, and the eggs, three in
number, were laid on the stems of sea plants, carelessly placed on
the top of stones. J

With respect to fresh water being inhabited by the oyster-
catcher, I was assured by the gamekeeper at Shanes Castle,
in 1834, that a few of these birds frequent the shores of
Lough Neagh at aU seasons of the year. A friend, on his return
from Scotland in 1832, informed me, that he had seen many of
them in July that year about the river Tay above Dunkeld ; per-

* Mr. Hewitson’s work, in which the eggs of British birds are admirably figured,
had not appeared when the preceding remarks were wiutten. The eggs in question
partook of the markings of both varieties represented by that author,

t Mr. R. Ball. + Mr. Poole.

THE CllANE.

131

haps at the branch of that river, previously mentioned by Dr.
Fleming, who found the species breeding on the islands in the
Tummel at Moulincarn, between Dunkeld and Blair Athol.'’'’* Mr.
St. John, too, states that many breed ^Mar inland, on the stony
banks of the Findhorn, Spey, and other rivers.'”t Montagu
imagined that this bird never left the sea-shore.

Sir WiUiam Jardine, in a note contributed to his edition of
Wilson’s American Ornithology (vol. hi. p. 34), gives a highly
interesting account of the habits of these birds, when they con-
gregate in extraordinary numbers — many thousands” — on some
part of the British coast ; the locality, however, not being named.
I have never seen any approximation to such numbers on the
coast of Ireland.

THE CEANE,

Grus cinerea, Bechst.

Ardea grus, Linn.

Is an extremely rare visitant.

As has been remarked by Dr. Scouler, in a Notice of Animals
which have disappeared from Ireland during the period of Au-
thentic History:”! — ‘'^The crane [Grus cinerea) was formerly so
plentiful that, according to Giraldus, flocks consisting of a hun-
dred individuals were extremely common.” The words of Giral-
dus are — In tanto vero numerositate se grues ingerunt, ut uno
in grege centum et circiter nmnerum frequenter invenies,” (Top.
Hibern. p. 705.) If the bird meant by Giraldus were the true
crane, and not the heron, which is commonly called by that name
in Ireland at the present day, the stately bird would seem to have
been once as common here as it was in early times in England.

To that country it is now a very rare visitant. It would seem,

* Hist. Brit. Auim. (1828.)

t Tour in Sutherland, vol. i. p. 223.

I Journal of the Geologieal Society of Dublin, vol. i. p. 224 (Part 3).

13a

AEDEIDiE.

also^ not to have occurred on the mainland of Scotland for a
long period ; but has, within the present century, been met with
in the Shetland islands.* In Smitlds History of the county of
Waterford, published in the year 1745, the following appears : —
^^The crane [Grus)j which is a. bird of passage. During the
great frost of 1739 some few cranes were seen in this county ; but
not since or before in any personas memory.'’^ The same author,
in his History of the comity of Cork, published in 1749, remarks
that — The crane was seen in this county during the remarkable
frost in 1739 ; but they do not breed wdth us."’^

In March 1834 Mr. Glennon, bird preserver, informed me that
a crane, then in the museum of the Eoyal Dublin Society, and
seen by him in a fresh state, was shot in the county of Galway
about twenty-five years previously. By letter from Eichard Chute,
Esq., written in 1846, I was assured that ^^a crane was shot in
Tralee bay, about twenty years ago, by the Eev. John Chute, now
rector of Eoscommon."’'’ My correspondent, though but young at
the time, saw the bird : — he states, on the additional authority of
the shooters and others, that it was unquestionably the Grus
cinerea.

This species winters in Africa ; and annually migrates to
Scandinavia, and other northern countries, for the purpose of
breeding.

* Dr. Flenimg remarks that “ A small flock appeared during harvest in 1807, in
Tingwall, Zetland, as I was informed by the Rev. John Turnbull,” (Hist. Brit. Anim.
p. 97). Mr. Dunn, who has written an "‘Ornithologist’s Guide to Orkney and
Shetland,” was told that two cranes had been shot in the latter group of islands
between the spring of 1831 and 1832 (p. 84). Mr. J. Wolley gives a full account
of one which frequented Shetland for three or four months in the summer and
autumn of 1848. He adds (in Nov. 1848) that “ Several years since one was shot
in South Ronaldsha, one of the Orkneys,” (Zoologist, Feb. 1849, p. 2353),

133

THE HERON,*

Ardea cinerea, Linn.

Owing to the many suitable bays around the coast, and
the prevalence of water in the island (in lake, river,
marsh, &c.), is particularly abundant.

Habits in Belfast Bay,

On the extensive oozy banks of BeKast bay these birds are very
plentiful; and always to be seen except during the time of high
water.t At the same view I have remarked nmnbers stationed
singly, like sentinels, along the margin of the flowing tide for
miles ; and, a little apart, a group of thirty together. So soon as
the encroaching waves chive them off the banks, where they are
securely beyond the range of gun-shot from the shore, they take
their departure ; and under various circumstances await the reced-
ing of the waters. Some of those feeding on the Down side of
the bay go in congregated numbers to the comparatively retired
Strangford lough, where they are less disturbed. I once reckoned
so many as sixty proceeding thither, at the same time, in a
single line of flight. Others take a course as if going right to sea;
but they probably reach a quiet haven about the entrance of the
bay. The following note tells us how a few dispose of themselves.
At Cultra demesne, on the county Down borders of Belfast bay,
herons in their elegant light-hued plumage have a very fine effect ;
and are conspicuous objects from a distance, when perching (as I
remarked them habitually to do, in the summer of 1848, during
high water) on the dark-foliaged pine and silver fir. These trees
form part of an extensive wood, chiefly of oak and other indige-
nous trees of equal size with the Coniferm, that beautifully clothe

* Vulgarly crane, or long-necked heron.

t Aug. 1849. — The past rather than the present tense should here be used ; a
change with respect to the herons leaving the bay so generally at high-water as for-
merly having taken place since a line of railway, extending along a part of each shore,
has been opened. As trespassing is not permitted “ on the line,” the birds may
be seen at high-water, sometimes within half a gun-shot of it when the train passes,
without being in the least disturbed. A few days’ experience seemed sufficient to
convince them that they had nothing to dread from railway trains or passengers.

lU

ARDEIDiE.

the face of a high hill at the opposite side of the highway from the
house. A public road runs at the base of this hill ; but from it the
herons are unseen. They are not_, however^ driven thither merely
by the tide having covered their feeding banks, as I observed a
few there at all times of ebb and flow. One evening, twelve rose
from a group of three pines, whose foliage intermingled; eight
being on one tree, and on the side opposite to the sea. Dining
fine moonlight — sometimes at midnight — their loud hoarse call,
when on wing, denoted their flying thence to the bay.

Others, on the Antrim side, betake themselves singly, or often
in little parties of three or four, to the demesnes bordering the
estuary; until, in some favourite spot, from twenty to perhaps
fifty are congregated together. Here they remain, in the centre
of large pasture-fields or meadows, out of the reach of gun-shot
from any fences, until the tide has sufficiently ebbed ; and then
usually retrmi, not as they went, but in large parties, sometimes
en masse, to the bay. A ffock of these gigantic birds appears very
beautiful when coming silently in view over the banks of fine
lofty trees at Parkmount, as I have seen about twenty do in a
compact body ; and not only continue thus in flight, but alight
together on the beach. A few notes may be given at full length.

JVov. 14, 1847. — I was much pleased to-day by observing
flocks of herons, cmiews, and lapwings (about forty individuals
in each — of herons I reckoned forty-two) awaiting the falling of
the tide in a large ploughed field at Parkmount, from which
the sea is not visible. The flocks kept separate, and were sta-
tioned about the middle of the field, so as to be out of shot from
the fences. The herons (of which there were beautiful adult as
well as young birds), from their colours finely contrasting with the
rich brown hue of the upturned soil, appeared to great advan-
tage. They were mostly at rest, with the necks drawn in, and
the plumage puffed out so, as to be apparently of huge bulk.
All the cuidews had their heads tmmed the same way, just as they
appear when awaiting the falling tide on a marine rock ; occa-
sionally they gave utterance to their low guttural cry. Nearly
the whole of the birds of the three species were perfectly quiescent.

THE HERON.

135

Aji exception to the lieron^s mode of return^ as described, is
indicated in the following note : — Nov. 11, 1840. A siin-bright
lovely day. Wlien walking for three miles along the Antrim shore
of the bay from Belfast, after the tide had a little receded, the
birds, which were very nnmerons near the road, proved extremely
interesting. Dunlins and ringed dotterel were flying in little
troops, uttering their pleasing cries, and moving towards the great
body of not less than a thousand of their species. Kedshanks,
attracting immediate attention by their loud and lively whistle,
appeared most graceful as they alighted, and the handsomely
formed wing, flung up so as to exhibit the under surface at
the moment they touched the ground, flashed in silvery wliiteiiess
upon the sight. The sea gulls, in their snowy garb, were as usual
highly attractive ; but the herons bore off the palm from all the
others. After having been driven from the banks by a high tide,
they Avere returning, now that it had ebbed ; and the whole
expanse of sky before me was enlivened by their presence. At
one view, spread singly over the atmosphere, I reckoned fifty.
The many-coloured sky, chiefly blue, with white and rich yelloAv
clouds, against wliich they were seen, much enhanced their ap-
pearance. I have occasionally, though not to-day, remarked the
wlhte portion of the heroiTs plmnage to look beautifully roseate,
with the rich tints of the setting sun upon it.

In the demesnes alluded to on the Antrim shore, the herons
seldom perch on trees — apparently never through choice — by day;
but they roost on those at Tort WiUiam, &c. during the night.

Instead of the movements just detailed, the following is the
practice during neap tides. As remarked on September 20, 1838,
tliirty-two herons appeared standing together on a small portion
of the beach surrounded by the tide (about a hundred yards from
the road), awaiting its ebb. An hour afterwards they were nearly all
in the same spot, the banks being not yet sufficiently uncovered.
On the 24th of the same month, thirty-six of these birds were con-
gregated at the same place during high water, and looked very
picturescpie. Most of them were motionless; but others, espe-
cially those about the edge of their little island, were in various

ARDEIDiE.

lae

attitudes to secure tlieir prey ; and some of the main flock occa-
sionally gave sign of life by stretcliing out their necks to see that
all was safe. At the same season of the two following years^ this
habit of the herons was noticed, — the congregated numbers being
then increased to fifty, and subsequently to sixty. Apparently
tlnough laziness to take wing, herons often allow the flowing tide
to wet their plmnage considerably before they take to flight.
During keen frost, on the 23rd January 1839, when the beach on
which they stood was hard frozen, I observed numbers of them, at
the edge of the in-coming tide, allow fuUy the third of their plu-
mage, in a line with the highest exposed part of the tibise, to be
wetted, the entire “legs and thighs being at the time concealed
from view. On this occasion, however, the mud-banks being
liard- frozen, and the air very cold, the flowing tide would have
warmed them. In the midst of the breeding season only, are
herons, as well as birds generally, scarce in the bay. It then
appears quite deserted, no more than one or two herons, perhaps,
being visible within the range of a mile. Soon after that season
they again make their appearance in numbers. On the 9th of
August 1845 I reckoned fifty-two in a close flock when the tide
was a considerable way out, and a great extent of banks was laid
bare for them. From where they were stationed, to the distance
of a mile, not another heron appeared ; but there, nearly a dozen
were congregated in a compact body. Old birds as well as
young were of both parties. A similar note, with respect to nmn-
bers and the sociability of the species, was made in Aug. 1847.
It is very interesting to observe the good fellowship subsisting
among various species of Grallatores, by their associating together ;
but still more so to remark the gregarious habits of birds of dif-
ferent orders. I have seen herons — be the reason what it may —
when looking out for places to alight, on an extensive range of
beach, either select the immediate vicinity of flocks of gulls, or
“ pitch^'’ in the midst of a flock without disturbing any of them.
The scene of the operations here detailed, comprises about two
miles in extent on either side of the bay.

Idle preceding notes may be considered too minute ; but they

THE HERON,

137

are illustrative of habits of tlie species_, which I have not seen
alluded to in any work. Even in the latest History of British
Birds — Mr. YarrelFs excellent work — it is remarked that_, in
winter^ seldom more than one heron is seen at the same time and
place; the species is also characterized there as gregarious only
at the breeding season.

Fishing and Food,

Different statements have been made respecting the her^n^s
hshing time. I have somewhere read of its never fisliing by night,
not even by the clearest moonlight; an idea which would be
scouted by the old women of the north of Ireland, whose favourite
prescription for rheumatic pains is “the fat of a heron killed
at the full of the moon.'’^* That the bird is then in the best
condition, is not imaginary; it visits Belfast bay in as great
nmnbers to feed by moonlight as by day, at all seasons of the
year. It is not known to come in dark nights. Those who kill
the birds for eating (which some very few poor shooters do) con-
sider them only in sufficiently good condition after a duration of
moonlight feeding. ‘ Taxidermists, too, remark them to be fatter
at such times (occasionally very fat) than when killed during “ the
dark of the moon.'’^ Montagu, indeed, has correctly observed
that “ they feed frequently by mooidight, at which time they
become tolerably fat, being not only less disturbed in the night,
but it has been observed that fish then come into shoaler waters.”
I have myself seen numbers of them fishing by moonlight in Bel-
fast bay ; and one which I shot in the act had just captiued a
large Coitus scorpius, Linn, (or milleLs thumb, as it is here called),
notwithstanding its formidable spinous armed head. In another
instance, in summer, when greater variety of food is afforded, I
saw one of these fish taken from a heron^s stomach. Bennie
states that he had never seen an instance of its fishing when

* Peimaiit makes a similar remark in reference to tlie great crested grebe {Podi-
ceps cristatiis)y viz. llesli of this bird is excessively rank ; but the fat is

of great virtue in rlieumatic pains, cramps, and paralytic contractions.”

138

AIlDEIDJi.

the day was advanced and Mr. Waterton, in his interesting
essay on the heron, remarks, and doubtless from correct observa-
tion in his own locality, that between sunrise and sunset it is idle ;
but that when the shades of night set in, it sallies forth to feed.t
The author of the ‘‘British Naturalist'’ J dwells at some length on
the moral of the heron not feeding during sunshine ; at the same
time mentioning that he was once witness to the bird^s doing so.
I have, however, been always accustomed to see these birds
feeding at every hour of the day, and at aU seasons, in Belfast bay,
where they have come most under my observation. In the
brightest sunshine, of the forenoon, I have observed herons
capture prey in diflerent localities — fresh-water and marine (river
Lagan and Strangford lough), and at mid-summer as well as mid-
winter.

The following observations were made during bright sunshine :
— Sept. 10, 1817. — 1 looked at different species of birds for
some time tlirough a telescope, as they fed upon the mud banks
opposite Holywood, Belfast bay. Herons, herring gulls, curlews,
and oyster catehers were seen feeding within a few yards of each
other, and all on similar ground, though the prey of the heron was
in the water, — little plashy places among the Zoster a. The object
of tlus note, however, is to record that the heron sees an object,
even a small one, in the water at a considerable distance, as proved
to-day. The stealthy pace with which it approaches its prey re-
minded me of that of steady pointers or setters when close upon
their game.

The predilection of the heron for fresh- water fishes is mentioned
in the instructive work entitled Gardens and Menageries of the
Zoological Society \ but the numerous herons which frequent the
marine loughs of the north of Ireland throughout the year, except
at breeding time, are well content with sea-fish ; and much more
partial to such localities than to fresh-wafer lakes.

Mr. B. Davis remarks : — If a hero-n be approached very

* Faculties of Birds, p. 170. t Essays Natural History, p. 188, 3rd edit.

+ Vol. i. p. 1 107.

THE HERON.

139

closely when on the watch for fish, or at rest, withont alarming it,
and then be suddenly startled, it becomes (as 1 have known to be
the case), for a short period, quite helpless, and can even, though
rarely, be taken by hand. It tumbles about as if intoxicated, and
is unable to rise for a considerable time.^^ This is alluded to in
the Eecreations of Christopher North^^ (vol. i. p. 56), a work
full of excellent observation on natural objects, when they are the
theme, and which treats of them in an admirably poetical — or, it
may be, inimitably grotesque — manner.

Mr. Waterton, as usual, when writing on any bird, enters, in his
essay on the heron, into the subject of the good and evil that it
does, and considers that the species is grossly maligned when
accused of committing extensive destruction in fish-ponds
(p. 185). He considers these birds as ^Hnaking ample amends
for their little depredations in shallow waters, by killing rats and
frogs, (p. 189). True, if the ponds be sufficiently deep to the
edge, the heron, be he ever so well inclined, can do no harm;
but that he is a depredator in shallow fish ponds, I had annoying
evidence when a boy. A couple of small ponds — purposely made
shallow, that the fish might be the better seen — into which I put
a large quantity of trout, were discovered by a heron, who, before
his presence Vv^as suspected, had cleared out my whole stock.

The food of this species, as shown by inspection of the contents
of stomachs examined, without any reference to seasons or locali-
ties, but just as sent to me by bird preservers, was as follows : —
Nov. 7, 1837. Weather open and mild. One contained only
the remains of sluimp-like Crustacea, of which there was con-
siderable quantity ; these did not exceed, in length of body, nine
lines, or three-quarters of an inch.- — Nov. 18. Weather mild, as
it has been for some time. One exhibited, in addition to the
remains of a small cod-fish, several shrimp-like Crustacea. —
Jan. 25, 1838. Severe frost. One presented a good deal of
vegetable matter, stalks of plants, &c., with the wing cases of a
minute beetle (elytra not exceeding a quarter of an inch in length),
.also a few pebbles. — Feh. 27. One contained an entire lupin-
pod, and the head of a boat-fly [Notonecta) . — Ma?/ 3. One was filled

140

ARDEIDtE.

with the remains of hsh ; as, on I)eo. 14, was another with the
remains of frogs. — Jan. 26, 1839. One exhibited a mass of con-
ferva-like vegetable matter, and portions of water-beetles.’^ It
would thus seem that the food of the heron is often of a much
smaller description than we are informed of by writers on the
subject.

In February 1839 a heron was picked up by a shooter as it
lay helpless, and nearly dead, on the surface of Belfast bay. The
cause of this catastrophe was at once apparent, — a large eel
having been found sticking tightly in its throat ; this fish,
tweuty-six inches in length, and four and a half inches in circum-
ference at the vent, was rather a formidable mouthful. Its head
was partly digested. The bird had probably picked up the eel
when standing at the edge of the channel ; and being unable to
take wing, had been lifted by the flowing tide on wliich it was
seen floating.

Another instance of the heron^s falling a prey, apparently, to
its intended victim is recorded in the following note : — Lord
Castlereagh and the Eev. John Cleland being in company, in the
neighbourhood of Portaferry, about the year 1785, were attracted
by the violent screams of a heron rising from a marsh, and
they paid particular attention to it. The bird kept on wing for a
short time, and then feU to the ground ; when, on hurrying to
the spot, they observed a stoat [Mustela erminea) running away ;
and found the heron dead from a wound which that animal had
made in its throat.f

Mr. Yarrell remarks that if an eel chance to be the object
caught, the heron has been seen to quit the water, to make the
more sure of his prey by beating it against the ground till it is
disabled,^^ (vol. ii. p. 446).J This proceeding I have frequently

* Mr. Poole notes the large water-beetle {Bi/tiscus marginalis) as forming part
of the heron’s food. ,

t This was communicated by Mr. Cleland to Mr. J. Montgomery of Locust Lodge,
in Aug. 1822.

The 3rd vol. ot Yarrell’s British Birds, p.429, contains a note and most spirited
vignette of a heron being killed by an eel in a dilferent manner from that above
related.

THE HEEON.

141

witnessed."^ I once saw a heron seize a small flat-fish, and beat it
about much longer than seemed necessary merely to deprive it of
life, as if annoyed at the poor victim, for presuming to be too
inconveniently broad to go down its captor^ s sesophagus.

Heron as Food. — Mr. E. Davis, of Clonmel, observes, Herons
when young are excellent eating. By cutting off the wings,
tarsi, and head, and making them into wild-geese, I have had them
cooked us such, and an excellent dish they make, in my estima-
tion, fully equal to grouse ; but if not disguised it is hard to have
justice done them ; so great is the prejudice against eating such
unchristian birds.” It has also been remarked to me by a friend,
that once when dining at Bogay (Donegal), a young heron was
served up roasted at table, and proved excellent, the flavour
resembling that of hare, as the dark colour of the flesh hkewise
did. It was not in the least fishy. Another friend, who has eaten
of herons in the south of Ireland, remarks, that they are very
variable, occasionally good, but ofteiier not so."’^ They are some-
times buried in the earth for several days, with the object of re-
moving the fishy taste.

Herom'ies,

With respect to heronries, it maybe stated, that about two miles from
Belfast there is a small one at Belvoir Park ; a second, ten miles dis-
tant, at Hillsborough Park, where about fifty pairs of birds annually
build ; a third, about twenty miles off, at Seaforde ; there are also some
nests at Killileagh Castle, — localities in the county of Down. In
Antrim, Shanes-Castle Park is a breeding haunt ; and there is a smaU
heronry on the island in a lake at Lissanoure Castle. At Banada, on a
branch of the river Moy {Sligo) there is said to be one. At Westport

* A gentleman once stated positively to me that he had seen a heron, when
flying near the Long Bridge, Belfast, swallow an eel three times, which as often
passed through its body, and was again captiwed before reaching the water. Even-
tually the bird bore off its victim, and, by beating against a stone, killed it. The
belief is common that an eel wiU thus several times pass through the stomach and in-
testines of the heron, by which it is picked up again and swallowed. But is not tins,
in every instance, an optical deception arising from the eel, when all but swallowed,
escaping and falling from the bird in such a manner as to lead persons to believe that
it has passed through its body. Its doing so may, indeed, be regarded as an impos-
sibility.

142

ARDEID^.

House {Mayo) we saw a large heronry at the end of June 1834, when
the squalling kept up through the evening was incessant, and occasion-
ally, amid the inharmonious din, cries like those of magpies were
heard. When passing Bantry House, county of Cor/r, in July 1834, a
similar uproar arose from an extensive heronry. From the intelligent
gamekeeper here (Geo. Jackson) I learn, that it contained above fifty
nests in 1849, and that at Adrigoole Lodge, a summer residence of
Lord Bantry’s, there is a small colony of eight pair of birds ; — also,
that at Castle Mary and Macroom Castle there are heronries, about
fifty nests having been reckoned at the latter place in 1848 : these
localities are in the county of Cork. My informant mentions another
heronry known to him at Frenchpark, county of Boscommon, in which,
some years ago, when he lived there, about thirty nests were annually
built. He remarks : — “ In a number of nests that I examined, I have
seen young birds nearly full-fledged, birds not long hatched, and eggs
in a state of incubation, all in the same nest. In the breeding season
of 1847 two young birds at Adrigoole came down into a yard behind
the kitchen, and fed on the entrails of fish, &c. that were thrown out.
They were observed by Lord Bantry, who liked their confidence, and
ordered them to be fed regularly. In a short time they walked
boldly into the kitchen, quite regardless of the people present, and were
nowise backward in making free with anything they took a fancy to.
The whole of the time they were not in the yard or kitchen, they perched
on the top of the house. When his lordship left the place they mingled
among the rest, perhaps from not being fed, and were not known from
the others the succeeding year.”

“ There is a heronry at Maryborough, the seat of Edward Newen-
ham. Esq., about two miles from Cork ; and a small one at Coolmore,
ten miles from that city. At Prospect Yilla, about two miles distant
from the latter, a pair of herons has built, for the last four years,
in the same grove with rooks. They have occupied diiferent trees
during that short period.”'^ At Castlemartyr Park, in the same county,
there is a heronry. In the county of Waterford these birds build at
Dromana ; and at Salter’s Bridge, near Lismore, there is an extensive
heronry, where amid the dark-foliaged trees the white necks of the
birds have been remarked to “ show forth like flowers.”f Eespecting

Mr. Robert Warren, jun.

t Mr. R. Ball.

THE HERON.

143

the last-named county and Tipperary^ it is stated that there is a well-
stocked heronry at Stradbally Castle ; that herons breed at Barn within
three miles of Clonmel, and at Kilcommon demesne,*

The Eev. Thomas Knox, writing to me in 1837, mentioned a
heronry as being in a grove at Mr. Gibbon’s, county of Westmeath ;
and at the same time kindly favoured me with the following particulars
(communicated to him) in reference to a small heronry in the demesne
at Edgeworth’s-town {Longford) : — “ There are here (season of 1837)
about eighteen nests in one clump of beech trees, and a few detached
nests, — in all about two dozen. The birds are on the increase, and
forming detached colonies. Early in January a few of the herons
return— like rooks, jackdaws, &c., that build in company — to visit and
examine their nests, then go away, and about the first week in February
all come to remain for the season. They sometimes now collect in a
row on the ground, as if holding a council. A pair driven away last
year from the main body commenced a nest in a group of trees about a
hundred yards distant, and had it nearly completed the next day.
There are one or two left on guard at the nests all day when there are
young [or eggs ?] to keep away crows and magpies, which often collect
about the nests in numbers, so that the sentinel herons are kept busy
driving them otf.f The young are frequently blown out of the nest
by storms. In the season of 1838, it was observed, that two herons
commenced repairing a nest on the 8th of March, and that several did
so on the 10th. On the 34th and 30th of April, eggs-shells were
seen. There are generally two broods. The young birds, so soon as
able, leave the nest and go out on the branches, where they are fed by
their parents.”

At Beaulieu, near Drogheda {Louth), is a heronry (about thirty pair
breeding in 1849), the owners of which are reputed to be great thieves,
and to steal young rooks out of the nest to feed their own young upon
them. I In the county of Duhlin there is one at Howth Castle (perhaps
twenty -five nests), and another, of long standing, at Malahide Castle ; —

* Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel.

t Mr. St. John remarks, that in a heronry in the Findhorn the nests are greatly
robbed of the eggs by jackdaws, “ which live in great numbers on the rocks imme-
diately opposite the herons.” — Tour in Sutherland, p. 315.

t Mr. R. J. Montgomery ; — who obtained eggs from nests there in the middle of
Feb. 1849.

1.44

ARDEID^.

thirty to fifty nests. At Marino, the seat of Lord Charlemont, on the
borders of Dublin Bay, is an infant colony, first noticed by my in-
formant in 1844, when the nests were but three in number : — in the
next year, five ; and in the third, ten appeared. At Ballyward
{Wicklow) there is a very ancient one; which contained, in 1846,
about fifty nests.*

Although the “ discord of sounds ” from a heronry certainly cannot
be called “sweet,” I do not know a more interesting feature in a
demesne than a finely situated one ; as, for instance, that in Hillsborough
Park. We find the heronry amid scenery of the most various character,
oftenest perhaps in the finely-wooded and cultivated park, having
the adjunct of a spacious lake. One in a very different scene, in the
island of Islay, will be mentioned ; but the most interesting that has
in any way come under my notice is on a wooded island (under two
English acres in extent ; the trees thirty to fifty feet in height), in
Lough Athry — a lake about a mile in length — situated perhaps ten miles
to the south-east of Clifden, county of Galway. So charming was this
scene, that it was committed to the portfolios of my friend Eobert
Callwell, Esq., and Dr. Petrie, during a tour undertaken a few years ago
in search of the picturesque in Connemara. Dr. Petrie made an ex-
quisite water-colour drawing of it (38 by 26 inches), which appeared in
the Exhibition of the Eoyal Hibernian Academy for 1846, under the
attractive and appropriate title of “ The Home of the Heron.” The
locality is known to the people of the district by the prosaic name of
“ Crane Island.”

Immediately beyond an admirable foreground, faithfully representing
nature, the lake fills up the picture from side to side, and the wooded
island appears with some herons just above the trees, while others are
sailing towards it on the bosom of the air from the far distance ; every
individual, of which there are above thirty in number, being drawn to
the life. At the farther side of the lake is a sublime rocky defile, the
termination of which is but dimly seen through the clouds enveloping
the mountains. Herons are the only living objects represented in the
drawing. In addition to those already mentioned as on wing, a solitary
bird stands in an attitude similar to the one so admirably portrayed by
Bewick, at the nearer side of the lake. A heron is said to have been

* Mr. Robert Callwell of Dublin.

THE HERON.

145

on this island from time immemorial. At the period of my friend’s
visit it contained at least fifty nests.

This picture (which is the property of Mr. Call well) is remarkable
for unity of treatment throughout, and for high poetical feeling, in
both of which Dr. Petrie eminently excels. It is much to be regretted
that his drawings, so original in their character, are little known out
of Ireland. To those who have not seen any of them, and are acquainted
with the productions of the English masters in water-colours, it may
be observed, that Petrie’s style approximates to that of Copley Pield-
ing more than to any other ; both artists being remarkable for a depth
of fine poetical feeling in their treatment of landscape ; and the pro-
ductions of the former being further characterized by extreme correct-
ness of detail both as to form and colour. Pemarkable effects, too,
such as Turner delights to pourtray, have often been represented in —
indeed have formed the subjects of — Petrie’s admirable drawings.

The heronries which have been named give no idea whatever of the
number in Ireland ; being only such as I have happened to hear of and
note down.

Already, in a letter from Mr. Knox, some of the circumstances of a
heronry are detailed ; but two or three casual notes may here be added.

On the 1 9th of Feb. 1832, I observed that a pair of herons had
completed their nest in Belvoir Park, where they are less gregarious
than usual, and build in different parts of the demesne. Although this
richly-wooded park is bounded on one side by the river Lagan, and
contains a spacious sheet of water, partly bordered with lofty trees, in
which the herons chiefly build, they have occasionally selected other
places remote from any water. In 1833 a group of lofty beech tree s
half a mile distant from both lake and river was chosen, on the very
topmost branches of which, five of their nests appeared, and hence were
completely exposed to ‘‘ the pelting of the pitiless storm.” The
structure of the nest too (as well remarked by Mr. Poole) “ is so very
open, that the whole outline of the sitting bird can generally be dis-
tinguished from the ground.” Birds of such bulk look comical on the
light topmost spray of the beech, especially on windy days, when it
is very amusing to observe them balancing themselves on the limber
twigs. Now, by raising one of their wings, and the next moment both,
they succeed wonderfully in keeping their position, and remind the
spectator of the performances of a rope-dancer, in wdiich the arms are

VOL. II.

L

146

AEDElDiE.

imicli called into requisition for the same purpose. The attitudes of
the bird, however, if not surpassing those of the rope-dancer in grace,
certainly do so in grotesqueness.

A colony of herons, as I have been credibly informed, built regularly
on the ground in a low stony islet at lough Achery, co. of Down — a nar-
row river-like sheet of water about a mile in length — until about half a
century ago, when they were beaten away by black-headed gulls ( Larus
ridibundus), which coveted their isle as a breeding haunt. The conflict
between the two species was said to have been very great, and if a
heron afterwards appeared in the vicinity, the colony of gulls sallied
forth to attack it. I had the unexpected pleasure very recently (1849)
of finding, in Mr. Templeton’s journal, the following entry on this
subject: — “ June 29, 1808. The Eev. J. Dubourdieu relates that, on
an island in a small lake, called lough Achery, about three or four
miles south-east of Lisburn, herons, contrary to their usual custom,
had bred on the ground ; but about the year 1803 a number of black-
headed gulls drove oft' the herons, and have continued to breed there
since.” They did so for several years after that note was made, to the
number of many hundreds, their nests almost covering the whole islet.
Trom a person who visited the lake in July 1845, to make inquiry
respecting its ornithology, I learned, that for at least a dozen years
previously the gulls had not bred there. This was attributed by some
persons to the persecution of grey crows {C. cornix)^ which breed on
another islet of the lake that is wooded. Although this might be
considered only proper retributive justice, the absence of the gulls is
probably owing to a more potent cause ; — to persecution by being
often fired at and otherwise disturbed. The presence of a boat, too —
which was kept constantly on the lake — would much annoy them.

Sir William Jardine has remarked respecting herons : — “ of their
breeding on the ground we have the fact stated, but we cannot trace it
to anything authentic.”* I was therefore highly gratified by hearing,
when in the island of Islay in January 1849, that there is a small but
long-existing heronry there on the ground, consisting annually of about
a dozen nests. On the 15th of the month I visited this heronry, which
is not more than three miles from Ardimersy Cottage, where I was
staying. It was difficult of discovery, from being amid brushwood
and much broken rocky ground of similar character ; and I might have
been long hunting for the exact site, had not six or seven herons, by

* Brit. Birds, vol, iii. p. 125.

THE HERON.

147

rising from the heath, guided me to the spot. The locality is at the
sea-ward top of a bank varied by rock, greensward, and heath, and
rising somewhat precipitously to the height of perhaps eighty feet above
a beautifully secluded little inlet of the sea. The nests are built on
the ground about the roots of large plants of heath, and are formed
of pieces of light stick. Three of them are about two and a-half yards
distant from each other. They are all perfectly accessible to any
person walking over the ground ; but fortunately the l)irds are not
disturbed when breeding. There is a profusion of low natural wood,
chiefly birch and hazel, quite contiguous ; the birch twelve to fifteen
feet high, and some alder trees of twenty feet are near at hand. A
quarter of a mile distant is a hill side covered with indigenous trees of
larger size ; twenty to twenty-five feet in height. Yet. this is the heron’s
only breeding place on the eastern quarter of the island. The birds
are said to frequent the site on stormy days throughout the year, flying
to it when the wind blows strong upon the neighbouring shore.*

I was told of a similar heronry in the grounds at Islay House, and
went to see it ; but found instead, that the nests were all in trees ;
larch, ash, &c. about twenty feet high; the nests themselves being
from twelve to fourteen feet above the ground. There are perhaps a
dozen of them. This heronry adjoins a small rookery, the inhabitants
of which are often seen to attack and drive them off, the herons flying
before them without resistance. The proximity of the breeding places
of the two species is singular in this instance, as there is a great extent
of continuous plantation precisely similar as to species and size of
trees, as well as other features. The rooks are said to have commenced
building there before the herons. This and the heronry already noticed
are stated to be the only two breeding places of the species in Islay.

Although it certainly is not friendship for each other that brings the
two species together, yet in the summers of 1847 and 1848, at
Coolmore near Cork, two pair of rooks and a pair of herons built

* Since the preceding was written, Mr. St. John has published the following
note : — “ 1 was told of a singular heronry situated on a lake between the Oykel and
the inn at Altnagalcanach, where the herons breed in great numbers on the ground
in an island on the loch.” — Tour in Sutherlandshire, vol. i, p. 15 (1849.)
Though the heron is common everywhere in Sutherlandshire, this is the only heronry
of which the author had heard, (p. 138.) Mr. St. John, in his former work — ‘ Wild
Sports of the Highlands,’ describes a heronry on the high cliffs near Cromarty,
where some of the nests are “ built in the clusters of ivy, and others on the hare
shelves of rocks,” p. 123.

148

ARDEIDiE.

even in tlie same tree, a fine old asli, althougli other aged trees
were adjacent, and a rookery and heronry were only two fields distant.
When the herons would fly off the tree the rooks pursued and even
struck them on the back until they screamed ; but when these birds
alighted on their nest, the rooks dared not go near them. The progeny
of both species escaped from this tree in safety.*

The following mode of flight is sometimes witnessed at the heronry
as well as elsewhere. To use the words of Mr. Poole, “^The ap-
pearance of the heron, ascending by repeated gyrations in the air for
the purpose of attaining a sufficient elevation, is exceedingly beautiful.
The circle described in this manoeuvre is small — perhaps not more than
thirty yards in diameter — yet continued exertions quickly elevate the
bird to an immense height, sometimes almost beyond the reach of vision.
The flight at such times resembles that of the eagle — the king of birds
— as he climbs the sky.” To this may be added, that the heron’s
manner of descending from a great elevation in the atmosphere, by
rapid and almost perpendicular swoops, is only less interesting than his
ascent.

A heronry is most graphically introduced by Hugh Miller in his
eloquent description of a scene in Morayshire. f — (“ Old Red Sand-
stone,” p. 217, 1st edit, and p. 254, 2nd edit.)

The Heron’s Cowardice^ ^c. — The persecution of a heron (sup-
posed to have young at the time) by a sparrowhawk^ wiU be found
noticed under the latter species (vol. i. p. 67). The poor heron
is also sometimes assailed when flying innocently above the nests
of other birds. One flying closely over the rookery at Belvoir
Park in my presence^ brought a bevy of rooks against him ; but
they ah soon returned^ except one which followed the heron for
some way. Against this bird he showed no fight ; but presented
a most cowardly appearance^ when doing ah in Iris power to avoid
being struck by his assailant. J Goldsmith, in liis ‘’Animated

* Mr. Robert Warren, jun.

t An excellent account of a visit to a heronry has been recently published by
Mr. Knox, in his “ Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,” p. 20 — 35.

1 The result of a pair of herons building in a rookery will be found in vol. i,
p. M9, under Rook.

THE HERON.

149

Nature,^ remarks of the lieron : — Armed as it appears for war,
it is indolent and cowardly, and even flies at the approach of a
sparrowhawk. It was once the amusement of the great to pursue
this timorous creature with the falcon."’"’ The heron, however,
appears in a different light in the following note of a scene wit-
nessed tluough a telescope by an accurate observer hving on the
shore of Belfast bay. A herring guU having caught an eel of
about a pound weight, showed evidently by its manner that it did
not weU know what to do with so large a quarry.^"* Two more
of its species having joined the captor, thetluee together appeared
quite perplexed; which, being perceived by a great black-backed
gull, he flew to the spot, and the others took their departure,
leaving the prey beliind, but kept looking back from a respectful
distance. The Lams marinus, standing on the same spot all the
while, with great dignity struck the eel on the head twice or
thrice, and with a long pause between each blow. A heron per-
ceiving what was going on now appeared on the scene~in an
instant made the eel its own, and swallowed it. When tliis bird
arrived, the great gull walked majestically off to the distance of
a few paces, arched his neck, and stood, the picture of offended
majesty. Being the king of his own tribe upon our coasts,
why should he not, like other potentates, take umbrage at such
an act of spoliation ! It wiU be seen in the next section, that
the heron, in a domestic state, is the reverse of cowardly.

Herons in Confinement.

Mr. E. Davis remarks : — “ I have frequently had herons in confine-
ment, and been much amused at their behaviour. Old birds generally
refuse food. I always fed them per force, and then tied up their bills
to keep them from disgorging, at which they are quite adepts. Even
when in some degree tamed, and become free feeders, if you frighten or
approach them closely soon after a meal, down goes the bill to the
ground, and the contents of the crop are displayed to view in an in-
stant ; though if you walk away you find that, like the dog described
in scripture, they ‘ return to their vomit again.’ This they will con-
tinue to do with the same meal as often as you like to cause it.”

150

AllDEIDiE.

Herons are not to be trusted where j-oung fowl of any kind are
accessible to them. One correspondent reports several young wild-
ducks to have been killed and eaten -another mentions a young-
heron which, though regularly well fed, killed and ate at different
times some chickens three weeks old. This bird, about two hours
after having fed on the entrails of a couple of fowls, attacked a
young turkey a month old, which it endeavoured to swallow whole, but
in vain. A servant having witnessed the assault hastened to the tur-
key’s rescue ; in endeavouring to save which, he dislocated the neck
of its assailant, thereby causing the heron’s death. Its intended prey,
owing to the injury received, lived only two weeks after the attack.
This heron struck viciously with its bill at dogs, hens, or any living ob-
jects, except man himself, that came within its reach. It one day con-
sumed, though not at a single meal, a haddock of 4 lbs. weight.
Another bird has eaten three or four full grown rats successively
Indeed the heron proves sometimes useful in captivity by killing these
animals, and is often serviceable as a mouser, watching, more patiently
than a cat, at a mouse-hole until the animal appears, when it is seized
and swallowed on the instant.

Three young herons, taken from a nest in Hillsborough park in 1848,
came under my notice.* The nest contained a few young perch about
four inches in length ; eels much larger were in another nest, doubtless
in both instances as food for the young, though these were but a few
days out of the shell. The nestlings had the irides of a yellow colour,
though not just so bright as those of the adult bird. In this respect
they differ from such native gulls as have yellow irides, these birds
having them dark in youth ; towards maturity they become gradually
lighter. When any person disturbed the large basket in which these
lierons were kept, they pecked fiercely at him, uttering at the same
time a loud and angry cry, which instantly, on any food being offered^
was changed to a kind of soft clicking note.f Tish and flesh-meat
were given to them ; and when three weeks old they would swallow, at
one gulp, a full-sized pollan — a fish as large as a herring — which was

* Four eggs are generally laid. The young of the first brood here were out on
the branches, and nearly as large as their parents at the end of May.

t A friend describes the cry of the heron in its breeding haunts to resemble in
part the word clatter gutturally uttered.

THE HERON.

151

much thicker than their neeks. If much teased they would disgorge
the fish.

The following notes, by Robert Warren, jun., Esq., refer to a heron
taken from a nest in 1847, and kept at Castle Warren, co. Cork: — •
“ The favourite food of this bird is eels ; but any other fish will do as
well. It frequently swallows four or five large herrings at a meal.
Flesh-meat, the entrails of fowls, &c. suffice as food. After feeding, it
is very fond of basking in the heat of the sun, and will stand for hours
with its wings expanded enjoying the genial warmth. The bird is much
attached to me, as I always feed it, runs towards me shaking its wings,
and keeping up a cry evidently of pleasure. It evinces much gentle-
ness of disposition, and frequently stands caressing me with its bill.
But to strangers its manners are very different, as it attacks them with
the greatest fury, and although repeatedly driven baek wiU continue to
return to the charge. It shows great antipathy to dogs, and if one
comes too near he is received with a stroke of its bill, which sends him
yelping away. I have often seen it fighting, although only on the
defensive, with a domestic cock. It was never wounded by that bird’s
spurs ; for when attacked the heron stands quite steady in the attitude
in which it waits for prey, always faeing, and closely watehing every
movement of its adversary, and striking him with its bill whenever he
comes within reach of its long neck. When the cock flew upwards he
was always driven back by a stroke of the heron’s bill. The coek, in
general, retreated on finding that he could make no impression on his
watchful foe. The heron beats the cock by wearing out his patience,
as it will remain for any length of time in an attitude of defence. The
patience of a score of cocks would be worn out by this bird. During
two months that I was absent from home, about the end of 1848, the
heron would not become familiar with any one, not even with the per-
son who fed it ; in faet it never was friendly with any one l)ut myself.
On my return after the absence alluded to, it recognised me instantly,
and testified its joy by screaming and flapping its wings. It never,
indeed, uttered a sound at the presence of any other person.”

Another interesting aeeount of a heron has been communicated by
Dr. J. D. Marshall of Belfast, who states : — “ In the summer of 1848
I received a heron about a week old. It was then partially covered
with down, particularly on the head, where a crest was placed at least
an inch and half in length. The eye was very striking— the iris being

15E

ARDEIDJi:.

a beautiful lemon yellow. The body of the little creature was so bare
of plumage as to resemble a bladder well filled with some dark-coloured
matter. The neck, legs, and bill appeared larger in proportion to the
age of the bird than they were in the adult heron. Its appetite, even
at that early period, was most voracious, and it snapped at everything
placed within reach. To keep it from choking itself I had to place the
captive in a deep basket, the top of which was covered with flannel,
having a hole through which the head was allowed to protrude, and
where it gradually became very comfortable. It was quite powerless on
its legs. Tish and pieces of flesh were greedily devoured, until it was
completely gorged. Its harsh grating cry was kept up without inter-
mission, unless plenty of food was before it. The increase in its size was
astonishingly rapid, and ere many weeks elapsed it was walking about
fully half the size of the adult bird. I spent about two months of the
autumn at Holy wood, to which place it was removed, and kept there in a
small yard attached to the house. Early in September it was almost ready
for flight, being not unfrequently detected upon the top of the wall, and
having made two or three successful attempts to get over it. Its plu-
mage now resembled that of the adult in colour and markings, the dark
spots down the neck becoming daily more distinct. In September we
removed to town, and our bird with us ; and it has remained there in
good health until the present time (April 1849).

“ This heron has become a great pet with me. I never go into the
yard that it does not come up calling for food; and should I not
respond to the call, it makes a most singular snapping noise with its
bill, and lays hold of my trowsers or shoes, as if coaxing me to attend
to it. With myself only, however, is it so companionable ; for if a
stranger enters the yard, or even female servants, it either avoids them
altogether, or, what is much more commonly the case, attacks them
more or less fiercely. A hostler being given admittance to the yard for
water, the first morning he came the heron observed him enter, and at
once set up his cry of defiance, stalking after the man, and finally seiz-
ing him fiercely by the clothes. The poor man was unable to get to
the water-barrel owing to the heron’s pertinaciously snapping at him
when he attempted to draw the water. Hearing an outcry in the yard
I went out, and it required all my influence, aided by a large stick, to
keep the man safe from his attack.*

* When visiting the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, London, in the summer

THE HEEON.

155

He is almost equally fierce with some fowls kept in the same yard,
always biting them when within reach, and sometimes so wickedly
as to injure them. Two chickens he killed in this manner, and a
fine duck owes the loss of an eye to the heron. He is now nearly
as good as a watch dog, — sets up his hoarse cry when any stranger,
be it man, cat, or bird, invades the premises. I keep some pigeons
in the yard, and one evening I observed, at roosting time, that not
one of them was in the boxes where they should have been long ere
dusk. The heron was stalking up and down with his neck stretched
to the very utmost, and his eye wandering about in search of some
object. As cats very frequently come into the yard, I at once thought
that one of them had pounced upon a pigeon, and that this had put
the rest to flight, and annoyed the heron ; but in a minute or two
afterwards I learned that a white owl had dashed against the back
parlour window, and on recovering itself from the shock had flown off
across the roof of the office-houses. This at once accounted for the
activity of the heron, and the flight of the pigeons. It is not particu-
lar in the choice of food ; fish, flesh, or fowl never comes amiss ; the
flesh it will eat either in a raw or dressed state. It would be wholly
out of my power to describe the beauty of its attitudes ; and it is only
by seeing a bird as I have seen this one, that a correct opinion can be
formed of the grace or beauty of the heron’s movements. The curva-
tures of the neck are most graceful. I have gazed with delight for
several minutes upon this bird, as he stood even on the edge of a water
barrel, poised on one leg, his head and neck bent down between the
shoulders, and more resembling a piece of statuary than a living
being.”

Callosity. Plumage. — The foot of a heron (shot in a wild
state) exhibiting a singular round horny excrescence, has been
kindly sent to me by Mr. E. Davis, of Clonmel. This is an inch
in diameter, and situated at the side of the middle toe, the upper
surface exhibiting scales, some of which are very large ; the base
being similar to the under surface of the toe. Tully three-

of 1849, I was reminded of tlie boldness of this bird by that of a hoojnng crane
{Grus Americana). A workman having entered the spacious enclosure in which the
birds of this family are kept, and having set about arranging two or three stones, this
bird very jealously stood close to him watching every movement, and evidently ready
on the instant to give battle if anything displeasing to it were done. On another day,
a gentleman who entered the enclosure, and was looking quietly around,, had to pro-
tect himself with his walking-stick against the assault of one of these cranes.

154

AllDEIDiE.

quarters of an inch of its depth are below the sole of the foot.
Similar callosities not unfrequently occur in various species of
birds kept in confinement.

The gentleman just named has remarked to me — “ With so
common a bird as the heron it is curious how very seldom one
sees an adult : they seem to get sense with their age. Of some
dozens which have been sent me within a few years, there were
but two adults Different writers — among others, Montagu,
whose observations are generally so accurate — remark, that the
adult female differs much from the male heron in plumage. But
several of both sexes, set up in the summer of 1848 by the taxi-
dermist to the Belfast Museum, exhibited no difference from each
other. The females had the black and white feathers on the
head,^^ equally long crests, with the scapulars and feathers on the
breast as long and loose as in the male. In these cases the sex
was determined by dissection, and eggs were found in some speci-
mens. The soiled state of the plumage on the lower parts of the
body late in the breeding season indicated the females previous to
dissection.

Migration Bistrihution. — Mr. Bennett, in his work illus-
trative of the ^ Gardens and Menageries of the Zoological Society,^
remarks, that herons may be regarded as birds of passage ; but
their stay or departure seems everywhere to be regulated by their
means of procuring food,^^ p. 139 ; * * ‘"‘'as soon as the

frost sets in they begin their migration to the southward,^^ &c.
p. 140. In the autumn of 1832, Captain Bayrer, E. N., then
commanding the mail steam packet between Portpatrick and
Donaghadee, observed herons frequently crossing the Channel from
Scotland, which they commenced doing earlier than other birds
(lapwings, larks, or starlings) ; but to the north of Ireland they
are quite constant, no degree of frost ever driving them from the
sea-shore.

Over a wide portion of the continent of Europe the heron is to
be seen just as in the British Islands. In the smnmer and
autumn of the year 1826, I met with it generally from Prance
and Holland through the intervening countries to the south of

THE HEEON.

155

Italy — and in 1841, eastward to Constantinople, where several
appeared, and were remarkably tame (as aU birds are there from
being protected by the Tm?ks), between the city and the YaUey
of Sweet Waters. The writing down of this locality, reminds me
that, some years ago, when sailing up the noble river Blackwater
from Yonghal to Lismore, a number of herons (probably awaiting
the falling of the tide) were singularly studded over a part of the
high and heathy banks of the river, just as the picquets appeared
guarding the hills around the summer palace of the Sultan, in
the YaUey of Sweet Waters, lest any profane eye should behold
the ablutions of the ladies of the harem, when (at the end of
May) with their lord, sojourning there to enjoy bathing in the
natural stream.

The heron is most poetically descanted on in connexion with
its wild haunts, by Professor Wilson,* and its picturesqueness
is duly appreciated inUhe writings of those ardent lovers of nature,
Mr, Selby and Sir WiUiam Jardine.

THE PUEPLE HEEON,

Ardea 'purp^irea, Linn.

Is stated to have been once obtained in Ireland.

To my brief record of the occurrence of this bird, published in
the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1834, p. 30), I am
unable to add anything. It was simply to the effect that a
specimen of the purple heron, marked on the stand as shot
at Carrickmacross,^^ and further stated by Mr. Glennon, bird-
preserver, Dublin, to have been received thence by him in a fresh
state, had come under my notice. It is in the possession of Mr.
Y^arren of that city, and belonged originaUy to the celebrated
collection of Mr. Harrington. The specimen is in the plumage
of BewiclPs purple-crested heron.

In a cafe at the Caravan Bridge, Smyrna, I saw, in the smnmer

* ‘ Recreations of Christopher North,’ vol. i. p. 53.

156

ARDEIDJ£,

of 1811, a most interesting pet bird of this species, appropriately
called there Camelo-poulo.

The purple heron has many times occurred in the eastern and
southern counties of England ; but is only known to have visited
Scotland once.'^ It seems not to range northward on the Euro-
pean continent.

THE EGEET,

Ardea garzetta, Linn.

Is of extremely rare occurrence,

Mil. E. Ball, Director of the University Museum, Dublin, has
kindly copied for my use the following entry, made in the ^ Dona-
tion Book^ of that institution. — Dec. 1788. Eev. J. Elgee, Wex-
ford, presented a bird of the species called the small white heron,
whose present existence in the British Islands has been doubted.’’^
The specimen is now gone ; but the remark — whose present exist-
ence, &c.^^ — leaves no uncertainty on my mind that the A. Garzetta
is meant. The allusion is probably to PennanEs British Zoology,
published in 1776, where it is remarked of this species — We
once received out of Anglesea the feathers of a bird shot there,
which we suspect to be the egret ; tliis is the only instance,
perhaps, of its being fomid in our country. That formerly this
bird was very frequent here appears .by some of the old biUs of
fare, (Yol. ii. Appendix, p. 536.) Pennant adopts the name
of egret for this bird ; but httle white heron is his first quoted
synonym. The name used in the Donation Book appears in Wil-
loughby, under the head of Lesser White Heron, Ardea alba
minor” where it is remarked : — The second lesser white heron
of Aldrovandus is the very same with this,'’^ with the addition
respecting the latter species : — This, I say, is without all doubt
the same with our small white heron ; neither (as I judge) doth
it differ from the Garzetta of Aldrovand,’^ p. 280.

* A notice of this one, shot in Aberdeenshire, about the beginning of March 1847,
appears in the Zoologist for July 1849, p. 2497, by the Rev. James Smith.

THE HBEON.

157

Templeton notices a specimen in the Dublin Museum_, wliicli
was shot in the harbour of Cork in 1792/^ In the edition of
PennanCs British Zoology^ published in 1812, it is stated, that

one was shot in Ireland in 1793,^^ vol. ii. p. 21. A note made
by Mr. E. Dowden, many years ago, when he was connected with
the Eoyal Cork Institution, states, that an Ardea garzetta, which
came fatigued to Kerry, was shot there, and presented to the
institution by Colonel Godfrey. It is added, that Mr. Charles
Carrol had informed him of another individual procured at Myr-
tleviUe, and sent to the Eoyal Dublin Society.

Very few egrets have been obtained in England, and none in
Scotland. {Jard. Macg.)

The Gkeat White Heeon. — Ardea alba, Linn, which is about
equally rare with the egret in England, is not known to have visited
Ireland. Nor was it proven to have been met with in Scotland in 1842,
when Sir William Jardine’s third volume on British Birds appeared.
See p. 135.

The Ardea hubulcus, Cuv. {A. russata of British authors*) cannot
be placed in the Irish catalogue ; but, according to the views of
Schlegel, may be the species included in the English one, from the oc-
currence of a single specimen.

On the 29th of April, 1841, one of the officers of H.M.S. Beacon,
brought me a bird of this species, which he had just shot in a marsh
bordering the bay of Navarino. When walking over the now desolate
island of Delos, on the 1st of June that year, I raised a small white
heron, with a buff-coloured back, which was believed to be specifically
the same. Such also I conclude is the heron — “ reddish-brown on
the back ; cream-coloured elsewhere ” — described to me by Mr.
Wilkinson, jun., Yice-Consul at Syra, as announcing, by its call,
the arrival of the quails, which it always accompanies to that island, on
their autumnal migration to the southward ; — both species are said to
remain only one day in Syra.

See Schlegel “ Rev. Grit; des Oiseaux d’Europe,” p. 102.

158

ARDEID^.

THE SQUACCO HEEON,

Ardea comata, Pallas.

ralloides, Scopoli.

Has been once obtained ;

A SPECIMEN having been shot in KiUeagh Bog^ a few miles from
Yoiighab on the 26th of May, 1849. To Dr. J. B. Harvey of
Cork I am indebted for all the information which I possess re-
specting it. The occurrence of a rare bird of this family being
communicated to that gentleman by Mr. Samuel Moss of Yonghal,
who preserved the specimen, a description of it was requested,
the perusal of wEich led to the belief that it must be the squacco
heron. The bird was kindly sent to Cork for Dr. Harvey^s exami-
nation, and the following result communicated to me: — It is un-
doubtedly the Ardea ralloides ; the descriptions and measurements
(as closely as I can test them by comparison with a mounted bird
fixed in a case) are so near as to leave no hesitation in the matter.
The oidy difference between the specimen and the descriptions in
Temminck, YarreU, and Jenyns, worth noticing, is, that the beUy
is not pure white ; — it has a good deal of the buff tinge anteriorly
and along the sides. The plume of feathers, which have the
little terminal bordering beautifully marked, are from three to four
inches long : perhaps they are not fuUy grown. I should suppose
the bird to have been adult ; its length was eighteen inches. The
sex was un-noted by the preserver."’^ This bird was probably one
of the same flight, or influenced to migrate farther westward than
usual by the same causes which induced the species to visit
the extreme portion of England, in that direction, in May last.
Mr. E. H. Eodd, of Penzance, records his having seen three of
these birds in the course of being preserved, on the 15th of May,
1849 ; two of which were shot near the Land's End, and the
other — while perched on a tree — in the parish of St. Hilary,
Cornwall.*

Zoologist, July 1849, p. 2498,

THE LITTLE BITTEEN.

159

Several examples of this species have been killed at various
times ill England, chiefly in the southern and eastern counties ;
but not one has yet been observed so far north as Scotland.'^ Like
the three species of Ardea already noticed {A. garzetta, A. alba, and
A. russata), this bird is a native of more southern climates than the
British Islands, though occasionally wandering so far north. The
squacco heron chiefly frequents the warmer parts of eastern Europe
and western Asia — also the north of Africa.f

THE LITTLE BITTEEN,

Little Heron.

Botaunis minutus, Linn, (sp.)

Ardea minuta ,,

Is a very rare visitant.

The first individual of this species kiUed in Ireland, that came
under my observation (as recorded in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society for 1 834, p. 30) was an immature bird — in
the plumage of the young after the first moult, according to Mr,
Selby’s description. It was shot in the county of Armagh in
November 1830, and sent to my friend, William Sinclaire, Esq. of
Belfast, who preserved it for his collection. An intelligent sports-
man, on seeing this specimen, assured us that a bfid which he had
observed in spring some years before at the bog-meadows, near Bel-
fast, was of the same species. He described it as rising from the
ground almost perpendicularly when sprung, and descending again
in a similar manner. Another gentleman, who saw the specimen in
1833, at once recognised it as identical in species with a bird
which he had shot a year or two previously in the county of
Kerry. Mr. T. W. W^arren, of Dublin, possesses an Ardea minuta,
which was shot about the year 1833 in the county of Longford.

* Jardine.

Schlegel.

160

AIlDEIDiE.

In 1837 tliat gentleman told me of his having, some years before,
seen one in a fresh state wliich was shot at Merrion, near that
city ; and preserved for Sir William Homan. Mr. Glennon states,
that the little bittern has been more than once killed in the marsh
at Sandymount, near Dublin. Dr. Harvey of Cork informs ns,
that an adult male bird in his collection was shot in the summer
of 1842, at Woodside, by Mr. Eobert Parker, and that the Eev.
Mr. Stopford had also killed one in that county.* About the
1st of May, 1849, one was shot by an officer of the 9th regiment
in a bog between Newry and Dundalk.t

This bird has visited Ireland more frequently than any named
in these pages subsequent to the common heron, and may there-
fore be supposed to be of more frequent occurrence in England.
Such is the fact. Although not procured on the mainland of
Scotland, f one has been killed in Orkney, jj The little bittern has
migrated so far north as Sweden, on the continent of Europe.

THE BITTEEN,

Botaurus stellaris, Linn, (sp.)

Ardea ,, „

Once common in Ireland, is gradually becoming scarce,
owing to the drainage of the bogs and marshes.

It therefore seems desirable to me, in a statistical point of view,
that such information as I possess on the species should be given
in detail. I shall arrange my notes upon it according to localities,
and not to dates, beginning with the northern province.

Down. — Harris, in his History of this country, published in 1744,
remarks that ‘‘the bittern is common in the Lower Ardes, about
Magheralin, and other places.” In 1833 I made a note to the effect
that within the preceding ten or twelve years I had known about six
bitterns to have been obtained in the county of Down, all of which

* Paima of Cork, p. 12. t Hr. R. J. Montgomery. t Macgillivray, 1846.

II riemiug.

THE BITOERN.

161

were preserved but onej that in pursuance of the custom of the olden
time was served up at table.* Three of these were killed within five
miles of Belfast ; — at Holywood Moss, Dundonald (Nov. 5, 1824), and
Conswater Point, — the last locality near the town. Another was pro-
cured at Killileagh (Nov. 1826), and one or two were at Killinchy. In
August 1836 I was informed, by the gamekeeper at Tolly more Park,
that a few years previously three or four bitterns frequented the bogs
at the base of the mountains in that quarter during a winter. About
the same time one was killed at Kirkiston flow, in the Ardes. In the
winter of 1837-38 one was shot near Downpatrick, a few years before
which time several of these birds had been killed there in the course of
a winter. A bittern, sent on the 12th Dec. 1838 from Portaferry to
Belfast to be preserved, came under my inspection ; its stomach looked
amazingly large, containing, as it did, a rudd {Leuciscus erythropthal-
mus) eight inches in length, and two and a half in depth. With the
exception of the head, this fish was quite perfect and unchanged in
colour. In addition to it were the remains of another fish, and of a full
grown frog ; likewise the head of a boat-fly {Notonedd). — On Nov. 24,
1841, I saw a beautiful specimen of this bird, which was also shot near
Portaferry ; the greater portion of an eel, which, when perfect, must —
according to the bird-preserver — have been about two feet in length,
was found in its stomach. — March 1, 1845. A male bird, shot at Tul-
lygirvan, came under my notice; it weighed 3 lbs. 13 oz. ; the stomach
contained the remains of five or six full grown frogs. — Antrim,
Jan. 27, 1811. One found wounded in the bog meadows, near Belfast,
was taken to Mr. Templeton. — 8th Peb. 1838, a recent specimen killed
at Claggan came under my examination ; its stomach was filled with the
bonesof full grown frogs. — InFeb. 1839 another was shot near Ballymena.
— Donegal. Mr. J. V. Stewart, in his paper on the Birds, &c. of this
county, published in 1831, remarks, — “ I am informed that bitterns
were very common in this county thirty years ago ; from increased
cultivation and population they are now, however, very rarely to be
seen.” In a letter subsequently received from that gentleman, he men-
tioned having met with only two pair of them, one of which frequented,
in the breeding season, an inaccessible marsh at the borders of a
lake near Milford. From, the constant resort of the birds to the

* In a fashionable quarter of London, some years ago, I remarked a bittern ex-
posed for sale during a fortnight without meeting with a pm'chaser, and the bird had
at last to be thrown away.

VOL. II.

M

162

AIlDEIDiE.

place at that period of the year, he believed it to have been selected
for their nest. One of them was wounded by a person employed to
procure birds for his collection ; but it escaped, and they both from
that time forsook the haunt. — Londonderry. Wm. Ogilby, Esq. in-
formed me, in 1845, that about twenty-five years previously, he com-
monly, when walking in the calm, still, autumnal evenings, in the
neighbourhood of D ungiven, heard the bittern boom from the marshy
and grassy hollows. The sound he always considered to proceed from
a bird on the ground. Of late years he never heard it. The species
is there called bog-hluiter [bleater], as the snipe is heatJier-hluiter.- —
Fermanagh. A statement similar in all respects to the last has been
made to me by a gentleman in reference to this county. — Armagh. One
killed at Loughall, in Oct. 1 842, was kindly sent to the Belfast Museum
by Mr. John Nicholson.

Westmeath. A few years ago bitterns frequented the margin of a
very deep lough in the middle of the bog called Loughnabrone, near
Tyrrel’s Pass. They may do so yet, as the place is very rarely visited,
and the ground so soft and dangerous as to be seldom accessible. One
wounded here in the wing was kept for several years at a place in the
neighbourhood, and had liberty to walk about the house. It was par-
ticularly wicked, and was in the habit of standing somewhat in the way
a heron does, apparently asleep, with its head and neck covered up ;
but if any one approached, it suddenly shot out its head with great
violence, always directing its aim towards the eye of its disturber.^
— Dublin, &c. In the winter of 1830-31, bitterns were much more
numerous than usual here, and in the neighbouring counties, whence
they were sent to the metropolis. Many of them were exposed for sale
in the market. In the last week of Dec. 1844 eight fresh specimens were
seen, by Mr. P. Ball, in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver ; others
were in the market there about the same time. In the winter of 1848-
49, they were also unusually numerous ; five were sent to Dublin
during one week in January to be set up.f — Kildare. The late
Archdeacon Butson, about thirty years ago, has killed two or three
bitterns in the course of a day’s shooting in the Bog of Allen : one
wounded by this gentleman lived two years in his garden. In 1842
I was told that the species continued to breed there.- -Queen’s-
couNTY. Some years ago a bittern was observed by a gentleman of
my acquaintance during a walk near Portarlington.

* Mr. H. M. Pilkingtoii. f Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

THE BITTERN.

163

Roscommon. Mr. G. Jackson (now gamekeeper to the Earl
of Bantry) shot a bittern, on the 30th August 1832, in a rushy
swamp about the middle of a bog near Belanagar. The pointers
followed the scent for a very considerable distance, so that the
object of their pursuit was thought to be an old cock grouse,
until it rose on wing. Another was shot by him in a young
plantation at Erenchpark in the winter of 1836-37, when there was
much snow on the ground. — Mayo. A friend has often seen bitterns
in the early spring — four or five in a day — from the year 1838 to 1843,
in Muckanagh bog, on the shore of the lower lough Conn. The place
was inaccessible to shooters in winter from being always flooded. The
author of the ‘ Wild Sports of the West’ describes, in his usual graphic
manner, his shooting a bittern in the wilds of Connaught, about Bally-
croy, and remarks that the species is now “ extremely scarce ; ” an
observation which will, I believe, apply generally to the more western
and wilder parts of that province ; but about Portumna, on the
banks of the Shannon, co. Galway, 1 was told, a few years ago, that
bitterns are killed every winter.

Clare. Until the year 1836, at least (when the information was
supplied), bitterns were stated to be not uncommonly on sale in
Ennis market. — Tipperary. A few years previous to 1842 (when
the circumstance was communicated), Mr. R. Davis, jun., received for
his collection a female bittern, which was shot early in August, about
three miles from Killenaule, when rising from her nest ; the young-
birds were at the time unfledged. The species was then considered to
be very rare in the county ; but it was added that “ a winter rarely
passes over without one or more specimen being shot.” In the season of
1840-41, a bittern was killed near Cashel ; but none was known to have
occurred in the following winter. — Wexford. Mr. Wheelock (bird-
preserver) mentioned, in Nov. 1841, that three of these birds only were
known to him as havin^been procured there. In the winter of 1846-
47, one was obtained (Poole). — Waterford. Dr. R. J. Bnrkitt of
Waterford, in a letter dated Nov. 19, 1841, observed that bitterns are
not uncommon there, and that he had seen eight which were killed in
the county within the preceding six years. In 1831 he saw five that
were shot at the one locality of Kilbarrey ; “ they were very numerous
that year about Waterford, and have been much scarcer since.” One
was procured there in Nov. 1848. — Cork. Smith, in his History of

164

ARDEIDiE.

Cork, written about a century ago, remarks that “ they [bitterns] breed
in this county in which, however, they now seem to be very scarce.
In the autumn of 1838 one was shot at Glengaritf. In the winter of
1840-41 two were killed; one at Youghal (where the species had
before been met with by Mr. R. Ball), and another near the city of
Cork. — Kerry. According to Mr. T. B. Neligan of Tralee, as re-
ported in 1837, they were then exceedingly rare in the county, although
common not many years before that period. In 1846 Mr. R. Chute
considered them as “not now to be met with;” but late in the winter
of 1848-49 one w^as shot there.

It will have been remarked that, in the winter of 1830-31,
bitterns were more than commonly frequent in Dublin and the
neighbouring counties, — in Waterford and perhaps in Down (those
alluded to by the gamekeeper at Tollymore park, but without cer-
tainty as to year) ; thus implying an unusual migration to the
island. In Great Britain we find the same to have occurred.
Mr. Selby informs us that, in the winter of 1830-31, — ■
More than the usual number of bitterns has been killed in
various parts of the kingdom ; and I am credibly informed that
no less than ten were exposed for sale in one morning at Bath.'’^
Mr. Heysham, writing from Carlisle, states that During the
months of December, January, and Bebruary last [winter of
1830-31] no less than eight specimens of the bittern were killed
in this part of the county. * This is the more remark-

able, as only a single specimen has been met with in the same
district for the last ten or twelve years. It would appear, from
the public journals, that about the same period of the year others
were killed in Durham, Yorkshire, Devonshire, &c.'’^^ With
reference to the numbers obtained in England, Sir Win. Jardine
observed : — In the south of Scotland a similar comparative
abundance occurred ; several were brought to me in Dumfries-
shire ; and on a visit to Edinburgh it was found that the bird-
preservers there had obtained also a more than usual number of
specimens."’^

In the winter of 1844-45 again, they were considered to be

* Philosophical Magazine, 1832, p. 85.

THE BITTERN.

165

rather plentiful in the Dublin market^ which is supplied from
several counties ; and one was obtained in the county of Down.
In that of 1848-49, they were killed in different parts of Ireland;
five (as already noticed) being sent, during one week in January,
to Dublin to be preserved; one was shot, in November, near
Waterford ; and another, late in the winter, in the county of
Kerry.*

Winter being the season at which bitterns chiefly visit Ireland,
their migration from more northern latitudes is thereby indicated.
They annually breed in Scandinavia. I have not seen sufficient
data to enable a satisfactory conclusion to be arrived at respecting
the frequency of the visits of this species to England or Scotland;
and hence cannot with confidence draw the usual comparison
respecting the numbers found in the three countries. The
bird is, however, probably as often met with in Ireland as in
England ; and more frequently in the former country than in
Scotland.!

Mr. E. Ball remarks that — ‘’^Bitterns in confinement exhibit
an extraordinary power of remaining fixed in any position in
which they happen to be, when a spectator fixes his eyes upon
them. In the instance of one kept in a garden at Youghal, the
owner came suddenly on the bird, which was at the moment in
an attitude of some difficulty ; it seemed as if seized with cata-
lepsy. The gentleman sat down near, and watched it for two
hours, during which time the bird did not make the slightest
movement, and finally exhausted his patience.’’^ The Great
Plover (as will be seen by a note under that species) has a
similar habit ; and Audubon, in his description of the American
bittern, remarks — In Lower Louisiana it is called the ^ Garde
Soleil,^ because they say it will stand on one foot for hours, with

* Three bitterns, all fine speeimens, were stated, in the communication from Mr. J.
Wright, Lymington, Hants, to the Zoologist^ to have been shot within a few miles
of that place in the three weeks preceding Jan. 11, 1849. On the 8th of this
month one was shot in the connty of Norfolk. (Zoologist, May 1849, p. 2421.)

t Mr. St. John remarks, in reference to the year 1848 : — “The bittern is rare [in
Sutherland] ; hut I have heard its cry near Shinness on loch Shin.” (Tour in Suther-
land, vol. i. p. 138.)

166

AEDEID^.

its eyes, or one of them at least, fixed on the orb of day; and
frequently spread out its wings in the manner of cormorants and
vultures to enjoy the heat, or perhaps the gentle breeze/^ (Orn.
Biog. vol. iv. p. 296.) He again observes — ^^That they are
extremely timid I well know ; for, on several occasions, when I
have suddenly come upon them, they have stood still from mere
terror, until I have knocked them down with an oar or a stick,”
(p. 297.)

We find the bittern associated in the sacred volume with the
desolation both of Babylon and Nineveh.* In reference to the
former great city is the denunciation, — I will also make it a
possession for the bittern, and pools of water.” (Isaiah xiv. 23.)
See also Isaiah xxxiv. 11.

As the species disappears before the improvement of the coun-
try by man, we can very rarely now, even in Ireland, hear

“ At evening, o’er the swampy plain.

The bittern’s boom come far.” — Southey.

Yet it was one of the very few birds which Goldsmith, in his de-
lightful ■ ^ Animated Nature,” descanted on from personal obser-
vation in his native country. He remarks that it is not from its
voracious appetite, but its hollow boom, that the bittern is held
in such detestation by the vulgar. I remember, in the place
where I was a boy, with what terror the bird^s note affected the
whole village ; they considered it as the presage of some sad
event ; and generally found, or made one to succeed it. I do not
speak ludicrously ; but if any person in the neighbourhood died,
they supposed it could not be otherwise, for the night-raven had
foretold it ; but if nobody happened to die, the death of a cow or
a sheep gave completion to the prophecy.”!

The following commencement of the same author^s description

* Zephaniah ii. 14,

t The uneducated in various couutries have had superstitions, or at least prognos-
tications, in connexion with the note of the bittern ; but I shall mention only one,
not selected on account of its elegance, but from its having, so far as I am aware,
appeared only in the page of a journal. As stated (by Mr. J. Hawley) in the
Zoologist for Feb. 1849 ; — “ I have heard some old people recite a doggrel rhyme

THE BITTERN.

167

of the bittern may also be from personal observation : — Those
who have walked in an evening by the sedgy sides of unfrequented
rivers must remember a variety of notes from different water-fowl ;
the loud scream of the wild-goose^ the croaking of the mallard,'^
the whining of the lapwing, and the tremulous neighing of the
jack- snipe. But of all those sounds there is none so dismally hollow
as the booming of the bittern. It is impossible for words to give
those who have not heard the evening-call, an adequate idea of its
solemnity. It is like the interrupted bellowing of a bull, but
hollower and louder ; and is heard at a mile^s distance, as if issu-
ing from some formidable being that resided at the bottom of the
waters.

Of the five birds here named, the wild-goose and the bittern
would not now be heard by Goldsmith in Ireland, where he had
the opportunity of listening to them in his youth. { The former,
which then bred, wholly ceased to do so long before the bittern^s
numbers were much lessened. The other tlu’ee species still
increase in the four quarters of the island, with tlie difference,
however, of common being substituted for Jack-sni^e in the pas-
sage extracted. From ^Ghe tremulous neighing'’^ which is men-,
tioned, it is evident that the writer alludes to the male of the

referring to tlie bittern, which, though never found here, used — in their youthful days
— to be not uncommon in the vicinity of Doncaster : —

“ ‘ There T1 either be rain or else summat warn*.

When “butter-bumps” sing upo’ potterie car.’ ” — p. 2355.

* The expression — and by Goldsmith too ! — “ croaking” of the mallard, reminds
me that the loud croaking of the frogs in the marshes near Navarino, and in other
parts of Greece, in the spring of 1841, was commonly spoken of on board H.M.S.
Beacon as the calling of “ Irish ducks.” 1 am not aware how the jesting term ori-
ginated.

t The comparison of this bird’s booming to the bellowing of a bull is not altoge-
ther fanciful. A friend who resided at Youghal in his youth, when about 13 or 14
years of age, set out one evening with several other boys to take a particular walk ;
from which, however, they hastily fled homewards on hearing, as they thought, the
roaring of a bull in the direction they were going. The next morning they learned
from the gamekeeper, to whom the dilference between booming and bellowing was
known, and who had heard the bird, that the cause of their alarm had only been a
bittern. The name Botaurus (applied generally to bitterns) must, we presume, have
been given on account of the resemblance of the bird’s cry to the roaring of a bull.

j; In very rethed haunts the bittern may still occasionally boom and breed in this
island.

168

AEDEIDiE.

common species under the name of jack-%m^Q. It is not an un-
frequent error, even at the present day, to imagine that jack-snipe
means male snipe ; in the same way that jack denotes the male
sex of the ass, and other animals.

To quote the words of Goldsmith, These bellowing explosions
are chiefly heard from the beginning of spring to the end of
autumn ; and, however awful they may seem to us, are the calls to
courtship or of connubial felicity This writer judiciously combats
the various ideas respecting the manner in which the sound is
produced, and states that, unaided by any extraneous means, the
bird^s windpipe is fitted to produce the sound for which it is
remarkable.^'’

Although we associate the bittern with the rank and humid
marsh, or with desolation,'*^ yet is there a finely poetical associ-
ation with its name, — Arclea stellaris, or heron of the stars. This
doubtless originated from its singular spiral flight, by means of
winch it ascends into the realms of space, far beyond the reach of
human vision.

THE AMEEICAN BITTERN,

Botaums lentiginosiis, Mont, (sp.)

Afdea lentiginosa ,,

■ mohoho, Wagler.

Has once been obtained.

The specimen was thus noticed by me in the 17 th volume of the
Annals of Natural History, published in 1846. ^‘1 have the plea-
sure of placing on record the occurrence of an American bittern
in Ireland, the first known to have visited this island. The fresh
skin, being sent to Belfast to be preserved and mounted, came
under my inspection on the I4th of November 1845 ; and having
learned that it was sent from Armagh by the distinguished astro-
nomer I)r. T. R. Robinson — whose acutely observant eye had not
failed to mark the differences between it and the Botaums stellaris
— I wrote to liim for all particulars respecting the bird, and

THE AMBEICAN BITTERN.

169

received the following information : — ' It was shot by my second
son Wm. E. Eobinson^, about noon^ on the 12th of November
lastj in a bog — part of a dat^ partially drained tract called Llayde
Bottoms — surrounded by hills,, and a mile from Armagh. It was
put up in sedge, seemed lazy, and flew heavily, not shov»^ing the
usual wariness of the bittern, but letting him come rather close
before it rose. Its stomach was empty ; but it was very fat and
very good eating, for we roasted it ! The sex was, unfortunately,
not noted. The glottis was peculiar, so that I suppose it must-
have had the powerful voice of the common species.'’ Dr. Eobin-
son, on being informed that it was the American bittern, most
liberally presented the bird to the Belfast Museum. As bearing
on the points touched upon in this letter, it may be observed that
Audubon never saw one of them fly farther than thirty or forty
yards at a time ; and on such occasions their movements were so
sluggish as to give opportunities of easily shooting them ; for (as
he remarks) they generally rise within a few yards of you, and fly
off very slowly in a direct course.'’ (Orn. Biog. vol. iv. p. 297.)
Wilson states that it ^ is considered by many to be excellent eat-
ing / — and that the American bird ‘'has nothing of that loud
booming sound for which the European bittern is so remarkable.
Audubon has not himself heard its notes, but gives the observa-
tions of two well-known naturalists upon them. Dr. Eichardson
states that ‘ its loud booming, exactly resembling that of the
common bittern of Europe, may be heard every summer evening,
and frequently during the day.W

Judging from these works, this bird takes the place in North
America of the common bittern in Europe ; but is much more
frequent there than the latter is now in any part of the British
Islands. Audubon informs us that in winter it is ^ common in
the markets of New Orleans, and bought by the poorer classes to
make gombo soup.'’

“ The Prince of Canino, in his ^ Comparative List of the Birds

* Jardinc’s edit. Wils. Amer. Orn. vol. iii. p. 57.

+ Fauna Bor. Amer. p. 374.

170

AEDEID^.

of Europe and North America/ makes Montagues Ardea lentigi-
nosa, distinct from the American bird {A. minoTy Wilson), with
which, however, as described by Dr. Eichardson, the one killed
in Ireland is perfectly identical in species. It agrees so well with
the ^ description of a male killed on the Saskatchewan plains,
8th July 1827/* that all the details of colour and markings
equally apply to this example, except in the few following very
trivial points : —

“ The feathers on the vent and under tail-coverts being very sparingly dotted with
brown towards the shafts instead of being ‘ unspotted ; ’ the long feathers on the
front and sides of the neck and breast having the central stripe of mottled clove-brown
bordered with a blackish line which imparts to them a beautiful finish ; outside of it
is a line of deep yellow shading off gradually to a lighter tint at the margin. In every
character of form the bird before me agrees with that description, except in having a
slight development of web between the outer and inner toe, instead of being ‘ quite
free ’ of such ; and in the first quill being the longest instead of the ‘ second and
third ’ — the first exceeds the second, as the second does the third, by not more than
one line of an inch) in length. It may be added that the third exceeds the
fourth by 1-| line, and the fourth the fifth by 6 lines ; and that these quills present a
very interesting gradation in form from the first, which is pointed, to the fifth, that
is quite square at the tip. Like the nine birds examined by Dr. Richardson, it pos-
sesses just ten tail-feathers. Wilson attributes twelve to A. minor. Two specimens
could not be expected to resemble each other more nearly than that described by Dr.
Richardson, and the one killed in Ireland ; but the difierences have been stated that
the description of the former may suffice for the other, with the exceptions noted.

in. lin.

Length (totalf) of Irish specimen . . . . 26 0

Length of wing . . . . . . . 11 9

bill from first feathers on forehead to point 2 9

bill to rictus 3 7i

tarsus .... ..38

naked part of tibia . . . . .12

middle toe 2 10

middle claw measured in a straight line . 0 7^

hind toe ...... 1 5

hind toe claw . . . . . 1 0^

Although the European and American bitterns have a general
resemblance, they are found, when compared by the ornithologist,

* Consequently it differs entirely from the other male killed on the 27th June, and
which doubtless must have been a bird of a different age.

t Not quite satisfactory, as the bird had been skinned.

THE AMEKICAN BITTERN.

171

to differ in all respects. The latter is much the smaller species ;
but they both vary remarkably in size. The toes and claws are
much smaller in the American bird. The most striking difference
in its colour is the black stripe on each side of the neck^ which
in the specimen before me commences one and a half inch below
the eye_, and extends for three inches^ until, in the shading off of
the black, the two stripes may be said to meet at the back of the
neck. The greatest breadth of this stripe is one inch. All the
feathers of the front and sides of the neck and breast, having (as
already described) a dark central stripe, give to that portion of the
plumage a beautifully rich and regularly streaked appearance,
which is rendered further conspicuous by the entire absence of
dusky transverse markings, such as appear there in the common
bittern. The whole dorsal plumage is different, and is much more
handsome in the American bird than in the other, consisting of
a beautiful mixture of brown of many shades and rich yellows ;
and, when the light falls upon it, exhibiting reddish violet reflec-
tions, reminding us of the same parts in the jack-snipe {Scolopax
gallinula) ; a species which it likewise resembles in possessing
similar richly and beautifully coloured scapular feathers. The
tail-feathers * of the American bird are of a uniform dusky brown
— those of the European specimen compared with it have more
or less of a narrow stripe of black towards the centre ; the rest
being all freckled or mottled with black on a rich buff ground : —
the quills of the American species are likewise of a uniform co-
lour, while those of the European are barred alternately with black
and buff, except at the tips, which are wholly black. Other
differences might be pointed out, but those mentioned are the
most striking. Temminck describes ' zigzag'’ markings on the
upper parts of the plumage, and on the coverts of the wings ; t
but there are not, in the American bittern before me, any markings
to which I would apply that term, as there are on the neck and
wing-coverts of the European bird.

YarrelFs figure gives a very good general idea of the America,
bittern ; but in two impressions (1st and ^nd editions) examined

Tlic tail-coverts are mottled. f Man. d’Orn. de TEur. vol. iv. p. 382.

172

ARDEID^.

the back and wings look rather too dark^ and I could hypercri-
tically have wished the quills and tail shown of a uniform colour^
as in this respect they so obviously differ from the same parts in
the common species, in which they are banded. In figures of so
small a size, however, characters like these can be but partially
attended to.

The first Ardea lentiginosa which occurred in Europe was (as is
well known to ornithologists) described by Montagu under this
name ; it was killed in Dorsetshire in the autumn of 1804. A
second was made known by Dr. E. Moore, as shot near Plymouth
on the 22nd of Dec. 1829. Notice of a third, obtained near
Christ-church in 1836, was communicated to Mr. Yarrell, who
has likewise been told of a bird, believed to be of this species,
having been procm^ed in the Isle of Man ; but the season or year
is not mentioned. About the middle of October, 1844, the only
one obtained in Scotland was killed on the property of Sir Win.
Jardine, Bart., in Dumfries-shire, and at a very appropriate time,
when Mr. Gould, the well-known ornithologist, was on a visit at
Jardine Hall — where, too, I lately had the pleasure of seeing the
specimen. These are all the examples known to have occurred in
Great Britain.

[In the same month (Eeb. 1846) in which the preceding ap-
peared in the Annals, the Zoologist contained a notice of one of
these bitterns having been killed about the 8th of Dec. 1845, in
the vicinity of Eleetwood, Lancashire.*]

There is no record of the species having been procured on the
continent of Europe, inTemminck^s ‘' Manuel,^ &c. (vol. iv. 1840) ;
Keyserling and Blasius^ ^ Wirbelthiere Europas ’’ (1840); orSchle-
geFs ^ Bevue Critique des Oiseaux d^Europe'’ (1844), — a circum-
stance which, like the fact of other American species having been
obtained in the British Islands, and not farther to the eastward,
strengthens the circumstantial evidence in favour of such birds
having really crossed the Atlantic. Three out of the four birds,
the date of whose occurrence in the British Islands is known

* Contributed by Mr. James Cooper of Preston, who gives a description of the
specimen, (p. 1248.)

THE NIGHT HERON.

[173

to US, were met with about the migratory period, when the species
leaves the more northern for the southern parts of North
America. The fourth, which was obtained in December, may
have arrived at that period, and have remained in the country
unobserved until it was killed.'’^

THE NIGHT HEEON,

Nycticorax Gardenii, Gmel. (sp.)

EufopcBus, Steph.

Ardea nycticorax, Linn.

Is of very rare occurrence.

One which I saw in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver,
Dublin, in March 1831, and noticed in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society for that year (p. 30), was stated by him to
have been sent in fresh condition from Letterkenny, in the county
of Donegal. It was at the same time mentioned that two or
three other examples, killed in Ireland, had been sent to him.
Subsequently he informed me of the occurrence of anotlier indi-
vidual.* Between the year last-named and 1838 (Ann. Nat.
Plist. vol. i. 157), Mr. John Nicholson of Tollbridge (county of
Armagh) kindly presented a specimen shot in that neighbourhood,
to the Belfast Museum, and favoured me with the follow-
ing particulars respecting it ; — I saw this heron first, as it
flew off from the branch of a Scotch fir tree, on which it had
been resting for some time, near the side of a river. It flew
about four hundred yards, and alighted on the bank of a large
drain which fenced a plantation of osiers. I brought out a tele-
scope, and watched it nearly half an hour to try to discover its
habits. I noticed that, while at rest, walking about, or on wiog,
it invariably kept its head so low upon its body as to completely
conceal its great length of neck ; indeed it appeared to have no
neck at aU. Whilst searching for food, it stretched out its neck
at full length. I shot at and missed it. Next day a young man

* One of these, as Mr. T. W. Warren afterwards learned, was shot near Westport
(Mayo) by Mr. Gildea ; another, said to have been killed in Uueen’s-county, was pur-
chased by Mr. R. Ball, and is now in the University Museum, Dublin.

174

AEDEID^.

wounded and brought it to me, its wing and thigh-bone having
been broken with the shot. When I took it in my hands,, it
raised up its head in a threatening attitude, erecting its crest,
opening its bill and tliroat extremely wide, and at the same time
uttering a loud croak.” The bird is in the plumage of the first
year, or that of the Gardenian heron {Ardea Gardenii), as repre-
sented by Mr. Selby.

It is stated, in the Fauna of Cork,^ published in 1845, that
" a fine male, with very long white crest, was shot at Castlefreke,
a few years since, by the Eev. Joseph Stopford,” (p. 12.) As
noticed by Mr. Eobert J. Montgomery, before the Dublin Nat.
Hist. Society : — A night heron was killed on the 1st of May
1848, at Beaulieu, in the county Louth, the seat of the Eev. A.
J. Montgomery, by the Eev. Edward Groome, the rector of the
parish. It was observed for several days frequenting the reedy
margin of a piece of water in the demesne at Beaulieu, and was
at first mistaken for a bittern by my cousin, who, knowing I was
anxious for a specimen of the latter bird, in vain endeavoured to
get a shot at it. When started from the reeds it took refuge in a
tree. Mr. Groome shot twice at it before he succeeded in knocking
it down, and even then, though severely wounded, it crawled
through the weeds, and was with some difficulty captured. I
received it the same day. On dissection it proved to be a male.
While fresh, the irides were beautiful, of a colour between orange
and vermilion — the legs and feet pale lemon yeUow, of a particular
delicate hue. Mr. YarreU says they are green ; but in this case
they were of tiie colour mentioned. It measured, from the tip
of the beak to the end of the tail twenty-three and a half inches ;
from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, twelve inches. The
secondaries were spotted as in the Gardenian heron. It wanted the
white crest, but was in other respects nearly in adult plumage.”*

The night heron is a rare visitant from the south to England,
and has twice been known to migrate to Scotland — in one of
which instances a pair were kiUed.f

* This bird was briefly noticed in the Zoologist for June 1848, (p. 2147.)

t Jardine, British Birds, vol. iii. 152.

175

THE WHITE STOEK,

Common Stork.

Ciconia alhaj Brisson,

Afdea ciconia, Linn.

Has been once procured.

Mr. Yarrell having remarked, in his History of British Birds
(1843), that the stork ^^is said to have been killed in Ireland,” I
applied to him for further information, and his notes were kindly
referred to, but no authority for the statement could then be
found. The only authentic record of which I am aware is the
following subsequent one by Dr. Harvey of Cork, dated June 17,
1846 A fine specimen of the white stork (Ciconia alha, Eay)
was shot about three weeks since in the neighbourhood of Eermoy,
in the county of Cork. I am informed that three were seen ; but
this individual only was procured. It is now in the possession of
the Eev. Mr. Bradshaw of this city.” *

The specimen was afterwards added to Dr. Harvey’s collection.
One of these birds was likewise seen in the spring of 1846 near
Driffield, Yorkshire.! The stork is known only as a very rare
visitant to England, and chiefiy about the period of its migratory
movement northward in spring Scandinavia is frequented by it as
a breeding haunt. One is recorded to have been obtained on the
mainland of Scotland, and two in Shetland. J Ireland lies too far
west to be visited by this species, except on an extraordinary
occasion.

A person going direct, as I have done, from England to Holland,
and seeing numbers of storks before landing in the latter country,
is much struck with the fact of their absence from the opposite

* Ann, Nat. Hist. July 1846, (p. 70, vol. xviii.) ; and Zoologist for same month,
(p. 1395.)

t Rev. F. 0. Morris in Zoologist, (vol. iv. p. 1501.)
t Thos. M. Grant, Esq. in Yarrell’s British Birds.

176

AEDEIDiE.

coast. It is” as Mr. Selby has observed,, a remarkable instance
of the laws which direct the migrations of birds^ and confine them
within certain limits In that country^ where storks are such
general favourites, and meet with the utmost protection, our
soldiers — as I have heard from an artillery-man who was with the
British army in reducing the frontier towns after the battle of
Waterloo — got into great disgrace with the people by wantonly
shooting their favourite birds. These may indeed be occasionally
seen walking the streets with as much confidence as any burgo-
master.

As the eagle is mentally associated with the most sublime scenes
in nature, so, to the traveller at least, is the stork with the ruins
of maAs noblest works. Amid the desolation of his fallen cities
throughout the fairer parts of Europe and the classic portion of
Asia, we are sure to meet with them surmounting his temples, his
theatres, or baths. But of all the appropriate localities in which
the stork has met my eye, none — considering the filial reputation
of the bird — struck me to be so peculiarly happy as the column
dedicated to Julia Alpinula at Avouches ; its summit being chosen
by a pair for their nest in the summer of 1826. The allusion of
Byron to this column, in the 3rd Canto of Childe Harold, will be
remembered —

“ By a lone wall a lonelier column rears
A grey and grief-wom aspect of old days ;

’Tis the last remnant of the wreck of years ;

And looks as with the wild-hewilder’d gaze
Of one to stone converted hy amaze,

Yet still with consciousness ; and there it stands

Making a marvel that it not decays, '

When the coeval pride of human hands
LeveU’d Aventicum,* hath strewed her subject lands.

And there — oh ! sweet and sacred he the name ! — •

Julia — the daughter, the devoted — gave

Her youth to Heaven ; her heart, beneath a claim

Nearest to Heaven’s, broke o’er a father’s grave.

* Aventicum, near Morat, was the Roman capital of Helvetia, where Avenches
now stands.

THE WHITE STORK.

177

Justice is sworn ’gainst tears ; and hers would crave
The life she lived in ; but the judge was just,

And then she died on him she could not save.

Their tomb was simple, and without a bust.

And held within their urn one mind, one heart, one dust.”*

Had the noble poet seen the column as it was in the year 1826,
his ^ Pilgrimage^ might have been enriched with an additional
stanza.

When visiting Smyrna in the summer of 1841, I learned that
the storks, when building on the houses there, decidedly prefer
those of the Turks to the mansions of the Greeks : — a remark
which seemed fanciful, until it was explained that the former, in
their kind and amiable feeling towards the lower animals, protect
the birds, while the Greeks do not scruple to rob their nests and
otherwise annoy them.

Since the preceding was written, the subject has been alluded
to in the very interesting work on Lycia, by my friends, Lieut.
Spratt and Professor Edward Eorbes, published in 1846. It is
there remarked — The superior mildness of the climate and
advance of the season in this locality [Almalee], though elevated
4,000 feet above the sea, was indicated by the storks, several of
which birds had built their enormous nests on the house-tops in
the village. In one, the young were already fledged [May 14].
As yet, in the more northern plains, but few storks had ventured,
and none had begun to breed. Storks and swallows are almost
domesticated in Turkey, through the scrupulous care shown by
the inhabitants to preserve their nests. They are allowed to build
where they like, unmolested. * ^ The stork seldom builds

his nest far from a village, and usually selects the roof of a house

* “ Julia Alpinula, a young Aventian priestess, died soon after a vain attempt to save
her father, condenaned to death as a traitor by Aulus Csecina. Her epitaph was dis-
covered many years ago ; it is thus : — “ Julia Alpinula : Hie jaceo : Infelicis
patris infelix proles. Dese Aventise Sacerdos. Exorare patris necem non potui:
Male mori in fatis illi erat. Vixi annos xxiii.” I know of no human composition
so affecting as this, nor a history of deeper interest. These are the names and actions
which ought not to perish, and to which we turn, with a true and healthy tenderness,
from the wretched and glittering detail of a confused mass of conquests and battles,
with which the mind is roused for a time to a false and feverish sympathy, from
whence it recurs at length, with all the nausea consequent on such intoxication.”

VOL. II. N

178

ARDEIDiE.

for its site. Such, is the confidence these birds have learned to
place in the Mahomedan part of the population,, that it is not
uncommon to see every house in a Turkish village crowned with
their nests. They shun Christian habitations, for the Greeks
neither encourage nor permit them to build so near.^^ (Yol. i.

13. 282.)

The Black Stork {Ciconia nigra, is unknown as a visitant

to the island. Dr. Scouler included it in a ‘ Notice of Animals which
have disappeared from Ireland,’^ on the authority of the following
words from Giraldus : — “ Ciconim vero per totam insulam rarissimi
sunt illse nigrm.” (Top. Hib. 707.)

Four only of these birds have been recorded as obtained in Englandf
(none in Scotland) ; the first in May 1814. Although they migrate
so far northward in summer as Sweden, their line of flight is still
more easterly than that of the white stork : even Holland being very
rarely visited by them.

THE SPOONBILL.

White Spoonbill.

Platalea leueorodia, Linn.

Is a rare visitant.

The earliest note of the occurrence of this bird in Ireland, known
to me, is that of Templeton, who mentions one as having been
shot at Bally drain Lake (county of Antrim), near Belfast : the
date is not mentioned in his published paper ; but, according to an
entry made in his journal on the 17th January, 1808, it was killed
a few years before that period. Mr. E. BaU — as noticed in the
Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1834 (p. 30) — informed
me, that in the autumn of 1829 three spoonbills were seen
in company near Youghal (Cork), and one of them shot : it was
preserved by Dr. Green of that town, and was then in his pos-

* Journ. Geolog. Soc. of Dublin, vol. i. p. 227. t Yarr. B. B, 2nd ed. 1845.

THE SPOONBILL.

179

session. Since that time/ my friend learned that one or two more
of these birds had been killed in the same neighbourhood, at Dro-
mana (Waterford), and were displayed in the gamekeepers^ ont-of-
door museum along with common ^Wermin.^^ In Eebrnary 1832,
three spoonbills were shot from a flock of flve near Dingle, county
of Kerry, and one of them sent to my informant, the late Mr.
T. D. Neligan, of Tralee. Major Walker, of Belmont, Wexford,
writing to me in November 1836, remarked, that Mr. Deve-
reux, jun., of Carrickmannon, in that county, had told him of
seven spoonbills having frequented a pond at his place in the
preceding winter ; but they were so wary as never to admit of his
approach within gun-shot. A spoonbill is said to have been
killed in the winter of 1837-38 in the county of Donegal; but
not preserved.* As my excellent correspondent, Mr. Joseph
Poole, was returning from shooting on the south coast [Wexford ?]
in July 1840, with his gun unloaded, a spoonbill passed within
about ten yards of him. He afterwards saw the bird several
times in a marsh in the same neighbourhood ; but it would not
admit of a near approach. On the 26th November, 1841, a female
was shot on Eogerstowm strand, near Swords, county of Dublin :
another spoonbill was in company with it. Mr. T. W. Warren,
who informed me of its occurrence, kindly took the following
notes for my use : —

It was 3f lbs. in weight, and in every respect very large. The spoon part of the
bill was 2 inches 2 lines in breadth ; the extent of wings 4 feet. The plumage
indicated a young bird of the year, as the outer webs of the quiUs were black ; their
tips and those of the secondaries being also of that colour, which was displayed from
i of an inch to 3 inches in depth. The tail was slate-grey with the shafts of the
feathers white ; its under side being of a deeper tint than the upper. Mane-like
feathers extended from the back of the head down the neck for 4 inches. Legs
blackish-brown, lighter on the inside of the thighs, and beautifully tesselated with
hexagonal scales edged with dingy white. Its stomach was fiUed with shrimps.

On the 30th of November 1843, one was killed close to the
town of Youghai.t

About the middle of October 1844, a spoonbill was shot in the

N 2

* Mr. T. W. Warren.

t Dr. J. R. Harvey.

180

ARDETD/E.

county of Wicklow, at a little lake or pond a quarter of a mile
from the sea-shore. A common heron was beside it ; but as the
fowler approached in a boat, this bird made its escape, and
the spoonbill remaining behind was killed. Another was shot
on the 12th of November of the same year, at Killag, on the
lake of Ballyteigue, county Wexford. On August 25, 1845, I
was informed of a spoonbill having been shot recently at
Youghal ” but no further particulars were supplied. On the
8th of October the same year one was killed very near that
town, and, like the specimen obtained in November 1843, was
received in a fresh state, by Mr. S. Moss, of Youghal, who
preserved them both : he considered them to be immature from
having no yellow on the breast.” Two spoonbills were seen near
the village of Castlegregory (Kerry), in November 1846, and
one of them wounded. It came into the possession of Mr. K.
Chute, who informed me of the circumstance, and added that it is
a young bird.

The preceding notes inform us of the occurrence of the spoon-
bill in Ireland in eleven years within the present century \ and with
reference to the birds killed at Dromana no period is named. In
the successive years of 1840 and 1841, and of 1843, 1844, and
1845, the species appeared in this island. It is singular, that
vdnter should be the chief season of its visits.

Major Thomas Walker (of Belmont, Wexford), who has met
with flocks of these birds when on shooting expeditions in
Hungary, remarked, in a letter to me, written in June 1846,
that — The motions of the spoonbill are singular when a
number are standing in a line on the edge of a stream. They
keep streaking the bill sideways through the water, and the
movement is simultaneous; all the biUs being directed up the
stream at once, and all down it at the same time.”

The spoonbill has been noticed as breeding annually in England
at an early period ; but for the last century, at least, it has been
only an occasional visitant to that country. The facts brought
forward here indicate its occurrence, perhaps as often as in
England, and much more frequently than in Scotland. Sir Wil-

THE SPOONBILL.

]81

liam Jardiiie, writing in 1842^ merely referred to what had been
stated in Dr. Eleming^s History of British Animals/ published
in 1828^ where Sibbald is mentioned as having noticed the
species to be an accidental visitant to Scotland^ and as having
been received from Orkney. It is said also to have been shot
in Zetland (p. 94). Like aU the other rare birds of this family
{Ardeidce) , noticed in the preceding pages^ the one now under
consideration retires far southward to winter.

When visiting the Zoological Garden, Eegenks Park, London,
in May 1834, I was gratified by observing the affection subsisting
between a spoonbill and a black stork (Ciconia nigra). The bill
of the latter was much broken ; but its companion afforded the
use of his, and was busily engaged dressing the breast plumage,
and perhaps endeavouring to destroy the parasitical insects of the
stork. After he had performed this kind office for some time and
ceased, the stork put down his bill, and worked, as well as he could
with a broken instrument, among his feathers : tliis was a signal
for the spoonbill to renew his efforts, and he recommenced the
friendly task. Each bird having one leg drawn up all the time,
caused the whole scene to be rather comical. The operation over,
the two birds continued close together, the spoonbill figuratively
under the shadow of the stork’s wing. The latter bird is quite a
distinguished individual, having, in the words of Mr. YarreU,
stood for his portrait to illustrate the ornithological works of
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Selby, Mr. Gould, Mr. Meyer, my own, and
probably those of several others.^'’*

Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 498.

182

TANTALIDtE.

THE GLOSSY IBIS.

Ibis falcinellusj Linn, (sp.)

Tantalus ,, „

Is an occasional visitant ; chiefly late in autumn or early
in winter, when (we may presume) on its migration
southwards.

Much the greater number of those obtained are young birds of
the year. The earliest record I have seen of the occurrence of
the Ibis, is that of Templeton, who mentions one as liaving been
" shot in the bog-meadows near Belfast, on Sept. 30th, 1819.'’^
Two of these birds, killed in the county of Cork many years
ago, are stated (by Mr. W. S. Wall, bird-preserver) to have been
sent to the Museum of the Eoyal Dublin Society. In the year
1833, I was informed (by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver) that
seven had been shot in the county of Longford by Colonels
Patrickson and the late Eev. Mr. Brougham, in three different
years, and in each instance at the same season : — autumn,
most probably. One of the birds, which was but slightly wounded,
became very familiar, and was a great favourite with its owner, a
gentleman in Dublin. Another of them — killed near the town
of Longford — has come under my examination. It is in beau-
tiful adult plumage, and enriches the collection of Mr. Warren, of
Dublin, who possesses a second fine specimen of the ibis, which
was killed near Dungarvan, county of Waterford. At Dromana,
in that county, one was shot about the middle of November 1834 :
and was preserved for Sir Win. Homan.* About the end of October
and in November 1840, five ibises were sent to Mr. Glennon to
be preserved, two of which were killed at Enniscorthy (Wex-
ford), and one at Balrothery (Dublin) .f 1 subsequently saw
these last three specimens in the Museum of the Natural History

Mr, K. Ball

t Mr. T. W. Warren.

THE GLOSSY IBIS.

183

Society of Dubliii. They were shot in the month of October. In
November the fourth was procured in King^s-county. Of the
fifth, particulars were not communicated. Two others were killed
in the county of Wexford that season, and my informant states,
that in the summer of 1818, which was very warm, several were
obtained there.*

The ibis is known only as an occasional visitant to England,
though a much more frequent one than to Ireland; a single

individual is recorded to have occurred in Scotland (in Eife-

shire).f The regular line of migration of this bird towards

the north, in spring, is far to the eastward of the British Islands.

The eastern and southern parts of England are those most usually
visited, as the corresponding provinces are in Ireland. As
yet, we have no record of the occurrence of the species in
Connaught, and but one instance is known of its appearance in
Ulster.

On the 24th of April, 1841, when H.M.S. Beacon was about
ninety miles east of Sicily — Syracuse the nearest land — I observed
a flock, consisting of twelve of these birds, appear at a distance,
coming from the south-west. They flew close past the vessel,
and continued in the same course (towards the north-east) until
lost to view.

Although the bird under consideration is not the sacred ibis
(Ihis religiosa, Cuv.), it was honoured, in Egypt, by having its
body embalmed. The sacred ibis, having been killed of late
years in Greece, has now a place in the Eauna of Europe. J

* Mr. Wheelock, bird-preserver, Wexford,
t Mr, Hepburn in Yarr. Brit. Birds(1845).
t Temmiuck, Part iv. p. 392 (1840).

184

SCOLOPACID^.

THE CEELEW.

Whaap.

Nuw,enius arquata, Linn, (sp.)

Scolopax „ „

Is common around tlie coast and in marshy inland dis-
tricts throughout the year ; ^

But much less so in the breeding season than at other times.

Habits in Belfast Bay, ^c.

Of all our shore birds this is the most wary and quick-
sighted,, and of its caution we have interesting evidence almost
daily, in Belfast Bay. In an undulating sweep of the coast,, little
more than two miles from the town on the county Down shore,
named Harrison^s Bay, there is a sand-bank, far out of the range
of gun-shot from any of the fences that half-encircle it, and
wholly inaccessible to the fowler from any direction without his
approach being observed. On this bank, the curlews, before being
driven so far off their feeding-grounds by the flowing tide as to
place them witliin gun-shot of any part of the shore, assemble
day and night, and calling most vociferously to all out-liers, as if
in dread that a single straggler from their forces, until this time
widely scattered over the banks, should be left behind. The
gathering cry having done its duty, they await, in clamorous
confusion,'’^ the close approach of the tide, which having reached
them, the greater number, in a large body, followed by nearly all
the others, in smaller flocks, rise in rapid flight to a considerable
elevation, and, assuming in due time the form of a wedge in front
but with the sides of unequal length, wing their way to some

* In tlie works of Pennant, Bewick, Montagu, and Selby, tlie ciudew is mentioned
only as frequenting the sea-coast in winter ; but in Ireland the young resort to it as
soon as they can use their wings.

THE CURLEW.

185

insular rocks about the southern entrance of the bay ;* — keeping
up all the while a softly guttural concert, seemingly of congra-
tulation or affection, quite the reverse of their ordinary harsh
cry.t Here, the station being unapproachable without their cog-
nizance, they remain in perfect security until the ebbing tide has
again exposed the sandbank that they left, and just then, with
unerring certainty, they return, well knowing that their feeding-
ground, at a sufficient distance from the shore to keep them
safe from fowlers, is again uncovered. They leave this asylum of
safety — not as they started for it, in a large body, but in small
detached flocks, flying low and silently, or rarely uttering their low
guttural note. They appear consecutively over the western point
of Holywood rabbit-warren, and all hold the same course onwards
until they are again spread over the zostera-covered banks. The
period of their absence depends on whether the tides be high ”
or low two hours after their departure, I have observed them
to return. In the season when whimbrels are here, these birds
accompany the curlews in their tidal flights.

The above is their ordinary proceeding. The following note

* The first time I had evideace — circumstantial, at least — of their place of resort,
appears from the following note : —

Bangor, Sept. 10, 1835. When near Groomsport to-day, during high water, I saw
a great number of curlews, stationed on small insulated rocks adjacent to the shore.
The sight of these birds solved what had hitherto been a mystery to me, namely,
whither the curlews fly when the tide covers the oozy banks of Belfast Bay.
From the numbers which were here, this is doubtless their resort ; not one was
feeding, but all were motionlessly awaiting the falling of the waters, with their
heads turned in the same direction. I recollect, in the summer of 1833, seeing a
small rock at the Skerries, near Portrush, in like manner covered with curlews at
high water : doubtless they were remaining there for a similar reason.

t It is requisite to state, that since the above was written, a line of railway has
been carried across the little bay described. The proceedings of the curlews,
however, are still the same. On the evenings of the 15th and 16th of August, 1849,
I happened to be on the Kinnegar, near Holywood, at the time of their flying down
the bay, and was much interested by remarking — though great changes have taken
place in the locality — the entire procedure as it was a quarter of a century ago.
The first flock, consisting of about a hundred birds, appeared in the form of a semi-
circle, and was followed, after a short interval, by a similar number, broken into four
or five flocks of different size ; these, again, were followed by a few which alighted
within the inner bay of the Kinnegar. Both large and small flocks, as they advanced,
approximated to the wedge-form in front, though the two sides of the flock were, as
usual, of most unequal length.

186

SCOLOPACID^.

details some little difference. — Oct. 6, 1837. Wlien high water
was just about reaching the curlew-bank at Harrison^s Bay, six of
these birds flew over me within shot, as I was riding down
Bunker^s-hill. When they were out of sight, a single bird, which
had doubtless been feeding with them and was left behind, fol-
lowed in their wake precisely, though they could not have been
seen by it. A few minutes afterwards, the grand flock sallied
from their bank, flying, as usual, down the bay. It was beautiful
to observe them, at first in picturesque irregularity, then lengthen-
ing out to a single string or chain, and so continuing until they
disappeared from view. A small party remained behind on the
bank, and in silence, until, at the report of a swivel-gun fired at
the distance of some miles, they commenced first whaapmg gut-
turally, and then calling shrilly to each other. The smaller
waders, dunlins, &c., though silent before, now sent forth their
shrill calls, which were as Likely to have been prompted by
those of the guardian curlew as caused by their hearing the
report.'^

Sometimes, but very rarely, the tide is so low as not to reach
the curlew-bank, on which occasions the birds remain congregated
on it until the feeding-grounds they had left are once more
exposed by the ebb, and then return to them ; but from their
being easily alarmed, though without sufficient cause, they are usually
frightened away. I have noted on one occasion, that after waiting
patiently here for nearly an hour after high water, the report of a
swivel-gun at no great distance, though not within several shots
of their bank, alarmed them, and though their hour had almost
come for spreading themselves over the oozy banks, they rose, en
masse, high into the air, and took their flight towards the entrance
of the bay. Eive herons rising from the banks at the same time,
followed them in a flock.

I once observed with interest a departure from the usual pro-

* When observing large bodies of lapwings and other birds alight beside flocks of
curlews, one can hardly but think that it is done to be under their guardianship,
knowing, as different species must well do, their extreme vigilance. The smaller
gulls act similarly, by gathering about the spot where their chief, Larus marinus,
takes up his position.

THE CUHLEW.

187

cedure at high water. This was on a calm day, when a flock ~
of about forty curlews and a few herons closely associated on a
floating mass of Zostera marina — an oasis in the desert of waters
to them the curlews remained there until the tide had ebbed,
continuing all the while to utter their hoarse guttural note.

A few individuals, chiefly young birds^ which did not at-
tend the summons of their elders or wiser brethren, and take
the flights described, remained behind about the grassy margin
of the bay. Being a regular shore-shooter in my juvenile days, I
managed, when the tide was full at a particular hour, so as to
drive such birds within reach of the fences beliind which I was
concealed, to make them my victims. With perhaps a savage
pleasure I delighted in such spoils above all others, not only
because the curlew is the largest of our edible ^^waders,^^ but
from a feeling, of satisfaction that the fallen should never again,
by their alarm-note, fright the smaller species from permitting
my approach near enough to slay them. In this respect the
curlew is the Marplot of the sportsman."^ Professor Wilson
has inimitably described the boyish feeling when in pursuit
of the curlew : — At first sight of his long bill aloft above
the rushes, we could hear our heart beating quick time in the
desert ; at the turniag of his neck, the body being yet still, oui-
heart ceased to beat altogether — and we grew sick with hope
when near enough to see the wild beauty of his eye!’^ The words
marked in italics show the acuteness of observation in the author,
as admirably as the language does his power to wreak his
thoughts upon expression."’^ The ease with which the neck is
turned whilst the body remains motionless is very interesting
to witness. In the expression or wild beauty of his eye,^^ not
one of our birds can for a moment bear comparison with the
curlew.

* The greatest numbers of curlews that I have heard of being obtained on the
coast at one shot from a shoulder-gun were twenty and twenty -three : the former
killed in Cork harbour ; the latter (by night) at the block-house, Carlingford Lough.

On the 27th Nov. 1845, eleven curlews, one oyster-catcher, six knots, twelve red-
shanks, and about thirty dunlins were procured by one discharge of a swivel-gun in
Belfast Bay.

t ‘ Recreations of Christopher North,’ vol. i. p. 52, and vol. ii. p. 242.

188

SCOLOPACIDJi.

In dark and stormy nights curlews are unwilling to undertake
the flight described, and seek the sheltered creek within the
Kinnegar of Holywood. When lying in w^ait for them here, at
such times, I have remarked them come and alight with silence,
their distrust being at the same time evinced by the slightest
noise, — as the snapping of a gun, — driving them away.

With reference to the cautious fear manifested by the curlew,
it may be added, that once, on a calm bright day, I observed four
of these birds alight during high water at the edge of the tide,
where they were out of range of shot from the shore ; but, being
alarmed, though without cause, they flew out and alighted in the
water, where it was so deep that their legs were entirely concealed
from view : had I not seen them on wing and alighting, they
would have passed for Natatores. Of the caution (?) of the
curlew we have an amusing instance in the bird kept by Colonel
Montagu. After selecting the worms from the bread-and-milk,
in which they were served up to induce the captive to partake
of the latter food also, it carried all off to the pond, and washed
them well, before venturing to swallow any.

Mr. Selby, in his ^ Illustrations of British Ornithology,^ and
Sir Wm. Jardine, in a note to his edition of WilsoAs ^American
Ornithology,^ have each, from his own observation — and in terms
manifesting an ardent love of nature — dwelt upon the instinct of
the curlew ; but in both works it is the flight from the sea to
inland stations, not to marine rocky islets, that is mentioned.
In neither work is there any difference alluded to, as in the pre-
ceding instances, on the different manuer of the birds going to and
returning from the sea. By the latter author it is observed, that
they fly in a direct line to their feeding-grounds ; but in Belfast
Bay, though the distance would be much shorter over laud, their
going and returning flights are invariably above the sea. On the
opposite side of the bay, however, where the highly improved
farms of some of the gentry present enclosures so large that the
centre of them is beyond the reach of gun-shot from any fence,
the curlew resorts, preferring meadow or pasture land, and re-
maining, as on the marine islets, just so long as the tide may
be in receding from their feeding-quarters in the estuary. In

THE CURLEW.

189

their silent return over the lofty trees which border the bay, we
witness their most interesting placid flight, when the wing is kept
at full stretch, but motionless, except an occasional beat for the
onward impetus. What a graceful skim through the air they
take before alighting ! presenting such a contrast to the wild
upturning flight and harshly reverberating cry, which makes the
welkin ring, as we come suddenly upon them in the far retired
and crater-like hollows of the mountains.

Sept, 11, 1839. — I have often remarked, as I did to-day, dif-
ferent species of our Grallatores, — curlews, redshanks, knots,
dunlins, &c. — when disturbed by being perseveringly fired at,
take to the air, and call with all their might, as if to summon every
individual of their species within hearing ; then mounting high
into the atmosphere, and continuing to call so long as within audible
distance, they betook themselves in the direction of Strangford
Lough. Thither do they also go when a very high spring tide
covers the whole beach, so as to leave them no resting-place from
their enemy — man. It is not because their feeding- ground is
entirely covered that they thus depart ; for the same species,
with the exception of the curlews and whimbrels, are content to
await, close at hand, the falling of ordinary tides. The dunlins,
ring dotterels, and redshanks, taking up their quarters within
Thomson's embankment ; herons and curlews (in part) in the
large fields of Tort-William, Parkmount, &c. ; and all these (ex-
cept the herons), with other species, may be seen on the slightly
raised promontories or jutting-points of Holywood rabbit-warren.
During high water is their time of rest, as I have often, on such
occasions, been much pleased by witnessing their varied attitudes
of repose. All, however, do not close their eyes ; for, as in the
case of bipeds of a different order ^

“ Some must watch while others sleep ;

Thus — runs the world away !”

Its Food. — The curlew is considered by shooters both a night

190

SCOLOPACID^.

and day-feeder. On examination of the stomachs of six birds,
killed in different months, two were found to contain the remains
of worms, and one, of vegetable matter in addition to them ; a third
was filled with insect larvae ; a fourth contained the fragment of a
cockle and some sand ; a fifth was filled with the remains of crabs
which could not have been less than an inch and a half across the
carapace, or body ; the sixth was half filled with pebbles, some of
which were one-third of an inch in diameter. A fowler once re-
marked to me, that he had seen crabs of so large a size in the
curlew that it was a marveh^ to him how the bird could swallow
them. The curlew (according to Mr. Poole) is sometimes very
much infested with intestinal worms, which, in some cases, literally
cover the folds of the viscera and the parietes of the abdomen.^^
I have noticed that the bill of this species is a longer time attain-
ing its full dimensions — about six inches — than the body is,
its full size.

Variety in Colour, — white curlew, shot by Mr. David Stewart,
in the winter of 1848, on his farm at Tulnakill, near Ardmillan,
on the shore of Strangford Lough, was (tlirough the kind at-
tention of Mr. Caughey of the latter place) forwarded to Belfast
for my examination. It is an adult bird of full size ; bill, nearly
five inches long from rictus to point, &c. It would be called
wholly white, as there is not a dark spot or marking in its entire
plumage. The whitish colour which prevails throughout, how-
ever, is not pure. A very faint brownish-white hue appears in
front and on one side of the neck and breast, as well as on the
central portion of the dorsal plumage : the quills near the shafts
are likewise of this colour. All the rest is white, of a very pale
cream-coloured tinge. The bill is whitish horn-colour : one tar-
sus is of the ordinary hue, the other lighter; but both would
doubtless have become whitish had the bird been permitted to
live long enough. This curlew had been observed occasionally,
during two years, in the district in which it was kiUed. It was
then in company with several others of its species.

Breeding-places. — The curlew breeds only in the least frequented
boggy tracts. In the county of Antrim, it is believed to do so in

THE CURLEW.

191

the wild district of the Glens^ within a few miles of CushendaU.
When at Toome, in August 1846, a boatman who rowed us to
Church Island, in Lough Beg, stated that he had been told of its
having nests in the islands, &c., about there; — in all respects very
favourable sites for them. The gamekeeper of Mr. Stewart, of
the Horn (Donegal), has seen their eggs and 3^oung in the bogs
of that remote district ; and I had confirmation of their breeding
in a tract about seven miles south-west of Dunfanaghy, by two
young birds of the year being brought to me thence on the 26th
June, 1832, on the morning of which day they were shot. These
birds were about the size of whimbrels ; they are stated also to
breed in the district of Ennishowen, and in the wilder parts of the
county Monaghan. I am not aware whether the chain of moun-
tains in Sligo, called the Curlews, has reference to the bird or not.
According to Mr. G. Jackson (gamekeeper), curlews bred very
commonly in some localities every year that he lived in Connaught
(from about 1829-1839). He used to find from ten to twenty
nests each season, in the extensive flat bogs lying between the
towns of Swineford and Ballaghaderren, in the county of Mayo ;
and Castlerea and Erenchpark, in the county of Eoscommon.
He never found the nest (so called), which is a mere hollow on
some dry tussock, in any elevated place, and does not recol-
lect ever seeing one contain more than four eggs. He more fre-
quently found the young than the nest ; and generally, when train-
ing young pointers, after the young grouse could fly well, in the
latter part of July and beginning of August. June and July is
the principal time of the birds^ breeding there.

Major Higginson states that curlews continue, to the present
time, to breed in considerable numbers in a large bog near his
residence in King^s-county. He is in the habit of exercising his
horses in a field which adjoins the bog ; and, when there in the
breeding season, the curlews fly close to him, and are very clamor-
ous, in the same manner as peewits.*

The curlew breeds in considerable numbers on the bog of Allen,

* Mr. J. R. Garrett, June 1848.

192

SCOLOPACIDiE.

whence the eggs were, several years, brought to Mr. E. Davis,
jun., of Clonmel ; it lays there about the 20tli of April. A nest
containing young birds was observed on a mountain about twelve
miles from Tralee, in or before 1837.* Mr. E. Chute (writing
in March 1846) reported three nests to have been discovered one
day in a small retired bog at Caragh Lake, in the same county ;
and that he had often seen the birds in summer, on the boggy
mountains of Kerry, though he had never found their nests.

Although the curlew thus breeds in various parts of the coun-
try— and in many more places than those named it must do so —
the native-bred birds, in my opinion, form a very small portion of
the multitudes which frequent our shores. The only notes before
me, which bear upon the species congregating for departure north-
ward, relate to the unusual circumstance, that on the 9th of May,
1832, an immense flock was seen in a field adjoining the southern
shore of Belfast Bay ; and that, on the 19th of the same month,
a flock of about a hundred was observed in a wheat-field on the
opposite shore. At this period, our native birds are chiefly in their
breeding haunts.

To some sporting friends, curlews have been known, for the
last twenty years, to breed annually in numbers on the mountains
above Ballantrae, in Ayrshire. On the 12th of August, 1839, I
myself saw a number of young birds about their breeding haunts
there ; but did not hear, from either young or old, the alarm-cry
or whaap, though both were calling a good deal in their other
note — courlieu, which, on the wild moor, is sweetly pleasing to
the ear. Curlews breed in quantity in the mountain tracts, ten
to fifteen miles farther inland, though these cannot be called
retired.’’^ Here their eggs are much sought after, and carried off ;
and the young frequently fall victims; their height rendering
them such conspicuous objects, that they can with little difficulty
be discovered. An ornithologist, under whose notice they came,
at the end of April 1844, on the hills above BaUochmorrie, where
they were breeding, remarked to me how very different were their

* Mr. T. F. Neligan.

THE CUELEW.

193

call and their flight, from what they usually are. They rose,
with quickly repeated beats of the wing, high into the air, and
repeated their soft note, courlieu, courlieu. Two other calls may
now occasionally be heard — the well-known whaa'p, and another
which sounds like wlieeaou, whee~ou. When in the island of
Islay, in 1849, I could not learn that the curlew bred there ;
but it was said to do so annually in Jura. The habits, &c., of the
species at this period will be found very fully and picturesquely
described by Sir Wm. Jardine, in a note to his edition of Wilsoids
^American Ornithology^ (vol. hi. p. 44).

Mr. Hewitson observes : — Whilst in Norway, we were much
amused with what appeared to us to be quite a new and unnoticed
habit amongst the Grallatores, or Wading-birds. * * * We

found it to be a practice by no means uncommon with the red-
shank and the greenshank, to settle upon trees ; and what sur-
prised us more than all, was to see the long-legged curlew alight,
as it frequently did, on the top of the highest trees of the pine-
forest, and to hear it, as it passed from tree to tree, utter its loud
clear whistle."’^'^ Mr. Geo. Matthews informed me, on his return
from Norway, that curlews were common during summer, and
generally in pairs, about Trondjeim, where they were usually seen
perched on the tops of the cabins of the peasantry.

Mights hy Night. — By night, throughout the month of June,
as well as in the day-time, the call of the curlew is heard over
the town of Belfast ; at which period, old birds, accompanied
by their young, fly to the bay, and from it again, in a southerly
direction, probably to their nesting-places. Towards the end of
this month, some flocks have taken up their quarters in Belfast
Bay after the breeding season ; and in Strangford Lough I have
remarked them at the same period. But in spring and autumn
also, curlews may be heard calling at night when flying over the
town. On the 10th and 11th of March, 1834, they were noted
as heard loudly calling about twelve o'* clock, as they had been
several times at an earlier hour during the preceding two weeks.

* Eggs, Brit. Birds, p. 286.

VOL. II.

O

194

SCOLOPACIDtE.

although the nights were dark. They were likewise heard on the
22nd of the same month in 1843, and on the 13th in 1844 : on
the latter occasion, from midnight until four o^ clock in the morn-
ing ; on the next evening they commenced so early as soon after
nine o^ clock. In the following year, they first attracted attention
in this manner, on the 28th of February. A similar habit pre-
vails during the months of July and August. These flights are
taken in dark as well as moonlight nights, and in every state of
the tide. In the silence of a fine starry night, when nought else
is heard, the cry of the curlew, consisting both of the simple and
the long-drawn tremulous whistle, uttered from a great height in
the air, has a very fine effect. The calling and answering of these
birds by night, is often heard over the city of Dublin."^

Name, -Whaap is, in Ireland, as elsewhere, the name be-
stowed on tliis bird by the peasantry, — and I have always considered,
on account of its being the nearest approach in sound to the alarm-
cry of the bird. Mr. Yarrell, however, observes, on this subject.
Throughout Scotland and its isles, the curlew is called a whaap,
or whaup, which, in JamiesoAs Scottish Dictionary, is said to be
a name for a goblin, supposed to go about under the eaves of
houses after night-fall, having a long beak. Sir Walter Scott
refers to this supposed connexion of a long beak with a suspicious
character in his ‘'Black Dwarf'’ (chap, ii.), in a dialogue between
Hobbie Elliott and Earns-cliff, in the evening on Mucklestane
Moor : the former says, ^ What need I care for the Mucklestane
Moor ony mair than ye do yoursel, Earns-cliff ? to be sure they
say there^’s a sort o^ worricows and lang-nebbit things about the
land, but what need I care for them and this enables us to
understand the fag end of a highlander’s prayer, to be saved harm-
less ‘'from witches, warlocks, and aw lang-nebbed things.'”'’ f I
should, however, imagine it quite as probable that the ^Mang-
nebbit things” derived the honour of their euphonious patronymic,
Whaap, from the curlew, as the bird does its more polite name,
from another of its calls.

* Mr. R. Ball.

t Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 512.

THE CUELEW.

195

The cry of the curlew is by far the loudest uttered by any
of our graUatorial birds. It will perhaps be scarcely credited
that it can be heard at the distance of nearly three English miles ;
yeb under peculiar circumstances,, such is the case. I have heard
it so on calm moonlight nights,, when, at the extremity of the bay
at Holywood warren, awaiting the flight of these birds from Har-
rison^’s Bay and Conswater, whence the flowing tide would drive
them from particular banks respectively about two and three
miles distant from my station. The caU from the first-named
locality sounded quite near, and from the latter distinct, though
much more faintly ; the state of the tide at the time evincing,
with certainty, that all the banks, except the two alluded to, were
covered too deeply with water for the birds to be on them. The
shore-shooters are well aware of this circumstance.^

As remarked in St. John'’s ^ Egypt — ^^The Arabs are an
inventive and poetical people. They know, after their fashion,
how to explain everything. Even the cry of the curlew, which
they call Karrawan, has, they say, a solemn meaning when trans-
lated into human language. Impressed with a due sense of the
power and majesty of the Creator, this bird, in its solitary flight
among the rocks, thus addresses the Deity : — Lah^ lak, lak, la
shariah Kalak, fiT mulk ; that is, To thee, to thee, to thee
belongs the sovereignty of the world, without partner or com-
panion (vol. i. p. 314.)

* Respecting the distance from which we may hear birds, the Rev. L. Jenyns
remarks: — “I have at such times [the air still and frosty] distinctly heard two
cocks calling to one another from two different homesteads, situate a mile and a half
or more apart.” (Observations in Nat. Hist., p. 170.)

Mr. Blackwall, too, has observed that the hooting of the tawny owl may be heard
to the distance of a mile, or even two miles, under very favourable circumstances.
(Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. xv. p. 167.)

196

SCOLOPACID^E.

THE WHIMBREL.

May Curlew ; May Whaap ; May-bird^ or May-fowl ;

Jack Curlew ; Stone Curlew.

Numenius Linn, (sp.)

Scolopax „ ,,

Is conimoii, especially wlien moving northward in its
vernal migration.

This is the only one of the Scolopacidoe that can be characterized,
in general terms (exceptions there must surely be), as a bird of
double passage only,= — visiting us merely on migration to and
from its breeding haunts. Doubtless it may at least occasionally
be met with, in winter, on some parts of the coast, more particu-
larly southward ; but my correspondents, in all quarters of the
island, mention the species either as a spring, or as a spring
and autumnal visitant. In the month of April or May, it appears
in large flocks along the line of the eastern coast, — -on that of
Wexford, Dublin, Louth, Down, Antrim, &c. As the whimbrei
is not found to the westward of Ireland within the latitude of
tliis island, it is interesting to know that these migratory bodies
move as regularly along the western as the eastern coast. Thus,
they are very common, in April and May, near Tralee, in
Kerry ; appear in large flocks about Roundstone, on the
Galway coast, in May, and remain during that month, where they

* By the shooters in Belfast Bay (one of whom speaks from the experience of
above half a century), this bird was never seen in winter. On the Dublin coast, and
in Cork harbour, it is said merely to appear in spring and autumn. With respect
to Great Britain, however, Mr. Selby remarks that “ these birds are found upon
most of our shores during the winter * * * rarely associated in companies of
more than five or six in number” (vol. ii. p. 66). Mr. Yarrell observes, although
this bird is “ to he seen occasionally on many parts of our shores in winter, it is
generally most plentiful in May, and again in autumn * * * on the way to and
from the northern localities, &c.” (vol. ii. p. 517).

-{■ The late Mr. T. F. Neligan.

THE WHIMBREL.

197

are unknown at other times the same is reported of them
on the coast of Donegal. They likewise take an inland course of
flighty appearings among other placeSs at the marshes below" KillaloCs
on the Shannon, every spring,t and in the high moory ground
about Lough Conn, in Mayo.J Their popular name everywhere
has the word May connected with it — as May-bird, May-fowl, &c.
— ^in consequence of their appearance in that month. A popular
error exists in some places, that they are the young of the curlew.
This has arisen, not merely from the general resemblance of the
species, and the whimbrel being always much the smaller of the
two, but from its being also so much easier of access than the
other, believed to be its parent. On the arrival of the flocks in
spring, they are often very tame, and may be openly approached
within gun-shot ; but persecution soon renders them wild.

Notes kept of the arrival of the whimbrel in Belfast Bay, for
many years, announce its earliest appearance on the 10th of April
(in 1843) ; and the next earliest on the 22nd of that month (in
1838 and 1845). It remains generally from about fom: to six
weeks. Some were seen so late as the 18th of June in 1843
(the year of their earliest arrival), and in the following year, until
the 14th of that month.

They re-appear very soon after the breeding season, having been
observed every year, from 1839 to 1848 inclusive, in July, gene-
rally about the middle, but in 1845 and 1848 early in the
month. II The numbers gradually increase from the time of their
being first seen. During August they are most numerous in the
bay, whence they are chiefly gone by the end of September.
They return in autumn, along the line of the eastern coast, to-
wards their winter haunts, in much smaller quantity than they
went forth in spring, not more than about one being seen in some
years at the former, for ten at the latter, season : an ordinary flock
wnll consist of thirty in the spring and of three in the autumn.
The relative number on the entire coast will not, perhaps, be much

* The late Mr. John Nimmo, jun. f Rev. T. Knox. | Mr. B. Ball.

11 On the 1st of August they have been shot at Dungarvan on the southern coast.

198

SCOLOPACID^.

above this proportion. In Cork harbour, whimbrels are said
to appear in considerable flocks in spring ; but a few only to be
seen in autuinn."^ My correspondents do not mention this
bird as visiting the western coasts at the latter season ; but its
numbers are now so small where they do appear, that they might
pass unobserved, though in spring the large flocks are conspicu-
ous on the shores.t

Not only is the whimbrel, as already remarked, the only bird
among our Scolopacidce of regular double passage, but it differs
from aU the other species of the family in the much fewer num-
bers appearing daring the autumnal than the vernal migration.
Its course of flight, too, both in spring and autumn, differs from
that of its congeners.

In spring, whimbrels, probably for want of company — no god-
wits, &c. being here — keep generally by themselves,^^ and as
such, are literally a host but in autumn, they exhibit a very
sociable disposition, and are frequently to be found in company
with curlews — with godwits, too, they not uncommonly associate : I
have obtained both species at the same shot. At this time they
accompany the curlew in its prudential flights, as detailed in
treating of that bird, and under a safer guardian the most
trustworthy of friends could not place them. Never when under
the surveillance of the curlew, but only when trusting to them-
selves, have wliimbrels fallen to my gun. Like that bird, they
fly much about during the autumnal nights, be these dark or
moonlight ; but they prefer the latter. They may always be dis-
tinguished from other species by the cry, resembling in sound the
word titterel ; — the provincial name applied to them in Sussex. J
They fly from the sea inland, as well as in the opposite direction,
and take both courses during every state of the tide ; hence we
may consider that they are night-feeding birds.

* Mr, Wm. Crawford.

t In the island of Islay, Scotland, the whimbrel is annually seen on its spring
passage northward ; but has not been observed at any other season by my informant.

t Knox, ‘ Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,’ p. 8.

THE WHIMBREL.

199

The whimbrel when unassociated with other species is generally
easy of access; but the late Mr. T. T. Neligan, having shot
several in the months of April and May 1837^ near Tralee,
remarked that the flocks were very watchful, one or two of the
party being always stationed as sentinels on an adjoining height
while the others were feeding. Those killed by him were found
full to the throat with Crustacea. In Belfast Bay, I have met with
this species on the oozy banks, the gravelly beach, and on rocks ;
but an intelligent shooter, of greater experience than myself,
states, that it is very partial to the grassy margin of the beach,
and to the fields bordering the coast, especially in wet weather.
A veteran sportsman, too, informs me, that many years ago, when
the neighbourhood of Belfast was not a populous district as at
present, the upland pastures were the usual resort of this bird,
where it appeared in' great flocks in spring. Within my own
experience it has not occurred in such localities ; but the low-
lying meadows or pastures — such as the bog-meadows — are
still occasionally visited during the spring migration, by large
flocks. The last I heard of there was a flock of about a hundred
birds that frequented them during the first week of May 1815 ;
during which much rain fell daily in heavy showers. They ap-
peared as often in the neighbouring oat-fields as in the pasture.
A juvenile friend went in pursuit of them, when one of the birds,
a little apart from the others, flew towards, and made a stoop at,
his dog, until within about a yard of his head, on rising from
which it was fired at and killed ; it proved to be in very fine
condition.

The whimbrel, like others of its tribe, differs much in size. A
very fine specimen, shot in Belfast Bay in September 1834, which

I had preserved, was in —

Inch. Line.

Length, total (stuffed) 18 6

of bill from forehead to point .... 4 0

from rictus to point .... 4 3

wing from carpus to end of quills . . .10 2

tarsus ....... 2 8

middle toe and nail ..... 1 9

200

SCOLOPAClDiE.

Inch. Line.

Length of hind toe and nail - 8

Tibia bare for . . 11

Another bird, being weighed, was 15 oz.

Over Great Britain generally, as well as Ireland, the whimbrel
moves northward on its vernal migration, in large flocks. It
is found in summer extensively throughout the most noilhern
parts of Europe. In the Orkney Islands, it is said to breed
as commonly as the curlew; but to remain no longer than
is necessary to rear its young.* It was seen in great numbers in
many places along the coast of Norway, but especially about
Trondjeim (Drontheim), during the summer of 1813, by my late
friend, Mr. G. Matthews, to whom and his companions it proved,
annoying by enticing the dogs away when grouse were sought for»

THE SPOTTED REDSHANK.

Dusky Sandpiper.

Totanus fuscusy Linn, (sp.)

Scolojjax fusca, „

Is an extremely rare visitant.

The following notice of a single individual contains all that can
be positively stated of this species as an Irish bird. A brief com-
munication respecting it was made to the first volume of the ^ An-
nals of Natural History^ (p. 157).

When a very young sportsman, and out shooting in Holywood
rabbit-warren, bordering Belfast Bay, on the morning of the 22nd
of August, 1823, I perceived at a distance a solitary bird, whose
call resembled that of the redshank, but was somewhat different,
winging its way over the sea towards Belfast. To my surprise
and delight, however, the stranger made a sudden turn and

* Dunn, 'Ornithological Guide to Orkney and Shetland,’ p. 85.

THE SPOTTED REDSHANK.

201

alighted on the beach at a short distance^ which was scarcely done^
until it became my victim. Immediately on lifting the bird,,
though I had never seen one before^ I knew it to be the spotted
redshank from recollection of BewicFs beautiful figure of that
species. It was admirably killed for being stuffed^ not a speck
of blood being on any part of its plumage, or a wound anywhere
visible. To prevent the possibility of its plumage being even
ruffled from contact with my pocket, the bird was carried in my
hand, and when I reached home, was most carefully (as I
believed) laid aside, preparatory to my absence for a few hours.
Alas ! however, on my return, the beauteous prize was missing,
but was eventually discovered ; — served up at the dinner-table, in
company with a curlew and other vulgar denizens of the shore.
My boyish mortification may easily be imagined, as my good for-
tune in having obtained so fine a specimen of a bird never before
known to visit the Irish coast had been the all-engrossing thought
of the day.

An observant shore-shooter, who killed 108 redshanks at
a shot from his swivel-gun, in Belfast Bay, early in Sept. 1846,
remarked one of them to be not only different from all the rest,
but to be of a species which he had never before seen. There
can be little doubt, from his description, that it was a spotted red-
shank. Wm. Crawford, Esq., of Lakelands, near Cork, who
shoots much on the water, is certain of having occasionally
met with tliis bird, but has not preserved a specimen.*

There can be no doubt of its occurrence more frequently than
we are aware of, though not coming under the eye of the naturalist.
The species having apparently visited Cornwall as frequently as any
other part of England, we should expect to meet with it more
particularly in the south of Ireland, It is oidy a rare or occa-
sional visitant to that country, and cliiefly to the southern and
eastern counties. Its occurrence in Scotland was unknown to
Mr. Macgillivray ; but Sir Wm. Jardine has seen two individuals
which were shot at the same time in the Eritli of Eorth.t On the

* Dr. J. 11. Harvey, 1848.

t rit. Birds, iii. 201.

202

SCOLOPACID^.

European continent, the spotted redshank annually migrates to
the far north — within the arctic circle — to breed. It does not
seem to be met with anywhere in abundance, like the common
species, Totanus calidris. I have seen one which was killed in the
neighbourhood of Eome.

' THE EEDSHANK.

Totanus calidris, Linn, (sp.)

Scolopax „ „

Is common around the coast : a small proportion only of
those seen during autumn and winter breed in the
island.

This bird appears to be much more numerous around the shores
of Ireland than those of Great Britain, judging from the state-
ments of authors in the latter island respecting it. Bewick
remarks : — “ This species is of a solitary character, being mostly
seen alone or in pairs only — Montagu, that it is not an un-
common bird upon many of our shores in winter — Eleming,
that it leads a sohtary life on the sea-shore during winter —
Selby, that during the winter the redshank is found upon the
sea-coast, and about the mouths of rivers, in small flocks — and
Yarrell, that a few redshanks are sometimes met with during the
; winter season, but the most of them migrate.’’^

Even in the north of Ireland they are very numerous during
winter, in all kinds of weather, though autumn is the season of
their greatest profusion. Oozy shores, such as are covered by
the Zostera marina, seem to be preferred, which may possibly be
at least one reason of the great abundance of redshanks on the
Irish coast, where there are so many bays of this description.
But they are by no means limited to such localities. There is

British Animals, p. 103.

THE REDSHANK.

203

considerable variety in the nature of the estuaries and loughs of
Antrim and Down, Dublin Bay, Wexford and Cork harbours,
the bays of Kerry and Connemara, &c., which all exhibit the
speeies in very great numbers. Even to the low and jagged rocky
shore, when exposed by the fallen tide, these birds are partial, —
minute Crustacea, and other objects which constitute their food,
being plentiful in such places. Although large flocks have not been
observed by the shooters to feed by night, small numbers have
occasionally been seen to do so. The examination of the contents
of the stomach of several redshanks, killed at different times in
autumn and winter, in Belfast Bay, proved that small Crustacea
constitute their chief food : some sluimps, of tolerably large size,
were observed in them ; one stomach, on being cut into, was so
filled with crustacean remains as to give forth strongly the per-
fume of boiled crab or lobster. A few minute univalve shells, as
Lacuna quadrifasciata, &c., had also been picked up.

This species appears in flocks in Belfast Bay early after the breed-
ing season : on the 18th of July the young birds have been shot,
and occasionally, though rarely, great nmnbers have arrived before
the end of the month. Erom this period, or the middle of
August, until late in spring — on the 1st of May, 1849, a flock of
about a hundred was seen — they remain without any diminution of
their numbers, except what may be killed, and they are too wary
to admit of any great sacrifice in this manner, at least with the
ordinary gun. The most I have heard of being killed with it
at one shot were twenty-five, along with which a greenshank and
two ash-coloured sandpipers fell. But the swivel-gun sometimes
makes awful havoc among them. As noticed under the last species,
108 were killed at one shot early in September 1846, and a day or
two previously 112 fell at a single discharge. I have often, like
my correspondent, Mr. Poole, observed that the redshank appears
to sympathize very much with wounded companions. A flock
(to use his words) out of which I shot four this morning,
as soon as they perceived their brethren strewed upon the water,
wheeled round towards them repeatedly, uttering the most
piercing and vociferous cries, and seeming determined to lend

204

SCOLOPACIDiE.

every assistance in their power/^ When the flowing tide puts
them off their feeding-ground, rather than be driven within shot
of any ambush on the shore, they adopt the curlew^s custom — -
as particularly detailed in treating of that species — of retiring to
rocky marine islets, several miles distant, about the entrance of
the bay. Thither they follow the “ flights of that cautious bird ;
stationed a little apart from which, I have seen several hundreds
congregated, patiently awaiting the falling of the tide. When
much disturbed, at such times, they likewise betake themselves to
the comparative solitude of Strangford Lough. To see a flock of
not less than a thousand spring direct from the beach high into
the air until they attain the elevation of the intervening range of
hills which have to be crossed, and then, in rapid flight, bear
straight onwards to Strangford, is an interesting and beautiful
sight. During a few years of late, these flights were taken less
frequently than before, the birds having discovered a tract of
good feeding-ground, about two miles in length, on the Antrim
side of the bay, bounded by a public road, which rendered it a
kind of preserve, as no shooting was permitted. They remained
there daily in great numbers, about the time of high water, for
eight months of the year. A railway embankment has since been
thrown up between the sea and this tract, and corn now waves
over a considerable portion of it, where the redshanks and allied
species so lately appeared in countless myriads. When spring-
tides encroach on their territory, it is interesting to see them
flocked on little floating masses of Zoster a. To keep their

enemies at a respectful distance, they wdll sometimes alight in
water of such a depth that the entire legs are concealed and the
under plumage wetted. It was comical, on one occasion, to see
a redshank resting for a time on the top of a single plant of the
bladder sea- wrack {Fucus vesiculosus) , which rose to the surface
from deep-water, and did not yield beneath the bird^s weight.

Ledshanks are well known to dive when wounded. They
have frequently been observed in Belfast Bay, when feeding and
getting gradually into water too deep for wading, to swim across
where the distance was short, rather than rise and fly. They

THE REDSHANK.

205

often alight on the sea where it is deep ; but to the surprise
of a shooter here^ on one occasion (November 20, 1847), tliree of
them appeared swimming about and busily feeding on the surface
of water about eight feet in depth. Prom their turning quickly
about in all directions, he at first imagined they might be grey
phalaropes, or some rare birds ; but on his approach, they gave
forth the well-known cry of the redshank, and he saw, as they
took wing, that they were of this species. A redshank, pursued
by a hawk, here, was observed by two men fishing, to fly direct
for the boat in which they were, as if for safety, and when within
about two yards of them, it dived completely under water six or
seven times, so often as the hawk made a stoop. At length, the
bird betook itself to the air, and was probably captured, as the
hawk was gaining on it when they both disappeared from the
sight of the fishermen.

What may seem timidity or fear on the part of the redshank,
should rather be attributed to restlessness of disposition. It is
in this respect on the shore what the blackbird is in the thicket.
Its varied action on the ground is very pleasing, and the nodding
of the head is often quite grotesque; indeed, at Eoundstone,
Connemara, where the bird is numerous, it is commonly known
by the name of s/iake,'^ on account of this habit. The restless-
ness of the redshank is manifest even on the wing, for not more
than a moment does a flock present the same appearance. It is
now a round ball, next instant shoots out like a sky-rocket,
appears in single file, and, after assuming every imaginable form,
perhaps rolls itself into a ball again ; the whole being done with
equal rapidity and grace, whether it rises high into the air, or
sweeps the surface of the sea.

Every month in the year the redshank may be seen about our
shores, though in the breeding season not more than one will be
met with for a hundred at other times. Little flocks, as well as
single birds and pairs, occur on the coast in the height of summer.
On the 1 3th of June, 1832, when visiting the Mew Island,

* The late Mr. John Nimmo.

206

SCOLOPACIDiE.

a low tabular rock outside the southern entrance to Belfast
Bay_, annually resorted to by great numbers of terns (Sterna
arctica, S. Jiirundo, S. Bougallii), for the purpose of breeding,
a flock of seven or eight redshanks, betra3ung great consternation,
flew frequently around us, never approaching nearer than about
seventy yards ; just before they appeared, a single bird for
some time kept circling above us at the same distance, ringing
its shrill notes upon our ears, and from its apparent uneasiness we
concluded that its nest could not be far off. When upon the island,
on the 24th of June in the following year, a similar part was played
by a small flock of these birds, and but for their being congre-
gated, I should have supposed they had nests in the locality ; — even
so they may have had, and their fears at our approach may have tem-
porarily banded them together. In the same manner, I saw flocks
of them on the 20th and 21st of June, 1832, about some of the
low rocky islets in Strangford Lough. Our boatmen, who,
earning their livelihood chiefly by fishing and shooting, knew
much about birds, stated that redshanks breed on some of the
islands every year, where they find their nests. These are said
to be on the gravelly or shingly beach, like those of the ring
dotterel, and to contain three or four eggs, which they correctly
described as to size and colour.

When visiting a different part of this lough, on the 22nd
of June, 1846, we saw a small flock of redshanks, and our
boatmen assured us that they breed on the islands, placing
their nest high up on the shingle, between tide-mark and the
grassy margin. The men have often found their eggs, respecting
which they could not be mistaken, as the birds were seen rising
from the nests. In localities of a similar nature about Achil Beg
and Galway Bay, small flocks and single birds were seen by us at
the end of June and beginning of July, 1834. They breed on
the Dublin coast at Donabate, where their eggs have been pro-
cured,* and in islands and marshes embanked off the sea, on the
coast of Donegal.f

* Mr. K,. J. Montgomery.

t Mr. J. V. Stewart.

THE EEDSHANK.

207

With respect to inland locaKties_,—a gentleman observed a pair
of redshanks on the 11th of May, 1845, in a swamp near Killa-
gan, about half-way between Ballymena and Ballymoney (Antrim),
and from the manner in which they flew at his dogs, he had no
doubt of their having a nest near the spot. In the Bog of Allen,
and near Monntainstown, county of Meath, they breed ; — as numbers
do annually in moory swamps about Lough Conn, and on the banks
of the river Mayo, in the county of that name."^ Mr. G, Jack-
son (gamekeeper) has seen them about all the lakes and rivers
he is acquainted with in Connaught ; — the upper Shannon and
the tributaries of that river in the county of Eoscommon — the
river Suck and the Moy in Mayo — also at Lough Gara, near the
town of Boyle."’^ He saw ^‘^more or less of the young every
year, from 1828 to 1840, particularly when fishing on the river
Lung, the principal tributary to Lough Gara."’"’ I observed
several redshanks on the banks of the river Shannon, between
Limerick and Shannon harbour, on the last day of July, 1840,
and imagined them to be indigenous birds which had been bred
in some of the adjoining marshy tracts.

Naturalists, treating of this species as a British bird, seem to
consider that all the redshanks frequenting the shore are bred in
the country. They describe it as on the coast in autumn and
winter, and retiring inland to breed, without, in so far as I have
observed, alluding to any migration northward of Great Britain
for that purpose. Of the numbers, h-owever, that are on the
Irish coast, the vast majority must have been brought up in more
northern latitudes.

A friend whose residence was on the banks of the tidal river
Lagan, near Belfast, observed that for about a month in autumn
(September), and then only, redshanks annually resorted to the
oozy borders of the river above Ormeau Bridge when accessible
at low water.f In autumn and winter they sometimes appeared
about a tract of low-lying meadows near that town, when flooded by
heavy rains, and on the shore of Lough Neagh I have seen flocks

Mr. B. Ball. f On the 24th of December I once saw a few feeding here.

208

SCOLOPACID^.

in September. They are_, consequently^ not so restricted to
marine localities as in the south of Scotland, where the species
has come under the observation of Sir Wm. Jardine. He
remarks that we have never seen them even as stragglers upon
our lochs and rivers, as the greenshank and some other maritime
Totani frequently are."’’* This author alludes only to marshes
adjoining the sea, as the maritime breeding-places of redshanks in
Scotland. As already noticed, they nidify on the sliingly beach
itself in some parts of Ireland. On the extensive gravelly
banks at the mouth of the Stinchar, in Apshire, I was told, a
few years ago, that they, as well as the oyster- catcher and ring
plover, bred. Numbers, annually, form their nests on the
gravel, like the ring plover, along the shores of Islay and the
neighbouring islets, as I have been assured by those who have
gathered their eggs.

I have rarely obtained examples of this bird in its handsome
adult summer plumage, which differs much from that of winter,
as well as from that of young birds of the year.

On the 23rd of July, 1826, I observed a solitary redshank on
the beach of the Lago di Garda, in the north of Italy.

THE GEEEN SANDPIPEK.

Totanus ochropus, Linn, (sp.)

' Tringa

Is only known as a rare visitant ; but has occurred at all
seasons of the year,

'As it has done in England. It is, however, of much more fre-
quent occurrence there than in Ireland. In Scotland, Sir William
Jardine remarks that this handsome bird is met with in about
equal numbers with the greenshank.f It is far otherwise in

Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 202.

t Ibid., vol. iii. p. 210.

THE GEEEN S.iNHPIPEll.

209

Ireland, where one hundred greenshanks might be reckoned for
every green sandpiper.

According to Mr. Templeton^s journal, it has been seen four
times at Cranmore, his residence near Belfast, — twice previous
to 1800, once in that year, and in 1801. At ^^Brick-holes,''*
Mays-bank, close to that town, one was shot early in the winter
of 1822. At Stranmillis, about a mile distant, another was
killed during frost and snow in the winter of 1823.* More
lately, a bird believed to be of this species (but which was not
obtained) was observed to frequent Conswater, in the vicinity of
the town, for some time. In the winter of 1836-7, a taxider-
mist there liad a green sandpiper sent to him in a fresh state
from some of the northern counties. One, in the Belfast Museum,
was killed by a person when snipe-shooting, in a bog between
the river Bann and Eathfriland, county of Down.t A recent
adult bird shot in the neighbourhood of Antrim, on the 25th of
August, 1817, came under my notice ; its stomach contained
water-beetles, specimens of Cypris, &c.

A green sandpiper was shot in the montli of October (?) about
the year 1829, at Clontarf, near Dublin ; — another, which I saw
in 1833, had been killed a few years previously, and sent in a
recent state to the metropolis. Mr. W. S. Wall (bird-preserver)
informed me, in 1833, that, within the preceding seven or eight
years, three fresh specimens, procured near Dublin, had been sent
to him. Subsequently, one was shot atMalahide by Mr. AAarren.
On the 5th November, 1816, a recently -killed bird was purchased
of a hawker in the metropolis. On the 17th of January, 1838,
I saw (previous to its being skinned) a beautiful adult female
which had been killed in Queen' s-county ; its stomach contained
the remains of worms and a Physa fontinalis — the latter proving
that it had been feeding in fresh water. In the month of Beb-
ruary, 1836, one was killed about five miles from Clonmel. {

* Rev. G. M. Black.

t The dimensions of this bird agree, in every part, with the description in
Jenjms’s ‘ Manual.’

X Mr. R. Davis.

VOL. II. P

210

SCOLOPACIDiE.

The green sandpiper is very rarely seen near Waterford.^ About
the month of October^ 1822 (?) one was shot at the sea-side, near
Youghal, by Mr. E;. Ball. In November 1835, a bird in full
adult plumage was killed by Mr. E. Chute, in a bog about five
miles from the sea, near Tralee. The same gentleman procured
another which was shot in that neighbourhood about the 1st of
October, 1846. Most of the above examples, of which particu-
lars are known, appeared about fresh water.

The green sandpiper seems to have come more frequently under
the notice of Sir Wm. Jardine, than any ornithologist in Britain ;
and, accordingly, an interesting account of it, as observed about
his residence in Dumfries- shire, is given in his ^ History of British
Birds.'’ As information three or four years subsequent to what
appears there (the volume was published in 1842), it may
be mentioned that when at Jardine Hall, in October 1845, a
specimen was shown to me which had been killed in the first week
of that month. Between the middle of September and that period
the species had annually been met with there, for several years,
when on its passage southward. In one instance only had it been
obtained in winter. It frequents the bogs in elevated situations
as well as the low grounds.

The green sandpiper migrates regularly, for the purpose of
breeding, to the countries of northern Europe. Its habits in
England, as well remarked by Mr. Yarrell, are not yet perfectly
understood.'’'’ It is only known in Ireland, to the present time,
as occurring at uncertain intervals, and those chiefly late in
autumn or in winter ; — we know notliing of its breeding in this
island.

* Dr. R. J. Burkitt.

211

THE WOOD SANDPIPEE.

Totanus glareola, Linn, (sp.)

Tringa ,, „

Cannot be recorded with certainty.

To the following notice which I communicated to the ^ Annals of
Natural History (vol. v. p. 8) nothing of consequence can here be
added. Mr. E. Ball describes a species of Totanus to me^ which
he saw for several years^ about the month of June, frequenting a
stream in Glenbower wood, near Youghal, and believes to have
been this bird. In the late Mr. Ternpleton^s MSS., a sandpiper,
considered to be of this species, is noticed as having been seen in
the neighbourhood of Belfast, but, as in the preceding instance,
in terms which do not warrant its introduction to the Eauna with
certainty.'’^ The description of a bird killed on the borders of
Belfast Bay, in September 1844, and communicated by the
shooter, exactly agrees with the T. glareola ; but the specimen
was not saved.

This species is but an occasional visitant to England, where it
appears to have occurred even more frequently about the Landes
End, Cornwall, than elsewhere,* — a circumstance which leads me
to believe that it must sometimes visit Ireland, and more espe-
cially the southern parts. It has not been noticed in Scotland
(Jard., Macg.).

The wood sandpiper has a very extensive geographical range,
and moves northward regularly to breed within the European
Arctic circle. Moist woods, and swamps producing willows
and brushwood, are its favourite habitats, where it lives solitary,
or, in the breeding season, in pairs.^B'

^ Mr. E. H. Rodd, in the ‘ Zoologist’ (vol. i. pp. 143, 189) ; also Yan-ell’s British
Birds.

t Selby.

p 2

212

SCOLOPAClDiE.

THE SANDPIPER.

Eresli- water Sandlark.

Tot anus hypoleucos, Linn, (sp.)

Tfinga „

Is a regular summer visitant to the lakes, rivers, and
brooks throughout the island.

It is one of the late-coming summer birds, making its appearance
in the north about the end of April or beginning of May. The
earliest note of its arrival before me is that of one which I shot
in Colin Glen, near Belfast, on the 2 1st April, 1836. On arrival,
they set about the great business of the season — to increase and
multiply ; — and depart from the country soon after their brood
(for with one they are satisfied) can accompany them. On the
1 5th June I once found a nest and four eggs, under the shade of
a dwarfed willow, growing from a bank of gravel, at Ram'^s
Island, Lough Neagh; and on the 28th of the same month met
with another on an islet (visited by means of a cormgJi) in Port-
lough — a small lake near the extreme north-west of Ireland; it
was well concealed from view amid the surrounding herbage, and
contained two young birds. An unusual site was selected, some
years ago, by a pair of sandpipers, which built their nest in a
gooseberry-bush, in a garden (Mr. Grimshaw^s) contiguous to a
pond in the neighbourhood of Belfast. It contained four eggs
when the circumstance was mentioned to me. This bird nidifies
at the sides of streams far up in the mountains near Clonmel,*
and in similar localities in the southern counties of Waterford and
Cork.

The chief haunt of this species in summer is about fresh water ;
but it has occasionally come under my notice at this season as
well as in autumn, along the sea -coast. On the 1 2th July, 1833,
it appeared on the Skerries, rocky marine islets off the northern

* Mr. R. Davis.

THE SANDPIPER.

213

coast of Antrim ; and a day or two afterwards at the little marine
bay eastward of Port Ballantrae, near to the GianPs Causeway,
At this celebrated locality itself^ I remarked the sandpiper on the
16th July^ 1839; and about the same time, at Red Bay, on the
eastern coast of Antrim. In the middle of July, I have met with
it on the rocky coast, near Springvale, county of Down. On
July 21, 1840, I observed a pair at the head of the Killeries ;
and three days afterwards, saw one at Clifden Bay, Connemara.
I am disposed to believe that the bird breeds at some of these
marine localities ; indeed. Air. Alassey, late- of the Pigeon-house
Port, Dublin Bay, informed me that he had seen the young, in
the holes of the walls extending into the sea near that place.

Early in the month of August invariably, and occasionally in
the middle of July,* sandpipers, with their young broods, appear
on the shores of Belfast Bay, towards its inner extremity, and
along the banks of the Lagan, so far as they are subject to tlie
flow of the tide. Tliree broods with their parents, or as many as
twelve to fifteen, are occasionally seen together ; but much more
commonly about half that number. Sandpipers generally keep by
themselves ; — in one instance only have I known them to be
killed in company with other birds, when one fell by night at the
same shot with dunlins. Indeed, as I have remarked with some
interest, their feeding- ground is different from that of the dunlin,
ring plover, &c., these species being generally seen scattered over
the banks in search of food, while the sandpipers keep along the
margin of the water for that purpose. The sea- shore is the last
place frequented previous to the biixPs leaving the country. The
31st of August is the latest date at which it has come under my
own notice about Belfast.

In spring, this bird very rarely visits the sea-side here ; but
proceeds direct, on arrival, to its inland haunts. Prom these, the
sandpipers with their broods move by easy stages to the sea.
Tliose which breed about the mountain rivulets near Belfast,
bring their young so soon as they are able to fly to the nearest

July 14, 1846, is the earliest date noted.

214

SCOLOPACID^.

pond, and remain there for some days until they gather suffi-
cient strength to move onward. Towards the middle of July, they
appear at such localities (then only do they ever visit them), and
are sometimes very noisy, — the piping of the young and old
together producing quite a concert, though certainly more of a
shrill than sonorous kind. A relative, walking on the banks of
the Tlush, a mountain rivulet amid the Belfast mountains, on
the 8th of July, met with eight sandpipers, chiefly young. One
of the party, doubtless a parent bird, flew after, and circled
several times around him and a setter- dog as they proceeded along
the banks of the stream. It afterwards followed tlie dog througli
several fields, often flying angrily at his head and body, though
apparently without striking him. As the young birds could
all fly well, my friend was surprised at the pertinacity with which
the dog was pursued. About a fortnight afterwards these birds
had all left the locality.

Stones are the common resting-places of this species ; but it
has frequently been observed to perch on ragweeds {Senecio
Jacohcea) growing in fields bordering its haunts, as well as on
shrubby and other plants contiguous to water. Its facility of
swimming and diving, respecting which many notes have been
supplied to me, is well known. A bird, wounded by a shooter in
Belfast Bay, having dived, he saw it run for a yard or more along
the bottom — where the water was about a foot and a half in depth
— as quickly as it could have done on dry land. Its neck was
stretched out, its breast close to the bottom, and its wings in full
use during its progress. I have myself seen the young, when un-
able to fly, take to the water for safety, and swim well.

In the appendix to the ‘^Letters of Eusticus of Godaiming,'’
Mr. J. D. Salmon remarks, that he does ‘"‘^not think this bird
breeds further south than Yorkshire (p. 155). When meeting
with pairs at Ogwell Pool, North Wales (May 12), and on the
banks of the Learn, in Warwickshire (July II), I imagined that
they were probably breeding in those localities, as they would
have been at similar })laces in Ireland ; in the south as well as the
north of which country they commonly nidify.

THE SANDPIPEll.

215

Sir Wm. Jardine, when writing his ^ History of British Birds/
was not aware, either on the authority of others or his own,
that the sandpiper visited any of the Scottish islands.* In the
^ Historia JSTaturalis Orcadensis,^ however, published in 1848,
we have the statement that it ^Hias been observed in several
islands, as in Sanday, in Hoy, and in various parts of the main-
land [of Orkney] ” It is added that the bird appears to be only
an occasional visitant to tliat group. When in Islay, in 1849, I
was pleased to learn that the sandpiper breeds annually about the
lakes of the island. On particularly questioning the gamekeeper
respecting it and the dunlin, and showing him figures of the two
species, he stated that the latter was unknown to him as breeding
there ; but that a pair or two of the 1\ liypoleucos came every
summer to each of the two small lakes on the moor above Ardi-
mersy Cottage, and, he had no doubt, to the pther lakes of
Islay also.

Eggs of the bird, obtained there since the preceding was
written (and kindly sent to me by Eobert Langtry, Esq.), have
proved the correctness of my informant as to the species.

Of aU our summer birds of passage, the sandpiper, so attractive
from its beautifully bronzed plumage, lively motions, loud piping
note, and graceful curving flight, is the most widely dispersed,
and the least choice as to locality ; a mere sufficiency of water,
in any form, being apparently the only essential to its presence.
In the petty tarns situated amid the sublime scenery of our
lofty mountains, as at Lough Salt, in Donegal ; on the low and
extensive shores of our three greatest lakes, — Loughs Neagh,
Erne, and Corrib, — around the richly-wooded and rocky shores
of Killarney, as well as about lakes of every intermediate size
and physical character, I have remarked this species. It is also
found at the lofty source of our springs and brooks, — in the beds
of rocky torrents and gently flowing streams, and along the banks
of the largest rivers, until, in their gathered might, they move
majestically to mingle with the ocean. Here again, on shores of

* Vol. iii. p. 217.

216

SCOLOPAClDJi.

every description- — the soft oozy beach, the sand, the gravel, about
the Norway-like of the Killeries (Connemara), and the iron-
bound coast of Antrim, including the Giant^s Causeway itself —
its piping note proclaims its presence.

In the most varied scenery of the sister island, too, the sand-
piper has attracted my attention. At Ogwell Pool, in the midst
of the savage grandeur of North Wales ; about tiie sweet and
lovely Lake of Windermere ; at the softly- gliding Learn, where
it meanders through the rich pastures and meadows above the
town of Leamington ; at the lively and brawling river which
hurries through the bleak and sterile mountain-pass of Glencroe ;
and about the gravelly sea-shore at Yentnor, in the Isle of Wight
— the garden of England — have I been gratitied by beholding
it. At the wild and desert-like sandy reaches of the lihiiie,
below Basle,'^- the sandpiper has also claimed my admiration, and
it was the first bird to welcome me to Greece ; several, with
their piping notes, hailing our party as we landed at the noble
Bay of Navarino.t

The Spotted Sandpiper. Totams macularius, Linn, (sp.)
Has been publicly noticed in a few instances, as having been obtained
ill Ireland ; but the bird erroneously so named by Bewick, which is
merely T. liypoleiicos in a particular state of plumage, was meant, in
the instances which I have investigated, and not the true species.
This will probably yet be found visiting the island. It was only first
made known as a British bird from the occurrence of a single specimen
in England, in September 1839.1 A few other individuals have since
been met with in that country. The spotted sandpiper is a common
bird in the United States of America, moving from the south towards
the north to breed, as the nearly allied T. hypoleucos does in Europe j
thus representing the latter species in the Western Hemisphere,
within which it is not found. In Norway, Sweden, and Germany, the
T. maoulariu8 is occasionally observed.

* July 15. t April 28. + Yarrell, Brit. Birds.

217

THE GEEENSHANK.

Totanus glottis, Linn, (sp.)

Scolopax „ „

Is a regular autumnal migrant, and of occasional oc-
currence in winter.

This species is not quite so rare in Ireland as it would seem to be
in Great Britain ; where, as remarked by Mr. Selby, it is a scarce
bird, generally only to be met with about the period of its
vernal and autumnal migrations. It is noticed by Sir Wm.
Jardine as straggling visitor.^M Though of regular annual
appearance in the north of Ireland, it comes in extremely limited
numbers, and is one of the earliest species in arrival after the
breeding season ; — a fact to which our attention is directed by
its peculiar cry. About the middle of July, it has always
appeared in Belfast Bay ; the earliest noted by me were seen on
the 2nd of that month (1846), and on the 29th of June (1848).
The specimen obtained at the latter date came under my notice
just after being killed; it was beautifully and conspicuously
spotted on the neck and breast with black, having a bronzed
lustre ; the spots becoming gradually larger downwards, towards
the body. On the back and scapulars were dark bronze-coloured
feathers, looking very handsome among those of the ordinary
light-coloured brown. Like our other Grallatores, this bird
is chiefly here in the month of September. Its very limited
numbers— generally three or four in a flock — vary little ; during
some years, however, (in 1822 or 1823, in 1835 and in 1843,)
more than usual appeared. On the 14th of September, 1835,
a bird-preserver had received six of them ; being more than he
had obtained in any previous autumn. They are extremely
wary. I have known, in one season, three of them to be fre-
quently seen and pursued by fowlers for six or seven weeks, by

* Vol. ii. p. 87.

t Brit. Birds, vol, iii. p. 205.

218

SCOLOPACID^.

the end of which time only, they had all fallen singly to the gun.
In another autumn, a similar number were pursued as long with-
out one having become a victim. About the 1st of September,
1843, eleven greenshanks, together with a number of knots,
grey plover, and dunlins were killed at one shot here, with a
swivel-gun.

The greenshank is readily known, on the shore, from the most
nearly allied species — the redshank — by superior size ; its note,
too, though generically similar, at once distinguishes it from that
bird. It sounds like the word twee, prolonged, and uttered
moderately slow, three times. The redshank’’s note is often
uttered singly, but occasionally so frequently as five times, and
then usually in a hurried manner. The two species sometimes
associate : I have known two greenshanks and twenty-three red-
shanks to fall at one discharge from a shoulder-gun. Although
the latter is a wary and restless bird, the former is still more
so, as I have had the opportunity of judging when they were
feeding in company ; the most trivial sound from a distance
alarms it. On the oozy banks and gravelly shore of Belfast Bay,
the greenshank may be observed feeding busily — wading very
deep in search of its prey, — its partiality for the fresh- water
rivulets that course through the mud-banks at low water being
manifest. On the borders of Larne Lough, I have observed it
feeding. A few specimens, shot in the months of November,
December, January, and Bebruary (17th), in the north of Ireland
(at Coleraine, Belfast Bay, and Strangford Lough) — have come
under my notice, but none have yet in the later spring months.

In autumn and winter, the greenshank is met with regularly in
little flocks, consisting of about six individuals, in Dublin Bay,^
and I have seen two specimens which were shot there in the
month of March, in different years. Brom August until about April,
small numbers are said to frequent Cork harbour; in Bantry
Bay they have been observed ; and two or three may be daily
seen, during the winter months, flying up and down the stream

* Mr. R. Ball, and Rev. G. Robinson.

THE GREENSHANK.

219

at Bleniierville, near Tralee, when the tide is ont/^* The lo-
calities which have been named in connexion with the greenshank,
are all of a marine or estuary nature. About inland fresh water,

I have not known it to be killed in the north of Ireland, and
once, only, on the part of the river Lagan subject to the flow of
the tide, near to the Eoyal Botanic Garden, Belfast. The bird
had previously frequented the place for a fortnight. Temminck
mentions the gravelly borders of rivers as frequented by this bird,
and very rarely those of the sea.

I am not aware of their breeding in Ireland, but Mr. E.
Chute, who considers greenshanks to be common in Kerry,
believes that they breed at Caragh Lake, in that county, from the
circumstance of his having seen them at the upper part of it in
pairs, at different times during summer, though he never found
their nests. The people of the neighbourhood assured him
that the birds remained there the entire summer. The lake is
about two-and-a-half miles from the sea, and situated between
mountains ; it is five miles in length. The greenshank was
observed at Clifden, or Eoundstone Bay, Connemara, in July
1844.t

The contrast of the snowy-white and dark plumage renders
the greenshank an attractive bird ; it varies considerably in
size. The redshank and it are considered, by some persons, to
be the worst eating of all the shore birds that are commonly
served up at table. A bird-preserver has remarked to me that
the fat of this bird is white, and not orange-yellow, like that of
the redshank.

When H.M.S. Beacon was in the Bay of Navarino, in April
1841, one of the offlcers, on the 29th of that month, brought
me a greenshank, shot by him on the sea-beach, contiguous to
an extensive marsh, which I subsequently visited. In a proper
climate this would be a most suitable breeding-haunt for the
species, and, as two or three more birds were seen, I could not

* Mr. E. Clmte ; — wlio once saw a large Hock of greenshanks there,
t Eev. G. Robinson.

220

SCOLOPACIDtE.

but think it probable, the season being then so far advanced,
that they might breed there.

Mr. Macgillivray has contributed to the third volume of
Audubon^s ^ Ornithological Biography ^ an interesting account
of the greenshank, as observed by liim in the Hebrides.* Mr.
Selby (^Edinb. Philos. JournaP) and Sir Wm. Jardine (^Brit.
Birds/ vol. hi.) have treated pleasingly of it as seen by them in
its breeding-haunts in Sutherlandshire,

THE AYOCET.

Recufvifostra avocetta, Linn.

Is an extremely rare visitant.

The earliest notice of its occurrence, of which I am aware, ap-
peared in Butty’s ^Natural History of the county of DubliiP
(vol. i. p. 341), where it is remarked — A.H. 1767, in winter,
was shot in the Lots, near the T^orth Wall, by Bobert Bevin,
sexton of Christ Church, a bird very rarely found here, being
properly an Italian bird, called Avosetta and Beccostorto, from its
biU, generally three inches and a half long, and often turned up
near half its length. It is the Uecurvirostra albo nigroqiie varia,
Willugliby, Omithologia, Tab. 60,^^ &c. The following brief note
was communicated by me to the ^ Annals of Natural History,^ in
1840 : ^‘^The late B. S. BaU, Esq., of Youghal, informed me, some
time since, when looking over continental specimens of this bird
with him, that, many years ago, he shot an individual of the same
species near that town.’’^ Mr. Wm. Warriner, of Bannow, on
the southern coast of Wexford, states, that he once saw an avocet
scooping in ^a marsh near his residence ; and remarks, that it
patted the ground with the convexity of its biU.’H

Major Walker once observed two avocets on the marsh of

* As may be expected, it visits the island of Islay. I have seen specimens
Avliich were shot there. The species is noticed as an autumnal visitant to Orkney.

t Mr. S. Poole; — communicated in 1843.

THE AVOCET.

2^1

Castlebridge, near Wexford. They were very wary, running on
the slimes, and flitting away low under cover of the banks, like
kingfishers.^^ He could not meet with these birds again, though
going repeatedly in pursuit of them ; but they remained in the
locality for some time, having frequently been seen by persons
resident there. An avocet was obtained a few years since near
Castletown, Bear Haven.* A pair of adult birds, in beautiful
plumage, were shot by Wm. Crawford, Esq., in Cork Harbour, in
January 1848 : the first about the 6th of the month, when both
were seen together ; the second was procured three weeks after-
wards : both specimens have been carefully preserved.^^t One was
seen on the Dublin coast, in the same month, by Mr. E. J. Mont-
gomery. The occurrence of others in the south has been
reported to me, but not with sufficient accuracy for notice here.

Avocets bred sparingly until of late years in a few of the fenny
districts of the east of England ; but they are now only irregular-
visitants to any part of that country. They are said by Dr.
Eleming and Mr. Selby (but without any particulars being given
or localities named), to have been met with in Scotland. Mr. Ed-
monston, however, mentions Zetland as occasionally visited by
them. They would appear not to migrate far north on the Euro-
pean continent for the purpose of breeding ; but to keep chiefly
to the south of the Baltic Sea. In June 1826, I was much
interested in meeting with them about low marshy ground,
between Leyden and Haarlem, in Holland.

THE LONG-LEGGED PLOVEE.

Himantopus melanoptems, Meyer.

Characlrms himantopus, Linn.

Is of extremely rare occurrence.

In the winter of 1823 or 1824 — as recorded by me in the ^ Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society^ for 1834 — Mr. E. Ball had.

* Mr. G, Jackson, gamekeeper.

t Dr. Harvey, of Cork.

222

SCOLOPACIDiE.

some years previously, spent a considerable part of a day, endea-
vouring, tbougli unsuccessfully, to obtain a shot at one of these
plovers, which he saw in a field near Youghal. In 1837, 1 was told
by Mr. T. W. Warren of a specimen (seen by him when recent)
having been killed some time before at Clontarf, Dublin Bay. One
in the possession of Mr. E. J. Montgomery was shot in the month
of January 1836 (?), when flying over the river Eobe, within six
miles of Lough Mask, county Mayo. Mr. Eichard Chute, writing
from Blennerville in February 1816, remarked, that Mr. Eosberry,
who resides in that village, saw a few of these birds, in company
with lapwings, about twenty years previous to that time, near
Adare, county of Limerick.

This species is only known to visit England and Scotland at
irregular intervals. It does not migrate to the north of Europe,
and is hardly known in the western parts of that continent which
are southward of the British Isles.

THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT.

Limosa melanura, Leisler.

Seolopax limosa, Linn.

Frequents the coast in autumn and winter — more es-
pecially at the former season — in very limited
numbers.

Almost every autumn for many years past, a very few of these
birds have been obtained in Belfast Bay ; and there is little doubt
of the species being a regular autumnal visitant to Ireland.*

A few still breed in the marshes of England ; but the numbers
that do so are becoming annually less. I have not seen any
notice of their having bred in Scotland ; and they are not known

* A bird-preserver in Belfast, questioned on this subject in 1838, stated, that
he was pretty sure of having received one or two black-tailed godwits to be set up
every autumn for the preceding fifteen years, or since he had commenced the busi-
ness of taxidermist.

THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT.

223

to have done so in Ireland. A pair which were shot early in July
1831, about the banks of the Eoyal Canal, near its western termi-
nation, in the county of Longford, may have contemplated nidifi-
cation there. I saw the specimens in Mr. Glennon^s shop, Dublin.

This godwit comes in extremely limited numbers to the north of
Ireland, in the autumn, and sometimes early in the season. A
young bird was shot in Belfast Bay, on the 26th of August, 1831,
and at the beginning of the same month of 1837, two were
killed.* September is the usual time of its appearance, and
also of that of the bar- tailed godwit; — after October it is very
seldom met with. I had not known its occurrence in the north
in spring until the 6th of March, 1846, when one was shot at
the last-named locality. But, indeed, until about that period,
the black-tailed godwit was known only to the most observant
shooters there (who pursue their occupation both by night and
day) as an autumnal visitant; it was then shot at mid -winter
likewise. On the 12th of June, 1828, three birds were seen
in this bay, by Dr. J. D. Marshall, which both he and a
shooter who accompanied him believed to be the black-tailed
godwit. They appeared to be in very fine plumage, but would
not admit of an approach within gun-shot. If not of this species,
they must have been the Limosa mfa in its full red summer
plumage.

In the autumn of 1822, when common godwits were so
remarkably abundant in the north of Ireland, more of the black-
tailed species were likewise seen than either before that time or
since. Dive, which were killed at one shot at Whitehouse Point,
Belfast Bay, were sent to a bird-preservePs, as well as several
others. One or two specimens only are commonly received by
him in a season. At that time also (end of September 1822)
four were shot from a flock consisting of sixteen or seventeen in-
dividuals, by the oldest shore-shooter of the bay, who had never
killed the bird before, though he had observed it and remarked
its different colour and superior size to that of the common

* Dr, J. D. Marshall.

226

SCOLOPACIDiE.

godwit. It is occasionally obtained inland in the autumn : one
was shot at Lough Beg (adjoining Lough Neagh), about the 1st
of September, 1886 and in the last week of August 1841,
another fell to a snipe-shooter, in marshy ground near Belfast.
I have seen one, which was killed from a flock near Portumna, on
the river Shannon, in April 1836. The black-tailed godwit has
been shot at Portmarnock on the Dublin coast : — at the end of
September 1840, many of these birds, along with ruffs, were
brought (but whence was not communicated) to the metropolis
for sale. In the first week of November, and at other times, a
few have been met with on the coast of Wexford. On that of
Waterford,! too, they have occurred, and have been observed,
though rarely in autumn, at Tough al.{ They are said to be not
uncommon about the month of December, in Cork Harbour, where,
on the 2nd of November, 1847, six were killed at a shot : — in
September, the adult bird has been obtained there.'’^|| In the
winter of 1840, and again in that of 1847-48, two specimens
were procured on the coast of Kerry.^

Great confusion has been caused by this bird having been called
red godwit by some British authors, while the common one is the
Limosa rufa ; but the barred tail of the latter, and the black tail
of the former, are sufficient to indicate the respective species.

The Limosa melanura is an interesting bird in captivity. During
visits to the Gardens of the Zoological Society, BegenPs Park,
London, in May and June 1849, the sight of eleven of these
birds, which are kept along with other graUatorial species, in one
of the inclosures, always gratified me. The first day I saw them
was very warm. They were all standing in the same position, on
one leg, with the other tucked up so as to be wholly invisible, the
bill buried in the feathers, and the eyes closed. The next day
that I went was equally fine, and the hour of my visit the same ;
but they were all actively stirring about and caUing, as if on the

* A coleopterous insect, half an inch in length, was found in its stomach. In that
of others the minute uuivalve shell Faludina muriatica, Lam., has been observed.

t Mr. Poole and Dr. R. J. Burldtt. ^ Mr. R. Ball.

II Mr. Wm. Crawford to Dr. Harvey. ^ Mr. R. Chute.

THE COMMON OR BAR-TAILED GODWIT.

225

sea-sliore. They appeared quite happy. It was interesting to
observe their natural habit of driving the point of the bill into
their soft oozy feeding-ground^ here exemplified by several of
them at the same moment probing the layer of straw with
which the floor of their residence was covered. The third day on
which I paid my respects to them was very cold in the shade ; the
wind easterly. They all had their biUs wholly buried in their
dorsal plumage^ and most of them had their eyes closed ; but they
nevertheless kept continuously callings without in the least degree
changing their attitudes or moving the bill from its state of repose.
Occasionally, two or three would call at the same moment, the
rule among them seeming to be that a continuous note was
essential. It was amusing to behold the vibration of the body of
the bird, when, — supported on only one leg, — the call was
uttered with the bill engulphed^^ in the plumage of the back.
A ruff in the same aviary with them, as observed on one of the
warm days, seemed also quite contentedly at home, and displayed
the well-known pugnacity of the species, by striking with his
bill any of the godwits that came within his reach. On one of
the warm days, he took possession, for a time, of a large shallow
pan of water, and would not suffer a godwit to partake of, or
cool its feet in the liquid.

THE COMMON OE BAE-TAILED GODWIT.

Limosa rufa, Brisson.

Scolopax Lapponica, Linn.

Is a regular autumnal visitant, remaining occasionally
until spring.

From the manner in which the best British ornithologists speak
of the two species of godwit in Great Britain, it would seem that
the bar-tailed is more common, and the black-tailed more rare,
in Ireland than in that island.

The oozy banks of Belfast Bay are a favourite resort of the

VOL. II. Q

226

SCOLOPACID^..

bar- tailed godwit,, and it occasionally appears here very early
after the breeding season. On the 31st of July_, 1827, I saw
large flocks; on the 20th of Jnly^ 1816, some appeared; on the
6th July and two or tliree other days about that time in 1812,
the call of the species was heard by a shooter to whom it is well
known ; but the birds probably passed southward, as, until the
16th of August, when I was informed of the circumstance, the
call had not been again heard. In August, these birds commonly
arrive but no matter how early they come, September is the
month in which they are most numerous, and generally in the
early part of it.

The number of godwits varies remarkably in different years, in
some being very scarce, in others abundant. The first that 1 met
with, was, when a young shooter, in 1822, in which year large
flocks appeared on the 7th of September, on the short pasture and
the sandy beach at Holy wood rabbit-warren, Belfast Bay. Their
tameness surprised me. Of aU birds that 1 had ever seen, they most
freely admitted the approach of the fowler, who had only to walk
directly towards them, and choose his distance from which to fire
as they were feeding or reposing on the strand. After a number
were killed from a flock on the ground, the remainder. Though
taking wing on hearing the report, wmuld sometimes pitch again
among the dead and wounded before the perpetrator of the deed
of blood, having again charged his gun, could reach the spot to
lift them ; when a second voUey would, in addition, lay some of
the others lov/. The pockets of a shooting-jacket at that time
usually sufficed to hold the few birds that might fall to my gun ;
but the number of godwits proved too great for them, and, not-
withstanding all that could be done in the way of squeezing and
pressing, the long bills and legs of the poor victims could not be
concealed, but kept dangling outside, thus serving as an announce-

* According to notes of their earliest appearance during a few years, made at my
request by the shooter alluded to (the base of whose house is washed by the sea), they
were observed as follows ; — in 1838, the earliest were two, which he hided on
the 10th of September ; none appeared again until the 17th of the same month :
— in 1840, two, seen on the 4th of August, did not remain, but flew southward ;
August 15, one, and August 19, nine noticed ; September 12, about sixty were in a
flock : — in 1841, four were observed on the 12th of August.

THE COMMON OR BAR-TAILED GODWIT.

227

ment to the shooters in the village, when I returned homeward, of
the easy prey that awaited them. At a different part of the shore
on the same day, tliirty-one godwits were killed by two persons
shooting in company, a number which would probably have been
doubled, had one of the guns not missed fire at the best shot offered
during the day: this was at ‘'^the great flock of from 200 to 300,'''
which from a distance of four or five yards, with the gun resting
on a ditch-bank, was sought to be fired at : the birds were so
close together that less than thirty could hardly have fallen had the
gun been discharged. This being on a Saturday, the report of the
number of these birds seen, had time to spread widely before
Monday morning, when the field — or rather shore — was taken by
so many shooters, that the execution done on the poor godwits
was very great : about twenty or thirty birds were killed by
single guns. Tor several days they continued in considerable
numbers ; but experience teaching them like other bipeds, they
became gradually less easy of approach. They were in very good
condition, and sold at this time in Belfast at sixpence a couple.
Godwits remained later than usual in the bay that season, and oc-
casionally fell to my gun until the 24th of October. At the begin-
ning of September, when these birds appeared in such numbers in
Belfast Bay, they were very abundant in Larne Lough, the next
inlet of the sea northward — and of a similar oozy nature — on the
Antrim coast.

Since 1822, godwits have in some seasons appeared in con-
siderable numbers ; but not so plentifully as at that time. In 1836,
a shooter of my acquaintance killed about a hundred in Belfast
Bay : — in 1839 he obtained twelve in one day, killing six at a single
shot. On September 15, 1840, he and another person, by firing
at the same moment from a boat, killed on the bank 6 godwits,
19 knots, and 3 dunlins. After a few more shots they had bagged
15 godwits, 26 knots, 1 teal, and 5 duidins, these last killed from
being in the way, or associating with their betters : my informant
has particularly remarked the partiality that godwits and knots
have for keeping together, which they do in flight as well as on
the ground — they seem more social than the godwit is with the

Q 2

228

SCOLOPACIDJL.

curlew^ or even than the latter and the whimbrel are with each
other. About September 1841, he procured godwits, pigmy
curlews, ring] dotterels, and dunlins, at one shot : — the common
fowling-piece is alluded to in these instances.

Great changes have of late years taken place with respect to
the godwit. It was quite unknowm during winter in Belfast Bay
until the season of 1837-8, when, about the middle of January,
two were seen together, and one of them shot ; the same occurred
at that period of 1841, after a week^s continuance of severe frost
and snow. In the winter of 1843, some birds were observed;
and on the 21st of December, 1844, a flock of four appeared,
from which three were shot ; another flock of nine was seen
before and after that date. Brom the winter of 1844 to that of
1848-9, godwits have frequented tliis locality : a flock, consist-
ing of about two hundred birds, was seen more than once
within the last fortnight of December. They take their departure
in the morning from the bay, as believed, to Strangford Lough ;
their time of flight being somewhat later than that of the wigeon.
Ash-coloured sandpipers or knots (Tringa canutus) bear them com-
pany, and to them they are, doubtless, indebted for the hint
of this precautionary measure, wliich the latter have long adopted.
In the season of 1846, godwits were observed literally in thou-
sands at Strangford Lough, from the 16th to the 21st of Be-
bruary, wliich a shooter spent there ; the weather being remark-
ably mild at the time. In the last week of Bebruary and first
week of March, 1847, they were in similar numbers in that
lough. Several great flocks would be seen at one vi-ew on wing,
the largest of them containing not less than five hundred birds.
Even a larger flock, probably amounting to six hundred, appeared
in Belfast Bay on the 21st of December, 1847, during a week
after which time a great many were seen there, mixed with innu-
merable hosts of ash-coloured sandpipers, redshanks, &c. In
Carlingford Bay, as well as in that of Belfast and Strangford,
godwits have annually wintered in some numbers since 1843.

Until the last few seasons, the appearance of the godwit in
spring at Belfast Bay was almost unknown ; one only having

THE COMMON OR BAR-TAILED GODWIT.

229

previously been obtained within about twenty years (April 8,
1837). On the 12th of March, 1845, three were seen; and on
the 6th of that month, in 1846, a flock of from twenty to
thirty birds, seven of which, killed at a shot, were brought to me.
In Strangford Lough, they have already been noticed as seen in
March ; one was shot there, near Kirkcubbin, from a large flock .
early in April 1849. How long they generally remain in this
lough I am unable to state ; the information given respecting the
locality being derived merely from persons visiting it at the
periods mentioned.

Two specimens of the Limosa rufa which came under my
examination — one shot on the 8th of April, 1837, in Belfast
Bay, and the other (a female) near Dublin, on the 29th of May,
1838 — were both in winter plumage; no indication of a reddish
feather appearing. One killed in Belfast Bay, so late as the 15th
of October, was in nearly full summer attire, the under side of
the neck, the breast, and thence to the point of the tail on the
under side, being red; the only indication of a change to winter
dress being exhibited in an intermixture of a few white feathers
with the red on the tliroat.

The size of the godwit, like that of other Grallatores, is
very variable. Seven birds, killed at the same time, on the 6th
of March, differed much in this respect, and, on dissection, all
the small ones proved to be males, and the large ones females ;
the bills of the latter, from forehead to point, were from four to
four and a quarter inches long. Others, which I have killed,
exceeded four and a half inches; — a young bird of the year,
obtained on the 24th of August, had a bill only two inches in
length. At the end of October I once shot a godwit of little
more than half the ordinary weight, and hardly exceeding a grey
plover in size.

Of the gizzards of three godwits examined by me, one contained
the remains of vegetable ; another of soft animal food ; the third
was almost wholly filled with gravel, which, together with frag-
ments of shell, was in the others also.

230

SCOLOPACIDtE.

This species, which is of frequent occurrence on the shores of
Donegal, is described by my correspondents to be common in
suitable localities — the soft oozy or sandy beach being preferred
— southward from those already named to Dublin Bay, Wexford,
Waterford, and Cork Harbours, and round to the western bays of
Kerry and Galway. It is chiefly known as an autumnal visitant,
but remains in some places until spring. About Lough Derg, an
expansion of the river Shannon, it is said to be met with every
year in the months of September and October : — in April 1847,
two were killed there : — it is, however, much more of an estuary
or marine bird, than the black-tailed godwit.

The Limosa tufa, although so much more common than the
black -tailed species, which still continues to breed (though very
sparingly) in England, is not known to nidify in any part of the
British Islands.

THE BUEE.

Machetes pugnax, Linn, (sp.)

Tringa

Visits Ireland on its autumnal migration southward not
un frequently ; but very rarely appears on its vernal
movement northward.

An adult male in full plumage shot in company with two others in
the Creagh bogs, near Castledawson, county of Londonderry, in
May 1821, came into the possession of the late Mr. John Mont-
gomery, in a recent state. It was preserved for his collection, and
is now in the Belfast Museum. In March 1833, I saw in the
possession of Mrs. Desmond, Dublin, two ruffs and a reeve in
full nuptial plumage, which had been shot about the river Shannon.
The collection of Mr. Massey, Pigeon-house Eort, Dublin Bay,
contained in 1833 an immature specimen of the ruff which had
been kiUed there : subsequently one was shot when frost was on

THE RUEF.

23]

the ground/^ at Douce mountain,, county of Wicklow. Six rufPs,
brought to the metropolis for sale from the county of Kildare,
were taken in snares on the 13th of March, 1838 : they all
wanted the ruff, though ascertained by dissection to be males.
On the 5 th of April that same season, six other males were brought
to the Dublin market. They do not appear here so often as
every year; — specimens obtained at the end of September 1840,
of October (two from Kildare) and November 1847 ; and in
September 1849, have come under my notice in collections.

Mr. George Bowen mentioned to me in 1839, that ruffs had
been shot in the autumn of the two preceding years, near Bogay,
county of Donegal, where he had seen flocks of about twelve
birds : they were always tame, and occasionally associated with
other species. Two males (without rufPs) were obtained by Mr.
John Kinahan in August 1848, at Annagh (Tipperary), a few
miles from Birr. They formed part of a flock of six, wliich
accompanied lapwings while feeding on the flooded grounds. The
species had been seen there but once before, about two years pre-
viously, according to an old sportsman of the neighbourhood,
who on that occasion killed two from a flock such as that seen in
1848.

In the autumn, ruffs have been killed about Belfast as follows.
— The first noted, on September 18, 1821. On the 26th August,
1822, one was shot among some dunlins, near Conswater, where
that river joins the bay ; its weight rather exceeded 3 oz., — five
more were seen at the same time. Either in that or the preced-
ing autumn, one was shot at a pool of water close to the town.
At the ^ bog meadows,'’ less than two miles distant, a young bird
of the year, though of full adult size, fell to my own gun in
August 1828. These meadows were deeply inundated that year
when ready for the scythe ; and a vast flight of snipes, on their
southward migration, was tempted to alight and remain a few days.
When in pursuit of them I sprang the reeve, and saw but the
one ; next day, however, another was seen, and shot in the same
locality. On the 25th August, 1833, a young male bird, which
came into my possession, was shot at a river bounding the town ;

232

SCOLOPACIDyE.

its tarsi were of a greyisli-greeii colour. A fine adult reeve was
obtained on the 24th of August, 1835, on the shore of the bay;
and five others were subsequently procured that autumn, three of
which (killed on the 23rd and 24th September) came under my
examination : two were adult birds (one a male), and the other a
young bird of the year ; — they were all shot singly. On the
5th September, 1838, three appeared on the sea-shore, one
of which was killed by a person who had obtained them several
times. He remarks that they are partial to alighting on the
little grassy patches rising above the beach in preference to the
beach itself ; that, when disturbed, they fly high like snipes, and,
like these birds, come suddenly down from a height in the air, and
further resemble them by returning to the place whence they were
sprung ; — so late as the 29th November that year (1838) three
were seen. On the 10th of September, 1841, a ruif appeared in
company with some redshanks on the shore, where on the 25th
of September, 1842, two adult males were shot at Adams^ Point,
and the same number likewise procured between the middle and
end of September 1844. In 1845, one only — obtained on the
borders of the bay at Garnerville on the 29th of October — was
known to have been killed. On the 2nd of that month, in 1848,
a reeve was procured at the same shot with four' or five knots,
and was the only one of the species in the flock.

AU my information on the ruff as an Irish species, is now
given, from which it appears that the bird has not been met with
by my correspondents on the southern or western coast, — a cir-
cumstance which, at all events, implies its comparative rarity
there.

The ruff formerly bred annually in large numbers on the fenny
eastern counties of England, but has now almost ceased to do
so. I have not seen any record of its having ever bred in Scot-
land or Ireland. It is now known to the three countries chiefly
as an autumnal visitant, when passing southward from more nor-
thern breeding-haunts.

I do not know any bird that varies so much in size as the ruif. I have seen some
young birds one-third less in dimensions than others killed at the same time, though

THE EUFE.

233

apparently in equally good health ; it is only less variable in this respect than
in the colour of the plumage and legs. When visiting the .Zoological Gardens,
Regent’s Parle, London, in the spring of 1833 or 1834, I was informed by James
Hunt, one of the keepers, that a bird which had been there for two or three years,
had a different coloured ruff each summer. This is probably the same bird alluded
to by Mr. YarreU.* Mr. R. Ball has observed the same fact in the Zoological
Gardens, Dublin, with respect to a ruff which was received there in full plumage,
and has twice changed since ; the colour being very different each time. Montagu
states, on the contrary, that those which came under his observation had, annually,
the same coloured ruff : it would thus seem that even in this adornment of the nuptial
season individuals are not constant.

The twm birds noticed as shot at Belfast Bay, in September 1844, I saw and ob-
tained some time afterwards. Their sex had not been noted by the preserver. They
are both of full adult size, though yomig birds of the year, — if “ the fore part of the
neck and breast of a dull reddish ash” be characteristic of that age. Temminck
gives, as a diagnostic character, what is also copied as such in ‘ Jenyns’s Manual,’ — ■
“ the two middle [tail] feathers barred ; the three outer ones at each side always of
one colour.” In one of these specimens aU the tail-feathers are barred ; hut the
barring gradually diminishes from the central to the outer feathers ; the outside one has
one bar ; the next, two bars ; next, thi-ee, &c. In the other specimen, the three outer
feathers have each one blackish band at the tip, the extreme edge of which is nar-
rowly margined with reddish-white ; such are the only markings of these feathers,
as elsewhere they are plain-coloured. An adult male (shot in the middle of Septem-
ber) that I examined, has, at the end of the two middle tail-feathers, an obscure
blackish baud. The outside feather at one side of the tail has one blackish band,
the next two bands, the third three, aU well marked ; but the opposite side of the
tail in this same individual (wLich is in the collection at the Belfast Museum) does
not correspond. It seems to me vain to describe any marking as permanently
characteristic of this species.

When visiting Holland at the beginning of June 1826, I had
an opportunity of seeing rnffs in their halcyon abode — the fens
of that country, where they were abundant, and quite regardless
of persons walking within a few yards^ distance. A group of
them, stationed on a grassy bank close to a road crossing a fen
between Utrecht and Gorcnin, not only evinced no shyness, but
gazed with the greatest nonchalance on the passers-by : their
tameness of course arising from their being unmolested. On
passing through the Pontine marshes, lying between Pome and
Terracina, about the middle of the following month of August,

Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 582.

234

SCOLOPAClDiE.

a few birds which I saw feeding near the road were believed to be
of this species.

A relative has mentioned to me^ that when he was leaving Eotter-
dam for London a few years ago^ in spring, a huge basket con-
taining from two to three hundred ruffs was put on board the
steamer. The incessant fighting of these birds proved the grand
source of attraction to the passengers during the voyage. Their
crib was one great battle-field, in which every individual seemed
to be at the same moment engaged, and determined to keep up
the warfare as long as life itself lasted. It was a continual
battle and treading down of the wounded and dying. About
one-half of them were slain before the vessel reached London.
On inquiry of the person who had charge of them, Would it
not have been better to place them in smaller baskets the reply
was that it would have been quite the same as to the fighting and
deaths produced. A number of whimbrels were caged with the
ruffs, under the impression, as was said, that they might stay the
feud, but, as we have seen, in vain. Several baskets of dead ruffs
were also put on board at Eotterdam. Doubtless, many of the
departed birds which are annually on sale in spring, at Hunger-
ford market, have met with their deaths on the high seas in the
manner related.

The Brown or Grey Snipe. — Macroramphus griseus, Leach ;
Scolopax grisea, Gmelin. — Has not been observed in Ireland, but,
probably, will yet be so; — neither has it been in Scotland. Six
individuals are recorded as obtained in England, from the first noticed
in Montagu’s ‘Ornithological Dictionary,’ in 1802, until 1845, when
the second edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds ’ appeared. Nilsson
states that it has been procured in Sweden. Stragglers only, however,
have visited Europe. This bird is common on the shores of the
United States, &c., of North America.

235

THE WOODCOCK.

Scolopax fusticola, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant, remaining about five months ;
a few breed annually.

Many more of these birds winter in this island than do in
England or Scotland. The general time of the appearance of
the woodcock in the north of Ireland is the month of October ;
but it has occasionally appeared in September. An octogenarian
sportsman has frequently, in his younger days, when this bird
was much more numerous than of late years, shot it in the neigh-
bourhood of Belfast in the last week of September, and once so
early as the 8th of that month : another sportsman, many years ago,
killed one here in a potato field, on the first day of partridge shoot-
ing— the 20th of September. By a third, a woodcock was shot on
the 21st of that month, in the heath at Ennishoweu (Donegal).
According to notes of its appearance about Belfast during the
last twenty years, two only announce its presence so early as the
first week of October, and one of these relates to the fine dry
autumn of 1842.

Eor some time after arrival, woodcocks are chiefly met with
among the heath on the mountains, and, indeed, whenever
the weather is open are to be found there by day. But in
favourite localities, where quite undisturbed, they will, during
the finest weather, remain in cover tlrroughout the day, from the
date of their arrival to that of their departure. In some small
wooded glens near Belfast, where a gun was not permitted to be
fired, I have seen them daily, when I wished, during that period :
— from being unmolested, they admitted an approach within
a few paces, and were always seen quietly resting in the shade on
dry spots, generally beneath young spruce-fir trees, which were
branched nearly to the ground.*

* Sir Humphrey Davy has remarhed that : — “ A laurel or a holly bush is a favour-
ite place for their repose ; the thick and varnished leaves of these trees prevents the

236

SCOLOPAClDiE.

Migration, — Observations connected with the migration of the
woodcock have been chiefly made on the eastern and western
lines of coast. In January 1838, I was informed by the late
George Matthews, Esq., of Springvale, county of Down, that in the
Ards, the most eastern portion of the island — forming a narrow
but rich tract of land between Strangford Lough and the Irish
Sea — the species was then only plentiful about the period of ar-
rival and departure from the country. When a strong easterly
wind detained them in spring they were abundant. Until the
beginning of the present century, they were so there at all
times, from October to March ; in proof of which, it was stated,
that they were of so little value as to be commonly baked in
pies The clearing away of the cover in which they found
shelter, preparatory to the ground being cultivated, has banished
them ; and, except at the seasons named, a few only are to be
seen. It was at the same time (January 1838), mentioned, that
about twenty years previously. Captain Donnan bagged thirty
brace there in one day — in rough open ground — and w'ould have
procured many more but for his ammunition being exhausted.
The next day, he took the field amply laden with all ‘‘Cappliances^^
for their destruction, but not a bird could be found ; — they had
aU moved off in the course of the night. On the previous day
they had doubtless been awaiting favourable weather for departure.
Woodcocks (according to Major T. Walker, of Belmont, near
Wexford) are met with in numbers in the mountain of Eorth, in
that county, on their arrival and before their departure, and
sportsmen are always on the look-out for them at such times.
After resting a day or so among the fern {Pteris acpiilina) on the
sea- banks, they proceed to the mountain. Moonlight nights t

radiation of heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refrigerating in-
fluence of a clear sky, so that they afford a warm seat for the woodcock.” — ‘ Salmo-
nia,’ p. 332, 2nd edit.

* Not, however, just so common as in the year 1589, when, according to Payne,
one might purchase in Ireland “ a doseu of woodcokes for iiiid.”

t Nights when the moon is fuU are generally believed in England * and Scotland!
to be the most favourable for the migration of the woodcock ; but Mr. Selby has
“ found that these birds always come over in the greatest bodies in hazy weather.”

* Knox, ‘ Birds of Sussex.’ t St. John, ‘ Wild Sports,’ &c., p. 223.

THE WOODCOCK.

237

and east or west winds, according to the season, are believed by
the people of the district to regulate the time of their coming
and going. “ When they gather in numbers previous to leaving
the country in spring (and long after they have left the covers)
they are to be met with under the large loose stones of the moun-
tain.'’^ This account is very similar to that of Sir John Cullum,
on the autumnal and vernal appearance, &c., of the woodcock on
the coast of Sussex, contributed to the second volume of Pennant^s
^British Zoology.'’

With respect to the western coast of Ireland, Major MTlwray,
of Westport, informed me in 1840, that a friend and he had
often, at the migratory periods, shot from twenty-two to twenty-
five brace in a few hours about Bundoran, on the coast of
Donegal. When in Achil, in June 1834, I learned from Lieut.
Eeynolds, E.N., of the Coast Guard Service (who had been a few
years stationed there), that he had met with woodcocks on that
island as early as the 10th of October, but that they are most
numerous from the 1st to the 20th of November,* and again
from the middle of Pebruary to the end of the first week in
March : the most he had killed at such times in a day were
sixteen brace ; he had not uncommonly bagged fourteen or fifteen
brace.t Some remain during the winter in Achil, though the

* Montagu, in the Supplement to his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ gives, on the
authority of Captain Latham, a similar account of woodcocks in Portugal — that they
are very plentiful in the month of November, when he has killed fourteen or sixteen
couple in a day’s shooting ; they become scarcer as the winter advances, and plentiful
again in the beginning of March, on their return northward : they therefore move
stiU farther south than that country. The partiality of this bird to the extreme
west, as Ireland and Portugal, is also mentioned by Montagu ; but Sir Humphrey
Davy states, that “in the woods of southern Italy and Greece, near marshes, they are
far more abundant [than in Ireland], and they extend in quantities over the Greek
Islands, Asia Minor, and northern Africa.” — ‘ Salmonia,’ p. 333. Mr. H. E.
Strickland informs us, that “ so abundant were woodcocks at Smyrna during the
severe weather following the Christmas of 1835, that many were killed in small
gardens in the midst of the town.” — ‘ Zool. Proc.’ 1836, p. 101. But as to the
actual numbers obtained by sportsmen in the Morea, see the concluding extract from
Mr. Lloyd’s paper a few pages farther on.

t Captain Manley has informed me that once when he was at Holyhead (Wales)
a person living there went out to shoot woodcocks, expecting them to have arrived
on their autumnal migration, and was not disappointed, having returned in two hours
with about eighteen or twenty brace : the next day they were all gone. When that
officer was stationed at Malta a flight of woodcocks came, and great numbers were

238

SCOLOPACID^.

island is destitute of wood. They were remarkably scarce in the
winter of 1833-34^ and had not been plentiful in the two
preceding years.*

Mr. G. Jackson (gamekeeper to the Earl of Bantry at Glen-
gariff for the last ten years) states^ that on the woodcocks^ arrival
from their northern breeding-places they are always seen first on
the very western shores. He has invariably found them near
Dursey Island some days before they appeared inland. This fact
is well known to sportsmen living on the western coast of Ireland.
In the south-west of England likewise — in Devon and Cornwall —
woodcocks are said to appear on their autumnal flight long before
they are seen on the north of that country.!

Many kinds of birds are driven, by severe weather, from Scot-
land across the Channel to the north of Ireland, and, among
others, the woodcock. MTien there is an appearance of a con-
tinued frost or snow, it is commonly remarked by sportsmen that
we shall have woodcocks from Scotland. During the great snow-
storm in the spring of 1827, I had fair evidence of the truth of
this remark. In beatiug some covers in the neighbourhood of
Belfast that had been most carefully gone over the day before
without a woodcock being sprung, these birds were met with
in unusual numbers ; and, from what I know of the habits of
the species, in connexion with the locality and the state of
the weather, I should certainly say they were not supplied
from other quarters in Ireland. The atmosphere (it may be
remarked, though without any reference to the woodcock) was in a
most singularly humid state that day, so much so as to render the

killed : they remained for two or three days. Mr. Wilkinson, jun., British Vice-
Consul at Syra, stated to me when there, that woodcocks are never seen in that
island in autumn when the wind is southerly ; they appear from October to December
(but stop only for a day ) in great numbers, fifteen to twenty brace being often
killed by one person in a forenoon. A gentleman residing at Berlin has remarked
to me, that woodcocks are never found there in winter, and a friend at Giessen,
that they appear in numbers in INIarch on their northward migration.

* Some remarks on this subject will be found in the ‘ Wild Sports of the West,’
p. 298-802; edit. 1838.

t Selby, vol. ii, p. 108.

THE WOODCOCK.

239

powder in the pans of our guns, which were of the best descrip-
tion, but with the flint locks of that time, so damp that it would
not ignite.

A rather singular circumstance occurred to a friend when cock-
shooting at Eedhall (Antrim) : he fired at a woodcock, which
alone he saw, but on going to the spot where it fell he found, to
his surprise, a fine cock-pheasant dead at its side — the keeper,
who was present, observed the latter bird to fly up within range
of the gun just at the moment the trigger was pulled at the
woodcock. This species is the favourite bird of pursuit with
trained Peregrine falcons, as particularly noticed in the account of
the latter, in the first volume of this work. The woodcock is
very expert in escaping the sportsman; seeing whom, when
sprung, it wheels or turns most adroitly to avoid him. T have
known an old sportsman to be much annoyed by his failing to
get a shot at one which, for a considerable part of a winter,
frequented a certain portion of a glen on his property, near a
bridge. The bird, on being raised, always wheeled suddenly
under the arch, and escaped.

On examination of the stomachs of thirteen woodcocks, killed
at different periods and in every kind of weather, from October to
March, one was found to contain only small pebbles ; ten, vege-
table matter, chiefly ConfervcE (in one instance an aquatic moss) ;
several of them worms of small or moderate size, insect larvae,
aquatic Coleoptera, together with a few pebbles. The vegetable
matter, of which there is often a considerable quantity, probably
remains intact after the gastric juice has acted on the worms and
other animal food, and thus appears disproportionate to the other
contents.

Varieties. — The woodcock is subject to considerable variety in
plumage, becoming sometimes white or fawn-coloured, and occasionally
exhibiting a mixture of both colours. One correspondent has a spe-
cimen with white wings, and another mentions a black woodcock (not
Scolopax Sabmi) having been shot in December 1841, in Queen’s-
county. One with cream-coloured primaries was shot at Castlereagh,

240

SCOLOPACID^.

near Belfast, in the winter of 1818 or 1819; and, in February 1845,
a bird with about a dozen white feathers in one wing, and a few in
the other, was killed at Tolly more Park.

Major T. Walker, in a letter to me, written in April 1846, and dated fi'om the
Lodge, Kyle, Enniscorthy, remarked ; — “ I have shot a great deal of cock and snipe in
Carniola (by Laibach), Styria, and Hungary, and never found, among the woodcocks,
more than the one species such as we meet with in Ireland ; hut the year before last
I shot here, in Wexford, a cock different from any I have ever met with, and of
which I have since seen a specimen in the cabinet of Natural History at Vienna,
under the name of Scolopax saturata. Although in full condition, it was much
smaller than the usual cocks ; the breast was as light- coloured as in the common, but
of a reddish instead of a greyish-brown. On the neck, back, and shoulders, there
was not any of the ^ellowish-hvown markings, but all were of a rich, deep brown.
The entire of the brown colouring of the breast, back, shoulders, &c., would be given
by different shades of burnt terra-sienna. The first long feather of each wing exhi-
bited a marked difference from those of any other cock I have seen, by being barred
with blackish-brown and buff on the outer web, where others have a plain buff or
white stripe, or are chequered with these colours. The form of the dark markings
also differs, by being pyramidal. The feathers resemble the second long ones in the
wing of the ordinary woodcock.” Major Walker observed further, at a subsequent
date, in reply to some queries ; — “ I am well acquainted with the difference in size
and plumage of the male and female woodcock, as my favourite diversion is cock and
snipe-shooting; and I have, I believe, shot more of these birds here (co. Wexford)
each year than any person in the neighbourhood. On ground which I had in Styria,
I shot upwards of ninety cocks in one month (November) ; still I never met with a
woodcock of which I had the least doubt except this one. The man who has attended
me shooting for upwards of ten years, on taking it up, said instantly, ‘ Here’s a sort
of cock we never met before.’ Looking at YarreU’s plate of Scol. Sabini, it is cer-
tainly not the bird, as it resembles a snipe more than a cock, and has not the brown
bars on the top of the head, nor the barred wing-feathers [1st primaries].” I have
thought it proper to put the above description on record, though unable to give any
positive opinion on the species of the bird. Possibly it may have been a small speci-
men, differing in colour only from the ordinary woodcock. The Scol. saturata of
Dr. Horsfield, as originally described, it could hardly hav^e been. His description
of the species is ; — “ S. rostro subelongato apice tuberculato, supra ex nigro saturatis-
simo castaneoque variegata subtus pallidior.

“This is one of the rarest of Javan birds, found once only near a mountain-lake at
an elevation of 7,000 feet above the ocean.

“ At the base of the lower mandible is a small whitish spot ; the anterior part of the
neck is transversely banded with black and chestnut ; the breast and abdomen are
sooty-black, with irregular dusky bands.” AU that is said of dimensions is, length
twelve inches. (Dr. Horsfield on Birds of Java in ‘ Linnean Transactions,’ vol. xiii.
p. 191 ; 1821.)

Mr. Dillwyn stated, in his ‘Fauna and Flora of Swansea,’ published in 1848

THE WOODCOCK.

241

that the wliite woodcock, mentioned by Bewick for its remarkable reappearance in
three successive winters, is still preserved at Penrice Castle” (p. 8).

Numhers reported to have been Idlled, — Tlie ^ Sporting Beview ^
for October 1847, contains an extremely interesting article (dated
Sweden, December 1846^^) from tlie pen of a distinguished
sportsman, Mr. Lloyd, entitled ^Woodcock and Snipe Shooting^
(p. 249-260). The author descants on the sport to be had in
various parts of Europe, and gives his experience in Ireland very
fully. I shall extract what is said of numbers killed.

“ A field-officer of the Tipperary militia, with whom I was in company many years
ago, told me that he himself was present when fifty couple were bagged by an
acquaintance in a single day ! It was for a considerable wager ; the individual per-
forming the feat being unlimited as to the number of guns, &c. I forget the name
of the cover, but it was one of the best in Ireland, and of coiu’se strictly preserved.
Again, the late Lord Glentworth assured me that, in 1 842, Mr. Matthew Barrington
and his party, probably consisting of five or six guns, bagged in one day, on Lord
Limerick’s property, Dromore Wood, seventy-two couple. Though in former years,
from 1814 to 1822, I have occasionally shot in various parts of Ireland, I never had
any extraordiuary success with cocks ; but this was attributable to my not happening
to shoot in good covers when the frost was severe and the snow deep on the ground.
At such times, by the concurrent testimony of every one, many of the woods in that
country are literally alive with those birds. Nevertheless, I have frequently met
with excellent diversion. One day I bagged fifteen couple ; another day, twelve ; and
on many different occasions from ten to eleven couple. During the several excur-
sions made to that country I shot hard upon 700 couple. * * * Should a man
be fortunate enough to get access to a succession of first-rate covers, he might, I
have little doubt, readily kill 500 couple to his own gun in a single season. But to
obtain this privilege is a matter of great difficulty. * * * At Mncruss, Killar-
nCy, one day, Mr. Chichester Oxenden killed, with a single barrel, twenty-two and
a half couple ; but this gentleman is a very first-rate shot, particularly at cocks.

“ The system of battues, as with us, is now very general ; but these seldom take
place until about Christmas, by which time the severity of the weather usually drives
the cocks from the mountains into cover. The show is then often immense, and the
slaughter proportionally great. Individuals have assured me that on these occasions
they have seen from 200 to 300 couple on the wing in the course of the day, and
there is no reason to doubt the statement. For my own part, however, I do not
think I ever flushed more than from twenty-five to thirty couple ; but then I usually
shot in a quiet way, and alone.

‘'Taken altogether, my best season in Ireland was 1820. I commenced on the
5th December, and finished towards the end of March. Generally speaking, the
weather was mild and very rainy, and of course unfavourable for woodcocks.” [The
number of aU kinds of birds, &c., killed is given ; but it is very small in every

VOL. II. B

SCOLOPACID^.

U'Z

instance except in tlie case of the woodcock and snipe, of the former of which 414,
and of the latter 1,310, head were bagged.]

“ But after all, the cock-shooting, even in Ireland, is hardly to be compared to
what is to be met with in some other parts of the world. For instance, Sir Hyde
Parker, in a letter to me dated June 10th, 1844, when speaking of a trip to the
Mediterranean, from whence he had recently returned in his yacht, says, — ‘ We
killed 450 cocks in ten days, and the party who preeeded us killed 650 in the same
number of days.’ Great as was the slaughter described by the baronet, it was
equalled by Messrs. Oxenden and Berkeley. From a printed list sent me by the
former, it appears these gentlemen bagged, in twenty -one days’ shooting in the
Morea, 862 woodcocks ; — their best day was eighty.”

Woodcocks may, on the whole, be stated to have become gra-
dually scarcer with the improvement of the country and increase
of population ; but in some seasons there is a considerable increase
to the ordinary numbers : the last in which this occurred was
the winter of 1837-38. In the month of January about 100
brace were obtained by occasional shooting in ToUymore
Park, county Down, the seat of the Earl of Eoden; and the
gamekeeper considers that he saw as many as eighty brace in one
day :* — 130 brace fell to the gun of the Hon. John L. Cole, at
Florence Court (Fermanagh) and Hazlewoodf (Sligo) ; thirty
brace being shot before Christmas, and the remainder in February.
In the neighbourhood of Belfast also, more were seen late in the
season than had been for many years : at the termination of a
severe frost towards the end of January, great numbers were on sale
in the shops of the town. About Downpatrick, too, they were said
to have been abundant during the frost. Throughout that win-
ter, indeed, they were particularly plentiful in the shops at Bel-
fast ; but the supply was said to have been derived from the
neighbouring Scotch counties of Ayr and Wigton.

Mr. Bell, many years gamekeeper at Shanes-Castle Park (Antrim),

* In the severe snow-storm of 1827, three gentlemen on a visit here, and not
going out before noon, killed and bagged seventy- live brace in three days ; as they
did not look after wounded birds, many more which had fallen by their guns were
afterwards picked up.

The gamekeeper has, Avith a brace of pointers, shot eight brace during a forenoon
in the heath skirting the plantations of the park ; within which, aided by a boy to
beat the covers, he has obtained ten brace in the same time.

t A few winters previously (as I learn from Lord Enniskillen) sixty-live brace
were killed at Hazlewood by three guns, in as many days.

THE WOODCOCK.

243

informed me in 1839^ that many years previously he had known
twenty-two brace of woodcocks to be killed there in a day by one
gun. About thirty years before that time^, he was in attendance
on Lord O^Neill;, at Killarney, when his lordship and Major Hig-
ginson killed, to their own two guns, in three or four days, 173
brace.'^ A sporting friend visiting at Loss, county of Galway, in
the winter of 1842 or 1843 mentions that seventy brace were
killed by five guns during three days^ shooting about Cliristmas ;
— twenty-seven and a half brace were bagged on one of the days.
It was considered a bad year for woodcocks in that quarter.
There is still, he states, excellent cock-shooting in many of the
county Galway covers.

Departure. — In March the woodcock generally takes its depar-
ture from the north of Ireland, and is rarely seen at the end of
the month ; so late as April the 5th, 1833, two appeared near
BeKast ; and in 1836, the gamekeeper at Tollymore Park shot
four and a half brace on the 7th, and three and a half on the
11th of April — much the latest migratory birds he had ever met
with. At Ennishowen, in the most northern portion of the
island, a sportsman assures me that he has seen woodcocks in the
heath when April was far advanced : here also they have occurred
particularly early in the season. But for what has previously
been stated (p. 238), we might expect this to be one of the first
parts of Ireland for them to touch at in autumn, and, consequently,
one of the last for them to leave in spring.

Woodcocks in Islay.

The island of Islay, off the western coast of Scotland, has been noted
for furnishing good woodcock-shooting, of the truth of which I liad

* Daniel, iu his ‘ Rural Sports’ (vol.iii. p. 172), mentions, but without stating time*
or place, that “ in Ireland, the Earl of Clermont shot fifty brace in a day,” adding,
“ but then it should be premised, that such was the abundance of these birds as to be
sold in some parts (for instance near Bally shannon, in the county of Donegal) for
one penny each and the expense of powder and shot.” Ravensdale Park, one of
the seats of Viscount Clermont (a title lately become extinct) at the base of the high
mountains between Newry and Dundalk, is apparently one of the finest localities
I have ever seen for woodcocks when di’iven from the mountains by frost or snow.

* The volume whence this is extracted (the octavo edition) was published in 180;'.

R 2

244

SC0L0PAC1DJ3.

some means of judging, whilst spending the month of January, 1849,
at Ardimersy, on its south-east coast, with a kind relative who rents the
best sporting portion of the island, including the choicest covers for
cocks. Since the present intelligent head keeper (Peter Mackenzie)
came there nine years ago, these birds have been considered to be
becoming annually scarcer, excepting in the season of 1846-47, when
they were plentiful. On the best day that winter, it is stated, that
fifty-three birds were killed by four guns, and about as many more
seen ; twenty-seven fell to the keeper himself. On one day that season
fifty were killed by four guns about Islay House ; said to have been
the greatest number ever shot there. Mr. Campbell and the keeper
(taking, I believe, different sides of the cover) reckoned how many
‘‘flushes” of cocks there were in the course of a day; when the one
counted 115, and the other 121 ; the same bird would, of course,
in some instances be sprung more than once. This was about the
greatest number ever flushed during one day in the Ardimersy covers, —
the best in Islay ; 1,000 birds are said to have been killed that season
at Ardimersy and Islay House together ; and the half of that number
to have been obtained in other seasons.

The winter of 1848-49, to the end of January, was considered the
worst season for woodcocks ever known on the island,* We shot
daily (five guns, and with the aid of ten beaters), from January the 1st
to the 6th inclusive ; and though for the last four of these days there
had been more severe frost than known there for many years, about
twenty-live brace was the most we saw in a day, the half of which was
the greatest number bagged within the same time.f In the covers at
Islay House, about the latter number (twelve and a half brace) were
killed during two days, at that period. All persons questioned on
the subject agreed that the westerly, north-westerly, or northerly
winds bring the cocks to the eastern or Ardimersy side of the
island. They also attribute the small number of birds seen here this
season to the prevalence of south-east winds, which almost constantly
prevailed throughout November, December, and January. The wes-

* Sometimes there is as good cock-shooting in February as in any other month.
By beating the heathery glens the keeper has had good sport in March. One day in
that month Mr. Campbell, juu, and he, shot, the one eight and the other eight and
a half brace on the high mountain heaths. The former number was likewise bagged
by the keeper during two hours, in March 1848.

t The largest apd reddest birds proved on dissection to be females.

THE WOODCOCK.

245

terly wind is said to drive the birds from the other side of the island
to the eastern on account of better shelter, thoug’h there is very good
about Islay House, — deficient, however, in the bottom or low cover
which woodcocks like. I was struck with the correctness of the pre-
ceding remark on the 15 th of January, when, although the weather
for the previous ten days had been excessively wet, a considerable
number of cocks were seen in the covers ; the wind being westerly. It
changed to south-east in the afternoon, and though not blowing nor
raining, the same covers, on being beaten next day, did not contain
more than one for ten birds of the day before. A herd, on the moun-
tain above the covers, saw four or five in company at twilight on the
15th fiying in a westerly direction. Snow and frost on the mainland
of Scotland have always been remarked to drive woodcocks in numbers
to Islay. The keeper has never met with them in quantity after arri-
val from higher latitudes, but has seen them so in spring when about
leaving for the north. He imagined this increase to come from the
mainland of Scotland ; but is it not more probably from Ireland ? The,
earliest seen by him in autumn appeared at the end of September,*
and the latest in spring, early in April, except in one season, the sum-
mer of 1844, when a few remained.! At the beginning of August,
eight were flushed together, and believed to be parents with their two
broods. One or two had oecasionally been seen on their twilight flight
during that summer. Woodcocks are considered here to leave the
covers during the ordinary period of their stay, for the heaths, in open
weather, as they cannot bear the drip of the trees during long-con-
tinued rain.

Woodcock shooting, one of the most “ exhilarating ” of sports, was
enjoyed in perfection at Islay, during the few days that the ground
was crisped by frost, — the pleasantest of all times for exereise indepen-
dently of the satisfaction of being able to walk throughout the day
without wetting the feet. In this shooting there were attractions here

* In beating the extensive plantations at Dunskey, near Portpatrick, Scotland,
on the 21st October, 1844, for pheasants and other game, we saw one woodcock,
the first met with there that season. On the 26th, six brace were seen ; from which
time they continued to increase, and were met with during the winter, as many
being in the plantations in mid- winter as at the migratory periods : sixty brace were
killed by occasional shooting.

t P. Mackenzie, when keeper at Wynyard Park, Durham, once killed five wood-
cocks on the 2nd of April, which was more than had ever before been killed there on
one day.

246

SCOLOPACID^.

wliich we have not in Ireland, great numbers of black-game being
seen, the old males of which noble species frequently rose “ on jetty
wing” before us ; and though it was legally, too late in the season to
shoot them, they were not therefore the less admired. The graceful
roe-deer, unknown in the more western island, often sallied from the
covers in little troops, but were allowed to pass unharmed, as were the
fallow-deer also, which are common in some places. Pheasants, snipes,
hares and rabbits were daily added to the bag, with frequently wood
and rock-pigeons and golden plover.

Most extensive ranges of the finest covers, being all wholly wild
(around the shooting-lodge only, or in the demesne have trees been
artificially planted), were greatly the more attractive on that account ;
and many of them, occupying the sides of mountains and other elevated
grounds, afforded from their borders, or the paths made through
them for the purpose of shooting, extensive and magnificent prospects
over land and sea. The island itself exhibited great variety of sur-
face. The lower ranges of mountains are ruggedly picturesque ;
the higher are of an opposite configuration, and with their grey, sterile
summits have a simply majestic aspect. Little tarns here and there
shone forth in their hollows ; and abundance of natural wood clothing
the ground at various altitudes, imparted a finished appearance to the
whole. The iron-bound coast of the island displayed at all times,
around its innumerable grim, jagged promontories, the dashing, snow-
white foam, while far within them, quiet little bays stole up as it were
into the land, from the storms of ocean, to enjoy the calm and placid
beauty in which they reposed. The islets lying oflP the coast of Islay
were of various scenic character, some bold and rocky, others level and
green as the most verdant lawn. The lofty Paps of Jura — grand
objects, owing to their fine conical form, whencesoever they are viewed
— rose comparatively near, while the eye swept the whole range of
ocean along the western coast and far to the north and south of
Cantire and its tributary islets, over which, in the distance, towered
the undulating mountain-profile of Arran, the additional purity of whose
aspect under snow denoted its superior elevation to all other heights
within view. A elear atmosphere rendered Pathlin and the northern
mountains of Ireland (Knocklaid, &c.) distinctly visible.

THE WOODCOCK.

247

Breeding of the Woodcock in Ireland.

All the particulars on this subject which I had learned until
January 1 83 were then published in the ^Annals of Natural
History.^ They shall be repeated here^ with the omission of the
comments upon them, but with the addition of the positive in-
formation since acquired.

Of the woodcock’s actual breeding in this country I have not seen
any record, and of its presence in summer only the following notice,
which appeared first in the ‘ Belfast Commercial Chronicle,’ and sub-
sequently in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ vol.ii. p. 87. On
the 8th of August, 1828, a fine woodcock was shot in Florida demesne,
county of Down ; as it was seen in the course of the spring, it is
supposed to have remained in the country since last winter.” In the
county of Kerry one of these birds was observed in the month of July
1832 : — it is thought proper to mention odd birds seen at this season,
as they can hardly be presumed in every instance to have been solitary
individuals, though their mates may have escaped notice. In the
county of Antrim^ at the opposite extremity of the island from Kerry,
a pair of woodcocks bred at Claggan, the property of Earl O’Neill, in
] 834. The gamekeeper, in the month of April that year, found a nest
containing four eggs, all of which were successfully incubated. It was
placed in a slight depression of the ground under a hazel, and had a
little grass and moss in the bottom for the reception of the eggs : the
bird was very tame when on the nest, and permitted the keeper’s
approach within a yard : — the tameness of the woodcock on its nest is,
indeed, mentioned by Pennant and Latham, and from the observation
of many persons who have witnessed it, seems to be universal. In
that year (1834), also, I saw a young woodcock in the shop of Mr.
Glennon, bird-preserver, Stc., Dublin, who mentioned that it was shot
at Wilton, county of Wexford, and was received by him in a recent
state on the 8th or 9th of May : he at the same time stated, that in
the preceding summer of 1833, a young bird, shot in company with
one of its parents, at the seat of Lord de Vesci, in Queen’ s-county, was
sent to him to be preserved. Capt. T. Walker, of Belmont, Wexford,
favoured me with the following particulars, in May 1837. “As to the
breeding of woodcocks in this country, I was, in the second week of

SCOLOPACIM.

M8

May, sent a couple of young ones half-fledgecl,* that were taken out of
a nest at Wilton in this county, the seat of Mr. Alcock. The nest was
on the ground among brushwood, and the cry of the young birds like
the sound produced by a child’s whistle ; this is the third year they
have bred at Wilton. At the time I received the young birds, there
was at Ballyarthur, county of TFicklow, the seat of Mr. Bailey, a nest
with four eggs in it.” Capt. Walker subsequently mentioned the
woodcock as breeding in the covers of Killoughrim Wood, Wexford,
and remarked that the young which he had examined, “ although fully
as large as old birds, had not got the strong feathers in the tail, but a
soft curly down instead.” In the month of June or July 1836, a
woodcock was shot, and another seen about the same time at Springvale
(Down), the residence of Major Matthews. On the 4th of June, 1837,
an old female bird was killed at the vale of Ovoca, Wicklow. In May
1 838, a woodcock was captured at Stormont, near Belfast. In the
month of June 1837, a woodcock was seen at Shanes-Castle Park
(Antrim), by Adams, the gamekeeper, who stated that about ten years
previously he had seen a young bird which was found by a man
engaged in cutting whins — among which the nest was placed — near
Glenarm Park, in the same county. An adult bird was also seen there
in the summer of 1840 or 1841. At Markree Castle, county Sligo
(the seat of E. J. Cooper, Esq.), a brood of four young birds was met
with at the end of May 1838 ; the first known to have been produced
there. Three pair at least reared broods in Gurteen Wood, county of
Tipperarg, in the summer of 1841.f Young native-bred woodcocks
were sold that season in Dublin market, and an adult bird was pro-
cured alive in the month of June, at Malahide, a few miles from the
metropolis. f In 1842, a gentleman informed me that two or three
pair had bred for several years lately at the country seat of a relative
of his in the county of Carlow. At Divernagh Glen {Armagh), within
three miles of Newry, two pair bred in 1844. H In July that year, one
or two old birds were seen by the gamekeeper in Hillsborough Park.
Two broods were observed at Donard Lodge, adjoining Tollymore Park,
in the summer of 1842 ; and in that of 1843 two nests and one brood
of young birds. At Clanvarrachan, two miles from Castlewellan, and
in the same district as the last-named place, a nest was discovered for

* One of these was kindly sent to me by Capt. Walker. f Mr. R. Davis, Jun.

X Mr. R. Ball. |1 Mr. Janies Mac Adam, Jun.

THE WOODCOCK.

249

the first time in 1843. In 1845 a number of nests — “ from a dozen
to twenty ” — were said to have been observed in the demesne of
Florida. The four last-named localities are in the county of Down,
On the 1st of May, 1848, a young woodcock was caught in a field
near a cover at Powerscourt, Wicklow. It was apparently about six
weeks old, which seemed far advanced for that late spring. The speci-
men was presented by Colonel Greaves to the Museum of Trinity
College, Dublin.*

As Florence Court, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen in 'Fermanagh^
would be a most suitable breeding-haunt for the woodcock, I inquired
when there some years ago if nests had ever been found, and was
replied to in the negative. Lord Enniskillen having now (Oct. 1849)
kindly questioned his present and former keepers, informs me that
the bird was never known to breed there by either, and that the latter
had never heard his father speak of having seen the woodcock in sum-
mer, as he certainly would have done had such a circumstance oc-
curred ; — “ thus (as his lordship remarks) there is what may fairly be
considered equivalent to the evidence of three generations of keepers
(grandfather, father, and son) against the woodcock having bred in the
covers at Florence Court.”

To the preceding mere casual notices, I am happy to be enabled to
give the observations of several consecutive years at one locality.
These were communicated to me by Mr. James Creighton, gamekeeper
to the Earl of lloden, and relate to Tollymore Park, in the county of
Down, the residence of that nobleman.

This park is beautifully situated at the base of the mountains of
Mourne — which rise to nearly 3,000 feet in altitude — and possesses
considerable variety of surface, abundance of wood of various size,
with occasional moist open glades that even in the driest summer
would afford food to the woodcock. In 1835, the gamekeeper first
(though living there since 1828) became acquainted with the fact, that
these birds continued throughout the summer in the park. The first
nest he saw, which had the appearance of a partridge’s or pheasant’s,
was situated in a young plantation, at the foot of a larch fir. It con-
tained four eggs, on which the old bird sat so close as to allow him and
other persons to approach within a foot. When they came very near,

* Mr. R. Ball.

250

SCOLOPACIDiE.

she was always observed to hide her bill to its base in the grass or
withered ferns about the nest ; the eggs were all productive, and were
(he thinks) incubated for three weeks. The young left the nest just
after birth, and were not again seen until able to use their wings, when
they frequently appeared about the place: the male bird remained
about a dozen paces from the nest during the incubation of his partner.
From other woodcocks having been seen in the park that summer, it
was believed that they must also have had nests, but the one only was
discovered; eventually, however, a second pair of woodcocks was
sprung along with five young ones, the old birds taking first to flight :
the young — completely feathered, except on the head and neck, where
down was still displayed — were able to fly over the trees, whilst those
produced in the nest alluded to, were but three days “ out.”

In the summer of 1836, my informant saw in one day five old wood-
cocks in the park (the same bird, he is certain, could not have been
twice reckoned) ; and though he had not seen any of their nests that year,
he on one occasion saw three young birds. He is of opinion that wood-
cocks pair before leaving this country in the spring for more northern
climates,* and remarks, that in their evening flight at this season they
“ twist ” amazingly, the hinder one following the foremost through
every curve or sinuosity of its course, which is extremely rapid. Their
call may now be expressed by the word Imp^ his accurate repetition of
which has brought them back when flying past him ; during the
breeding-season they, in addition to this, have calls which sound like
waap-waap — weep-weep, succeeding each other, and repeated as here set
down: both sexes are considered to make use of the two calls. f At
the season of incubation, they call at early dawn, and their flight is now
very different from that in the month of March, being slow or with the
wings scarcely moving. Occasionally they may be seen circling about
“as if in play,” at all events, describing such a course as evinces
that they cannot be in search of food. In winter, woodcocks have a
regular line of flight from the covers to their feeding-ground ;
and my informant, by taking his stand at particular spots, has shot
many of them. X

* I have frequently remarked that they kept in pairs, or that a pafr would be
sprung from near the same spot throughout the winter, both in covers and on the
mountain heaths.

t When quietly sprung in winter, I have heard them utter a low note.

X The Rev. G. Robinson, when residing at Parkview, Tanderagee (Armagh), re-

THE WOODCOCK.

251

111 1837, three nests were found at Tolly more, the first early in the
month of April, when it was surrounded with snow ; they were all
sheltered by young trees, and one of them within twenty yards of where
a nest had been the preceding year : in each were four eggs, all of
which were productive, the young appearing in April. The nests
observed here to this time have, in every instance, been in slight hollows
of the ground, with a little grass or dead leaves in the bottom, for
lining. To withdraw attention from one of these nests when con-
taining young, the parent tumbled about as if wounded, thus feigning
to a greater extent than the keeper had ever before witnessed in any
species of bird ; at the same time she gave utterance to a note distinct
from those before mentioned ; as expressed to me, “ screeching with
rage — when disturbed during incubation, they merely fluttered ofl‘
the eggs, and alighted at a short distance. The young birds are said
to be beautiful in the down, being mottled with black where their
parents are so, and cream-coloured where the latter are brown. About
the second week of June, a fourth brood was seen, of which the nest
was not found.

In 1838, one nest, containing four eggs (the ordinary number), was
observed in the park ; the young appeared in April : by the middle of
which month they have generally come out here.* Long after the
general departure of the woodcocks for the north this year, the game-
keeper saw what he believed to be five distinct brace of these birds in
one portion of the park, and considered that they were more numerous
than in any previous summer. The nests were not discovered as usual,
in consequence of boys, by whom they were all found on former occa-
sions, not having been employed in the young plantations. Daily
throughout the year, the keeper now either sees or hears woodcocks

marked during the month of December 1848, that these birds had a regular line of
flight, his garden being the place over which they flew, either singly or two in com-
pany. The time was at dusk, about half-past fom’ o’clock, p. m. A number of shots
were fired at them (though ineffectually) by his servant ; but they, nevertheless, con-
tinued to take the same course daily.

* In the ninth volume of Loudon’s ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ p. 543, it is
stated of three nests found in a wood near Derby, that the young were hatched in the
month of April. In vol. i. (Second Series) of the same work, it is remarked, in a
notice of its breeding in Ross-shire, that the woodcock “ hatches early, often at the
latter end of March, but generally by the first week of April.” On the 10th of the
latter month, the writer of the communication to the Magazine, saw woodcocks
sitting on their nests, one of which contained eggs.

252

SCOLOPACID^.

without, going out of his way to look after them ; they fly very much
about his cottage, situated in a beautiful open glade, and from near
its door may be seen on wing every evening. I obtained all the pre-
ceding information when at Tollymore Park in x^ugust 1836, and
June 1838. On the 28th of the latter month I visited the park in the
hope of seeing some of these birds; but the evening was so fine and
light that they did not commence flying until very late, and then dark-
ness suddenly came on. At half-past nine o’clock the first were heard,
when a pair swept past within about thirty yards, uttering the two suc-
cessive calls, as above described. Prom this time, until half an hour
had elapsed — when it was in vain to attempt seeing them — several
single birds were heard : they gave utterance only to the other call,
stated to resemble in sound the word liisp quickly uttered,

1843. — Since 1838, the number of woodcocks remaining to breed in
Tollymore Park has been on the increase. In 1842, nine nests were
observed, and in 1843 twenty-two! In the latter year, a brood of
young birds was seen on the first of August, within thirty paces of the
gamekeeper’s cottage ; three of them flew off when approached, but
the fourth remained and was captured. Its plumage was complete
except on the neck, where down appeared. When once “ coming on ” a
brood of these birds, the keeper was made aware of their presence by the
parent rising within about four feet of him with what he considered to
be a young one in its claw, with which it flew about twenty yards into
the wood. On alighting, sueh an outcry was kept up that he felt sure
more young birds must be near. Por some time he could not perceive
them, they so much resembled the colour of the ground ; but at length
three were espied, within five feet of where he stood. When he first saw
them, they squatted elose to the ground with their bills resting on it ;
but the moment his eye was fixed on them, they rose to their feet, threw
up their wings in the grotesque manner of an owl, and inclined their
bodies awkwardly, first to one side and then to the other. He lifted
one, examined its plumage, and set it down with the others, then
walked away to a short distance, when they all rose and flew off, quite
strong on the wing. The gamekeeper has particularly remarked that
young woodcocks lie squatted on the ground until his eye rested full
upon them, which invariably acted as a signal for them to get on
their feet.”

So early as the 8th of Mareh, 1845, the keeper remarked in a letter

THE WOODCOCK.

253

to me ; — I see they are breeding with us this year again.” A great
number were bred that season, “ some seores of young birds ” having-
been observed by him. They seemed to be almost as plentiful as for-
merly in an ordinary winter. In 1846, there were not so many. In the
last week of May that year, young birds as large as their parents
were seen ; and, on the 30th of the month, a nest with eggs, quite
fresh, was found. Until this date, fifteen broods were known to the
keeper to have been brought out. A nest was observed within
fourteen yards of the spot where one containing four large young birds
W'^as noticed in the preceding year ; and within two yards of w^hieh,
another bird was at the same time raised from its nest with four eggs.

In the years 1847, 1848, and 1849, woodcocks bred abundantly
in Tollymore Park, not less than thirty nests having been seen each
year, but they have now become so commonplace as to be compara-
tively little noticed. These birds are considered by the keeper
to breed twice from the circumstance of his observing them on
their nests from Pebruary to July ; in the first week of which latter
month this year (1849) he saw a nest containing but one fresh-
laid egg. The sites of the nests are discovered by the manner in
which “ the hen flies about in easy circles, uttering her whaap-wliaap,
hisp, hisp^ and pointing her head and eye towards the spot where the
young rest on a soft bed of leaves, grass, or anything that may have
been near the place selected.” The keeper believed himself, as al-
ready noticed, to have witnessed the old hen cariying off her young
when suddenly disturbed. Under the impression of his having been
deceived in this matter, he several times followed hens apparently
thus burthened to wPere they alighted, and saw them run off with-
out any young bird being there. It is, he says, “ the body behind
the wings, the tail, legs, and feathers of the belly, that she droops down
in a peculiar manner, that gives the appearance of a young bird being-
clutched up.” He has several times been quite near to birds presenting
the appearance here described.*

Several instances of the parent carrying the young in its foot are brought
together in Yarrell’s ‘British Birds’ (vol. ii. p. 591). Mr. St. John remarks, that
“ regularly as the evening conies on, many woodcocks carry their young ones down
to the soft feeding-grounds, and bring them back again to the shelter of the woods
before daylight. * * * j j^ave often seen them going down to the swamps in

the evening, carrying their young with them. Indeed, it is quite evident that they
must in most instances transport the newly-hatched birds in this manner, as their
nests are generally placed in dry heathery woods, where the young would inevitably

254

SCOLOPACID^.

The birds bred in this park are believed to remain constantly in or
about it ; no diminution of numbers, as in some of the Scottish woods,
having been observed between the time that the young are able to
migrate and the first flight arrives from the north of Europe. On the
evening of the 19th of September (1849), when the letter containing
these observations was written to me, several birds were seen, as they are
daily at all times. In August or September they begin to alter their
summer evening excursions, and take more to their winter habit of
visiting the marshes. They become quite silent, and if not sprung in
the woods, are seen only in the twilight or by night. The keeper has
imagined that he knew the native birds when shot during the winter, by
their being a little smaller in size, and lighter in colour, than the migra-
tory ones ; — an opinion in which two sportsmen whom he attended last ^
season were disposed to coincide. Eor the first week of woodcock
shooting, the birds were very plentiful and all of the light colour, while
afterwards the larger and darker-coloured birds made their appearance.

On visiting Tolly more Park (accompanied by Mr. K. Ball), at the
end of September 1849, I saw a nest formed chiefly of furze or whins
of which there is a considerable quantity ; the other component mate-
rial being the twigs of larch-fir. This nest, on account of the singular
substance of which it is composed, was carefully preserved, and with its
four eggs is kept as a curiosity in Lord Boden’s study. The site of a
nest within twenty yards of the keeper’s house was pointed out ; it is
placed on a gently sloping bank, from which some noble beech and
other ornamental trees arise. The ground was hollowed out for this nest,
and a large number of beech-leaves used in its construction ; ivy trailed
on the bank around, and woodbine arched itself lightly and grace-
fully over it. In such places are many of the nests; none having
ev.er been found among brambles (“briars”) or elose cover of any
kind. They are instead, in rather open places within the covers, and
always on dry ground, the opposite of that on which the birds obtain
their food. They are found at all kinds of elevation, from the base of

perish unless the old ones managed to carry them to some more favom’able feeding-
ground.

“ Nor is the food of the woodcock of such a nature that it could be taken to the
young from the swamps in any sufficient quantity. Neither could the old birds bring
with it the moisture which is necessary for the subsistence of all birds of this kind.
In fact they have no means of feeding their young except by can-ying them to their
food, for they cannot carry their food to them.” — ‘ Tour in Sutherlandshire,’ &c.
vol. ii. p. 164-166.

THE WOODCOCK.

255

the valley to the summit of the dry heathy mountain, whose sides being
clothed with splendid woods, form the chief beauty of Tollymore Park.

The keeper has reckoned the “ flushes ” of woodcocks here in
winter, and considered a hundred brace to be sprung. At other times,
and on different occasions he is sure of having seen, in the course of
a day, 150 brace : — in the year 1838, the most he could mention as
having ever been observed within one day was eighty brace. He has
sprung seven or eight birds together, like a covey of partridges, from
beneath a single holly.

In the young plantations at Donard Lodge (the seat of the Earl of
Annesley), adjoining those of Tollymore Park — the two combined
occupying a nearly continuous extent of four miles on the mountain
side, and in the latter park stretching across l)oth sides of the valley —
not less than a dozen nests of woodcocks were observed during each
of the last three years. As the nests in these two demesnes have not
been sought for, but have been met with merely by chance, many
of them, doubtless, were never discovered. Hence we may perhaps
fairly add eight to the minimum number — forty-two — observed during
the last three years (when they had become so common as to receive
little attention), and consider that they may have contained fifty nests.
I have not seen a record of nearly so many being found in any locality
in England or Scotland as have been in Tollymore Park alone.

The description of the habits of these birds about the period of
incubation, as given by the gamekeeper here, strongly reminded me of
the first good account I had read of the breeding of woodcocks. This
referred to Eoss-shire, and was communicated by Sir Francis Mac-
kenzie to the Zoological Society of London.* The manner of flight is
so diflerent after the birds are paired, from that which the sportsman
is accustomed to witness at other periods, that I am induced to call
attention to the similarity of testimony in the two cases. “ Than the
flight of the woodcock before and after incubation. Sir F. Mackenzie
states, that he knows nothing more rapid, as for an hour or two about
dusk he (probably the male, though two have been seen pursuing each
other) flies in large circles over the tops of the trees.” To a sportsman
at least, words could not better convey an idea of the rapidity of its
flight than those of my informant, who, an experienced shot,” de-

Proceedings of Zool. Society, 1832, Part II. p. 133.

256

SCOLOPACIDtE.

scribes it to be such that he cannot get his gun upon them,” — in other
words, the velocity is so great, as to prevent his taking aim.

For the last century, woodcocks have been noticed as occasionally
breeding in England ; but the instances recorded were very few in
number until of late years. Particular instances of their breeding in
Scotland were published in 1832, and many subsequently.

In a communication made by Mr. Selby in 1837, to the ' Magazine
of Zoology and Botany,’ on “ the woodcock breeding in Scotland,” it
is asked, “ What reason is to be assigned for this change in their
habits ? Is it to be attributed to a change in our seasons, or are we
to look for it in the great increase of woods or plantations so general
over all the island, affording these birds additional and secure retreats,
as well as an abundant and constant supply of food ? ” vol. i. p. 201.
Sir Wm. Jardine (in 1842) attributes the apparently much-increased
instances of the birds breeding in Great Britain to the great attention
which has recently been paid to ornithology, and to such facts being
recorded, as he cannot perceive any change in the country to induce
the birds to remain more frequently now than formerly.*

In the county of Down, Ireland, however, they certainly have much
increased, though gradually, since my attention was directed to the
subject in 1836. This cannot, I conceive, be accounted for by either
cause put hypothetically by Mr. Selby. There was always, as it
appears to me, abundance of plantations in the three kingdoms suited
to the nesting of the woodcock, and the change of seasons, or more
equable climate of late years would render the country the more unlike
what the bird had been accustomed to — the summer of northern and
the winter of temperate Europe.

That their remaining to breed originated from wounded birds unable
to undertake the vernal migration seems to me the most untenable of
all reasons which have been assigned, inasmuch as the same cause
existed at all times. Why should the number of wounded birds have
been greater over the British Islands generally of late years than at
any former period ? Did om* sportsmen become at once more nume-
rous, and them aim less sure ? Of what avail are all the appliances
and means ” of modern “ warfare,” as the patent cartridge, patent
wadding, and percussion caps, if more wounded and unbagged birds
are left behind than formerly !

* ‘Brit. Birds/ vol. iii. p. 171.

THE GEEAT SNIPE.

257

On a full consideration of this interesting question, I ara of opinion
that we cannot arrive at any satisfactory conclusion until we possess a
knowledge of the changes which have taken place in the woodcock’s
former breeding-haunts.

Mr. Hewitson has remarked that : — “ When wandering through
those endless pine-woods [of Norway], it was a very rare occur-
rence to raise a woodcock during the day-time, although in the evening,
towards sunset, and for hours afterwards, numbers of them were
constantly flying to and fro over the trees of the forest, uttering a
kind of chirping note.”*

Mr. George Matthews, during his sporting excursion along the coast
of Norway, in 1 843, saw two only of these birds — in the month of
August, at Bodo — both of which were shot. His notes state that the
Norwegians seem to know little about woodcocks, and in some places
will not eat them. They sometimes collect numerously on the south
coast about Christiania at the beginning of the migratory season,
but their appearance in large numbers is uncertain. One of his com-
panions, when in Norway a few years previously, shot three or four in
the island of Bodo, within the arctic circle, about June. In that month
of 1843, another of his companions shot some young ones at a place
called Hund, on the road between Trondjeim and Christiania. My late
friend observed that, from what he heard, “ they seemed to be much
scattered over the whole of Scandinavia.”

THE GREAT SNIPE.

Solitary Snipe.

Scolopax major, Linn.

Has occasionally been obtained in Ireland.

I HAVE not myself seen any example of this species which had
been killed here ; but have no doubt of its occasional occurrence
in various parts of the country. A veteran and observant sports-
man considers that it must have been this bird which he shot
several times in the outskirts of Belfast more than half a century
ago. He describes it as having been always solitary^ and among

* Eggs, ' Brit. Birds,’ p. 304.

VOL. II. S

258

SCOLOPACID^.

mggans (the yellow flag, Iris pseudaconis), that the flight was
peculiar, the bird being inclined to fly round the place from which
it was sprung, and to alight again about the same spot, even after
being fired at.* Since the fields were drained — nearly fifty years
ago — and the ‘'‘'saggans,^^ of which there were some acres, extirpated,
he has not met with one, nor did he, though shooting a great
deal every season since that period until the last two or three
years, see the species in other localities : he describes the birds
when sprung as looking like small woodcocks in size. In the
year 1831, a lady, well acquainted with our most critical species
of birds, assured me that she had seen a great snipe which had
been killed in the county of Meath. In the ^ Wild Sports of the
West,^ the following passage appears, with reference to the island
of Achil. ^‘^We crossed the bent-banks, occasionally knocking a
rabbit over as we went along, and wheeled to the westward to
skirt the base of Sleive More. We had not proceeded far, before
an islander, who was herding cows, told us that there was a
croivour keogh leg — a little woodcock — in the next ravine. We
accordingly put a setter in, and were gratified with a steady point
in the place the herdsman had intimated. The bird sprang, and
was knocked over by my companion, when the little woodcock
proved to be a double snipe. These birds are extremely scarce
here, and a few couple only are seen during a ■jj^hole season by
persons most conversant in traversing the bogs,^'’ p. 299, ed. 1838.
When in Achil in June 1834, I particularly inquired of Lieut.
Reynolds, R.N., of the Coast Guard Service — an ardent and
indefatigable sportsman — respecting this snipe ; but he had never
seen one in the island. The bird was known to him from his
having once or twice shot it in Wales.

A dog-breaker, who was in the habit of accompanying a relative
of mine when snipe-shooting, told me of a ‘’‘‘woodcock-snipe^"’ which
was killed by my friend in the season of 1834-35, in the county of
Antrim, near Belfast : he described it as having been larger than
the common species, and having the belly barred all over. It
particularly attracted his attention as a bird which he had not
* I have occasionally remarked the common snipe to do the same.

THE GllEAT SNIPE.

259

before seen, though he had been present at the death of many
hundred snipes in the north of Ireland. A snipe was shot near
Belfast by a sporting friend, about the 1st of November, 1837,
that from size and colour he at first sight thought to be a
woodcock : — a few winters previously he had killed a similar bird.
In May 1842, Lieut. Kempe, R.N. — of the Coast Guard Service
—then stationed at Cushendun, describing the species admirably,
assured me that he had shot tliree examples of it, one in England
and tw^o in the south of Ireland. Mr. E. Davis, jun., of Clonmel,
who, like myself, has not met with Irish specimens of the bird, is
of opinion that it has occurred in a few instances in his neigh-
bourhood— four or five, in that number of years — and mentions
what he believes to be this species, being called by sportsmen the
Solitary, and the Silent Snipe. On Eebruary the 2nd, 1837, he
remarked — A friend of mine spent haK a day, about a month
since, in pursuit of one, but could not get a shot at it.'’^

T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, informed me, on November
the 17th, 1841, that the first he had seen of these snipes
was then in course of being preserved by Mr. Glennon. It was
shot a few days before in the county of Xildare. On my calling
the attention of Mr. E. Ball to it, he replied, that he too con-
sidered the bird to be Scolopax major, that it w^eighs eiglit
ounces, is barred on the belly, and wants the lumbar plumes of
sharp feathers possessed by the common and the jack snipe.^^
Through the same means, I heard of another of these birds, that
was shot on the btli of December, 1845, in the county of
Leitrim, by an officer of the 32nd regiment, and sent in a fresh
state to the taxidermist just named. The attention of the gentle-
man mentioned in the latter instance being called to this specimen,
he believed it to be S. major, adding that : — One foot was shot
away, and the tarsus of the other so injured that measurement
was out of the question ; the wing from the carpal joint is rather
more than 5^ inches ; the bill 2i inches ; middle toe and nail
If inches.'’^

In November 1836, Captain (now Major) T. Walker, of Bel-
mont, Wexford, wrote to me respecting the occasional occurrence

s 2

260

SCOLOPACIDJE.

of the solitary snipe in that county, where he had not, however,
met with it since 1830 or 1831. Being further questioned, that
gentleman replied, in July 1846 The solitary snipe I have
at different times shot here is much larger than the common
snipe, hill shorter, plumage nearly alike, with the exception of
the belly, which in the Common is white, but in the Solitary is
speckled with grey and brown. It lies close, and when flushed
makes no cry, flies steadily without twisting, and slower than the
Common (probably from its fatness, and not being a shy bird),
and pitches again, like the jack snipe, after a short flight of thirty
or forty yards. I never heard a cry from it; but sportsmen
abroad have told me it has one, not, however, resembling that
of the common snipe. I believe that every year several come
over, though not found by sportsmen who do not know where to
look for them ; — not in bogs, but in long-grass fields in marshy
neighbourhoods. They frequent these abroad, and are called
meadow-^m^Q (wiesen-scJineg)fe). They breed in the marshes of
Hungary, and, being migratory, come to the marshy district
between Laibach and Upper Laibach, long before any frost could
influence their flight. They remain there not more than a fort-
night, and, I know from sportsmen, are soon afterwards found in
quantities in the Pontine Marshes. The Mouble snipe ^ of
the continent is the same as the bird I have killed in Ireland.
In one winter, about fifteen years ago, solitary snipes were plen-
tifuHn the grassy lands of Hayestown, at the foot of the mountain
of Porth, about four miles from Wexford. Every day I shot
there I got three or four birds : since that time, the ground has
been drained, and ail kinds of snipe have quitted it; but I
generally yet get a few elsewhere in the course of the winters
shooting in the county of Wexford.^^

Mr. G. Jackson, who has been living in the caj)acity of game-
keeper in different parts of - Ireland for nearly thirty years, never
met with any but two birds wliich he considered to be the great
snipe. He was then keeper to Lord Cloncurry, at Lyons
(co. Kildare). The birds rose together from a field of wheat
stubble near the Grand Canal, and not far from the town of Sallins

THE GREAT SNIPE.

261

in October 1827, and were killed by him right and left.’’^ They
were noted at the time as larger than the common snipe, with the
bill rather shorter ; as flying more slow and heavily than that
species, and with the tail spread like an open fan. They were
taken away by the late Earl of Errol, who was on a visit at Lyons
at the time, to be preserved. The great snipe is believed to have
been shot in the county of Kerry.*

Mr. Lloyd, author of ‘ Eield Sports in the North of Europe,^
to whom this species is well known, never met with it in Ireland
during his sporting tours, in the seasons from 1814 to 1822.t

There can be no doubt that many of the birds which have been
noticed were the true S. major ^ which must be considered a rare
visitant to Ireland. I never could meet with one among the
thousands of snipes exposed for sale during the autumn and
winter in Belfast.

Some of these birds visit England not uncommonly — perhaps
annually — on their migration to or from the north of Europe to
breed ; but more especially the young when moving southward
in autumn. There is no positive notice of their occurrence in
Scotland in the works of Fleming, Jardine, or Macgillivray. Mr.
St. John states that he once only met with the species in that
country; — in Sutherlandshire.t The great snipe is mentioned
as having appeared several times in September 1815, in marshy
ground at the island of San day. § As well remarked by Mr.
Selby, The immediate direction of their latitudinal flight is
much to the east of the longitude of the British Islands.'’^ In
Mr. Yarrelhs ^ History of British Birds ^ much interesting in-
formation on this species will be found.

* Mr. R. Chute. f ‘ Sporting Review,’ October 1847, p. 259.

i ‘Wild Sports,’ &c. p. 223. § Hist. Nat. Oread, p. 66 (1848).

262

SCOLOPACID^.

THE COMMON SNIPE.

Heather-bleater,

Bcolopax gallinago, Linn.

Is, from the nature of the country, much more abundant
in Ireland than in Great Britain ; and is partially
indigenous.

Migration. — It breeds at suitable localities in all parts of the
island, without reference to altitude ; equally in the low marshy
tracts and in the bogs on the summits of lofty mountains. The
numbers produced in this country, however, are but a mere frac-
tion of the multitudes which inhabit the bogs throughout the
autumn and winter. So early as the month of August, they
sometimes appear from more northern latitudes, and are tempted
to remain a few days before proceeding southward, which I am
disposed to believe all that arrive at a very early period do.
Circumstantial evidence in three years, at least, favoured this
view. In the beginning of the month of August 1828, there
was excessive rain. Which inundated an extensive tract — a mile in
length — of low-lying meadows near Belfast (well known as the
bog-meadows before they had been mown. Melancholy as
was this prospect to the proprietor, it must have appeared to the
snipe from on high a land overflowing with milk and honey,^^
as a great body of these birds, presumed to have been passing
over on their southward migration, alighted and took up their abode
for several days. The numbers vastly exceeded any tiling of the
kind before seen by sporting friends who went in pursuit of them
as well as myself. Dogs were not required, for the birds ad-
mitted of a very close approach. Every step that we moved —
and much of the promenade was knee-deep in water like the
haunts of the snipe in the paddy or rice-grounds of India‘S —

* The bird of India is, however, generally now eonsidered distinct from that of
Europe. I have not myself had the opportnnity of comparing them. The beautiful
“Painted Snipe” of India, well known in mnseums, is stated by a friend, who has
killed many of them, to be the easiest of all birds to shoot.

THE COMMON SNIPE.

263

several birds were sprung_, and yet it required some resolution to
do mucli execution upon tliem_, for no sooner was the gun about
to be directed at the first bird that caught the eye^ than_, right
and left^ several others would screech ofb and call attention from
it_, so that making choice of the one to fire at ended in a
hurried shot,, the result of which often was that all escaped. To
ensure success we had soon “ to screw our resolution to firing at
the first bird that sprang, and eventually many were killed : they
proved to be in fair condition. On the 13th of August, 1833,
a migratory flock was seen. On the 22nd or 23rd of August,
1836, a dog-breaker met with great numbers of snipes on a
part of the mountain-top near Belfast, that from want of moisture
is ill-suited to the species, and where I have never, even when
in the most favourable state for them, seen more than a single
bird : in this instance they were, I conceive, merely resting from
their flight.

The following notes bear on this subject. In the ^ Wild Sports
of the West,^ the author observes : —

“ I have seen mueh of snipe-shooting in many parts of Ireland, but
I could not have imagined that the number of these exquisite birds
could be found within the same space that one particular marsh which
bounds the rabbit-banks produced. Independently of a quantity of
detached birds, several wisps sprang wildly, as they always do ; and I
have no doubt that this fen had been their temporary resting-place
after their autumnal migration from the north. We were the more
inclined to this opinion, from finding many of the birds we killed
extremely lean ; while others that sprang singly were in admirable con-
dition. Achil is a natural resting-place for migratory birds : and hence
I can well believe the accounts given by the islanders, of the immense
numbers of woodcocks and snipes which are here found, in their transit
from a high latitude to a more genial climate.” — P. 298, edit. 1838.

The period of the year is not mentioned in connexion with the
circumstance in the ^ Wild Sports of the West / but in YarrelPs
^ British Birds ^ it is remarked : —

‘‘ The Rev. Richard Lubbock writes me from Norfolk, that these
birds [snipes] breed there in considerable numbers, which, however.

264

SCOLOPACID^E.

fluctuate greatly in different years, and are never sufficient to account
for the number which sometimes appear in August, in which month as
many snipes may sometimes be killed as at any time of the year.” —
Vol. ii. p. 604.

Towards the month of October, the birds that remain with ns
arrive from the north.* They are said to winter in Tory Island,
off Donegal, though not to breed there.t They are found indeed
generally at that season, on petty islets around the coast.

S7iipe-s/iootmg. — Daily Mights. — The shooting of snipes, as
such, is generally considered inferior sport to that of other birds
which claim the sportsmans attention, but theh abundance in
Ireland greatly exceeding that of the others, is considered a
kind of equivalent, and, accordingly, they are very eagerly
sought after.

The twisting flight of the snipe, which generally proceeds
against the wind, leads persons to believe that it is the most
difficult of birds to shoot ; but this is very much a matter
of practice. A sportsman, accustomed to snipe-shooting, will
kill as many of these birds at a certain number of shots as of any
others indeed, I remember one who, although from practice
a capital snipe shot,^'’ on going, for the first time, in pursuit of
partridges, could not hit one of them. Mr. Poole remarks his

* Mr. St. John has observed with respect to the month of October in Moray-
shire : — “ Immediately on the retiring of a flood in the river [Findhorn], great
numbers of snipes are seen on the mud and refuse left by the water, feeding busily.
Where they come from it is difficult to say, as at this season, except on those occa-
sions, we have no great abundance of these birds.”* In Northumberland, according
to Mr. Selby, they arrive in the greatest number early in November. The history
of the snipe given by the latter author is full and admirable.

I may hei’e remark (though rather out of place) that the observations of Mr. St.
John would apply to Ireland throughout the later portion of autumn and the entire
winter. Persons living in the neighbom’hood of rivers and lakes know with certainty
when and how long, according to the locality, they will obtain snipes after the land
nas been flooded. In some places the flood subsides so rapidly, that these birds will
only be met with for one day, but in others, w'hence the water retires slowly and leaves
a great extent of residuum, they may be found for upwards of a week.

t Mr. G. C. Hyndman.

f; I have been told of thirty-two birds having been killed by a northern marquis
at that number of successive shots.

‘ Tour in Sutherland,’ &c., vol. ii, p. 8.

THE COMMOI'J SNIPE.

265

having heard that_, when flushed by a dog alone, snipes seldom
fly far ; he verifled it by his own observation, adding, that they
easily discriminate between the lesser and the greater tyrant, and
are well aware of the powerlessness of a dog for injury, unless
accompanied by his master.'’^

Mr. Lloyd, who has shot much in different parts of the southern
half (but it only) of Ireland, remarks : —

“ I do not think I ever met with more than fifty or sixty couple [of *
snipe in the course of a day]. * * * With a good marker, a good

dog, a knowledge of the country, and propitious weather, a man ought
to kill some twenty couple in a day to his own gun ; under favourable
circumstances, that was about my average. On several occasions I
have bagged from twenty-five to twenty-eight couple, and in one in-
stance thirty-two couple ; and this, be it remembered, independently of
other varieties of game. A very small portion of the snipes that at
various times I have shot at Ireland were jacks, probably not more
than one in twenty.” *

I have been assured that the late Captain Hungerford has shot
on one day forty-nine, and on another, forty-nine and a half brace
about Clonakilty, county Cork. An offlcer quartered about tw^enty
years ago in the county of Longford, commonly bagged from
thirty to thirty-five brace. A sportsman of my acquaintance has,
with a friend, killed forty-four brace in the county of Antrim.
Although the extent of cultivation and the populous nature of
the country around Belfast render it unfavourable for snipes,
the following returns of numbers killed by a relative, shooting at
least once a week, within ten miles of the town, may be worth
giving. In the seasons from 1835-12, the greatest numbers of
these and jack snipes killed by him were seventeen brace twice,
seventeen and a half and nineteen brace ; during this time so
many only as ten and ten and a half brace of the common snipe
were obtained five times, eleven brace twice, twelve and twelve
and a half brace each once, the remainder being jack snipes.
This was the result of only a few hours^ shooting, as a drive of
some miles to and from the bogs had to be undertaken. *

* ‘ Sporting Review,’ October, 1847, p. 259.

266

SC0L0PACIDJ5.

The chief game-dealer in Belfast told me in the winter of 1848
that occasionally,, after Christmas, from 90 to 100 couple of snipes
are brought to him in a morning from the counties of Down and
Antrim. He purchases them to any extent, and sends them chiefly
to England, as they produce a higher price there than in Ireland.
Mr. Yarrell informs me (1848) that Irish snipes rate lower in
the London market than English, from their being less fat and clean
in the skin ; — this is scurfy, perhaps (he remarks), owing to the
low temperature of the ground on which they feed. Many of
the birds alluded to are doubtless taken in snares, which, little
though we hear of them about Belfast, I have on different occasions
detected within a few miles of the town.

I have myself had some experience in snipe-shooting, and can truly
say, that of all our birds snipes seem to be the most sensible to the
skyey influences ; or possibly what appears to us their sensibility
may be prompted by their instinctive knowledge of that of the
minute creatures on which they prey ; — the successful pursuit of
these may require the frequent change of ground. Bogs under
similar circumstances of weather, at least to our senses, wiU ex-
hibit their thirty or forty brace of snipes one day, and not more
than three or four brace the next. The birds would seem to be
almost ever on the move from one locality to another. At the
dusk of every evening, too, they leave their more retired daily
haunt chiefly to feed in localities where they would be disturbed
during the day. At such times any little moist place invites
them : — two low, excavated portions within the grounds of the
Eoyal Academical Institution in the town of Belfast, were at one
time (and may still be) nightly visited. We generally meet
with them at the witching hour on flight from the higher to
the lower grounds ; but when I have been walking on the moun-
tains in the autumnal evenings they have passed over my head on
their way from the valley tow'ards the mountain-top. We can hardly
walk anywhere about the town just named in the autumnal or
winter days, and sometimes even in those of summer, when be-
coming dusk, without hearing the call of the snipe on the way to
its nightly quarters. It is an extremely interesting sight to witness

THE COMMON SNIPE.

267

these birds coming in numbers to favourite night feeding-grounds^
such as the bog meadows already mentioned. When stationed
on the ditch-banks intersecting them awaiting ^^the flying of
wild-fowl — ducks^ wigeon^ teal^ &c.^ — one hears a continual concert
kept up by snipes coming at the commencement of twilight from
the higher grounds — their places of refuge for the day — and
alighting all around, the call ceasing the moment they touch the
earth. Tor an instant only in the twilight are they seen, and then
with downward pointed bill, they have a most singular appearance,
as they sometimes come falling apparently from the clouds closely
around us. Notwithstanding their proximity, the flight being over,
a perfect stillness reigns, until we fire a shot, which alarms them,
and those very near us take wing. Should the moon show forth
her silver lining to the night,” it is the signal for them to move
about from one part of the meadows to another, calling all the
while they are on flight. During moonlight, too, in particular,
they feed much in some districts in stubble and other fields.
When shore-shooting on moonlight nights, I have raised snipes
from the edge of the flowing tide in Belfast Bay. The wild -fowl
shooters state that during autumn and vdiiter numbers of snipes
disperse themselves to feed every evening, but more especially by
moonlight, over the extensive banks of Zoster a exposed by the
retiring tide from either shore to the edge of the channel, along
which also they may sometimes be observed feeding like ordinary
shore-birds. One of my informants killed three at a shot on
these banks by moonlight. They are not sought for here by
shooters, but make known their presence by their peculiar cry
when they rise on wing. Very rarely, a few remain during
the day. About the little grassy pools on a low bank over
which the tide always flows at extreme high water, these birds
have frequently been noticed. Brom all the low-lying night
feeding-grounds visited in the manner described, they com-
monly take their leave very early in the morning, a few lazy ones,
however, remaining until molested, when they fly direct to their
upland or retired haunts.

Food. — Manner of Feeding. — Moist localities, no matter where

268

SCOLOPACIDiE.

situated,, or whether of fresh or salt water, being equally attractive
to the snipe, the nature of its food must be various, and not of
one kind, as Sir Humphrey Davy believed that of the double snipe
to be."^ A sporting friend once found a fulhgrown horse-leech
in a snipe shot on the 20th of August ; a second instance of
which, in mild weather, has also been made known to me. The
contents of the stomach of seven of these birds, which I particu-
larly examined, and all from different localities, were as follows : —
of three shot in the month of January, two contained a few seeds,
and the third was half-filled with soft vegetable matter : — ^two shot
in March exhibited the remains of vegetable food which resembled
Conferva : — of two killed in October, one contained a large worm,
and two or three seeds of different kinds; the other, two insect larvae
[Ascaris-hke in form). Fragments of stone, of which some were the
size of small peas, were found in all, the last-noted one being filled
with them.f It is a common saying in Ireland, that snipes are
not good for the table until after the first frost of the season.
Sir Humplirey Davy remarks : they “ are usually fattest in frosty
weather, which I believe is owing to tliis, that in such weather
they haunt only warm springs, where worms are abundant, and
they do not willingly quit these places, so that they have plenty
of nourislnnent and rest, both circumstances favourable to fat.
In wet open weather they are often obliged to make long flights,
and their food is more distributed^'’ (p. 334, second edition). This
explanation is not, to my mind, satisfactory.

Of the snipes^ manner of feeding when actively engaged, it is
difficult to have ocular demonstration ; but during frost I have
frequently seen them at the edges of mill-races and oozy streams,
where they were stationary — -and when backed by snow, even con-
spicuous— with more than a third of the bill immersed, the

* ‘ Salmonia/ p. 22, second edit.

t The vegetable substances may have remained after worms and other soft animal
food had been dissolved.

Sir H. Davy observes : — “ In the stomach of the common snipe I have generally
found earth-worms, and often seeds and rice [the allusion is to the continent] and
gravel,” p. 123. He again mentions its feeding upon “almost every kind of worm
or larva,” p. 333.

THE COMMON SNIPE.

269

point being doubtless in the mud at the bottom. But once have
I observed a snipe on foot busily engaged in feeding : this was in
a dam that had been run dry, and into the soft ooze of which the
bird drove his bill its full length, and, apparently, every time
with success. Indeed, that the whole bill must be often thrust
into the ground is evident even from an inspection of the dead
birds in a game-dealer^s shop, as we find them marked with
mud close up to the eyes, far back as these are situated in the
head. It is generally, too, quite hardened on the feathers. The
difficulty of seeing snipes on the ground, commented on by Mr.
Selby, is indeed remarkable. Among the herbage, I have never
been able to detect them ; but have known one person of remark-
ably penetrating sight, who could distinguish them anywhere, and
under whose direction my first snipe was killed. He distinctly
saw it in a drain, and pointed out the spot; but to my sight
(though excellent for ordinary purposes) the bird was invisible.
Belying on his correctness, I fired at the spot to which he pointed,
when no bird rising to betoken that life had been there, I
imagined he had been mistaken and made me fire at a stone. On
going to the place, however, he lifted the poor snipe, which had
in this manner been shot dead. Weld, in his ^ Travels in North
America,^ states, that snipes [Scol. JFilsoni) are so abundant in
some marshy places, that a person by simply firing at the ground
may kill them. The one mentioned is the only instance of the
kind that has come under my knowledge.*

Snipe in Breeding -season. — Its Notes. — The snipe breeds very
early. On the Belfast mountains, an old sportsman has frequently
found the nest containing the full complement of four eggs in
the first week of March, and occasionally in the last week of
February. About the 1st of March, 1848, snipes were heard
bleating at Dromedaragh, and in another district of the county
Antrim a nest was discovered on the 1 8th of the month, by a
gentleman who was snipe-shooting, on that and the two pre-

* Since the above was put in type, I have been credibly informed of twenty-one
snipes being killed at a shot by moonlight, at a well during hard frost near Middle-
ton (Cork), by a person who knew them to frequent the place.

270

SCOLOPACIDJ]:.

vious days; on each of which^ several birds^ on being sprung
by the dog, soared high into the air and made the bleating
noise peculiar to the breeding-season. The nest, exposed though
it be, is not easily discovered by the uninitiated. Many years
ago I accompanied a friend to the mountain bogs to look for
snipes^ nests, that the eggs might be added to his collection,
when, after searching for a long time, and about to leave the last
bog, one was discovered ; — but only by my friend putting his
foot in it, and crushing the whole of the four eggs ! Thus ended
the hopes of the poor snipe in that brood and, at the same time,
our nesting expedition. A dog-breaker told me of his springing
young snipes on the mountain on the 18th of April, 1832. It is
extremely interesting to visit the breeding-haunts of this bird
when the two notes peculiar to the season, in addition to the
drumming or bleating, may be heard. Tor half an hour at a
time I have Hstened to the almost incessant bleating, and if the
birds be breeding to so late a period as I have heard it (the end
of July), there is ample time for two broods in the year. With
reference to the two different notes of the snipe in the breeding-
season, it is perhaps necessary to explain that the piping note
weU observed to resemble the sound peet” repeated,"^ and that
which has been likened to the sound of the word tinker, uttered
in a sharp slirill tone,'^t are meant : — the former. I have generally
heard during the bird^s ascending flight, and the latter chiefly from
the ground. Late on a lovely summer evening (18th of June,
1843) I watched for a longtime a snipe that was drumming, &c.,
and remarked that it was occasionally joined by another for a
short period, the latter, believed to be the female, always retiring
to a boggy part of the hiU suited to its nest : the other never
alighted. Whether this bird was high or low in the air, the

* Note to White’s ‘ Selborne/ by the Hon. and Kev. Wm. Herbert, p. 167.
Bennett’s edit.

f Tbe writer in Loudon’s ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. ii. p. 144, from
whom this is borrowed (Mr. Yarrell writing under the initials H. V. D.), remarks
that this call is uttered on the snipe’s ascending flight, and Sir Wm. Jardine (‘ Brit.
Birds,’ vol. hi. p. 180) mentions its piping among the herbage.

THE COMMON SNIPE.

271

drumming^ as I had invariably before noticed, was only produced
when a downward wheel was made ; it ceased the instant ascent
again commenced. The flight of the snipe is singular and
attractive when drumming is part of the performance ; the bird
soars, makes a wheel down — hke plover when fired at — and
drums, then soars again ; occasionally takes a bold sweeping ring
of noiseless flight, and then to the soaring and drumming again.
This noise is considered to be produced solely by a peculiar action
of the wings but I should rather attribute it to the voice of the
bird. I cannot imagine any motion of the wings to be heard so
audibly at the distance of half a mile, as I have frequently heard
tliis bleating note. The peculiar dive that the bird makes through
the air when producing it (whence considered to be caused by
the motion of the wings) may be essential for its utterance by the
organs of voice. As may be imagined, the bleating of the snipe has
obtained for the species additional names in various languages, t as

heather-bleat Gaelic and Irish words signifying “ air-goat,”
or kid of the air ” (mennan aer) ; — in France chevre volant
the celestial goat {Cajpella coelestis), too, it has been named. J

The note — very shrill scream, as Pennant calls it — is dif-
ferent at other times, and well compared by Mr. Selby (p. 123)
“io the word chissick lispingly pronounced.” Tliis author cor-
rectly terms it the alarm- cry,” but it is something more, for
during the evening flight to the feeding-grounds, when the bird
is quite unmolested, this call is commonly uttered.

Plumage, ^c. — With reference to plumage, the following note
was made '^November 16th, 1833. On directing the attention

* Selby, vol. ii. p. 122. Herbert, ibid. Jardine, ‘Brit. Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 180.
MacgiUivray, ‘ Manual Brit. Birds,’ vol. ii. p. 103.

t The following rbyme, founded on birds having more than one name, is common
in some of the country parts of the north of Ireland: —

“ The cuckoo and the gowk.

The lavroek and the lark, ^

The heather bleat, the mire snipe.

How many birds is that ?”

I Rennie’s ‘Habits of Birds,’ p. 245.

272

SCOLOPACID/E.

of an ornithological friend to-day to the very dark colour of
two snipes received from Coleraine, he remarked, that most
probably they were birds bred in more northern countries, as he
well recollected that all wliich were shot out of the multitudinous
numbers which appeared in the ‘‘bog meadows ^ in August, 1828,
were peculiarly dark in plumage. It would be singular if we
could thus distinguish a foreign from a native bred snipe.^'’* IHvo

white snipes killed near Belfast have come under the notice
of a friend. In the winter of 1831-32, several crested snipes
were shot in the bogs near the town just named by three of my
sporting acquaintances, to the gun of one of whom two or three
fell on the same day in the King^s Moss. The crest of one which
came under my inspection extended for nine lines from the lower
portion of the entire back of the head in a horizontal manner.
Close to the head only, the feathers were brown and black, all the
rest being white : this crest arose from a warty protuberance.
It is extraordinary that so many with crests should occur about
the same time as I had not before, nor have I since met with any
but a single individual (in Dec. 1841) having such an appendage.
This specimen exhibited a row of feathers projecting in a drooping
manner four hues from the lower part of the back of the head ;
the portion of them which projected beyond the ordinary plu-
mage were of a white colour.f A snipe, larger than usual, and
of a delicate cream-coloured white, with the wing-coverts of a
very light brown, was shot near Cork, in Dec. 1846.J Mr. 11.
Chute remarks that he has ^^occasionally seen snipe in Kerry
as yellow as a canary."’^ Two birds of this species killed in
Ireland, having five toes on each foot, have come under the notice
of a correspondent.

* See remarks on the light colour of native-bred woodcocks at p. 254.

t Mr, DiUwyn mentions a variety of the woodcock being sent to him on the 29th
of January, 1826, with a tuft of white feathers on the head. — ‘Fauna, &c., of
Swansea,’ p. 8.

t Mr. W. A. Hackett.

SABINE^S SNIPE.

273

When shooting in Scotland, — in the counties of Ayr, Wigton,
Dumfries, Perth, and Inverness, and in the island of Islay, — I
have been surprised at the scarcity of snipes everywhere, as all
persons accustomed to meet with them abundantly in Ireland
must be. In beating a marsh which in the latter island would
produce a score, often none at all, or only a solitary bird, would be
sprung. This cannot, I presume, arise from such localities being
less adapted to the species, but to the comparative infrequency of
them over an extensive range of country. In some of the islands,
according to Mr. Lloyd, snipes are occasionally plentiful, and
in many parts of England snipe-shooting is still obtainable.'^ t

SABINE^S SNIPE.

Scolopax Sahini, Vigors.

Has several times been obtained ; more frequently than
in any other country.

This singular bird was discovered in Ireland; the original one,
described by Mr. Vigors, having been shot in Queen^s-county on
the 2Istof August, 1822. Captain Bonham, of the lOth Hussars,
at the request of a mutual friend, favoured me with the following
particulars of the second native specimen, and at the same time
had the bird most kindly sent from Brighton to London for my
inspection. He observed : — I shot it at the end of November
or beginning of December, 1827, about a mile from Garvagh,
county of Londonderry, on the side of a high heathery hill rising
from a large flow, or uncut turf-bog : common snipes were rising
at the same place. The bird was tame, and did not squeak like

* Sporting Review, October 1847, p. 256.

f January 1849. Mr. P. Mackenzie, gamekeeper at Ardimersy, Islay, informs
me that when acting in a similar capacity to Lord Londonderry some years ago, at
Wynyard Park, Durham, he has, when partridge-shooting in the months of October,
November, and December, and not looking particularly for snipes, often killed from
thirteen to fifteen, and once twenty brace, in the country within seven miles of
Stockton-on-Tees .

VOL. II.

T

274

SCOLOPACID*®.

the generality of snipes^ and at first, in consequence of its dark
colour, I took it for a water-rail. Being rather too anxious, I
fired three times before killing it : after each of the first two shots
it pitched quite near again like the jack-snipe.’’^ * About March
the 13th, 1838 (as communicated by me to the fifth volume of
the ^Annals of Natural History’) one of these rare birds was shot
near Kinnegad, Westmeath, where it had been seen for three years,
and occasionally fired at. The specimen was sent to Dublin,
where in the ensuing month of May I saw it in the possession of
Mr. Glennon, the well-known bird-preserver. Its measurements
were.

Inch. Line.

Length (total) . . . . .11 3

of bill above .... 2 7

tarsus 1 3-|

middle toe and naO ... 1 4

wing from carpus ... 5 3

In plumage it was quite similar to the individuals hitherto
described. Mr. W. S. Wall, a Dublin bird-preserver, who saw
this specimen, assured me that about nine years previously (then
1838), a similar bird shot in this country was, on account of its
remarkable appearance, sent to liim (in a fresh state) by the Eev.
Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart., under the name of black snipe.’’’
When set up,” it was presented by that baronet to the museum
of the Koyal DubHn Society, but within a few years was attacked
by moths and destroyed. With reference to the species of the
bird in question, 1 have full reliance on the accuracy of my infor-
mant.

The occurrence of a fifth specimen was made known to me by
Thomas W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, who on the 1st of Eebruary,
1844, mentioned his having that day seen (at Mr. Glennon’s) a
female bird which was recently shot (by Aquilla Dancer, Esq.)

* I took advantage of tbe bird being in London to exbibit it at a meeting of tbe
Zoological Society, and read tbe above letter, wbicb was printed in tbe ‘ Proceedings’
for 1835 (p. 82). Mr. Yarrell having previously seen this S. Sahini when in tbe
bird-preserver’s bands, noticed it merely as “ a third specimen ” (it was tbe second
Irish one) in the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ for 1830 (vol. iii. p. 29).

SABINE^S, SNIPE.

275

near Eocksborongh, King^s-county."^' The same gentleman re-
ported in January, 1846, that a Sabine snipe was shot (by Charles
S. Ottley, Esq.) on the 17th of November, 1845, in a bog at
Ballyconnell, county Cavan, where it had been observed during
two years. It was stuffed by Mr. Glennon, who stated it to be
the fifth one he had preserved.! In December that year (as I
was informed also by Mr. Warren) Mr. Burton, of Clare, shot one
on his property in that county. The specimen was some time
afterwards brought to Dublin. The following notice of one of
these birds from Mr. E. Davis, junr., of Clonmel, appeared in the
^ Zoologist for October 1846 : —

I have just received a specimen of Sabine^s snipe ; it was
shot on the 31st of last month [August] in a bog near New Bir-
mingham, about sixteen miles from this place, by J. Morton, Esq.,
of this town. It was in company with a common snipe, and rose
with it ; its cry was similar to that of the common, and but for
this cry it would have escaped, being, on first rising, mistaken
for a water-rail, and allowed to go a considerable distance. It
appears to be a male bird, and was moulting. Yarrell says the
tail consists of twelve feathers, and that two of the toes are united
for a short distance ; in this specimen, they are divided to the
origin, and the tail now consists of thirteen feathers ; some grains
of shot passed tlirough these, and probably cut away another
feather. I have preserved the skin.''^

On the Ilth of Eebruary, 1847, Mr. Gubbins, of Tralee, while
in company with Dr. Chute, fowling, shot a Sabine snipe within
a few miles of that town ; it is now in the collection of the latter
gentleman. A second specimen was killed on the same month
in Kerry.!

Tliis last makes the tenth Sabine snipe killed in Ireland of
which such record could be obtained as is given here. Not so
many have been procured in England ; and in Scotland none at

* It was noticed in a letter from another correspondent as shot on the “ Good
Island Bog, between Cloughjordan and Dunherrin.”

t This bird was presented by Mr. Ottley to Trinity College Museum, Dublin.

% Mr. R. Chute, March 1847.

T 2

276

SCOLOPACIM.

all (Jard., Macg.). This bird is not known out of the British
Islands^ and there only as one of which a few individuals have
fallen beneath the guns of snipe- shooters. Of its breeding-
haunts, &c., we are wholly ignorant, so that the Sabine snipe is
one of the greatest puzzles in Ornithology. For some time
past I have not felt altogether satisfied respecting its distinctness
as a species from the common snipe [Scol. gaUinago) on account
of the great similarity of the structural clxaracters. A specimen
kindly sent for my examination in March, 1849, from the museum
of Trinity College, Dublin, by Mr. B. Ball, presented the following
measurements, as compared with a common snipe : —

Sabine snipe. Comm, snipe.

Inch. Line. Inch. Line.

Length total (of stuffed specimens, and hence uncertain) 10 8 11 3

of bill above . . . . . . .2 9 2 10^

tarsus ....... 1 3x 14

middle toe and nail ..,..14 15

wing from carpus ..... 5 0 5 0

First quill feather of the Sabine snipe the longest in the wing : as it also was in that
of two common snipes examined at the same time.

The tail feathers of 8. Sabini are described to be twelve in
number, but this bird had thirteen, having, of course, lost one,
which would have made the number the same as in the S. galli-
nago. Mr. Davis, too, notices his bird as having thirteen tail
feathers. The two exterior toes of 8. 8abini are described to be
“ united to the base for a short distance but they were not in
the least so in the specimen under consideration nor in that de-
scribed by Mr. Davis. The tarsi of 8. 8abini are described to be
^ of an inch shorter than those of 8. gaUinago ; but in the two
individuals of which dimensions are here given, they are only
nominally, or ~ shorter. Adult common snipes could doubtless be
found to vary of an inch in the length of their tarsi. When it
is added that the tarsi are said to be stouter in 8. 8abini than
in 8. gaUinago, the whole of the structural differences pointed
out in the original description of Mr. Vigors are included.
In fresh birds only (which I have not seen) could this well be
observed; the dried one which I examined in reference to this

SABINB^S SNIPE.

277

character^ did appear to have the tarsi in a very slight degree
stouter than those of the S. gallinago with which it was compared.
They are much darker in colour than those of the common snipe,
but not more so than would be exhibited in equally dark-coloured
varieties of that species. The tarsi and toes of a second specimen
in Dublin University Museum entirely agree in form and colour
with those of the individual already noticed, but further, it and
a third example preserved there, are too imperfect for comparison.
We must not be led astray by such changes as the taxidermist can
effect by his manner of setting up birds. Some of the specimens
of /S'. Sahini that I have seen, had evidently been stuffed to appear
as like woodcocks as possible in the body, and also in the feathers
of the tibim being arranged so as almost to reach the tarsal joint.

If there be not sufficient structural characters to mark 8. Sahini
as a distinct species, we cannot on those of colour alone admit it
to that rank. In colour, however, it is peculiar and constant,
thus differing from the ordinary varieties of woodcocks, snipes, &c.,
that we occasionally see — hardly two individuals of which are
exactly similar. Every specimen of S. Sahini that has occurred
was coloured much alike, and was remarkable by ^Mhe total
absence of white from its plumage, or of any of those lighter
tints of ferruginous yellow which extend more or less in stripes
along the head and back of the other European snipes.

We know nothing positively of any difference in the habits,
call, &c., of the S. Sahini from those of S. gallinago. On these
points, the two sportsmen who have favoured us with their re-
marks on the individuals which they shot, report differently,
though no doubt both correctly. The one tells us that his bird,
which rose about the same time as some common snipes, did not
“ squeak as the latter usually do when sprung, and that after
being twice fired at, it pitched quite near again, like the jack
snipe. The other rose in company with a common snipe, and
uttered a similar cry, but for which it would have escaped, as
its colour led the sportsman at first sight to believe it to be a
water-rail. The former one was also, from its dark colom*, sup-
posed to be a water-rail when it sprang.

278

S COLOP AClDiE.

THE JACK SNIPE.

Seolojjax gallinulaj Linn.

Is common for nearly half the year in Ireland, from the
end of autumn until late in spring.

Judging of the arrival of this bird in the neighbourhood of
Belfast from notes kept for many years, the 1st of October is about
the average date. The earliest were seen on the 20th of Septem-
ber* (1836), and the latest on the 2Ist of October (I833).f
Erom the returns of a relative's shooting every year from 1835
to 1842 inclusive — chiefly within ten miles of Belfast — it appears
that he killed jack snipes each season until the last day upon
which he shot, ending from the 20th to the 23rd of March, at
which period there was no diminution or increase to their num-
bers from what he met with at mid-winter : on March 21st, 1836,
three brace were killed; on March 23rd, 1838, four brace; and
on March 23rd, 1836, the latter number, these being respectively
the last shooting days of the season. { On the 8th of April, I
once met with this bird near Belfast. The number of jack snipes
compared with that of common snipes killed by my friend will be
interesting both to the naturalist and sportsman. These returns
must not be supposed as given to show the quantity of birds that
can be obtained in Ireland, as the country shot over contains very

* Earlier than this it must he remarked there was no opportunity of the sportman’s
meeting with them ; the 20th of September being the first day of partridge-shooting
in Ireland, and that on which he commences his campaign in districts where there is
no grouse-shooting.

t A friend shooting at Aberarder in the north of Inverness-shire, noted the first
jack snipe to be seen on the 27th of September, in 1838, and about the same time in
the following year. In the month of September 1842, which I myself spent there,
the first appeared on the 26th, upon which day the bird probably arrived, as had it
been in the locality on the precediug day, it could hardly have escaped notice. A single
bird only was seen on each instance. Mr. St. John tells us he once “ killed a jack
snipe on the 16th of September [in Morayshire] which is far earlier than these birds
are usually seen. * * * In no other year have I ever seen one before the 8th

of October; even that is very early.” — ‘Tour in Sutherland,’ vol, i. p. 286.

j; Of 21-| brace of snipe killed by a sportsman about Springmount, near Clougb
(Antrim) on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of March, 1848, 14 brace were jacks, being a
larger proportion than he had ever before killed of them. The relative proportion
of the two species seen was similar to that obtained.

THE JACK SNIPE.

279

few snipes comparatively with the more remote and unimproved
districts. Prom the 21st of September, 1835, to the 21st of
March, 1836, he bagged 183 brace of the common, and 43^ of
the jack snipe : the greatest number of the latter obtained in one
day (Dec. 20th) was seven brace, at the same time with eight and
a half brace of the common snipe, and one and a half brace of
quails.* That he is no ordinary " shot wiU be evident, when it is
stated that on this day he missed only six birds. On the 8th of
January and 5th of March, four brace of jacks were killed, toge-
ther with eight brace of the common species, on the former, and
nine brace on the latter day.

Prom September 20th, 1836, to March 20th, 1837, 216 brace
of the common, and 61i of the jack snipe were bagged; in the
shooting season of 1837-38, 112-1 brace of the former, and 26 of
the latter; the following season 11 8^ brace of the one, and 36 of
the other ; the next 149|- and 39|- brace ; from September 1840 to
March 1841, 154 and 23 brace; September 1841 to March 1842,
105 and 72 brace. On several days of this last season the number
of ^ jacks ^ seen killed exceeded that of the common species ;f thus
on Nov. 9th were six brace of jacks to three and a half common;
Nov. 26th, eight brace to six; Nov. 30th, ten to seven and a
half; Jan. 14th, seven to four; Jan. 21st, eight to six; Peb. 14th,
twelve to seven.

To judge from these respective numbers, taken altogether, jack
snipes would seem to be in the proportion of about one-fourth to
the common species — a conclusion to which I had before come, and
which has also been given in the ^ Wild Sports of the West.'^J A
little allowance should perhaps be made for the comparative acces-
sibility of the jack, which, as has been well remarked to me, often

waits to be killed, while the common will not let one within

* The proportion on the 12th of January, 1832, when my friend and I shot toge-
ther in the Flush bogs, was very different ; about thirty-five brace of snipe and b^ut
one and a half of jack snipe having been met with.

t The gamekeeper at Tollymore Park, county Down, remarked to me in September
1836, but without allusion to any particular season, that in a day’s shooting about
there he sometimes meets with more jacks than common snipes,

X Letter 42, p. 312, edit. 1843.

I

280

SCOLOPACID^.

shot/^ The jack snipe differs from almost all other birds in
having greatly increased in numbers of late years in the north of
Ireland. An old sportsman assures me that in his early days it
was a rarity^ and that not more than one would be met with in
the course of six or seven days^ snipe-shooting. ^

In the winter of 1831-32, these birds were particularly nume-
rous in the north of Ireland. Although the species does not,
like the common snipe, habitually change its quarters, it occa-
sionally does so during the period of its stay, as I have known
the same bogs to be equally well hunted by the same dogs, and
when there was equally good scenting, produce double the number
one day that they would do the next. I have seen four and a half
brace killed (Dec. 15th, 1831) on ground, upon which not a
bird could be found two days before, though a superior scenting
day to the other.

Major Walker, of Belmont, near Wexford, states that the jack
snipe arrives there in autumn, about a week before the wood-
cock,* and that in the mountain of Forth both species gather in
numbers before taking their departure northward in the spring.
I never heard of the jack snipe thus congregating elsewhere.

With respect to the breeding of this bird in Ireland, Mr. R.
Ball has met with it in the Dublin mountains at midsummer;
and a friend of his once shot several individuals there early
in August. Different persons have told me (without supplying
proof) of its breeding in certain localities ; but the dunlin has often
been mistaken for it on the moors in the breeding-season. On
the following testimony of Mr. G. Jackson, gamekeeper, (commu-
nicated in May 1849,) I however feel certain of its having bred : — •

I have known some few instances of the jack snipe breeding
in this country. In the year 1834 I found a nest containing four
eggs and the old bird sitting on them, in a large swampy bog,
about three miles from the town of Ballyhannis (co. Mayo), the pro-
perty of Lord Dillon. The following year I found two young birds

* Sir Humphrey Davy remai’ks in the notes to ‘ Salmonia,’ that in the south of
Illyria, the jack snipe is always later in its passage than the double snipe or the
woodcock.

THE JACK SNIPE.

281

near the village of KilkeUj in the same county, and also the pro-
perty of that nobleman. The old bird was first seen fluttering about
before the pointers to decoy them from the young. I have found
them, I think, in two or three other instances, but cannot fix the
time : the above I have noted in a diary I am in the habit of keeping
of any remarkable event.'’^ It was believed until the last few years
that the jack snipe did not breed in any part of Great Britain,
in the Orkney or Shetland Islands, but two or three instances
are said recently to have occurred.* I have not, however, met
with any statement so satisfactory on the subject as the last here
given.

Mr. G. Matthews, during his tour in Norway, observed snipes
and jack snipes at all places as he moved northward. On the
19th or 20th of August, 1842, he shot some young jacks
at Alten. When returning down coast in autumn, the com-
mon snipe was not met with, though the jack was, being
often found on the smaU. islands seaward, when the frost was not
so hard as on the mainland. He shot some of these in Sep-
tember and October, on the island of Loppen.

The jack snipe is generally said by authors to be solitary, but
it is commonly as well as correctly remarked in Ireland, that at
all times where you find one, a second will not be far distant;
although a ^‘' wisp^'’ or small flock of common snipes may occasion-
ally be seen, I have never heard of the other so occurring.

On January 28th, 1837, when passing a shop in Belfast where
a number of jack snipes were exposed for sale, I was attracted by
one with flesh-coloured legs and toes, and on inspection of the
whole lot, found the legs varying from the ordinary greenish-grey
to a decided flesh-colour : those exhibiting the latter were sup-
posed to be the young of the year — in other respects the birds
seemed alike, but the plumage had received too rough usage to
be properly examined.

I do not find sufficient data with respect to the jack snipe in
England and Scotland, to enable a proper comparison to be insti-

Yarr. ‘Brit. Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 36. 2nd edit. ‘Zoologist,’ June 1849, p. 2456.

282

SCOLOPACID^.

tuted respecting the relative numbers in the eastern and western
island. My impression^ however, is, that not at all the same dis-
parity exists that does in the case of the common snipe ; — that
there is a much greater similarity in the numbers of jack snipe in
the two islands, than there is in that of the Scolojpax gallinago.

THE BEOAD-BILLED SANDPIPEE.

Tringa pla;tyrhynca, Temm.

Numenius pygm^eus, Lath.

Has been once obtained.

To the following notice of its occurrence which I published
in the ^Annals of Natural History' for 1845 (vol. xv. p. 309)
I can only now add that a second specimen has since been pro-
cured in England ; at Shoreham, Sussex, in the end of October
1845.*

Of the broad-biUed sandpiper only one specimen is recorded
as met with in Great Britain. It was noticed by Mr. Hoy in the
first volume of Charlesworth's 'Magazine of Natural History' as
having been "shot on the 25th of May 1836, on the muddy flats
of Breydon Broad, Norfolk, in company with some dunlins and
ring plover." In a locality of a similar nature — the oozy banks
of Belfast Bay — a Tringa platyrhyncha was killed on the 4th of
October 1844, with eleven golden plover and seven or eight
dunlins at the same shot from a swivel-gun.

It is a male bird, and larger than the English specimen, but of
about equal size with that described by Temminck. The following are
its measurementsf : —

Inch. line.

Length (stuffed specimen) 7 0

of wing from carpus to end of quills ... 4 3^

of tarsus ........ 0 11

of middle toe and nail ...... 0 10

* Mr. W. Borrer, Jun., in ‘ Zoologist,’ vol. iv. p. 1394.

t The taxidermist noted the specimen before being skinned to be in length 6|^
inches, breadth 13 inches ; weight 1 oz. 4i drachms.

THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER.

283

Inch. Line.

Length of hind toe and nail ...... 0 3

of biU from forehead to point . . . . . 1 3f

Breadth of bill at base (now dried up) ... ..02^

Height of bill from base of upper to that of lower mandible . 0 4

Tibia bare of feathers for about ...... 0 4

Temminck’s description (vol. ii. p. 616, 2nd edit.) of the plumage
of the young’ bird before its first moult and of the nuptial garb show
singularly little difference in a species belonging to this family, and
Mr. Yarrell, having both the old bird in its breeding plumage and
the young of the year before him, remarks that “ the young bird so
closely resembles the parent in its plumage at this season that it is
unnecessary to describe it.” My specimen agrees with the descrip-
tions of these authors, excepting in what the ornithologist will be
prepared to expect of a bird killed in the month of October — that
the rufous tints throughout the plumage (margining the feathers, &c.)
have all but disappeared, and are replaced by white. The winter
plumage I have not seen described, but fortunately the presence of a
few winter feathers on the back and wings of the present specimen
sufficiently indicate that a change from black to grey, analogous to the
seasonal change which takes place in the dunlin, likewise occurs in
this species. The hue of these feathers, however, resembles more the
pretty grey colour of the phalarope than the pale brownish grey of the
dunlin — or purre, as it has been termed in winter plumage.

The broad bill and the peculiar marking of the head are the most
obvious distinctive characters of this species. The dimensions of the
bill have already been given : the plumage of the head may be thus
described — from base of upper mandible to top of head, a narrow
blackish-brown band, which broadens towards the hinder part of the
head ; on either side of this from the bill to the upper part of the eye,
and continued over it, is a white streak, bounded by a dark brown
band, which reaches from the side of the bill to the eye ; throat white.

This is a very interesting species to the ornithologist, from the cir-
cumstance of its presenting the characters of different genera. Its
general aspect — ^body plumage, delicate tarsi and feet, — is that of a
Tringa^ but in the form of the head, breadth between the eyes and
broad base of bill we are reminded of the genus Scolopax, or true
snipes, as we likewise are in the brown and white banding of the head,
in which latter respect it likewise resembles the whimbrel {Numenius

284

SCOLOPACID^.

pluBopus). The very small rudimentary membrane between the base
of the middle and outer toe, mentioned by Temminck as the chief
character on which it has been raised to the rank of a genus by MM.
Koch and Naumann,* is a most trivial distinction, it being in the least
degree only more developed than in the Tringa variabilis and T. sub-
arguata. Except in the head and bill, the whole bird is in form and
plumage an ordinary-looking Tringa.

In the continental countries south of our latitude in which this
species has been met with, it is considered very rare, nor was it
known to be otherwise in the north of Europe until Mr. Dann
lately visited Norway and Lapland for the purpose of studying
the birds which frequent those countries in the breeding-season.
In some places he found this Tringa to be by no means un-
common, and to Mr. YarreU^s beautiful work on ^British Birds ^
(vol. ii. p. 638) he contributed a full and admirable account of
its habits, which were before unknown : — the figure of the bird in
that work is most characteristic. Temminck mentions specimens
having been sent from Borneo, Sumatra, and Timor.

THE PIGMY CUELEW.

Curlew Sandpiper.

Tringa subarquata, Temm.

Scolopax „ Gmel.

Is a regular autumnal migrant to the north of Ireland; —
where in winter it is of very rare occurrence.

This gracefully-formed species is characterized in the latest works
of authority as a ^‘^rare visitant to Great Britain. Notes con-
nected with it in Belfast Bay for above twenty-five years are
before me. Erom these it appears, as with the Grallatores gene-
rally, that September is its favourite month in that locality. The
earliest arrival noted is the 25th of August : before the end of
September its departure is occasionally taken, and it rarely re-
mains until the end of October.

* See ‘ Wirbelthiere Europas,’ p. 77.

THE PIGMY CURLEW.

285

The first pigmy curlew on record, as noticed on our coast, was
shot in October 1820, and came into the possession of Mr. John
Montgomery of Belfast, then studying and forming a collection
of native birds. The description of Montagu enabled him at
once to determine its species. On the 3rd of September of the
following year, another, which was alone, was shot by the gen-
tleman already named near Conswater : and in the year 1822, the
species again appeared in the bay on the 31st of August,
upon which day and the 2nd of September, eleven* individuals
were killed. These were noted by Mr. Montgomery to be ^^as
described by Montagu, only more ferruginous on the edge of
the back feathers and scapulars : in some, the breast was quite
ferruginous.^^ t In the month of September that year, one fell
to my own gun at Holywood warren : in which locality I shot
single birds in the same month of the two following years, one only
appearing on each occasion. Their dimensions (though Kttle
exceeding those of their congener and close ally, the dunlin) made
known their species at a glance in every instance. The pigmy
curlew as it appears on the shore is a graceful, pretty-looking
bird, and particularly interesting from presenting so pleasing a
miniature of the great curlew. To the shore- shooters it soon became
known, and an old man named Adams, who Kved at Conswater
Point, and spent liis time between shoe-making and shooting,
could single one out from a flock of dunlins at the distance of
from thirty to forty yards. He procured several of them in this
manner, knowing that they could readily be disposed of, although
their associate dunlins, even when in large flocks, were not con-
sidered worth a charge of powder and shot. I have often since
known the pigmy curlew to be killed in company with those
birds ; occasionally with them and ring dotterels, once with those

* I have since known this number to he killed in one day.

t On this subject I have made the following Motes,-.— September 12, 1836. — Of
seven recent specimens inspected, three were in adult ; four in immature plumage.
September 11, 1841. — One obtained, the back of which presents a beautiful marbled
appearance, from a mixture of the summer and winter dress. Specimens weighed by
Dr. J. D. Marshall, varied from 1-|- to 2p ounces. On looking several times to the
stomachs of these bii’ds, I have found only gravel and sand.

286

SCOLOPACIDiE.

two species and godwits ; in a single instance with redshanks and
knots.

The numbers vary much in different years. In 1838 they were
remarkably scarce ; an intelligent shooter, always on the look-out,
observing them but twice : one on the 3rd of September, and
none again until the 23rd of October, when four appeared. In
1845, one only was killed ; a few others were heard during the
last week of August that year. In 1846, but two were seen
until the 10th of October, on which day one was killed ; the other
had been procured on the 26th of September. In the autumn
of 1837 they were more common than usual in the bay, and
numbers were shot a flock of about twenty birds was once
seen, and out of a party of eight, six were killed at one discharge.
My informant (who has supplied me with many specimens) dis-
tinguishes this species from the dunlin when on the ground, by
its superior size ; — in flight, from the lower part of the back
being white, or by its call, which is very different from that of its
congener, and is said more to resemble that of the turnstone than
of other shore birds. In 1839 they were more plentiful than
ever before known, and arrived before the ordinary time, a couple
having been shot on the 2nd of September. On the 7th of that
month a flock of from thirty to forty appeared, and they increased
until the 21st, when not less than a hundred were seen in com-
pany with a large body of dunlins, though generally when a
number are together, they do not associate with other species :
occasionally about fifty or sixty would rise together from one
extremity of the flock, and after flying about for a short time
would alight with the others. The noise produced by their calls,
especially when on wing, was very great, and described to me as
a kind of chatter,^^ most unlike the note of the dunlin. This
large body subsequently proved to have been collected together
for migration, as they took their departure on that day from the

* On the English shores, also, they would seem to have been more common than
usual at this time, as Mr. Yarrell remarks that “ more than twenty were exposed
for sale on the same day in Leadenhall Market, London, in September 1837.” —

‘ Brit. Birds,’ vol. ii. p. 627.

THE PIGMY CURLEW.

287

bay, and not one was seen again during the season. The Gralla-
tores generally were particularly abundant in Belfast Bay during
the autumn of 1839. In 1840, again, pigmy curlews were plen-
tiful, and appeared so early as the 25th of August : their numbers
increased until the 7th of September, and then they nearly all left
the bay -an early arrival is generally followed by an early de-
parture. In 1843, flocks consisting of about a dozen birds were
observed, from the 1st to the 18th of September, when I was
informed of the circumstance. They usually keep to the shores
of the bay, but in September and October 1836, they frequented
the river Lagan (within flow of the tide at high water) in flocks ;
on the 6th of the latter month, I observed nine in company,
busily feeding at the edge of the river, at Ormeau Bridge : in the
following year, also, they frequented the tidal portion of that river.

In reference to the appearance of this bird in spring, I have
but one note, which, not being communicated until some years
after the occurrence, should not perhaps be implicitly relied on.
It relates to four individuals being killed at this period of the
year, from a flock of thirty to forty at the Lagan.

In the year 1831, 1 was shown a drawing of one of these birds,
which had been shot in company with ring dotterels at Clontarf,
Dublin Bay : subsequently eleven, obtained there about October
1836, were submitted to my examination, and several more were
killed on the 19th or 21st of December that year. On the
3rd of November, 1837, Mr. H. H. Dombrain shot one from a
very small flock at Lurgan Green, on the coast of Louth. In July
1844, one was observed on the shore near Clifden (Galway), by
the Eev. George EobinsoU. This species has occasionally been
seen in large numbers in Cork Harbour, by Wm; Crawford, Esq.
On the 29th of October, 1847, he killed, at a shot with his large
strand-gun, sixty of them, together with ten dunlins. On the
shores only of Antrim, Down, Louth, Dublin, Cork, and Galway,
I have positively known this bird to occur ; but there can be no
doubt that it annually visits all suitable places along the range
of at least our eastern and southern coast. It is interesting to
perceive that at the next place noticed, southward of Belfast

288

SCOLOPACIDiE.

Bay, it was obtained after the species leaves that locality — -in
November — and again at the more southern, Dublin Bay, that
it was shot in the following month — December — ^^vhen it is not
with us. The bird would thus seem to be in no haste on its migra-
tion southwards.

For some years after I had ascertained that the pigmy curlew is
a regular annual visitant to Ireland, it was considered of very
rare and irregular occurrence in Great Britain ; but the increased
attention since bestowed on ornithology has shown that the bird
is much more frequent on the shores of Scotland and England
than had been previously imagined.

Temminck states that the species winters in Sardinia, where it
is very abundant, and leaves that island in May (^Man. d^Orn.
Eur.,^ partiv. p. 397). It has a wide geographical range, and is
found extensively over the three continents of the Eastern hemi-
sphere and in North America.

THE DUNLIN OE PUEEE.

Sandlark of the Shore.^

Tringa variahilis, Meyer.

„ cinclus and alpina, Linn.

Is the most abundant of the Gmllafores around the
coast ; but a few only, comparatively to their
numbers, breed in Ireland.

The remark by a correspondent, that on the muddy flats of the
Eiver Lee, between Cork and Cove, countless flocks may be seen,^^
will apply to numerous similar localities on each side of the
island.

Habits in Belfast Bay.

This bay, with its extensive oozy banks uncovered by the
retiring tide, is a favourite abode of the dunlin. So soon as the

Totanus hypoleucos is commonly called Fresh-water Sandlark.

THE DUNLIN OE PUEEE.

289

young can wing their way from their breeding-haunts, they come
hither, and are then most easily approached. I have noted their
arrival so early as the 80th of June (1842), when about a dozen
appeared. The numbers generally increase rapidly, so that in
one or two weeks after the first arrival they are plentiful on
the shores. In 1840 they came very early, a large flock having
been seen on the 3rd of July, and not less than 200 together on
the 5th : the fine spring of that year probably induced them to
retire northward earlier than usual. In 1838, great numbers
first appeared on the 5th of July : — on the preceding evening an
observant person, who was on board a vessel in the harbour,
heard the call of the species at so great a height in the air, that
he could not see the birds, but immediately afterwards a large
flock came in view, and descended from a great elevation almost
in a direct line to the beach — doubtless having just arrived on
migration from their breeding quarters. In the following year, dun-
lins were remarkably late, not being observed, at least on favourite
banks a mile in length, until the 30th of July; but then they
appeared all at once in multitudes. Towards the end of July
they have usually arrived in immense flocks, consisting cliiefly of
young birds of the year. That the majority does not always con-
sist of individuals of that age, is, how^ever, shown in the following
note by J. E. Garrett, Esq.

July 26 and 27, 1848. — I have procured twenty-seven
dunlins, shot during these two days ; all old birds except six.
There were tliree or four flocks of them on the Kinnegar, where
they appear just to have arrived from their breeding-places.
During the summer, I observed a few dunlins in the bay almost
daily. Scarcely two of the twunty-one adult specimens were
alike in plumage.'’^

At the end of July, I have remarked that every individual of
immense fiocks seemed, after alighting, from attitude, &c., to be
giving forth its note as in spring, thus rendering the whole ooze
musical. Although it never occurred to myself to designate the
dunlin a song-bird, the best observers of the species in this
locality consider that it should be so termed. Their statement

VOL. II. u

290

SCOLOPACID^.

is : — that they hear its song in spring and summer_, chiefly in
May ; that it is uttered by solitary birds as well as by those in
flocks, and particularly immediately after their alighting on the
ground from a flight. After giving forth their notes the birds
disperse in search of food, running quickly in all directions, and
repeating them again as they proceed. They sing most, early in
the morning, for a few hours after sunrise.

Through the autumn and winter dunlins remain in the bay, unless
when greatly persecuted, and then, like wigeon at the latter sea-
son, they leave it in the very early morning for Strangford Lough.
When much disturbed through the day, about the time of high
water, but little choice of a safe resting-place is afforded them,
and they take tliis flight ; yet, unlike the wigeon, whose high or
low course through the air is regulated by the wind, they always rise
high into the air before starting on their eastward direction, as if it
were their aim to reach at once an elevation that will carry them
over the intervening chain of hills. During rain, or when the
wind blows strong from the east or south-east — against them —
no annoyance will induce them to take this flight. In spring, the
favourite resort of the congregated multitudes at high water, is
to fields adjacent to the shore, which have been ploughed or
harrowed, or are slightly brairded with grain.

Dunlins were considered remarkably numerous in the autumn
and winter of 1836, but in some later years they became much
more so. On the 1st of December that year, I observed for a
long time a great flock on wing, consisting of not less than
2,000 birds : this body, as usual, divided into two or three flocks,
which alighted separately, but soon again without being molested
rose into the air, when all again joined and went through the
most graceful and beautiful evolutions. Yarious notes on the
appearances presented by these birds on wing are before me,
some of which shall be given, together with an indication of the
greatest numbers seen during the years that they were most abun-
dant. When immense flocks divide, fly right and left, and shoot
into single strings, they strike upon the eye, while the sun shines
upon them, and the dark banks of the bay serve as background.

THE DUNLIN Oil PUERE.

291

like silver lines^ occasionally of great lengtli. A flock flying for
a great distance just above the margin of the flowing tide^ has
strongly resembled^ from their white plumage being displayed^ a
single wave sweeping rapidly onwards. March 10, 1840. — I was
particularly attracted by the beauty of a large flock, one moment
shooting out in the form of a cornucopia, the next gathered into
a circle ; one instant almost dazzling by their extreme brightness,
the next dark in hue, and again, on the turn of the wing, exhibit-
ing both light and darkness. When the back or breast is turned
towards the spectator, every bird is individualized or distinctly
marked ; but when they sweep so as to show only the line of the
back, they are almost invisible.

January 27, 1847. — Within the railway embankment opposite
the Grove,^'’ I saw a flock of not less than 2,500 dunlins, and about
300 yards from them another of about 1,500. The larger body
rising into the air and going through their brilHant evolutions,
attracted every one on the adjacent highway ; most of the people
standing stiU in admiration of them. Descending from on wing,
they all swept down in the same direction, and covered an extent
of bank in such a manner as to remind me of grain thrown from
the hands of the sower until it reaches the ground and is scattered
along its surface. Every bird of the multitude, on alighting,
moved at the same moderate pace, between walking and running,
about equidistant from each other, and their heads being all simi-
larly elevated they had a most formal and singular appearance. All,
too, were, as usual, when thus congregated at any season (according
to my observation), uttering their notes, which sounded most
pleasingly musical. The voices of a host of dunlins occasionally
gives as good an illustration of multitudinous sound as I can well
imagine. December 24, 1840. — After the tide had ebbed for a
considerable way I saw more dunlins close to the road before
Eort William, than I had ever before observed in so small a space.
There could not have been less than 5,000 — as many as 3,000
were in a dense flock, busily feeding and keeping up a thrilling
concert, like grey linnets when congregated previous to roosting —
the others were somewhat more scattered. A few days afterwards.

292

SCOLOPACIDiE.

a friend being out shooting early in the morning on the Down
shore of the bay^ saw a flock of several thousands. He described
their appearance, as the sun rose, to have been one of the most
beautiful sights he ever witnessed. The great body flrst appeared
glancing in the sun ; then it broke up into a dozen flocks, which
rose and fell in the air like molten silver, or, as his companion
observed, like show^ers of new shillings — a most apt image ! One
of the flnest effects is when the background is so dark that the
birds are only seen in silvery whiteness^ flashing their under
plumage upon us. The uncertainty as to where they may next ap-
pear— like that of lightning from an extensive mass of thunder-
cloud— adds much to the eflect. Only for a space

“ Brief as tlie lightning in the coUied night ”

can they be observed under such circumstances.

Trom seventy to a hundred dunlins have often been obtained
from one discharge of a shoulder-gun; but the swdvel-guns used
of late years in wild-fowl shooting produce terrible devastation
among them. They are generally fired at on the ground ; about
150, however, have been brought down from a flock on wing.
On the ground about 200, in addition to a few redshanks, have
twice been slain; but on the 16th of October, 1843, 216 w^ere
picked up after one discharge, and on the 9th of December, 1845,
upwards of 300. In one of the above instances (Nov. 10),
several of the wounded were borne off by grey crows, before the
shooter could reach the spot : such is a common practice of
the crows, of wdiich numbers are always at the sea-side.*

Dunlins and ring-dotterels associate much together at all times
on .the shore, but the latter is a much less numerous species.

* This is more fully noticed under Grey Crow, in the 1st volume of this work,
p. 313 : — the pursuit of the dunlin by the peregrine falcon, merlin, and sparrow-
hawk will be found respectively under pp. 35, 53, and 75 of that volume.

Wilson, in his ‘American Ornithology’ (Jardine’s edit. vol. ii. p. 331), remarks,
on similar occasions to the above, that “ while crowds of these victims are fluttering
along the sand, the small pigeon-hawk, constrained by necessity, ventures to make a
sweep among the dead in presence of the proprietor, but as suddenly pays for his
temerity with his life.” From Wilson’s remarks, dunlins would seem to be as
common on the shores of the United States as with us, but Audubon writes as if he
had never met with them in such numbers.

THE DUBLIN Oil PUllRE.

293

When an opportunity presents itself a little difference may^ how-
ever, be observed in their haunts. While the banks are covered
at high water, the ring- dotterels occupy a higher stratum than the
other, preferring the dry gravel, and the dunlins keep near the
water^s edge : as the banks become exposed by the ebb, the latter
are busily engaged feeding, while the ring- dotterels, motionless as
statues, still maintain their high position.'’^

Until the beginning of April, dunlins continue in multitudes in
the bay, but then commence taking their departure northward to
breed ; at the end of that month or the beginning of May, they
again appear in great numbers, consisting, as I believe, of birds
which, having spent the winter farther to the south, come hither
on migration northwards. They occasionally remain congregated
when the season is far advanced — even until the end of May,
which the whimbrels also do. After the great body has departed,
the shores of the bay may sometimes be traversed in vain for even
a solitary bird, or at most some poor pensioner,^^ who has lost a
leg, or been otherwise wounded, may be seen.

The dunlin keeps generally to the sea-side in the north-east of
Ireland, where on the oozy banks left bare by the tide (in Larne,
Belfast, and Strangford Loughs) food is at all times abundant.*
It is a regular night-feeding bird, in darkness, as well as by
moordight. It occasionally frequents the river Lagan so far as
the tide flows. When at Toome and Maghery, on the borders
of Lough Neagh, at the end of September, I have observed
small flocks, and have no doubt the species is constantly about
tliis lake, except in the breeding-season. Birds believed to be
dunlins have been seen by the Rev. T. Knox in summer on the
shores of Lough Derg (an expansion of the Shannon) ; — in the
neighbourhood of which they had not improbably been bred.

* The contents of a few stomachs of birds killed at various times were minute
univalve Mollusca — the small Littorince, Rissocs, ^c. Having remarked that a
particular species of larva constitutes a great portion of the food of the dunlin and
others of the smaller Grallatores which feed on the Zostera-hmik% of Belfast Bay,
I submitted some obtained in July to the examination of A. H. Holiday, Esq., who
pronounced them to be “the larvse of a ChironomuSy perhaps C. plumosusR

294

SCOLOPACID^.

At mid-winter the dunlin has been shot at a small pond in the
county of Wexford, several miles inland from the sea.* Birds
of various species wounded at the sea- side often fly inland.

Breeding -haunts. — A few pairs were annually seen by a veteran
sportsman when hunting late in the season about the Brown
Moss, seven or eight miles from Belfast, but drainage and other
agricultural improvements have long since driven them from the
district. At Dromedaragh, on the Six-mile Water, a relative shot
one of these birds on the 14th of May, 1832, when the game-
keeper who accompanied him stated that he knew the species well
as one of the two kinds of sand lavrock which come to the
river at that season j the other alluded to being the Tetanus hypo-
leucos, of which two specimens were procured the same day. When
1 visited the great deer-park, Glenarm, on the 10th of June, 1834,
the circumstance of a bird of the latter species having flown from
the river, suggested inquiry from the gamekeeper respecting the
dunlin. He said that “ smaller kind'’^ breeds in the adjacent
bogs, adding, that it is the same species which frequents the
sea- shore in flocks during winter. In the month of August that
year a flock of about thirty was seen by an ornithological friend
a few miles to the northward of the last-named place, on the
mountain above Glenariff, two miles from the sea : they were in
company with golden plover, and most probably were all indige-
nous birds bred in that quarter. A young bird, in the down, shot
on the banks of the river Maine, has come under my notice.
These localities are all in the county of Antrim.

At the end of June 1834, 1 met with several dunlins, and shot
one of them in the breeding-haunts of the golden plover, in the
island of Achil, off the western coast, where they also doubtless

* Mr. J. Poole.

t Mr. J. R. Garrett favoured me witK the following note: —

’■'May 22nd, 1845. The dunlins are, I think, pairing. I saw two pair this evening
at the Kinnegar (bordering Belfast Bay) about sunset, rising, each pair together,
fi-om the ground high into the air almost perpendicularly, and then descending by
rapid sweeps. Some of them occasionally uttered a peculiar and continuous note
Avhich reminded me of the bleating cry of the snipe, although much less distinct.” For
some time after that date these birds were similarly noticed. There is no breeding-
haunt near to where they were thus observed.

THE DUNLIN OH PURRE.

295

\

had nests. Twice, they rose at the same moment with golden
plover, and alighted with tliem."^ About thirty pair, it is said,
might be seen in a summer day in the bogs about Lough Conn,
and on the banks of the river Moy, county of Mayo.t The dun-
lin breeds at Portlough, county of Donegal. Of its nesting at
the sea- side in this country as it does in Scotland I have no posi-
tive evidence ; but when at Strangford Lough on the 21st June,
1832, our boatmen stated that although the species did not breed
on as many of the islands as formerly, they believed it still to do
so on Ogilby and Black Islets, from their having seen numbers
about them on the second day of that month. To both islets
we went, but no dunlins appeared. One of the boatmen — whose
word there was no reason to doubt — assured us that in the sum-
mer of 1830 their nests were very numerous on Ogilby islet ;
their eggs (he remarked) were laid on the gravel like those of the
ring dotterel, and though large for a bird of its size, were smaller
than those of the latter species. This boatman had, many years
before, seen a few dunlins^ nests on Island Mahee in this lougH,
a locality long since deserted by them. We found on this occa-
sion single nests of the ring dotterel, oyster-catcher, and little
tern, the eggs in all of which were laid on the bare gravel : several
nests of the common and Arctic terns were also discovered, but
they were composed either of Fuel or Zostera^ according to the
islets on which they were situated.

Mr. J. Poole has made the following good observations on this
species : — “ Dunlins are by no means shy at night, when one may
nearly walk up to them without their being alarmed. When
scattered along the shore by the tide edge, they are constantly
forming themselves into little knots of three or four in their

* It is remarked by Mr. MacgiUivray, that “about the middle of April the piirres
betake themselves to the moors in the northern parts of Scotland, and in the larger
Hebrides, where they may be found scattered in the haunts selected by the golden
plovers, with which they are so frequently found in company that they have obtained
the name of plovers’ pages.” — Audubon’s Omit. Biog., vol. iii. p. 581. MacgiUivray
gives in that work an interesting account of the species in Scotland, as Audubon does
in America.

t Mr. B. Ball.

296

SC0L0PACIDJ5.

emulous strife for the possession of the little trifles that form
their subsistence. I have drawn these birds near me by imitating
their melancholy whistle. Wlien wounded^ they swim with suc-
cess and apparent ease.'’^

I have remarked fully the half of a moderate-sized flock of
these birds engaged at the same time performing their ablutions
most deliberately in the flowing tide.

The summer and winter plumage of the bird under considera-
tion is so different that until about fifty years ago it was con-
sidered in each state to be a distinct species, dunlin being the
name applied to it in summer, and purre in winter. The following
exceptions to the ordinary plumage at particular periods have been
noted. So late as September 26, 1827, I remarked some in which
the breast and belly retained the black summer garb, and on the
12th of October, 1836, obtained a male bird in full winter dress :
it was in this respect very different from about thirty killed at the
same shot, all of them being in the half-dunhn and half-purre
plumage common to the period of the year.

When walking from Terracina towards Cape Circello — the fabled
island of Circe — on the 7th of August, 1826, I met with a small
flock of these birds; and on the 1st of June, 1841, saw five of
them at what is believed to be the fountain Inopus, mentioned by
Pliny, in the island of Delos. I possess a specimen of this bird,
wliich flew on board a vessel at sea in 1834, in latitude 42° north,
longitude 54° west.

The Pectoral Sandpiper. — Tringa pectoralis, Bonap., has not
been detected in Ireland, but, being an American species, we may yet
hope to meet with it. Three individuals only — as particularly noticed
in Mr. Yarrell’s work (vol. iii. p. 77, second edit.) — -have been obtained
in Great Britain and the adjacent islets — one in Norfolk, another at
the Scilly Islands (by D. W, Mitchell, Esq.), and a thh’d on the
coast of Durham.

297

SCHINZ’S SANDPIPEK.

Bonaparte’s Sandpiper.

Tringa ScJdnzii, Bonap.

„ Bompartd, Scldegel,*

Is beiieved^ on circumstantial evidence, to have been once pro-
cured.

The following notice was published by me in the ‘ Annals of Natural
History, for 1846 :f — “ There is a specimen of T. ScJiinzii in the Belfast
Museum, respecting which positive information cannot now be ob-
tained; but it is supposed to have been shot in the bay here, in
conseqnence of having been preserved in a manner peculiar to a
taxidermist who set up a fresh ‘ sandpiper ’ (as it is called in his book)
for the collection on the 15th of April, 1836. AU circumstances con-
sidered, that sandpiper is believed to have been the one in question : — ■
no Tringa was ‘ mounted ’ by the same preserver from dried skins.
I have compared the specimen with the American one described and
figured by Mr. Yarrell, and found identity in the species. The bird
under consideration is noticed in the second edition of that author’s
work, vol. iii. p. 74.

“ Only one of these birds, recorded by Mr. Eyton as killed in Shrop-
shire, has been obtained in Great Britain. | Its occurrence on the
continent of Europe is not noticed in the latest works that 1 have seen
(Temminck, Part IV. ; Keyserling and Blasius ; Schlegel). North
America is its native country.”

* This name is given to the species on account of Brehm having bestowed that
of T. Schinsii on a different Tringa.

t Vol. xviii. p. 311.

1 Subsequently, two are said to have been procm’ed in the middle of October
1846, within a few miles of Penzance. — Mr. E. H. Rodd in ‘Zoologist,’ vol. iv,
p. 1554.

298

SCOLOPACIDiE.

THE LITTLE STINT.

Little Sandpiper.

Tringa minuta, Leisler.

Is a regular autumnal visitant to Ireland ; appearing
in extremely limited numbers.

About the year 1823^ Mr. John Montgomery, when shooting on
the extensive sands of Dnndrnm, county of Down, saw a bird
either of this species or the allied Tringa Temminchii, but
from its shyness sought in vain to procure it. On September the
6th, 1831, the first T, minuta known to me as obtained on the
Irish coast was shot in Belfast Bay, and came into the possession
of Dr. J. D. Marshall; its weight was six draclnns. It was shot
by James Adams at the curve of the river opposite Consbrook,
well known to shore- shooters by the name of Adamses Bay, so
called in honour of the sporting cobbler just mentioned, who has
plied his awl within gunshot of the place for upwards of half a
century. About the same time and locality a second specimen
was procured by a person who, attracted by its diminutive size,
singled out and shot it from the midst of a flock of dunlins.
These birds seemed not to relish the society of such a dwarf, as
they were observed endeavouring to drive it away. On the 5th
of October, a third individual was obtained at the same favoured
spot, and several others were seen on the shore. Adams, when
questioned on the subject, stated that previous to 1831, he had
occasionally shot the stint in the months of September and
October. He saw it, and never more than six together, in com-
pany with dunlins : both species kept together in flight as well as on
the ground, the stint being able to keep wing with its larger com-
panion— another shooter, of correct observation, describes the
beat of its wing as quicker and its flight more irregular than that
of the dunlin. On the I4th of August, 1832, I was informed
that during the few preceding days two stints had been seen on
the shore of the bay. On the 1 9th of August, 1833, one was

THE LITTLE STINT.

299

observed several times among a flock of dunlins^ the peculiarity
of its call having attracted attention towards it ; — this is described
by one person to be a singular kind of rattling sound and by
another (to whom it is more familiar) to be a twittering note,
like that of the swallow, but shriller, more rapidly repeated, and
of longer continuance. It is'said to be very distinct from that of
any other shore-bird.

On the 10th of October, 1834, two stints, unassociated with
other species, were shot at Dunbar^s Dock, Belfast : one of these
had more reddish brown in its plumage than any others ob-
tained previously, and was evidently adult. On September 10,

1836, a stint was seen in the bay. About the 1st of September,

1837, a flock consisting of nine of these birds was observed. Their
species being known to our shooters, they were perseveringly fol-
lowed, and though very wild, were all killed within a fortnight, some
falling singly and others in company with dunlins : not more
than two were procured at one shot. I obtained six of these
specimens and made notes on them (previous to their being skinned)
of which the following is an abstract : — ^in size they were very similar,
being about 6 inches in length; tarsi 10 to 104^ lines long ; middle
toe and nail, 8| to 8|- lines ; bill from feathers on forehead to point,
8^ to 9 lines ; colour of bill and legs, in some, blackish, obscurely
tinged with green ; in others, bill blackish, legs blackish-grey :
other characters, being permanent, were reserved for future exa-
mination. Their stomachs all exhibited fragments of stone and
sand : in one only were there remains of food, which consisted
of perfect insects and larvae, together with minute Crustacea. In

1838, a stint appeared in the bay on the 4th of September,
two on the 8th of that month, and four on the 24th of October.
In 1839, three arrived so early as at the end of July : on the
night of the 17th of September, the calls of two or three were

, heard by a shooter, who, going in pursuit of them on the next
morning, killed one. On the following day he procured three
along with dunlins, at a couple of shots, and on the 21st, one,
together with two pigmy curlews and some dunlins. They have
also been killed in company with ringed plover and dunlins. In

300

SCOLOPACID^.

1840, a stint was seen on the 26th of August : in 1841, one
had come on the 3rd of September and four on the 11th of that
month.

Owing perhaps to my neglect, I find no notes of the occurrence
of the species in 1842 or 1843. On the 24th of September,

1844, I received a stint which was killed that day in the bay,
at the same shot with two pigmy curlews and twenty-four dunlins.
On the 8th of December the same year, two stints appeared on the
Antrim side of the estuary, feeding at the outskirts of a flock of
dunlins, and permitted a near approach. During the autumn of

1845, the rarer sandpipers were very scarce in Belfast Bay ; and
I have no record of the stints'’ appearance : even gulls and ducks
of various species were less numerous than usual : curlews, red-
shanks, and oyster- catchers were in ordinary numbers. A stint was
heard and seen on the 23rd of September, 1846, and not very
far distant, four of these birds were observed at the outside of a
great flock of different species of Grallaiores congregated during
high water, on a floating mass of Zoster a. On the 5 th and 10th
of October, similar numbers were seen, and once or twice fired at
unsuccessfully both parties being supposed to be those pre-
viously noticed. They aU escaped being killed that season.
Between the first and last dates mentioned, they came under the
notice of various shooters. Stints were heard calling in the bay
on the 2nd of September, 1847. On the 23rd of August,
1 848, two were observed associated with a flock of dunhns ; and
about the 7th of that month I was pretty certain of having seen
from a railway carriage a flock of twelve, unmixed with other
species. A young bird of the year was shot near Holjrwood on
the 1st of October, 1849.

In so far, with the exception of the first bird noticed, the stint
is treated of only as seen in Belfast Bay during autumn, and all
except two were shot on the Down shore, within a mile and a lialf
of the town. Every year from 1831 to 1841 inclusive, notes are
given of its visiting this locality, with the exception of 1835,
when, being myself absent, no record of its occurrence was made.
I am not aware of the species having been ever killed here in

THE LITTLE STINT.

301

spring ; but on the 26th of March, 1838, a flock of flve was
observed.

In Dublin Bay, this bird has occasionally been met with.
About the 1st of November, 1831, Mr. T. W. Warren kiUed at
one shot, at the sandy tract called the North BuU, three stints,
along with sanderlings, ring dotterels, and dunlins. One, ac-
cording to Mr. W. S. Wall (bird-preserver), was kiUed in Sep-
tember 1836; and in that month of the following year (1837)
he saw five or six stints in company with some of the last-named
species on the North Bull : they were very wild, and kept up with
their congeners in flight : their peculiar call was remarked as new
to my informant. The stint is said to have been killed on the
Dublin coast in the autumn of 1816; and one was obtained"
there, near Baldoyle, in November 1847.* Mr. R. Chute has
twice procured this species near Tralee ; three from a flock of five
at the end of September, and two in the winter season (1840-
1841).

In England this bird has been observed chiefly on the eastern
and southern coasts in very limited numbers, and more particularly
during its autumnal migration. On the w^estern coast, the Solway
is noticed in Mr. Yarrelks work, on the authority of Dr. Hey-
sham, as a place of its occurrence, in which this gentleman had
seen it on both sides of the Erith. Lancashire is the only other
locality on that coast of the island noticed in the work referred
to. Sir Win. Jardine and Mr. Macgillivray had not at the date
of their respective works met with the stint in Scotland. A single
specimen is recorded in the ^ Historia Naturalis Orcadensis’ (pub-
lished in 1848), as having been kiUed at Sanday in October
1837.

The Dublin University Museum contains a specimen of T,
minuta stated to have been obtained at Sierra Leone.

* Mr. R, J. Montgomery.

302

SCOLOPACIDiE.

TEMMINCK^S STINT.

Tringa TemmincJcii, Leisler.

Has been once obtained.

A LETTER from Eicliard Chute, Esq., of Blennerville, Tralee,
dated Eebruarj, 1848, informed me that in the first week of
that month he had procured a specimen of this bird, killed at
the end of January, during severe frost. It was shot by W,
Purdon, Esq., at a fresh-water pool close to the town of Tralee,
and the one bird only was seen. The form of the tail, its colour,
with that of the tarsi and plumage generally, corresponded with
Yarrell^s description, though slightly darker in hue : the bird
was rather smaller than the individual from which that description
was drawn up. Mr. Chute saw three of the nearly allied Tringa
minuta (of which he shot two), a few years previously in a small
marsh near the sea-shore in the same part of Kerry.

Tliis is the only T, Temminckii I have heard of being procured
in Ireland.*

This bird is extremely rare in England, much more so than the '
T. minuta j and is unknown in Scotland. It breeds in Scandinavia.

THE BUEE-BEEASTED SANDPIPEE.

Tringa rufescens^ Yieillot.

Is said to have been once procured in Ireland.

According to Mr. E. M^Coy, one shot by J. Hill, Esq., near
the Pigeon- house, Dublin [bay], is preserved in the museum of
the Natural History Society of that city.f When the bird was
killed is not stated. It is said to be in the same plumage as that
described by Mr. Yarrell : — i. e., a young bird of the year.

* Sir Wm. Jardine, tkrougli inadvertence, mentioned the occurrence of the species
in Ireland, as on my authority, in the third volume of his ‘ British Birds,’ published
in 1842.

t ‘Annals Nat. Hist.,’ vol. xv. p. 271 (1845).

THE PURPLE SANDPIPER.

303

This species is an extremely rare visitant to England, six indi-
viduals only being recorded in the second edition of Mr. YarrelFs
work (1845) ; — two others are noticed in the ^Zoologist/ one as
killed on the Sussex coast * (no date given), and another, on the
3rd of September, 1846, near Penzance. f Two of the eight
specimens were obtained in the south of England, and one other of
them in the west, near Liverpool ; the remainder having occurred
in the eastern counties, including Cambridge. This bird has
not been met with in Scotland. It has been procured in Prance.

The buff-breasted sandpiper inhabits the eastern shores both of
South and North America, but is far from being commonly known,
even on those of the latter, which have been so weU explored.

THE PUEPLE SANDPIPEE.

Eock Sandpiper.

Tringa maritima, Brunnich.

Regularly inhabits certain parts of the coast in autumn
and winter.

It is but little known as an Irish bird, and differs from the
other Tfingce, by frequenting rocky coasts. Mr. Templeton knew
it only from specimens hereafter to be mentioned in the collection
of the late Mr. John Montgomery of Locust Lodge, Belfast. I
shall notice the locahties in which this species has been observed
from north to south, irrespective of dates. In Mr. J. Y. Stewards
catalogue of the birds of the north-west of Donegal, J the
purple sandpiper is mentioned as resident and common.^^
In a letter subsequently written, however, that gentleman
informed me that he had not been able to satisfy himself
respecting its breeding there. The Ordnance Museum con-
tains examples from Portrush, killed in the months of August,
September, November, and December, and from Cushendall

* Mr. F. Bond, vol. i. p. 148 : — March 28, 1843, date of communication.

t Mr. E. H. Rodd, vol. iv. p. 1500. t Nat. Hist., vol.v., 1832.

304

SCOLOPACID^.

in March : both localities on the rocky basaltic coast of Ad-
trim. On the county Down shore of Belfast Bay^ within three
miles of the town,, where it is of an oozy nature,, with small tracts
of sand, two of these birds were seen, and one of them (an
adult) shot on the 24th of October, 1844; another had been
killed there a short time before. I had not previously known this
sandpiper to visit the bay ; a flock of eight or nine birds frequented
it from the beginning of October that year. On the 28th of Oct.,
1845, a single bird (young of the year) was seen, and shot on the
gravelly beach at Thomson'’s embankment a short way lower down
the bay than the docks of the town. On the 7th of November,
1849, two were killed together at the Kinnegar; one of them
being a young bird of the year ; the other floated out to sea and
was lost. In March 1849, a purple sandpiper was shot at
Gransha Point, Strangford Lough, where but the one appeared,
in company with a ringed plover. The following is Mr. Mont-
gomery’s note before referred to : —

‘‘Dec. 2>rd or 1822. — Got four of these birds out of six

on the rocks at Tyrella, about two miles north-east of Dundrum
[Down] : they were so tame, although there had been no hard
weather, that when shot at, they rose and flew but a short distance.
They always alighted on large stones ; never on the sands. I
killed two out of tliree, and my companion did the same."” When
visiting Dundrum in August 1 836, 1 saw the gentleman here alluded
to, who considers that this sandpiper regularly frequents the rocks
on that coast about St. John’s Point. One of these birds was ob-
tained in the winter of 1837-38 near Lurgan Green, county of
Louth.*

Mr. W. S. Wall, bird-preserver, Dublin, presented me in 1833
with an immature specimen which was shot by himself in summer
at the Lighthouse beyond the Pigeon-house Port, Dublin Bay ;
near to which place the only one of these birds met with on any
part of the Irish coast, by T. W. Warren, Esq., was shot by him
about the 1st of November, 1831. Another gentleman mentions

* Mr. H. H. Dombrain.

THE PURPLE SANDPIPER.

305

his having seen one here in winter, and that at the end of May
he saw a flock of about six, on the rocks at Lambay Island,
from which he killed three, all in adult plumage.* A purple
sandpiper was observed in October 1846, at a part of this bay,
near Raheny.f

Mr. Poole states, with respect to the county of Wexford: —

I shot one specimen of this bird on the 29th of January, 1845,
at Ballyteigue Lough : there seemed to be plenty of them on
the beach. May 15, 1845. — At the Saltees I observed about
a dozen, which frequented the rocks near high-water mark, and
allowed a sufficiently near approach for three specimens to be
procured. They were excessively fat, and the ovaries of the
hens filled with backward eggs. Their food was univalve shell-
fish.'’’’ This bird has once been obtained at Youghal.J Ac-
cording to Mr. E. Chute : — a purple sandpiper was shot by
the Hon. Mr. Mullins in the last week of November 1846, on
some rocks at the entrance of Dingle Harbour, where there was a
small flock. The people there stated that some are to be seen on
the same rocks every winter. In the following year, two more of
them were shot there by that gentleman."’'’ A few of what he
has now no doubt were these birds, had been seen by my cor-
respondent in the middle of May 1844, on the Magharee islands,
Tralee Bay.

This sandpiper, little known in Scotland and England, ex-
cept as an autumnal and winter visitant to the shores, appears,
judging from the descriptions of Sir Win. Jardine|| and Mr.
Selby, to be more frequent in both those countries than in Ireland.
The latter author gives us the following interesting account of the
species : — " On the Northumbrian coast it is a common bird, and
is met with in numerous flocks wherever the beach is bold and
rocky. The Pern Islands, which are composed of trap (or
basaltic) rocks, are a favourite resort, and it sometimes happens
that a few stragglers are left at the period of the vernal migration,
remaining through the summer, and breeding on the smaller

* Rev. G-. Robinson. f Mr. R. J. Montgomery,

t Mr. R. Ball. I1 ‘ Brit. Birds/ vol. iii. p. 237.

VOL. II.

X

306

SCOLOPACID^.

islets. I have hitherto been unable to obtain the eggs, but have
met with the young more than once in the month of June. When
in flocks, these birds fly in a compact body, but seldom to any
great distance ; and, when disturbed, after taking a small circuit
seaward, often return to the same exposed rock by the water^s
edge, from which they started. They feed on marine insects,
such as onisci, small cancri, and on bivalve mollusca, &c., which
they seek for by turning aside the fronds of the ulvse, and other
maritime plants that grow on the rocks. Their cry is feeble, and
not unlike the word weety weet, frequently repeated. In spring,
they sometimes associate with the turnstones [Strepsilas interpres)
which affect the same localities.

The purple sandpiper is a native of North America, and breeds
commonly within the arctic circle there as well as in Europe.

^ THE KNOT.

Ash- coloured Sandpiper.

Tringa canutus, Linn.

„ cinerea, Brunn. Temm.

Is very common in the oozy and soft sandy bays through-
out autumn and winter : but retires to northern
latitudes to breed.

Of all the Scolopacidce, which visit us in great numbers, this species
appears to be the most restricted to localities of a particular
nature — and on some parts of the coast is never met with. The
adjoining marine loughs of Larne, Belfast, and Strangford, with
their extensive muddy zostera-covered banks and soft sands, suit
the knot — or dunne, as the bird is called here by the shooters —
admirably, and it is consequently abundant in these places. The
minute mollusca on which it chiefly feeds are the great attraction,
more especially the Paludina wAiriatica, Lam., which is only less

* Illust. Brit. Omit. vol. ii. p. 151.

THE KNOT.

307

numeroHS than the sands of the sea-shore. All the stomachs of
knots killed here that have come under my inspection were filled
with minute univalve mollnsca alone ; chiefly with that already
named, the young of Littorina rudis, &c. This bird does not return
from its breeding-haunts to Belfast Bay so early as some others
of its tribe : the earliest date known to me is the middle of
August ; — 14th in 1848, and 15th in 1849. Numbers appeared
at the date mentioned in the former year, and about three dozen
were killed by a shooter near Holywood. They fortunately
arrived just in time, not on their own account, but — for the pie-
crust ; as they were hurriedly made into “ plover pies,^^ to be set
before a monster temperance meeting which took place on the
following day in the village. In September the full number
arrives, and in very large flocks, chiefly of young birds. Twenty-
five have been killed here at one shot with an ordinary gun ; and
(November 2, 1843) forty-one, together with six redshanks and
sixty dunlins, with a swivel-gun. The propensity of the knot
and godwit to associate together has been remarked to me by a
good observer, but the former species has generally come under
my own notice, when keeping by itself.

Knots are easy of approach on their first appearance in the
autumn, of which the following is an illustration. A flock,
originally of above twenty birds, persevered in alighting near to
where they were first fired at until by four shots they were all
obtained but one. After being repeatedly persecuted they become
very wary, the great body even retiring altogether, or in large
flocks, from Belfast Bay in the early morning to the less fre-
quented Strangford Lough, whence they again return in the
evening to feed in the former locality during the night. This
is their daily practice throughout the later part of autumn and
the whole winter, except when there is a very strong wind against
them (less than a hurricane hardly affects them), on which occa-
sions they remain in whichever place they happen to be in Bel-
fast Bay at all times a few may be seen during the day. Many are

* This is not in opposition to the following remarks, which are strictly correct
and applicable to most of the species of Grallatores as well as the Anatidce. Mr,

X 2

308

SCOLOPACID.E.

killed at niglit^ when they apparently feed more than by day, both
in darkness and moonlight. Shooters are drawn to their vicinity
in the dark of the moon/^ by their singular chucking call when
engaged feeding. A person, hearing the call of these birds one
very dark night in October, sought them with a lantern, holding
the light side towards them, when they admitted his approach
within a few feet, and did not take wing, but ran before the light
as he advanced. The following remarks on their call were made
by me : — February Y4^,lS4i^. — Frosty weather; a number of knots
were feeding in the bay, close to the side of the road on the
Antrim shore ; the call is a double note, rather peculiar, perhaps
a little mournful : it sounded like ventriloquism, as if the birds
were in the air instead of on the ground. Could this have been
accidental, or owing to a particular state of the atmosphere

The flight of the knot is very swift and strong. On the 1st of
February, 1845, I noticed a large flock of from a thousand
to tw^elve hundred, sweeping over the banks on the Antrim side
of BeKast Bay, rising high into the air, and passing through
evolutions similar to those of the dunlin. The first time they
swept past, though at some distance, they actually startled me
by their silvery flash. It was within two hours of high-water,
and the atmosphere was in a most singular state. There w^as
frost, and had been some for a few days previously; the sea-
banks, over which the tide flow^s, and that have usually a cold,
wet, muddy aspect, now appeared dry, as if baked, and of a rich
brown and dark -green colour. When the large body of knots
alighted, a great number of dunlins took their stand at one
extremity of the flock. They w^ere nearly half a mile from the
road on which I was, and as every individual of the many hun-
dreds w^as distinctly seen of a silvery whiteness running about
feeding on what appeared a rich green carpet of Zostera marina,

St. John tells us that “ there are very large flocks of the oyster-catcher, the curlew,
and the knot, on the sand-banks, &c. (of Morayshire, in April). Whenever these
birds want to alight on any spot, if the wind is at all high, they invaluably pitch with
their heads straight to windward ; if they come down the wind to their resting-place,
they first fly past it, and then turning back against the wind, alight with their heads
in that direction.” — ‘Tour in Sutherland/ vol. i. p. 207. Although they do this,
they prefer to have the wind with them in their flights.

THE KNOT.

309

the singularity of the scene may readily be imagined. The
gulls, too, were conspicuous for two miles, though appearing
gradually smaller as they dotted the more distant beach. The
light was of such a nature, that while each knot and dunlin
looked silvery white, every gull appeared of the purest snowy hue.

The numbers of these birds — different from the Scolopacida
generally — are as great in the north of Ireland in winter as in
autumn. I never knew of more to be seen in Belfast Bay at any
period than in December and January of different years. In
Strangford Lough they are, from its comparative quietude, still
more abundant. It is rarely that any returns can be had thence,
but during a week spent there by a wild-fowl shooter in Bebruary
1846, they were in extreme profusion; and were again so
during the first week of March 1847. The noise of their wings
wheu passing over my informants head was compared to the
rushing sound of a tempest. At night, on the latter occasion, 174
were bagged from one shot of a swivel-gun, and these were ob-
tained by firing across the flock when on the ground ; two or
three times that number would probably have been killed had the
Hock been fired at lengthwise. All of this great body were
perfectly silent (doubtless awaiting the falling of the tide to lay
bare their feeding-ground), and the shooter knew nothing of their
proximity until those nearest to him rose to fly away.

They retire northward early in the spring : the latest date
before me of any Hock being seen is March 24, 1837. I once saw
a single bird on the 1st of May, but though apparently sound
in wind and limb,"’^ it had probably met with some accident.

The knot is rarely obtained in Belfast Bay in autumn with
the red plumage on the breast and belly indicative of the nuptial
season. A few birds displaying it came under the notice of Dr.
J. D. Marshall, in the autumn of 1828. On the 2nd of Sep-
tember, 1845, three individuals in this plumage alighted within
a very few yards of a shooter. One obtained so late as the 22nd
of September (1835) came under my own notice; as did another
killed on the 16th of August (1848) : both are preserved in the

310

SCOLOPAClDiE.

Belfast Museum. The latter is a very handsome specimen ; much
of the dorsal plumage being of a very dark rich bronze^ in
addition to the whole under surface of the body from the bill to
near the vent being reddish buff. Mr. E. Chute mentions his
having seen the red sandpiper ” of Bewick, (which is the knot
in summer plumage,) shot near Tralee. The earhest period at
which I have known the fall winter plumage assumed was on the
26th of September (1846), when a bird in that state was brought
to me : others killed on the same day were in an intermediate
state between summer and winter costmne. Almost every bird
of this species shot in the north of Ireland during autumn is
in the plumage attributed to the young of the year ; — with a
double band of white and black to the tip of each dorsal
feather.

This sandpiper is doubtless abundant in the oozy bays generally,
of at least the northern, eastern, and southern coasts ; and I
should expect of the western coast also ; but I shall only name the
localities whence positive information has been received. In the
north-west of Donegal it has been met with, but is considered
“ very rare.^^* It is numerous in the bay of Drogheda, and com-
mon from August till March about Baldoyle, Dublin Bay.f Mr.
Poole notes it as a winter visitant to the coast of Wexford, and
that he has occasionally seen immense numbers on sale in the
town of that name ; but that at other times several months pass
without a single bird being obtained. On some parts of the coast
of Waterford it is not uncommon ; and a specimen has been shot
inland a few miles from Clonmel. J This bird is as yet only
known in Cork Harbour from a few individuals having been
obtained in different years between August and January. || It
was considered very common on the coast of Kerry by the late
Mr. T. P. Neligan, who kindly supplied me with full information
on the birds of that county in 1837. Mr. E. Chute, knowing
it only as a rare bird there until 1846, since mentioned his

* Mr. J. V. Stewart,
t Mr. K. Davis, jun.

t Mr. R. J. Montgomery,

II Dr. J. R. Harvey of Cork.

THE LAND-RAIL.

311

having seen many on sale in Tralee dmlng the last two weeks of
October and first week of November 1848.

The Tringa canutus may be considered fidly as plentiful^ if not
more so, on the shores of Ireland as on those of Scotland or
England, though indeed very little data are supphed respecting
its distribution in the two latter countries. Mr. Selby gives
an interesting account of this bird from his own observation on
the Northumbrian coast, which also is the only locality named by
Sir Win. Jardine, in connexion with his own observation upon it.

The knot is common to the temperate and (in summer) to the
arctic portions both of Europe and North America.

THE LAND-EAIL.*

Corncrake.

Crex pratensis, Bechst.

Rallus or ex, Linn.

Is a common summer bird in Ireland.

Owing to the more humid chmate and the general prevalence of
meadow-land, it is more equally distributed over this island than
Great Britain. The land-rail generally appears in the neighbour-
hood of Belfast as early as we are told it does in the southern
counties of England ; — within the last ten days of April

and consequently earlier than in the northern parts of that comitry,
where its arrival is said to occur in the second week of May."’"’ J
It was seen or heard there on the 12th of April in 1849 (a single
bird only and no more for some time afterwards) ; on the 20th in
1832 ; on the 21st in 1833 ; on the 22nd in 1 845 and 1848 ; on the
24th in 1840 ; and on the 25th in 1844. About Carrickfergus, the
corncrake has been noticed earlier. In M'SkimmiAs history of

* Leigh, ia his ‘Natural History of Lancashire,’ informs us that “the rale is
a bird about the bigness of a partridge, and is common in these parts ; it hides
itself in the grass, and is discovered by the snarling noise that it continually makes ;
it is very excellent food, and doubtless of extraordinary nutriment.” — P. 162.

t Yarrell, ‘ Brit. Birds.’

t Ibid. Mr. Selby remarks : — In the north of England “ it is seldom observed
before the beginning of May,” vol. ii. p. 177.

312

EALLIDiE.

tliat place (3rd edit. 1829^ p. 352), it is said tlie earliest time
they have been heard calling was the 17th of April and the latest
the 14tli of August.'’'’ According to a paragraph in the ‘'Northern
Whig'’ newspaper of April 16, 1842, the corncrake was heard
calling in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus on the 8th hist.,
being about ten days earlier than heard at any former period in
that district.'’'’ If correct, this must have been an isolated
instance, as in the year 1 842, the bird was very late in arrival
- -or in making itself known by calling — in the neighbourhood of
Belfast, where, until the 1st of May, I was not aware of its presence.
Its non-appearance before May is a rare occurrence : in 1836 it
was very late, and in 1 838 later than ever before known, not being
heard until the 6th of May, when numbers appeared all at once.
Instead of one or two, as is usual on their first arrival, being
heard, not less than ten gave forth their calls at the same time,
in the grounds of Eort William, on the borders of the bay.
Over the north generally they were not quite so late, one having
been heard near Downpatrick on the 1st of May, and others
on the 4th at the Moyntaghs, bordering Lough Neagh. Ac-
cording to dates supplied by my informants, this bird would
appear not to arrive so early in the more southern parts of Ire-
land as in the northern, an apparent anomaly which possibly
may be owing to less attention being paid to the subject there.
In the south of Wexford, the dates given for six years are,
April 26, 27, 28; Alay 3, 5, 7.”^ The 30th of April has been
noted as the earliest date of arrival in the neighbourhood of
Tralee ;t the 1 3th of May as the average time about Killaloe on
the Shannon ; it has been remarked as an early instance that the
call was heard at Edgeworthtown (co. Longford) on the 3rd of
May, I838.J

The arrival of the corncrake in the north of Ireland has no
connexion with the early or late state of the meadows. I have
remarked the bird here when they hardly concealed its body from
view, and in other years that it would not appear until two or
three weeks after they were ready for its reception. Fields of grain
* Mr. Poole. f Mr. T. F. Neligan. | Rev. T. Kuox.

THE LAND-RAIL.

313

and clover are also resorted to, so soon after the biiThs arrival
as they will afford shelter. Mr. Poole has heard it call early
ill the season from fields of furze in the county of Wexford,
which were better cover at the time than the meadows, and were
probably selected on that account.

Everywhere that we go in this island in the months of May,
June, and early in July * (irrespective of the vicinity of rivers,
which are considered to influence its distribution in Great Britain),
except to the mountain top, or to stony and heath-covered tracts,
the call of the corncrake is heard, not only at its favourite
times, in the evening and during the night, but throughout the
day.t Prom its frequenting the meadows or pastures nearest
towns, and even those within them — as the grounds of the Boyal
Academical Institution, Belfast — the corncrake makes itself heard
through the night over a great portion of the towns in Ire-
land. Owing to its late period of breeding, this bird suffers
sadly during the mowing of our meadows, about which time it
is generally engaged in incubation. Should it not fall a victim to
the mower by the loss of its head, the nest being laid bare is
deserted, or if the young have recently ‘^Gome out,” they are
often either maimed or destroyed by the scythe. Bewick, in one of
the inimitable tail-pieces to his ^ British Birds,^ represents the
catastrophe first alluded to.J Portunately the species is very

* In 1832, an ornithological friend remarked respecting the neighbourhood of
Belfast, that after the 13th of July he rarely heard them call at night. On the 25th
of that month, I listened to one in 1845, as I did to single birds on the nights of
the 28th and 29th in 1848, in different districts. The 18th of July has been noted
as the latest time at which they called about KiUaloe. Mr. Hyndman heard them during
three days in the first week of August 1845, whieh he spent on Tory Island, off the
county of Donegal. They are stated to visit that island annually.

1 was told when in the island of Islay (Scotland) that they are numerous there
every summer.

t A night watchman in a bleach-green near Belfast, considers that for some time
after arrival the birds call by night before they do so by day, and consequently that he
is aware of their presence before most other persons — on “ nights wMch are close,
and some warming rain,” they first make themselves known. Sir Win. Jardine
states, that “ the crake is uttered by the bird when running, but more frequently when
seated on some stone or elod.” — ‘Brit. Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 332. Such birds as have
come under my own notice when calling, were stationary, their necks erect and at full
stretch during the time,

X Vignette to the Dotterel, p. 328, in edit, of 1821.

314

RALLID^.

prolific^ laying not unfrequently about a dozen of eggs : the young
can run nimbly so soon as they burst the shell.

It is remarked by Sir Wm. Jardine respecting this rail^ that —

In some parts it has decreased and without apparent cause ; in
the vale of the Annan in the south of Scotland, ten years since,
the bird was extremely common, its note being heard in almost
every alternate field; at the present time it may almost be ac-
counted rare, during last summer (1841) only one or two pairs
being heard within a stretch of several miles."’^ — ^ Brit. Birds,^
vol. hi. p. 331. In the north of Ireland, the land-rail became
very much scarcer about the same time as the partridge (see
p. 58), and continued so for fully fifteen years. They were
never more scarce than in 1843, but within the last very few
summers they have, like that species, rapidly increased. At no
period have I heard them more plentiful (for we hear rather than
see the corncrake) than in the summer of 1848, about Cultra, on
the borders of Belfast Bay. They were also numerous that
season in various parts of Down and Antrim ; and in 1849 were
equally abundant. Their scarcity for a long period seemed the
more remarkable, as they had become, around Belfast, less an
object of pursuit by sportsmen, than formerly. Their having ever
been so, was unpopular, the bird being a general favourite, and
viewed as one of the innocent guests of summer,"’^ whose note
is as well known as that of the cuckoo, and much more frequently
heard. Brom its slow and slovenly mode of flight also, the corn-
crake is believed to faU too easy a sacrifice to the gun. So unwill-
ing is this bird to take wing, that I have frequently seen it when
running caught on the ground by dogs. The power of flight it
can exert is, however, considerable when called forth by the pursuit
of the peregrine falcon, as alluded to in the history of that bird.

For a short time only after arrival can the land-rail be followed
by the sportsman without injury to the meadows or crops which
it frequents. He does not again meet with it until the 20th of
September, the first day of partridge-shooting in Ireland. So few
are then seen, at least in the north, compared with the num-
bers in spring before they have bred, that the greater portion

THE LAND-llAIE.

315

has doubtless migrated southwards. In all probability, the old
birds which without let or hindrance have reared their
brood, leave the country with them so soon as they are strong
enough for the journey, as in like manner a large portion of
swallows depart with their first brood in the month of August,
when favourable weather and wind prevail. Occasional birds
only, which frequent stubble and potato fields, like partridge, are
met with at that time. Through the month of October, few oc-
cur, and afterwards their appearance is very rare.* The instances
within ten miles of Belfast noted after that time, are as follow : —
November 5, 1831, a small bird, probably belonging to a late
brood, was shot — November 1, 1834, one, and on the 19th of
that month, a brace, were obtained : the latter among rushes
on Devis mountain — December 22, 1836, ^^a pensioner^^ as to
flight, but in good condition, was caught on a rushy field by a
friend^s setting-dog — December 16, 1840, a mild winter, one
quite strong on the wing was shot, and proved to be in excellent
condition — January 10, 1788, eight or ten brace were flushed
among the rocks at the Knockagh, one of which was shot : it was
rather lean.'’'’t — On January 29, 1849, and Bebruary 1, 1821,
single individuals were killed.

With respect to other parts of Ireland : — At Toomavara (Tip-
perary) a young bird unable to fly was once caught so late as the
18th of October. In the county of Wexford, land-rails are
always met with by sportsmen in the month of October, but not
in November. J On November 6th, 1848, one was shot in the
CO. of Cork ; twice in January, birds have been killed in the co.
of Dublin, II and in the first week of Bebruary 1849, one was
obtained in the Moyntaghs, co. Armagh.

The plumage of the land-rail occasionally appears very pale

* A friend shooting at Aberarder, in the north of Inverness-shire, reported a brace
as shot in the third week of September 1838 ; and when there myself in 1842, one
was met with in a rushy field on the 25th of September : on the 3rd of October I saw
one quite fresh in a poidterer’s shop in Edinburgh.

t M'Skimniin’s ‘ History of Carrickfergus.’

+ Major T. Walker.

II Mr. E. J. Montgomery.

316

RALLID^.

in line,, and fawn-coloured varieties are sometimes met with. Mr.
E. Davis^ jun.^ of Clonmel^ procured on the 6th of August, 1841,
a very fine adult bird without the least appearance of ash-grey
on the throat and under plumage, which colour was replaced by
a rich yellowish-brown.'’^ On the 11th of the month he had
^^from the same place one half of a young bird severed by
mowers, wliich, though not fully feathered, was exactly of the
same colour, and probably a descendant of the former.'”

At the end of May 1832, 1 learned from a relative that one of
these birds which he had then living, was taken when young in
the preceding summer, and placed in his garden — a very large
walled one “Where it lived throughout the winter (which was,
however, very mild), without being supplied with any food. I
have known different land-rails to be kept upwards of a year where
they were not exposed to the weather. They fed freely on bread
and milk, potatoes, &c., and kept in good condition. Mr. E.
Ball, some years ago, supplied me with the following note : — A
pair of corncrakes have passed two winters in the gardens of the
Eoyal Zoological Society, Phoenix Park, Dublin, and seemed to
enjoy excellent health. They inhabit a cage together with a ruff,
starlings, thrushes, blackbirds, &c. A supply of chopped beef
heart, of which all its denizens partake, is daily put in the cage.
The corncrakes probably share in various other kinds of food
supplied by visitors to the gardens. They show no symptoms of
torpidity, though much exposed to cold. The species simulates
death when surprised, and in this state, probably, has been
supposed to be torpid.”

The following interesting history of corncrakes kept in the
house of Mr. Spear, Carrickfergus, has been procured by the
kindness of Mr. G. C. Hyndman. The first one (full-grown at
the time, but probably a young bird of the year) was obtained
in a street of that town when hay was being housed, in the
autumn of 1823. It became quite tame, and partook of food
very various in kind, such as groats (few, however, of them), raw
meat, bread and milk, stirabout and milk, yolk of boiled eggs,
and butter, which last was especially relished. It also ate worms.

THE LAND-RAIL.

317

snails_, slugs^ &c.,* and has been seen to take small sticklebacks
{Gasterosfei) that happened to be in the water. This bird was
very cleanly^ and washed every morning in a basin of water set
apart for the purpose. It was accustomed to be taken up stairs
at nighb and brought down in the morning; and of its own
accord habitually went out of the cage into a basket contain-
ing moss_, where the night was passed^ and in the morning likewise
left the basket and entered the cage in which it was carried down
stairs. When allowed to go about the house, the persons to
whom it was attached were sought for, and followed everywhere.
On becoming unwell, the poor bird took possession of the lap of
a member of the family, and looked up to her apparently for relief ;
though when in health, it resisted all attempts at being handled,
flying up at the intruder and snapping its mandibles together.
Every spring it called with the usual craJce, beginning very early
in the morning; this was usually commenced in March, but on
one occasion was uttered so early as the 3rd of Eebruary. As
remarked of the bird after this period : — It would crake quite
impudently in the parlour, when brought there to be shovrn off.'’^
Moulting took place in the month of August ; but no symptoms
of uneasiness appeared then, or at any particular season. At
pairing time, this bird was very comical, coming up with its wings
spread, and neck stretched out, after the manner of a turkey-
cock, and uttering a peculiar croaking note. It would then make a
sort of nest in the cage, croaking all the while, and carry a worm
or piece of meat about in its bill. So great a favourite was
this corncrake that its death was duly chronicled as taking place
on the 14th of January, 1830, after having been kept for above
six years.

* I have known the horse-leech {Hirudo sangxmugd) to be found in stomachs of
land-rails killed in a wild state. Three stomachs examined, by me on May 15
(1849) exhibited similar food, consisting of the remains of coleopterous insects (which
when perfect would have been live lines in length) and of small snails {Limaces) as
shown by their shells {Limacellce), and these only ; the animals themselves having
wholly disappeared. Fragments of stone also appeared in these three stomachs.
The snail must be rapidly digested in the stomachs of birds generally, as in some
hundred cases that have come under my examination the internal shell alone has borne
witness to its having ever been there.

318

RALLID^.

Another corncrake lived for three or four years in the same
cage with the one described. Having been wounded by a dog,
it suffered much for a time after being received, yet ate heartily,
and, with great care, soon recovered. This individual never
showed the same degree of intelligence or tameness as the other.
It was not so partial to washing, perhaps owing to its wounded
state, but had the same habit of going to and from the day-cage
to the basket where the night was spent. It craked in the
season, though not so much as the other, and never exhibited
the amusing attitudes at pairing-time which have been alluded
to. The sex was not known in either instance. The call is
generally attributed by naturalists to the male only. Attempts
were made to rear others unsuccessfully : on one occasion a young
one was put into the cage with two old birds, which seemed
fond of their charge, and endeavoured to induce it to eat by pre-
senting worms in their bills, but ineffectually.

Mr. Knox, in his agreeable ^ Ornithological Eambles in Sus-
sex,^ mentions as a vulgar belief in the county, that cuckoos
become hawks in winter. Such is also a prevalent notion among
the uneducated in the north of Ireland. In like manner, it
is believed here that the corncrake becomes a waterhen ( Gallinula
clilofopus) in winter.

Mr. W. E. Wilde, author of the ^Narrative of a Yoyage to
Madeira, the Mediterranean,^ &c., mentioned to me on his return,
that when at Algiers in the month of December he saw several
land-rails, and was told that the species wintered there.

THE SPOTTED EAIL.

Spotted Crake.

Crex porzana, Linn, (sp.)

Rallus „ „

Can only be announced with certainty as an occasional —
though probably a regular — summer visitant.

This beautifully-marked species, spotted delicately with white, as

THE SPOTTED BAIL.

319

if a snow-shower had fallen on it^ is much less known than might
be in consequence of its habits and the nature of its haunts_,
which are generally bogs or marshes. Prom Mr. Templeton^s MS.
we learn that three specimens had come under his notice^ in addi-
tion to two seen in the rushy fields of his own farm^ near Belfast.

I shall give here the occurrence of the species as known to me
from north to south of the island, rather than according to dates.
The first which came under my observation was an adult bird shot
in summer about the year 1822 at brick-fields, contiguous to the
• Blackwater in the outskirts of the town of Belfast, since which
period two others have been procured about the same locality : —
Mr. J. R. Garrett informs me as follows : — On the 12th, 27th,
and 28th of September of the years 1835, 1847, and 1848, I
procured specimens of the spotted rail in a large marsh overrun
with reeds and other aquatic plants, situated about a mile from
Clough (Antrim), where the species is not uncommon in autumn,
although I have never been able to find it there in winter. These
specimens were so thickly coated with fat that it was almost impos-
sible to get the skins freed from it : their flesh was remarkably
tender and delicate in flavour.

‘‘ Water-rails, which I shot on the same occasions and in the
same marsh, had not a particle of fat on them.

In the gullet of one of the spotted rails above alluded to,
I found two unbroken shells, and in the stomach were fragments
of the same kind of shell, together with black gravelly matter.*
It is extremely difficult, even with the assistance of a dog, to com-
pel these birds to take wing ; but I have seen them, when raised,
fly with rapidity for several hundred yards before alighting."’^

In the vicinity of Bogay House (Donegal) a spotted rail was ob-
tained about the year 1828. In November 1845 one was killed
near Downpatrick (Down). In March 1833, two native specimens
came under my notice in private collections in Dublin. On the
25th of October, 1835, one was shot at Portrane (Dublin) ;f

* Two full-grown specimens of lAmneus palustris are alluded to ; minute seeds
of plants were in the stomach.

t August 1849, one was received by a bird-preserver in the metropolis.

320

RALLIDiE.

another was subsequently killed at Douce (Wicklow) late in the
autumn, by a gentleman engaged in snipe-shooting. One was
shot in the month of October 1834, near Portarlington (Queen's-
county)."^ The Eev. Thomas Knox notes this bird as very rare,
but that two or three individuals were seen, and one of them was
killed, on the 7th of September, 1832, at the side of the river
Shannon, near Killaloe (Clare) : its stomach contained the remains
of some small shells, together with gravel. I was informed in the
year 1837, by Mr. T. E. Neligan, of Tralee (Kerry), that he had
shot a spotted rail near that town, at the end of July or beginning
of August, about five years previously, and that he was aware of
four or five having been since obtained. With reference to the
same part of Kerry, Mr. E. Chute wrote to me in Eebruary 1846
that two or three individuals of this species had come under his
notice in the early part of winter, and that he saw one shot after
Christmas. He had likewise procured a young bird in the month
of August exhibiting some down, and hence concluded that it
must have been brought out in the marsh in which its capture was
effected. In the ^ Eauna of Cork,^ it was remarked respecting
this rail in 1843 : — “ Perhaps more common than is generally
supposed. It has been shot by my friend Mr. Adam Parker, in
two or three instances within a short time. He and his brother
(both ornithologists as well as sportsmen) have not unfrequently
met with it for several years past. It occurred also to Mr. Eobert
Davis, jun., in Tipperary^’ (p. 13). The author (Dr. J. E. Har-
vey) further stated in a letter written to me in 1848, that one
had been shot in October 1843, near Clay Castle, Youghal, and
that a second was subsequently killed in the same locality. In
the month of September 1842, a spotted rail was procured near
Waterford, where the species is considered extremely rare.f
Most of these birds killed in Ireland have fallen before
snipe-shooters, and consequently after the 20th of September.
They seem partial to particular localities from the circumstance
of their being found frequenting them in different years. There
can be little doubt of their breeding in the island, though no

t Dr. R. J. Burkitt.

* Rev. B. J. Clarke.

baillon's crake or rail.

321

positive statement can be offered on tlie subject. They are
perhaps about equally plentiful as in England and Scotland."^

The spotted rail appears to be scarce everywhere ; its distribu-
tion is much the same as that of the land-rail; extending in
summer as far north in Europe as Scandinavia. It winters in
the north of Africa, &c.

BAILLON^S CRAKE OR RAIL.

Crex Bailloni, Vieill. (sp.)

Rallus ,j „

Gallinula „ Temm.

Has been once obtained ;

According to Dr. Harvey, of Cork, on whose authority I re-
corded it in the ^Annals of Natural History^ for September
1847 (vol. XX. p. 169). The specimen was procured in a bog
at Clay Castle, near Youghal, on October 30, 1845, where a
spotted rail had been shot in October 1843, and another has
been killed since. The fact of this bird^s appearance in the
same locality suggests the question. Could its young have been
mistaken for C. Bailloni ? but the individual in question is
considered to be undoubtedly the latter, by two acute ornitholo-
gists. The one, Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, judged, indeed,
only from the description supplied by its possessor (Mr. S. Moss,
of Youghal), but that was considered sufficient for him to an-
nounce the species to me as certain. The specimen was kindly
sent to Cork for Dr. Harvey's examination, but being in a
closed glass case he was unable to take the measurements.f
He remarks: — Along with it, however, was a spotted crake
for comparison, about half the size of which the other appeared

* A sporting friend shot a spotted rail some years ago in tlie autumn on Ms moor,
near Ballantrae, Ayrshire.

t Mr. Moss, who preserved it, noted the length as 7 inches ; wdngs expanded 101-
inches ; weight 1 ounce.

VOL. II.

Y

322

llALLIDiS.

to be. Its colour above was deep browii^ rather less olive than
in C. porzana, densely dotted with white spots_, and semicircular
markings of that colour ; throaty neck_, and breast lead or blue-
grey; cliin faintly white. No streaks (properly so called) on
the back or any part."’"’ This description being applied by me to
specimens in the British Museum and Mr. Yarrelks collection^ they
exhibited a perfect agreement with it^ excepting that the white
markings were^ in some parts of the plumage of the few indivi-
duals examined^ disposed in the form of streaks. The semicir-
cular markings alluded to would^ however, it may be presumed,
approximate in form to streaks.

About six individuals of this species have been procured at
various seasons, in different parts of England (Yarr.), but none
in Scotland (Jard.). The data before me do not exhibit its dis-
tribution or migration northward of the British Islands on the
European continent. It is a bird of temperate and southern
Europe, and found extensively over Africa and Asia.

The Little Crake, or Olivaceous Gallinule. — Crex pusilla,
Gallmula minuta. Cannot at present be included in the Irish cata-
logue, although half as many more individuals have been obtained in
England, than of C. Bailloni. It has not been met with in Scotland
(Jard., &c.). What is said of the distribution of the last species
will equally apply to this, excepting that it is not found extensively
over Africa.

THE WATEE-BAIL.
llallus aqiiaticuSy Linn.

Is permanently resident throughout the island, though
little known except in winter ; when it falls a
sacrifice to snipe-shooters.

A YOUNG bird just escaped from the nest at Springmount, near
Clough (Antrim), was once taken by Mr. J. E. Garrett, who some
seasons afterwards shot a young bird of the year there on the

THE WATER-KAIL.

328

28th of September.'^ Late in the month of July 1831^ a
brace of these birds were shot on their rising from a drain
contiguous to Ballydrain Lake,, near Belfast, where the poor
victims had probably a nest. The gamekeeper at Tollymore
Park (Down) informed me that he saw the species in his neigh-
bourhoood during May 1 846, and believed it to be breeding, though
he could not find the nest. At Ballitore (Kildare) and Eox-
borough (Cork) Mr. E. Ball has met with the nests of the water-
rail ; and the bird itself has been observed at the end of May
near Lough Count (Mayo). The species is not uncommon about
Clonmel, where it breeds in deep wet bogs, and lays its eggs
about the beginning of May.J It is common and resident in the
county of Wexford, and called there the little waterhen.|| The
Eev. T. Knox considers this bird as abundant in the county of
Westmeath (but does not mention at what season), and has seen
it^about Killaloe, on the river Shannon.

Mr. Yarrell imagines there are more water-rails in Great
Britain in summer than in winter, and remarks that the bird

has been killed three times in winter in Scotland, and several
times in Sussex, Kent, and Oxfordsliire.^^ With respect to
Ireland, I have occasionally been disposed to believe that there
must be an increase by migration to the number of water-rails
bred in the country ; that they arrive in autumn, remain
during winter, and depart northward in spring. The numbers
shot around Belfast in autumn and winter are not, I feel certain,
all bred in the district, though it is possible they may have

* It differs from an old bird IdUed at the same place, two days afterwards, and
from tbe many adults wbicb I have seen, by having the entire under surface from the
lower part of the throat to the vent of a dull bullish colom*, with irregular transverse
bands and markings of black. Some three or four plumes only on the flanks at each
side exhibit the white transverse bands on the black feathers, which, being numerous
in the adult bird, constitute its chief heauty. The spurs on the winglet of this young
bird (whose sex was not noted) are sharper than those of the very few adult males
and females which I have examined. The smallest was on the handsomest male that
has come under my notice (killed March 15th), having the throat of a pure white,
and the irides of a hue between coral and orange-red.

t Mr. Bent BaU; — who, when a boy, frequently found it in snares which he had
set for snipes in the neighbomliood of Youghal.

i Mr. 11. Davis, Jun. il Mr. J. Poole.

Y 2

324

HALLIDiE.

been within the island. They are more or less plentiful, too, in
different years — in the winter of 1834, they were particularly
numerous, and killed by all our sportsmen (to whom from their
mode of flight they prove the easiest of shots) : a few were also
daily to be seen exposed with other birds for sale in the shops of
Belfast. Within the first week of January 1841, Mr. J. R. Garrett
saw many about Clough, and not less than a dozen in the
course of a day.* The greatest number that has occurred during
one day in Down and Antrim, to another sporting friend (who
has had excellent opportunities of meeting with them) was
six, which he saw in the King^s Moss (Antrim) on the 20th of
September, 1836. Burther, the species was known only to my
correspondents in the north-west of Donegal,! the neighbour-
hood of Dublin,! and county of Kerry, [j as an autumnal or winter
visitant.^

The first of these birds that fell to my own gun when 1 was a
juvenile shooter, did so under singular circumstances. I had fired
at a snipe on Holywood warren, Avounded (as was imagined),
and marked it down. On walking towards the spot where it
pitched or fell, and looking cautiously about when within a near
shot of the place, I saw a bird at the edge of a little plashy
spot, bleeding apparently at the biU, which was concluded to be
the dying snipe. Lest it shoidd escape again, 1 fired at the bird
on the ground, and to my amazement on going to the spot, the
victim appeared in the shape of a water-rail, a species which I
had never before seen, and the natural redness of whose bill led
me to believe it was that of the snipe covered with blood. The
snipe could not again be sprung, and probably had dropped
dead. At all events it was the innocent cause of the death of
the water-rail.

* They are common in the same haunts here at all seasons of the year.

f Mr. J. V. Stewart. X J* Montgomery. || Mr. T. T. Neligan.

^ In the island of Islay; Scotland, it is known only to the keeper as a bird regu-
larly seen in winter. I do not, however, take it for granted in any of these instances,
that the species is in the locality only at the seasons named. In autumn and winter
alone will it come under the direct notice of the sportsman.

THE WATER-RAIL.

325

On the 15th of September, 1832, I saw in a gunsmitVs shop
in Belfast, one of these birds, which had been taken alive a day
or two before. It was very expert at catching flies in the shop-
window, running a tilt at them quite regardless of the presence of
the stumbling-blocks which beset its path in the form of pistols,
turn-screws, &c. When approached, this bird struck wickedly
with its bill and feet, but never with its spurred wings.*

The food, &c., contained in seven water-rails examined by me
were — in March ^35 : a few seeds; the remains of a horse-
leech; sand and gravel. — ^December ^35 : a few hard seeds and
part of a broad-leaved plant. — January ^36 : two mo derate- sized
specimens of the fresh-water shell Limneus palustris and a small
Limneus pereger : — another in the same month ; a few seeds, some
soft vegetable matter, and small gravel. — April ^36 : one filled with
seeds and the remains of insects. — October '’37 : one filled with por-
tions of shells of the genus Limneus, of which a purple fragment
denoted L. palustris. — December '’37 : seeds, worms, a perfect
insect and larvrn, with the addition of gravel.

A water-rail, fed on portions of bullocFs head chopped small,
lived in fine health and plumage for two years in the Koyal
Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin.f

Mr. Yarrell remarks, with reference to England, merely that
this species is less numerous than the land-rail — in Ireland
the relative difference of their numbers, considering the whole
year, is probably as one water-rail to five hundred land-rails.
Prom his description and that of other authors, in reference to
England and Scotland, the water-rail seems fully as plentiful in
Ireland as in either of those countries, perhaps more so than in
Scotland.

* The jacana is stated to use the spurs on its wings in fighting,
t Mr. R. Ball.

326

EALLIDiE.

THE COMMON WATEEHEN.

Common Gallinule; Moorhen.

Gallimda c]iloro2ms, Linn, (sp.)

Fulica „ ,,

Is abundant throughout Ireland, and permanently re-
sident.

There is not anything peculiar respecting this species to be
brought forward in the case of migratory birds, or which might
not be said of it in any country. It is equally common in Ire-
land, Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe. The in-
teresting operations connected with its nest have been pleasingly
treated of by Mr. Selby‘S and others ; but a few additional
instances of the bird^’s intelligence may be selected from notes
in my possession. It may, however, first be observed, that the
waterhen visits uninvited, and eventually takes up its abode at
localities where protection is afforded : — its tameness, handsome
appearance, and lively motions combined, render the bird every-
where very attractive. To Wolfhill, near Belfast, where I spent
many smnmers, it thus came, increased rapidly in numbers, and
was to be seen tame as any poultry ; — coming within a pace of where
one stood. Little troops of them were partial to the stable-yard,
in which they fed with the fowl, and so many as fourteen would
often appear at the same time. A dozen might be reckoned
roosting on a single bush in the autumn : though the pond they
frequented was surrounded by trees and slnubs. A bird would
sometimes remain perched on one foot for the night (or so late
as any person was out of doors to observe it), on the top of a large
stone in the pond. At this place, a pair once seemed even to
prefer the vicinity of man in selecting a site for their nest, which
was built in a heap of stones within a few paces of where

* lUust. Brit. Orn. vol. ii. p. 188, and Berwiclisliire Naturalists’ Club Proceed-
ings, p. 84.

THE COMMON WATERMEN.

m

labourers were daily at work^ tliougli places of the most retired
character were quite contiguous. Two pair having nests there
in the summer of 1831 had them destroyed by the sudden filling
of the pond in which they were placed^ after it had been for a
long time dry. The calamity seemed to provoke their wrath^ as
a very obstinate engagement ensued. They fought while standing
in the water, and struck each other with their feet, crowing
loudly in defiance all the time.'^ After the destruction of these two
nests, three were made, one on the top of a very large stone in the
pond ; another at the base of the stem of a willow, which grew
horizontally over the wafer before shooting upwards ; the third on
the ground within a foot of the water’s edge. On the 10th of
September that year there was an incursion of waterhens to the
pond, when the old pair, together with their young, which had
been brought out there, took possession of an island, and, like
sentinels, kept moving along its borders. Whenever any of the
new comers attempted a landing they were completely beaten back
— it was an amusing scene from the whole being conducted with
soldier-like regularity.

When this pond was filled in May 1832, after having been for
some time dry, there were also two nests of the waterhen, one of
which was on the stem of an overhanging willow. When the water
approached it, one of the pair kept running quickly to the nest with
small sticks in its bill, while the other remained there, to fix them
beneath, so that before the water reached the eggs the nest was
raised about six inches : this unfortunately proved to be labour
in vain, as the eggs were destroyed.f The same pair afterwards

* Mr. R. J. Montgomery, writing to me on the 9tli of March, 1849, remarked — •
‘‘Waterhens when pairing, fight violently for the females. They stand nearly
upright in the water and strike with the feet. I watched a pair the other morning
for half an hour, while they struck each other until one got the better of his anta-
gonist. He then seized him hy the head with his beak, and would I think have
killed him had I not thought proper to interfere. The female aU the time looked on
quietly.”

t Mr. Selby, in an interesting communication to the Berwickshire Naturalists’
Club, mentions a pair of waterhens not only adding to their nest under similar cir-
cumstances hut removing the eggs until the nest had reached its height, when they
were safely replaced. A remarkable instance of the intelligence of this species is
given in Stanley’s ‘ Familiar History of Birds,’ vol. ii. p. 127, 3rd edit.

828

RALLIDiE.

made a nest among the grass on the bank, without using any
sticks in its construction, though these were abundant closely
around. The nest was partially lined with dead leaves of the
laurel : the brood was brought out in safety. The old bird took
the young under her wings (especially in the evening), as a hen
does her chickens, concealing them in the same manner from view.
There was now another nest made, to which the parent would
call her brood, and remain in it with them for some time. The
waterhens never covered their eggs on leaving the various nests
at Wolfhill, though, according to the observations of Mr. Selby,
such is the habit of the bird.* Their not doing so, however, at
this locality, is only another proof of their intelligence. We
have already seen that when a pair lost their eggs from these
being overflowed by water, they made a nest close by on the
firm-set earth,'*'’ and that, instead of the usual course, when the
nest is built about water, of elevating it on a mound of sticks,
dispensing altogether with them, though they were plentiful
around : — we now see them departing from the ordinary habit of
covering the eggs, in a locality w^here they found themselves pro-
tected and knew they had no enemies to fear.

Some birds rear two or three broods in the same nest, and even
return year after year to it. On the other hand, the water-
hen is not always content with a single nest for one brood, but
will make a second one or raft, and sometimes several rafts for it :
these, however, being slightly made, are soon constructed. A
friend, one evening, having laid a branch of a tree beside his
pond, was surprised the next morning by seeing one of these
nests not only completed on it, but the old bird and her young
in possession, although the nest in which the brood was brought
out was at the time perfectly good. A pair of these birds which
frequented another pond near Belfast, made several rafts for their
young, though the nest remained uninjured. Once at this pond,
where a pair only breeds, a nest containing five or six eggs was
inundated, and entirely covered with water for about seven hours,
when it w^as feared that the vitality of the eggs would be destroyed ;

* Vol. ii. p. 190.

THE COMMON WATERHEN.

329

but the young birds^ nevertheless, issued from all the eggs a
fortnight afterwards. Mr. R. Davis, jun., has seen the nest of
this species placed on the water, after the manner of the coots ; —
supported by rushes far out from the shore.

The waterhen breeds twice, perhaps thrice in the season : —
notes are before me of seven eggs being in a nest in the middle
of April ; nine on the 9th of J une ; and a young bird not more
than a day old appearing on the 18th of August, — all, it was
believed, the produce of one pair at the Wolfhill pond. Mr.
Poole mentions, from his own observation, an instance of a water-
hen laying her eggs in the deserted nest of a magpie, situated in
a tree about twenty-five feet above the ground in the immediate
vicinity of a river.

This species dives well, and feeds when so doing, as has
been proved by Mr. Selby, who has several times known it to
be taken by a line baited with an earthworm for catching eels and
trout,^^ p. 189. The stomachs of four examined by me in winter
and spring contained in addition to sand or gravel, vegetable food
only, as grasses, rushes, seeds, &c.

The waterhen has a singular habit of remaining with the body
under water, and the bill and forehead only exposed to view,
at which time the bird will not stir, though closely pressed. It
has also a habit which I do not remember to have seen noticed by
authors ; that of flying very much by night, particularly by moon-
light. Its note, uttered while on wing, I have heard at a
considerable distance from any water as the bird passed over-
head, thus denoting that at such times it goes far from its daily
haunts.

The waterhens about the river Lagan near Belfast are often
very attractive to the pedestrian on its banks. When walking there
opposite Belvoir Park, about four o^ clock on the 27th of December,
1839, it was highly interesting to observe numbers of them which
had crossed the river to feed about the canal track-line, return to
their places of conceahuent on the opposite side. This was owing
to the water being quite still and in deep shadow (the after-
noon was frosty and very light for the season), while each bird

830

RALLIDiE,

by disturbing the surface produced a silvery light before its breast
as it advanced^ and left behind a double track of the same kind,
so as to exhibit its dark-coloured body to great advantage.
Several appearing at one view on the water, though all separate,
imparted variety to the scene : — the laggards had, as usual, to
betake themselves to their wings to reach their place of refuge
when I advanced. One day in January 1843, I was amused by
observing the different methods of escape of these birds under
similar circumstances. It was near sunset, and the water beau-
tifully still, with a pale golden gleam upon it. At this period
of the day, the waterhens regularly leave the side of the river
at which they are preserved, and betake themselves for the night
to the better feeding-ground at the opposite side, where during
the day they would be too much disturbed to remain. On my
near approach, some of these birds contented themselves with
swimming across the river — others flew right over it '^with-
out impediment or stop — while a third party, though flying,
dipped their legs in the water at the distance of every yard or
so. This may seem too trivial to be noticed ; but it had a mo-
mentary interest from being apparently indicative of the different
feelings of the birds. One, all confidence, swam across the
stream — ^and beautiful was the y\ like figure it made on the golden
water — another, aU fear, took at once to its wings — whilst a
third, partly from confidence and partly from fear, essayed to fly
across, stooping half-a-dozen times to swim, but, wanting in reso-
lution, neither swam nor flew properly. The effect of a dark
day on these birds was evinced here by their fl3fing in numbers
so early as half-past two o^ clock (November 30, 1838) to their
evening feeding-ground usually resorted to at twilight. They are
partial to feeding in the stubble fields bordering the river as
well as among a natural growth of aquatic plants.

Mr. R. Ball supplied me with the following note a few years ago :
— The stock of waterhens originally inhabiting the pond at the
gardens of the Eoyal Zoological Society, Phcenix Park, Dublin,
has been very much increased of late years. They add a good
deal to the scenery of the garden early in the morning, when

THE COMMON WATEEHEN.

331

they may be observed in all parts of it^, espeeially plundering the
paddoeks in which waterfowl are kept. On being approached
they make off with great celerity, running up the latticed wire-
work that surrounds the enclosure with singular facility, which
they are enabled to do by means of their long toes. Being for
the most part pinioned, they could not otherwise get out of the
paddocks.’^

December Q, 1849. — We very rarely see any variety in the
plumage of this bird; but a fresh specimen pied with white
came under my notice to-day at Mr. Gleiinon’s, Dublin. Its
neck was nearly all white ; about one-third of the upper portion
of the wings next the back was also of that colour. The lower
part of the neck and breast exhibited as much white as black : all
the other parts of the plumage had white intermixed with the
ordinary black colour.

In a pond at Ivew Park, connected with the Eojal Botanic
Garden, the surface of which is covered with Potamogeton natans,
I once (in September 1848) remarked several of these birds, on
my approach, run along the surface of the floating leaves as freely
as on dry land, thus reminding me of what is stated of the
Jacana.^

* Martinico Gallinule, GalUnula Martinica, Gmel. A communication
from Ricliard Chute, Esq., of Blennerville, county Kerry — a gentleman who has
contributed much to our knowledge of the birds of that part of Ireland — written in
March 1846, mentioned his having received for examination a stuffed specimen of a
bird which had in a fresh state been blown upon the coast near Brandon. It was
said to be of a species unknown as British, and not described in any work to which
he had access. A description of it was therefore sent to me. The dimensions of
the different parts, and the colour, so far as noted, agreed with those of the purple
gallinule {Porphyrio hyacinthinus, Temm.) of authors. After having compared the
description of the specimen with one of these birds in the British Museum, and
found an agreement there also, I noticed the circumstance in the ‘Annals of Natural
History’ for 1846 (vol. xviii.)

Mr. Wm. Andrews (Secretary to the Nat. Hist. Society of Dublin), to whom the
Martinico gallinule was known, subsequently saw the specimen at Mr. Chute’s, and
stated that it was of this species. He kindly supplied me mth particulars, leaving
no doubt of the correctness of his decision.

It is unnecessary to repeat the sources of error further than to state that the bird
was considered immature, and its tarsi were said to be of a red colour. Being so painted,
my correspondent naturally imagined that they had been red when the bird came
into the preserver’s hands ; but, as afterwards proved, they were then yellow. It
was found about the first week of November 1845, lying dead in a ditch near the
village of Brandon, which is on the sea-coast. It came under the inspection of Dr.

332

RALLIM.

THE COMMON COOT.

Bald Coot.*

Fulica atra, Linn.

Is permanently resident, and breeds in suitable localities
throughout the island,

Which are chiefly lakes, either in wild and sequestered places
or in game-preserved demesnes, having abundance of herbage
about their borders. Lough Beg, near Toome (Antrim), Lough
Achery and the lakes in Hillsborough Park (Down), the lake in
Lord Lurgan^s demesne (Armagh), may be named as a few of the
breeding-haunts in the north-east of the island; — in all quarters
of which the bird has come under my notice, and nowhere so
abundantly in summer as on the river Shannon, northward of
Lough Derg.

On the 27th of June, 1832, I saw at a cabin on the borders of
Port Lough, near Dunfanaghy (Donegal), four young coots a
week old, which had been brought out under a common hen,
and were about the size of newly-hatched chickens. They were
black, except about the head and neck, which being covered with
yellowish-orange and coral-red hairs, imparted to them a sin-
gular and handsome appearance. They were so tame as to come
to any one when called and eat potatoes or dough out of the

Williams of Dingle in a recent state before being skinned for preservation. The
specimen was given to Captain Clifford, Inspector of the Coast Guard there, pre-
served and stuffed by one of the men under his command, and subsequently presented
to Mr. Chute.

Owing to the circumstances of this bird’s occurrence, I give it only in a
note. Wilson (in his Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 189, Sir Wm. Jardine’s edit.) re-
marks, that “ during its migration [in spring and autumn] this bird is frequently
driven to sea.” He mentions one having flown on board a vessel in the Gulf-stream
in May and another which did so in August, when the vessel was proceeding from
Savannah to Philadelphia.

Audubon likewise states that this bird “ not unfrequently alights on ships at sea,”
and, among other instances, mentions three individuals having been caught 800 miles
from land, one of them having come through the cabin window.” — Orn. Biog.
vol. iv. p. 40.

* This name is commonly applied to the bird in Ireland. The waterhen is
called coot in some parts of the south, where bald coot is the distinctive appellation
of the other species.

THE COMMON COOT.

333

hand : the hen tended them with the greatest care. Mr. Darragh
(curator of the Belfast Museum), when visiting the two lakes at
Hillsborough Park, on the 10th of June, 1845, saw at one of
them two nests, having each five eggs, far advanced in incuba-
tion ; at the other lake were nests also, but the eggs had been
taken from them by the gamekeeper, under the impression that
the coots disturb the wild ducks which are abundant there,
and are captured in great numbers during winter for Lord
Downshire^s table. On one of the lakes, having no trees or
shrubs projecting over its surface, the nests were built in rushes,
and composed of grasses and other plants. On the other, par-
tially surrounded by woody thickets, they were placed, like the
nests of waterhens, upon branches hanging over the lake, and
composed of sticks, forming heaps, from twelve to eighteen
inches high ; some of the sticks were an inch and half in thick-
ness. They were supposed to have been constructed from the old
nests of herons, which had been blown into the lake. In the
county of Wexford, Mr. Poole once found three eggs worked up
into the substance of a cooPs nest, so as to leave scarcely any
of their upper surface visible ; and it was a matter of no little
difiiculty to remove them without breaking; above the three,
eight eggs were disposed in the usual manner. A waterhen,
which made a nest on one of that gentleman’s ponds, after com-
pleting the foundation, deposited at least one egg on it, and
proceeded — using grass and rushes — with the elevation of the
structure. The first egg having been thus covered up, the usual
number was laid on the grassy lining.

It is remarked by Mr. Selby, that the coots in the north of
England and in Scotland regularly quit their breeding-stations
in autumn ; and that after the month of October not an indivi-
dual is to be seen in their summer haunts ” (vol. ii. p. 194).
Sir Wm. Jardine observes, that in the south of Scotland a
straggling few only remain during mild winters” (‘' Brit. Birds,’
vol. hi. p. 345). In Ireland, where the winters are less severe
than in Great Britain, these birds remain constantly about their
summer quarters unless hard frost sets in, when they are driven

334

RALLID^.

for "a time to the sea-coast. At such periods they appear in
Belfast Bay in considerable numbers^ and are amply provided
with food. A flock of coots feeding at the fall of the tide on
the oozy ^^^^^f^m-covered banks is a very entertaining sight from
the bustle that prevails : they may be seen in all attitudes_, and
running about with greats though awkward activity. So well
pleased are they with their quarters here that they occasionally
remain for some time after the frost is gone^ but generally they
return to their native homes on its disappearance. The wild-fowl
shooters in our bay never think of firing at the coots, nor are
they eaten here, though on parts of the English coast they com-
mand a ready sale for the table, and are therefore sought after
by the ^fowler. The few stomachs of coots that I have examined
contained green vegetable matter with sand and gravel.

In the following note the coot is introduced : — Belfast, Janu-
ary 10, 1841. — Within the last few days there has been a good
deal of snow and intense frost ; yesterday there was heavy rain
from noon ; but last night it froze again, and during tliis day
there has been keen frost. About the time of high water I walked
three miles along the road skirting the western side of our bay.
The day was very bright and beautifully calm, and the various
birds appeared to the greatest advantage. A haziness concealed
as with a golden veil the opposite shore of Down, so that every-
thing looked the brighter with such a background. The sea-gulls
were of an exquisite whiteness. Near the shore were large masses
of ice and snow, on the outermost of which a number of herons
were perched, looking like storks, as the sun brought brightly
out, especially in the adult birds, all the white of the under
plumage from the head downwards : what was dark in their
dorsal plumage seemed merely white thrown into shade, so re-
markable was the optical deception. Others of these birds were
perched during high water on some very old pines near the road,
whence issued the harsh and singular sounds of a heronry.
When the tide rose to near the highest point, about forty curlews
in a flock left the shore, and flying very low over my head, took
their station in one of the Parkmount fields, patiently to await

THE COMMON COOT.

335

the ebb. The redshanks were^ as usual, calling in a lively manner,
and displaying in flight the beautiful white marking of their
wings. The ash-coloured sandpipers (Tringa canutus) were
pretty and noiseless. The dunlins (Tringa variahilis) were
in thousands, and, when on flight, most attractive, the silvery
white of their upturned wings even dazzling in the sun-light. A
flock of coots brought here by the severity of the weather, in
their pitchy and unrelieved blackness formed a fine contrast to
the snowy gulls near which they floated. Among the gulls alone
what variety in the several species and in bii’ds of various age !
Even in form, how different is the long narrow wing of the two
black-backed kinds (Larus marinus and L. fuscus) — and much of
the same breadth throughout, with its pure white binding, making
it look still more narrow — from the short and pointed, or trian-
gular-shaped wing of the black-headed species (A. ridihundus) . Eour
adult individuals of Larus marinus were on wing together, and
several others, adult and immature, in view — one of the latter in
his duU garb venturing to fly with Ids senior in full costume, was
indignantly driven back by him. Herring gulls (A. argentatus)
added much to the life of the scene by dasliing down from a
height of about twenty yards on their prey near the surface of the
water, while so clear was the atmosphere that the black extremities
of their quill feathers were quite conspicuous. Wild ducks occa-
sionally rose on wing, and large flocks of wigeon were on the
water in the distance.'’^

Mr. E, Ball writes, A great many bald coots frequent the
pond at the gardens of the Eoyal Zoological Society, Phcenix
Park, Dublin, where several pair annually breed. Mr. Scott
(the eurator) states that the hen coot makes a second nest long
before her first brood are able to take care of themselves, and that
they are then taken charge of by the cock, who provides for them
while the hen incubates a second clutch. I saw a coot drop
an egg here while flying ; it fell on some herbage and was
unbroken.

A purple coot once kept at the Zoological Gardens exhibited
a very remarkable power, little to be expected from such a bird.

336

PHALAllOPODID^.

On throwing a piece of breads too large to be swallowed^ the coot
took it up in its foot^ as a parrot does a nut^ and pecked it to
pieces. The food was held in its curiously-formed foot as perfectly
and steadily as possible. Those possessed of tame bald coots may
try whether they possess similar powers/^

When boating on the Lake of Lucerne, Switzerland, towards
the end of June 1826, I remarked the coots to be numerous
about the reedy borders, and particularly tame.

THE GEEY PHALAEOPE.

Fhalaropus lohatus, Linn, (sp.)

Tringa lohata ,,

Is an occasional visitant, more especially late in the
autumn.

Although it can only in strictness be called an occasional, as
distinguished from a regular or annual, visitant, it has frequently
been obtained within the last twenty years from north to south
of the island.

The first instance of its occurrence known to me took place
on the 22nd of September, 1818 (the date ascertained from Mr.
Templeton^s journal), when one which appeared on some water
in the district of the Ealls,^^ near Belfast, was wounded in the
wing, and came into the possession of John Sinclaire, Esq., who
kept it on one of his ponds for some months. It was fed on
worms, was very tame, and its buoyancy on the water met with
the highest admiration : it is described to have been light as a
cork upon the surface. Another was obtained near Clifden, on
the shore of Belfast Bay, on the 9th of April, 1822.’^ Memoranda
kindly communicated by Dr. J. D. Marshall, inform me of a
phalarope which was presented to him having been shot near
Clontarf, Dublin Bay, in November 1827 ; and of two birds
having been killed in the same quarter in the spring of the year
1828 : some of these which he weighed were nine drachms.

* Dr. J, L. Drummond.

THE GREY PHALAROPE.

337

In the month of November 1830, one frequented the dam at
BaUydugan mills, county of Down, for about a week, when it was
shot, after having, by the elegance of its motions, afforded high
gratification to aU who saw it.* The individuals hitherto noticed
(with one exception) seem to have been solitary wanderers.

In the autumn of 1831, however, there was quite a migration
of phalaropes to Ireland. Late in the month of October, I
then saw in the shop of a bird-preserverf in Belfast, at the same
time six fresh specimens, and in the possession of an amateur
taxidermist a seventh. J These were shot at four different localities
remote from each other, in the county of Down. One was
obtained inland, near Eathfriland, on the 26th of October, upon
which day three were killed on the coast at Dundrum. At Do-
naghadee, on the 29th, one, and near Portaferry, about the same
time, two, were shot. Of those killed at Dundrum it is remarked
in a note now before me, made by the late Mr. John Montgomery :

The first one I saw close by the edge of the river, between the
outer and inner bay, and knew to be a stranger by its graceful
movements ; it dipped its head often and seemed to be feeding ;
was very tame and showed no fear when we came within twenty
yards. About ten minutes afterwards we came within sight
of a pair of these birds. While rowing in-shore to get near
them, I was amused with their liveliness in sipping the water
and playing round each other in a circling and graceful man-
ner. Their plumage indicated a change between the grey
and the white.'’^|| On the 25th of October one was shot at
Conswater, near Belfast, and not far distant, on the county Down
side of the bay, two more (which came under my inspection)

* Mr. Wm. Sinclaire.

t On skinning them he particularly remarked the closeness of the feathers on the
breast, and that those next the body were black.

t These specimens had the forehead white ; other parts of the head dark brown,
of which colour the scapulars and quill feathers also were ; wings rather below the
carpal joint, bluish; entire back, tine bluish -grey ; all the under parts pure white.
— I)r. J. D. Marshall.

II Two more phalaropes were killed at Dundrum a few years afterwards,

VOL. II. Z

338

PHALAROPID^.

were obtained about ten days afterwards : on these being shown
to a shore- shooter/^ he remarked, that he had seen a flock
of similar birds in the bay, but from their being so small he did
not think them worth firing at. It was probably about this time
that a phalarope in the collection of John Y. Stewart, Esq., of
Rockhill, Letterkenny, was procured in the north-west of Donegal.
A letter from that gentleman written in February 1837, men-
tioned that his specimen was shot on the sandy beach near
Dunfanaghy, late in the autumn a few years previously, after very
rough weather. A pair appeared, but they were so very shy, ‘that
only the one could be approached within gun-shot. In the pos-
session of Wm. Massey, Esq., of the Pigeon-house Port, Dublin
Bay, I saw two phalaropes which were shot there by that gentle-
man, on different occasions in the autumn of 1831 : about the
same time, three others were seen together in the bay, and one
of them killed.* It was perhaps at this period, also, that
Mr. T. W. Warren (as he informed me a few years afterwards)
shot a phalarope from Kingstown pier, Dublin Bay. Its beauty,
together with the animation and gracefulness of its motions,
attracted his admiration and desire to possess it, and he killed
the bird with a rifle loaded with single ball.

At the time that Ireland was visited by so many phalaropes,
there was a similar migration of them to England. Erom Mr.
Heysham, of Carlisle, we learn that : — On the 31st of October
[1831], a grey phalarope was killed about three miles from the
Solway Eirth. * * * Three other specimens have occurred in tliis
part of the county during the same month, namely, two on the
coast not far from Allonby ; the other in the vicinity of Bowness.^^t
One was stated in the ^ Taunton Courier ^ to have been shot in
that neighbourhood in December 1831.

Early in the morning of the 2nd of September, 1833, Dr. J.
D. Marshall saw from the road, on which he was driving at the
time, at the Glynn, near Larne (co. Antrim), what he believed to

* Rev. T. Knox.

t ‘ Philosopliical Magazine,’ 1832, p. So.

THE GREY PHALAROPE.

339

be two of these birds ; one swimming in a little pool of water
near the shore^ and the other wading at the edge. On the 18th
of October^ 1834, a phalarope was shot near Holy wood, Belfast
Bay, when swimming and dncking,^^ as the shooter expressed
it : the bird was alone. The Eev. Mr. Carter described one
as having attracted great attention on a small pond at the
seat of Sir John Eibton, about the year 1835. It was there
for some days and permitted a very near approach. Mr. E. Ball
saw a phalarope about the same year, which had been caught by
getting entangled in some herring nets spread out to dry.
Though but a few hours captured it fed from the hands of the
gentleman into whose possession it came, freely eating many
fragments of herring. The self-confidence of this bird (as re-
marked by Mr. Ball) “ in permitting the near approach of man
is a very curious circumstance. It is known as a general rule
that the wildest birds become soonest tame, and that the tamest,
such as the robin and house-sparrow, bear confinement with the
greatest impatience, yet here we have a bird permitting familiar
approach and reconciled at once to captivity ^

On the 1st of December, 1835, a phalarope was shot at Port-
marnock, near Dublin.

On the 30th of January, 1836, a beautiful specimen in the
highest condition came into my possession just after it was shot at
the Salt-pans on the borders of Belfast Bay, very near the town.
The shooter described it as swimming most ra|)idly, and as
flying like a tern or sea- swallow : its agility in getting out of the
little pools of water left by the retiring tide to feed upon their
banks, and rushing back again to float upon their surface, as-
tonished him — all seemed to be but the effort of an instant. Seve-
ral seeds, and a specimen of the univalve shell Rissoa lahiosa, were
found in its stomach. In the month of September 1836, one of
these birds was seen (by Mr. E. Ball and Dr. Parran) sportively
playing at the edge of the water, near Malahide, on the Dublin
coast. Close by, on the strand, were a Lestris caiarractes and a
troop of god wits, all of which admitted of a close approach.
A phalarope was shot in Dublin Bay soon after Christmas 1837,

z 2

340

PHALAEOPIDiE.

In November 1838 one was killed near Malaliide^, when swim-
ming in tlie sea^ accompanied by two others. A specimen
which came under examination in a recent state had been obtained
about the 20th of September, 1839, near Portaferry : its stomach,
with the exception of a very few seeds of different kinds, was filled
with larvae and perfect insects. At the end of the year 1840, or
beginning of 1841, two of these birds were shot on the Down
shore of Belfast Bay, about two and a half miles from the town.
Mr. E. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, informed me in Pebruary 1842,
that three individuals only of this species had come under his
notice; one, procured at Ballibrado, near Cahir, county of Tip-
perary, on the 11th of October, 1841; a second, killed the fol-
lowing day on a pool of water close to Clonmel ; a third, seen by
him for a long time on the latter day swimming in the middle of
the river near the last-named town, and feeding all the while. He
remarked that “ they all seemed quite unused to man, and, though
excellent swimmers and fliers, allowed themselves to be closely
approached."’^ At the end of October 1841, an example was
killed near Killinchy, county of Down. In a letter from a bird-
preserver in Wexford, dated November 6, 1841, it was mentioned
that he had a few days before purchased a fresh specimen of a
phalarope, shot in that neighbourhood. Birds of this species
appeared in different parts of the south in the winter of 1841-42.
Two were taken one day on the river Suir, and another came into
the possession of Mr. S. Moss, of Youghal, about the same time.^’"^
At the beginning of the year 1842, one was obtained in the neigh-
bourhood of Downpatrick. On the 30th of October, 1843, a pha-
larope, which was brought to me, had been shot in the Milewater
river, near Belfast, where subject to the flow of the tide; it was
described as beating very quickly with its feet in swimming, and
nodding its head much : the shooter remarked, that although
fowling in the bay for twelve years he had not met with one of
these birds before.

On the 6th of December, 1844, a wild-fowl shooter killed at a

* Fauna of Cork, p. 13.

THE GREY PHALAROPE.

341

shot on Conswater, where it empties itself into the channel, Belfast
Bay, two grey phalaropes ; he had seen them there together for a
few clays previously, and described them as proud-looking little
birds, light as corks on the water (a favourite simile), and hardly
touching the surface. Their movements were extraordinarily
quick as they wheeled about from one side to the other to pick
up objects, ‘‘ quicker than an eddy of wind would waft a feather.'’^
Their stomachs, which I examined, were filled with small Crustacea
{Idotem), univalve shell-fish {Paludina muriatica, Lam.) — of wliich
there were numbers, ^ — -and one insect larva.

Late in the autumn of 1846, phalaropes were more widely
distributed on the coast, &c. of Ireland, than they had been since
the same season of 1831. At the Pigeon-house wall, Dublin Bay,
one was killed, on the 13th of September, and in the next
month, another, near Baheny in that quarter. On the 9th of
October, Mr. E. Chute obtained a specimen (in winter plumage)
which was shot near Castle Gregory, on the coast of Kerry, the
first bird of the species killed in the county that had come
under his notice. On the following day, he procured another (in
mixed summer and winter plumage) which was found inland
fifteen miles from the sea. In the adjoining county of Cork, an
immature bird was shot about the same time. According to
Mr. E. Davis, jun., of Clonmel: — On the 1 0th of October our
cook brought me, living, ^ a queer bird ^ she had caught in our
yard in the centre of the town, that proved to be a grey phala-
rope. I tried to keep it alive, and it fed freely on worms placed
in water, but pined away after three or four days. It was much
emaciated when taken. The weather had been extremely wet
and stormy for some days previously.^^ A single bird was seen
at one part of Belfast Bay, on the I4th of October, and two in
company at another ; the former admitted of a very close approach
as it kept feeding in the foam along the edge of the flowing tide.
One was shot about this time at Mount Louise (Monaghan),
where it was observed to be struck at, on the surface of the water,
by crows, from the assaults of which it dived.*

* Robert Evatt, Esq.

PHALAROPID^.

34£

Dr. W. R. Scott, of St. Leonardos, Exeter, informs us, in an
interesting communication to the ^ Zoologist,^ that grey phala-
ropes appeared there in October 1846 in greater numbers than
ever before known.^'

This species has occasionally been met with about Waterford. t

The preceding details show the occurrence of the phalarope in
Ireland at the three seasons of autumn, winter, and spring — its
alike resorting to fresh water and the sea; — and its frequent
appearance at the same time in Ireland, as that in which it was
observed commonly in England. Its visits are of about equal
frequency to each of those countries ; Scotland would seem to be
more rarely visited, but data for the decision of such matters are
often wanting with respect to that country. A few killed in
winter on the Erith of Forth and the Solway, have come under
the notice of Sir Wm. Jardine. The beauty of the bird, together
with its liveliness and grace, attracted the highest admiration of
all who had the opportunity of seeing it in Ireland.

I do not find the grey phalarope noticed in the histories of
British birds, as breeding in any part of the British Islands ; but
in the more recently published ^ Historia ISlaturalis Orcadensis,^
which appeared in 1848, it is stated to be found in Sanday and
some other islands, in most of which it breeds. Yery high
northern latitudes, as Iceland, Greenland, the North Georgian
and Melville Island s,^^ || are generally resorted to by this species
as breeding-haunts.

Mr. W. Galbraith, a bird-preserver, who had been resident for
some time in Belfast, and was well acquainted with different

* No. for Marcli 1849 (vol. vii. p. 2384). The year is printed 1845 in the jour-
nal, hut considering from the number of these birds which appeared in Ireland in
1846, that this was most probably the year, I wrote to Dr. Scott on the subject,
and was politely informed that such was the case ; 1845 being a misprint or error in
transcribing the note.

t Dr. R. J. Burkitt.

t Dec. 1849. I saw in the collection of Mr. J. Watters, jun., Dublin, three
phalaropes, one of which was shot in the bay there on the 13th of September, 1847.
The others were sent in a recent state to a bird-preserver in that city on the 28th of
February and 20th of June, 1849, but whence, I could not learn. The last specimen
is the only one I have known to be procured in the summer.

II Yarrell.

THE GREY PHALAROPE.

343

species of British and North American birds, sailed from Liver-
pool to New York in the antnmn of 1834, and wrote to an orni-
thological friend as follows : — I saw the grey phalarope on the
eastern side of the Great Bank of Newfoundland, for two days
in pairs and in considerable flocks, sometimes flying and at others
sitting on the water quite near the vessel. When we were some
hundred miles from land, a number of land birds came on board
that must have been carried to sea by a storm; — they were a
black-billed cuckoo, a passenger pigeon, a palm warbler, a swallow
and some cedar birds, all American species. They came on board
several days before our arrival.'^'’ The dates are not given in any
instance.

Audubon, in the 3rd vol. (p. 404) of his ^ Ornithological Bio-
graphy,^ gives a pleasing and lively account of this species (under
the name of PhaLfulicarms) as observed by him on the American
shores.

The red-necked Phalarope (^Phalaropus hyperboreus, Linn.,
sp.) cannot be said to have visited the Irish coast or inland waters,
though it breeds in the north of Scotland and in several of the Orkney
Islands. This species appears to be as attractive as the grey phalarope.
A highly interesting notice of it in its breeding-haunt in Sutherland-
shire will be found in Mr. St. John’s Tour in that county, vol. i. p. 59.
It is there remarked of a pair: — “Nothing could be more graceful
than the movements of these two little birds, as they swam about in
search of insects, &c.” ^ ^ ^ Frequently they came within a

yard of where I was sitting, and after looking up, they continued
catching the small water-insects, &c. on the weeds, without minding
my presence in the least.” In both hemispheres, this is a northern
species. It is a rare visitant to the English shores, and as such only,
is known (in autumn or winter) to the European countries south of the
British Islands.

344

BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH.

The following species of the order Gmllatores have occurred in
Great Britain and not in Ireland : —

1. Cream-coloured Courser, Cursorius Isabellinus, Meyer.

2. Little Ringed Plover, Charadrius minor, Meyer.

3. Great WMte Heron, Ardea alia, Linn.

4. Buff-backed, or Little White Heron, „ russata, Temm.

5. Black Stork, Ciconia nigra,

6. Spotted Sandpiper, Totanus macularius, Linn, (sp.)

7. Brown or Grey Snipe, Scolojpax grisea, Gmel.

8. Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa pectoralis,^on?c^.

9. Little Crake or Olivaceous Gallinule, Crex pusilla, Gmel. (sp.)

10. Red-necked Phalarope, Phalaropus hyperboreus, Linn, (sp.)

The 1st — Cursorius Isabellinus — is a native of Africa^ but
visits the north of that continent only in summer. It is in-
cluded in the British fauna from four individuals having been
obtained in England, and is very rarely observed in any country
north of the Mediterranean (Yarr.).

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5 th come much under the same cate-
gory. But one individual of the Charadrkis minor (procured
at Shoreham in Sussex) is positively recorded as obtained in Eng-
land. The British Islands lie too far west to be often visited by
the species. Though an occasional summer migrant to Sweden,
the countries southward of the Baltic Sea are those particularly
frequented by it. In England, six, and in Scotland, one, of the
Ardea alba have been killed. This bird appears to be an oc-
casional visitant only to the countries throughout the more western
half of Europe in any latitude : it is more frequent eastward. A
single Ardea russata, procured in Devonshire so long ago as
1807, is on record as British. The species is chiefly met with in
the more southern portions of the east of Europe, and prevails
thence eastward (in India commonly) over Asia. Eour of the
Ciconia nigra have been obtained in England, — two of them in the
west; — in Somersetshire and Devonshire. This bird is found
especially in the more eastern half of Europe, or eastward of

BRITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS IRISH.

345

France. It occasionally migrates to the most northern countries
in summer^ but winters in warm climates.

The Crex pusilla is known as an occasional visitant, of wliich
eight specimens have been noticed in England (Yarr.). It is
found in summer in the warmer parts of Europe from central
Germany southward.

The Phalaropus hypefloreus differs from all the preceding in
being a northern bird. It breeds annually in the north of Scot-
land and the Orkney Islands ; but its chief breeding-haunts, in
Europe and America, are within the arctic circle. It is known
only as a rare visitant to the shores of England, and has occa-
sionally been met with in various European countries southward,
to Italy inclusive.

The 6th, 7th, and 8th are North American species. Of the
Totanus macularius, very few individuals have been known to'
visit England, and these within the last ten years. It has like-
wise appeared occasionally about the Baltic Sea and the Ehine.
The Scolopax grisea (a common bird on the shores of the United
States) is included in the British catalogue from six specimens
having been procured in England within the present century. In
continental Europe, Sweden has been visited by it. Three of
the Tringa pectoralis have been procured in England since 1830.

In the different works treating of the ornithology of Continental
Europe until 1844 (the date of SchlegeFs ^ Eevue Critique,^ &c.),
it is unnoticed as having occurred there. This bird is found on
the eastern coasts both of North and South America.

Two only of the ten species {Ardea alha and Phalaropus hy-
perhoreus) are included in the Scottish catalogue.

It will be obvious from what has just been stated, that ex-
cepting the three North American birds, they should all rather be
expected to visit England than Ireland, although there would be
nothing extraordinary in any of the species occasionally extend-
ing its flight to the farther and more western island. Ireland
seems to lie too far west even for the visits of the Phalaropus
hyperhoreus ; in England the eastern counties of Northumberland,
Yorkshire, and Norfolk only, are named by Yarrell as having

346

BEITISH SPECIES UNKNOWN AS lEISH.

been visited by it ; but to tbese_, Sussex has subsequently been
added in the pages of the ‘'Zoologist'’ (vol. iv. p.

I am not aware that any Grallatorial species unknown to Great
Britain has been procured in Ireland. I do not except the Gal-
linula Martinica, owing to its having been dead (though fresh)
when washed ashore in Kerry.

* The data on which the preceding brief summary is founded have been derived
chiefly from the second edit, of Mr. Yarrell’s ‘British Birds/ published in 1845.

END OE VOL. II.

ENGLISH

ALPHABETICAL INDEX

TO VOLUME II.

Page.

Avocet 220

Bittern , . 160

American 168

little 159

Black Game 34

Bustard, little 77

Capercaillie 31

Cock of the Wood ih.

Coot, bald 332

common ih.

Corncrake 311

Crake, Baillon’s 321

spotted 318

Crane 131

Curlew 134

jack 196

May ih.

pigniy 284

stone 196

Cushat 3

Dotterel 93

ringed 96

Dunlin 288

Egret 156

Gallinule, common 326

Godwit, black-tailed 222

common or bar-tailed 225

Page.

Greenshank 217

Grouse, black 34

red 47

white 45

wood 31

Heather-bleater 262

Heron 133

little 159

night 173

purple 155

squacco 158

Ibis, glossy 182

Knot 306

Land-rail 311

Lapwing 110

May -bird 196

May-fowl ih.

Moorhen 326

Oyster-catcher 125

Partridge 58

Phalarope, grey 336

Pheasant 19

Plover, golden 83

— — great 82

green 110

gi’ey 106

Kentish 104

2 A

348

INDEX.

Page.

Plover, long-legged 221

Norfolk 82

oyster 125

ringed 96

Pratincole, collared 81

Ptarmigan 45

Piirre 288

Quail 66

Eail, Baillon’s 321

spotted 318

Red Game 47

Redshank 202

spotted 200

Ring-dove 3

Rock-dove 9

Rock-pigeon ih.

Ruff . . ^ 230

Sanderling 121

Sand-lark, fresli-water. ... 212

of the Shore 288

Sandpiper 212

ash-coloured 306

Bonaparte’s ...... 297

broad-billed 282

buff-breasted 302

• — Curlew 284

■ dusky 200

-- — - green 208

Page.

Sandpiper, little 298

purple 303

rock 303

Schinz’s 297

wood 211

Sea-pie 125

Snipe, common 262

— ^ — jack 278

great 257

Sabine’s 273

solitary 257

Spoonbill 178

white ih.

Stint, little 298

Temminck’s 302

Stork, common 175

white ih.

Turnstone 117

Turtle-dove 15

Waterhen, common 326

Water-rail 322

Whaap 184

May 196

Whimbrel 196

Woodcock 235

Wood-pigeon 3

Wood-quest ih.

LATIN

ALPHABETICAL INDEX

TO VOLUME II.

Page.

Ardea ciconia

. 175

Crex Bailloni

cinerea

. 133

porzana

comata

. 158

pratensis

garzetta

. 156

Frdica atra

grus

. 131

cbloropus

lentiginosa

.. 168

Gallinula Bailloni

minuta

. . 159

cbloropus

mokoho

. . 168

Glareola pratincola

nycticorax

, . 173

Grus cinerea

purpurea

, . 155

Hsematopus ostralegus . .

ralloides

. 158

Himantopus melanopterus ,

stellaris

, . 160

Hirundo pratincola

Botaurus lentiginosus . . .

, . 168

Ibis falcinellus

minutus . .

, . 159

Limosa melanura

stellaris

, . 160

rufa

Calidris arenaria

, . 121

Machetes pugnax

Charadrius Cantianus . . ,

, . 104

Numenius arquata

Viintip-iila

96

phflfinpns .

himantopus

, . 221

pygmeeus .

morinellus

. 93

Hycticorax Europseus ....

cedicnemus

, . 82

— — Gardenii

— pluvialis

. . 83

CEdicnemus crepitans. . . .

Ciconia alba

, . 175

Otis tetrax

Columba livia

9

Perdix cinerea

Palumbus

3

coturnix

fnrtur

15

Pbalarnpns Inbatus . .

Coturnix vulgaris

, . 66

Phasianus Colchicus

Page.

321

318

311

332

326

321

326

81

131

125

221

81

182

222

225

230

184

196

282

173

ih.

82

77

58

66

336

19

350

INDEX.

Platalea leucorodia

Page.
. 178

Kallus aquaticus

. 322

Bailloni

. 321

crex .

. 311

porzana .........

. 318

Eecui'virostra avocetta . .

. 220

Scolopax arquata

. 184

calidi’is

. 202

fusca

. 200

gallinago

. 262

gallinula

. 278

glottis

. 217

Lapponica

. 225

limosa

. 222

major

257

phseopus

. 196

rusticola

. 235

Sabini

. 273

subarquata

. 284

Squatarola cinerea

. 106

Strepsilas interpres

. 117

Tantalus falcineUus

•. 182

Tetrao coturnix

. . 66

lagopus

, . 45

perdix

, . 58

Scoticus

. . 47

tetrix

. . 34

urogallus

. . 31

Totanus calidris

. . 202

Page.

Totanus fuscus 200

glareola 211

glottis 217

hypoleucos 212

ochropus 208

Tringa alpina 288

arenaria 121

— — Bonapartei 297

— ■ — canutus 306

cinclus 288

cinerea 306

glareola 211

hypoleucos 212

interpres 117

lobata 336

maritima 303

miuuta 298

ochropus 208

platyrhyncha 282

pugnax 230

rufescens 302

Schiuzii 297

squatarola 106

— subarquata 284

Temminckii 302

vanellus 110

variabilis 288

Vanellus cristatus 110

PANTHEA, THE SPIEIT OF NATUEE. By Egbert Hunt,
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“ It would be impossible to express in a few words the exquisite and sustained
pleasure which our study of this work has procured for us. The charm of it
does not exclusively lie in the witching scenes and incidents which the wand of
the poet is ever conjuring up before the eyes of the reader. The poet himself
(for this is a work of poetry, though written in prose) steals in upon you, and,
by the new suggested interest, communicates a deeper power to the work than it
could have had, if it indicated nothing beyond itself. The soft and delicate light
of Christianity, too, falls with its sweet glow on the page.” — Hogg’s Instructor.

A EEVIEW OF THE FEENCH EEVOLUTION OF 1848,
from the 24tli of February to the Election of the First Presi-
dent. By Captain Chamier, E.H. Two vols. 8vo. 215.

“ Much as we have heard about the Trench Revolution, this dashing account,
from the pen of an eye-witness of no common talent or powers of description,
will gratify no small share of public cmfiosity.” — Literary Gazette.

“ Books like Captain Chamier’s, full of information on every point relative to
the Revolution, with little comment or philosophy, are the very things we want.
It will be read with avidity as a graphic, most amusing and exciting sketch,
overflowing with incident and anecdote.” — Atlas.

2

WORKS PUBLISHED BY

“ We unaiFectedly say this is one of the most interesting and important works
which has of late issued from the press, and we congratulate the Historian in
having, in this last creation of his genius, added much to the literary reputation he
so deservedly enjoys.” — Morning Post.

“ Among the various Histories or Keviews that have appeared on the subject
of the Erencli Kevolntion, Captain Chamier’s is the best we have met with, as
regards freshness and readableness.” — Spectator.

III.

EPISODES OE INSECT LIFE. Second Series. Crown 8vo.
Beautifully illustrated and bound, 1 65. Coloured and bound
extra, gilt back, sides, and edges, 21^.

“ The great success which attended the first literary attempt of the Cricket
last year has, we are happy to find, encouraged him to continue his revelations.
This second series of ‘ Episodes ’ is even more delightful than its predecessor.
Never have entomological lessons been given in a happier strain ; rarely has the
happy doctrine of finding ‘ sermons in stones, and good in everything ’ met with
so excellent an expositor. Yoimg and old, wise and simple, grave and gay,
cannot turn over its pages without deriving pleasure and information.” — Sun.

“Of aU the illustrated works which appear at this season of the year, there
is none that we admire more than the present. The head-piece illustrations of
each chapter are beautiful plates of the insects under description in aU their
stages, capitally grouped, and with a scenic hack-ground, full of playful fancy ;
while the tail-pieces form a series of quaint vignettes, some of which are
especially clever.” — Atlas.

“ A work in which the mysteries and beauties of natural science are made to
minister to most seasonable mirth, fancy, and enjoyment. Nothiug can he
lighter, more graceful, or more beautiful, than the fanciful sketches and stories
here derived from the insect world. The hook includes the most solid instruction
as well as geniai and captivating mirth, for the scientific knowledge of the writer
is thoroughly reliable. We can heartily commend the book.” — Examiner.

IV.

EPISODES OF INSECT LIFE. Ikst Series. Crown 8vo.
Beautifully illustrated and bound, 16<s. Coloured and bound
extra, gilt back, sides, and edges, 2 Is.

“ Professor Nichol has done much to make astronomy a lightsome science ; Mr.
Miller of Edinburgh has thrown the influence of eloquent and powerful writing
around the fishes and fossils of the old red sandstone. Neither, however, has
produced a work equal in the particular above mentioned to the ‘Episodes of
Insect Life.’ ” — Taifs Edinburgh Magazine.

“We have seldom been in company with so entertaining a guide to the Insect
World.” — Athenawn.

“Rich veins of humour in a groundwork of solid yet entertaining information.
Although lightness and amusement can find subject-matter in every page, the
under-enrrent of the ‘ Episodes ’ is snbstance and accurate information.” — Ladied
Newspaper.

“ A history of many of the more remarkable tribes and species, with a graphic
and imaginative coloiuing, often equally original and happy, and accompanied
both by accurate figures of species and ingenions fanciful vignettes.” — Annual
Address of the President of the Entomological Society.

V.

THE POETllY OF SCIENCE ; or, Studies of the Physical Phe-
nomena of Nature. By Eobeet Hunt, Author of ‘ Panthea,’
‘Eesearches on Light.’ Second Edition. Eevised and cor-
rected, with Index.

“ All the great forces of Nature — gravitation, heat, Hght, electricity, magnetism,
and affinity — are successively treated of by Mr. Hunt, and their unity and depend-
ence illustrated. It is this which will make his work popular, as it is not encumbered
with heavy details or specious pretensions of learning. * * pook weU

calculated to promote a taste for the studies of nature. Much too good to he
classed as a Christmas hook, it would nevertheless form an admirable present at
this coming season of gifts.” — Athenaum.

“ We know of no work upon science which is so well calculated to lift the
mind from the admiration of the wondrous works of creation to the belief in, and
worship of, a First Great Cause. * * One of the most readable epitomes of

the present state and progress of science we have yet perused.” — Morning Herald.

“The design of Mr. Hunt’s volume is striking and good. The subject is very
ably dealt with and the object very well attained f it displays a fund of knowledge,
and is the work of an eloquent and earnest man.” — The Examiner.

One vol. 8 VO. Price 12^.

VI.

THE NATUEAL HISTOEY OF lEELAND. By William
Thompson, Esq., President of the Natural History and Philo-
sophical Society of Belfast. Vols. I. & II. — BIEDS.

“ Our readers, if once they get hold of this volume, [Vol. I.] will not readily lay
it down ; for while habits are dwelt upon in a manner so amusing that we have
known extracts to be read aloud to a delighted circle of children, it contains the
precise information which the ornithologist demands, and brings forward topics
both of popular and scientific interest, such as the geographical distribution of
species, the causes which seem to operate on their increase and decrease, their
migrations, their uses to man, the occasional injuries they inflict, and the impor-
tant benefits they confer. * * * The space we have devoted to this volume

teUs, more plainly than any commendation we could employ, our high approba-
tion of its merits. It is a standard work, and wiU rank with those of our
first ornithologists.” — Eublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science.

8vo. Vol. 1. Price 16s. Vol. 2. Price 12^.

VII.

HIMALAYAN PLANTS EECENTLY DISCOVEEEH by
Hr. Joseph Dalton Hookee, F.E.S. Edited by Sie W. J.
Hookee, F.E.S. Second Series. Imp. folio.

*** For opinions of the Press on First Series, see next work.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY

VIII.

THE RHODODENDRONS OF SIKKIM-HIMALAYA ;
With coloured drawings and descriptions made on tlie spot.
Ry Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D., E.R.S. Edited by Sir
W. J. Hooker, D.C.L., E.R.S. Second Edition.

‘‘ 1 fl this work we have the first results of Dr. Hooker’s botanical mission
to India. The announcement is calculated to startle some of our readers when
they know that it was only last January twelvemonths that the Doctor arrived
in Calcutta. That he should have ascended the Himalaya, discovered a mim-
ber of plants, and that they should he published in England in an almost
UNEauALLED STYLE OE MAGNIFICENT ILLUSTKATION, in less than eighteen
months — is one of the marvels of our time.” — Aflienceum.

“ We have here a botanical work, in large folio, consisting of ten magnificent
and exquisitely coloured plates, from drawings after nature, with explanatory
text, giving a detailed and critical description of not fewer than eight new Indian
species of Rhododendrons, each one more magnificent than the other in flower
and foliage ; and also a general exposition of all the species that have come under
the author’s observation in the lofty regions of his present tour.” — Literary Gazette.

“ A most beautiful example of fine drawing and skilful colouring, while the
letter-press furnished by the talented author possesses very high interest. Of
the species of Rhododendron which he has found in his adventurous journey,
some are quite unrivalled in magnificence of appearance.” — Gardeners' Chronicle.

In handsome imperial folio, with ten beautifully coloured
plates. Price 21«.

IX.

CURTIS’S BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY, being Illustrations and
Descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain
and Ireland, comprising coloured figures, from nature, of the
most rare and beautiful species, and, in many instances, of the
plants upon which they are found. By John Curtis, E.L.S.

The ‘ British Entomology ’ was originally brought out in Monthly
Numbers, size royal 8vo, at 4ts. 6d., each containing four coloured
plates with text. It was commenced in 1824, and completed in
1840, in 193 Numbers, forming 16 volumes, price i843 165.

The work is now offered new, and in the best condition : —

Price to Subscribers for complete copies in sixteen volumes £21.
Price of the new issue, and of odd Numbers . . 35. &d. per No.

REEVE, BEN HAM, AND REEVE.

TRAVELS m THE INTEEIOE OE BRAZIL; pnncipally
through the Northern Provinces and. the Gold and Diamond
Districts, during the years 1836-41. By the late George
Gardner, M.D., E.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic
Gardens of Ceylon. Second and cheaper Edition.

“ This volume is from the pen of an able naturahst. Not satisfied with the mere
exploration of the coasts, he plunged into the interior as far to the west as the
tributaries of the Amazon, ‘ and from near the equator to the 23rd degree of
south latitude.’ A range so wide required three years to be traversed, — inde-
pendently of the time passed in researches on the coast. The author’s peculiar
object was Natm’al History, — under its forms of geology, the animal kingdom, and
botany ; but, fortunately, he has not confined himself to the physical department.
Some of the regions which he visited have seldom been trodden by Europeans —
never by Englishmen ; so that his observations derive value from the novelty of
the matters to which they relate.” — Atlienceum.

“ The narrative of his varied adventures forms not only to the enthusiastic
botanist, but to the general reader, an exceedingly entertaining and also in-
structive book, fi’om the new view which it gives of the society of Brazil — particu-
larly in its less known provinces.” — TaWs Edinburgh Magazine.

“ When camping ont on the mountain-top or in the wilderness ; roughing it in
his long journeys throngh the interior; observing the very singidar mode of life
there presented to his notice ; describing the curions characters that fell under his
observation, the arts or substitutes for arts of the people, and the natm’al pro-
ductions of the country — these Travels in the Interior of Brazil are full of
attraction. The book, like the country it describes, is fnU of new matter.” —
Spectator.

In one volume octavo, with a Map of the Author’s Route
and View of the Organ Mountains. Price 12<s. cloth.

XI.

J TPIOUGHTS ON A PEBBLE ; or, a First Lesson in Geology. ^
\ By Gideon Algernon Mantell, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-Pre- i

J sident of the Geological Society, &c. Eighth Edition. ^

i “ This elegant little book, primer-like in size, and illustrated by fine coloured i
I plates and wood -engravings, serves still to convey some of the grandest truths >
^ in Geology. The style is lucid, eloquent, poetical, and philosophical, for all >
I these attributes are combined in Dr. Mantell’s writings.” — American Journal of e
^ Science. >

> “ I have just procm-ed a little work for my young pupils, a most delightful i

^ introduction, entitled ‘ Thoughts on a Pebble, or a First Lesson in Geology,’ by ^
^ Dr. Mantell, and I must request you to read it ; for although it does not consist i
I of more than thirty pages [increased in the present edition to upwards of a hun- <
i h’ed] it will expand to your view a new world that wiU astonish and delight \
I you.” — Philosophy in Sport. ^

s Considerably enlarged, with four coloured plates, twenty-eight wood-
cuts, and Portrait of the Author engraved on steel, handsome ^
cloth, gilt edges, pp. 102, price 5s. j

WOUKS PUBLISHED BY

XII.

POPULAR HISTORY OF BRITISH SEA-WEEDS ; comprising
a familiar and technical description of the Mahine Plants
inhabiting the shores of the British Isles. By the Rev. David
Landsborough, A.L.S., Member of the Wernerian Society of
Edinburgh.

“ Just as the people are migrating from the metropohs and the dingy manu-
facturing towns, to the open and free space where the land meets the ocean, Mr.
Landsborough supplies them with a familiar and beautiful description of some of
the wonders they will see there, helping to amuse and instruct them, and pointing
out to them many objects of curiosity that might otherwise escape their attention.
The book is as well executed as it is well timed. The descriptions are scientific
as well as popular, and the plates are clear and explicit. Not only the forms,
but the uses of Algse, are minutely described. It is a worthy sea-side com-
panion— a hand-book for every occasional or permanent resident on the sea-
shore.”— Economist,

“ This charming contribution to the study of a very interesting branch of
Natural History combines scientific correctness with artistical beauty.” — Literary
Gazette.

In one vol. royal I6mo, with twenty plates of figures and
two plates of fructification. Price 10s. coloured.

* *
*

XIII.

POPULAR BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY; comprising aU the
British Birds. By P. H. GOSSE, Author of ‘ Birds of
Jamaica,’ ‘ The Ocean,’ &c.

“ To render the subject of ornithology clear, and its study attractive, has been the
great aim of the author of this beautiful little volume. It contains descriptions of
all our British birds, with the exception of stragglers, not likely to faU in the
way of the young naturalist. It is embellished by upwards of 70 figures of British
birds beautifully coloured.” — Morning Herald.

“ Goes over every month of the year, figures the birds naturally in coloured
plates, describes them and their habits well, and is a capital manual for youthful
naturalists.” — Literary Gazette.

“ This book was much wanted and will prove a boon of no common value,
containing, as it does, the names, descriptions, and habits of all the British birds.
It ought to find a place on the shelves of every book-case.” — Mirror.

In one vol. royal I6mo, with twenty plates of figures.
Price 7s. plain ; 10^. 6^/. coloured.

REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE.

XIV.

POPULAR BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY, comprising a familiar
and technical description of the Insects most common to the
British Isles. By Maria E. Catlow.

“Judiciously executed, with excellent figures of the coinuiouer species, for the
use of young beginners.” — Annual Address of the President of the Entomological
Society.

“ Miss Catlow’s Popular British Entomology contains an introductory chapter
or two on classification, which are followed by brief generic and specific descrip-
tions in English of above 200 of the commoner British species, together with
accurate figures of about 70 of those described. The work is beautifully printed,
and the figures nicely coloured, and will be quite a treasure to any one just com-
mencing the study of this fascinating science.” — Westminster and Foreign
Quarterly Review.

In one vol. royal I6mo, with sixteen plates of figures.

Price plain; IO5. Qd. coloured.

XV.

POPULAR FIELD BOTANY ; containing a familiar- and tech-
nical description of the plants most common to the British
Isles, adapted to the study of either the Artificial or Natural
Systems. By Agnes Catlow. Second Edition.

“ This is a useful aid to young persons in the country who are at a loss how to
take the first steps in Botany. In this, as in so many other pursuits, the earliest
stage is that which is most difficult to get over — each succeeding advance be-
comes more easy than its predecessor. One of the impediments in the way of
those who have no teachers, is the uncertainty that in the beginning attends
all attempts at making out the names of the objects they have to examine, and
this impediment can only be removed by drawings and very familiar descriptions.
Miss Catlow, in the work before us, has furnished a clear and concise supply of
both. We recommend her Popular Botany to favourable notice.” — Gardeners'
Chronicle.

“ How pleasant to wander in the fields with this instructive guide.” — Literary
Gazette.

“ The design of this work is to furnish young persons with a Self-instructor in
Botany, enabling them with little difficulty to discover the scientific names of the
common plants they may find in their country rambles, to which are appended a
few facts respecting theu* uses, habits, &c. The plants are classed in months, the
illustrations are nicely coloured, and the book is altogether an elegant, as well as
useful present.” — Illustrated London News.

“ This book may be used by the beginner ; its advantage consists in its cheap-
ness.”— Athenceum.

In one vol. royal I6mo, witli twenty plates of figures.
Price Is. plain. 10«. 6c/. coloured.

XVI.

ILLUSTKATIONS OE BRITISH MYCOLOGY; containing
Figures and Descriptions of the Funguses of interest and
novelty indigenous to Britain. By Mrs. Hussey.

“ This talented lady and her sister were in the first instance induced to draw
some of the more striking Fungi, merely as picturesque objects. Their collection
of drawings at length became important from their number and accuracy, and
a long continued study of the nutritive properties of Fungi has induced the
former to lay the results of her investigations before the public, under the
form of illustrations of the more useful and interesting species. The figures
are so faithful that there can be no difficulty in at once determining with
certainty the objects they are intended to represent ; and the observations, espe-
cially those of the culinary department, will be found of much interest to the
general reader, and we doubt not that our tables will in consequence receive
many a welcome addition ; while, from the accuracy of the figures, there will be
no danger, with ordinary attention, of making any serious blunder.” — Gardeners’
Chronicle.

In one handsome quarto volume, bound in cloth and gilt.
With 90 handsome coloured drawings. Price ^l. 1 2s. 6^?.

XVII.

THE DODO AND ITS KINDRED ; or, the History, Affinities,
and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaiee, and other extinct
birds of the islands Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon. By
H. E. Strickland, Esq., M.A., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., President of
the Ashmolean Society, and A. G. Melville, M.D., M.R.C.S.

“ The labom’ expended on this book and the beautiful manner in which it is
got up render it a work of great interest to the naturalist. * * It is a model
of how such subjects should be treated. We know of few more elaborate and
careful pieces of comparative anatomy than is given of the bead and foot by
Dr. Melville. The dissection is accompanied by lithographic plates, creditable alike
to the Artist and the Printer.” — Athenmim.

“ A piece of ornithological biography which seems singularly to combine the
familiar with the fabulous. Thanks to an accomplished and persevering natu-
ralist of our own day, we have now all the facts, and most of the fancies, laid
before us in a splendid royal quarto volume just published, with numerous plates,
devoted to the history and illustration of ‘ the Dodo and its Kindred.’ The
author has produced one of the best and most interesting monographs with which
it is om' fortune to be acquainted. * We beg to call attention very espe-

cially to Plates viii. and ix., as the most beautiful examples of lithographic art,
applied to natural history, which we have yet seen executed in this country.” —
Blackvjood’ s Magazine^ Jan. 1, 1849.

One vol. royal quarto, with eighteen plates and numerous
wood illustrations. Price 21<s.

HEEVE, BENHAM, AND EEEVE

XVIII.

A CENTUEY OE OECHIDACEOUS PLANTS, selected from
those most worthy of cultivation figured in Cnrtis’s Botanical
Magazine, with coloured figures and dissections, chiefly
executed by Air. Pitch ; the descriptions (entirely re-written)
by Sir William J. Hooker, E.E.S. With an introduction on
the cnlture and management of Orchidaceas generally, and
on the treatment of each genus; by John C. Lyons, Esq.

“In the exquisite illustrations to this splendid Volume fiill justice has been
rendered to the oddly formed and often hriUiantly coloured flowers of this curious
and interesting tribe of plants.” — Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

“ A very acceptable addition to our knowledge of the Orchis tribe. The plates
are beautifully executed, and have been selected with great care, so as to place
before us an extensive and varied series, arranged systematically into proper
groups. Each species has a brief character attached, and to each genus botanical
and practical observations, from the pen of Sir William Hooker, are preflxed.
The work is also emlched with a prefatory memoir by Mr. Lyons, full of sound
judgment and experience on the best and most approved method of growing
Orchids.” — Literary Gazette.

In one volume, royal 4to, containing one hundred plates.

The Publishers intend re-issuing this work in monthly Nos. each
containing five plates, price 5<?. No. 1 will be issued in January.

XIX.

CUETIS’S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE (commenced in 1786);
Continued by Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., D.C.L.,
&c.. Director of the Eoyal Gardens of Kew. With obser-
vations on the culture of each species, by Mr. John Smith,
A.L.S., Curator of the Eoyal Gardens.

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine is now the only iEustrated
monthly record of the new plants.

Published in monthly numbers, each containing six plates,
price 3s. M. coloured, and in volumes, price 43s. Part 60, com-
pleting the 5th volume of the Third Series, just published.

HOOKEE’S JOUENAL OP BOTANY and KEW GAEDENS
Miscellany. Edited by Sir William Jackson Hooker.

This New Botanical Journal, in addition to original papers by
Eminent Botanists, contains the Botanical News of the month.
Proceedings of Societies, Communications from Botanical Tra-
vellers, Notices of New Books, &c.

In monthly numbers, with a plate, price One Shilling ; and
in volumes, price 13s. %d. No. 13, and Vol. 1, just published.

Price Mve Guineas.

XX.

10

WORKS PUBLISHED BY

By Sir William

XXI

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ORNITHOLOGY.

JardinEj Bart., R.R.S.E., R.L S., &c.

The “ Contributions ” are devoted to the various departments of Orni-
thology. They are published at intervals in Parts, and form an annual Volume,
illustrated by numerous Coloured and Uncoloured Plates, Wood Cuts, &c.

The Series for 1848, containing ten Plates, price 9s.

Nos. 1, 2, 3, & 4, for 1849, containing four Plates each, price 3s.
per Number.

XXII.

PHYCOLOGIA BRITANNICA ; or. History of the British Sea-
Weeds ; containing coloured tigui’es, generic and specific cha-
racters, synonymes, and descriptions, of all the species of
Algae inhabiting the shores of the British Islands. By William
Henry Harvey, M.D., M.R.I.A., Keeper of the Herbarium
of the University of Dubbn, and Professor of Botany to the
Dublin Society.

“The ‘History of British Sea- Weeds’ we can most faithfully recommend for
its scientific, its pictorial, and its popular value ; the professed botanist wiU find
it a work of the highest character, whilst those who desire merely to know the
names and history of the lovely plants which they gather on the sea-shore, will
find in it, when complete, the faithful portraiture of every one of them.”- — Annals
and Magazine of Natural History .

8vo. Pubbshed monthly, in parts, price 2«. 6c?., coloured ;
large paper, 5s. To be completed in sixty parts, containing three
hundred and sixty plates. Part XLV. just published.

Vols. I. and II., price 2?. 10s. each, are now ready.

XXHI.

NEREIS AUSTRALIS ; or. Illustrations of the Algse of the
Southern Ocean, being Figures, Descriptions, and Remarks
upon new or imperfectly known Sea-Weeds, collected on the
shores of the Cape of Good Hope, the extra-tropical Australian
Colonies, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Antarctic Regions,
and deposited in the Herbarium of the Dublin University.
By William Henry Harvey, M.D., M.R.I.A., Keeper of the
Herbarium, and Professor of Botany to the Dublin Society.

“ Of this most important contribution to om* knowledge of exotic Algie, we
know not if we can pay it a higher compliment than by saying it is worthy of the
author. It should be observed that the work is not a selection of certain species,
but an arranged system of aU that is known of Australian Algse, accompanied by
figures of the new and rare ones, especially of those most remarkable for beauty
of form and colour.” — London Journal of Botany.

Imp. 8 VO. To be completed in Four Parts, each containing
twenty-five coloured plates, price \l. \s.

Part I. recently published. Part II. now ready.

REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE.

11

I XXIV.

i CONCHOLOGrlA ICONICA ; or, Figures and Descriptions of tFe
I Shells of Molluscous Animals, with critical remarks on their
synonymes, affinities, and circumstances of habitation. By
Lovell Beeve, F.L.S.

The CoNCHOLOGiA IcoNiCA is mainly illustrated from the cabi-
net of Hugh Cuming, Esq., F.L.S. , the result of '‘more than thirty
of the best years of his life in arduous and hazardous personal
exertions, dredging, diving, wading, and wandering, under the
Equator and through the temperate zones, in the labour of

collecting. No public collection in Europe,” continues Professor

Owen, “ possesses one half the number of species of shells that
are now in the Cumingian collection, and probably one-third of
the number would be the correct statement as regards the national
museums of Paris and Vienna.”

Demy 4to. Published monthly, in Parts, each containing
eight plates. Price 10«.

SOLD ALSO IN MONOGRAPHS :

s.

d.

s.

d.

s.

d.

Achatina {nearly ready)

Cypricardia

0

3

0

Murex . .

2

5

6

Arca . ,

1

I

6

Delphinula .

0

6

6

Myadora .

0

1

6

Buccinum .

0

18

0

Dolium . .

0

10

6

Oniscia . .

0

3

0

Bulimus {nearly ready)

Eburna . .

0

3

0

Paludomus

0

4

0

Bullia . .

0

5

6

Fasciolaria .

0

9

0

Pectunculus

0

11

6

Cardita ,

0

II

6

Ficula . .

0

1

6

Phorus . .

0

4

0

Cardium .

I

8

0

Fusus . .

1

6

6

Pleurotoma

2

10

6

Cassidaria .

0

1

6

Glauconome

0

1

6

Pm’pura

0 17

0

Cassis . .

0

15

6

Haliotis

1

1

0

Pyrula . .

0

11

6

Chama . .

0

II

6

Harpa .

0

5

6

RaneUa . .

0

10

6

Chiton . .

2

2

0

Hemipecten

0

1

6

Bicinula

0

8

0

ChitoneUus

0

1

6

lanthina .

0

3

0

Tm-binella .

0

17

0

Conus . .

3

0

0

Isocardia .

0

1

6

Triton , .

1

5

6

Corbula

0

6

6

Mangelia .

0

10

6

Turbo . .

0 17

0

Crassatella

0

4

0

Mitra . .

2

10

0

Turritella, .

0

14

6

Cyprsea

I

14

0

Monoceros

0

5

6

Voluta . .

1

8

0

The above monographs contain about 4,300 Figures.

SOLD ALSO IN VOLUMES:

VoL. I. Conus Phokus Delphinula

Pleurotoma Pectunculus Cypricardia

Crassatella Cardita Harpa

[122 Plates, price ^1. l6s. Qd. half-bound.']

VOL. II. CORBULA GlAUCONOME MiTRA

Arca Myadora Cardium

Triton Ranella Isocaruia

[114 Plates, price ’ll. 6s. M. half-bound.]

13

WOEKS PUBLISHED BY

VoL. III.

Mueex

Cypr^a

Haliotis

Mangelia

Purpura

Ricinula

Monoceros

Bullia

Buccinum

[129 Plates, price SI. 5s. 6d. half-bound.']

VoL. IV. Chama Ficula Fusus

Chiton Pyrula Paudomus

Chitonellus Turbinella Turbo

Fasciolaria

[no Plates, price ^l. Is. 6rf. half-bound.

VoL. V. Bulimus Turritella Cassidaria

Achatina Mesalia Hemipecten

Dolium Eglisia Eburna

Cassis Oniscia Ianthina

[Nearly ready.

“ This great work is intended to embrace a complete description and illustration
of the shells of molluscous animals ; and so far as we have seen, it is not such as
to disappoint the large expectations that have been formed respecting it. The
figures of the shells are all of full size ; in the descriptions a careful analysis is
given of the labours of others ; and the author has spared no pains to make
the work a standard authority on the subject of which it treats.” — Athenaum.

“ The figures, by Mr. Sowerhy, are of the natural size, and most accurately
coloured. The text abounds with important criticisms and synonymes, whilst it
embodies a vast amount of information on the habits, modes of development,
and progress of growth ; together with the localities and circumstances of habita-
tion, resulting from the communicated experience of Mr: Cuming.” — Literary
Gazette.

“ Since the discovery of extra-tropical America, and the diffusion of our em-
pire into newly discovered lands, the science of conchology has reeeived important
aid from inland workers, dependent rather on communicated materials. The
principal of these are Lister, Seba, Martyn, Gualter, Linnscus, Martini, Chemnitz,
Bruguiere, Lamarck, Broderip, Sowerhy, and, lastly, Lovell Reeve, whose pon-
derous tomes, so admirably illustrated by the younger Sowerhy, wiR be a lasting
monument of patient industry and sound critical discernment.” — Morning Lost.

The figures are drawn and litliograplied by G. B. Sowerby,
Junr., of tlie natural size, except those requiring to be enlarged.

XXV.

For

geological

CONCHOLOGIA ICONICA. Uncoloured edition
purposes. A reprint of the foregoing work.

In monthly numbers, each containing six plates, price 35. ^d.

XXVI.

ELEMENTS OF CONCHOLOGY ; or. Introduction to the Natural
History of Shells and their animals. By Lovell Beeve, F.L.S.
“The work before us is designed to promote a more philosophical spirit of
\ inquiry into the nature and origin of Shells.” — ^Ecclesiastical Review.

To be completed in twelve parts, royal 8vo, with numerous
s illustrations, price 35. ^d. coloured. Part X. just published.

XXVII.

( Under the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty^

ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. SAMAEANG.
Edited by Authur Adams, F.L.S., Assistant-Surgeon, E.N.,
attached to the Expedition.

Part I. Fishes. By Sir John Eichardson, M.D., F.E.S.
10 plates, price 10,9. 6c?.

Parts II. and IV. Crustacea. By the Editor and Adam
White, F.L.S. No. 1, 6 plates, price 85. — No. 2, 7 plates, price
10s. 6c?.

Part III. Mollusca. No. 1. By the Editor and Lovell
Eeeve, F.L.S., including the anatomy of ih^Spirula, by Prof. Owen,
F.E.S. 9 coloured plates, price 10s. 6c?. No. 2 nearly ready.

Part V. Vertebrata. By John Edward Gray, F.E.S.,
Keeper of the Zoological Department of the British Museum.
8 coloured plates, price 10s. 6c?.

XXYIII.

NOTES OF A TOUE IN THE PLAINS OF INDIA, the
Himala, &c. ; being extracts from the private letters of
Dr. Hooker, written during a Government Botanical Mission to
those countries. Part I. England to Calcutta. Price 2s. 6c?.

“ A delightful sketch, of Dr. Hooker’s Journey to Calcutta with the suite of
Lord Dalhousie.” — Literary Gazette.

XXIX.

( Under the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty^

NAEEATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. SAMAEANG,
during the years 1843-46. By Capt. Sir Edward Belcher,
C.B., F.E.A.S. and G.S., Commander of the Expedition.
With a Popular Summary of the Natural History of the
islands visited, by Arthur Adams, F.L.S.

Commencing at Borneo, the Expedition extended as far north as
Korea and Japan, including within its limits the islands of Ouel-
part and Loo-Choo, the Meia-co-shimah and Batanese Groups, the
Philippine and Sooloo Archipelagos, Celebes, Ternate, and Gdolo,
with other islands of the Blue and Yellow Seas.

“These volumes give the official and authorized account of the surveying
voyage of the Samarang in the Eastern Archipelago and Northern Seas of China
and Japan. Besides much geographical and practical information, Capt. Belcher’s
Narrative contains a close and mature view of the ministers and monarchs of
those distant regions. Q,uelpart and the Korean Archipelago are new ground.” —
Examiner.

In 2 vols., 8 VO, 964 pp., 35 Charts, Coloured Plates, and
Etehings. Price 36s. cloth.

14

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XXX.

{Tinder the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty)
FLOEA ANTAECTICA ; or. Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of
H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, during the years
1839-1843, under the command of Capt. Sir James Clark
Eoss, E.N., E.E.S. By Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D.
E.N., F.E.S., &c., Botanist to the Expedition.

‘‘ The descriptions of the plants in this work are carefully drawn up, and much
interesting matter, critical, explanatory, and historical, is added in the form
of notes. The drawings of the plants are admirably executed by Mr. Fitch ;
and we know of no productions from his pencil, or, in fact, any botanical illus-
trations at all, that are superior in faithful representation and botanical correct-
ness.’ ’ — Athenaeum .

In two vols., royal 4to, pp. 574, plates 200. Price 10^. 15«.
colom’ed; 7^. 10«. plain.

XXXI.

CEYPTOGAMIA ANTAECTICA; or, Cryptogamic Botany of
the Antarctic Voyage of H. M. Ships Erebus and Tei'ror. By
Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D., F.E.S., &c.

A separate issue of the Cryptogamic portion of the Antarctic
Botany, for the convenience of those Naturalists whose interest is
more particularly directed to that branch of the science.

In one vol., royal 4to, pp. 258, plates 74. Price 4Z. 4^.
coloured; 2^. 17-s. plain.

XXXII.

THE BEITISH DESMIDIEHl; or, Fresh-Water Algse. By
John Ealps, M.E.C.S., Honorary Member of the Penzance
Nat. Hist. Society. The Drawings % Edward Jenner, A.L.S.

“ A more beautiful or creditable work than this has seldom issued from the
press. It combines great powers of observation, mueh originality, exaetness of
detail, and skill of execution, and is distinguished pre-eminently by diligent study
and the zeal with which the author has applied to every available source of
information. The subject is one which was till within a very few years almost
unknown in this country. A few species of Desmidiese had been figured and
a small number recorded as natives ; but it was scarcely suspected that a tribe of
the most exquisite beauty and symmetry abounded in every exposed pool in many
parts of the kingdom. It would be unjust to conclude this notice without
due credit to Mr. Jenner for the drawings from which the plates are engraved,
which leave little or nothing to be desired, and his contributions to the work are
by no means confined to the artistic department.” — Gardeners" Chronicle.

Complete in one volume, royal octavo, tbirty-five coloured

plates. Price 36s. cloth.

REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE.

15

XXXITI.

THE ESCULENT EUNUUSES OF ENGLAND ; a treatise on
their History, Uses, Structure, Nutritious Properties, Mode
of Cooking, Preserving, &c. By the Eev. Dr. Bad ham.

“We lately noticed tke beautiful fasciculi of Mrs. Hussey, illustrative of wbat
is useful and interesting in the neglected class of Fungals. The present work,
which owes the greater part of its figures to the same exquisite pencil, and some
portion of the information it contains to the experience of Mrs. Hussey, will
be acceptable either as an appendage to the Illustrations, or as containing in
itself a mass of entertaining and valuable matter. It is scarcely possible that
two works so beautifully illustrated, written with such evident interest in the
subject, and in such a lively manner, should fail to draw attention to the
objects they describe ; and the matter is in general so judiciously handled, that,
with any ordinary precaution, there will be no danger of mistakes being made.
The common Muslmooom is in some years extremely scarce, but there are many
species abounding in our woods and meadows which may be substituted with
safety; and some, which, though usually rejected, are in many respects superior.
The work of M. Roques has had the effect at Paris of removing much prejudice
on the subject ; and we hope that many a group of Fungi, wliich wordd hitherto
have been trampled under foot, will now, in consequence of the labours of
Mrs. Hussey and Dr. Badham, be duly honoured.” — Gardener^ Chronicle.

In one handsomely illustrated volume, super royal 8vo.

Price \l. Is. coloured.

XXXIV.

CONCHYLIA DITPIYEA INSULAEUM BEITANNICAEUM.
The Bivalve Shells of the British Isles, systematically arranged.
By William Turton, M.D. Eeprinted verbatim from the
original edition. The illustrations, printed from the original
copper-plates, are distinguished for their accurate detail.

Large paper, 328 pp., 20 coloured plates. Price 21. 10^.

XXXV.

CONCHOLOGIA SYSTEMATICA ; or. Complete System of Con-
chology, in which the Lepades and Mollusca are described
and classified according to their natural organization and habits,
illustrated with 300 plates of upwards of 1,500 figures of
Shells. By Lovell Eeeve, F.L.S.

“ The text is both interesting and instructive ; many of the plates have ap-
peared before in Mr. Sowerby’s works, but from the great expense of collecting

them, and the miscellaneous manner of their publication, many persons will no
doubt gladly avail themselves of this select and classified portion, which also
contains many original figures.” — Athenaum.

In two quarto volumes, cloth. Price lOZ. coloured ; 6/. plain.
{Published at Twelve Guineas^

16

LIST OF WOEKS.

XXXVI.

CONCHOLOGIST’S NOMENCLATOE; or, Catalogue of recent
species of Shells, with their authorities, synonymes, and re-
ferences to works where figured or described. By Agnes
Catlow, assisted by Lovell Eeeve, F.L.S.

A catalogue of three hundred and twenty closely printed pages,
serving as a register of all the known species.

In sheets for labels, 20^. Cloth, 21^. Half-bound in calf,
cloth sides, interleaved with blank pages for remarks, 2 5 5.

XXXVII.

THE PLANETAEY AND STELLAE
Eobeet James Mann.

UNIYEESE. By

“A brief abstract of the discoveries of Newton clearly explained, and elegantly
illustrated.” — Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

In one vol. 8vo, with 50 astronomical Diagrams and Map
of the Circumpolar Constellations. Price 5s. cloth.

XXXVIII.

ILLUSTEATIONS of the lYISDOM and BENEVOLENCE of
the DEITY, as manifested in Nature. By H. Edwaeds, LL.D.
Cloth, 25. 6d.

“ A little excursion in the track of Paley and the broad road of the Bridge-
water Treatises. Animals, Atmosphere, Organic Matter, Light, and Electricity
are the natural elements out of which the author deduces his pious lessons,
leading to a Eirst Cause in wonder, admiration, and worship.” — lAterary Gazette.

XXXIX.

THE LONDON JOUENAL OE BOTANY. Edited by Sie
W. J. Hookee, K.H., D.C.L., P.E.S., &c.

Vol. VII. , completing the Series, Price 305.

London : Printed by REEVE, BENHAM, and REEVE, Heathcock Court, Strand.

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