DlTBLlir NATI7BAL HISTOBT SOCIEtT. 81 



eren at that time, that there was a great diminution in the nnrobers that an- 

 nually bred there. The repeated robberies of the nests during the subsenuent 

 years of famine had considerably caused great desertions of the birds in difFe- 

 rcnt parts of the islands. The three Islands of Arran — Inishmor, Inishmean, 

 and Inisheer — are of much more interest to the botanist than to the ornitholo- 

 gist, for the varieties of marine birds are but few. At one time they were largely 

 captured for their feathers, a pound weight of feathers being generally the pro- 

 duce of sixteen gulls ; and an expert catcher had frequently taken in one night 

 five hundred eulls. The several kinds resorting there, chiefly the high cliffs on 

 the S.W. of the Great Island, were herring gulls, more abundant than others, 

 razor bills(-4/ca <orf/o),guillemot8((7ria), cormorants(PAa/acrocorax),kittiwake8 

 {Larus rissa), and the lesser black-backed gull (Z. fuscus). On the flats and 

 sands of the middle island, oyster catchers (Uoematopua ostralegus) were frequent 

 in flocks. To the E.S.E. of the southern island are the bold cliffs of Blackhead, 

 Cean dubh, only tenanted by the common gull {Larut canut), and by hawks and 

 ravens. Foxes and other animals are there very destructive to the breeding 

 birds. Southerly, along the coast of Clare, we come to the magnificent cliffs of 

 Moher, where the most towering of these are Cnoc alda Quin and Ail na Shar- 

 roch, with the bird-cliff. Ail na Nean. The great resort of birds on this part of 

 the coast is the lofty pinnacled rock styled Breanan or Mor, the Great Dung- 

 hill, from the innumerable birds that visit it for nidification. From the 1st of 

 April to the end of May the eggs are so plentifully obtained that horse-loads 

 might be brought away, if the weather permitted a landing. It is approachable 

 only by canoes, a perpetual surf playing around this island rock. The canoe 

 men around the rock take great quantities of pollock (Pqjlog) and Connor fish 

 (Bullachs). About the 24th of June the birds are most numerous there, being 

 the breeding place of the greater and lesser black-backed gulls, herring gulls, 

 kittiwakes, razor-bills, guillemots, puffins {Fratercula arctica), and cormorants. 

 It is the chief breeding place on the coast of Clare, although the cliffs of Baltard 

 and Cahoo na Faoilean — Seagulls' Quarter — are also much frequented. The 

 cliffs and caves at the entrance of the Shannon are famous for the multitudes of 

 the rock pigeon (Columba livia), and also those on the Kerry side. In the 

 neighbourhood of Ballybunnion, Sterna hirundo and S. minuta, and on the cliffs, 

 guillemots {Uria grylle, U. Brunnichii, and U. troile)^ Larus fuscus, L. argenta- 

 tus, and L. Rissa, have been noticed ; and I have seen on the flat lands about 

 the Cashin River, L. ridibundus in abundance. Cormorants and oyster-catchers 

 are very numerous, as also, on the grassy cliffs, the chough (Fregilusgraculus). 

 The Muchloch Rock — a lofty and steep rock off Tralee and Ballyheigue Bays, 

 with deep water all round— is a famous place for the greater and lesser black- 

 backed gulls, and most of the other birds already named. The nests of the 

 Arctic and Roseate Terns (S. arctica and S. rosea) are met in the Magheree Is- 

 lands. Sybil Head and the Three Sisters are tenanted by immense numbers of 

 the rock pigeon, hawks, ravens, and the sea-eagle (H. albicilla), but the most 

 noted places on the coast of Kerry are the Blasket Islands, and the lesser Skel- 

 lig. Of the Blasket group, which are numerous, the principal are the Great Is- 

 land, the Northern, Inishtuskert, Inishnabro, the Western Island, Inishmakei- 

 laun, and the Tearaght Rock— the four last are the most frequented breed- 

 ing places, the chief being the Tearaght Rock. 1 shall, therefore, confine 

 myself to a brief review of the birds during the breeding season, that I noticed 

 in a visit to that island rock in 1850. The Tearaght is but rarely visited ex- 

 cept in the finest weather, and then only by herdsmen from the western island, 

 who go to and fro with sheep, and to Inisnabro, where they leave the sheep to 

 fatten on the herbage which the cliffs of those islands afford. Men are some- 

 times employed in obtaining the birds for their feathers. According to the 

 Ordnance Survey, the Tearaght contains 47 acres, and the highest points of the 

 island attain 602 feet. Situated as it is in the Atlantic Ocean, being seven miles 

 W.N. W. of the Great Island, surrounded by the heavy rolling seas of the Atlan- 

 tic, and without any accessible approach for landing, it is but rarely visited. 



