Mr. Thompson on Fishes new to Ireland, 25 



them to carry away the produce ; but the harvest that was 

 then gathered fell short of requiring such extra aid*. 



Having observed a number of pigs at Newcastle daily fre- 

 quenting the sand at the extreme edge of the retiring waves, 

 I ascertained, as had been anticipated, that they were in search 

 of sand-eels. This however was not the chosen feeding-ground 

 of these animals, as I subsequently saw them regularly driven 

 out there to forage for themselves. The A, Tobianus though 

 taken here is less frequent than at Dun drum. 



When at Ballywalter, on the coast of Down, and north- 

 wards of the last-mentioned place, in May 1 836, 1 found a few of 

 A. Tobianus by examining the sand-eels which fishermen were 

 using as bait, and in the month of March following, obtained 

 a specimen along with two of the A. Lancea from the stomach 

 of a sea trout (S. Trutta) taken at Donaghadee. On question- 

 ing some fishermen at Portaferry, situated just within the en- 

 trance to Strangford Lough, in the same county, respecting 

 the two species of sand-eel, I learned that they had not been 

 as such distinguished by them. It was however stated, that 

 they occasionally obtained much larger individuals than or- 

 dinary, which from colour were named " green-backs," the 

 common being called sand-eels : the former both from supe- 

 rior size and different colour must doubtless be the A. Tobia- 

 nus, 



Amongst a few fishes found dead on the beach at Cairn- 

 lough near Glenarm (county of Antrim) in June 1836, by Dr. 

 J. L. Drummond, was a specimen of the A. Tobianus, In this 

 as well as every other instance in which I have seen the last- 

 named species, specimens of A. Lancea occurred at the same 

 time. 



In the ' Wild Sports of the West' there is a short but 

 graphic account of sand-eel fishing by moonlight on the coast 

 of Mayo ; and at Strangford Lough and other places in the 

 north of Ireland it is likewise a favourite pastime of the young 

 in the moonlight nights of summer. It is said that from the 

 silvery brilliance of the fish being more striking by night than 



* " The coast [at Newcastle] affords plenty and variety of sea fish ; and 

 such quantities of sand-eels have sometimes been taken on it, particularly 

 in the late season of scarcity, that the 'poor carried them away in sacks- 

 full."— Harris's Down, (p. 81.) published in 1744. 



