178 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



birds swept about low and in numbers, occasionally within a few 

 yards of my head. In general appearance and flight they are very 

 similar to the common swift : they are very noisy, almost constantly 

 uttering a loud twitter ; besides which they occasionally give a brief 

 scream, nowise resembling the long-drawn and shrill cry of the com- 

 mon species. Towards the end of May I saw a few alpine swifts 

 at Constantinople, wheeling about the heights of Pera, and near the 

 high tower of Galata, in which they probably nestle. In the month 

 of June I met with this species at the island of Paros, and about the 

 Acropolis at Athens. Throughout this tour the common swift was 

 more frequently seen than the C. alpinus, and at one locality only did 

 they both appear — this was at Constantinople, where the former 

 species was abundant, and a few of the latter were observed. This 

 seemed rather remarkable, as in no scene did I meet with the one 

 species in which the other would not have appeared equally at home. 

 The only difference in their habits which struck me was, that the 

 alpine swift is more partial to cliffs than buildings, the common 

 swift more partial to artificial structures than to rocks. 



The Goatsucker, Caprimulgus Europaeus, Linn., is a re- 

 gular summer visitant to favourite localities in all quarters of 

 the island, and of rare but occasional appearance elsewhere. 



In the neighbourhood of Belfast it very rarely appears. A vene- 

 rable sporting friend, who has been shooting here regularly in the 

 season for above sixty years, has not during that time met with a 

 dozen of these birds, although there are several districts apparently 

 well suited to them. In the wooded glen at the " Falls" one was 

 seen by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire and myself some years ago. It was 

 perching lengthwise (as the species is well known to do), instead of 

 across the branch of a fine beech tree, then displaying the tender 

 and beautiful green of its young leaves. I am aware of four only 

 having been killed, within twelve miles of Belfast, in the last fifteen 

 years. Of these, the first was shot at Belvoir Park on the 28th of 

 July 1827 ; the second, in the summer of 1835, in the district of 

 Malone ; the third, on the 25th of September in the same year, in 

 Hillsborough Park - r the fourth, on the 1st of June 1840, at Bangor 

 Castle : the stomaeh of this last was filled with the remains of seve- 

 ral individuals of Geotrupes stercorarius . In the Ards, county 

 Down, the goatsucker has not unfrequently been observed, by George 

 Mathews, Esq., at Springvale \ and he informs me, that about Ech- 

 linville a few have been shot. It is a regular summer visitant to 

 the Mourne mountains, more particularly in the vicinity of Tollymore 

 Park*. The gamekeeper there informed me, in 1836, that he had 

 frequently found the nest of the goatsucker; and had never observed 

 in any of them more than one egg. On the 28th of June 1838, he 

 pointed out to me one of their nests : it was at the base of a young 



* In Templeton's • Catalogue of Vertebrate Animals' (Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 vol. i. new series), this bird is noticed as " rare about Belfast ; but [not] 

 uncommon at Mourne, county Down." The not before uncommon was 

 omitted in the printing of the paper. 



