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



On examining the crop of some of these birds shot in the month 

 of June 1832, at the wild peninsula of the Horn (co. Donegal), where 

 they are very common, they were found to be filled with the seeds 

 of rushes. When visiting the island of Achil, on the 29th of June 

 1834, in company with Mr. R. Ball, we saw several rock-doves feed- 

 ing on the low sandy tract near Keil, and approached them within 

 about twenty-five paces. On remarking to Lieut. Reynolds, R.N. 

 of the Coast Guard service, then stationed there, 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 killed as many as fifty and fifty-two in one day there, although 

 more than two were never procured at one shot. In this wild di- 

 strict they are seldom molested, and consequently exhibit little fear 

 of man. In the level tract alluded to there is no ambush to con- 

 ceal the sportsman, who must walk up directly within sight of the 

 birds until within shooting distance. It is only at a particular sea- 

 son that they are seen here, when, according to my informant, they 

 are attracted to the locality by a " small pea" which is abundant, 

 and is always found in the crops of those killed. We requested to 

 be shown the plant, and found it to be the common bird's-foot tre- 

 foil {Lotus corniculatus) . When walking along the top of the fine 

 marine cliffs about Portpatrick, in Wigtonshire, in Aug. 1838, in 

 company with Capt. Fayrer, R.N., he remarked, on some rock-doves 

 being sprung, that he had shot many of them there as they came to 

 feed on the " wild liquorice," a favourite kind of food — this also I 

 found to be the Lotus corniculatus. About the marine cliffs near 

 Ballantrae, in the adjoining 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, near the coast*. 



In August 1826, when visiting the celebrated cascade at Tivoli, 

 near Rome, rock-doves presented a singular and beautiful appear- 

 ance, as numbers of them kept flying in and out of the gloomy re- 

 cesses of the rock, close to where the mass of waters was precipi- 

 tated : viewed from the heights above, they looked so remarkably 

 small, that at first sight I was deceived as to their species. 



At the end of April 1841, I observed rock-doves to be numerous 

 about the precipitous and caverned cliffs of the island of Sphacteria, 

 forming part of the western boundary of the noble bay of Navarino. 

 When there on the 29th and 30th of that month, the officers of 

 H.M.S. Beacon set out in a boat for the purpose of entering the 

 caves to shoot them, and returned on 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 bay side. Again, when becalmed in the JEgenn Sea on the 

 10th of June in H.M.S. Magpie, a likely place for these birds pre- 

 senting itself in a rocky islet, N.E. of Port Nousa, in the island of 

 Paros, 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 plu- 



* Mr. Macgillivray gives a full and excellent account of this species 

 from personal observation in Scotland. 



