92 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



season. Taking that portion, with the Arran Islands and the coast of Clare, as the 

 northern bound, and the Skellig Islands, off the coast of Kerry, as the southern, I 

 shall touch on those points along the ranges of those coasts, which present an 

 almost uninterrupted series of lofty and formidable cliffs opposed to the furious 

 surges of the Atlantic Ocean. On risking the Arran Islands in the year 1844, I 

 endeavoured to trace every information relative to the marine birds that periodically 

 visited those islands, and I was surprised to find, even at that time, that there was 

 a great diminution in the numbers that annually bred there the repeated rob- 

 beries of the nests during the subsequent years of famine had caused very consider- 

 able desertions of the birds in different parts of the islands. The three Islands of 

 Arran Inishmor, Inishmaan, and Inisheer are of much more interest to the 

 botanist than to the ornithologist ; for the varieties of marine birds are but few. 

 At one time they were largely obtained for their feathers, a pound weight of 

 feathers being generally the produce of sixteen gulls, and an expert catcher had 

 frequently taken in one night 500 gulls. The several kinds resorting there, and 

 on the high cliffs on the S.W. of the Great Island, were herring gulls (more abundant 

 than all the others), razor-bills, guillemots, cormorants, with kittiwakes and the 

 lesser black-backed gull. On the flats and sands of the middle island oyster- 

 catchers 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 (Larus 

 canus), and by hawks and ravens. Foxes and other animals are there very de- 

 structive 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 arda 

 Quin and Ail na Sharroch, 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 Mor, the 

 Great Dunghill, 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 approach- 

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

 men around the rock take great quantities of pollock (Pollog) 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, and cormorants. It is the chief breeding place on 

 the coast of Clare, although the cliffs of Baltard and Cahoo na Faoilean (Sea- 

 gulls' 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. argentatus, and L. tridactylus have been noticed; 

 and I have seen on the flat lands about the Cashin River L. ridibundus in abun- 

 dance. Cormorants and oyster- catchers are very numerous, as also, on the grassy 

 cliffs, the chough (Fregilus graculus). 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 are met in the 

 Magheree Islands. Sybil Head and the Three Sisters are tenanted by immense 

 numbers of rock pigeon, hawks, ravens, and the sea eagle; but the most noted 

 places on the coast of Kerry are, the Bla&ket Islands and the Lesser Skellig. Of 

 the Blasket group, which are numerous, the principal are, the Great Island, the 

 northern, Inishtuskert, Inishnabro, the Western Island, Imshmakeilaun, and the 

 Tearaght Rock the four last are the most frequented breeding places, the chief 

 being the Tearaght Rock. I shall, therefore, confine myself to a brief view 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, except in the finest weather, and then 

 only by herdsmen from the Western Island, who go to and fro, with sheep, and to 

 Inishnabro, where they leave the sheep to fatten on the herbage which the cliffs 

 of those islands afford. Men are sometimes 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 



