1909. Ptocecdings of I) ish Societies. 19 



At 9.15 the entire company met again in the large central hall, where 

 a short business meeting was held — the President (RoBiCRT PATTERSON, 

 F.LvS.) in the chair. After welcoming the members, the Chairman 

 referred to the success of the summer excursions, and made special 

 reference to the recent meeting of the Britii^h Association in Dublin. 



Immediately afterwards a lantern display was given of views mainly 

 taken on the summer excursions of the Club by Messrs. Haddon, Hogg, 

 Gra}', Green, Marsh, Welch, and others. This concluded a most success- 

 ful and enjoyable evening. 



November 17. — The President (Robert Patterson. F.I^.S.) lectured 

 on " The Economic Value of Birds to the vState." A lai-ge audience 

 listened to his discourse, of which we give a full summary : — 



Can we arrive at any idea as to the number of birds that live in Ireland 

 for six months of the year— April to vSeptember .- There are, roughly. 

 20,500,000 acres in Ireland. If we take the average number of pairs of 

 breeding birds as three to the acre, it will, I think, be below the actual 

 figure. I consulted both ornithologists and farmers on this point, and 

 the estimates varied from three to twenty per acre, but by means of a 

 carefvil calculation I have come to the conclusion that three per acre is 

 a fair number to take. On the one hand, we have to think of the num- 

 berless large colonies of birds, such as Rooks, Jackdaws, Gulls, the 

 Swallow family, &c. where the average number per acre would be im- 

 mensely higher (at Rashwood, County Tyrone, the rookery has been 

 computed at 10,000 nests), and, on the other hand, we must remember the 

 barren mountain or bog, though even on the barest mountain Curlews, 

 (joklen Plover, vSnipe, Grouse, an<l Meadow Pipits will probably make 

 up the low average I have taken. This low figure gives us the number 

 of 61,000,000 pairs of breeding birds in Ireland during the summer 

 months, Kach nest will contain on an average four young, and thus we 

 get the enormous number of 246,000,000 bird mouths to be fed in this 

 country. Let us allow liberally for the loss of eggs and young that we 

 know goes on, and let us take 200,000,000 of mouths as our figure. This 

 may be taken roughly as the summer land-bird population of Ireland, 

 without counting at all on the numberless hordes of sea-colonies which 

 take their food from the sea alone. Many of these summer inhabitants 

 leave us in the autumn, but their place is taken by immense numbers of 

 winter birds, which live with us for the other six mouths of the year. 

 I'nless one is a close student of migration, one has little idea of the 

 enormous stream of birds that comes to us every autumn and w'inter — 

 for if the weather in England and vScotland is ver}' severe we receive 

 large numbers of their statving birds in December and Januar}'. vSurely 

 such a huge population must require a correspondingly huge amount of 

 food. The activities of birds are immense. Life fevers through their 

 veins, their temperature being from tw^o degrees to fourteen degrees 

 higher than that of mammals. To support this vitality a relatively 

 enormous amount of food is required by the adults, while the nestling 

 young require proportionately more. A pair of tits will consume over 



