OC NOTES ON IRISH NATURx\L HISTORY. 



lliese cliifs afford perfect security for eagles and hawks, 

 and I have little doubt that very large numbers are annually 

 bred here, as well as gulls, corvorants, and other aquatic birds. 

 With regard to the gulls, I could make out but little as to 

 species ; there were two of very different sizes, but nearly 

 alike in colour, which I supposed to be the greater and lesser 

 black-backed ; and occasionally a little covey of four or five 

 individuals of Lestris would make their appearance, but these 

 always seemed passing on, as though bent on other business, 

 while the whiter gulls appeared to have no other amusement 

 than screaming round my head ; I never was so insulted ; 

 they swept round and round in semicircles, fanning me 

 with their wings every time they approached : I longed for a 

 gun, just to have given them an admonisher. Proceeding far- 

 ther along the cliff, I found a man and boy fishing with lines 

 400 feet in length. The hook was baited with the inside of 

 a crab, and a stone was tied near the extremity of the line, 

 and being thrown into the sea carried the line with it, which 

 otherwise could not have been persuaded to make the de- 

 scent. I waited some time, but to no purpose, in the hope 

 of seeing a fish hauled up ; and I was equally unsuccessful 

 in learning what kind of fish were taken in this way, for as 

 neither party understood a word that the other said, it might 

 be called on my part, " the pursuit of knowledge under diffi- 

 culties." Shortly afterwards I saw a single rock dove [Co- 

 Iwnha Livia) fly to the cliff, and apparently enter a hole ; it 

 was closely pursued by a kestrel, which continued sailing 

 backwards and forwards along the cliff, until I left the spot. I 

 ascended a hill to examine what appeared a most singular ruin : 

 on reaching this I found it was only a Napoleon-tower, with a 

 small portion rearing its head high over the shapeless mass 

 of ruins which surrounded it. The view from this tower is 

 magnificent ; you can see nearly two hundred miles of coast, 

 so ruggedly rocky, so curiously indented, and so intermixed 

 with sea, that it requires a tolerable degi'ee of map-knowledge 

 to understand the objects you are beholding. 



The high promontory on which this tower stands, termi- 

 nates in Cape Lean, or, as it is usually termed, Loop-head. 

 After enjoying the splendid panorama to my heart's content, 

 I turned southward, and soon falling in with a road or track, 

 returned to Kilkee. The ferns of this promontory are Las- 

 trcBa Filix-mas, rare; Las. dilatata^ abundant; Athyrium 

 Filix-fcemina, abundant ; Pleris aquilina, sparingly ; Os- 

 tnunda regalis, abundant ; T.omaria spica7it, not frequent ; 

 Asplenium marimimy abundant. The population is very 

 great in the neighbourhood of Kilkee and Kilrush ; the cabin* 



