394 Natural History in Ireland. 



liant orange and scarlet of its bill and legs, are beheld wheeling with rapid 

 wing in endless and varying directions. On firing a gun, the effect is even 

 startling. The air is immediately darkened with the multitudes which are 

 aroused by the report ; the ear is stunned by the varied and discordant 

 sounds which arise ; the piercing note of the kittiwake (from which its name 

 has been derived) ; the shrill cry of the tammy norie j and the hoarse burst 

 of the guillemot, resembhng, as it were, the laugh of some demon, in 

 mockery of the intrusion of man amid these majestic scenes of nature ; 

 all these combined, and mingled occasionally with the harsh scream of the 

 cormorant, are heard high above the roar of the ocean which breaks at the 

 foot of these tremendous and gigantic precipices. 



It is a remark which cannot be too frequently nor forcibly repeated, that, 

 in natural history especially, it is of the utmost importance to judge from 

 actual observation and experience, and not implicitly to rely on the descrip- 

 tions and speculations of writers who are often obliged to describe produc- 

 tions of nature which they have never had an opportunity of beholding, and 

 with regard to which they have not unfrequently relied on information at 

 best but vague and unsatisfactory. This is particularly the case with Buffon. 

 There is no author more likely, from the insidious and specious graces of his 

 eloquence, to captivate and influence the youthful mind ; and yet, in those 

 branches of natural history to which my own observation extends, I have 

 often, with regard to a correct statement of facts, found him egregiously 

 deficient. And the truth of this remark I am in no case able to substantiate 

 more fully, than with respect to the varieties of sea fowl at present under 

 consideration. I find from his writings, then, that he represents the razor- 

 bill auk as utterly incapable of flight, and the puffin as enabled with the ut- 

 most difficulty to transport itself from one place to another, by razing, as it 

 were, with its almost useless wings, the surface of the sea ; and, in like man- 

 ner, the guillemot is described as being scarcely able to fly above the surface 

 of the sea, and, in order to reach its nest, as being obliged to flutter, or ra- 

 ther to leap, from cliff to cliff, resting a moment at each throw. These 

 errors I do not find corrected, except in the case 'of the puffin, by 

 Bewick, and other subsequent and popular naturalists, who must, I should 

 think, have known better, and who ought to have been at pains to rectify 

 the blunders of an author so captivating and universally read as Buffon. 

 Now, I have myself been repeatedly a witness, at one of their greatest breed- 

 ing stations, of the powers of flight possessed by those birds who have thus 

 been confidently represented as being incapable of flight at all. The fact is, 

 that, while on the wing, they fly with singular rapidity and vigour, and often 

 at a very considerable elevation ; nor have I been able to discover any of 

 that difficulty in reaching their nests, which, in the case of the guillemot, is 

 described as being so painfully great. 



With regard, likewise, to the eggs of these birds, it appears to me that 

 naturalists have fallen into mistakes. Donovan, for example, in his fourth, 

 tnd to all appearance his last, number [No. V. has lately appeared.] of the 

 f^ggs of British Birds, has figured, for the egg of the razor-bill auk, what 

 1 know from ocular inspection is not the egg of that bird ; and what, 

 from all accounts, I have reason to think (although I have never seen a 

 specimen) is the egg of the great northern auk, the A'lca impennis or 

 gairfowl, I am. Sir, &c. — A. C, R. June 5. 1829. 



Art, VIII. Natural History in Ireland. 



Rare Birds Mlled in different Parts of Ireland. — Golden Eagle (Falco 

 Clirysaetos). A very fine specimen was shot in the County Wexford, Dec. 

 J 828. It measured upwards of 8 ft. across the wings. — Peregrine Falcon 



