90 DTJBLnf NATTIRAL HI8T0ET SOCIETT. 



land, and yet all of these birds were in good condition, plump, healthy, and well 

 feathered. The hardy little chiff chaff (Sylvia rufa) I have seen on the 12th of 

 March. Had it then arrived, or had it remained all winter ? Montague states, 

 in his Supplement, •' that he several times saw the chiff chaff, in the winters of 

 1806 and 1808, in Devonshire;" and Mr. Neville Wood " has heard its note as 

 early as February 5;" but the earliest notice of its arrival, according to Yar- 

 rell, in England (I presume he means the southof England) is March 12 and 14. 

 The land rail (Crex pratensis), according to Thompson (vol. ii., p. 315), has been 

 found in Ireland in winter in several instances. Yarrell only mentions its hav- 

 ing been noticed twice in England. I have myself twice procured land rails in 

 January in the county of Dublin. One of them I kept alive for some months, when 

 it was unfortunately killed by a cat. A curious circumstance occurred with re- 

 gard to this individual : — It having been but slightly wounded, it very soon 

 nearly recovered the full use of its wings, and one morning flew over the wall of 

 the yard, where it was confined with a number of other birds, and was, as I sup- 

 posed, lost; but, to my great surprise, it was, six weeks after, brought back to 

 me by a man who stated that he had caught it near Skerries. As I had marked 

 the bird by clipping the tips of the wing feathers in a peculiar manner, as well 

 as putting a bit of leather round one leg, there was no doubt of its being the 

 same bird. The only point of objection which could be raised against the pecu- 

 liar aptitude of Ireland for the country of ornithology was its great moisture, 

 and this has been of late years considerably lessened by the great extension of 

 tillage and the amount of drainage which has been effected. There is but a 

 small portion, indeed, of our island more than fifty miles distant from the sea 

 coast, a circumstance which, though it would tend to increase the amount of 

 moisture, renders it, perhaps, less liable to severe cold than any of the neigh- 

 bouring countries. It is a well known fact that frosts are rarely severe in Ire- 

 land — never so much so as in England — and the snow never lies so long on the 

 ground in our favoured isle. That a great many of our finest species are becom- 

 ing every day more and more scarce, is a well known fact. This is to be accounted 

 for in various ways. The causes of the increase or limitation in the number of 

 any different species in particular localities are to be found in the plenty or scar- 

 city of food, and in the amount of persecution suffered, or immunity enjoyed by 

 them. The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is in danger of being utterly extir- 

 pated. The buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) is also becoming much more scarce than 

 formerly ; and though I have often looked for them in places where some years 

 ago they were to be met with, I have only seen two living buzzards within the 

 last five years. The universal system of drainage, too, so useful, perhaps, to our 

 subject in some respects, is still, however, daily encroaching on the haunts of the 

 bittern, and lessening its numbers. The peregrine (Falco peregrinus) has been 

 driven from its breeding places in the neighbourhood of Dublin — I mean Lara- 

 bay, Ir. land's Eye, and Howth ; the last peregrine I saw in Lambay was un- 

 mated and alone. I myself remember the chough (Fregilus graculus) and the 

 rockdove (Columba livia) nesting in considerable numbers in at least two of 

 those three places, but they are no longer to be found there. The ring ouzel 

 (Turdus torquatus), too, has now forsaken Lambay for three successive sum- 

 mers. Another interesting bird, the Manx shearwater (Puffinus Anglorum), is 

 greatly reduced in numbers in Lambay. All this is caused by the persecution 

 the birds endure, in being wantonly and uselessly shot ; while other species, 

 which do a much greater amount of mischief, for instance, the wood quest (C. pa- 

 lumbus), from whose crop I have taken 168 grains of wheat (merely the bird's 

 morning repast), are not by half so much annoyed. The mania for egg-collect- 

 ing lends an effective aid in lessening the numbers of our birds, both resident 

 and migratory ; not only is there an entire brood destroyed every time a nest is 

 taken, but when, in consequence of the nest being robbed a second time, the bird 

 lays a third time (which many species will do), the eggs are often deficient in 

 colour, deformed in shape, reduced in size, and diminished in number. This I 

 proved by actual experiment. The plan I followed was this : — I chose the nest 



